“Since when?” she asked.
The man’s discomfort was evident by his nonstop shuffle from foot to foot. “Since this morning. King Fydor said no entry without a pass until after day after tomorrow.”
“What happens day after tomorrow?”
“Well, uh, they’re evidently going to execute the leach and the other prisoners. All the surrounding villages know about it, so he didn’t want any escape attempts or interference.”
“A public execution?” she asked.
“Yes, my lady. Burned on the stake.”
Elena was amazed how unaffected Aleksi seemed by the news. “Does he plan to kill the elf?”
The Slayer nodded, clearly shaken. “Not so sure that’s a good idea, but yes.” His eyes narrowed as he studied Aleksandra. “How did you get past the upstairs guard? He wasn’t supposed to let anyone pass.”
“Claude, how long have you known me?”
“Centuries. Since you was a little girl.”
“And you knew my father.”
He crumpled his hat in his hands. “Yes, miss. Of course. King Ivan was a great man.”
“And you are really wondering how I got past the upstairs guard?”
His gaze flitted between Aleksi and Elena.
Aleksi’s voice was as smooth as honey. “Open the gate, Claude. We’re in a hurry.”
“I can’t, my lady. You need a pass or he’ll kill me, too.”
“Open it, Claude.”
“Oh, please, Lady Aleksandra. He’ll kill my wife and children.” He shook all over.
Elena’s anger flared hot in her chest at the suffering these people experienced at the hands of Fydor. Aleksi said all Slayers would recognize the mark of the Uniter. She hoped this guy was really a Slayer and was fed up enough with fear to react according to expectations. “I have a pass,” she said, untying the cloak from her neck.
The man’s eyes grew huge in the candlelight as he stared at her chest. The leather top she had borrowed from Aleksi was so low cut it left the entire mark exposed. The part about the baby was below her ribs and well concealed. She was pretty sure that Stefan was the only one in modern times who read the “old language,” but she didn’t want to run the risk.
“Ah, I…” He met her eyes and then stared at the mark again, then recited the opening of the prophecy in a slow monotone. “From the ashes of death, the Uniter shall rise.”
“Yeah, yeah. From the blood of a warrior, I awakened. Now open the freaking door so I can go dethrone a tyrant, will you? We’re running out of time.”
Aleksi took the key from his shaking hand when he produced it and unlocked the heavy wooden door. The stench of unwashed bodies was oppressive and made Elena’s nose burn.
The man followed them in, carrying a candle. In the dim, flickering light, she could make out cell after cell on either side of a wide hallway. The bars were too close together to get a hand through.
“How do they feed them?”
Aleksi laughed. “They are immortal. Why waste the money? They can’t starve.” She moved farther down the hallway.
“But they can suffer,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.
Aleksi spun to face her. “Don’t go soft on me now. I’m in way too far to back out without landing myself a starring role in that execution day after tomorrow, and I’d rather not go to that party, okay?”
“Were it not for me, Slayer, you’d still be chained to your bed, doing the backstroke in a pool of your own blood.”
“You have a point.” Aleksi stopped at the cell at the end. “Hello, Vlad, baby. You hungry?” It was too dark to see into the cell, but the low, rumbling chuckle that came from it made Elena’s hair stand on end.
She took the candle from the guard and moved closer to the cell. The circle of light crept across the floor until it lit a huge, red-eyed hulk of a man in tattered clothes. A gorgeous, red-eyed hulk of a man in tattered clothes.
He chuckled again.
The lack of light was maddening. “I wish we had a flashlight,” Elena grumbled. Her palm burned like crazy, so she waved it by her side and the entire room was enveloped in light.
“Shit, girl,” Aleksi said. “What else can you do?”
“I’ve got something she could do,” the vampire in the end cell said in his deep, rumbly voice.
Her palm was throwing off flecks of light like a sparkler. Certain it used too much energy, she willed it to dim, and it did.