Page 20 of Cry of the Firebird

Anya followed Yvan until they stumbled through the trees and onto a dirt road. There wasn't a single house or person in sight.

"Which way?" Anya asked, her ribs aching from trying to keep up with Yvan's long strides. He was standing rigidly, staring at something past her left shoulder.

"Should I turn around?" she whispered as the hair on her neck rose.

Yvan shook his head. "Get behind me."

Anya did as she was told, turning back around as a rider moved from the forest's edge and stopped in the middle of the road.

He had a shaggy long beard and hair the color of dried blood. He was filthy and matted with gore, his red eyes glowing in the failing light. In one hand, he held a long, crude spear covered in old blood and rune marks. His horse was massive and was the same bloody red. Eikki's horror story of such a creature came back to her.

The Red Rider, servant of Baba Yaga, stood before them with rage in his eyes. Anya hid behind Yvan. "This can't be happening."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"We have no quarrel with you or your mistress," Yvan told the Red Rider, and Anya dared peek over his broad shoulder.

"You have been summoned nonetheless, Yvan Tsarevich. She doesn't like to be kept waiting. I've been instructed to take you by force if necessary."

Yvan bowed. "Lead the way. We would be honored to meet your mistress."

The Red Rider steered his horse in the opposite direction. "Don't even think of running. The Black Rider is waking in the woods, and he isn't as polite as I am."

Yvan tightened his grip on her hand. "Anya, please tell me you know who Baba Yaga is?"

She did. And she had no intention of ending up in a soup pot.

Anya had never seena house uglier than Baba Yaga's. It was made entirely of moldy bones in the same interlocking design as a log cabin. A thorny garden grew as high as the fence, andskulls, bleached white by the sun, capped each fence post. Two enormous, scaly chicken legs covered in lichen appeared on either side of the house.

Anya snorted in amusement and disgust. Yvan, she noticed, had turned an attractive shade of gray.

Be brave, Anya. Or be angry.Anya pushed her fear down and hung onto her anger. "Come on, let's get this over with."

"You should be more afraid," Yvan muttered.

Anyawasafraid, but she wasn't going to show it. In her experience, anger was always better when dealing with bullies.

"Why would I be afraid of a shitty old house and a gnarly old witch?" Anya shouted.

"By all means, do come in, loud-mouthed girl," a voice called out to them.

The gate and the door to the house silently opened for them. The smell of rotting meat reached Anya's nose, making her gag.

"No, thanks," Anya replied before adding quietly to Yvan, "I know the stories. If we go in there, we won't ever come out."

Baba Yaga appeared in the garden. She looked Anya up and down with beady black eyes. She had messy gray hair, a wrinkled face, and an iron-toothed smile. Cold pressure built behind Anya's eyes, and she fought the sensation, thinking of the firebird's heat melting it away. After dealing with Tuoni and Vasilli, she wasn't about to let another compulsion spell hit her. The old witch shuddered once, and the pressure stopped.

"Ah, Yanka, I thought you were still dead. I should have known it was you in my vision," Baba Yaga cackled.

"Sorry to disappoint, but my name isn't Yanka," Anya said firmly.Yanka.The name sounded so familiar, but Anya couldn't place it.

Baba Yaga made a frustrated growl in the back of her throat. "A bloodline brat, are you? I heard Yanka had crossed to Mirand bred with a filthy human to have Ilya. And here's her weak spawn, in the company of Vyslav's son and a firebird."

Yvan opened his mouth, but Baba Yaga held up her hand to stop him. "Don't even bother to deny it. I can smell the bird's magic from here."

"What do you want?" Anya asked, her mind churning over the name of Ilya's mother. She groped for a memory of Eikki telling her about Yanka but came up with nothing. She rubbed at her head, something shuddering in her mind. Tuoni's magic tore away another piece of whatever spell Eikki had put on her.Yanka. She could feel the answer close, but something stopped her from reaching it.

"Yanka's blood. What makes you think you can give me what I want?" Baba Yaga said, clicking her tongue to get Anya's attention again. Her eyes sparkled. "As it happens, I have somethingyouwant."

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