Page 73 of Cry of the Firebird

Katya shifted on her side. "Thank you for coming to my rescue. I would be food for crows by now."

"You didn't really need saving. There was a pile of dead creatures before I even got there. You just needed help towards the end. I've never seen a woman able to fight like that."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Good." Izryal's eyes glowed with wolf in the dim light. "You should sleep now."

"Don't tell me what to do," she muttered.

"I wasn't trying to. You just took two lots of pain killers and sleeping tablets. You are going to be" But Katya was already asleep.

Lookthrough the fog to a small campground deep in the North American mountains. Sitting in the closest tent is a man in the middle of a trance. His visions usually come unbidden, but everything he had been seeing for days makes no sense. Hekeeps seeing his hunter friend in trouble, and he is hoping the magic of the Land of Dreaming, will make help his visions become more complete.

He can send a message to her psychic sister, so he follows the paths of the spirit world. The colors move in front of him to form a picture of Katya bleeding on the ground next to a wolf's body.

He sees a girl trailing bright red magic wherever she goes as darkness hunts her. He is stunned and horrified as he glimpses the war that is coming for her. He knows she will need him and his brother.

Aleksandra?He throws the name to the wind.Where is your sister?He waits quietly. He feels the trance wearing off, but he hangs onto the spirit world, waiting for her reply.

Paris. Black magic is following them. The firebird has returned. Aleksandra's voice is barely a whisper against his cheek.

Suddenly his world is crashing, and he is being pulled backward. Air rushes through his ears, and he cries out in pain as his spirit slams back into his body. He opens bleary eyes and sees his twin brother across the fire. His grin is wide and knowing.

"When do we leave?"

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Vasilli passed through the glimmering lights that took him from Skazki through the ancient gate in Sokolniki Park. The guardian of the gate watched him closely with his falcon eyes but allowed his passage. He was too old to care about politics. Only the gate mattered to him, and who he let through changed on his whim. That night, his whim worked in Vasilli's favor.

Due to its location and the labyrinth built around it, the Sokolniki Park was the strongest gate in Moscow. It was no coincidence that Alexei Mikhailovich had loved hunting at the park so much or that his son Petyr had put so much effort into maintaining it.

Vasilli breathed in the cold air and let his body re-adjust to Mir's rhythms. There was magic still there, but it was buried deep in the earth and the sub-conscious of the humans living there. Ladislav claimed that his rule of the Darkness would change that. Vasilli snorted; Ladislav was not a leader who inspired that kind of confidence in him. There was only one person who could have managed it, and with the Princess gone, Vasilli would take on her vision when he had the power.

There were places in Moscow where mortals did not enter. A sinister malevolence touched them as well as constant shadows, and people knew instinctively to turn and walk away.

One of these places was a grand townhouse that had been the Guardians of the Dark's main Russian base for over four hundred years. Vasilli could feel the power pulsing silently from it long before he could see it.

A homelessbabushkasat on the steps leading down to the building's lower basements, smoking a cigarette.

"Vasilli, Vasilli, what took you so long,chernyi synof mine?" she asked.

"Hello, Zhenechka. Are you going to let me pass tonight?" She didn't look it but was one of the most powerfulshamanitsasin all of Europe. She kept guard at the headquarter's entrance with fierce diligence. The last policeman who had tried to move her along had been turned into a rat and squashed under her heavy boot.

"Of course, Vas'ka, you know you're a favorite of mine." Zhenechka pinched his bearded cheek, and Vasilli felt the burning power under her wrinkled hands. "Be patient tonight, eh? There's been no good news received, and Ladislav is not happy."

"Is he ever?" Vasilli asked, patting her shoulder fondly. She was one of the people that he would keep when he ruled. He wouldn't waste her abilities by forcing her to guard fucking steps.

Vasilli moved down the stairs and unlocked the door with a brief touch of his hand. Usually, he would have cleaned up before seeing the Master, but if Ladislav were already in a bad mood, he wouldn't like to be kept waiting.

Moments later, Vasilli sat opposite Ladislav at a highly polished ebony table.

Ladislav was one of the strongest black magic users ever to have been born outside of Skazki. In Russia's older times, he had been worshiped as a dark god, and the blood sacrifices done in his name had granted him immortality. The men in his command still murmured the old ritual line before they killed in his name, and he grew stronger every day because of it.

Ladislav had long steel gray hair worn in a thick braid interwoven with secret spells. It had been said that the ones who could weave intricate braids could read the wearer's fate within its twisted strands. Within Ladislav's braid were smaller, tighter plaits, sometimes intertwined with colored threads, and these were the ones that held his spells. Vasilli had often wondered if the secret of Ladislav's power was, like Samson, contained within his hair…and what would happen if he shaved it off. But why shave a head when you could cut a neck?

"It's good to see you, Vasilli, despite your recent failings. I expected a firebird on your return, and you have nothing," Ladislav said finally. "It would seem we underestimated Anya and your brother. Our spies in recent years really were convinced that she had no power like her father, and now she has managed to outsmart you and the ones we sent to hunt her. We tried to take her in Moscow a few years ago to see if we could use her to convince Eikki to stop being Neutral. As soon as Ilya's pet thanatos retrieved her, we took it as a lost opportunity and not worth pursuing once she was back under Eikki's protection."

Vasilli rubbed a hand over his beard. "I was at her house, and even I didn't see it or feel any magic in her. If it was a spell to hide it, it was masterfully done. As to my recent failings, Anya and Yvan had help. Baba Yaga detained me, and a world walker witch was assisting her as well."

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