little Kolia.
'And were they burned,' asked Irena when he had finished, 'and released from the burdens of the earth, as was their right?'
Niko and Kirill both looked at Ilya. Tess hid her face in her hands.
'They were given,' said Ilya with no expression in his voice, 'what they most wished. Now, Aunt, if you will excuse me, I will ask Sibirin and Zvertkov to accompany me while I return what is theirs to Fedya's and Mikhal's families.'
Irena inclined her head. 'You are excused, Nephew. And Ilya.' She paused. Tess looked up. 'To marry cousins is dangerous. To marry them in the sight of the gods-well, we shall see. Certainly you have never lacked arrogance. But you have ridden a long way to return here, and with this I can sympathize. For this night, Nephew, my tent is yours.' She rose and shook out her skirts, and then turned to address her family. 'Come, children. You must take your blankets to your mothers' tents tonight.'
Ilya simply stared at his aunt for a moment, as if this gesture bewildered him. But then, then he turned his head smoothly to give Tess so piercing a look that she felt as if they were already alone and she stripped utterly naked, far past such unimportant layers as clothing and skin, down, down to where the wind sweeps fire across the earth itself.
Then he turned and strode away, Niko and Kirill at his heels.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
'If one does not hope one will not find the unhoped for, since there is no trail leading to it, and no path.'
Dusk, stars, evening.
Tess let Sonia help her dress in all the beautiful women's clothing gifted her by Nadezhda Martov, bracelets, the beaded headpiece. She felt empty, burned away until she was hollow.
'You're being very quiet,' said Sonia. 'I'll leave the lantern, and you can sit here on these pillows. Tess, it isn't as if you haven't lain with him before-' Abruptly, she sat down beside Tess and took her cold hands in her own. 'You haven't?'
Tess could only shake her head numbly.
'But you rode down the Avenue together.'
Tess found a whisper. 'I didn't know.'
'You didn't know!' Sonia was speechless for a moment. 'I can only suppose that he didn't have the nerve to try to mark you, knowing you could use your saber, so he-Gods!' Tess glanced at her. The lantern light cast edges on the soft planes of Sonia's face. 'Well, Tess, I'm sorry, but you're his wife now, and I can't interfere.' She kissed her on the cheek and stood up, abandoning Tess in the middle of the silken mass of Irena Orzhekov's finest pillows. 'But listen to me.' Her voice was quiet but vehement. 'Perhaps we do not know one another so well, you and I, but I can see into your heart, my sister, and I know you are strong enough for what has been given you.'
'For Ilya?'
'Ilya is not the sum of your life, Tess. You forget that I have been to Jeds. I have seen the prince on progress through the city. I know there is more to you than these plains, and yet, there is Ilya as well. And you are the only woman-the only woman? no, the only person, truly-who has the courage to stand up to him on every ground. If there is no one to hold him in check, then what is to happen to him and to us?'
Tess stared down at her hands. 'You're asking too much of me,' she murmured, but when she looked up, Sonia had gone. Every doubt she had ever carried flooded back in on her. All the burdens of being Charles's heir, the cold weight of duty, and now this. Lord, to add this on top of it all.
She heard from outside the sound, but not the words, of a brief conversation: a woman's voice, a man's. Then the rustle of the tent flap and his movement through the outer chamber. He pushed aside the curtains that separated the outer chamber from the inner one and halted, poised there.
'Gods,' he said, staring at her, 'you are beautiful, my wife.'
She said nothing, but her gaze followed him as he let the curtains slip down behind him and crossed to her. He knelt in front of her.
'I brought this for you.' He unclasped the black necklace and with the greatest tenderness clasped it around her throat. He let his hands settle on either side of the curve of her neck, warm hands, though she felt the slight tremble in them against her skin. He gazed at her as if the answer to every question he had ever asked rested in her face.
He was so close but she could move neither toward him nor away from him, caught in this eddy.
'I am lost,' she whispered.
His eyes narrowed and his lips, slightly parted, closed tightly. 'You are afraid of me.' He took his hands from her. 'You were never afraid of me before,' he said accusingly.
She wrenched her gaze away from him. 'I don't know what I am.''
She felt him stand, and looked up to see him walk to the curtain. 'You are my wife. You are also, I believe, heir to the Prince. And Sonia's sister, and a daughter to Irena Orzhekov. But mostly you are Tess.' He looked furiously angry and yet at the same time terribly upset. 'And if Tess ever decides she wants me, I will be waiting for her.'
He jerked the curtain aside and left. Tess sank back into the pillows. She felt so utterly relieved that she could almost laugh at herself. She stared at the shadows dappling the soft ceiling of the tent. Footsteps stirred, and the curtain slipped aside.
'Tess?'
'Oh, hello, Sonia,' said Tess in a voice that sounded almost normal.
'Tess. I-' She hesitated. 'Do you- Perhaps- That is, I saw Ilya- But perhaps you'd rather I left you- I don't know-'
'I'm hungry,' said Tess, sitting up.
'Well,' said Sonia briskly, 'you hardly ate a bite at supper so that doesn't surprise me.'
'You aren't mad at me?'
'What occurs between you and Ilya is not any of my business, Tess.'
Tess stood. 'You and Yuri have been matchmaking since the day I got to your tribe. Admit it.'
'No, in fact, it was several days before the thought occurred to me. It was at the dance, when you told him you were riding with them. And forced him to accept it and take you along.'
'What's wrong with me?' Tess asked, remembering how brash she had been.
'You were almost killed, and you still haven't regained your strength. And you saw your brother killed. I grieve as much as you do but I didn't see him die. I can still imagine that he is simply out riding and will come back tomorrow. I don't envy you that knowledge or that memory.''
'But, Sonia, I want that knowledge and that memory. For you, they rode out one day and never came back. I couldn't stand to live that way.''
Sonia took her gently by the arm. 'Perhaps that is why you still practice saber. Come, Tess. There's still meat, I think, or if you wish, a celebration at the Veselov camp. Arina has gone into seclusion for the next nine days but we women can visit her. I'm sure she would like to see you.'
'Yes,' said Tess, taking great comfort in the thought of the company of women, 'I'd like that.'
Sonia surveyed her critically. 'And I want you to know how very much I hate you for being able to wear that particular shade of green. That is Nadezhda Martov's dye, is it not? Yes, we had some of her cloth once but it simply made me look ill, and it did nothing for Stassi or Kira or Anna either, so we had to trade it off. It made us sick to give it up. But it looks stunning on you.' Tess blushed, remembering Ilya's voice as he called her 'beautiful.'
'Well? Are we going? Or are you going to stand there and gloat over your good looks all night?' Tess laughed
