Chapter 6
Mal felt weird being in the presence of a living Saint. Granted, people thought Alina was a Saint, but that was weird for a whole different reason—she'd always just be Alina, fellow orphan and girl he'd grown up with. But the story of Juris slaying a dragon was well-known, albeit as a fairytale. Apparently it was true, though…except for one part.
"Uh, with all due respect, your…Saintness," Mal spoke up awkwardly. "You're known for slaying a dragon, not…being one."
"In the old days, Grisha bonded with their amplifiers," Juris replied.
"Like Alina did with the Stag."
The man snorted. "In a manner of speaking, though even that was far from what Grisha are capable of."
Mal frowned in confusion at the obvious derision in his tone. He noticed Zoya reach up to cup her wrist where she'd worn her bracelet, the one that had broken in the fight.
"Was it special to you?" he asked quietly.
"It was my amplifier."
"Oh. Sorry."
She shot a resentful look at Juris. He had destroyed it, which Mal figured had probably been unnecessary. Zoya wouldn't have been a match for a Saint of old, let alone one that could turn into a dragon.
"Mal!" a familiar voice shouted as Tolya and Tamar came into view.
He quickened his pace to meet them. "Where's Alina and Nikolai?" he asked in alarm.
Tolya shook his head. "We don't know. We got separated in the sandstorm."
"Who's this?" Tamar asked guardedly.
"Uh, this is Juris. The Saint," Mal said.
The twins exchanged skeptical yet awed looks at that.
"This way," Juris said, ignoring them all. "Your other friends are at the palace."
"What palace?" Zoya asked. "There's no palace out here."
Juris didn't respond, leaving them once again no choice but to follow.
"What's a living Saint doing out here?" Tamar asked none too quietly.
"He said he and two others have been trapped here since the Fold was created," Mal answered.
"Two other Saints?" Tolya said incredulously. "Which ones?"
"He didn't say…"
Before they could ask, they came upon an actual palace in the middle of the Fold, though it was made of sand and bone and looked more eerie than anything. Just as they reached it, none other than Nikolai was striding out, shirtless, and the woman he was with was not Alina…
Juris came to a stop and furrowed his brows deeply. "Elizaveta, what have you done?"
The strange woman just grinned with delight.
Mal frowned at Nikolai; something was wrong… "Where's Alina?"
"I have no more use for her," Nikolai replied cavalierly. Then he raised his arms, and shadows furled up around him and surged forward in an attack.
Mal found himself frozen in stupefaction, but Juris summoned up wind and sand, creating a wall that captured the shadows. But a swarm of bees came punching through the barrier and descended on him. He morphed into the dragon and took flight to escape them, though they pursued. Mal still didn't know what was going on, but he drew his pistol and took a shot at this unknown woman. Somehow she deflected the bullet, and Nikolai sent out a burst of shadow that knocked Mal down.
Then the king was striding over to him, a cold smirk on his face. "Hello, cousin."
Mal went rigid. It couldn't be.
Nikolai—or Kirigan—summoned more shadow that curled up and around Mal's throat, choking him. Tolya and Tamar leaped in to attack the Darkling with their fists rather than blades. He was, after all, somehow still Nikolai… But the shadows merely split into offshoots and plunged into their mouths and noses, bringing them to their knees as well.
A gust of wind from Zoya tried to blow the shadows back, but it failed. Kirigan whirled toward her and stormed over to grab her throat by hand. Her eyes blew wide and she clawed at his unyielding arm as he squeezed the life out of her. But then he abruptly staggered with a gasp and dropped her. Zoya hit the ground, coughing raggedly. The shadows cut off, leaving Mal and the twins also choking for oxygen.
Kirigan grunted and stared down at his hand, his expression confused and then livid. "Elizaveta!" he yelled.
The woman rushed over and took his hand. In the next instant, they were swallowed by shadows that mushroomed up and blocked out the sun. For a moment of horror, Mal thought the Shadow Fold was reforming. But then the darkness faded and returned the blazing sun. But Kirigan and the woman were gone.
Mal staggered to his feet, stunned and horrified by what just happened. So were the twins and Zoya. The dragon returned and shape shifted back into Juris. They all looked around in shock, and Mal spotted Alina stumbling out of the palace. He yelled her name and lumbered toward her.
Her arms were torn up and bleeding, her pallor stark white. "Mal," she choked and fell against his chest with a sob.
"Tolya, Tamar!" he called.
The twins hurried over, and Mal pulled back so they could get a look at her injuries.
"What happened?" he asked urgently.
Alina's chest hitched. "Kirigan is back." Her expression pinched with devastation. "It's all my fault. I thought Elizaveta was going to help get the Shadow out of Nikolai, but it was a lie. Instead she- she used me to bring Kirigan back, and now he's in Nikolai."
Mal mentally reeled at the news, even though they'd all seen Nikolai—Kirigan—try to kill them.
"And Nikolai?" Tamar asked fearfully. "Is he…?"
Alina's eyes welled with tears. "I don't know. I'm sorry."
"Your king's soul still lives," Juris interjected. "Subjugated by the Darkling that now possesses him."
Mal was still in shock over that. He couldn't believe this was happening. They'd been worried about the merzost, both in Nikolai and Alina, but facing Kirigan again hadn't entered their darkest dreams. Nor that he would end up walking around in their friend. Oh, Saints, in the king.
"We need to wash the sand out of these cuts before they get infected," Tamar commented, finally breaking the stunned stupor.
Alina blinked down at her blood-stained arms.
"We should start bringing one of every Grisha order on missions," Mal said. "We could use a Tidemaker right now."
"A Tidemaker is no good without water," Zoya replied. "And we're in a wasteland."
Juris made another disparaging sound. "Grisha have become weak. These splintered orders and rules are not the way we were meant to be."
With that, he raised his arms, palms up, and water flowed up from beneath the sand. It gathered into beads of crystal clear liquid, which Juris then manipulated to rinse Alina's arms. Everyone stared at the Saint in amazement.
"Who are you?" Alina asked.
"Juris."
Alina's brows shot upward. "You're a living Saint like Elizaveta. How do we know you're not allied with her?"
He snorted. "That should be obvious, though I care not what you believe. The Darkling broke Elizaveta free, but I remain trapped here. Go. Flee where you can or meet your doom, it matters not. The Grisha will never be able to stand against such ancient forces in their current state."
"Then why not fight with us if you're not sided with Kirigan?" Zoya asked sharply.
"Were you not listening?" he scoffed. "I am trapped here as long as the Darkling's power lives."
"Then train me," she challenged, earning several brow raises. "You claim Grisha are capable of much more."
Juris regarded her as though he were truly considering it. "Very well," he finally agreed. "But you must remain here in the Fold."
Zoya nodded stiffly.
"Zoya," Alina said in a hushed tone. "Are you sure?"
"Without your sun summoning, we have no way to defeat Kirigan a second time. And we have to save the king of Ravka."
So the Squaller turned and followed Juris back out into the Fold. Mal felt uncomfortable watching her go, alone. But the rest of them were needed elsewhere.
Alina took in a shuddering breath. "We have to get back to Os Alta before Kirigan does."
"Let Tolya and Tamar heal you first," Mal said.
Though impatient, she consented to the Heartrenders' work. They only gave the cuts on her arms a cursory healing, enough to hold her over until they made it back to the Grand Palace. Then they made their way out of the Fold, retrieved their horses, and raced home.
As they arrived at the Grand Palace, Alina was expecting Kirigan to have already installed himself as Nikolai, but everything seemed normal as they rode into one of the courtyards and dismounted. Genya came out to meet them, her expression furrowing.
"Where are Nikolai and Zoya?" she asked.
"Nikolai's not here?" Alina blurted.
"No, why would he be without you? What happened? We got word the Kingfisher had crashed, but everyone was reportedly fine…"
"We need to talk privately," Alina interrupted. "Get David. And Isaak Andreyev."
Genya looked alarmed but didn't ask any more questions at the moment and instead hurried off. The rest of them made their way to the king's private study. On the way, they ran into Nadia and Adrik in the hall. Alina broke into a jog and threw her arms around Nadia.
"Are you okay?" she asked urgently.
Nadia hugged back. "I'm healed," she assured. She pulled back and turned to embrace Tamar next. But when she looked back at Alina, her smile slipped. "What's happened?"
"You two should be told," Alina said, a hard lump building in her throat. "Let's go inside."
They reached Nikolai's private study and filed inside, then waited until Genya, David, and Isaak arrived.
"Did you reach the Fold?" David asked, not yet reading the severity of the room.
"We did," Alina said, wringing her hands in front of her. "Kirigan is back."
David blinked as though not understanding, while Genya paled.
"How?" Nadia breathed.
That lump in Alina's throat grew spikes. "We met some Saints in the Fold. One offered to help us, but we were deceived. And now Kirigan is back and possessing Nikolai. They used the Shadow inside him as a conduit, allowing Kirigan's spirit to return."
Genya reached a shaky hand up to her mouth.
"Saints," Adrik murmured.
"What about Zoya?" Genya asked fearfully.
"She's fine," Mal quickly put in.
Alina nodded. "She stayed behind with one of the other Saints to train, learn the old ways of Grisha power, I guess. Since I no longer possess the power to defeat Kirigan." She felt the sting of shame and guilt over her role in all this. Over her idea of "power" suddenly being rendered useless against their true enemy.
She snapped herself out of her self-pity and looked at Isaak. "We need you to stand in for Nikolai again."
The young palace guard had yet to say anything to these revelations, though he looked utterly freaked by them.
"Do you understand how dire the situation is?" Alina pressed. "The king of Ravka has been taken by the enemy. We cannot allow anyone to know. Should word get out, there will be a mad grab for the throne. We have no idea where Kirigan is or what he'll do next, but should rumors of the king being spotted anywhere but the Grand Palace circulate, we need you, front and center, to dispel them. The longer we can present a strong, unwavering face, the easier it will be for Nikolai to return once we save him. Can you do this?"
Isaak swallowed hard but nodded bravely. So Genya stepped up to him and began to tailor his features to match Nikolai's.
"And how are we going to save Nikolai?" Nadia asked, voicing the one thing they were all wondering but had no answer to.
"We need to find him first," Tolya replied. "Where would Kirigan go?"
"He needs followers," Alina said. "An army. He'll probably recruit Grisha who were loyal to him in the past." She pursed her mouth in thought. "He wouldn't attempt to masquerade as Nikolai in court, not when all of us know the truth. He'll have to build a force of strength to take on the palace, which should take time. Time for us to figure out how to fix this."
"But even if he does attack," Adrik spoke up. "We can't kill him. We can't kill the king of Ravka."
"No," Alina said sharply. "No matter what Kirigan does, we will not kill Nikolai." They would save him. If it was the last thing she did, she was going to fix her mistake.
"We need to think about securing the royal line," Nadia said abruptly. "I know yours and Nikolai's engagement was more of a political move than a permanent plan, but you could marry Isaak as Nikolai and officially become Queen. Then if Kirigan does challenge for the throne, you would have standing to hold it. As it is now, you don't."
Alina blinked incredulously at the suggestion, and Isaak squirmed in obvious discomfort.
"The marriage would be called into question the moment Kirigan revealed himself as the true Nikolai Lantsov," David pointed out.
"Then I change Isaak back after the wedding, and the king will go missing," Genya said. "There would be no proof Kirigan had possessed him before that."
"That's just going to make people suspect Alina of murdering the king for the crown," Mal interrupted.
Alina's stomach churned at all the ways the people could turn on her.
"Kirigan won't lay low for long," Tamar put in. "He will reveal himself, and that he's possessing Nikolai."
"Even if you secure the crown now," Tolya added, "people might still say Alina is in league with the Darkling, that she sacrificed her new husband to bring him back."
"She destroyed him and the Fold!" Genya objected.
"That was when she was the Sun Summoner. Now she's a Shadow Summoner."
"That's enough!" Alina erupted, earning several startled looks. "I am not going to marry Isaak under a false banner," she declared. "But I will not let Kirigan waltz in here and proclaim himself king. Isaak will hold the image that Nikolai is here and everything is normal. And we will figure out a way to remove Kirigan from him."
"But, um," Isaak spoke up. "How- how long is this going to be? It was one thing to just be seen around the palace while the king was off in Ketterdam, but if I have to actually lead meetings and such…"
Alina's jaw tightened. Yes, it was asking a lot.
"We'll coach you on how to act like Nikolai," Tolya told him, nodding to Tamar.
"Make no decisions in public and consult with Genya or me in private first," Alina instructed. She now wished Zoya had come back with them after all; she knew how to run an army and military campaign.
Genya finished tailoring Isaak, and the group began to leave. David promised to return to his books in earnest. But Alina knew there was little to hope for from that quarter; if merzost was hard enough to learn about, she imagined possession was even more rare. If only she still had her sun summoning, then she could not only face Kirigan again, but she could have tried to burn out the Shadow infection first. And she felt sure Elizaveta would not have been able to hijack her power to bring the Darkling back to life.
It was just her and Mal left in the room, and she turned toward him. "You were right all along," she told him. "Shadow summoning is Kirigan's power, and it will always be evil. I just…I didn't want that to be true of me as well."
Mal closed the distance between them and took her by the arms. "You are not evil, Alina. But…this has been changing you."
She nodded. "I know. It felt…good, to have that kind of power. It felt like the final win against him, taking his power and using it my way, like he did with my sun summoning. I wanted to take my agency back."
"You brought down the Fold and defeated Kirigan," he said. "You did win."
"And lost you," she said brokenly. "It wouldn't have been a victory if I'd lost you forever. But I swear to you, Mal, when we get Nikolai back, we will find a way to rid me of this taint as well." She swallowed hard. "Even if it means I will never summon again."
Mal pulled her into his arms and held her as the tears fell.
Kirigan studied his new features in the mirror as he donned the new clothes he'd acquired. Black was more his color than the teal the prince had always preferred.
"While this body is not un-handsome," he remarked, "I did prefer my old one."
"Regretfully, they burned it," Elizaveta replied.
Kirigan wrinkled his nose as he continued to scrutinize his reflection. The blond hair left something to be desired, but at least his face was no longer marred by the scars left by using merzost. That was an improvement.
"They are waiting for you," Elizaveta continued.
He straightened his garments and then turned to follow her through the underground passage into a large chamber built under a hill. Many people were gathered, all dressed in black robes.
"Children of Ravka," Elizaveta spoke loudly. "I present your lord returned from beyond the grave—General Kirigan!"
He stepped up onto the elevated platform and raised his arms out to the sides. Shadow rose up behind him, darkening the entire space. There were hushed murmurs of awe and "Starless Saint" through the crowd. Kirigan's mouth quirked; he rather liked this new title.
A young monk stepped forward and said, "You are truly a Saint, moi soverenyi. And soon all of Ravka will recognize you as one."
Kirigan huffed internally. He couldn't care less about sainthood; he only wanted the throne.
"You will never be a true king of Ravka."
He rolled his eyes at the irritating nuisance. Unfortunately, when Elizaveta had helped resurrect him and infused his spirit into a new body, it had failed to remove the original host.
"Technically, I already am," he reminded his passenger. "The last of the Lantsov line."
"We both know that's not true."
Kirigan snorted. "Indeed, but it doesn't matter. You are just a symbol anyway. A sign from the Saints that I was meant to rule Ravka. Not even death could defeat me, and now I stand resurrected in the body of their king."
"Then why are you here in this mole mound courting these outcasts instead of walking into Os Alta? Because you know they would stop you."
"They will try, but their Sun Summoner is gone. Tainted."
Kirigan felt the confusion ripple through their connected minds.
"You're angry," the boy king said in surprise.
"Alina was my match," Kirigan admitted bitterly. "Magnificent and powerful. Now she is nothing more than a replica."
"Then help restore her power," came the challenge.
Kirigan only wished he could. "Merzost always exacts its cost," he muttered, half in response, half to himself.
Even now, though his face was unmarked and his blood wasn't being poisoned by the presence of his nichevo'ya, this body bore its own shadow wound. With Kirigan's power inhabiting it, the pain was mild, but it was not nonexistent. At least it wouldn't sicken him.
He drew his shoulders back as he gazed out at his fawning acolytes. "Now sit back and enjoy the show, moi tsarevich. I have work to do."
