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But who could do it other than she? You can be a bridge between men and chyerti, Morozko had said. She thought she understood that, now.
For a moment, there was no sound but the triumphant wind, pouring in through the windows. Then Dmitrii simply said, “I will trust you.” He laid a light hand on her head, a prince’s blessing on a warrior. She went very still under the touch. “What do you need?”
Vasya thought. She was still glowing with the words, I will trust you. “Clothes such as a tradesman’s son might wear,” she said.
“Cousin,” Sasha broke in. “If she goes, then I must go with her. She’s made enough journeys without her kin.”
Dmitrii looked surprised. “I need you here. You speak Tatar; you know the country between here and Sarai.”
Sasha said nothing.
Understanding came suddenly into Dmitrii’s face. Perhaps he had remembered the night of the fire, Sasha’s sister forced out into the dark alone. “I will not stop you, Sasha,” he said reluctantly. “But you must be at the mustering, whether she succeeds or no.”
“Sasha—” Vasya began, just as he went to her and said, low, “I wept for you. Even when Varvara told me you were alive, I wept. I despised myself, that I had let my sister face such horror alone, and I despised myself more when you appeared again at my campfire so changed. I am not letting you go alone.”
Vasya put a hand on her brother’s arm. “Then, if you come with me tonight—” Her grip tightened; their eyes met. “I warn you, the road leads through darkness.”
Sasha said, “Then we will go through darkness, sister.”
* * *
WHEN THEY GOT BACK to Olga’s palace, Varvara was waiting for them at the bathhouse. Sasha bathed hastily and sought his bed. Midnight would come soon: the hour of their departure. But Vasya lingered. “I never said thank you,” she told Varvara. “For that night on the river. You saved my life.”
“I would not have,” said Varvara. “I didn’t know what I could do for you but mourn. But Polunochnitsa spoke to me. I had not heard her voice for so long. She told me what was wanted, and so I went down to the burning.”
“Varvara,” said Vasya. “In the country of Midnight—I met your mother.”
Varvara’s lips tightened. “I suppose she thought you were Tamara over again. Only a daughter she could control, one who was not in love with a sorcerer.”
Vasya had no answer to that. Instead she said, “Why did you come to Moscow at all? Why be a servant?”
Old anger showed in Varvara’s face. “I have not the gift of seeing,” she said. “I cannot see chyerti; I can hear the stronger ones and speak a little of the speech of horses, that is all. There was no wonder for me in my mother’s kingdom, only cold and danger and isolation, and later my mother’s wrath. She had dealt too harshly with Tamara. So, I left her, went in search of my sister. In time I came to Moscow, this city of men. I found Tamara there, but already beyond my aid, dim and wandering, bowed down by grief beyond her strength. She had borne a child, that I protected as I could.” Vasya nodded. “But when the child went north to marry, I did not follow. She had her nurse, and her husband was a good man. I didn’t want to live in another land with only forest and no people. I liked the sound of the bells, the color and hurry of Moscow. So I stayed, and waited. In time, another girl of my blood came, and I grew whole again, caring for your sister and her children.”
“Why be a servant, though?”
“Do you ask?” Varvara demanded. “Servants have more freedom than noblewomen. I could walk about as I wished, go into the sun with my head uncovered. I was happy. Witches die alone. My mother and my sister showed me that. Has your gift brought you any happiness, fire-maiden?”
“It has,” said Vasya, without elaborating. “But grief as well.” A little anger threaded her voice. “Since you knew them both—Tamara and Kasyan—why did you do nothing for her, after she died? Why did you not warn us, when Kasyan came to Moscow?”
Varvara did not move, but suddenly her face showed sharp lines and hollows; the echoes of old grief. “I knew my sister haunted the palace; I could not get her to go, and I did not know why she lingered. Kasyan I did not know when he came. He wore a different face in Moscow than the one he wore when he seduced Tamara by the lake at Midsummer.”
She must have seen the doubt in Vasya’s eyes, for she burst out, “I am not like you, with your immortal eyes, your mad courage. I am only a woman, unworthy of my bloodlines, who has done what I could to care for my own.”
Vasya said nothing to that but put out a hand, and took Varvara’s in hers, and neither of them spoke a moment. Then Vasya said, with effort, “Will you tell my sister?”
Varvara had her mouth open on what was obviously a sharp reply—and then she hesitated. “I never dared before,” said Varvara grudgingly. There was a thread of doubt now in her voice. “Why would she believe me? I do not appear old enough to be anyone’s great-aunt.”
“I think Olga has seen enough wonders lately to believe you,” said Vasya. “I think you should tell her; it would give her joy. Although I see your point.” Vasya looked at Varvara with new eyes. Her body was strong, her hair yellow, barely touched with white. “How old are you?”
Varvara shrugged. “I don’t know. Older than I look. Our mother never told me who sired us. But I always assumed my long life was some gift of his. Whoever he was. I am happy here, truly, Vasilisa Petrovna. I never wanted power, only folk to care for. Save Moscow for them, and take my wild Marya somewhere she can breathe, and I will be content.”
Vasya smiled. “I will do that—Aunt.”
* * *
VARVARA LEFT, AND VASYA finished her bath and dressed. Clean, she stepped out into the covered walkway that connected the bathhouse to the terem. The rain was still falling, but more gently. The lightning was sparser now as the storm moved on.
It took Vasya a moment to pick out the shadow. She stilled, the bathhouse door rough at her back.
Thin-voiced, she spoke. “Is it done?”
“It is done,” Morozko returned. “He is bound by my power, by his own votary’s sacrifice, and by Kaschei’s golden bridle: all three together. He will never win free again.” The rain fell cold now, beating down summer’s dust.
Vasya let go the door. The rain whispered on the roof. She crossed the walkway, until she could see his face, until she could ask a question that troubled her. “What did the Bear mean,” she asked, “when he said please?”
