BILLI ENTWINED HER FINGERS WITH IVAN’S, HOLDING tightly to stop herself from shaking. Baba Yaga shuffled through the pool and peered at them.
“WhO Are you, DAughterrr?” she asked. There were ten thousand voices on her tongue. With Billi’s acute hearing she could differentiate some. Men, women, children. Some were nearly articulate, while others screamed incoherently. All Baba Yaga’s victims. No wonder Vasilisa was terrified, standing in the clutches of the witch.
“Billi.” Her own voice cracked with fear. She cleared her throat and tried again, pushing some courage into her lungs. It wasn’t easy. “Billi SanGreal.”
“A wolf-killer,” added Svetlana.
Baba Yaga’s breath rolled like an icy wind over Billi’s face. Her talonlike nails click click clicked, and Billi was painfully aware of how any one of them could rip clean through her chest and out the other side. Ivan rose and took a step forward. His face was a mask of fear, but he stared at the Dark Goddess, determined and defiant.
“She did it to save me,” he said.
Baba Yaga’s attention snapped toward him, and she stroked his throat with her cold nails.
Red spoke. “They are to be punished, Great Mother. They killed Silver Paws, an elder.” She glanced back at Billi, smiling. “Give me the honor, I beg you.”
“Babushka, she is my friend,” said Vasilisa, her small voice ringing through the cave. She looked up desperately at the old witch.
“We’re here for the girl,” said Ivan. “Let us take her, and there will be no more trouble. It will be better for you.”
Billi looked at Ivan, shocked. What the hell was he talking about?
“There are hundreds of Bogatyrs on their way,” said Ivan. “And Templars. With swords, axes, and guns. You will be destroyed.”
It was one hell of a bluff, but Billi remembered the mural Koshchey had shown her back at the Ministry, and his tales about how the Bogatyrs of old had fought Baba Yaga before and driven her into the forests. If there was any fear in that black heart, maybe the memory of the Bogatyrs would reach it.
But if the old woman felt any trepidation, she did not show it. She swayed, her white hair trailing back and forth, and the twigs and bones knotted into the strands rattled and clattered together. She idly tapped her staff as she held Vasilisa.
“Man iZz a DEStroyer.” She tugged a small bone in her wiry hair, a curiously childish action. “BuT so Izz Nature.” Baba Yaga looked at Billi, and there was a gentleness, a pity in her stony eyes. “I gave BirtH to Maan, I DElivereD hIM to the World, OUT of his Fear and OUT of the DARKnez.” She glanced at Ivan. “HIzz time iz OVER, Billi SANgreal. It is the way of THINGZZ.”
“You can’t just wipe out mankind,” said Ivan. “It’s not for you to decide the fate of an entire species.”
“Is that not what you do? How many species, races, too, have become extinct because of you?” snapped Olga. “Mankind is a plague. Look at you. You rape and pillage, you suck the Earth dry and kill all your kindred. What species has prospered under man’s dominion? Not one. This Earth is not yours. Its bounty was to be shared by all, not devoured by one species who claimed it as their god-given right.” She spat at his feet. “Dominion over land and sea. You sought to enslave nature. You have poisoned the very air you breathe.”
“So your answer is annihilation?” said Billi.
“Nature always wins,” said Olga. “With the blight of man gone, nature will reassert itself. The Earth will be reborn. It always has and always will.”
“The Law, Great Mother. What of the Law?” Red stepped closer to Baba Yaga. She pointed again to Billi and Ivan, more desperately this time. “She is a wolf-killer, and the Law demands her life.”
“The Law, YEzzz.” Baba Yaga pointed at Billi. “She IZZ Like yoU, SvetLANA. No Wonder yOU Hate herr.” She looked Billi up and down, with no more interest than she’d look at a strange insect-curious for a moment. “YeZZ, Kill Zem bOtH.”
Billi gasped. She backed away, knowing it was useless. Ivan scraped up his crutch. Heart banging away, Billi turned slowly, her fists ready. The Polenitsy blocked the only exit.
“Great Mother, I ask a boon!” Olga’s plea stopped the Polenitsy in their tracks.
The old witch raised her head, the noise of her teeth grinding echoed within the limestone chamber and it made the hairs rise up on the back of Billi’s neck.
Olga lowered her gaze respectfully. “She has been blessed by the bite of Silver Paws. The change is upon her. She will be one of the Polenitsy by tomorrow.”
Baba Yaga pointed her claw at Ivan. “AnD ze Man-ChilD, wHatt of him?”
“He is Tsarevich Ivan Alexeivich Romanov.”
“RoMannoFF?”
Ivan gulped as the witch stepped up to him, so close they were almost nose to nose. Her throat rattled with a laugh.
“WElcomme, romaNOFF.” The old crone’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “The blood of MaNy princeZZ and kingzz run in the veinZZ of the PoLenitsee. He wOULD make a FINE consort, do you not tHiNk, SVetlana?”
Svetlana hissed. “I think we should kill them now.” The old crone glided next to Billi. She took hold of her chin and turned her face toward hers.
“The BEASt Callzz, DOes it NOT?” Baba Yaga grinned grotesquely. “Join Uzz, BILLi sanGREAL. Join your Siisterzz.”
Billi glared up at Baba Yaga. “I am not an animal.”
Baba Yaga laughed.
“Have you told them of Fimbulwinter?” Billi asked. “That the wolves will die beside mankind?”
Olga started. She shot a look at the old witch.
“I HONor MY PoliNNItZzee,” The witch drew a fingernail along her chin. “YoU Humanzz aRe full of LYzz.”
“Then tell us how you can eliminate mankind while keeping the Polenitsy safe.” Billi crossed her arms; it was the only way she could stop herself from trembling. Any second now the old witch was going to kill her, but she had to first make the Polenitsy understand that Baba Yaga was deceiving them.
Olga stepped forward, her head low and humble. “Great Mother. How will we remove the curse of mankind and still save the others who worship and honor you?”
Voices rose out of Baba Yaga, troubled and discordant, no longer driven by a single will. They babbled a thousand-a million-things. Baba Yaga glowered, looming over them all.
Billi and Ivan backed away, and even the Polenitsy around them moved nervously, their bare feet scraping on the smooth stone. Many fell facedown, kneeling in terror at the anger of their goddess.
“SILEnZZE!” Baba Yaga leaned close to Olga, her long iron fangs just inches from the old werewolf’s face. The witch hissed. “iT Izz NOT YouRRplace to QUesTion MEEE!”
Olga bowed low. But unlike many of the other Polenitsy, she did not kneel.
“I meant no disrespect, Great Mother.”
“ReMmember who zervezz wHo, Olga. Who zervezz Who.” Baba Yaga gazed deep into each of the werewolves’ eyes, a gaze full of evil malice and anger. “I Am YouRR godDD and iT is Not fOR morTalzz”-she hissed the last word, spiteful and contemptuous-“to QuesTion the WiLL of theirrR godZZ.”
She swung around. Svetlana, who had been beside Olga, shot a look of anger at her grandmother, then took hold of Vasilisa. Baba Yaga tapped her way back into the darkness of the caves. “Go Noww.”
Only when Baba Yaga had gone did the Polenitsy’s silence lift. Billi watched them, perched in the alcoves and ledges above. Some glared down at her, their hatred clear. How dare she question the goddess? Others looked uneasy, whispering and arguing among themselves.
Svetlana met her grandmother as she crossed the pool, pulling Vasilisa behind her.
“Ty dolzhna byla naklonitsa pered boginyey!” said Svetlana.
Olga looked coolly at her granddaughter. “My zhe Polenitsy, nye ryaby.”
Svetlana turned abruptly and stormed out. Billi caught a glimpse of Vasilisa reaching out to her with a free hand as she was dragged away. She wanted to be safe, so she reached for Billi. Hadn’t Billi crossed Russia to find her? To save her?
“What did she say?” Billi asked Ivan.
Ivan’s eyes narrowed as he watched the Polenitsy depart. He whispered, “The red-haired one said she should have got to her knees before the goddess.”
Yes, that had been strange. Olga, almost alone among the Polenitsy, had remained on her feet. She had been practically defiant.
“What was Olga’s reply?”
“That they were Polenitsy, not slaves.”
“Come,” said Olga, sounding weary. Three other Polenitsy came down off the ledge and escorted them back out.
Billi’s mind churned over the options.
Her dad was coming, but when? He had no idea how many Polenitsy were waiting here in the forest. The Templars would be slaughtered.
There would be no last-minute rescue. She and Ivan were on their own.
The sky was darkening as Billi crawled back out. But already the moon hung over the treetops, casting its pallid light over her. Sharp pangs shot through her stomach and across her chest. The Beast Within tore at her, trying to break out of her skin.
“I am not a beast.” The pain made her drop to her knees.
Ivan bent down beside her and locked his arms around her.
Eyes closed, Billi rocked gently in his embrace. She was not a beast, not yet. She had one thing to do before it was all too late.
“I’m all right,” she said. It wasn’t true; she was anything but.
Vasilisa.
It hadn’t been so long ago that she’d been at home with her family, safe and ignorant of the monsters outside. Through no fault of her own, through a freak of birth, she was now at the heart of the Bataille Ténébreuse.
I’m sorry, Vasilisa.
As the Polenitsy waited impatiently beside her, Billi pressed her fingers into the snow, willing the cold to leech into her blood and freeze her heart. She had to turn whatever pity, whatever compassion she might have, to ice. There was no room for it now.
There was only one way to stop Fimbulwinter.
Billi would kill Vasilisa tonight.