“Send the next!”
He heard his own voice echoing in his memory as he walked across another field of mud, but something deep in Oleg’s chest had broken open as he watched the scattered shards of his empire gather and unite to fight behind him.
Ivan’s forces were numerous, well-armed, and they were supported by hidden archers in the forest—probably hired from the Bashkiri clan who had attacked Tatyana’s home—and they were working from an immediate advantage as none of the other mortal or immortal guests had been carrying large weapons to a chaugan game.
But Mika’s water vampires had joined Tatyana in raising the snow and ice across the field to blind their attackers.
His brother Lev’s people had melted into the forest to join Lidik and the Hazar. Minute by minute, the archers grew quiet.
Radu and Kezia mustered the Poshani—human and vampire—to guide defenseless guests away from the field.
Oleg might have been at the front of the fight, but he was no longer alone, standing in a muddy courtyard, surrounded by those who either feared or hated him.
He was the knyaz of the Kievan Rus, mated to the terrin of the Poshani people, backed by a druzhina that would die for him and defending a woman who would kill for him.
Oleg saw his brother Rudov as he stalked toward the far side of the field.
Rudov shouted, “Oleg!”
Oleg halted, staring at his brother, wondering if Rudov shared the same ambition as Ivan. Some of Rudov’s men hadbrought arms to this game. Some of them had plotted with the Muscovites.
His brother’s clan was headstrong, independent, and inscrutable.
Just like their sire.
Oleg stared him down. “You will challenge me, brother?”
Rudov kept his gaze locked on Oleg’s and slowly shook his head. “No, Knyaz.”
“Where is he?”
Rudov pointed to Oleg’s right. “Running away, of course.”
Oleg fell into a snowbank, dousing his fire before he leaped on the back of the horse Rudov held out to him.
He heard Tatyana shout his name in the sudden and profound darkness, but he blocked out the desire to go to his mate.
He wanted Tatyana.
Heneededto catch Ivan. He could not let his brother flee and hide.
Ivan must die, and it must be public.
The sturdy horse surged over the snowy field, and Oleg bent over his neck, the ice and snow cutting this shoulders as he pursued the faint outline he could see riding away through the snowstorm.
You send your children to fight your battles, Ivan? You truly are our father’s son.
But Oleg saw a dark mass of wind vampires gather in the distance, hovering over Ivan’s path like a flock of carrion crows, blocking his exit into the forest.
Oleg smiled.
Ivan turned his horse to the right, cutting through a narrow stand of fir trees to hide his path from the Hazar. Luckily, Oleg knew Rudov’s estate as well as Ivan did.
He leaped over a fallen tree and a frozen stream as he cut across rough country, thankful for the steady mount underneath him. Within minutes he had Ivan in sight again, and this time the vampire was heading straight into a line of Juliya’s people, their red-and-green coats singed and stained with blood.
Ivan turned again, but Lidik’s people were fast to block his escape.
The betrayer turned again, but in each direction he met a company of vampires either loyal to Oleg or wearing the furious expressions of the Poshani.
