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looked directly into her green eyes. “I have something to tell you, something that will make you happy.”
    Moving to the edge of the bed, Ivan motioned Halya to sit beside him. The stale scent of the past hours lingered in the air as he clasped her soft hands in his tight grip. “I am so pleased with you that I have decided to make you my next wife. You soothe me and at the same time you excite me.” Gently, he cupped her chin in his hand and stared deeply into her eyes. “Does my offer make you happy, Halya?”
    Her stomach lurched at his words. Forcing a smile, the princess spoke enthusiastically for his benefit. “Yes, Ivan, it makes me most happy.” Halya knew she would do anything that would enable her to sit beside him on the throne of Russia, even if it meant acting out the sexual fantasies he demanded. Her eyes closed momentarily when she realized that, as Ivan’s Czarina, her name would become as famous as his, and perhaps her one true love from childhood would seek her out when her whereabouts became known—unless he was dead, as she feared.
    â€œNow I must tell you of my other plans,” he said coolly, his mood changing once again. “I have a mission to be filled and I need a man with knowledge of horses, an equerry. Soon the Don Cossacks will be bringing their herds to the steppe and readying them for sale. Each year in the spring I send an emissary to pick the best of the Cosars for my Oprichniks. This year I have decided my equerry will be your brother, Yuri. Even now he is beginning his preparations for the journey, and tomorrow he will leave for Volin.”
    â€œVolin! My brother! What are you telling me?” Halya asked fearfully. “Ivan, my brother is too young to be sent on a mission. He just passed his eighteenth birthday and only trained in the Kadets for a year. Just this past month, he entered the Zemsky Sobor, and you know he has another year to complete his apprenticeship for the assembly,” she said tearfully, her eyes wide and full of apprehension.
    â€œI am aware of his apprenticeship, and I considered it carefully before I reached my final decision.”
    â€œBut, Ivan, he’s just a boy,” Halya continued to plead.
    â€œEnough! I will say the following to you and then the discussion is closed. When I was three, I was crowned Czar; when I was sixteen, I was married; and at twenty I led my armies in two battles. Don’t speak to me of an eighteen-year-old being a boy. He’s a man, and if he isn’t one now he will be when he returns. I chose him because of his knowledge of horses, the same knowledge you yourself possess. You were the one who informed me of your family’s equestrian background. You told me once that you and your brother could ride a horse before you could walk a straight line. So you see, Halya, he is the man for my mission. The matter is ended.”
    Her anger in check, Halya rose from the bed and quickly strode toward the door. As she walked on lagging feet back to her bedchamber, her mind raced. Why was the Czar sending Yuri to Volin? Certainly not for the reason he stated.
    Once inside her room with her bath prepared, Halya slid into the warm wetness and allowed the water to calm her shattered nerves. How unfair it is, she thought sadly. Yuri is still a boy, and when he’s gone I’ll have no one except Ivan. Her full lower lip trembled and tears gathered in her moss-green eyes at what she considered her unjust life. Was it only three years ago that she had been brought to the palace to become Ivan’s fourth wife? It seemed like an eternity ago that the missive reached her parents in Moldavia informing them that Czar Ivan wished the Princess Halya to be presented to him with the intention of making her his wife. “God help me,” she moaned softly as her mind reeled back in time.
    Within days after the message was received, her trunks and Yuri’s were packed and they