The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. III: The Morning Star

By Robin Bridges

Lush and opulent, romantic and sinister, The Morning Star, Vol. III in the Katerina Trilogy, reimagines the lives of Russia's aristocracy in a fabulously intoxicating and page-turning fantasy.

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890
Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, wants to be known as a doctor, not a necromancer. But Tsar Alexander III forbids women to attend medical school; his interest in Katerina extends only to her ability to raise the dead. Twice now, Katerina has helped him by using her power to thwart the forces of darkness—vampires bent on resurrecting the lich tsar Konstantin Pavlovich so that he can take what he sees as his rightful place on the throne. Katerina thought she had bound Konstantin to the Greylands, the realm of the dead, but he has found a way out. Now he is searching for the Morning Star, a sword that will allow him to command a legion of supernatural warriors.

Katerina must find the sword before Konstantin does—and she must travel to Egypt to do so. Along the way, she puts up with unwanted attention from her former fiancé, the nefarious Prince Danilo, and struggles with her feelings for her true love, George Alexandrovich. But with the looming threat from Konstantin, Katerina's focus remains on the sword. Russia's fate will be determined by whoever wields the Morning Star—and delivers the final blow.

CHAPTER ONE
August 1890, St. Petersburg, Russia
I stepped back from the dissecting table to push my hair out of my face. I'd been standing on my feet all day in the tiny, airless room, my hands digging meticulously through the entrails of cadavers. Sweat had plastered my thick cotton dress to my skin.
"Do you see the bronchiole tubes within the lungs?" Dr. Badmaev asked me, leaning over my shoulder.
"Yes," I answered. "What are these growths here?" I poked a grayish-pink mass with a dissecting needle.
"That shall be your assignment for tonight," the Tibetan doctor said. "I think we have done enough work for today, Duchess."
No one knew I was studying medicine with Dr. Badmaev, the Tibetan who treated the members of the Dark Court. I blushed with shame, remembering how I'd rejected his offer earlier in the year. And I'd finally accepted only because the tsar continued to refuse to let me leave the country to attend medical school in Zurich. He did not approve of women doctors. But it was imperative that I study medicine--now more than ever. The life of the boy I loved, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, depended upon it.
Dr. Badmaev had proved to be a strict instructor. All the Latin and Greek I'd studied in the hopes of going to a proper medical school were useless. Studying Tibetan medicine meant reading ancient texts in Tibetan. So I had to learn from the doctor's lectures and hands-on practice. The doctor was an acquaintance of my father's and had helped me more than once before. He was very knowledgeable when it came to treating vampire bites. Unfortunately, he told me there was no way to cure the risen dead.
"Here, drink this," Dr. Badmaev said when I'd finished scrubbing my hands. He held a steaming cup of tea out toward me. "It will help purify your soul. You have been surrounded by death all day, and now you must cleanse yourself before returning to the living."
I took the tea gratefully. Badmaev knew my secrets. He knew that I was no stranger to death, and he was persistent in trying to help me understand my gift. Of course, I still did not think of necromancy as a gift. It did not save lives. It only created terrible creatures. And multitudes of problems.
The tea was smoky with a hint of lemon. "Verbena?" I guessed.
Dr. Badmaev's eyes twinkled. "Very good! And?"
"Sea buckthorn?"
"You have been studying the Materia Medica, haven't you?"
I smiled. He had gone to great trouble to translate a list of Tibetan herbs and their healing properties for me into Russian. I told him he should have his work published. My father would have been happy to carry this out if I asked. But Badmaev and I both knew my father would not approve of my secret studies. Even if Papa had defended my wanting to study medicine to Maman and the tsar.
Being a female student in a proper medical institution was scandalous enough. Studying Far Eastern medicine with a doctor, no matter how distinguished, who was attached to the Dark Court could only invite imperial wrath.
But I had had no choice. As long as there was a threat that the lich tsar Konstantin Pavlovich could return, I was in danger. Almost as much danger as Alexander the Third. The tsar needed me, the only necromancer in St. Petersburg, to perform the ritual that would allow him to fight the lich tsar. And the lich tsar's followers knew it. Hence, I was forbidden from leaving Russia. My dreams of studying at the University of Zurich had come to a grinding halt. And my family's palace was placed under the watch of imperial guards, the undead soldiers of the Order of St. Lazarus.
I finished my tea and went to gather my things. Dr. Badmaev stood. "Remember your meditations, Duchess. The cold light is still surrounding you."
I nodded. As a necromancer, the cold light would always surround me. It was the light of death, surrounding everyone. It grew brighter when one grew closer to death. The cold light could be manipulated by a necromancer, to either destroy or heal. Dr. Badmaev, in addition to teaching me practical Tibetan medicine, was also showing me how to shape cold light and use it in diagnosing patients. Most important of all, he was showing me how to stay sane when surrounded by so much death.
"But you can't see the cold light, can you?" I asked.
The Tibetan smiled kindly. "It is true. But while I am not a necromancer, by meditating and drinking sacred herbs, I can expand my senses and see the warm light that surrounds everyone."
"Warm light?"
"Also known as auras by the Europeans, I believe. A doctor's examination that only looks at the patient's physical body is not complete. Tibetan medicine examines body and soul." He put a fatherly hand on my shoulder. "We will finish our work on the lungs when you come back," he said.
"I cannot return before Wednesday," I said. "Tomorrow I'm expected to wait on the empress with Maman." The thought that I might possibly see the empress's son, George Alexandrovich, while I was there filled me with hope. George had completed his magic studies in Paris and had returned to St. Petersburg several days ago, but he had not been to Betskoi House to see me since his return. I knew a lot of his time would be taken up with imperial matters. He was now working with the Koldun to protect his father and the rest of the imperial family. I'd received several passionate letters from him during his stay in France, but what if his passion for me had cooled? Why hadn't he found the time to see me?
"The dissection table and I will be waiting," Dr. Badmaev said. "Do not forget your assignments."
"Of course not, Doctor." Hurrying through the herbal shop in front of his office, I gave a friendly wave to his housekeeper, Masha. It was a hot August day, much too hot for me to walk all the way to our house on Millionaya Street. I purchased a ride on one of the horse-drawn trams that sped through the city, knowing I would have to hop off shortly before reaching the Field of Mars. Maman would faint if she knew I mingled with the lower classes of St. Petersburg on such a regular basis. But I liked to sit on the tram and look at the faces of people, wondering who they were and where they were traveling. I tried to ignore the tangle of cold lights swirling over and around everyone on the cramped carriage.
An old, wrinkled babushka sat next to me holding a sleeping child. The child's cold light was stronger than the woman's; the child was closer to death than she. "Has the child been ill?" I asked.
"Da," the woman said sadly. "He refuses to eat or drink anything. His mother died last month from the same thing."
"Has he been seen by a doctor?" I asked.
"We cannot afford the doctor," the woman answered bitterly. "We still owe him for seeing my daughter. And he did nothing for her."
"Please go and see the Tibetan doctor on Betosky Prospekt," I said. "He will be able to tell you how to save your grandson. Without charge. Tell Dr. Badmaev to please send the bill to Duchess Oldenburg."
"Bless you, dear lady," the woman said, hugging her weak grandson to her chest.
We were fast approaching the Field of Mars, close to Betskoi House, so I pulled the string for the tram to slow down. The driver did not completely stop, so I had to jump. I landed awkwardly on the dusty street, then hurried home.
A Romanov carriage waited in our driveway. My heart danced for a moment, full of hope that it was George Alexandrovich. Racing past the footmen at our door, I hurried up the staircase into Maman's parlor, hoping to see the tsar's son. Instead, I found the leader of the St. Petersburg vampires, taking tea with my mother.
"Katerina Alexandrovna," Grand Duchess Militza said, her black eyes glittering, "I've been waiting for you, my dear."

CHAPTER TWO
I curtsied politely to the grand duchess, who was now my cousin by marriage. "Your Imperial Highness," I said. I had been under the assumption that the grand duchess was still in Montenegro visiting her family.
"Elena sends you her best wishes, cousin," Militza said. "And Danilo as well."
Would I never have any peace from the crown prince and his blood-drinking family? "I believed he was still in prison," I said coldly.
Her smile was brittle. "That was merely a misunderstanding," Militza said. "He is safe in Montenegro now with our parents."
"Isn't that wonderful, Katiya?" Maman asked. "Such a dear young man."
I did not think it was wonderful that Danilo was no longer imprisoned at the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. The crown prince and his faerie accomplice, Monsieur Sucre, had conspired against the members of the Order of St. John and the tsar's inner circle of mages. They had attempted a ritual to raise the lich tsar from the dead. I did not think even being a king's firstborn son would exonerate Danilo or convince our tsar to let him go free. I wondered what sort of diplomatic deal had been made.
The footman knocked on the door to tell Maman she was needed in the kitchen. "Of course," she said, standing hastily. "Please excuse me, both of you."
I had no desire to engage in further pleasantries with the blood drinker in Maman's parlor. "Why have you come, Militza?" I asked as soon as my mother was gone.
The grand duchess visibly relaxed. I'd grown used to my mother's new "gift," but as a striga, she made others around her extremely uncomfortable.
The effect she now had on other supernatural creatures was truly bizarre. When Maman entered a room, the cold light belonging to everyone else seemed to bend away from her. And the fact that strigas only drank the blood of other blood drinkers placed them at the top of the blood-drinker hierarchy. Every creature whose blood the striga tasted gave away a little bit of his or her power to her. Traditionally, the striga was the leader of a city's vampire population. And Militza was not inclined to give up her hard-won position willingly.
The grand duchess's black eyes narrowed. "I have come, actually, with a warning for you, necromancer. Konstantin is very close to returning. The wizards who seek his return also seek an artifact in Egypt. With this artifact, the lich tsar will be able to command a horde of supernatural warriors."
"And why would you tell me this?" I asked. There was no way I could ever trust the grand duchess.
"The fate of everyone you and I care for is at stake."
"You've come home just in time, Katiya!" Maman said, returning to the room before Militza could say any more. "Your cousin was about to show me the new deck of cards she found on her latest trip to Egypt!"
Militza had stiffened upon Maman's return, and her hands shook ever so slightly as she beckoned to me. "Do sit down, Katerina," the grand duchess said. "Let us discover your fortune." The grand duchess was sitting in Maman's favorite chair with a deck of tarot cards in her hand. She wore a very fashionable black walking gown that looked like it had come from Paris.
She also looked terribly warm. Militza was stubbornly trying to prove she was not afraid of St. Petersburg's new striga. Whether the striga noticed it or not.
"I have no desire to know what the cards say," I said.
"Oh, don't be silly," Maman said, pulling me toward the settee with her. "It's all great fun. And the cards are simply beautiful. Look at the artwork on the major arcana!"
I was not going to be allowed to escape the blood drinker's parlor game. I sat down next to Maman, folding my hands in my lap.
"Shall we begin?" Militza asked, shuffling her cards with the grace of an expert.
"I shall go first!" my mother said, leaning forward eagerly. Her jeweled fingers selected one of the cards from the deck in the grand duchess's outstretched hand. Turning it over, she turned toward me. "I dare not look."
"Maman, you know that Papa detests it when you dabble in the occult," I warned.
"But it's so very amusing," my mother said. "And your father knows it's harmless. Did the cards not save Petya from buying that lame horse last month? The cards do not lie."
"Indeed not," Militza said with a vicious smile. "You have selected the Empress card."
Maman's mouth gaped open most impolitely. "Her Imperial Majesty is coming to see me?"
I rolled my eyes, which was not a polite thing to do either. "You are going to see her at the charity luncheon tomorrow," I reminded Maman.
"Perhaps," Militza said. "Or perhaps the empress will have a request for you." She shuffled the card back into the deck and handed them to me. "Shuffle these in turn, my dear cousin. The deck needs to feel your energies to give you a proper read."
The artwork was indeed beautiful. Hand-painted drawings of swords, cups, wands, and coins with an Eastern influence. Byzantine.
I shuddered, wondering why Militza had chosen this deck. It reminded me of the cave nestled deep in the Crimea, where I'd learned how to travel to the Graylands. I handed the cards back to her.
"You must pick one, my dear," she said.
Sighing, I turned the top card over and laid it on the table. The Queen of Swords.
Militza's eyes lit up. "Secret hostility."
"Or not so secret," I said, my eyes meeting hers.
She laughed. "My dear Katerina. I am not your enemy. I believe you are in for a long journey."
"Mon Dieu," Maman said, gripping my wrist. "Not Zurich? I had hoped you'd given up that foolish notion."
Militza shook her head. "The cards do not say. But the Queen of Swords is leading your Katerina to a faraway land."
I patted my mother's hand and said quietly, "The tsar will not allow me to go to Zurich, Maman. Or anywhere else, for that matter." She had nothing to worry about.
"Perhaps not Zurich, my cousin," the grand duchess said, shuffling her deck once again. "But you will soon be traveling far from home. After all," she added with a wicked smile, "the cards do not lie."