Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

Fifty-two: Nikolai Lantsov

Fifty-two:

Nikolai Lantsov

Nikolai wasn't used to meeting people in cafes. They were fairly ordinary places compared to where he usually was, in the halls of palaces or on the decks of ships or in the backs of sleek, expensive town cars. But this was where The Tracker had wanted to meet. Nikolai had to remind himself that he wasn't The Tracker. Not really. No, Mal and Alina were still back in his time. Still blissfully happy. The last time he had checked on them, Alina had finally been sleeping easier. She said that The Fold's pain was still there, but it seemed to have lessened, and the ticking of the clock (whatever that meant) was going slowly.

The problem was the duplicates. The reincarnations. Whatever you wanted to call it. It didn't matter what time Alina and The Darkling were placed in, Mal showed up too. Which, if the purposes of all the time travel wasn't to get rid of The Darkling's broken heart, would have been fine. Time would have marched on as normal for the two of them. But Nikolai couldn't let time march on as it had for the two of them.

Mal was here in this time too. He knew their history. They had never been together. Nikolai had seen to that by keeping Alina close but never close enough that she would take him too seriously. Even when he had encouraged the idea of the 'engagement' it had only been to put her in the path of The Darkling. How else was he supposed to put her in his path when she was only eighteen years-old and just out of the school room?

Mal sat at a table in the café by the window. Nikolai walked inside. The café was in the same neighborhood that The Darkling's residence was. "So," said Mal when Nikolai walked over to him, "I hear that they are coming back to Os Alta. I also hear that she's pregnant."

Nikolai heaved a sigh, attempting to act wounded. To this Mal, he was still the rejected fiancé. The Prince that didn't get his happy ending. "Yes," he said, "I didn't think it would happen so soon, I must confess.... I thought that I would have more time to get her back."

"Have you seen her?" Mal asked. "Alina?"

Nikolai shook his head. "No. But there's been some talk, and my father isn't particularly pleased. There was some kind of attack at The Darkling---"

"Sorry?" Mal said, furrowing his brows together.

"Sorry," said Nikolai, "at the General's country estate. Both him and Alina were shot by Fjerdian soldiers. We have no idea how they managed to get there or why they decided to target the General. Alina, we suspect was just a victim because she happened to be there. The General came to me and he is out for blood. He wants those soldiers that tried to kill him and Alina dead."

"That's understandable," said Mal, "Alina's really alright?"

"She's really alright," said Nikolai, "but I talked with Morozova today. He says that she's not sleeping because of everything that happened with them. He's worried about it putting stress on her and the baby, and he says that neither of them are going to rest until those soldiers are dead. Alina.... well.... Alina wrote me a letter, asking for help finding them. But she doesn't trust anyone to find them. She wants you to do it even though she knows that you are retired from your service. She doesn't trust anyone except for you to do it."

Mal heaved a sigh. "She really asked for me to find them?"

"Well yes, Oretsev," said Nikolai, "we all know that you're her best friend. You were the reason that the two of us could never truly get together. She was always looking at you when I wanted her to be looking at me. I think, if it hadn't been for The Dar---I mean, if it hadn't been for Morozova interfering with my engagement, you two probably would have ended up together."

Mal scowled at him. "You're trying to pacify me, aren't you?" he said. "Lantsov, I went to school with you. I know your bullshit. I was there the day that you conned the two soldiers we nearly got into a fight with on our Spring Break in Ketterdam into not fighting us and took their watches for fun too. You don't have to spin me some fake love story. Alina and I, if we had a shot, we missed it. That's fine. She's one of my best friends. She always will be. If Alina is worried about these men, I'll go after them for her."

"It means active duty again," Nikolai reminded him.

"Temporary, right?" he said. "Just as long as the mission."

"Just as long as the mission," said Nikolai, "once it's over, you won't have to worry about holding a gun again."

Mal nodded. "It's for Alina. She's one of my oldest and dearest friends. If it means I get to keep her safe, and her child, I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. I'll go on the mission. Protecting her is what I was hired to do anyway, even if I'm doing it in another country."