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“You’re telling me,” Aleksander began, trying to maintain control on himself, “you found Morozova’s stag, and instead of claiming your amplifier, you let him go?”
Alina, dressed simply in the frozen forest, lifted up her chin. “I did.”
“Why?” he drawled.
“Because,” Alina hesitated. “I looked into his eyes. And he looked into mine. And it was just wrong to kill such a noble creature, not when I felt it still had a great deal left to live.”
Aleksander closed his eyes. His soulmate, his balance, always was far more merciful than he, and less practical.
“Alina, the stag was literally made to be killed,” he sighed. “And clearly you were meant to kill him.”
Alina was not bothered. “Then as the rightful hunter of the stag, I refuse to do so.”
“So we just spent all these months roaming Tsibeya, for nothing?” he demanded.
Alina rolled her eyes. “We did save Grisha from druskelle,” she reminded. “We made a camp for ourselves out here, where the Ravkans do not like to tread.”
“We could have done all that in the southern mines,” he grumbled.
“Then who would help the Grisha up here?” she quipped rhetorically. Heading back in the direction of their camp, Alina turned sidelong to look at her soulmate. “Come on, your mother gets cranky if we come in late.”
Technically Baghra was her mother too, but since Baghra never called her daughter-in-law “daughter,” Alina was not inclined to start addressing her mother-in-law so informally either.
Aleksander still stared at the fresh hoof prints in the snow. If only he had realized his wife’s absence sooner when she left their tent in the middle of the night.
“You’re too late, Sasha,” she called. “Humans make the stag skittish. He won’t stop for you.”
“You could have been immortal like me,” he whispered at last, audible in the still snow.
“Sasha, we’re both over two hundred,” Alina cannot believe she is reminding him of this. “I’m starting to question if amplifiers and immortality really are mutually exclusive. We’ve met a few Grisha who died of old age despite being amplifiers.” The rest that had been hunted to death were not mentioned.
Aleksander still had not moved so Alina sighed and went back to tug him away. “And you call me stubborn,” she grumbled, hoping he would drop this.
Aleksander did not drop this. As a matter of fact, his whole family spent the entire prolonged dinner discussing it.
Immortality and amplifiers were a touchy subject for the Morozova women, and it had to do with their soulmates.
Funny how Baghra’s soulmate, Aegir, was a sildroher. It took a while for them to meet because the time for the sildroher to visit the human world had not yet come to pass.
In those long years, Baghra had decided to end her loneliness by conceiving Aleksander, searching for a powerful amplifier and asking him to give her a child.
When Baghra met Aegir, Aleksander worried that his new sibling would replace him in their mother’s eye.
He need not have worried. Baghra wanted to be nothing like her mother. She showered her children with equal affection.
Indeed, some would say given the circumstances of Baghra’s soulmate relationship, it was a miracle she did not view Ulla as a painful reminder.
Unlike his daughter, the pure-blooded sildroher was not immortal nor suited to land. Seeing his daughter thrive on land where she had not below, Aegir encouraged her to stay with her mother.
They barely saw him without his kin.
Meanwhile Ulla proved to be invaluable. Despite having a Grisha mother, Ulla most definitely was not, nor was she otkazat’sya. As a result, when raiders or druskelle bound her hands using threats or rope or metal, they never expected her voice to be a weapon.
Like her brother, and unlike her parents, Ulla dared to push the boundaries of her magic to its limits.
Mother and daughter lamented Aegir’s absence, unable to join them because of their environment and his own mortality. They were not happy that Alina, having the opportunity he did not, refused to grab her destined immortality gift.
They repeated what Aleksander had said. The stag was meant to be hunted. The stag was meant for Alina.
“It won’t be like with Rusalye,” Ulla promised. Similar to her mother, Ulla was destined with an ocean-bound being. Originally Rusalye was a land-born Grisha, but his luck took a turn for the worse when he slayed the sea whip and inherited its curse of being bound to the North Sea. He could still turn human but could never venture south. Another reason to stay close to her home.
“At this rate, you two are unbalanced,” Baghra pointed out. “Aleksander is far more powerful than you, girl.”
“And I care about power because?” Alina raised a brow, wondering why her in-laws were so obsessed with it when they had enough to be safe.
“We need all the help we can get to protect the Grisha,” Aleksander finally said, even though he was more upset about the imbalance than that.
Alina shook her head. “I won’t sacrifice an innocent animal for it.”
Ulla wanted to hit her head on the table. “We all eat venison! And you aren’t shedding tears over them.”
Alina could not think of a retort, of how to elucidate what makes the stag different. Perhaps it was that he was born to be hunted that she wanted to give him a chance to survive.
Aware that ganging up on his soulmate was not the right thing to do, and not wishing to spend the night alone, Aleksander changed the subject.
“We can discuss this later,” Alina got the implication and internally groaned. “Right now we have more pressing issues. How are our food supplies.”
Ulla looked at her brother. “Do you even have to ask?”
Creation magic was her speciality. It was she who would build the impenetrable walls of any Grisha camp they formed, and she who would lead the Fabrikators in making their vegetable gardens thrive.
“She overdid it,” Baghra finally said, tattling on her own daughter.
Ulla shot Baghra an irritated glance. “I did not!”
“You can’t be too generous,” Baghra continued. “How many times have I told you not to overdo it? Now the Grisha have stopped venturing out to the woods and begun eyeing you like some kind of prize horse.”
“They won’t kill me,” Ulla rolled her eyes. “And I’d like to see them try to contain me.”
“Don’t act cocky,” Baghra snapped. “You haven’t been subtle about your weakness. All they would have to do is gag you.”
“Stop being so pessimistic, Baghra. The Grisha would be hypocrites if they did that,” Alina finally spoke. “Besides, we’d never let that happen to Ulla.”
“Better to be pessimistic than naive,” Baghra retorted.
“Enough,” Aleksander said sternly. “What else? Any new recruits or alarms?”
“How could your scouts fail?” Baghra asked drily. “And thanks to the increase in numbers, the druskelle have caught our scent.”
Ulla paid Baghra back for earlier. Smiling sweetly, she said, “They wound up lost in their own backyard.” Then she let out a delightful silvery laugh.
Alina took Aleksander’s hand. “See. We’re just fine here.”
Later that night, in the privacy of their small but well-appointed bedroom, Aleksander ground into Alina. “It’s not fine.”
Alina tangled her fingers in his hair, eyes nearly rolling in ecstasy. “How can you say that?” she groaned. “Isn’t it enough that our family is safe and healthy? That we can look forward to a future?”
Aleksander bared his teeth and nipped sharply at Alina’s neck. “It’s not enough. We still have to live in hiding. We can’t leave the camp without looking over our shoulders. My mother and Ulla can’t be with their soulmates. And we still can’t be sure about your immortality.”
Pausing for breath, Aleksander whispered, “I don’t want to bury you, Alina. No matter that our roads lead back to each other, the separation will be intolerable.”
His fear was emphasised with the increased pressure from his arms, holding Alina closer to him so there was not the slightest breath between their bodies.
He knew. They had both caught Baghra and Ulla staring out to sea wistfully so many times that they had lost count.
Alina stayed silent, understanding where her soulmate came from.
She would not be the one who would be alone for who knows how many years until she was reborn.
Even so, she would not alter her standing. “We’ll find another way,” she suggested. “There are other dragons out there.”
Aleksander snorted, pretty sure the stag would be the only amplifier to appear before his soulmate.
Alina rode harder. “We have time,” she assured. “Stop being such a worry wart. That’s Baghra’s job.”
Like mother, like son, he wanted to say. Except that wasn’t exactly ideal given their current positions.
The time seemed to fly by.
Aleksander was determined to save the rest of Grisha. He volunteered to serve the king as a military adviser. Alina went with him while Baghra and Ulla stayed behind to defend the camp.
With the Shadow Summoner and Sun Summoner leading the army, the year’s enemies fell like stalks of wheat in harvest time.
Once his enemies were gone, the tsar now eyed his champions with fear and unease.
He was aware of what he had promised them, a ban to hunt Grisha, citizen rights for witches, and so on.
The Royal Apparat was at a loss for words. If the Darkling had shown up alone, he would have ranted at the king for selling his soul. But with the appearance of the Sun Summoner, and her obvious love for nature, it was hard for him to find fault with this alliance.
For heaven’s sake, the Apparat would have sworn he saw the noble stag of Sankt Ilya bowing in her direction!
The Royal advisors were not so superstitious and they argued about how bringing Grisha into their kingdom would cause riots.
The generals argued back that they could use soldiers.
Aleksander interceded, suggesting that the Grisha be housed at the Grand Palace as a Second Army if indeed their presence in cities would prove too disruptive.
The king liked the idea of a formidable army under his command.
It took time for the move to occur. Baghra and Ulla were unsurprisingly leery of the king’s offer. The singer had good reason to be wary of royalty. Her own spat with Roffe was proof of that.
The night when Ulla was to part ways with Signy forever, she agreed to help her friend’s lazy soulmate.
But she had never expected for them both to betray her by using her sacred knife. Despite knowing that Ulla would not return to the sea, Signy agreed with Roffe that they could not take chances.
It was only thanks to Aleksander that Ulla’s throat was healed.
He knew the blood magic would be painful and wanted to be present to comfort Ulla.
Initially Roffe would not have minded attacking Aleksander and framing brother and sister for the crime of murder.
Except Ulla had kept her promise to never reveal what her brother was capable of, knowing that Signy was weak where Roffe was concerned and Roffe had hardly proven himself trustworthy.
The prince and his soulmate expected a harmless human. They did not expect to be bound with shadows.
Aleksander calmly threatened Roffe’s life if Signy did not heal his sister. And as added incentive, he shrouded the magical fire in shadow, warning that if he should die, it would go out and Roffe’s chance at the crown would be gone.
Frightened and helpless without orders, Signy did as bid, returning with others to heal Ulla.
The baffled Sildroher wondered how Ulla could have injured herself.
Meanwhile, it was all Signy could do not to glance around wildly for her vanished lover.
In reality, Aleksander and Roffe were hidden in the shadows, waiting for Ulla to be healed.
When Ulla could finally speak, she quietly said she was fine and had accidentally tried too many hot peppers.
The other sildroher then asked them to hurry and finish packing.
Alone once again, Aleksander brought the prince back into sight. He had deemed that as insurance that the prince and his fiancée would not talk lies, that the shadow gag would remain in place, buried in their windpipes out of sight. Should they attempt to mime or write out their predicament or blame Ulla, the gags would flood their lungs before they finished writing one word.
Aleksander gave Ulla the lamp and told his sister it was up to her.
Ulla had stared coldly at Signy. “I trusted you and you betrayed me. You don’t deserve to be queen. But you can have this lamp. I want to see the kingdom crumble under Roffe’s reign and your own people riot at you for failing them.”
For what is a sildroher who cannot sing?
Later, as Ulla learned from her concerned father, the cursed prince and his wife had supposedly given up their voices to create this magical fire. A half-truth.
The king declared Roffe his heir but they were a laughing stock to the magical folk.
And when it became apparent that Roffe was no true king, that his brother was a more responsible and worthy monarch, is it any wonder that court schemes should begin to imperil the king and queen’s life?
Signy was found infertile, to her dismay and shock. She was sure of the exact opposite.
If Roffe and Signy had voices, they might have cursed Ulla, far away on the land. As it was, they forbade their people to visit the surface world, unwilling for any to meet Ulla again. It made things harder for Baghra and Aegir to meet.
Ulla had also learned her lesson. This time, she would be sure not to boast of her musical magic in front of the royal family. The other Grisha were told to hold their tongues.
The Grisha were relieved. To them, after a lifetime of being hunted and shunned, the bargain of endless army service for a palace was a no-brainer.
The courtiers were not.
Now King Anastas, initially so proud of his extra army, began to hear their fearful whispers, and their whispered insults.
What a fool our king is! Inviting a foreign army into his house while his own is spread across the country.
The Black General already has a palace and servants. All he needs now is a crown.
Put them together. Who has the real power? Our military-inept king, or the man who can kill whole armies?
Word by word, the verbal poison dripped into the tsar’s ears.
He now began to plot.
There would be no question as to who was in charge if there was only one leader for the two communities.
He just had to get rid of the Black General outside his walls, far from the Second Army.
And in a gesture of goodwill, he will marry the lovely Sun Summoner. His own soulmate, Queen Georgiana had already been found guilty of adultery. It should not be too hard to replace her.
And so, together with his scheming courtiers, King Anastas extended an invitation to his new General to join them for a hunting expedition.
Fortunately, Aleksander was not so gullible. He knew he was an unpopular figure among court, and to join them outnumbered and far from home was a death wish.
However, to openly reject a royal invitation would not look well either.
Luckily, his wife had some tricks up her sleeve.
Aleksander will go with a few guards, enough to provide a reasonable defense but not too many as to alarm the courtiers.
With their bulletproof keftas over their arrow proof robes, the treacherous otkazat’sya would have to aim at the head for a killing blow.
Following behind, muffled by Squallers, Alina will lead a larger unit under an invisible shroud.
Baghra and Ulla will stay behind to protect the rest, more the latter.
True to form, as soon as they were deep in wood cover, spread out in search of a tiger, several arrows ended up being deflected by the General.
Honestly, their claims it was an accident were getting tiresome by now.
Worried as to the general’s reaction, Anastas finally ordered the company to open fire on the General as soon as they were all gathered again.
They hardly drew up their guns when the Heartrenders immobilised them all at once.
Aleksander dismounted and stood over his gasping king. “Such a shame. This all could have been avoided, you know.”
The political chaos that would ensue was unavoidable. Aleksander could not let these men live.
Alina unveiled herself, looking worried. “What do we do now, Leonid?”
For how could they return without the king? The First Army would undoubtedly revolt. And powerful as the Second Army was, most were still learning how to use their powers for combat.
Aleksander frowned. “I studied my grandfather’s notes. There was an incantation to create whatever one wanted.”
Alina grimaced. “Merzost is tricky. The price is always too much.”
“Not this time,” Leonid promised. “I won’t be cutting off my finger bones. I’ll turn the tsar’s army into my own.”
The nearby Grisha rustled uneasily. Merzost was taboo to them. Which is ironic considering how the otkazat’sya view that sort of work as saintly!
Aleksander noticed. “Hey, I am open to any other alternative. We could return to our old settlement and hide from the world again.” Even as he said that, a sneer twisted his lips at the idea of having to hide for being born Grisha.
The others made faces as well, having had their taste of momentary freedom and acceptance.
“But bear in mind that getting everyone out of the Little Palace will be difficult as well. We can escape, but I cannot guarantee everyone will make it.”
The double walls pose no problem when faced with the Cut. It was the number of guards that were the issue, already trained to kill Grisha.
“What about your sister,” someone suggested.
Point. Ulla’s song could influence the inhabitants to stand down. But not even she could influence all of Ravka. He voiced his concern.
“Leave that to us,” a Squaller suggested.
And so, the plan was made.
Thanks to Baghra’s paranoia, their Durasts had found hidden tunnels linking churches all over Ravka.
They would enter the Dream City that way and rush to meet Ulla.
She was not impressed with the report. Still, “I can do that.”
As Ulla sang their oppressors into submission, Baghra took precautions and recommended they use a double while Ulla sang from a hidden corner.
It worked.
Queen Georgiana apologized for her husband’s behavior and welcomed the handsome General back.
Now that a haven for Grisha had been more or less established, Aleksander could focus on a new priority. Maintaining Alina’s youth.
Sometime during her fourth century, Alina began to show signs of aging.
It was subtle of course, but eventually there came a point when Aleksander realised with alarm that Alina looked older than he did.
Alina herself looked at her reflection with mild interest. Unlike everyone else who feared death and reincarnation, Alina had no care.
What was the point in fretting about death when she would be reborn?
She had lived a good life. Attacking only when provoked. Surely her inevitable reincarnation would not be bad.
And she would see Aleksander again.
Not to say that Alina did not care about her own life. She would valiantly defend her time on earth with Aleksander, making it last as long as it could.
Immortality just was not such a big deal to her.
When Aleksander doubled the search party numbers for the stag, offering a ridiculous sum of gold for a true sighting, Alina snorted.
She did not believe any tracker could find the stag. It was too wily to let a hunter near it. Children, and Alina herself, were the exception.
Alina did her best to urge him to relax and enjoy their time together. “Honestly I’m not sure I want to be immortal with you if I look old enough to be your mother.”
Aleksander kissed her fiercely. “Appearances don’t matter to me. Your absence does.”
“Then let’s spend what time we have left together,” she replied quite calmly.
Soon, Alina’s hair grew white as snow and her face even more lined than Baghra’s.
Aleksander rarely left her side, insisting she accompany him everywhere, her military experience overriding her aged beauty.
Then came the time when she did not wake up.
Frightened, Aleksander placed his hands gently on that delicate, beloved face, calling for his wife to wake.
As the situation fully dawned on him, he unleashed a yell of agony. And even though Aleksander was no Squaller or Tidemaker, dark clouds blossomed over Ravka that day, and a thick fog enveloped the people.
Ulla and Baghra were right there beside Aleksander, knowing better than to say the consoling words of how they will meet again.
They personally knew it could not ease the ache of absence, of longing.
However, not even the women could have planned for Alekdander’s desperate resolution.
If Alina would not kill the stag, he would!
Baghra warned Aleksander that doing so would remove Alina’s control and further unbalance their relationship.
He did not care.
When the testers came for little Alina, her attempts to cheat the test were noticed.
Destiny will not delay their reunion.
Brown eyes meet gray.
“Alina?”
Some dim memory spurred Alina and took control of her voice. “Aleksander.”
A relieved smile broke across his face. Soulmates hardly remember anything of their previous lives, but Alina still recognized him, if only vaguely.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for you,” he said solemnly.
Alina reached out and hugged his legs. “I’m sorry.”
A cool hand stroking her hair. “It’s alright, Alina.” He had a plan.
Said plan was not showing much progress, to Baghra’s relief.
Centuries of searching for the stag and nothing! Just deer scat! And some scratches on bark. And that could belong to ordinary deer.
As Alina reached her teens, Aleksander considered tricking her to find the stag for him again.
Then word came that a young tracker named Malyen Oretsev had come seeking the prize money.
“Happy birthday, Alina,” Aleksander greeted his fiancée softly.
The Sun Summoner grinned back. “What a wonderful birthday present you’ve given me.”
“You haven’t even opened it yet.”
“Having you around is the best gift of all,” she declared, throwing her arms around his neck. “I missed you.”
For this incarnation of Alina was not battle-hardened, and was stuck in the classroom while Aleksander stayed in the war room with his advisors.
His arms briefly tightened around her waist. “I missed you, too. But I think David wants you to open your present now instead.”
Alina chuckled but opened the box, frowning when she looked at the piece of antler. “…A paperweight?”