As I stood there, waiting in vain for the doll to respond, Terry approached Gregor. “So, how does it feel to have finally killed the man who murdered Sergei?” he asked casually.
“For ‘man who could not die’, he came back surprisingly few times,” Gregor answered.
“It’s not like you were alone,” Persephone said. “I helped.”
“Yeah,” Terry said. “You, uh, certainly contributed.”
Persephone smacked the jerk playfully and he feigned injury. Then she walked over to me, Emily in tow like a duckling. “What’s the situation with the doll?”
I shrugged. “She’s not answering,” I said. “I suspect it’s difficult for her to speak in there.”
“Do you think it’s really her?” she asked.
“It is good question,” Gregor said. “Last one was imposter, after all.”
“I’m not sure,” I said.
“Maybe the Hut will be able to recognize her?” Burin suggested.
It was as good a plan as any. I was about to say as much, but Persephone’s attention had turned to Terry, who was busy piling up kindling on Rasputin’s body. “Terry. Murder time is over. It’s time to go.”
He looked crestfallen as she walked over to Emily, who was yawning. “I’m sleepy,” the girl said. She really sleeps a lot. It’s kinda strange.
As we started to leave, I heard Gregor whispering to Terry. “We start fire as we leave,” the fighter said. “It would have been bad to trap ourselves inside anyway.”
“You’re no fun.”
“If you want fun, we could always spar.”
“Yeah, no. Maybe we can talk after I fix my dragon.” There was a popping sound as he uncorked a flask of oil. “Besides, I think I can make this work.”
Persephone stopped suddenly. “Wait. You have a dragon?!” she asked. Terry didn’t answer, just grinned as he carefully poured oil behind him as he made his way to the door. “Hey!” she called. “Come back here and answer me!”
Once we made it outside, Terry shot the trail of oil with a magically flaming bullet. The oil ignited. At first, the movement of the flame was slow, but it sped up, and soon the whole cathedral was ablaze. Only the stone would remain when it was over. “I do good work,” Terry said.
“See?” Persephone interjected. “Compromise is a good thing.”
Once we turned from the fire, we noticed something strange. Burin was the first to point it out. “Weren’t there a bunch of celestials and fiends fighting out here a while ago?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I guess the celestials won and cleaned up the evidence,” I said. And they did good work. There was no evidence that anything at all had happened out here aside from the mayhem we’d personally caused.
On our way back to the hut, we stopped by the graveyard. Dmitri was gone, but Polina was still puttering around, digging for bones. Emily waved happily at the sight of the creepy little fey, and Polina ended up waving back. “We killed the bad guys!” Emily announced happily. “Oh, and my mom ate your goat.” Persephone buried her face in her hand at the girl’s excited revelation.
Polina cocked her head to the side. “How did you get in, then?”
“Miss Lyriana’s magic mirror knew what to do.”
“Oh, then where is Little Grandmother? Don’t tell me you were too late.”
“I think Miss Lyriana has her.”
Polina looked at me, and I produced the doll. “She seems to be trapped in here. At least, we think it’s her.”
The fairy took the doll and examined it. “That’s very powerful magic,” she said. “It would definitely hold even Little Grandmother. Let me look closer.” She brought the doll just an inch from her nose, and focused intently. I noticed that the others seemed to be holding their collective breath as she did so.
I might have been too, but, you know, no breath and all that.
“Well?” Terry asked, finally.
“Yes, I think that’s her,” Polina said as she handed the doll back to me. “How do you plan to get her out?”
“I swear I will shoot someone if anyone suggests a solution that involves a goat,” Terry said.
“Terry… we had goats on the farm. What is your problem with them?” Persephone asked.
“Yeah, we had goats on the farm, and look where that got us.”
“I like goats,” Emily said. “Especially the baby ones. They’re so cute!” Terry made a disgusted sound.
“They really are,” I agreed with Emily. Then I turned back to Polina. “I haven’t figured that part out yet,” I admitted. “I’ll research my father’s notes and see if there are any clues there. And if not, then maybe Godmother will have a suggestion.”
“Ah, good. It’s smart to ask for help when you don’t know what to do.”
“Besides,” Gregor said. “If the solution really does involve a goat, we will not need to seek one out. The goat will find us. They always do.” He was grinning at Terry, whose hand was twitching and involuntarily reaching for his gun.
“So, what are you going to do?” Emily asked Polina.
The fairy eyed her as if it was an unnecessary question with an obvious answer. “I’m going to dig,” she said.
“I knew I liked her,” I heard Burin say to Gregor.
“Perhaps you are two of a kind,” Gregor suggested.
“Gods no,” Terry said. “We do NOT need two Burins. One is plenty.”
“I must ask,” Gregor suddenly said. “Can we not just break doll to release Baba Yaga?”
“It seems to be an artifact of great power,” Burin answered. “Those are nearly impossible to destroy unless you meet very specific conditions. That might end up being what we need to do, of course, but we will need to research the doll before we can find those conditions.”
I nodded. “And to that end, we should probably get back to the hut and figure out what our next step is.” After all, we still needed to get back to our own time. I just hoped we didn’t have to free Baba Yaga to make that happen, as we could be stuck here for weeks, or even months if that was the case.
Emily hugged Polina. The fairy looked startled, but not unhappy at the gesture. “Should you really let her do that?” Gregor whispered to Terry, who just shrugged.
“Do I look at all like I know what I’m doing when it comes to parenting? Ask Persephone,” he whispered back.
“It seems okay,” Persephone answered.
Emily came over to me after saying goodbye to her new friend. “So, we’re going back to the future now, right?”
“As soon as we figure out the key,” I said.
“The key has been in plain sight the entire time, and remains with every iteration of the hut,” the voice of an old woman said weakly. “It will take you where you need to go next.”
We pondered that for a bit as we walked, but even when we returned to the hut, we didn’t have an answer. We sat down in the common room with Greta and the Coffin Man – who had decided that he was going with us, at least as far as the hut’s next destination – and tried to brainstorm answers.
But even after hours, we hadn’t come up with the solution. I was getting frustrated, and we’d tried asking Baba Yaga, but she was either too tired or unwilling to answer us.
And then, suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, Terry began laughing. He stood up and rushed from the room. The rest of us exchanged worried looks. “Emily, wake up,” I said, shaking the sleepy girl.
“What is it?” she asked.
“We might need your mom,” I said.
“Oh.” She summoned Persephone.
“Where is Terry?” she asked.
“We are about to find out,” Gregor said, leading the way to catch up with him. Persephone shot me a worried look, then followed the fighter.
We found Terry in the room with the cauldron. He was still laughing as he held a struggling Zorka above his head. She was swatting him with a broom. “Cut that out!” Terry said.
“Let me go!” the kikimora shrieked, striking him again.
“Terry! What are you doing?!” Persephone asked.
“What Baba Yaga told us to do!” he said as he shoved the struggling Zorka into the bubbling cauldron, with only her arm remaining. He held her under for a few moments, the rest of us too shocked to act, until her arm went limp.
“That wasn’t a good thing!” Burin said. “Pull her out!”
I wasn’t sure if CPR would work on a creature like Zorka, but Momma had insisted I learn before going. Gregor rushed over to the cauldron, pushing Terry out of the way. “You guys are overreacting!” Terry complained. “It’s fine!”
“You killed her!” I said. “How could you?! Gregor, hurry and get her out.”
Gregor looked at me, his face stricken. “She is gone,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Burin asked. “Is she dead already?”
“No, she is-” but he was interrupted as the house lurched, beginning its dimension hopping journey once more.
Terry grinned. “See? I told you it was fine. Remember, violence solves everything,” he said, strutting out of the room. “Emily, let’s get some cake,” he called back.
“Yes, sir,” Emily said, dutifully following her father to get her treat. That girl is going to end up so incredibly screwed up by the time she reaches adulthood.
And speaking of screwed up childhoods, we soon realized we’d forgotten something when we eventually followed them back to the common room. I mean, it was obvious, but we’d had a lot on our plates, so it’s not our fault that we forgot. We’re in the middle of saving the world, okay?
I just hope Anastasia will forgive us for kidnapping her and dragging her over a hundred years into the future, eventually.