TEN MINUTES LATER AND IT WAS DONE. ELAINE would go straight to the airport and get on the next plane to London.
Billi went through Lance’s backpack while Ivan walked Elaine to a taxi.
She could smell the poultices for wolf bites as soon as she opened the zipper. They were tucked tidily into sandwich bags. There was also a box of silver bullets, 9mm caliber and perfect for their pistols.
Ivan returned and led Billi out on to the airfield. The deep night sky was littered with stars, not a cloud in the sky.
“You can sleep on the plane,” Ivan said.
Billi looked at him guiltily. Even though she hadn’t been thinking about it, she was exhausted. Ivan must have been feeling even worse than her; she hadn’t recently been used as a punching bag. The bruise on his cheek was coming up big and shiny, but it didn’t mar his good looks in any way. She glanced sideways as they walked across the airstrip. His hard jaw was fixed, his gray eyes focused on the job ahead.
Everything about Ivan radiated iron discipline. She’d seen how he’d entered the gunfight, unflinching as the bullets had whizzed around him. Then he turned and smiled, and the almost machinelike persona vanished. Another Ivan appeared. One warm and thoughtful toward others. The true noble. He took her hand.
“Here we are, Billi.”
They stopped by a small white propeller plane. It was about twenty feet long, its wingspan thirty. The cockpit looked like it had been built for hobbits.
“This is it?” said Billi. The two-seater seemed pretty fragile.
“They were out of MiG jet fighters. This will do the job.” He patted the fuselage. “I like to think of it as…cozy.”
The instrument panel was basic, just two small electronic screens and a couple of switches. Her mobile phone had more functions. Ivan unhooked the headphones and started the engine. The propellers turned slowly twice, then the engine sparked. Billi felt the aircraft wanting to surge forward. The displays came on and Ivan scrolled down a series of options on one of the screens. He tapped it.
“This is the EFIS: the Electronic Flight Information System. Most of the key data is on this nowadays. Altimeter, compass, the artificial horizon, stuff like that.” He pointed at the screen next to it. “That’s the GPS. Combined with the EFIS, the thing practically flies itself.”
“How long’s the trip?” Billi straightened out her coat as she settled into the cramped seat. The dark red cloth rippled with shades of deep pink and purple as she smoothed her hands over it.
I’m becoming as vain as Ivan. She found the seat belt and clipped herself in over the shoulders and across the waist.
“Depending on the tailwind, three to four hours.”
The plane started to accelerate down the runway. It lurched upward, and Billi’s stomach lurched downward. Wind buffeted the plane sideways, and Ivan swore, both hands fast around the control column, fighting to bring the plane level. Billi’s heart pounded, but then suddenly the fight was over and the plane rose smoothly away from the ground and toward the clouds.
Ivan’s bruised cheek was big and shiny now, and he winced as he adjusted his headset.
“That hurt much?” Billi said, pointing to his face.
“You want to kiss it better?”
Billi smirked. “I do that and we’ll crash.”
“You have a lot of confidence in your kissing.”
“No. I just don’t have much confidence in your flying,” Billi replied, looking out at the black horizon. “So, where are we going on our first date? Somewhere special, I hope.”
“Due south to the Ukrainian border. From there we’ll turn west. Then we’ll find somewhere to land.”
“There’s no airfield where we’re going?”
“We don’t need one for an aircraft like this. Just a bit of straight road.”
They settled into silence. The engine drone filled the small cockpit, but Billi couldn’t sleep. She just stared out the window.
“So, what is the plan, Billi SanGreal?” asked Ivan, his eyes never leaving the distant horizon.
Billi almost laughed-first Elaine and now Ivan presuming she would be the one to lead.
“Don’t you have one?”
“Me? I’m the good-looking one. You’re the brains.”
“You mean the smart but ugly one?”
Ivan glanced out the corner of his eye, amused. “I never said you were ugly. I said you were interesting-looking.”
“And I suppose you usually date supermodels?”
“I’ve not really thought about it, but yes. I suppose I do.”
Great. Interesting-looking versus long-legged glamazons. Not much of a contest.
“But one can get tired even of perfection.” Ivan took a hand from the control panel to brush back a strand of Billi’s hair that had fallen loose. “I like a little…battle-damage in a girl.”
“You think I’m battle-damaged?” Billi huffed and shoved herself farther into her seat, arms crossed. “You really know how to woo a person.”
“Billi…”
“No, don’t apologize. Good thing we’re only looking at the short term, then.” Exceedingly short term. It was now almost Friday. Saturday night was the full moon. No Vasilisa, no future.
“Yes. I know. But that’s if we fail.” Ivan’s eyes turned steely certain. “We won’t.”
“I wish I had your faith.”
“Tell me what you’re planning.”
“We find Vasilisa.”
“And then?” Ivan didn’t look at her, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew what Billi would have to do-the sacrifice she would have to make to save everyone else.
“If only we’d had a few more days…” Billi lamented aloud.
“What difference would that have made?”
“Baba Yaga has a weakness. The trouble is that the weapon we could use against her is back in London.”
She explained about the Venus figurine and everything Elaine had told her.
“We’ve got no way to kill Baba Yaga-you know that, don’t you?” Billi said.
Ivan gestured at the backpack. “Don’t you have some Templar super weapon in there? I thought your Order had all these holy relics. Don’t you have the Holy Grail?”
Billi’s face flushed. “Er, we did. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Ivan smiled slowly, intrigued by Billi’s apparent embarrassment. “Tell me.”
Billi huffed. “It’s in Jerusalem now, but we did have it, all safely locked away in our reliquary. We took it out once a year, at Easter.” She waved dismissively. “Y’know, to celebrate the Resurrection and all that.”
“And?”
“And I dropped it.”
Ivan coughed loudly. “What happened?”
“What do you think happened? It broke.”
Ivan coughed again, but struggled. “What did your father say?”
Billi could picture it so clearly. The knights stood at the altar in Temple Church; Gwaine had gone white, still holding the velvet cushion Billi had lifted the clay cup from. She’d been so nervous. Arthur had picked up a few of the pieces.
“He said, ‘Better get some glue.’”
Billi waited while Ivan gathered himself. He didn’t say anything, but sat there biting his lip. “Ow,” he said.
“Still leaks a bit,” added Billi.
Ivan roared with laughter.
“Well, I’m glad you find it funn-”
The plane shook violently.
Lightning flashed in the distant cloud banks. Ivan frowned.
“Didn’t see that coming,” he muttered. The clouds were heavy and angry, and the winds buffeted the small plane.
“We okay?” asked Billi nervously. Ivan checked his controls.
“It’s meant to be clear skies the whole way.” He studied the storm clouds ahead. “We don’t have enough fuel to go around them.”
The plane shook fromasudden gust. The elements were making their threat known. Billi tightened her harness.
Ivan’s knuckles whitened around the control column, and Billi sat silently, focused on the rolling horizon. The cockpit blazed white as sheet lightning struck, and Billi saw Ivan’s face, his jaw locked and sweat dripping off his ivory skin, his concentration total. He breathed slowly through his clenched teeth.
Maybe we’ll make it.
Then the plane plummeted as thunder exploded around them.
It didn’t glide: it fell with all the aerodynamics of a brick. Ivan groaned as he fought with the control column.
“Downdraft! The winds are driving us down!” he shouted. “Hold on!”
He’d lost it. The plane spun wildly. Billi’s head was bashed against the side window, and all she could see through the spinning haze were black clouds. Another curtain of white light broke around them, and the next roar of thunder nearly blew out their windows. Through her blurred vision Billi saw treetops rapidly approaching, an endless mass of snow and a silver line-a river-glistening in the distance. Branches scratched the undercarriage, and the fragile shell of the plane bucked and jolted as it skated through the treetops. A thick bough caughta wing, which sheared off, the sudden impact throwing Billi forward in her harness. She grabbed hold of the straps and hung on with all her strength.
No! Not like this! It can’t end like-
The plane spun horizontally, and in the scream of crumbling metal and splintering glass, Billi’s world shattered.