The witch’s nostrils flared, and I saw her fingertips start to tingle with magical aura. I realized that she was about to cast a spell of some kind, or at least contemplating it; I glanced at Calla, and inclined my head toward the door.
Time to go.
Even without reading my thoughts, she understood them. I began mentally calculating how far we’d have to run until we could reach the nearest town; we were somewhere up in the Ural Mountains, so it would be easier if we flew. Hopefully there’d be a place with public teleportation mirrors readily available. I had a few universal tokens left in my wallet, so if we moved quickly...she was pretty fast in that mortar and pestle, I didn’t know if I could outfly her...maybe if we started out high, and then dived through the trees, it would be harder for her to follow...there was also the problem of how to get out of here alive, now that we’d snubbed her…
“Well,” I said, getting up with false cheerfulness, and pushing in my chair, “it’s been nice chatting with you, but we’d better get back home and not waste anymore of your time, so-”
A bright orange light burst from her fingers, splatting over the door and the windows.
“You are not going anywhere, Chernobyl,” said Baba Yaga through her iron teeth.
I glanced at Calla; to my relief, she had leaped up and was already trying to break open the seal that had surrounded the door.
“Ma’am, please,” I said, getting up myself and moving to shield her, “this isn’t a part of my job description. I’m a detective, not a thief. If you really want someone to steal the sword, I’d advise finding someone like that. I can think a few people who’d be perfect for the job, even though they’re in prison at the moment-”
“I want you to do it. And you are going to do it, unless you want me to keep your assistant instead.”
D___.
She smiled grimly at my expression.
“It’s a simple decision for you, Chernobyl. The sword, or the girl?”
Even for Baba Yaga, this seemed a little ludicrous. Calla, I saw in my peripheral vision, had paused in her work for a second when she heard what we said, but was now trying even more frantically to undo the spell. The witch watched her work with a placid smile, making no attempt to stop her. I knew she wasn’t worried; Calla and I could probably make a new way out of here, by smashing through the wall or something, but she would just follow us, or have a new spell set up to stop us already. Even if we did get away, it would cost a lot of time and effort…
“Let me talk with Calla for a moment,” I said. “In private.”
Baba Yaga allowed me to draw my assistant into a corner.
“Thoughts?” I whispered.
Calla created a small bubble spell so the witch couldn’t listen in, and answered, “I don’t want her to take me.”
“I know. Any ideas about how to get out of this one?”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t have any?”
“I have a few thoughts, I just wanted to know if you have any input. I’m not the only one capable of thinking up brilliant schemes at a moment’s notice.”
Looking mollified, Calla glanced over at Baba Yaga. The witch waved. She turned back to me.
“Do you think you could find Koschei’s home and get the sword from him?”
“How do I know? I know nothing about his hideout or what guardians he might have surrounding it. Besides, are you willing to take that risk? If I fail, she’ll probably use it as an excuse to keep you here forever.”
“Ask her about it first. Maybe she’ll let you take three items or something like that to help you. If so, I think you should do it. Because honestly-” she paused- “I want to find out why she wants me. It seems a bit deeper than just wanting to add me to her collection; maybe I can figure out what she has in mind.”
That attitude really surprised me for a second. Seeing it in my face, Calla added, “It might be handy to understand what she wants. You’d probably want to find out if it were you.”
Well, yes, I would...it was just that, in my experience, Calla wouldn’t. She was the slightly-more-sensible one, the one who worked with Xen to warn me when I was getting a little out of control and doing something stupidly daring. Of course, there was that time when she had attacked the leader of a pack of Ghuls to get them to let us go free, but that level of boldness didn’t happen very often with Calla…
Maybe it was a bizarre time for me to see it, but I suddenly had a glimpse of how very grown-up Calla was becoming. I mean, yeah, she was almost twenty, so she was already grown-up, but I mean in the emotional sense. She was no longer just the terrified, traumatized girl I’d rescued from the remains of her house. To an extent, that girl was still there, but she had become more independent, and with her own brand of courage. And I felt a warmth in my heart to see how strong she had become.
So it was that I gave Calla the signal to dissipate the bubble, and then stepped forward, asking Baba Yaga, “Where does Koschei live?”
