“That was strange,” Baron Rostov thought.
“It was!” she said as she pulled a day dress from her wardrobe. “He was so cold!”
“… Really?”
Celesta paused, and blushed. “You don’t understand us at all, do you?”
“He fondled you for five minutes. He even tied you up, which I didn’t expect.” It was nevertheless just what Rostov would have wanted to do in Kristijan’s position, but he was trying not to think about that.
“The straps and especially the collar are symbols of intimacy that come from the true family. Once, one who loved unwisely went outside on a starry night and let himself be bound—and just before sunrise his lover left him there … That’s the most horrible form of death for true family, so being bound shows that you have no fear of being betrayed. It is a sign of ultimate trust in our family.”
“So how was what he did coldness?”
“I hadn’t seen Kris for a week. He should have bound me and bedded me for an hour at least!”
“But he’s your brother!” The thought burst between them before the Baron could suppress it. Celesta stopped dead. The Baron plowed on. “It’s not just that society rather frowns on incest, or that the Church prohibits marriage even between second cousins. It’s that when close relatives have children—”
“The Kalnichovs have inbred for generations,” declared Celesta, resuming her toilette. “We are now pure-bloods in the most positive sense—all the bad blood is gone. We don’t get monster babies with open skulls or spines, or three legs, or even hemophilia, from our family blood. The two-headed monsters come when a family member gets indiscreet and brings outside blood into the family. The Stokavskis have been the purest of the Kalnichovs. If I have children with Kristijan, they will automatically become true family.”
“And what of Gaspar?”
Celesta sighed. “I love him. He is such a man! But there is known bad blood in his line—his great-grandfather was indiscreet. If I have children with him they will have to be tested, and it’s far too likely they won’t all pass the test.”
“It’s a hard choice,” the Baron sympathized.
“Yes … but there will be a choice only if Radi is defeated. This is the sole reason I help you. Whoever you are.”
“You knew Radimir?”
Celesta laughed. “Knew Radi? He was—is—my other brother! I know every Stokavski and most Kalnichovs. We are a family, Mr. … Mr. … whatever your name is.”
“Baron Iglacias Rostov, Miss Stokavski—at your service, I would say, if I had not already put you so rudely at mine. I apologize for not introducing myself earlier.”
“Thank you, Your Excellency. I suspected as much. Your name is known to me.”
“Did you know that Radimir wanted to open the gates of Nazadlan? He is a Lich now, still intent upon the project.”
“He always was ambitious,” she said drily, fastening a ruby brooch upon her bosom.
“Perhaps you know of something that will distract him?”
“Of course I do: Me.” She walked out of her bedroom and back toward the North Tower.
Kristijan was waiting on the first landing, with straps and a collar in his hands. He bound his sister exactly as before, except that this collar’s charm was far more powerful. It would be only with desperate effort that the Baron could leave her body. When the collar was firmly fastened, she confided, “Kris, I have Baron Iglacias Rostov inside me. Radi should be pleased.”
“He will be indeed,” said her brother.
The Baron had found his plotters. He was too stunned to comment. There had been no hint in all the time he had possessed Celesta’s body and mind.
Kristijan led her into the room behind the door, where a large, flawless sphere of crystal sat upon a table shrouded in crimson velvet over which ran golden wires.
“It’s beautiful, brother,” said Celesta, sitting primly down on the edge of a straight chair to leave room for her bound hands. “And you can send messages with it as well as receive them?”
“Yes, ’Lesta, I can. I have been doing so for some days—as expected, without detection. The application of electricity through the crystal works perfectly.”
Rostov’s deduction had been close. It was a hybrid magical and scientific device, a new thing that the ruling Stokavskis had not detected.
Kristijan placed his hands around the crystal ball. When it began to glow, he whispered into it. As he released it and the glow began to fade, he turned back to her.
“Radi is sending transportation,” he said. “We will meet them on the roof in ten minutes.”
“Then we have time for you to kiss me some more.”
“Will I be kissing you, or both of you?”
“Me. The Baron is sulking somewhere.”
“How do I know that?”
She stood up, gracefully despite her bound hands, and nuzzled his neck. “Try me.”
The Baron was not exactly sulking, but thinking hard.
He had Celesta’s body at his command, and she did not apparently realize how total was his control. But what good was a body bound as hers was, even when not held in the arms of a powerful, suspicious wizard?
Celesta’s soul was warm not only with passion for Kristijan, but for the prospect of opening Nazadlan, which she believed was now close … very close. That offered no leverage for him.
That left her mind. That he could use. “What about Gaspar?” the Baron thought quietly. Celesta stiffened slightly in Kristijan’s grasp.
“So you are not sulking after all, Baron?” Celesta replied silently, as she melted back into her brother’s arms. “But why would I discuss Gaspar with you at such a time?”
Nevertheless, her thoughts turned hotly to Gaspar and gave Rostov an answer. She and Kristijan had not persuaded Gaspar to back Radimir. But their failure to do so was immaterial to her; soon, she thought, it would be “a whole new world!”
A whole world. As the Ethereal Plane of Air was a world of its own. In the swirl of events, the Baron had almost forgotten his ally.
Swiftly, the wizard threw up a barrier to shield his thoughts from his inadvertent hostess before any hint of the Djinni could reach her.
First, through the link that Celesta had inadvertently activated, he sent Gaspar what he had learned. Now when the man was questioned he could give some detail of Kristijan’s plot with Radimir. When the two-way crystal was discovered, and with Kristijan fleeing with Celesta in the middle of an attack, Gaspar should at last be believed.
Then the Baron reached into what was certainly not a pocket and pulled out what was not exactly a blue-white diamond. From it came something that could not properly be termed a voice. “You have found enemies. Call me forth and I can deal with them, even if you cannot,” said Djinni Saleem.
“Your time has not yet come, my blustery friend. It is the Lich who must be stopped. We will let these allies of his take us to him.”
Soon, Kristijan stopped fondling his sister and assisted her up the last flight of stairs. “I suppose it is indecorous to keep you so seductively bound before others, my sister. But it is a very convenient way to transport Baron Rostov.”
In the middle distance a huge war balloon floated towards the manor, filled to capacity with small Goblin archers, at a height not easily reached by arrows or even gunfire from below. Around it circled giant bats. As the balloon drew noiselessly closer, alarms suddenly split the calm dawn. The Goblins rained arrows on the exposed guards, and the bats swarmed whatever targets they could damage. Two immense bats picked up Kristijan and Celesta from the North Tower and flew them back to Radimir’s main camp.
In a short time, some harm had been done to Wolf’s Lair and its defenders, but soon the balloon drifted on by and the bats could not sustain the attack by themselves—they were vulnerable to being shot from behind arrow slits. Nevertheless, the mission had been accomplished.