The Shining Falcon

«Damn him!» Her audacity rather shocked Maria, but she said it again, as savagely as she could. «Damn him! He's a—a weak, cowardly fool— He's no longer my prince! I—I renounce him!»

Well and good, but cursing the man wasn't going to help her father. Maria glanced desperately at Vasilissa, suddenly aching for comfort, but her sister, escaping in the only way she could find, was lost in slumber.

That's no escape at all. Maria sighed wearily. There must be a way out of this… Bribe a guard? With what? The guards hadn't even allowed enough time to gather up their mother's jewels. Everything of value was still back at the estate, with the servants… The servants!

Maria sat bolt upright. No one noted an underling's comings and goings, not in a busy palace. And her father had told her often enough that even with such an edgy prince as master, the royal guards had become shamefully lax and lazy in these times of peace… Yes, and Svyatoslav held such a low opinion of her sex that he'd never expect anything more from her than helpless tears. Why, he'd stationed only the one bored guard at the door!

«Yes!» gasped Maria after some nervous consideration. Putting on her haughtiest manner, she called sternly, «Guard!» and smiled to herself as the door opened and a weatherworn male lace peered in.

«Lady?»

«Guard, my sister and I came here so—so abruptly that we had no chance to bring with us any of the necessities of life.»

«All will be provided, lady.»

«All will not be provided! We left behind our jewel case, the gems left to us by our mother.»

«I'm sorry, lady.» His face was unmoved. «But I don't see what can be done about it. You must stay here.»

«Yes, yes, I know that. I only meant…» Maria let her voice trail off pathetically, thinking wryly to herself that Lissa really was better at this sort of thing. She let tears well in her eyes—which wasn't difficult just then— and pleaded softly, «Can't you help us? There—there's a servant at home, Sasha. He knows where everything is. Can't you get word to him? If he brings us the—the small red lacquer case, yes, and—and the blue and yellow clothes chest… that's all we need… Can't you have him bring that to us? It‑it's not so much, not really…»

The tears weren't feigned at all by this point. Maria, past the point of speech, let herself go and simply sobbed. The guard stirred, uneasy and embarrassed.

«Uh… lady. Lady, please. Don't… uh… don't cry. We'll get a message to this Sasha, you'll see.»

Maria managed a watery smile. «Th—thank you.»

But as soon as the guard was gone and the door closed, she nearly choked herself, mixing tears and helpless gusts of giggles till she thought she'd be sick. Oh God, oh God, he'd believed her! Now if only Sasha understood what she wanted. If only he'd remained loyal!

He had.

«I… wasn't really sure this was what you wanted, mistress. I mean, a chest of the kitchen staff's clothes — "

«Hush, hush, this is exactly what I wanted! And the lacquer box of herbs, too? Good.» Maria froze. «Were the boxes searched?»

Sasha grinned. «Oh, they opened them, all right. Figured they would. So I put one of your pretty caftans on top of the kitchen stuff, and your mother's gems on top of the herbs. They palmed a couple of trinkets, payment and all like that, but they never questioned me.»

«Sasha, you're a wonder!»

As he reddened, pleased, Maria hastily dropped some of the herbs into a bottle of mead the prince had oh-so-graciously granted the sisters. Sasha's grin widened.

«That's the herbs you use to make sick folks sleep! Want me to be the good host to the guard outside, eh?»

«You really are a wonder! Yes, go ahead!» Maria was busily shaking her sister. «Lissa, love, wake up! Come, wake up! Get into these clothes. Yes, I know they're ugly—never mind that! Hurry! We're going to get Father out of prison!»

They made an awkward trio, Sasha hotly embarrassed at having his arms about two young noblewomen, Lissa wild-eyed and shrinking from his touch, Maria terrified that her sister would faint or scream or somehow manage to give them away. But nothing terrible happened, no one stopped them or even looked closely at them, these three who were plainly kitchen servants of the lowest order staggering drunkenly along the prison corridors, making the guards who saw them laugh; the good Lord knew there was little enough to laugh at down here.

Of course boyar Danilo wasn't being held in some plain, verminous cell. He was being allowed a certain amount of comfort, a room to himself as it were, and light, and clean bedding. There were only two guards at his door. Why waste more? He wasn't going anywhere!

«Wanna see him!» whined Maria. «Wanna see the mighty lord!»

The guards grinned at each other. «Give us a kiss, then, love," said one.

Lissa cringed. Before she could say something that would give them away, Maria hastily waggled a hand in denial. «No, no, got something better'n that, see?»