Page 46 of I Will Always Find You
“You seek to destroy me?!” Baba Yaga wailed. “I was there when men constructed the great ziggurats of Uruk. I have been one with magic since this land was known as Talianki. I was bornbefore the first pyramid appeared in Kemet. I will show you what true power is, foolish child!”
In a deep, guttural tone, the Cannibal Hag began to speak in a language unknown to the Romani witch. Her misshapen body swayed back and forth as she held the broom tightly; it acted as a powerful talisman through which she could focus her dark sorcery.
The walls of Baba Yaga’s hut trembled violently as if the Carpathian Mountains themselves had erupted, unleashing a deafening roar from their depths.
Chairs, benches, and even a heavy oak table were violently overturned. Grimoires and other rare tomes of dark sorcery, black magic, and malevolent witchcraft, thought to be lost to time but in truth hoarded by the Cannibal Hag, flew maniacally off shelves. Glass jars, clay jugs, ceramics and pottery—adorned with both Hutsul and Kosiv designs and filled with all sorts of foul substances—shattered, spilling their contents everywhere.
The hut reeked of decay and putrefaction.
The Romani witch watched in astonishment as Baba Yaga stood firm, utterly unfazed by the chaos that consumed her home, a chaos of her own creation.She has gone mad! She would destroy the Temnyi Lis forest to teach me humility! I must stop her!
“Draco ignis—impetum fac!” [“Fire dragon—attack!”]
At the Romani witch’s quick, panicked command, the enormous fire serpent lunged toward Baba Yaga to incinerate her.
“úš,” [“Block”] Baba Yaga muttered, still in her swaying trance.
The attacking fire creature was met with an invisible barrier, one that it could not penetrate, no matter how many times it struck.
The Romani witch gasped; he recognized that word as the language of ancient Sumer. This was magic older than any he or Abriana had studied, a magic he feared he had no counter for.
“im.” [“Wind.”] Accompanying the strange word, Baba Yaga twisted her long fingers into arcane, inhuman shapes.
The mighty gale she brought forth, created from naught but her own will and the conjuration and control of the elements, magic learned long ago in ancient Sumer, consumed the fire serpent whole, extinguishing the Romani witch’s final chance to defeat the beastly hag.
“ki hedun!” [“Come here!”]
The Romani witch suddenly felt himself being lifted into the air and pulled in a direction not his choosing, utterly against his will. It was like that night in Éire when the Horned God had yanked him from his spot near the great bonfire; this invisible and unstoppable force was bringing him before another powerful immortal—a beastly creature. Not only were his arms pinned to his sides and immovable, but his mouth was also sealed shut and could not be opened.
He understood all too clearly that Baba Yaga wanted her prey working no more spells or conjurations, no more battle magic to attack with, though all she had faced so far appeared to have more or less simply annoyed he
With nothing to lose, the Romani witch made one final attempt to strike at Baba Yaga, using a strategy he believed she would not anticipate: targeting her mind.
Now, he had no intention of attempting to lift her and forcibly toss her out a window or throw objects at her. He knew well enough she would not be moved unless she wished to be, and nothing would get through her protective barrier to cause any physical damage to her.
Though he often relied on his talent for manipulating physical objects, the Romani witch rarely used his more subtle mentalabilities except to read and project thoughts. He did not like invading the privacy of others and did so only with permission or in times of danger and distress.
This was one of those times.
Seeking to inflict misery and pain, the Romani witch reached deep into Baba Yaga’s hellish mindscape in search of the one memory he knew would do the most damage to her already unstable frame of mind: her defeat and humiliation at the hands of Hecate. And when he found it, he brought it to the surface and forced the Cannibal Hag to relive it over and over again.
Baba Yaga shrieked and cursed the Romani witch for his wicked impudence. Had he been able to move his mouth, he would have grinned devilishly.
As Baba Yaga faltered and stumbled, the Sumerian spell binding the Romani witch lost its strength. He fell to the ground with a thud; still, he maintained his focus, keeping the mental assault active.
Though his legs remained somewhat wobbly, the Romani witch steadied himself enough to slowly get back on his feet. He was thankful to have bought himself some time to attempt to use another aspect of his magic to fight back. Something darker and more dangerous. But what?
My witchcraft is elemental-based. I have studied and memorized hundreds, perhaps a thousand spells over the centuries, but few are based on dark magic. Possibly a plague-based spell to decay her flesh? But will it work fast enough on an immortal? Dammit! What would be powerful enough in my arsenal to fell this monstrous crone?!
The Romani witch realized that he had foolishly and greatly underestimated Baba Yaga’s magical mastery; his hubris was entirely to blame. He had come to believe that the legend of the great Cannibal Hag was likely exaggerated by bards andstorytellers; the scarier the witch, the better the children would behave.
What a fool I have been. I should have believed the folklore, taken it as fact, not myth. This witch is far older than me, older than the span of my ancient memory, of my many lives. And far more powerful.
As the Romani witch silently reproached himself, Baba Yaga threw her head back and wailed, a scream so shrill it could have deafened even a Rusalki or a northern banshee of The Pale. The sound pounded into the ears and minds of everyone in the hut except for the Cannibal Hag: the Romani witch, whose concentration was broken; Damek; and his mother and brother.
Though the last two were magically hidden from view, they were not beyond the reach of their captor’s torturous, siren-like scream.
Free from the memory assault, Baba Yaga stormed toward the Romani witch, now crouched down holding his bleeding ears, and when she was within arm’s reach, she backhanded him with such force that it sent him crashing back into the wall again. This time, he landed with a thud next to Damek.
