Last Sacrifice

'Moroi that the queen was having trained, to see how well they could learn fighting.'

Tasha's eyebrows rose in surprise. She hadn't been around when they'd discussed it last time. 'Tatiana was training fighters? I never heard about anything like that.' I had a feeling she would have liked to be one of the ones helping with instruction.

'Most didn't,' agreed Lissa, straightening the piece of paper. 'It was a big secret.'

The group crowded around to read the names, listed in Serena's neat handwriting. Christian let out a low whistle. 'Tatiana might have been open to the idea of defense but only for certain people.'

'Yes,' agreed Tasha. 'This is definitely an A-list.'

All the names were royal. Tatiana hadn't brought in 'commoners' for her experiment. This was the elite of the elite, though as Ambrose had noted, Tatiana had gone out of her way to get a variety of ages and genders.

'Camille Conta?' asked Lissa in surprise. 'Never saw that coming. She was always really bad in P.E.'

'And there's another of our cousins,' added Christian, pointing to Lia Ozera. He glanced at Tasha, who was still in disbelief. 'Did you know that?'

'No. I wouldn't have guessed her either.'

'Half the nominees too,' mused Lissa. Rufus Tarus, Ava Drozdov, and Ellis Badica. 'Too bad they—oh my God. Adrian's mother?' Sure enough: Daniella Ivashkov.

'Whoa,' said Christian. That summed up my reaction too. 'Pretty sure Adrian didn't know about that.'

'Does she support Moroi fighting?' asked my mom, surprised as well.

Lissa shook her head. 'No. From what I know about her, she is definitely in favor of leaving defense to dhampirs.' Neither of us could imagine beautiful and proper Daniella Ivashkov in a fight.

'She already hated Tatiana,' noted Tasha. 'I'm sure this did lovely things for their relationship. Those two bickered all the time behind closed doors.'

An uncomfortable silence fell.

Lissa looked at Serena. 'Did these people see the queen a lot? Would they have had access to her?'

'Yes,' said Serena uneasily. 'According to Grant, Tatiana watched every training sessions. After he died . . . she started debriefing with the students individually, to see how well they'd learned.' She paused. 'I think . . . I think she might have met with some the night she died.'

'Had they progressed enough to learn to use a stake?' asked Lissa.

Serena grimaced. 'Yes. Some better than others.'

Lissa looked back at the list, feeling ill. So much opportunity. So much motivation. Was the answer here on this piece of paper? Was the murderer right before her? Serena had said earlier that Tatiana had purposely picked people resistant to training, probably to see if the obstinate could still learn. Had she gone too far with someone? One name in particular kept scrolling across Lissa's mind.

'I hate to interrupt,' said my mother. Her tone and stance indicated sleuth time was over; it was back to business. 'We've got to move, or you'll be late.'

Lissa realized my mom was right and shoved the piece of paper in her pocket. Being late to the test meant failure. Lissa thanked Serena, reassuring her that this had been the right thing to do. Then, my friends moved away quickly, feeling the press of time as they hurried toward the testing building.

'Damn,' muttered Lissa, in a rare show of swearing. 'I don't think that old lady'll tolerate any lateness.'

'Old lady?' My mother laughed, surprising us all. She could move faster than everyone and was obviously restraining her pace for them. 'The one running most of the tests? You don't know who she is?'

'How would I?' asked Lissa. 'I figured she was just someone they recruited.'

'Not just someone. That's Ekaterina Zeklos.'

'What?' Lissa nearly stopped but still had their time crunch in mind. 'She was . . . she was the queen before Tatiana, right?'

'I thought she retired to some island,' said Christian, just as surprised.

'Not sure if it was an island,' said Tasha, 'but she did step down when she thought she was too old and went off to live in luxury—and away from politics—once Tatiana was on the throne.'

Too old? That had been twenty years ago. No wonder she seemed ancient. 'If she was happy to get out of politics, then why is she back?' asked Lissa.

My mother opened the door for all of them when they reached the building, after first peering inside for any threats. It was so instinctual for her that she continued the conversation without missing a beat. 'Because it's custom for the last monarch to test the new one—if possible. In this case, it obviously wasn't, so Ekaterina came out of retirement to do her duty.'

Lissa could barely believe that she'd been chatting casually with the Moroi's last queen, a very powerful and beloved queen. As soon as her group entered the hallway, Lissa was escorted by guardians and hurried toward the testing room. Their faces showed they hadn't thought she'd make it. Several spectators, also apparently worried, cheered at her appearance giving the usual shouts about Alexandra and the dragons. Lissa had no chance to respond or even say goodbye to her friends before she was practically pushed into the room. The guardians looked relieved.

The door shut, and Lissa found herself staring once more at Ekaterina Zeklos. Seeing the old woman had been intimidating before, but now . . . Lissa's anxiety doubled. Ekaterina gave her a crooked smile.

'I was afraid you wouldn't make it,' she said. 'Should have known better. You aren't the type to back down.'

Lissa was still starstruck and almost felt the need to ramble out an excuse, explaining about Serena's list. But, no. Ekaterina didn't care about that right now, and one didn't make excuses to someone like her anyway, Lissa decided. If you screwed up, you apologized.

'I'm sorry,' said Lissa.

'No need to be,' said Ekaterina. 'You made it. Do you know the answer? What must a queen possess in order to truly rule her people?'

Lissa's tongue felt thick in her mouth. She didn't know the answer. It really was just like the Council dream. Investigating Tatiana's murder had taken so much time. For a strange moment, Lissa's heart burned with sympathy for that prickly queen. She'd done what she thought best for the Moroi and had died for it. Lissa even felt bad now, staring at Ekaterina. This former queen had probably never expected to be taken away from her— island?—retirement and forced back into Court life. Yet, she had come when needed.

And just like that, Lissa suddenly knew the answer.

'Nothing,' she said softly. 'A queen must possess nothing to rule because she has to give everything she has to her people. Even her life.'

The widening of Ekaterina's gap-toothed grin told Lissa she'd answered correctly. 'Congratulations, my dear. You've made it through to tomorrow's vote. I hope you've got a speech ready to win over the Council. You'll have to give it in the morning.'

Lissa swayed slightly, not sure what to say now, let alone in a formal speech. Ekaterina seemed to sense how in shock Lissa was, and the smile that always seemed so mischievous turned gentle.

'You'll be fine. You made it this far. The speech is the easy part. Your father would be proud. All the Dragomirs before you would be.'

That nearly brought tears to Lissa's eyes, and she shook her head. 'I don't know about that. We all know I'm not a real candidate. This was just . . . well, kind of an act.' Somehow, she didn't feel bad admitting that in front of Ekaterina. 'Ariana's the one who deserves the crown.'

Ekaterina's ancient eyes bored into Lissa, and that smiled faded. 'You haven't heard then. No, of course you wouldn't have with how quickly this is all happening.'

'Heard what?'

Sympathy washed over Ekaterina's face, and later, I'd wonder if that compassion was because of the message she delivered or because of Lissa's reaction.

'Ariana Szelsky didn't pass this test . . . she couldn't solve the riddle . . .'

'Rose, Rose.'

Dimitri was shaking me, and it took several seconds for me to shift from being a shocked Lissa to a startled Rose.

'We have to—' he began.