Wickedly Powerful

by Deborah Blake

  A teen-shaped torpedo barreled out of the door as the group approached, whooping and grinning from ear to ear as she gave Bella a huge hug.

  “You’re okay! You’re okay!” she said, before stepping back and trying to pretend she hadn’t gotten carried away. Bella wasn’t sure which one of them was more embarrassed, but if anything, that just made her treasure the gesture more. Jazz went on to hug Sam too, and kiss Koshka soundly on the top of his head.

  “You found her! You brought her back!” she said to Sam. “I knew you would.” She stared at his face, but didn’t say anything.

  “Hey, it was mostly me, you know,” Koshka said. “Although Sam helped. A little.”

  “We helped too,” Barbara said. “But you don’t have to hug us.” Bella choked back a laugh. Barbara was definitely not a public display of affection kind of woman.

  “I’m glad to see you too, kid,” Bella said, putting one arm around Jazz. “As you can tell, we found the Riders. Also, Brenna is dead, so we don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

  Jazz started humming something under her breath that sounded distinctly like “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” until Bella gave her a dirty look. She indicated each of the Riders in turn.

  “Jazz, this is Mikhail Day, Gregori Sun, and Alexei Knight. Boys, this is my pseudo-niece, Jazz. She’s been staying with me for a few days,” Bella said.

  “Day, Sun, and Knight?” Jazz said, cocking her head to one side quizzically. “Really?”

  “It is a fairy-tale thing,” Alexei explained. “Very long story.”

  “No doubt,” the teen said. “Maybe you can tell it to me over dinner? I made sandwiches, just in case.”

  “I like her,” Alexei said approvingly. “She made sandwiches.”

  “Tuna?” Koshka asked.

  “I hate to break up the party,” Barbara said, “but under the circumstances, I think we should probably report to the Queen right away. If not sooner. She isn’t going to be happy if some tree sprite flits through to the Otherworld and tells her what happened before we can.”

  Bella swallowed hard. “Good point. You boys can eat your sandwiches on the way while we travel.”

  Day looked down at the stained and torn remains of his formerly pristine white leathers with dismay. “I can’t go in front of Their Royal Highnesses looking like this. It’s disgraceful.”

  “I suspect that just this once, she will forgive us,” Gregori said. “And it is not as though we have any other clothing to change into. Eventually we will have to find where Brenna hid our motorcycles, but for now, I believe Barbara is correct. It is time to go tell our tale to the Queen.”

  “I hope she is in the mood for a horror story,” Alexei said glumly.

  “At least the story had a happy ending,” Jazz said, trying to cheer him up.

  “It isn’t over yet,” Bella said. “And whenever you’re dealing with the Queen of the Otherworld, happy endings are definitely not guaranteed.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  JAZZ WATCHED IN amazement as the three Riders devoured the platter of sandwiches she’d made; she wasn’t even sure they stopped to chew. Of course, they all looked like they hadn’t eaten much lately. She’d seen that same gaunt and weary look on the faces of some of the street kids she’d hung with on her travels out to Wyoming, although none of them had been as bruised and battered as these guys. Even the giant one with the cool braided beard seemed beaten down and tired almost beyond bearing. She hoped this Queen person didn’t give them a hard time.

  Jazz had the feeling none of them could take much more.

  Despite what she’d said about them eating on the way, Bella made more sandwiches and got a bottle of vodka out of the freezer, which seemed to cheer the Riders up immensely. Except maybe the one Bella called Day, who pretended to be cheerful but couldn’t hide the sadness in his eyes.

  While they ate, the Riders cleaned up the best they could, each of the Baba Yagas helping with soap and water and, occasionally, a hint of magic to at least cover up the worst of the damage to their clothes. Jazz thought they all still looked pretty pathetic, but she wasn’t going to be the one to say so.

  “Will you be gone long?” she asked Bella, trying not to sound whiny. It had been a long time since she’d had someone to care about, and after spending all those endless hours worrying about Bella, she wasn’t looking forward to them being separated again. Not that she was kidding herself into thinking they were going to stay together forever or anything, but she’d been hoping for a day or two before they went their own ways. To be honest, it was kind of freaking her out, seeing Bella getting ready to head out the door again. Even if the door was a magical cupboard that somehow led to an enchanted kingdom.

  “It’s hard to say,” Bella said, looking almost as strained as she felt. “Time can move a little strangely on the other side. We could be back in five minutes, or it might not be until tomorrow morning.” She sighed and turned to Sam. “I don’t suppose you’ll still be here when we get back?”

  “I really should get back to relieve Tiny and check on the owlet,” he said, reaching his hand out as if to take hers and then pulling it back again. “But I’ll hang around for a little while, just in case you do get back right away.”

  “I think I’ll stay and keep him company,” Koshka said, not meeting Bella’s eyes. “I realize there’s no Water of Life and Death to guard at the moment, but I’d feel better watching over the caravan, just in case.”

  “Ha,” Bella said. “You just don’t want to face the Queen and explain how you crispy-critter-ed Brenna.” She and the dragon-cat stared at each other for a minute, and then she shrugged. “Fine, stay here. You save my life; you get a pass.”

  “I guess I don’t get to go meet the Queen and see the Otherworld,” Jazz said, only a little bitterly. “Since I didn’t, like, get to go on the big rescue mission or anything.”

  Bella gazed at Jazz thoughtfully. “Actually,” she said, “I think you should come along.”

  “Really?” Jazz said, jumping up and down.

  “Really?” Barbara and Beka said in unison.

  “Huh,” Koshka said. “Interesting.”

  Bella shrugged. “Yes, really.” She leaned over and kissed Sam on the cheek, blushing a little as she did it.

  “I’ll talk to you soon,” she said. “Assuming that the Queen doesn’t turn us all into a bowl of fruit.”

  * * *

  SAM WATCHED THE cupboard door close behind the crowd of people who had just trooped through it like a clown car in reverse. He still found all this magical stuff pretty amazing. It was like waking up one morning to find yourself living in the midst of a fairy tale. Although the Baba Yagas (with the notable exception of the horrible Brenna) were nothing like any witches in the tales he’d read as a child. For one thing, they were a heck of a lot hotter.

  Especially one of them.

  “Well, I’m glad that’s over,” Koshka said. “Hopefully now things will get back to normal. Dragons don’t enjoy drama, believe it or not. We’re mostly fans of napping and eating.”

  “I don’t much enjoy drama myself,” Sam agreed. “I hope the Queen isn’t too hard on Bella for coming back without Brenna.”

  Koshka narrowed his cat eyes as he looked up at Sam. “You really do like Bella, don’t you? I approve.” His tone made it clear that if he didn’t approve, they would be having an entirely different discussion.

  Sam could feel his hands clench and made a conscious effort to relax them. “I do,” he said slowly. “More than I would have thought possible. But I can’t see a woman as beautiful as Bella wanting a scarred ex-firefighter. She could do a lot better.”

  “Pfft,” Koshka said. “I didn’t see anyone like that in the woods just now. I saw a man who stood next to a raging fire and faced down a dangerous witch. Seemed pretty damned brave to me. You didn’t even scream when you saw
a dragon coming toward you. Much.” He gave a snicker.

  Sam was fairly sure he hadn’t screamed . . . although he might have taken one giant step backward. Koshka in dragon form was impressive.

  “As for the scars, maybe you should go look in the mirror.”

  Huh? Sam went into the tiny bathroom and peered into the mirror there. He put one hand up to touch the left side of his face as his reflection stared back at him with wide eyes and a stunned expression.

  It was impossible, but his scars were faded; still visible, but much less obvious than they had been. They no longer stood out in ridges that yelled for attention, having become instead simply a flaw that people might notice without the horror they used to elicit. It must have been part of the healing powers of the Water of Life and Death that Barbara gave him to fix his lungs so they could move faster. He’d been so focused on everything that occurred afterward, he hadn’t even realized that the Water had not only healed his lungs; it had healed the scars on his face as well.

  He wandered back out into the main area of the caravan, head spinning. “Man, that’s going to be hard to explain,” he muttered.

  “She didn’t care anyway,” Koshka said. “The poor girl was so distracted by her attraction for you, she barely managed to accomplish the tasks she’d been sent here to do, finding the Riders and stopping the fires.” He gazed meaningfully up at Sam. “Most of the fires were being caused by Brenna all along, you know. Your season should be a lot quieter from now on.”

  A sudden realization hit Sam like a semi. “So Bella’s accomplished both of her tasks. I’m glad, of course, on both counts, but does that mean you’ll be moving on now?”

  Koshka shrugged, like a mountain of fur during a seismic shift. “That’s what Baba Yagas do,” he said simply.

  Sam paced around for a minute, fighting a rising tide of feelings he didn’t know how to deal with. Finally, he said, a tad abruptly, “I’ve got to go take care of my own job. I’ll radio Tiny when I get close to the tower and tell him he can leave. That way he won’t see my face. Tell Bella when she gets back that I’m glad it all worked out okay.”

  Then he walked—almost ran—to the door of the caravan and bolted for his four-wheeler. Suddenly the fire tower seemed like the only safe place in a world where the rules weren’t what they’d been a week before and the future held the certainty of a whole different kind of torment.

  * * *

  KOSHKA WATCHED THE door vibrating with the force of its closing and blinked a couple of times. “Was it something I said?”

  Humans. He’d never understand them.

  He turned his large head to look around the empty room and said plaintively, “HEY, isn’t anyone going to feed the cat?” When there was no answer, he marched up to the kitchen area, jumped onto the counter with a thud that rocked the entire caravan, and opened the cupboard with one paw.

  Knocking a can of tuna onto the floor, he then pounced on it and ripped the top off with a delicately extended claw.

  Some days it felt like he had to do everything himself.

  * * *

  BELLA FELT LIKE she was at the head of a very odd parade: three kick-ass Baba Yagas, one of them slightly singed around the edges; three Riders, more than a little rough around the edges and the middle and the sides; and one crop-haired, teenage Human whose expression kept morphing from amazed to intimidated and back again. The only thing they lacked was a Pied Piper playing a flute.

  As always, the Otherworld was a glorious riot of colors, sounds, and smells. Their current path led them past a field of chatty blue carnations five feet high, all babbling at once about whatever local gossip amuses flowers. Rainbow-hued butterflies swooped and played in the air above, so involved in their game of tag (the one that was “it” turned to a solid color for the duration of its turn, apparently) that they never even noticed the unusual band walking underneath them.

  The spicy odor of the carnations vied with the lemon-scented stream that flowed next to the path, its lavender-tinted waters filled with orange and green fish. A water sprite waved to them as Bella and the others went by.

  As they approached their destination, Jazz shifted so she was closer to Bella and said in a not-very-quiet whisper, “That’s a castle!”

  Bella grinned at her affectionately. “Where else would you expect the King and Queen to live? A teepee?”

  “Yes, but it’s huge. And so . . .”

  “Fairy-tale-like?” Bella sympathized with Jazz’s reaction. On some level, you never got used to the grandeur of the royal palace, no matter how many times you saw it.

  “Wait until you meet Their Highnesses,” Beka said. “Brace yourself for shock and awe, Otherworld-style.”

  “Mostly just brace yourself,” Barbara said. “And pray the Queen is in a good mood.”

  As they crossed the immense velvet green lawns in front of the castle, Barbara stopped a bearded gnome in bright red shorts and an embroidered yellow linen shirt and asked him where the royal couple could be found.

  He doffed his pointy red hat, trying not to stare at the Riders, and suggested that they look on the polo fields. “I believe there is a match on at the moment,” he said. “Baba Yagas, sirs, miss.” He bowed and scuttled off in the direction of a group of courtiers playing croquet not too far away.

  Beka sighed. “Well, there goes keeping a low profile. Everyone in court will know we’re here within ten minutes.”

  “You think it will take that long?” Alexei said. “I would bet on five, if I was a betting man.”

  Barbara snorted. “Which you are.”

  “They play polo here?” Jazz asked, focusing on the part that impressed her.

  “Sure,” Bella said. “Only the players are elves and they ride on unicorns.”

  “Wow,” Jazz said. “It kinda sucks that I don’t have anyone to brag to about this stuff.”

  “You can brag to us,” Mikhail said kindly.

  She rolled her eyes. “You guys are, like, the weirdest peer group ever.”

  Nobody argued with her.

  * * *

  AT THE POLO fields, it didn’t take long for them to be noticed. The spectators at the edge of the crowd pointed and whispered among themselves, and the news spread through the hundred or so people there like a wave, so that by the time they arrived in front of the royal dais, all attention was on their party. Behind them, Bella could see courtiers converging from the direction of the castle as well. Out on the field, play was suspended as those taking part gradually realized they’d lost their audience.

  They approached the King and Queen and bowed low, Jazz only a beat behind the rest.

  “Your Majesties,” Bella said. “We are sorry to interrupt your afternoon’s entertainment, but you instructed me to bring the Riders to you, and so I have.”

  “OMG,” Jazz said. “The Queen is gorgeous.” She hovered behind Bella, clearly feeling less than her usual brash, confident self in the face of such glory and pageantry. Her eyes were so big, she reminded Bella of Sam’s little owlet.

  The Queen, whose hearing was abnormally good, allowed a tiny smile to flit over her perfect lips at the compliment, but her expression grew grim as she took in the battered and emaciated appearance of the Riders.

  “What is the meaning of this, Baba Yaga?” she said in a shocked voice. “Who has done this to My Riders?” She reached out one slender hand for that of her consort, shaken in a way that Bella had never seen before.

  Bella bowed again and took a deep breath. Her Baba sisters came to stand on either side for moral support, although since she had been the one given the task, it was up to her to report.

  “I apologize in advance for the use of a forbidden name,” Bella said, feeling her stomach knot up in anticipation of the Queen’s ire. “But it was Brenna, Your Majesties. Brenna was responsible for first kidnapping and then torturing Mikhail Day, Alexei Knig
ht, and Gregori Sun. And when I tracked her to her lair, she then attacked and imprisoned me as well. If it weren’t for Barbara and Beka, and the aid of a brave Human, the Riders and I would all be dead now.”

  There were gasps from all around them, but the Queen simply pressed her lips together and looked furious.

  “And why in the two worlds would Brenna do such a thing?” the King asked, thunderclouds forming on his forehead. Literally.

  “Yes, Baba Yaga, what could she or anyone else have to gain from such despicable behavior?” the Queen asked. “Are you quite certain it was her?”

  Bella gritted her teeth. “Quite certain, Your Majesties. When someone hits you with a magical trap then tries to burn you to death, there is no mistaking her. As for the why, apparently Brenna found the lost journal of Mad Pyotr and was attempting to ‘improve’ on his potion to extend life and increase power. She believed that she could achieve this by draining the Riders’ power and immortality, along with channeling torment from the natural world through fire.”

  “Mad Pyotr’s journal?” A vein throbbed on the Queen’s alabaster brow. “Where on earth did she get that book?”

  Bella clasped her hands in front of her, knuckles turning white. “Er, she told me she found it in your library, Your Majesty.”

  A small shrubbery nearby burst into flames, and one of the three moons overhead suddenly canted slightly to the left. The wiser of the bystanders all took a step backward.

  But the Queen simply took a deep breath and shook her head. “Unfortunate,” she said. Then she focused her razor attention on Bella again. “And where is Brenna now?” she asked in a voice that didn’t bode well for the woman in question.

  Bella and Barbara exchanged glances, then Barbara stepped forward and held out the bandana full of ashes. She untied the ends so that the King and Queen could view the contents.