Immanuel's Veins Read Free Page B

and dipped my head, an easy thing to do considering his age, for I had always been given to respecting the aged.
    The black bird was only three feet from me, jerking its head for a better look, sizing me up, deciding whether he should pluck my eyes out.
    I spoke kindly, in a low voice. “Please, if you feel it wise, tell me why your crow would warn us of evil.”
    He smiled a toothless grin, all gums and lips. “This is Peter the Great. I can’t see so well, but they tell me he’s a magnificent bird. I think he likes me.”
    â€œI would say he looks like a devil. So why would a devil tell an angel that evil is near?”
    â€œI’m not the devil, Toma Nicolescu. He is far more beautiful than I.”
    I was sure I could hear Alek snickering, and I had half a mind to shut him up with a glare.
    â€œAnd who is this beautiful devil?”
    â€œA man with a voice like honey who flies through the night.” The old man removed his right hand from the staff and used it like a wing. “But God was the one who told me to tell Toma Nicolescu that evil is in contest with you. He said you would come here, to the Brasca Pass. I’ve been waiting for three days, and I do think one more day might have claimed my life.”
    â€œSo the crow saw it, and then God told you, his angel, to warn us,” Alek scoffed. “How is that possible when we didn’t even know which route we would take until yesterday?”
    â€œPerhaps God can read your minds.”
    â€œ Our minds didn’t even know!”
    â€œBut God did. And here you are. And now I have done my thing and can live a little longer with my crow. I should go now.” He started to turn.
    â€œPlease, kind sir.” I put my hand on his. “Our mission is only to protect the estate. Is there anything else you can tell us? I don’t see how a warning of evil given by a crow is much use to us.”
    The man’s gentle face slowly sagged and became a picture of foreboding. “I can hardly advise you, who thinks the devil is only hot air, now can I?”
    I was surprised that the old man knew this about me. But it could as easily have been a lucky guess.
    â€œAs for your oversexed friend, you may tell him that this valley will certainly exhaust his feral impulses. I suspect that you are both in for a rather stimulating time. Now, I must be going. I have a long way to travel and the night is coming fast.”
    With that he turned and walked away, a slow shuffle that made me wonder how he expected to reach the path, much less the nearest town, Crysk, a full ten miles south.

TWO
    L ucine and Natasha stood on the balcony above the courtyard under a full rising moon, watching the guests who had gathered for this Summer Ball of Delights, as Mother had called it. The name tempted scandal by itself.
    â€œThe man in the black coat, there,” Natasha said, pointing to a crowd of seven or eight by the fountain that led into the hedge garden.
    Lucine saw him now, one of the Russian aristocrats from the Castle Castile. A group of five had come to the ball and shown themselves for the first time since the castle had come under new ownership three months earlier.
    â€œI see him. What of it?”
    â€œWhat of it?” Natasha cried. “He’s magnificent.”
    Perhaps. Yes, in a way he was, Lucine thought. “A magnificent monster,” she said.
    Natasha’s eyes flashed with mystery. “Then give me a monster.” She wore a red silk gown draped over a slight petticoat, white lace whispering around her slippers and wrists. A trim of black satin graced her chest, low enough to provoke curiosity without revealing too much. Her blonde curls flowed over her pale shoulders—positively glowing under the bright moon.
    Lucine’s twin was a goddess, night or day. The kind of goddess any monster would gladly consume.
    â€œJust watch yourself, Sister. We don’t know them.”
    There was no