“Foreign devils!” cried Bishop Sergius. He was standing on the driver’s box of the sleigh and holding a flaming torch aloft. “The Almighty will smite you dead for threatening Mother Russia.”
Confused shouts rose behind the bishop as men clambered down from the sleighs behind him and gathered along the frozen river’s edge to stare at the two glowing points of fire on the ice.
Prescott repeated the warning in Russian.
“Be damned with you!” cried Bishop Sergius. With a wave of his torch, he ordered his driver forward.
“Time for us to go,” counseled Fitzroy after a check of the burning fuses. He rose. “Quickly.”
The three men ran back to the waiting sleigh. José had angled it and the tired horses in readiness for a last mad dash if the plan failed.
Arianna caught Saybrook in a quick hug, but couldn’t take her eyes off the grenades. Pale plumes of smoke skirled upward, the hissing and crackling grower louder and louder. Red-gold sparks spun through the air, dotting the darkness with a lethal beauty.
“Onward, onward!” roared the bishop, turning for a moment to exhort his uncertain followers. “It is the will of God!”
An instant later, a deafening explosion punctuated his words, followed by a blinding flash . . .
And then nothing.
Bishop Sergius raised his arms in triumph as his driver struggled to calm the frightened horses.
“Damnation,” murmured Wolff with a resigned shrug. “Not to be critical, Fitz, but maybe you should have brought a third grenade.”
Fitzroy merely gave a tight-lipped smile, his gaze on the wisps of vapor floating above the dark hole in the ice.
A deep rumble sounded, as if some sleeping bear had just been awoken. And then snow around the hole began to shift and crack.
The lantern light on the other side of the river tangled in criss-crossing beams as the monks lining the bank shrank back in fear.
“Onward!” repeated the bishop, his voice rising to a high-pitched shriek. “Destroy the heathens!”
As his sleigh lurched, the driver and the monks in the rear seats scrambled down and fled for safety, several of them swallowed by the black water as the ice shattered beneath their boots.
Flinging aside his torch, Bishop Sergius gathered the reins and whipped at the horses to continue on. Iron-shod hooves clattered a frightened tattoo on the unstable ice. The team shied away from the yawning hole, their panicked whinnies clashing with the bishop’s recitation of a holy prayer.
“Ye gods,” said Mrs. Schuyler as the back end of the sleigh suddenly dipped beneath surface ice. It tipped, throwing the bishop to his knees, and slid deeper into the water.
Tatiana covered her eyes and buried her head in the folds of Prescott’s overcoat.
Relentless, Bishop Sergius jumped from his perch as the sleigh disappeared into the roiling water. Drawing a pistol from his sash, he kept coming, slipping and sliding on the fast-cracking ice.
Grentham released a sigh. “Fanatics,” was all that he muttered, turning away a moment after the bishop was swallowed by the black water.
Saybrook clapped a hand on Fitzroy’s shoulder, and the others murmured their muted thanks for saving their skins.
“Death is always a sobering sight, even when it saves innocent lives,” said Fitzroy, staring at the spot where the bishop had just been standing. “Unlike Bishop Sergius, I don’t think any mortal has the right to act as God on Earth.”
“Evil can’t be left unchecked,” said the earl. “You gave him fair warning.”
Arianna took her brother’s arm started for their sleigh. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use a cup of hot chocolate—well-laced with brandy.”
Chapter23
A flutterof soft light drew Arianna out of a deep sleep. She stirred under the covers, her hand touching the reassuring warmth of Saybrook’s shoulder.
“Hmm, what time is it?” he asked in a sleep-roughened whisper. “No, on second thought, don’t tell me.” Drawing her closer, he added, “I think we’ve earned the right to slumber for at least another two days.”
It had been well into the wee hours of the morning before they had arrived back at their townhouse—and still later by the time they had unfrozen with hot drinks and glasses of fiery spirits. Arianna had insisted that everyone remain at the townhouse until the last part of the mission had been completed.
