by Karah Sutton
Zima knelt next to him and put her neck against his, as she might have when she was a wolf. The feel of his fur and the warmth of his breath filled her with comfort and strength. When she stood, he rubbed against Nadya in greeting. Nadya giggled and reached out to stroke his fur.
“How are the rest of my pack, Veter?” Zima asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. “Have you seen them?”
Veter stiffened. He pulled away from Nadya.
“I’m sorry,” said Zima. “Did I say—”
Zima, now I must tell you something, why I didn’t run away from the village, Veter said, suddenly breathless. It’s your pack. They want to attack the village. That was Grom’s plan all along.
How could she have missed it? The day that Leto was stabbed after going to the village, it wasn’t just about taking weapons. Grom had succeeded in his plan to make the humans defenseless against the wolves. But as a consequence, he’d also left them vulnerable to the tsar.
“Then we’ll be here to stop them,” said Zima, managing to keep her voice calm in spite of the fluttering in her chest. At a confused look from Nadya, she took the girl’s hand and squeezed it. She’d explain to Nadya later, but for now, she didn’t want her to feel threatened and frightened by the wolves’ planned attack. They had to focus on Katerina. “But first there’s something else we have to do.”
What is it? asked Veter.
She told him that Katerina was lost in the forest and the tsar intended to use her for her powers.
Veter’s brow furrowed, and for a moment Zima felt fear rise in her throat that his new trust of witches didn’t extend to Katerina. Instead, he said, What can we do?
“We need to find her, before he does,” she said.
Together Nadya, Zima, and Nadya’s wolf, who she’d learned was called Veter, crunched through the snow toward the orphanage. She opened the kitchen door as quietly as possible, taking care to avoid letting the latch clatter or the hinges squeak. Everyone would be asleep, and the last thing Nadya needed was to frighten anyone at the sight of the wolf.
Nadya’s heart thumped at the joy of seeing her wolf again. Zima had explained that he had agreed to help them find Katerina.
She left Zima and Veter downstairs in the warmth by the oven while she crept up to the bedroom where she’d left Katerina’s doll. But as she approached her old room, soft candlelight spilled out, and she entered to find Mrs. Orlova awake, seated on Nadya’s bed.
“Nadya?” the matron whispered. Her eyes flitted to the other girls, who were still snoring.
Nadya stepped forward. The instant the light hit her face, Mrs. Orlova rushed toward her, clutching her shoulders, then pulling her close.
The matron snatched a candle from a nearby table and together they stepped out onto the landing, pulling the door closed behind them.
“You foolish girl!” she whispered. “I thought I’d lost you to the woods.”
“You did,” said Nadya. It was hard to believe that only a few days ago she had run away.
The flame from Mrs. Orlova’s candle lit the tears that trickled down her cheeks. “I am sorry I didn’t have more faith in you to impress the tsar,” she said. “I suppose, in a way, I didn’t want to lose both you and Katerina.”
At the mention of the tsar, Nadya’s heart skipped a beat. Mrs. Orlova listened to Nadya’s hurried explanation that Katerina had run away from the castle.
“We’ll find her,” she replied, looking more determined than Nadya had ever seen her. “Come, let’s harness the sleigh.”
Nadya quietly ducked into the room and retrieved Katerina’s doll. Hopefully, there were enough traces of Katerina’s scent for Veter to be able to track her in the snow.
Together they rushed down the stairs. But as they reached the bottom step, Mrs. Orlova froze, staring at the witch and the wolf in the middle of her kitchen. Snowflakes had melted off them to form puddles at their feet.
“Stay behind me,” said Mrs. Orlova, reaching for Nadya’s shoulder.
But Nadya shook her head. “They’re going to help us.” She reached out with the doll toward Veter and laid it on the floor at his paws. Mrs. Orlova stiffened at her side. But the wolf merely gave it a sniff, then looked up to Zima, his nose twitching. He barked.
“Can he smell Katerina?” Nadya asked.
Zima gave a low chuckle. “He says it smells like magic. Like me.”
Nadya gave a sideways glance at Mrs. Orlova, who didn’t seem all too surprised by the news. The matron’s expression remained cold and wary. “Do you think he can track her?” Nadya asked Zima.
Zima opened the door, and freezing air flooded the room. The wolf bounded outside, lifting his nose and zigzagging away, leaving a trail of paw prints in the snow as he ascended a nearby hill. He let out a series of short howls.
Zima turned to Nadya, a faint hope shining in her wrinkled smile. “He can smell her,” she said.
“Then I will go with you,” said Mrs. Orlova, and she went to retrieve her cloak. Whatever distrust she had of this witch, finding Katerina was more important.
Together Mrs. Orlova and Nadya readied the sleigh, piling it full of warm blankets and hitching on their single horse from the barn. He was old, but strong, and must have sensed their nervousness, because he stamped on the ground while they worked, warming his muscles and blowing puffs of foggy air from his nostrils.
As Nadya opened the barn door, she eyed the rolling hills that separated the village from the castle, with the forest forming a jagged border on the right. If Katerina had taken the road, there would be no trees to protect her from the winter weather or the tsar’s search parties.
Mrs. Orlova flicked the reins and the horse trotted forward, the sleigh gliding over the snow behind him. They slowed, and Mrs. Orlova moved to help Zima up into the sleigh.
“I’m coming too!” said Nadya, scrambling to sit beside the witch.
“Go inside, Nadya,” said Mrs. Orlova. “This is too dangerous.”
Heat filled Nadya’s cheeks. “I won’t let Katerina get hurt,” she said defiantly. She was tired of trying to please Mrs. Orlova, Katerina, everyone. This was what she needed to do. The truth of it chimed in her bones. It didn’t matter if she was in the orphanage, or in the forest, or in the castle. What mattered was that she, and Katerina, and Mrs. Orlova were safe from the tsar.
A battle raged on Mrs. Orlova’s face, but she finally relented. “Stay close to me.”
Nadya opened her mouth to argue, but then she realized that Mrs. Orlova had given in. She smiled. It felt good, standing up for herself.
“Can you still smell her?” Zima called to Veter.
In answer, Veter made a snuffling sound and set forth, bounding up a slope with his nose leading the way. Mrs. Orlova guided the horse to follow, weaving between the hills. The sleigh sliced through the snow as Veter bounded around the high drifts. Cold scratched at Zima’s cheeks. She pulled the cloak more tightly around her shoulders.
After the sleigh had glided over and around several hills, Zima’s lips had gone numb, and she had to shout to be heard above the wind. “Is she close?”
I think so! said Veter.
He picked up speed, gaining momentum as the scent grew stronger. All around them were clouds of swirling white. Surely, they’d be able to spot Katerina? But there was nothing. Nothing but endless drifts of snow and ice.
After a few more minutes of running, Veter slowed. But why? There was no sign of Katerina.
Zima began to ask Veter why he’d stopped when something caught her eye. A piece of blue fabric poking out of the snow, fluttering in the wind. She pointed with a shivering finger, and Mrs. Orlova expertly guided them toward the clue.
As soon as they halted, Zima descended from the sleigh and waded through the snow to get a closer look. As she approached, there was a low groan. Then a shadow moved. It was a person, curled up and huddled against a snowbank. The drift formed a wall around the shivering form.
Zima knew the truth even as they approac
hed. The whispering forest voices had grown louder and more urgent, repeating Katerina’s name over and over, overpowering the roaring wind.
Veter and Nadya hastened to join Zima. Together they knelt down to get a closer look. It was Katerina. Icicles crusted in her hair, and her eyes were closed.
A wave of despair engulfed Zima. Katerina, lost in the snow. How long had she been alone?
But they were here. It would all be okay. It wasn’t too late.
Veter prodded Katerina with his nose and began to lick her face, trying to warm her. Mrs. Orlova made her way over to them, a look of sick horror draining all color from her cheeks.
“Katerina!” Nadya shouted, cupping Katerina’s face in her hands. “Katerina, wake up!”
Katerina’s eyelids flicked open, but closed again, as though ice weighed them down. Her head lolled against her shoulder.
“We have to get her inside!” Mrs. Orlova shouted. But before Zima could answer, there was a groan from Katerina.
“Baba Yaga…,” Katerina croaked, her eyes still closed. “I’m so sorry.” She took in great gasping breaths and clutched at her chest.
“It will be okay,” said Zima, trying to reassure herself as much as Katerina.
Together Mrs. Orlova, Zima, and Nadya lifted Katerina and carried her to the sleigh. Mrs. Orlova took off her cloak and placed it over the young witch. Katerina’s eyes opened again.
“It wasn’t a curse,” she said to Nadya. “It was a warning….” Zima could barely hear her over the roar of the storm.
“It’s okay now. We’ll have you safe soon…,” Zima said in her most soothing voice, bending close.
Veter leapt into the sleigh and began to lick Katerina’s face again. He lay beside her, pressed close so his fur could warm her.
Katerina looked at Zima. She wheezed as she tried to form the words. “The doll…my object…I didn’t b-b-believe you.” Katerina moaned again and dug her fingers into Veter’s fur, twisting.
“What do you mean?”
“That without it…I would…fade…”
Her head sank back against the sleigh. Her face had gone a dangerous shade of gray. They were losing her.
“The doll…,” Nadya heard Katerina whisper to Zima. “Without it…I would…fade…”
The doll. Nadya sifted through her memories. The warning Katerina said Baba Yaga had given her, that her life depended on her embracing her magic. Katerina giving her the doll. Katerina falling ill.
She remembered the strange, lifelike quality of the doll. And Zima’s words: that a witch needed an object, something made of the forest.
Suddenly Nadya’s breath caught in her throat. The doll was Katerina’s object. Being without it all this time had been killing her.
And Nadya had left it at the orphanage!
Nadya hauled herself into the sleigh as Zima and Mrs. Orlova climbed up beside her.
“Mrs. Orlova, we have to get back!” Nadya shouted over the wind. “Quick!”
As Mrs. Orlova pulled the reins, Nadya held her breath. Katerina’s life had been draining out of her ever since she’d given the doll to Nadya. How much time did she have left?
A lamp bobbed behind them on the road. Was it the tsar?
Mrs. Orlova urged the horse faster, but the light was still gaining on them.
Nadya moved to hide Katerina, covering her with Mrs. Orlova’s cloak.
The light drew closer, and another sleigh pulled up beside them, floating like a swan on a lake. And seated inside it were Izel, Oksana, and a few maids and footmen from the castle. They were a warming vision in the middle of this frozen expanse of hills.
“We have to get out of this storm!” shouted Izel. “You need to hide. His soldiers are coming!”
One of the servants offered more blankets to wrap around Katerina, and then they set off again, racing over the hills as fast as the horses would take them.
* * *
—
As soon as they reached the orphanage, Izel and Mrs. Orlova worked to carry Katerina from the sleigh through the kitchen door. The others followed close behind.
Nadya picked up the doll from the floor. The crooked smile painted on its face was worn but still showed, as though the doll was trying to reassure Nadya that everything would be fine. Katerina was of the forest, just like this little doll. She cradled it close to her chest. It would help Katerina be well again. It had to.
Katerina lay on a bench that had been pulled close to the warm oven. The others watched her, twisting their hands nervously and blinking back tears. “I have it! What do I do?” Nadya called, holding out the doll.
Zima took it from her. “I’m not quite sure,” she said, but she placed it next to Katerina, then arranged Katerina’s arm so that her hand rested on the doll’s belly.
Katerina’s breathing was labored and slow, her blue lips open.
They watched in horrified silence, waiting for something to happen.
The sight made Nadya ill. She’d had the doll all along. She could have brought it with her to the castle, and Katerina would have been fine. But now Katerina was dying, and it was all Nadya’s fault.
Katerina had to get better. Nadya couldn’t lose her.
But as Katerina lay still, the hope that was flickering inside Nadya shuddered, as though threatening to go out. What if they hadn’t retrieved the doll in time? What if they were too late? She squeezed her eyes closed. No, Katerina would be okay.
As Nadya opened her eyes again, Katerina’s fingers twitched. One twirled the grass hair of the doll. Her chest rose and fell. And at last her eyelids fluttered open.
Relief flooded Nadya. It warmed her insides more than Mrs. Orlova’s oven.
Little by little, color returned to Katerina’s face as she held the doll. At last, she was able to ask for some water. Nadya dashed to grab a ladle for her, then let Katerina sip from it slowly. Mrs. Orlova set about burning scented herbs and brewing some tea. Veter padded close to Katerina and laid his head on her lap. Mrs. Orlova eyed him warily, but seemed to slowly accept that he wanted Katerina to be well just as they all did.
Tears glistened on Katerina’s eyelashes. She touched the soft fur on Veter’s ears. “Thank you. I thought…I thought I wouldn’t wake up.”
“Why were you out there in the storm?” asked Mrs. Orlova.
“I couldn’t stay, not when I realized…the tsar lied…he told me he knew how to rid me of my powers.” Katerina reached for Zima’s hand. “You’d warned me about him, about his scheming and lies, but I didn’t want to believe you.” She looked back to Nadya. “But, Nadya—she said you could be trusted. I realized soon after Nadya left that I already knew the truth.”
Nadya had always thought of Katerina as frustratingly perfect, yet here she was, admitting she made a mistake. Zima wasn’t the real Baba Yaga, but they’d seen in the memory how much the real Baba Yaga had wanted to keep Katerina safe. The old witch had wanted to protect Katerina all along.
Katerina took the teacup Mrs. Orlova offered her and stared down at the dark liquid. “You made me see what I didn’t want to see,” she said to Nadya. She sighed, but her lips twitched with the hint of a smile. “I feared the forest because of its power. I tried to run away, but I couldn’t.”
She swirled the tea in her cup and took a sip. “I have hidden from myself, and I can’t anymore. I’ve spent too long pretending.” Fire blazed in her eyes as she said, “I am the next Baba Yaga.”
Nadya heard Katerina’s words with pride, feeling closer to her than ever. They both had tried to run away in the hopes of finding something. But what they’d found was each other.
Zima and the others, human and wolf alike, listened to Katerina’s story in solemn silence.
What Grom had told her about Baba Yaga was wrong, she knew that now. When she’d gone to Baba Yaga, it was a betrayal of his trust. But it was what she had to do to save Leto.
And Grom was also trying to save their pack. Veter had told Zima of Grom’s plan to attack the village
, and she knew Grom truly thought it was necessary.
She could feel Grom’s presence deep in her stomach, solid as a tree trunk. He was a part of her, and their separation was a slow and steady ache. Before becoming Baba Yaga she’d never appreciated what it meant to have him step up as the head of their pack. How tired and frightened he must have felt, missing their parents but putting on a brave face for the others. Maybe he didn’t accept Zima’s help leading the pack because he didn’t want her sharing in his burden.
He was doing what he thought was right. And only Zima could tell him that he was wrong.
From somewhere outside, a wolf howled.
It was answered by another. And another. The howls rang through the walls and windows. Zima felt her jaw tremble.
They were here. The moment of the attack had come. She had to stop them before anyone got hurt.
She went to the door. Snow and dry leaves flitted across the floor as she opened it. The winds had slowed. A deathly silence filled the yard, and the clouds had parted to reveal the silver glow of moonlight. She stepped over the threshold, expecting she would have to face her family alone. But a rustle behind her made her turn, and she realized that the others had stood to follow. Veter, Nadya, Katerina, Oksana…all of them were preparing to join her.
Another howl echoed, amplified by the houses and the chill in the air. Veter padded forward, sniffing. He led the group up the hill toward the forest, the way they’d first come. The gleam of firelight from Baba Yaga’s hut was just visible through the trees.
Figures moved in the darkness. And then the wolves emerged. Grom, Leto, even Potok, and behind them, wolves from other packs. A crowd of them. Somehow Grom had convinced them all to join him in this senseless attack.
As soon as the wolves spotted the strange group of humans, witches, and wolves, Grom trotted forward to stand in the lead. His eyes landed first on Veter, with barely disguised contempt, and then on Zima.