The queen looked down her patrician nose at Baba’s gift. “A Rusalka? Impossible. They are weak creatures, only capable of killing and minor mayhem. We discussed this.”
“I’m afraid this one has been trading Human children to some of your most powerful subjects in exchange for a portion of their power, Your Highness,” Baba explained. “And using it in the Human world to exact revenge for the Human destruction of the water system, which has begun to affect even these lands. I cannot tell you if that was her main goal, or if it was primarily the power she gained from stealing innocent children and bringing them here through the doorway she found. Either way, the result has been dire, as you well know.”
“Indeed I do,” the queen said, the tiniest hint of a wrinkle creasing her high pale forehead. A diamond-covered crown sat on the top of her pale, silvery hair. She ignored the comment about her court. “So, you have found this door for me, as I commanded?”
“Yes, Majesty. And reclaimed her latest victim, as you can see.” Baba indicated Petey, who hung on to to Liam’s leg as he gazed around the room with openmouthed wonder.
The queen actually smiled when she saw the child looking at her, although the expression faded like falling leaves in autumn as her glance moved to the one-eyed giantess standing behind them.
“And you, Zorica, what do you have to do with this mess?”
The giantess threw herself down in front of the throne, making the tiles underfoot quiver and shake until her weight settled. “I was a fool, Your Majesty! This creature came to me and offered me a child in exchange for a portion of my magic. I was so lonely. It was selfish, I know, but I had no idea it would cause so much harm.” She began to cry, huge globules of viscous tears that stained her ragged dress a pallid blue-gray.
The queen aimed a steely glance at the large woman, and then sent it out to encompass the surrounding courtiers, who had all gathered to see what the fuss was about.
“You are not excused from your part in this, Zorica. You knew perfectly well that stealing Human children has been forbidden here for centuries.” The queen’s scowl caused nearby flowers to droop and leaves to fall off the trees. A few nobles looked as though they might follow suit.
“You may not have been aware that this Maya intended to use her ill-gotten magical powers outside these realms, but all who abide here know that such actions could throw the entire Otherworld out of balance, as has clearly happened.” She took her consort’s hand, as if to gather strength from him in the face of such betrayal. “I assure you, we shall be getting to the bottom of this.”
The queen raised an eyebrow again, this time looking from Baba to Liam.
“My apologies, Highness,” Baba said, quickly taking Liam’s arm and leading him forward one step. “This is Liam McClellan, a Human who has aided our cause at great risk to himself and to his position back in the mortal plane. He is what they call a sheriff; it is his job to enforce the laws there.” She gave Liam a mischievous smile. “He only arrested me once, so I think I can safely say he has been very kind.”
The queen inclined her head gracefully in Liam’s direction. “She is quite trying at times, our Baba. You clearly used great restraint.” Courtiers at either side of the throne snickered, but she quelled their mirth with a glance.
Baba held her breath as she waited to see if the queen was angry about her bringing Liam along. Technically, it was against the rules, but he had helped Baba to fulfill the task the queen had given her. Hopefully that would excuse them both.
“So, what do you think of our world, Sir Sheriff?”
Liam looked around him at the amazing glory of the Otherworld. “You have a very beautiful land, er . . . Your Majesty. As remarkable as its queen. Can the damage be fixed?”
The queen nodded benignly, and Baba started breathing again. “Indeed it can. Once I take back all the extra power Maya has been hoarding, and close the door she has been using to travel back and forth between the worlds, the balance will slowly begin to restore itself. Another millennia or two and you will never be able to see the difference.” She seemed to run out of patience for chitchat and snapped her fingers at a nearby impish-looking creature, clearly some kind of servant.
“Wake her,” the queen commanded.
The bat-eared manikin fetched a bucket, filled it from the fountain, and threw it on Maya’s prone form. The Rusalka woke with a sputter and jumped to her feet, looking around with wide eyes when she found herself in the throne room. But she regained her poise rapidly and curtsied low to the queen, casting a vicious sideways glance in Baba’s direction.
Baba just smiled sweetly and lifted one finger. Liam choked back a laugh.
“Your Majesty! Your Highness!” Maya bowed again at the queen and her consort, who stroked his pointed black beard and gazed back dispassionately. “Whatever this horrible witch has told you, you can’t believe her. She has been stealing children with the help of her Human lover, and bringing them here to sell them.” As usual, her musical voice was charming and persuasive, and she clearly expected it to have its usual result. “I was trying to get back here to warn you when she ambushed me. You have to believe me!”
The queen curled her perfect lips in a haughty sneer. “Save your breath. I am no foolish mortal to be taken in by your lies. Besides, this giantess has confirmed the Baba’s version of the tale, and admitted to conniving with you. No doubt others have done the same, despite my wish to believe otherwise.”
She rose and descended from the throne, walking down the polished arc of stairs to stand in front of Maya. The queen’s height and dignity made the other woman seem even more petite than usual.
“How dare you trifle with my kingdom, you selfish Rusalka?” The queen said, ice dripping from every word. “How dare you?”
Incredibly, Maya stared the queen in the eye, not backing down from her sovereign’s rage. “I am no mere Rusalka now,” she said. “I have amassed great power. I will fight you if I have to.”
The queen threw back her head and laughed; melodious peals of effervescent sound like bubbles in the sparkling air. “Idiot,” she said, almost fondly. “I am the queen. I can tap into the power of every being within the Otherworld. What you have accumulated is but a trickle in the floodwaters of my magic, and I can take it from you with a snap of my fingers.”
Maya opened her mouth again—to argue perhaps or to plead for mercy—but the queen just said, “Enough. I’m done with this.” As she’d promised, her long slim fingers snapped once, twice, three times, and a golden mist lifted from Maya and floated serenely into the stately monarch standing in front of her.
For a moment, Maya remained shrouded in a luminous fog, but when it lifted, what remained bore little resemblance to the beautiful blonde who’d been the bane of Baba’s recent existence. In her place, there was only a pale, scrawny water creature with straggly seaweed-colored hair and a fierce expression accented by pointy teeth in a too-long jaw.
Liam took an involuntary step back. “Holy crap,” he said in a low voice. “Is that what she really looks like?” Petey hid his face against Liam’s leg.
Baba just smiled. “Yes indeed. Not so pretty now, is she?” The Rusalka hissed at her, dripping murky water onto the floor. “It takes energy to maintain a glamour as sophisticated as the one she wore, and she no longer has that power, thanks to the queen.”
The queen drifted over to stand in front of Baba and Liam, her movements so graceful she seemed not to touch the ground.
“It is I who should thank you, Baba Yaga,” the queen said regally. “I, my beloved consort, and all who live in this magical land. You have done Us a great service on this day, and We are truly grateful.” The royal We was quite clear in her tone.
“Is there any gift We might give you in return? Jewels, perhaps, or a chest of gold?” She glanced around the throne room in the manner of one who had mislaid her car keys. “I do believe We had one of
those around here somewhere.” Courtiers started looking around, one going so far as to peek behind the king’s throne.
Baba inclined her head. “I have no need for jewels nor gold, Majesty, although I appreciate the generous offer. In truth, there is but one favor I require in return for finding the door and the troublesome creature who abused it.”
“Indeed? And what would that be, pray tell?” The queen’s haughty demeanor made it clear that Baba was walking a fine line between asking for too much, and not asking for enough.
It didn’t matter, though; there was only one thing Baba needed, and she didn’t intend to leave until she had it.
“The children,” Baba said, and Liam straightened up beside her, Petey still gripping his leg with both tiny arms. “I ask you to help me reclaim the other children Maya stole, so I might return them to their sorrowing parents, in the world where they belong.”
“Indeed, the children,” the queen said. She mounted the steps to her throne and sat, leaning in close to confer with her strikingly attractive consort. For all his glory, the king was not quite as reserved as his mate, and his warm emerald eyes held just a hint of a twinkle as he glanced down at Baba and her motley group.
The giantess edged away as subtly as an overweight twelve-foot-tall woman can, obviously not at all convinced that the royals would take the request well.
After more muttered discussion, the queen sat up and directed her incandescent purple stare at Baba. “I am more than willing to grant this very reasonable boon, especially since the kidnapping of children is against our strictest laws,” the queen said slowly. “But there is one problem. I do not know where this creature”—she sneered at a sullen and adamantly silent Maya, dripping wetly on the malachite and lapis tiles—“has hidden the small Humans.
“I am, of course, quite willing to torture her until she tells me,” the queen continued blithely. “But that might take some time, and by then, it may be too late to return the children.” She scowled impressively. “And, of course, there is always the chance that I might accidentally kill her in the process. Torture is such an imperfect science.”
She looked around the room, her chiseled amethyst gaze swinging from one elegant, well-dressed aristocrat to another. “If what the Baba Yaga has said is true, and some of my own courtiers are involved in this heinous crime, it would be best if the guilty parties stepped forward and returned the children at once before I am forced to take such drastic measures.”
Silence greeted this announcement. No one moved. Empty stares and blank faces were the only response.
Liam stirred restlessly, but Baba patted his arm to reassure him. Most of her dealings with the wily Maya had been spur-of-the-moment improvisation, but Baba had been laying tentative plans for this part of the process since her first visit to court.
“I believe I may have the solution to that problem, Your Majesty,” Baba said, smiling benignly around the assembled company. “In fact, your own great gifts should lead us to those who have been dealing in secret with Maya, trading their power for the children they now refuse to give up.”
“Is that so?” the queen said, the tiniest suggestion of confusion shadowing her hawklike imperial glare. “In what way, exactly?”
Baba did her best to project absolute confidence; right now, attitude was everything. “When you reclaimed the power that the Rusalka had taken from her misguided partners, presumably you sent it back to its original owners in order to begin to correct the imbalance in the land. Am I right?”
The queen nodded. “Of course.” Unspoken was the word, So?
“As Your Majesty so clearly explained earlier, you are connected to the energy of everything in your kingdom,” Baba went on. “This means you have the ability to scan everyone in the room and see who has suddenly received a major influx of power, say, in the last few minutes. Those people, obviously, will be the ones who gave their power to Maya, and therefore, the ones who have the children.”
She held her breath and stared at the queen, willing her to understand. Around them, there were uneasy rustlings and whispers behind gilded bone fans. Feet shuffled restlessly. A slow smile crept like a glacier across the queen’s face, and one shimmering eyelid slid half closed in a nearly invisible wink as she figured out Baba’s ploy.
“Ah, yes,” the queen drawled. “Very clever, Baba Yaga.” She stood up at the top of the steps and scanned the crowd, one delicate hand moving from one edge of the circle that surrounded them to the other.
Baba gave an imperceptible nod, and the queen’s finger reached out to point. By the time the second person had been speared by that finger, the rest stepped forward on their own, a couple of the women weeping openly, their mates white-lipped and shaken.
Baba breathed a sigh of relief, not caring if anyone saw, and sent out a silent but heartfelt thank you to Alexei, who had taught her the fine art of bluffing at the same time he’d taught her to fight.
“That was amazing,” Liam said, grabbing her hand without seeming to realize it. “I had no idea the queen could do that.”
“Neither did she,” Baba said, “I just made it up.”
Liam blinked. “You what?”
Baba shrugged, too tense to gloat. She’d gambled and won. It could just as easily have gone the other way, and the children been lost forever.
“I suggested that the queen had the ability to sense where the energy returned to, even though I was fairly certain that she would only have felt the energy go—not where it went. Her Majesty is incredibly smart; I hoped that she’d catch on, and we’d be able to trick those who worked with Maya into giving themselves away.”
“But—but, she pointed right at them,” Liam stuttered.
“Like I said, she’s a quick study. You don’t get to rule an empire for thousands of years by being stupid.” Baba watched with a certain detachment as the queen dispatched a dozen heavily armed guards to escort the three unhappy couples to fetch the children.
“When I was here before and mentioned in court that I thought Maya was giving the children to powerful members of the kingdom, I noticed a few suspiciously guilty looks and twitchy eyes. Since I had no way to prove that any of those people were involved, I didn’t say anything at the time. But I signaled to the queen about the couple I was most sure of, and the rest assumed she would be able to pick them out next, and simply gave themselves away.” She squeezed his hand. “Thank goodness, since I didn’t have a Plan B. Unless you count ‘knocking heads together until someone confesses’ a plan.”
Liam gazed at her in amazement and something that looked frighteningly like awe. “Remind me never to play poker with you,” he said. And kissed her lightly on the lips, despite the glowering looks they were getting from most of the remaining members of the court.
Baba’s chuckle was interrupted by a flurry of movement and twittering voices as the guards returned, herding Maya’s partners in crime and three small children. The oldest, a girl of about seven, carried the youngest, a boy who couldn’t have been much more than two. The youngsters looked dazed and confused, except one small pig-tailed girl with brown hair, brown eyes, and a stubborn chin.
“Sheriff Mac!” she yelled, as she caught a glimpse of Liam, and ran across the floor to be scooped up into his arms.
“Mary Elizabeth!” Liam said. “Boy, is your mama going to be happy to see you!” Baba thought she saw tears shimmering in his eyes.
Baba seemed to be having some kind of problem with her eyes as well. Some kind of exotic dander from one of the queen’s menagerie, no doubt. But the soon-to-be-ex-parents were in much worse shape. One slender, fantastically beautiful woman with long pink hair and a flowing dress made up of gauzy sky-blue silks and twinkling star-studded organdy was on her knees in front of the royal couple, begging pitifully to be allowed to keep the child she’d been hiding in a secret underground lair filled with toys and candy.
The c
hild in question huddled with the other kids near Liam and Baba, too stunned and confused to do more than stand in silent unity with those they recognized as humans.
The queen shook her head, a hint of pity amid the frigid harshness of her gaze. “I cannot reward behavior that could have destroyed the entire Otherworld. The rule against stealing Human children exists for a reason. It was that act which caused us to be hunted and reviled in the mundane world, forcing us to leave behind all our sacred spaces there and retreat to the safety of this realm, only to return now and then on those days, like the summer solstice and All Hallows Eve, when our power is strong.”
“But the Humans no longer even believe we exist,” another man protested. “They will not hunt what they do not acknowledge as real!”
“Will they not?” the king interjected, gesturing at Liam and Baba. “Will they not move mountains to track down and retrieve that which belongs to them? I say that evidence to the contrary stands before you now. The queen is right. There can be no condoning an action that puts us all at risk. And certainly no rewarding it.”
The pink-haired woman staggered to her feet, holding on to her mate as she swung around to search out the child that had been so briefly hers. “But, Majesty, everyone knows that Humans do not value their children as we do ours. And they have so many, and we have so few. How can it be wrong to take one or two for our own?”
Liam took a halting step forward, hampered by Petey’s limpet grip on one leg, still holding Mary Elizabeth in his arms. Baba’s heart swelled with pride as he stood in front of the court and spoke out in a strong voice.
“You’re not completely wrong,” he said. “There are some humans who treat their children badly. But most of them love their children more than life itself, and would do anything for them.” He pointed his chin at Mary Elizabeth, since both his hands were full. “This little girl’s mother went so far as to seek out the Baba Yaga for help, no matter what the cost. All these children have parents at home who have been suffering agonies of sorrow, fear, and loss since they were stolen. They are not prizes to be argued over. They are loved and treasured, and Baba and I are taking them home where they belong.”
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