Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [57]
For that matter, even vacant, the Katschei’s castle had some nasty protections on it. The Katschei had never been one to leave a door unlocked behind him. So whatever it was that had taken it—
Must be as powerful, or more powerful, than the Katschei itself.
The swan maidens were inconsolable.
There were five of them left, all told, and they huddled in their feather cloaks on the shingle and wept, and in between bouts of tears, told her their history. They were all sisters, and there had been seven at one point, but the youngest had been claimed by a mortal husband, who had won her freedom. She they saw from time to time—but this!
Patiently, Katya tried to unravel their tale; she appealed to the eldest as being, perhaps, the most sensible, sitting beside her and trying to make sense of what she was saying through her sobs.
“I can’t help you if I can’t understand what happened,” she said, trying not to sound impatient. “You have to tell me exactly, from the beginning, precisely what happened to your sister. Every detail. Details are important and tell me much.”
That elicited a wail from all of them. Finally the eldest managed to choke down her tears long enough to blurt out, “It was just like every morning! We went to the lake where the hot spring is to bathe and play in the water! Even when the Katschei was in his castle, no one bothered us there!”
“We thought it was safe!” cried another—Katya had stopped trying to tell them apart; really, between their floods of tears and identical swan cloaks, it was like trying to distinguish among a flock of real swans. And, sadly, they seemed nearly as bird-witted as real swans.
That called forth another spate of sobbing.
“All right, you went to enjoy yourselves. Why did your sister leave the rest of you?” she asked.
“We wanted to sun ourselves, but Yulya wanted to sleep in the shade,” wept a third. “So we—we—we—left her! Alone! And we heard a scream and a loud wind, and she was gone!”
“Show me the place,” Katya demanded. They looked at her doubtfully.
“It is dangerous,” said one, and “It is a long way away,” said another. “We can fly. You can’t,” said a third.
“This lake drains by the river here, yes?” she asked, suppressing her annoyance. “I can swim up the river as fast as you can fly. Show me the place.”
As they continued to hesitate, timorously, she lost all patience. “I can see you do not want my father’s help,” she snapped. “I will return to him and—”
They mobbed her, clung to her, wept all over her, begging her not to go. Finally, after far too much dithering, the eldest agreed to show her where they had left Yulya. With a sense of relief, Katya pulled loose from the others and dove into the river.
Though swimming upstream was generally an effort, the current was slow and the river placid—exactly the sort of stream that swans preferred—and Katya was at the lake only a little behind the eldest swan maiden. The girl was waiting on the bank, every feather in her cloak trembling as she shivered with fear.
Good heavens, Katya thought, with no little disgust. As timid as these girls are, I am amazed they ever leave their father’s palace. Perhaps it was nothing more than the force of The Tradition, for every swan maiden tale that Katya had ever heard involved one or more of the maidens being taken, or seduced, or hunted beside a lake far, far from their home. Perhaps they had no choice. Perhaps it was The Tradition itself that forced them into leaving home.
If that was the case…
Well, she could sympathize even while it made her impatient with their timidity.
She leaped out of the water like an otter, startling the girl, who jumped and squeaked.
“So, where was your sister when you left her?” Katya asked, looking around at the lush forest that surrounded the lake. She was not surprised that the swans came here. Not more than a few feet away, a hot spring bubbled up out of the ground and cascaded down a gravel bed, steaming, to end in the lake waters. The grass at the verge of the forest presented an attractive place to doze in the shade. And, she presumed, there