The Ring of the Queen (The Lost Tsar Trilogy Book 1) Page 14

  Part XII

  "A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."

  - Eleanor Roosevelt

  I didn’t wait around for anyone to say anything else. Everything that I had just heard was ridiculous. The one thing that I learned on my own was that all the Tsars were dead. Nicholas II was executed along with his entire family in 1918 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. In the 1990s they had found their remains and had them moved to St. Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg and they were laid to rest with the rest of the Tsars. That was easy history. That was the part where the Soviets took over and that was where most of my grandma’s talk had started. I could not be a Romanov.

  I walked outside to make my way back to our dorm room, and found that all the lights were on, it was snowing, and it was nearly dark. It was only 3 pm. January in Russia. I’d heard about the dark and the snow. I ran all the way to the dorm and made my way to our room. I hurried in and shut the door and locked it behind me.

  I grabbed the satellite phone that my mother had made me bring and dialed. She answered on the first ring. “Hello, honey. I’m so glad you called,” she said. “How are you doing? Is everything all right? No one has tried to hurt you have they? Because if you’ve had any trouble, I’m going to make Dr. Al do something.”

  All of a sudden, I was certain that she knew nothing about all of this. She couldn’t. She was worried about muggers and stuff. She couldn’t know anything about this ridiculousness that was the stories that I was hearing about the ring that I was wearing on my finger. Moms don’t keep things from you like that you’re a Tsar. Why had I even called? She was going to ask a thousand questions and run the battery down on the phone.

  “Stacie, are you still there?” she asked after I hadn’t spoken for a while.

  “Sorry, mom. I was thinking. What were you saying?”

  “I was wondering how your trip was going. Did you start your class?”

  “I started it today. I just got back to my room.”

  “How was it?”

  “It was a little weird.”

  “What do you mean by weird?”

  “I saw a picture of Catherine the Great in my textbook. It was a little weird.”

  “What was weird?”

  “She had on a ring that looked exactly like the one that grandma gave me.”

  There was a pause. There was a definite pause. I wondered why. Why would there be a pause because I mentioned the ring?

  “Isn’t that interesting,” she finally said.

  “That’s not all,” I replied.

  “Really.”

  “My professor, Dr. Zemecki, says that there’s a legend about the ring.”

  “Why don’t you just come home. You can book a flight and come on home. You don’t need to be dealing with wild stories and things like that. I told you this was a bad idea. Russia is not a good place to visit.”

  “What the hell is it about this damn ring? Dr. Zemecki took one look at it and said, ‘The stories are true.’ What the hell is up with that?”

  “What do you mean ‘he took one look at it?’ You don’t have that ring with you, do you? I told you to leave it at home.”

  “Well, it’s too late to argue about it now. I brought the ring. I wanted to check out where it came from.”

  “Stacie, I know that I’m overprotective, but you need to come home right now. You never should have taken that ring to Russia. You showed it to your teacher, so now he knows you have it. I can’t explain everything right now, but you are in danger. Please, come home right now before anything else happens.”

  “What are you trying to say? Why would I be in danger?”

  There was a knock at the door. I ignored my mom for a moment to answer it. It was Adji the Resident Assistant in my dorm.

  “Hi, Stacie. Sorry to bother you, but I received a call from the office of the President. He is on his way over here to meet you, so don’t take off.”

  “Why would the president of the school want to meet me?” I asked her.

  “Not the President of the school. The President. President Kostov.”

  “Hang on just a second,” I said to Adji. I spoke into the phone to my mom. “Why would the President of Russia want to meet me?” I asked her.

  “Stacie, get out of there now!” my mom yelled.

  “Why? I want to know why,” I said to my mom.

  “I never wanted you to know,” she said, starting to cry.

  “Are the legends true?” I asked. I couldn’t believe that the words were actually coming out of my mouth. “Is that ring crap real?”

  “Stacie, you’re in a lot of danger,” mom said. “You are the person that isn’t supposed to exist. Now that your dad and Alex are gone, you are the next in line.”

  Tania and Dr. Zemecki came into the room. Adji was still all excited about the President coming.

  “Can you believe that President Kostov is coming here to meet Stacie? I didn’t know she was famous or anything,” Adji said.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Dr. Zemecki said to Adji.

  “No, someone from his office called and said that he’s on his way over here. He wants to meet Stacie,” Adji replied.

  Dr. Zemecki looked at me. “It’s true. Is that your mom on the phone? What does she have to say about all this?”

  “Stacie who is that talking?” mom asked. “Don’t tell him anything. Grab your things and get out of there! The President is on his way to see you, because he needs to get rid of you. You are the last. If he can get rid of you, or get that ring then the direct line of the Romanovs ceases to exist forever.”

  “Stacie, are you all right?” Tania asked.

  I felt a little weak and dizzy. “It’s true,” I said to her and Dr. Zemecki.

  “Stacie, don’t say a word!” my mom screamed on the phone. “Come home now! Get out of there before it’s too late!”

  I couldn’t talk to her anymore. I switched off the phone and almost fell onto the bed.

  “Now what do I do?” I asked everyone.

  “I’m no authority on the subject, but I have heard the stories,” Dr. Zemecki said. “I know a whole lot of people who believed the legends and want a Tsar back in power here. There are organizations that are looking for the last Romanov. There are groups looking for the owner of that ring. I can’t believe it’s all real. Some of my best friends are believers. I like them, but I always thought that they were nuts.”

  “That’s nice, Dr. Steve,” Tania said. “Here’s the thing. Apparently, the President of the country is coming here. I would guess that he’s heard the stories too. I’m guessing that he knows who she is, because he has really good intel. I’m no expert either, but several members of her family just ended up dead last year. You don’t suppose that there’s a connection there do you?”

  “What?” I exclaimed. “I never thought of that! Oh shit! This guy wouldn’t kill me, would he? He’s the President!”

  “If the stuff I’ve read is true, you wouldn’t be the first person he’d had killed,” Tania replied.

  “Dr. Zemecki, what’s going on?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know, but I think that Tania has a point,” he said. “I think that we need to get you out of here. The idea that the President wants to meet the girl who apparently is the legal ruler of his country is a little unsettling. The idea that you’ve been here one day and he knows who you are and where to find you is frightening. Grab your things and let’s go. It won’t take him long to get here from his office. It’s not far.”

  I started to pack my things quickly. Tania started to pack too.

  “What are you doing?” I asked her.

  “I’m going with you,” she replied.

  “Why would you go with us?” Dr. Zemecki asked.

  “I’m a moron,” Tania replied. “I’m stupid and foolish and I just can’t stay here when my f
riend might be in trouble. Now, let’s stop talking about it and get the hell out of here.”

  “Tania, I’m responsible for your safety,” Dr. Zemecki objected.

  “Then don’t let anything happen to me,” Tania snapped.

  Tania and I each packed a backpack with basic essential items in them and we followed Dr. Zemecki out the door. Adji had gone to the desk to wait for the President. She would have to tell him that we hadn’t been there in the first place and would have to hope that the President of Russia believed her.

  We said good bye to Adji and thanked her for helping us. We put on hats and gloves and headed out into the dark in the snow and the cold. As we walked through the door, I looked up and saw a line of black cars pulling up to the front of the building. I turned and ducked inside. Tania and Dr. Zemecki followed me.

  “Back door,” Dr. Zemecki said to Adji.

  “Down the hall, left at the end,” she replied.

  We started down the hall toward the back exit.

  “Hey, what about our passports?” Tania asked.

  “No time for that now,” Dr. Zemecki said. “We’ll worry about that later.” He looked at me. “You have the ring on you, right?”

  “Yes,” I replied.

  I had a few belongings, a satellite phone, the ring, and the clothes on my back. I followed Dr. Zemecki and Tania out the back of the dorm and into the night of snow and cold. That was not how I imagined my first trip to Russia.

  The Ring of the Queen