14. The Truth Is Always Simple
14
THE TRUTH IS ALWAYS SIMPLE
Danik scrambled to his feet, looking from his golden tiger to the larger reddish-orange one standing a few feet away, her fur bristled as if ready to pounce. “A... a sister?” he asked in confusion. “And you... you talk ? In a man’s voice? I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand.”
“Of course you don’t, you glupec. Just move aside so I can make sure you haven’t harmed her.”
As Danik watched, a boot appeared, after having been tossed into the snow beside them. It was soon followed by a second, and then a man materialized out of thin air. Danik, who had gasped and quickly made the sign of the cross to ward off evil spirits, took a brave step, putting himself between the stranger and his golden tiger. He held up one hand and pulled a chain with a dangling cross from around his neck, brandishing it at the young man, saying, “Begone with you, sorcerer. Her bones and teeth are not meant for your potions. It’s bad enough you’ve bewitched one of the sacred spirits,” he said, indicating the red tiger. “I’ll not let you have this one as well.”
Nikolai snorted and raised an eyebrow. His forehead dripped with sweat, and his cheeks were red and appeared hot and feverish despite the cool air. His eyes sparked with a crazed intensity. If Veru could have told him to stop, she would have. Nik always listened to her, or at least he used to. Perhaps she’d never really known him at all.
Veru huffed and took a step toward her sister, happy to see her, but when Nik beckoned her over to their side, clearly intent on using his magic against her hunter, she wanted to send a clear message that Danik wasn’t to be harmed. She angled her body in front of her hunter as if to protect him. When she did, both her sister and Nikolai snarled.
“Move away from him, Veru. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
The golden cat narrowed her eyes and sat stubbornly. If anyone was going to get hurt, it wasn’t going to be her.
As for Stacia, she didn’t understand why her sister was wasting their time. They needed to move on. She didn’t know why Veru had fallen behind in the first place. It was just like her to head off on her own, batting her lashes at some boy while she was stuck trying to pick up the slack. If she could just stay focused, they’d be halfway over the mountain by now and could get back to the palace and deal with the fallout of leaving. Didn’t she understand what was at stake?
Meanwhile, it was clear that the hunter had no intention of letting the newcomer just leave with his golden cat. He intended to fight off the interloper.
Though Nikolai was certainly not the largest, heaviest, or most muscular of their soldiers, both Stacia and Veru expected the brawl to be over with fairly quickly. To say the tussle resulted in unexpected insights was an understatement. Not only were the twins surprised with Nik’s willingness to fight Danik but they were amazed with his ease and confidence. It wasn’t his usual predisposition.
More often, when tasked with fighting, Nik was bumbling and awkward. His stance was always wrong, and he relied on Veru’s constant coaching. The only reason he hadn’t been dismissed was Veru’s sponsorship. Most of the men preferred his light touch when it came to Veru. Not only did they believe he wouldn’t hurt her but they also didn’t think he even could.
Still, the twins knew the only way they could justify keeping Nik in the Royal Guard was to train him in another skill. He hadn’t taken to the idea of medical training at first, but when Veru insisted that once he was properly trained she’d have no other surgeon in battle, he clicked his heels together and left immediately to seek out the head physic.
Their military doctor reported his progress to them often, stating that while Nik appeared to be interested, his mind often drifted and that his questions occasionally bordered on the macabre and once on the obscene. Veru laughed that off, certain the doctor must have misunderstood. Nik was blunt, to be sure, but that was why she liked him. He never hid who he was from her. Even if he was a buffoon, he was her buffoon.
But now Veru realized there was much more going on with Nik than she’d ever believed. First, he possessed magic and had never told her about it. Then they’d never really had a chance to talk about how he’d come to be in league with the strange monk who’d try to heal her mother and then impersonate a suitor either. Why he would betray her in such a way, she didn’t understand. Also, there was the question of how he knew all the secret ins and outs of the palace.
The only thing that was clear was that she didn’t know her friend at all.
Even so, what she did know was battle. And what she saw didn’t make sense. Having magic, Nik could easily use it to best his enemy in combat, and he wasn’t. He intended to fight, and he wasn’t looking for a fast exit or eyeing her for help either. In fact, the ineffectual soldier she’d always encouraged before was nowhere to be found.
All of them had been extensively trained in hand-to-hand combat, Nik included, and Veru herself had sparred with him often, so she was well-versed in his skill set, or so she thought. But the Nik she saw now held out his hands and arms at the ready in a powerful stance as he tried to outmaneuver his opponent and reach his goal—her. In all her fights, in all her training with Nik, she’d never seen him move with such dexterity and power. Frankly, it shocked her. She could also see the sweat coursing down his face, and the thought came to her that he might be ill.
Then there was Danik, her hunter and musician. She knew he was no soldier. But as she studied his trim and lanky form, she realized it was a bit too early to call the fight. With Danik’s tendency to slouch, and the easy way about him, and knowing Nik was a trained soldier with a few surprises up his parka, she assumed their little tussle would be over quickly. With Nik being the natural winner. But now she wondered.
They locked arms. Nik flipped Danik onto his back in the snow and then headed toward her, a confident smirk on his face, assured he was immediately victorious. Suddenly, his face changed as his feet were pulled out from beneath him, and he fell to the ground with a hard splat. He was dragged through the snow and tossed like a bag of hay several feet away. If Veru was human, her mouth would have formed an O , and her brows would have lifted all the way to her hairline.
Though it was true Danik spent long hours outdoors, she now realized the slouching appeared to be mostly due to his intense focus on his instruments. Veru cocked her head. It was true that heavy parkas tended to hide the shape of a body, so she couldn’t see much of Danik’s frame. To her, he’d appeared wiry, but perhaps that was more due to her current size and shape. All humans were small compared to her.
The fight continued for a while longer, and Veru noticed that Nik was panting heavily. Something was wrong. It was then that Stacia roared plaintively. Danik turned his attention to her sister, and that was when Nik finally decided to use his magic. He cast some kind of spell on Danik, who would have probably defeated Nik on the next blow.
Danik froze in place, lifting his hands. “What have you done, wizard? Can you not fight me like a man? Using your magic to blind me is dishonorable.”
Nik ignored Danik and stumbled over to the golden tiger, fell to his knees beside her, and wrapped his arms around her neck.
“Veru!” he panted. “Are you okay? Have you eaten? Did this man hurt you? I’ll kill him if you like, just give me a signal. It took so long to find you! Now that we’ve... now that we’ve finally found you... I’m feeling rather... dizzy. I think I’ll just sit down for a moment. If you don’t mind.”
Nik’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell face-first into the snowbank. Veru made a grumbling sort of squeak and leapt toward him, nudging his body, but it didn’t move. Then she turned as her sister let out a rattle and also slumped to her side. Stacia’s eyes closed, but her breathing was steady.
Quick as a flash, she ran back to Danik, who, still blind, clutched feebly at the fur on her back. The golden tiger began guiding him to her fallen friend.
“I don’t understand what’s happening here,” Danik said. “That man said the other tiger is your sister, which makes sense. But he also called you a tsarevna and used the name Veru. The only Tsarevna Veru I’ve ever heard of is the royal Tsarevna Verusha Irena Vasilia Stepanov, who, as far as I know, is still at the capital and is not a tiger.”
Veru growled softly and directed the hunter to Nik’s body, then poked her nose in Danik’s bag. He reached out a hand and found the bag. “What is it? You’re hungry? No. You want food? For them? I see. Well, I don’t see. Not really. Hold on. I think my vision is coming back. Yes. It is.”
Danik blinked rapidly, his eyes watering. Veru could tell when he got his eyesight back completely. He laughed and looked around at everything. Then pointed at Nik, gritting his teeth. “That man is evil. I don’t like him.”
Veru nudged Nik’s body.
“Maybe you want to help him, but I’m still thinking it over. I don’t trust him.”
She sat down, and he glanced over at her sister, who was slumped on her side. “Well, her I don’t mind helping. She needs food and water. I can do that much at least. I don’t have any food left though. We were going to head out to check some more traps today.”
Danik took a long look at the golden tiger, and the two visitors collapsed in the snow. “Are you sure I can leave you alone?” Reaching up to Veru’s ear, he touched it lightly, gave her a lopsided grin, and stood as best he could and hobbled a few steps. “All right. But if he steals you away while I’m gone, I’m going to set my most vicious trap for him, and it’s going to hurt.” He warned, “Oh, and if he touches my instruments, I’ll come up with something even worse.”
Before he left, Danik picked up Nik’s leg and dragged him over to the fire, not caring that the inert man’s head hit several rocks on the way. Danik only turned the fallen man over when Veru stood next to him, making a sort of whining noise. “Fine,” he said when it was done. “I can’t move the tiger, but I think she’ll be fine. I’ll even put some snow in the pot for the grand mag- ass’s tea and fill the hole I dug next to it again with snow for you tigers to drink from. If he wakes up”—he gestured with his hands—“nudge him toward the teapot with a claw to his backside or something.”
As he headed out, Danik stopped to pick up Nikolai’s magic boots and then chucked them hard at Nik’s feet. They landed, bouncing on the bare ground of the hollowed-out spot where they’d slept the night before, next to the listless man to whom they belonged. Veru laid down next to Nik to keep him warm, watching as Danik disappeared.
Once the fire was going again, it was quite warm. Soon all was silent, and it began to snow. The hole was now full of melting snow, and the teapot was bubbling, leaving Veru with nothing to do but guard her sister and friend, watch for Danik’s return, and think.
Within a few hours, her young hunter returned with a medium-sized boar. Veru knew that his kill was not something he’d caught in a trap but something he’d hunted on his own. It didn’t take him long to cut his catch into sections and set some meat roasting over the fire. He cut up several pieces for her and then placed more by Stacia.
The scent of fresh meat was enough to rouse her sister, and Stacia began licking the food. At first with her eyes closed, and then she managed to swallow a few bites. Invigorated, she lifted her head and took more, gulping down her meal in large pieces until every bit was gone. After a while, she got up on shaky legs and walked over to the fire to drink deeply of snowmelt.
Nik had also roused at the scent of food but had to wait a bit for it to finish cooking. Danik, with an expression of great aggravation, thrust a tin mug of hot tea into Nik’s shaking hands. He sipped the steaming brew at first, then began gulping it in earnest and refilled the cup. When Danik passed him a large plate of meat, he didn’t even say, “Thank you,” or take the offered utensil. He just lifted large portions to his lips with his fingers and chewed and swallowed as quickly as possible, the grease dripping down his chin and fingers.
Danik watched him across the fire with a look of disgust, picked up a fork, and began picking at his own plate. His eyes kept darting to Veru, and Nik and Veru could see they were loaded with questions, but Danik kept them contained, at least for the moment. Instead, he watched them in silence, preferring to observe instead.
After Nik polished off several helpings of roast boar, he finally sat back with a sigh and placed his hand on Veru’s back. “Thank you for the food,” he said formally. “I... apologize for my actions of before. I did not mean to accuse you of anything. My only excuse is that our trip has been harrowing. I have a duty, you see, and... anyway...” He trailed off as the golden tiger rose and moved out of his reach.
The young man had begun stroking her head and back, and apparently, she wasn’t having it. She still hadn’t come around to Danik’s side of the fire, but as the hunter lifted the fork to his mouth, he couldn’t help the smile that lifted the corners of it. He chewed and mumbled, “A duty. Right.”
“Yes,” Nik echoed sharply. “A duty. In my worry to find Veru, I forgot the toll traveling so far so fast takes on our bodies.” Turning to glare at the golden tiger, Nik scolded, “We’ve crossed the entire Siberian taiga looking for you. I hope you’re happy with yourself.”
The golden tiger wrinkled her nose in a snarl. She appeared to be very unhappy with the man. Danik, though still puzzled as to their exact relationship, felt his hackles rise and his temper flare. He set down his own mug of tea, and said sharply, “I’m certain she didn’t mean to leave you. Especially as seeing you’re such a charming fellow and all. Not that I have an obligation to tell you, but for your information, when I found her, she was caught in a trap. She’s very lucky she healed from her injury. It was quite an awful experience for her, in fact.”
This seemed to have an effect on the young man. He actually winced and began speaking softly to the golden tiger, saying things Danik could not hear but wished he could. Then, more loudly, Nik said, “Yes. Well. I’m just glad we found her. We thank you for your help, sir. Perhaps if you can give us your name and residence, we can see to it that you receive a commendation of some type when our task is completed.”
Danik snorted and shook his head in disbelief just as he felt the press of a large animal behind him. “Well, hello there,” he said, grinning at the big red tiger. Stacia was nudging his bag, looking for more food. “Here you go,” he said, holding out his plate. “You can finish mine. I’m full anyway.”
She took a hunk of meat gently from his plate and dropped it into the snow beside him, settling herself down next to him. Then he slid cooked boar ribs in front of her, which she grabbed between her paws. They, too, were gone quickly, and when they were, she rolled to her side sleepily, her tail flicking back and forth.
Carefully, Danik lifted a hand and touched her back. Stacia lifted her head and glanced at him, curious, but then laid back down, eyes shut. Within a moment, she began to purr. “How marvelous!” Danik said. “You purr as well.” At the same time there came a sharp, low, rumbling growl from the golden tiger. Her dark gray eyes were fixed on Danik’s hand as if she wanted to eat it right off his arm.
“All right,” Danik said, raising his hands, with a grin and a wink at the golden tiger. “I get the message.”
Nik narrowed his gaze on one tiger and the other and then on the stranger seated across the fire. “So,” he began again. “As I said, we’d like to thank you for your help and hospitality. If it’s not an imposition, we’d like to stay here overnight and then head out on our journey in the morning. We’re quite a distance from where we were headed.”
“Oh? Where were you headed?” Danik asked.
“That’s none of your concern, peasant,” Nik snapped rudely.
The golden tiger growled, baring her teeth at Nik.
Grimacing, Nik said, “That is, what I meant to say was, while we are very grateful for the sacrifices you’ve made on our behalf, we’re on official business, so if you could try to curtail your natural curiosity, we’d appreciate it.” The tiger’s chest rumbled again. He continued. “And rest assured, I’ll be certain to take down your name and information so you can be sent a more than generous compensation for any losses you’ve incurred.” He turned to the tiger. “Will that do?”
The golden tiger turned away from him and began licking her paw.
“I see,” Danik replied. He gave Nik a tight smile and a nod. Dusting his hands, he rose and explained, “Well, it’s fine with me if you all want to camp here another night. Since I’m just a... peasant, I wouldn’t expect to have much say in such things anyway. As such, I’m just going to go gather some more firewood for the night. If, of course, that is acceptable to the grand mag-ass?”
Danik gave a tight, crisp bow and a flourish, and when Nik didn’t even notice the insult but just nodded and began rummaging in his pack, Danik laughed softly. When he was ten or so paces away, he turned around and added, “Oh, I forgot. Tsarevna Anastasia, would you like to come with me? There are wolves in this area, and the thought occurs to me that I might need a protector. If not, and you’re still feeling fatigued, then perhaps the tsarevna Verusha might wish to accompany me instead?”
Both tigers immediately rose from their positions and trotted after him while Danik stood there, feet planted in the snow with a wide, knowing smile on his face. Nik stopped his rummaging, his face turning bright red with anger, but he didn’t seem capable of response. With both tigers at his heels, Danik turned, whistling, and headed off into the trees, followed by his companions.
When he returned, still whistling, he set his armful of wood and kindling down near the fire and began adding more sticks to the crackling flames. When he was positioned across the fire once more, staring at the obviously livid man across from him, he took out his favorite hunting knife and began sharpening it. “Perhaps you and I should start again. It appears that unlike you, I was taught good manners. As such, introductions are in order. My name is Danik Andronovich. I’m a hunter and a musician. I don’t expect you to shake my hand in friendship at this point, nor do I seek a reward for doing the right thing.”
Pausing, Danik set down his sharpening stone, reached out, and placed his hand on the golden tiger’s neck, then pointed the tip of his knife at Nik. “But I will have you understand that I would have saved her regardless of her title—rich or poor, old or young, human or animal.
“Now, as for you, I still haven’t figured out who or what you are. For all I know, you are the one who did this to them. What is clear to me is that you possess a magic of some sort. Whether that magic is good or evil remains to be seen. I don’t consider myself qualified to make such a determination. And I don’t trust you to tell me the truth either.”
Danik picked up the stone and began sharpening his knife again. He glanced at both tigers, who were now solidly on his side of the fire. “I’m not certain how they feel on the matter. On the surface, it appears as if they mean you no harm, but for all I know they could be”—he waved his knife in Nik’s direction—“ensorcelled to obey you. So, until I am satisfied as to what your intentions are with these two creatures, who appear to answer to the names of our royal tsarevnas, I don’t intend to let you or them out of my sight.”
Nik was so angry he could barely speak. But he swallowed it down, much in the way he did when he dealt with his father oh so very long ago. If the twins hadn’t been watching him at that very moment, he’d kill the hunter. It would be too easy. He’d slip on the boots, grab the man’s own hunting knife, and slit his throat. But then he looked at Veru. At the way her eyes never left the lean hunter’s face. He knew he couldn’t. She’d know. She’d never forgive him. Nik’s hands tightened into fists.
“Is that your final decision?” Nik asked smoothly, quietly, managing to let not a hint of the emotion he felt escape.
Leaning forward, Danik smiled. To Veru, the gesture was much different than the ones he’d given her before. This smile was much darker. It showed teeth, reminding her of a tiger’s fangs. It was full of determination and power. It was a smile that could kill. She found she rather liked it. That he was even capable of it came as somewhat of a surprise to her. Yes. She liked her lanky hunter. Veru liked him very much.
“It is,” he replied. “And just so you know,” Danik added, “I am no glupec.”