Immanuel's Veins Read Free Page A

Or would you rather slip out at night and slit a few evil throats so you can feel like a man?”
    He shrugged. “Honestly, the former sounds more appealing.” His gloved finger stabbed skyward. “But I know my duty and would die by your side fulfilling it.” He lowered his hand. “Still, as God is my witness, I will not tolerate a month of picking my teeth with straw while the rest of the world fights for glory and chases skirts.”
    â€œDon’t be a fool, man. Boredom could not catch you if it chased you like a wolf. We’ll establish a simple protocol to limit all access to the estate, post the sentries, and mind the women—I understand that the father will be gone most of the time. As long as our duties are in no way compromised, I will not stand in the way of your courting. But as you say, they may be fat poodles.”
    A sound came from behind us. “Who has business with the Cantemirs? Eh?”
    I spun to the soft, gravelly voice. An old shriveled man stood there, grasping a tall cane with both hands. His eyes were slits, his face was wrinkled like a dried-out prune, and his long stringy gray hair was so thin that a good wind would surely leave him bald. I wasn’t sure he could actually see through those black cracks below his brow.
    Alek humphed and deferred to me. How had this ancient man walked up on us without a sound? He was gumming his lips, toothless. Silent.
    I held my hand up to Alek and drew my pale mount about to face the man. “Who asks?”
    A bird flew in from the west, a large black crow. As I watched, somewhat stunned, it alighted on the old man’s shoulder, steadied itself with a single flap of its wings, and came to rest. The man didn’t react, not even when the crow’s thick wing slapped his ear.
    â€œI don’t have a name,” the old man said. “You may call me an angel if you like.”
    Alek chuckled, but I was sure it was a nervous reaction without a lick of humor.
    â€œWho inquires of the Cantemir estate?” he asked again.
    â€œToma Nicolescu, in the service of Her Majesty, the empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, who now rules Moldavia. And if you are an angel, then you may vanish as all angels vanish, into the air of superstition.”
    â€œToma?” the old man croaked.
    â€œWhat business do you have with this estate?”
    â€œEh, that is you? Toma Nicolescu?”
    His demeanor now bothered me more than I cared to admit. Was this my elder, whom I should honor, or a wandering lunatic?
    â€œWatch your tongue, old man,” Alek snapped.
    The crow cocked its head and lined up one of its beady eyes for a hard look at Alek; the old man did the same.
    â€œEh? Is that you too, Toma?”
    Alek’s brow furrowed. “Stop playing the buffoon. And get rid of that cursed bird.”
    â€œState your business, old man,” I demanded.
    He lifted a bony, scarcely fleshed hand and pointed to the west. “There is evil in the wind. Beware, Toma. Beware the evil.”
    â€œDon’t be a loon . . .”
    I held up my hand to stop Alek, interested in the oddity before us, this ancient blind prune and his all-seeing crow.
    â€œWhat makes you think there is evil to beware?” I asked.
    â€œEh? The crow saw it.”
    â€œThe crow told you that, did he? And does your crow speak as well?” Alek’s voice wrung mockery from each word.
    Lightning stabbed at the plains in the east. I hadn’t noticed the clouds on the horizon until now. A muted peal of thunder growled at us, as if in warning I thought, and I wasn’t given to superstition. The devil wasn’t my enemy and God wasn’t my friend. Nothing I’d experienced in my twenty-eight years had moved me to believe in either.
    The old wizard with his crow was staring at me through slits, silent. I wanted to know why the man seemed to sense the threat— it was my job to know. So I dismounted, walked up to him,