"She is, but since it's summer, they brought her back to help with election crowd control. She's working the front gates.'
Lissa and Christian exchanged looks. "We have to talk to her,' said Lissa excitedly. "She might have known who Grant was secretly teaching.'
"That doesn't mean one of them killed Tatiana,' warned my mother.
Lissa nodded. "No, but there's a connection, if Ambrose's letter is right. She's there now? At the gates?'
"Yup,' said Adrian. "And we probably don't even need to buy her a drink.'
"Then let's go.' Lissa stood and reached for her shoes.
"Are you sure?' asked Christian. "You know what's waiting out there.'
Lissa hesitated. It was late at "night' for Moroi, but that didn't mean everyone was in bed--especially at the gates, which was always jam-packed with people lately. Clearing my name was too important, Lissa decided. "Yeah. Let's do it.'
With my mother leading the way, my friends made their way to the Court's entrance. (The "door' that Abe had made had been patched up.) The Court was surrounded in high, multicolored stone walls that helped further the human image that this was actually an elite school. Wrought iron gates at the entrance stood open, but a group of guardians blocked the road leading into Court grounds. Normally, only two guardians would have manned the booth at the gate. The extra numbers were both for greater interrogation of cars and for crowd control. Spectators lined the road's sides, watching the arriving cars as though they were at a red carpet premiere. Janine knew a roundabout way that avoided some people--but not all.
"Don't cringe,' Christian told Lissa as they passed a particularly vocal group, which had noticed her. "You're a queenly nominee. Act like it. You deserve this. You're the last Dragomir. A daughter of royalty.'
Lissa gave him a brief, astonished look, surprised to hear the fierceness in his voice-- and that he clearly believed his words. Straightening up, she turned toward her fans, smiling and waving back, which excited them that much more. Take this seriously, she reminded herself. Don't disgrace our history.
In the end, getting through the crowd to the gate proved easier than getting time alone with Serena. The guardians were swamped and insisted on keeping Serena for screening, but my mom had a quick conversation with the guardian in charge. She reminded him of Lissa's importance and offered to stand in for Serena for a few minutes. Serena had long since healed from the Strigoi attack. She was my age, blond-haired and pretty. She was clearly surprised to see her former charge. "Princess,' she said, maintaining formalities. "How can I help you?'
Lissa pulled Serena away from the cluster of guardians speaking to the Moroi drivers lined up at the gate. "You can call me Lissa. You know that. You taught me to stab pillows, after all.'
Serena gave her a small smile. "Things have changed. You might be our next queen.'
Lissa grimaced. "Unlikely.' Especially since I have no clue how to solve that riddle, she thought. "But I do need your help. You and Grant spent a lot of time together ... did he ever mention training Moroi for Tatiana? Like, secret combat sessions?'
Serena's face gave the answer away, and she averted her eyes. "I'm not supposed to talk about that. He wasn't even supposed to tell me.'
Lissa gripped the young guardian's arm in excitement, making Serena flinch. "You have to tell me what you know. Anything. Who he was training ... how they felt about it ... who was successful. Anything.'
Serena paled. "I can't,' she whispered. "It was done in secret. On the queen's orders.'
"My aunt's dead,' said Adrian bluntly. "And you said yourself you might be talking to the future queen.' This earned a glare from Lissa.
Serena hesitated, then took a deep breath. "I can pull together a list of names. I might not remember all of them, though. And I have no clue how well they were doing--only that a lot resented it. Grant felt like Tatiana had purposely picked those most unwilling.'
Lissa squeezed her hand. "Thank you. Thank you so much.'
Serena still looked pained at giving up the secret information. They come first didn't always work when your loyalties were split. "I'll have to get it to you later, though. They need me here.'
Serena returned to her post, bringing my mother back to Lissa. As for me, I returned to my own reality in the car, which had come to a stop. I blinked to clear my eyes and take in our surroundings. Another hotel. We should have had gold member status by now. "What's going on?'
"We're stopping,' said Dimitri. "You need to rest.'
"No, I don't. We need to keep going to Court. We need to get Jill there in time for the elections.' Our initial goal in finding Jill had been to give Lissa voting power. It had since occurred to us that if Lissa running was mucking up the elections, the surprise appearance of her sister would likely create just as much sensation and disbelief. A genetic test would clear up any doubts and give Lissa her voting power, but the initial confusion would buy us more of the time we so badly needed to find the murderer. In spite of the random evidence my friends kept turning up, they still had no substantial theories on a culprit.
Dimitri gave me a don't lie to me look. "You were just with Lissa. Are the elections actually happening yet?'
"No,' I admitted.
"Then you're getting some rest.'
"I'm fine,' I snapped.
But those fools wouldn't listen to me. Checking in was complicated because none of us had a credit card, and it wasn't the hotel's policy to take a cash deposit. Sonya compelled the desk clerk into thinking it was their policy, and before long, we had booked two adjoining rooms.
"Let me talk to her alone,' Dimitri murmured to Sonya. "I can handle it.'