A Question of Magic (19 page)

“Hold me in your arms?” she said in an uncertain voice.

Alek had looked worried before, but now a smile lit up his eyes. “There's nothing I'd rather do.” In four long strides, Alek was there with his strong arms wrapped around her as if holding her close would protect her
from the world. “Where should I meet you when I have everything?” he asked.

“The cottage goes only to places it's visited many times before,” Serafina told him. “This is the closest it will take me to Kamien Dom. I'll come back once a week and see if you are here.”

“I'll return as soon as I can,” Alek said. “And nothing will ever keep us apart again.”

Serafina took a long, shuddering breath as a spark of hope began to grow inside her. Alek was there, he knew what he had to do now, and soon everything would be all right.

Serafina had thought that saying good-bye to Alek was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, but she soon decided that waiting for his return was even harder. The cottage had taken her to the outskirts of one of the less damaged villages, where she planned to spend the week until she could go back to Mala Kapusta. Only a few days after her arrival, she learned that the war had ended. The decisive battle had taken place in Demetr's Valley, Demetr being the name of the first man to fall there. From the bits and pieces she heard from her visitors, Serafina was certain that it was the battle that she had witnessed. She wondered what had happened after she left.

Although she was still aging with each question she
answered, she felt calmer now, knowing in her heart that her time as Baba Yaga would soon be over. She wasn't the only one looking forward to what lay ahead. With the war over, she saw bedraggled groups of men on the roads, returning to their families. She saw women and children rushing to greet them and heard laughter for the first time in far too long. Men talked and joked as they tore down charred buildings and built new raw-wood structures in their place. Women stood outside their homes, visiting with their neighbors while small children played at their feet. Serafina was surprised by how friendly people were and how many went out of their way to greet her.

One afternoon she was sweeping the cottage floor when Boris shouted that she had a visitor. Opening her door, she saw a woman standing by the gate, holding a small basket over her arm. Although the woman looked horrified when she had to lift the bone latch to come into the yard, she seemed to find the cottage fascinating, ogling it as she approached the door.

Handing Serafina the basket, she said, “Here you go. These fruit tarts are for you. I want the basket back.”

“Won't you come in?” said Serafina, stepping out of the way so the woman could get past her.

“I'd love to,” the woman said, her gaze darting from
the stove to the table to the bed. “It's a cozy cottage, perfect for a woman by herself. Wouldn't do for a family, though. Oh, look. You have a cat. No one mentioned that.” With a rustle of full skirts, she swept toward the bed and reached out to pet Maks. The cat drew back and hissed, swiping at her with his claws. Jerking her hand away, the woman looked at Maks with distaste. “Not a very friendly animal. I wouldn't allow a cat like that in my house!”

Maks sat up on the bed and narrowed his eyes at her.

As Serafina hobbled to the table to set down the basket, the woman crossed to the cupboard and opened the door. “So many things for one person! This is different,” she said, plucking a colorful jar from one of the top shelves.

“It's nothing special,” Serafina said, moving as quickly as she could to the cupboard. Taking the jar from the woman, she returned it to the shelf, though it hurt her back to stretch so high. She had to nudge the woman out of the way to close the cupboard door. Stepping in front of it, she blocked the woman from opening it again. “So, did you come to ask me a question?”

“Oh no,” said the woman. “I just came to meet you. I've heard about Baba Yaga from so many people that I thought it was time I saw you myself.”

Serafina blinked, not sure what to make of that. The woman made her sound more like an oddity than a person.

“I never did believe in you,” the woman said, turning to Serafina. “No one in their right mind did. I mean, the same people who believe in fairies or wood nymphs or those horrible Vilas who supposedly kill hunters believe in Baba Yaga, and we all know how naive and unsophisticated people like that are. But then when the prince made his announcement! Why, that changed everything! I mean, if the prince says Baba Yaga is real, then she must be. Er, I mean, you must be.”

“What announcement?” asked Serafina.

“So, as I understand it, if I ask you a question, you'll tell me the truth, which could be horrible or wonderful, depending on the question. And I get to ask only one question my entire life, so it should be something very important.”

Serafina nodded. “That's true.”

“Well, I don't know what my important question will be yet, so if I say something that sounds like a question, don't pay it any mind.”

“I can't do that,” Serafina told her. “If you ask me a question, I
will
answer it and it
will
be your only one.”

“Then I'd better be careful what I say!” the woman
said with a laugh. “You should offer me tea. People who visited you told me that you do that sometimes.”

“Well, yes, but …”

The woman crossed to the table and pulled out the seat where Baba Yaga always sat. “Take your time,” she said, sitting down. “We have so many things to talk about.”

“We do?” Serafina said as she opened the cupboard door to take out two cups. She glanced back when she heard a retching sound. Maks was sitting beside the woman's foot, coughing up a hairball onto her shoe.

The woman shifted in the seat, moving her feet out of the way. She gave the cat a disgusted look and turned back to Serafina. “Everyone says that you consulted with Prince Cynrik and predicted that he would win the war.”

Serafina shut the cupboard door to face her guest. “That's not exactly—”

“My husband was at Demetr's Valley. The night before the battle, Prince Cynrik told everyone about it.”

“Oh, really?”

The woman nodded. Her gaze fell on Serafina's book, and she reached for it across the table. Serafina moved faster than she had in ages, slamming the two cups down on the table and grabbing the book from the woman's hands.

“Well!” said the woman, an injured expression on her face.

The cat jumped up on the table and glared at the woman while Serafina wrapped her arms around the book and shuffled to the other chair. Her back was really hurting now, and she'd pulled something in her leg when she'd moved so fast. “You were saying …”

“Oh, just that your little prediction boosted our men's spirits so much that they fought harder than ever. And then you turned up on the battlefield at precisely the right moment, and, well, our army couldn't help but win.”

“I don't think that's—”

“Hmm,” murmured the woman as she reached for the basket she'd brought. “If you're not going to eat these, I might as well.” Opening the basket, she took out the larger of the two tarts and bit into it. A look of pleasure appeared on her face. “These are so good!” she said through a mouthful of food. “I'm an excellent cook. Anyway, everyone is saying that we won the war because of you, so it must be true.”

Maks had started walking back and forth only inches from what was left of the woman's fruit tart, shedding a trail of black fur.

“I really don't think that—” Serafina began.

“What is wrong with that cat?” said the woman,
glaring at him. “Wait! That's not a question!” The dismayed expression on her face when she turned to Serafina was almost comical.

The cat sat down, looking satisfied when Serafina said in her Baba Yaga voice, “Nothing is wrong with the cat. He doesn't like you and thinks that you are a very rude person. He wants you to leave and is trying to make you go.”

“Well, I never!” the woman said, getting to her feet. “And after I brought you such a delicious treat!” She was storming out the door, her basket in her hand, when she stopped suddenly and glanced back at Serafina. “Does this mean that you won't answer my question when I think of something important?”

“I'm afraid so,” Serafina replied, not even trying to look sorry. After closing the door behind the woman, she shuffled to her chair and sat down with a groan. “So, according to her, more people believe in Baba Yaga now. I wonder if the prince's announcement will make it easier for my parents to believe in magic. Ah, I have to thank you,” she told Maks, who had come over to rub against her. “I don't know how I would have gotten rid of her if you hadn't been here to help. You surprised me, though. I didn't know you could shed when you wanted to.”

“There are a lot of things that you don't know about
me,” said the cat. “For instance, did you know that I was able to get the last tart out of the basket before she left? If you don't want it, I'd be happy to eat it for you!”

Even though Serafina doubted that a week was long enough for Alek to find everything she needed, she couldn't keep from hoping that he'd be in Mala Kapusta when she arrived. When he wasn't, she went away for another week. The next time she returned, he still wasn't there. Although people had started rebuilding the town, Serafina spotted a group of rough-looking men and decided that she didn't feel safe. She left the town again. When she returned the third time, men were working on a new tavern, which was going to be larger than before.

Serafina stepped into her yard to look around, but there was still no sign of Alek. She stood watching the activity at the tavern for a few minutes before glancing across the road. The tree was gone, but Serafina was sure she spotted blue ribbon draped across the stump. Alek must have left her a message!

Serafina moved at a much slower pace now, her aging bones and muscles unable to carry her as quickly as her still-young mind wanted to go. As she hobbled across
the road, leaning on her cane, she thought about the first time she'd found a letter from Alek in the tree. “The world was so different then,” she murmured. When she saw a blue ribbon tied around a piece of parchment, her heart jumped and she felt almost young again.

Serafina was bending down, reaching for the parchment, when she heard a sound. Thinking it might be Alek, she turned around, a smile on her face.

It wasn't Alek. Three rough-looking men had emerged from the tavern, and all of them were staring at her as they walked in her direction. When they saw her looking their way, they stopped trying to be quiet and began to run across the street.

“Come back inside the fence quickly!” shouted Boris.

But Serafina's body was too weak to be quick. She had taken only a few steps when the men were upon her, hustling her into a carriage that had emerged from behind the tavern. The skulls began to scream the instant the men touched her, making town dogs howl and a flock of crows take to the air. A burly man with shaggy brown hair and a thick red beard followed her through the carriage door and sat on the seat across from her, closing the door behind him and muting the racket of the skulls, who hadn't stopped screaming. With the coachman's shout and crack of a whip, the horses started off.

“What do you want of me?” Serafina asked the man.

“Nothing,” he replied. “It's Lord Zivon who wants you. I'm just taking you to him.”

“I've never met Lord Zivon. Why would he do this?”

The man snorted and shook his head. “You insulted the man and made him angrier than I've ever seen him, but you don't even know who he is. You met him once months ago.”

“My memory isn't as good as it used to be,” she said, although it wasn't true. “Please, if you would be so kind, at least tell me what he looks like?”

“You'll know soon enough,” said the man, ignoring her when she tried to talk to him again.

Since the man refused to talk to Serafina for the rest of the trip, she was left to figure out which of her visitors was Zivon. She knew that she had angered some people with her answers, but only a few had acted as if they hated her enough to have her kidnapped. And there was that man who had sent those awful people to grab her in the marketplace. Could Zivon have been trying to abduct her even then?

It was dark when the carriage finally rolled to a stop and the man opened the door to jump down. Although the sign was gone from the front of the building, Serafina thought that it had probably once been an inn. She was still eyeing the building and the people lounging outside when the man who had ridden with her reached
into the carriage and picked her up as if she were no heavier than a sack of potatoes. Crinkling her nose at his sour smell, she struggled to get down and even tried thumping him with her cane. The man cursed under his breath and took the cane from her. After tossing it to the ground, he carried her out of the carriage to the door of the inn.