Come to Me (23 page)

And then, suddenly, there she was: a woman in blue, fleeing through a forest of vines. He blinked in startlement, and she was gone.

Had it been a trick of his eyes?

He sat down, pulling the book toward him. Where had she gone?
Come on, come on
… Samira would be so excited if he said she had helped him to discover something new.

The words on the page shifted before his eyes, rearranging themselves. What had been nonsense suddenly was a sentence of clear instruction. He held his breath, afraid that even breathing could make the vision revert to incomprehensibility.

He began to read.

Samira played with the cuff of her new white shirt, still amazed at the fine workmanship of the colorful embroidery that adorned it. Her blue skirt and black vest were equally heavily covered in decoration, the vest edged in wildcat fur.

The clothes had belonged to a man's deceased grandmother, but despite their age they had not come cheap. He had lifted them out of their storage chest with pride and care, his wife looking on and nodding, meeting Samira's eyes to check that she, too, could see the richness of what they were offering her. Peasant garb it might be, but Samira could only imagine how many long hours of careful needlework it had taken to create the finery. The family's entire house was neatly cared for, its floors and walls covered in rugs, the wooden utensils clean and in their place. They were poor by a prince's standards, with lives of hard work, but they had pride.

Constantin had purchased everyday clothes for her as well, and on her feet were thick socks covered by simple leather slippers, tied on by cords that crisscrossed her leg to her knee. They felt strange on her feet as she and Constantin ambled down the road; she felt both as if her feet had gone numb, out of touch as they were with the ground, and as if they had been tucked into soft beds.

Her hair felt strange, too, bound up as it was now, and with a kerchief over the top. One of the women had combed and braided her hair for her, her friends joining her in admiration of Samira's glossy red locks, all of them curious about who she was and where she had come from. Constantin made up a story of a Wallachian raiding party and a burning village, and no one questioned the validity of his words.

Shy in front of the strangers, Samira had let Constantin do most of the talking, and as he did so she imagined a raiding party coming here, laying waste to these people and their homes. She'd felt a sudden blossoming of understanding for Nicolae's sense of responsibility toward the people of his country.

On the heels of that epiphany had come a realization of the danger into which she herself had put them when she meddled in Dragosh's dreams and soured Nicolae's arranged marriage with Lucia. Was that how she was supposed to help him? By somehow making it possible for him to wed Lucia, despite all that had happened?

She didn't know if it was possible. He seemed too bitter, the scars so much deeper than the burns on his skin. Burns that he still had not fully explained to her, and that seemed somehow tied to his relationship with women. Maybe that was what she should be trying to figure out, instead of spells. Obviously he didn't think much of her ability to help him with magic.

She kicked at a pebble in the dirt street. He didn't think much of what she had to say on
any
topic. She doubted he'd want her prying into his private life, or lack thereof. He was an impossible man to communicate with, and to try to help. She almost thought he
wanted
to stay locked up in that tower for the rest of his life, reading useless books. Maybe he was afraid to come back into the world and live. Look what the world had done to him the last time he'd tried to make his way in it.

She sighed, and tried to enjoy the sunshine and the outing. It was Sunday, and it seemed the whole village was out on the main street of the town, sitting on benches in front of their houses, walking arm in arm, gathering in groups to gossip. Everyone had shown her and Constantin an almost overwhelming friendliness—so much so that she was growing anxious to return to the quiet of the fortress.

"Are they always like this with strangers?" she quietly asked Constantin.

"They know who I am, and know you've been at the monastery. They're curious, and this little visit of ours is probably the most exciting thing that's happened since Prince Nicolae came to live on the island. It's a good thing they never got a look at those marks on your back. They'll be discussing your every word and move for the next year as it is, I promise you."

"Oh," she said, hunching her shoulders.

He laughed, the sound edged with scorn. "You're not embarrassed, are you? You?"

She shrugged. She didn't think he'd understand if she tried to explain that having no shame of her nude body was an easier thing for her than being seen and spoken to by dozens of people in broad daylight, even if she was fully clothed. But after a few moments she said, "Thank you, Constantin."

He stopped, staring at her. "What was that?"

She picked at her skirt. "Thank you. For taking me here, and helping me buy the clothes."

He turned his head, looking at her suspiciously from the corner of his eyes.

"And thank you for that first night," she went on, "when you tried to persuade Nicolae to let me stay. I know you think I'm a scum-sucking demon from Hell, but you were still compassionate. So thank you."

"Er. You're welcome. And, ah…"

She looked at him expectantly. "Yes?"

"You don't seem such a bad sort, for a demon. We—the others and myself—we've been wondering if your arrival was such a bad thing, after all. Except for your complaining."

"What do you mean?"

"Nicolae hadn't been out of his tower in the daytime since…" He stopped in mid-sentence, staring up ahead, his mouth dropping open.

Samira followed his gaze. Nicolae was striding purposefully down the road, his limp barely noticeable, Petru and Andrei hurrying to keep up behind him.

"What in the…" Constantin said.

"What is it?" Samira asked anxiously. "What's the matter?"

"I don't know. Maybe nothing!"

Constantin strode forward to meet Nicolae, but Nicolae looked past him to Samira, then beyond her, a frown marring his brow. He started to go past her.

"Nicolae?" she said.

He stumbled, then caught his balance on her shoulder, blinking in surprise at her. "Samira?"

She smiled shyly. "Do you like my new clothes?"

He released her shoulder. "Uh…"

She felt her heart fall.

"Yes!" he said quickly. "Yes, they're quite… quite a change. Very, ah… well decorated."

She wondered at his sincerity. "You wouldn't rather have me naked, would you?"

He hesitated.

"My lord, what has happened?" Constantin broke in, before Nicolae had a chance to answer.

"What?" Nicolae said, distracted.

"Has something happened? Why are you here?"

"I had something to tell Samira."

Behind Nicolae, Petru and Andrei simultaneously shrugged, looking at Constantin with ignorance on their faces. Constantin stared bug-eyed at his prince. "You came out
to the village
to tell something to Samira?"

Nicolae ignored him, eyes bright with excitement. He grasped Samira's hand. "You were right about the book. It is about illusions—and I saw the woman in blue!"

"What's he talking about?" Constantin asked Andrei.

Andrei used his expressive face to shrug.

Samira blinked in surprise at Nicolae. He was holding her hand—of his own volition! And he had looked again at the book after she'd left. He'd listened to her. This excitement on his face was because of
her
. She was embarrassed and thrilled all at once, and squeezed his hand. "You saw the story?"

"Yes! Not all of it—it kept disappearing—but I managed to make sense of the first two spells in the book. Let me show you!"

Constantin, Petru, and Andrei all took a sudden step backward, away from Nicolae. "Are you sure…" Andrei said.

"Maybe it would be wiser to do this back at the fortress, behind stone walls," Constantin said.

Petru made small whimpering sounds and found shelter behind Constantin's broad frame.

Nicolae waved away their concerns. "This is harmless! And it will entertain the children." He smiled at two little girls who had come over to see the strangers. They were holding hands and looking at Nicolae with grave doubt on their small faces.

Samira saw that the rest of the village had noticed Nicolae's arrival, but most hung back, a look of cautious subservience on their faces, although their eyes stole curious glances at their prince.

"Everyone! Come 'round!" Nicolae called, gesturing to the people. With glances at each other and hesitation, they slowly came and formed a circle around Nicolae and Samira. He bent down and picked up a small stone from the road. "Behold this rock! A simple rock, a rock like any other you have seen, is it not?" he asked the crowd.

There was a reluctant murmur of assent.

"But is it really?" Nicolae smiled knowingly, and then met Samira's eyes. His were full of light and life, and she felt her heart trip, sensing that she was seeing the true Nicolae for the first time; the Nicolae who had been lost.

"
Aska ma douska
," Nicolae began to chant, waving one hand over the stone. "
Ooska ma diiska
…"

Samira felt the crowd lean closer, breaths held, motionless in anticipation. Nicolae's men inched subtly away, eyes wide in fright.

"
Eemda loo
!" Nicolae declared with a flourish. The rock suddenly turned into a big flop-eared bunny. Nicolae dropped it, and it landed easily on the ground, where it sat contentedly, nose wiggling.

"Ahhhhh," the crowd said.

"
Loomda ee
!" Nicolae said, and immediately the bunny was again a rock.

"Ohhhh," from the crowd. A few of the people stepped back, eyes wide, while others edged forward. Children clung to the skirts of their mothers, looks of wild amazement on their faces.

Nicolae's men pursed their lips and looked suspiciously at the harmless rock.

Nicolae grinned in delight at Samira. She smiled back, happy with excitement, while at the same time, unbidden, a traitorous thought ran through her mind:
He was right. This is of no use against the armies of his enemies. It's a bunny. A harmless, useless bunny
!

"More?" Nicolae asked the crowd.

Children clapped their hands in delight.

Nicolae pointed to a bird flying past and turned it into an enormous butterfly, with all the colors of the rainbow in its wings. The flies buzzing around a cow turned into butterflies as well. A tree's leaves became a thousand fluttering, prismatic wings. A dog turned into a bunny; a half-dozen scratching hens became a small herd of rabbits. The. people turned and gaped, pointing and gasping and laughing with a touch of fear in their voices.

Samira looked at Nicolae, to see if he'd noticed. His excitement with his own success had blinded him to the edge of distress of the people. He waved his hands, foreign words pouring fluently from his lips, and a cow turned into a giant bunny. A child near it shrieked in sudden fright and began to cry.