Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [76]
Or she might treat him as she had treated the creatures in the stable. And truth be told, if she did the latter, it would be better for him. The Tradition would treat that as her breaking her bargain with him, which would leave him free to do what he was going to do anyway. There would be no repercussions if she was the first to be the one to break the deal. And that would be good.
Because he was going to free Sergei, and he would need every bit of his Luck and The Tradition on his side to do that.
And maybe, just maybe, the bread he had given the Goat and the Wolf would free them as well. By accepting his bread and the tiny bit of salt he had sprinkled on it, Traditionally speaking, they had accepted him as, not master, but liege. If they chose to. That was the key. If they had accepted him in their own minds, deliberately, then once the witch released them from their physical bonds…
But that was something he would not know, and could not know, until the moment they chose to act. If, in fact, they would.
The Goat, at least, had implied as much. But the Wolf?
The Wolf was the unknown.
And the Wolf was the most dangerous to his plans.
For the first time since he had started this quest, he had leisure and was able to think about the reason for his search. His heart filled with longing and just a touch of fear. Katya…Where was she? Was she safe? Or if not safe, at least in no immediate danger?
Or if not that…
She is brave, competent, clever. She will likely only need a little help from me, or none at all. I only hope when we finally meet, she isn’t angry at me for coming after her. He tried very hard to convince himself of that. Tried to believe that the reason she had not returned, had not sent word, was that she was safe and secure, but in hiding and dared not break her secret cover. He tried to think about her as he had last seen her, plunging into the sea, ready to race to discover what it was her father needed her to do, full of high courage, and wit, and intelligence. But all he could really think about was Katya in his bed, sweet and fierce and…
And he needed to stop thinking about that right now. Because the rising in his groin was not going to be easily explained if the witch came out right now….
Suddenly the hut spun around to face him, and all amorous thoughts vanished in the baleful glare of those windows.
The hut squatted down, and Baba Yaga emerged, this time from the front door. If anything, she was even stranger to look at than he had thought. He hadn’t noticed her hunched back in the mortar. And somehow, the fact that her nose was so long it almost touched her chin hadn’t made much of an impression on him, either.
Or maybe it was possible she could change how she looked, and this even more grotesque face was her true one.
She scuttled up to him, and looked him up and down. He’d cleaned himself up, so he was fairly presentable. He gave the old witch a respectful bow, and she replied with a sneer, and stalked into the stable.
She emerged only a few moments later, with an interesting look on her face. Surprise, mingled with smugness and self-congratulation.
Oh ho. She thinks she has gotten herself a bargain. Which means, I think, that she is about to cheat me.
He presented her with a look of pure grinning idiocy. She mimed him following her to the hut.
He lost the grin. He shook his head vigorously, and looked at the door of the hut with exaggerated fear.
Or maybe not so exaggerated. He really did not want to go in that hut. Once he was in there, he was truly in the lion’s den.
She looked at him with impatience.
Then, unexpectedly, her hand shot out as fast as thought, and she seized him by the ear like any babushka with a naughty grandchild!
It was all he could do to avoid yelling something coherent. Her grip on his ear was as tight as a vise and