✧ ♥ ✧

Aleksander's office was cold and dark. While he put his book burden down on his desk, Katya lit the candles and summoned a fire in the hearth. Soon a reddish, flickering light illuminated the room and a pleasant warmth began to spread.

Katya joined the general by the desk. "Ah, more reading," she said unenthusiastically. By now, she was rather tired of it.

"It's for your benefit," he reminded her. "You need all the amplifiers you can get to become strong enough for sun summoning."

"I know, I know. But why can't we search for the ones you already know about? The sea whip, I think you said, and the firebird, and..."

"...the stag," he filled in. "I honestly don't know if any of them really are amplifiers, or if they even exist. As you've seen in the library, what's left of my grandfather's notes are sketchy at best. That's why I need to find out all I can before I enter on a potentially futile mission."

"Right. Let's get to it then." Katya picked up the top volume, a massive, heavy tome that she hardly managed to lift. She brushed off the dust and cobwebs before opening it. "It's a book about the Saints," she said, surprised over the choice. "Did they know about amplifiers?"

"One did: Ilya Morozova – my grandfather."

"Sankt Ilya in Chains?" Katya gasped. "I had no idea it was him you spoke of." As usual it felt a bit surreal whenever she was reminded of her lover's immense age.

"Ilya was very interested in creating amplifiers. He did extensive research, but most of his writing was burned after the villagers killed him." He paused. "I'm not sure how well you know the legends, but the villagers were wrong. They called his work merzost, an abomination, though he did nothing bad. On the contrary, he was helpful – a healer, one who created life. His power scared them."

"Just like the villagers today are scared of Grisha." Katya thought with bitterness of her former home.

"Yes." He gave her a sympathetic look.

"Talking of villagers – I discovered something today. About my ancestors." Katya told him what she had read earlier, and how Luda and she apparently were related.

Aleksander nodded slowly, and a frown maimed his handsome face. "I suspected as much. Your village – she lived on an estate not far from there." He cupped Katya's cheek, turning her face against the light. "As I've gotten to know you better, the likeness is less prominent. You look like you. I hope you don't think I'm using you as a substitute for a long dead girl."

"Of course not. I suppose the grief would fade after a few hundred years or so." She grinned. Then a thought struck her. "Were there others? After Luda, I mean. Were you ever married?" She still hardly knew anything about this man.

He broke eye-contact. "I've never been married."

Katya didn't press him. From his evasive reply she was certain there had been other lovers. No wonder; Aleksander was a handsome man, and one with power. He would not have lacked willing women to choose between.

Feeling a twinge of jealousy, she wondered who they were and what they had looked like. Beautiful, probably, with amazing bodies and great skin.

Aleksander unexpectedly pulled her close and gave her a demanding kiss that made her forget what she was thinking of. When he let her go, she was not a little breathless.

"I am with you now," he said. "Only you."

"How am I supposed to focus on books when you kiss me like that?" She licked her swollen lip.

"How am I supposed to resist kissing you when you look that sexy?" He took her in his arms and claimed her lips again with such fervor Katya had to take a step backwards. Soon she was pressed flush against the wall.

After a long time he reluctantly pulled back. "We should get back to work, I suppose," he said huskily.

"Or we could be quick about it, and then work," Katya suggested.

Aleksander groaned. "Temptress!"

"Sorry."

"It's you who'll be sorry if I take you against the wall like a brute animal."

"Sounds hot. Do it." She tried to undo the button on his pants.

He chuckled throatily. "Do you know what an amazing woman you are, Katya?"

"I do my best." She grinned.

In a smooth motion he shrugged off his pants, and helped her do the same. Grabbing her thighs, he lifted her from the floor with ease, as if she weighed nothing.

Katya wrapped her legs around him and bit her lip to hold back a cry of pleasure when their bodies became one.

✧ ♥ ✧

Somewhat flushed and shaky, but very satisfied, they went to work a while later. Picking a book each from the stack, they brought them over to the fireplace where two comfortable armchairs stood close enough to make best use of the light and warmth.

Soon a pleasant silence fell over the couple, only broken by the crackle of the fire and the occasional whisper of a turned page.

Katya had chosen the Saints book, and started with the chapter about Sankt Ilya in Chains, of course. Sadly she could not find much there; the author didn't even mention amplifiers. All he wrote was that the man had been a healer, and a user of forbidden magic. When his oldest daughter killed the younger one, Ilya used merzost to bring her back to life, and that was why the villagers put them in chains and threw them into the river.

The part about the elder daughter was news to Katya. It was interesting – that must mean Aleksander's mother had been a murderer. Did he know?

Probably. Either way, she didn't really want to bring up such a sad topic. His mother must be long dead by now anyway.

Returning to the beginning of the book, Katya went through the other chapters. By now she was becoming a bit drowsy, and she stifled a yawn. Though all the Saints had had interesting lives and tragic deaths, it was a less exciting read than one might expect. There were separate authors for each chapter, so they were very different; some exceptionally tedious, with lots of uninteresting details, others too short, little more than brief summaries.

Thankfully some chapters were not too bad, and one was even a bit funny – the part where Sankta Lizabeta's bees attacked a group of soldiers coming to molest her. The justice in that men who had done such ugly deeds got stung everywhere – in the private parts, too – made Katya chuckle quietly.

But then she came to the dullest part of the book; a lengthy chapter about the life of Sankt Mattheus. He had been a monk who saved a village from a ferocious wolf by feeding her and caring for her, and later for her pups, thus creating the first tame dogs. It could have been exciting and dramatic, with lots of gory descriptions of terror and bloody killings, and the fear Mattheus must have felt when he went to see the wolf for the first time. But the author of the chapter only briefly mentioned those events, and instead went on in tedious detail about everything that happened afterwards.

Who cared what the butcher's name was, whom Mattheus bought the pork from that he fed his wolves? And was it necessary to describe the color, pattern and name of each pup, and their mates, and drawing complex family trees for each?

It was a mystery how the author had even found out about those things, but a quick check of the appendix explained that at least. He was a descendant of Mattheus, and had inherited the Saint's old journals.

Katya sighed and returned to the chapter. Now came a list of Mattheus' customers; peasants mostly, who bought pups from him to use as guard dogs and other work.

"...and then Yulia Netski bought Blacky, a dark gray pup with a crooked tail, to guard her shop." How interesting. "From the same litter, old farmer Molotov bought Baryshnya, a bitch of a golden hue, strong and sturdy. He intended to use her for hunting, and trained her to track game. But before she left Sankt Mattheus' stalls, she had a litter by the sire Lev. Lev was black, an unusual color for wolves at that time, and the result of a cross between two lines, with Ursus as sire, whose mother was..."

Katya yawned and skipped a few lines.

"Mattheus kept most of Baryshnya's pups to continue breeding on that black trait, except for the smallest, a bitch named Laika. Laika was bought by the inventor Ilya, who–"

What, now? Ilya?

Immediately roused, she sat up straighter. Ilya was not an uncommon name, of course, but still... It could be Aleksander's grandfather.

She continued reading the passage, more carefully now. Apparently the inventor Ilya had bought Laika for company and to guard his house, but she had run away, and when he applied for a new dog Mattheus had found his behavior so strange that he refused to sell another. Sankt Mattheus suspected Ilya had done some cruel experiments on the wolf.

Experiments? Such as... turning her into an amplifier?

"What do you make of this?" Katya asked. Then she smiled. "You sleep," she murmured fondly.

Aleksander was holding his book in limp hands, and his head had fallen to the side. His eyes were closed, and framed by long, black lashes. He was so beautiful it almost hurt.

Careful not to wake him, Katya reached out to push back a strand of his dark hair. "We can read about Ilya's wolf tomorrow," she whispered.

His lashes fluttered and he opened his eyes, awake in an instant. "Wolf? Ilya really did have a wolf?" He grabbed the heavy book. "I thought that was just rumors. People make up all sorts of things about the Saints, and Mother said he didn't have one. Where did you read that?"

A bit surprised, Katya showed him the passage.

"Yes... Yes," he murmured. "This must have happened way before my mother was born, so unless he told her, she wouldn't know about it. It makes sense. And it says here the wolf ran away. This was exactly what happened to the stag." He looked up, his cheeks pink with excitement. "We're on to something.  I think Laika could be an amplifier too!"

A/N:

Thanks to the reader BeyzaTanriverdi (BeyzaTanriverdi) for suggesting a wolf as the new amplifier!

Soon they will start trying to track it down. Stay tuned!

Image credits:

Illustration of Sankt Mattheus, from The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo