"How about her age?' I pointed out. "The princes and princesses who run are always old.' The title of prince or princess went to a family's oldest member, and traditionally, that was the person who ran for king or queen. The family could decide to nominate someone else more fitting, but even then--to my knowledge--it was always someone older and experienced.
"The only age restriction is full adulthood,' said Victor. "She's eighteen. She qualifies. The other families have much larger pools to draw from, so naturally, they'd select someone who seemed more experienced. In the Dragomir case? Well, that's not an option, now is it? Besides, young monarchs aren't without precedence. There was a very famous queen--Alexandra--who wasn't much older than Vasilisa. Very well loved, very extraordinary. Her statue is by the Court's church.'
I shifted uncomfortably. "Actually ... it's, um, not there anymore. It kind of blew up.'
Victor just stared. He'd apparently heard about my escape but not all of the details.
"It's not important,' I said hastily, feeling guilty that I'd been indirectly responsible for blowing up a renowned queen. "This whole idea about using Lissa is ridiculous.'
"You won't be the only one who thinks so,' Victor said. "They'll argue. They'll fight. In the end, the law will prevail. They'll have to let her run. She'll go through the tests and probably pass. Then, when voting comes, the laws that govern those procedures reference a family member assisting with the vote.'
My head was spinning by now. I felt mentally exhausted listening to all these legal loopholes and technicalities.
"Just come right out and put it in simple language,' I ordered.
"When voting comes, she won't be eligible. She has no family to fulfill the role required at the actual election. In other words, the law says she can run and take the tests. Yet, people can't actually vote for her because she has no family.'
"That's ... idiotic.'
"Agreed.' He paused. I don't think either of us ever expected to concur on something.
"Lissa would hate this. She would never, ever want to be queen.'
"Are you not following this?' exclaimed Victor. "She won't be queen. She can't. It's a badly written law for a situation no one foresaw. It's a mess. And it will bog down the elections so badly that we'll have extra time to find Vasilisa's sibling and find out who really killed Tatiana.'
"Hey! I told you: There's no "we' here. I'm not going to--'
Victor and Robert exchanged looks.
"Get Vasilisa nominated,' said Victor abruptly. "We'll be in touch soon on where to meet you for the Dragomir search.' IT
"Thats not--'
I woke up.
My immediate reaction was to swear, but then, remembering where I was, I kept my expletives inside my own head. I could make out Dimitri's silhouette in the corner, alert and watchful, and didn't want him to know I was awake. Closing my eyes, I shifted into a more comfortable position, hoping for true sleep that would block out the Dashkov brothers and their ridiculous schemes. Lissa running for queen? It was crazy. And yet ... it really wasn't much crazier than most of the things I did.
Putting that aside, I let my body relax and felt the tug of true sleep start to take me down. Emphasis on start. Because suddenly, I felt another spirit dream materializing around me.
Apparently, this was going to be a busy night.
Chapter Eleven
I BRACED MYSELF, EXPECTING TO see the Dashkov brothers appear again with some last minute "advice.' Instead I saw--
"Adrian!'
I ran across the garden I'd appeared in and threw my arms around him. He hugged me back just as tightly and lifted me off the ground.
"Little dhampir,' he said, once he put me down again. His arms stayed around my waist. "I've missed you.'
"I've missed you too.' And I meant it. The last couple days and their bizarre events had completely unhinged my life, and being with him--even in a dream--was comforting. I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him, enjoying a small moment of warmth and peace as our lips met.
"Are you okay?' he asked when I broke away. "No one'll tell me much about you. Your old man says you're safe and that the Alchemist would let him know if anything went wrong.'
I didn't bother telling Adrian that that probably wasn't true, seeing as Abe didn't know we'd gone freelancing with some backwoods vampires.
"I'm fine,' I assured Adrian. "Mostly bored. We're holed up in this dive of a town. I don't think anyone will come looking for us. I don't think they'd want to.'
A look of relief spread over his handsome face, and it occurred to me just how worried he was. "I'm glad. Rose, you can't imagine what it's like. They aren't just questioning people who might have been involved. The guardians are making all sorts of plans to hunt you down. There's all this talk about "deadly force.''
"Well, they won't find me. I'm somewhere pretty remote.' Very remote.
"I wish I could have gone with you.'
He still looked concerned, and I pressed a finger to his lips. "No. Don't say that. You're better off where you are--and better not to be associated with me any more than you already are. Have you been questioned?'
"Yeah, they didn't get anything useful out of me. Too tight an alibi. They brought me in when I went to find Mikhail because we talked to--'
"I know. Joe.'
Adrian's surprise was brief. "Little dhampir, you've been spying.'
"It's hard not to.' "You know, as much as I like the idea of having someone always know when you're in trouble, I'm still kind of glad I don't have anyone bound to me. Not sure I'd want them looking in my head.'
"I don't think anyone would want to look in your head either. One person living Adrian Ivashkov's life is hard enough.' Amusement flickered in his eyes, but it faded when I switched back to business. "Anyway, yeah. I overheard Lissa's ... um, interrogation of Joe. That's serious stuff. What did Mikhail say? If Joe lied, that clears half the evidence against me.' It also theoretically killed Adrian's alibi.
"Well, not quite half. It would have been better if Joe said you were in your room during the murder instead of admitting he's a flake who doesn't remember anything. It also would have been better if he hadn't said all this under Lissa's compulsion. Mikhail can't report that.'
I sighed. Hanging out with spirit users, I'd started to take compulsion for granted. It was easy to forget that among Moroi, it was taboo, the kind of thing you'd get in serious trouble for. In fact, Lissa wouldn't just get in trouble for illicitly using it. She could also be accused of simply making Joe say whatever she wanted. Anything he said in my favor would be suspect. No one would believe it.