I dragged the bread over to him, but it was a real chore for my little rat body. "Yes. It's not much but it's—"
"Fresh bread!" The dog's tail wagged furiously. "I haven't had fresh bread for ages!"
I backed away. The dog set upon it furiously, wolfing it down. With a satisfied lick of his snout, he sat on his haunches. "Thank you, little one."
"My pleasure," I said. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. My name's Scrap."
The dog head swung down to sniff me. Then something rough and wet slapped into me and I was tumbling end over end…
For a second I thought the dog had decided to eat me. But he had done nothing of the sort. He had merely licked me.
"I have no name, friend. I am merely called Dog. And you are the only being I've ever met to show me kindness."
I shook the saliva from my fur, trying to compose myself. "I'm glad I could help. It wasn't easy getting that bread."
"I know," said Dog. "Ivasik has tried many times, but he's too lazy to try very hard."
The dog was very perceptive. "May I ask a few questions?"
"Anything, friend."
"There's a fence with a gate. Where does it all go, when the hut moves?"
The dog chuffed. The question amused him. "If you examine the fence, you will know the answer. But don't get too close."
I crept up to the fence. It looked like it was made of white stone, topped with spheres of ivory. But that wasn't it at all. I had gotten it all wrong.
The fence was made of bone, and skulls topped each fence post.
* * *
I went back inside. With a few hours rest in him, Lycus was able to eventually rouse himself and get back to work. I instructed him carefully on creating the yellow scarf. Dawn had been very specific in her requirements, and this would be more challenging than the simple black scarf. Nyx had yet to see her gift—there was no guarantee that she would like it.
Dawn checked in on him only once.
Lycus looked up. "Hi," he said with a smile.
Dawn stuttered when she saw he was working on the scarf. "I…oh. I’ll leave you to your work," she whispered, and she backed out of the room.
"What’s gotten into her?" asked Lycus.
I chuckled. "I think Dawn desperately wants you to make her a scarf, but she doesn’t want it to LOOK like she wants you to make a scarf."
Lycus scratched his head. "Girls are weird."
"Don’t look at me; I’m still trying to figure out how to be a rat."
The next shift was Eliana's. Unlike Dawn, she didn’t even check on Lycus. Instead, she busied herself with cleaning the hut, cooking Yaga’s meals, and otherwise keeping the place clean.
I ran into Lycus’ room to tell him that Eliana was awake, but the boy had fallen asleep after finishing Dawn’s scarf. There was no help for it. He needed his rest.
I resumed my hiding place near the main entrance. I concealed myself in the usual spot near the trees and promptly fell asleep.
When I awoke, I noticed Ivasik staring at me from near the table on the opposite side of the room.
"Why are you over there?" I asked. It was unusual for the cat to leave his favorite hiding place.
"You’ll see," said Ivasik.
That was all I needed. Screwing up my courage, I sprinted over to him. The curtain was thrust aside right after I joined him.
Yaga entered the main room with a pile of gems in one arm and a silver birch broom in the other. She leaned the broom against one wall and then bent down into some of the empty pots near the other odd trees. Yaga, humming to herself, dug a hole in each pot. She set then placed a gem in each hole, covered it up with dirt, and poured some water on it from a watering can.
When Yaga left, I crept out of my hiding place.
"You could have told me," I snapped at Ivasik.
Ivasik shrugged. "I learned the hard way."
"What’s with the broom?"
"It covers Yaga’s tracks," said Ivasik.
I didn’t like the sound of that. People who covered their tracks were up to no good. I made a mental note that the broom could prove useful in the future.
I padded over to the pots. "Why is she planting gems in the dirt?"
"To grow trees," said Ivasik.
Before I could ask him more, Nyx entered. I ran to get Lycus.
He stumbled out, rubbing his eyes. Nyx stopped what she was doing to stare at him.
"I uh…" he stammered, thrusting the scarf towards her, "…this is for you."
Nyx took the scarf. "For…me?" Her eyes were wide. She stared down at the scarf in awe.
Lycus shuffled his feet. "Yeah."
"I didn’t know you could weave!" said Nyx breathlessly.
Lycus shrugged.
Nyx wrapped the scarf around her neck. She turned away to stare in a mirror that leaned against one wall, so that Lycus couldn’t see her. But from my perspective I saw her secret smile.
"I…this is very nice of you."
"You’re welcome," said Lycus.
She wiped her eyes.
"Are you all right?"
Nyx sniffed. "Yes, it’s just that…this is the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in a long time."
Lycus shrugged again. "I figured I owed you."
Nyx sat down, still wearing the scarf. "I didn’t do anything."
Lycus shrugged. Around girls, it seemed to be Lycus’ preferred means of communication.
Yaga entered as the two sat at the table, trying studiously to avoid looking at each other. "What are you doing up so late?" she said to Lycus. Yaga was clearly agitated about something. "You can make yourself useful. I want all of my trees watered," she pointed at the trees. "All of them. And if they aren’t watered then there will be grave consequences. They must all be watered before daybreak." She stomped out of the room.
Lycus went pale. "I have to go," he said. "There’s got to be nearly fifty trees. I’ll never find enough water in time…"
"You can’t go," said Nyx. "The hut’s already on the move." She patted Lycus’ arm. "But I can help you."
Lycus looked over at her in a daze.
Nyx went back to her room and returned with a towel.
Lycus stared at it in despair. "Uh…thanks?"
Nyx giggled. "It’s more than a towel. It’s a magic towel. Squeeze it."
Lycus squeezed it between his two hands, and water dripped out of it. He leaped up with a whoop. "This is great, thank you!"
Nyx blushed. "It’s nothing."
"Can I ask you a question?" asked Lycus.
"Yes?” asked Nyx, leaning forward breathlessly.
"Have you seen Eliana? I wanted to make her a scarf too…"
Nyx’s expression shifted from shock to cold fury. She stood up and walked out.
Lycus looked around. "What’d I do?"
I crept out of my hiding spot. "I think Nyx has a crush on you."
"Great," said Lycus. "Like I don't have enough problems."
He set to work watering the trees with Nyx’s towel, including the pots that had just been planted. After the first couple, he stopped.
"Scrap? Where did you say Yaga got her seeds?"
"The gems, you mean?" I looked over at Ivasik, but he was asleep near the stove. "I don’t know, why?"
"Because I don’t think these are normal trees."
Lycus pointed. There, in the gnarled branches of the tree, we could make out a face contorted in horror.
* * *
Dawn was up and about at the crack of dawn, true to her name.
Lycus had slept fitfully. He stood by the weird soul trees, as we called them. They had already begun to sprout.
"You must have angered Mama Yaga terribly," said Dawn quietly. "She was very specific that I should check every pot, and if even one of them isn’t wet…" she shuddered.
"They’re all wet," said Lycus confidently. "I can guarantee it."
It was clear from Dawn’s expression that she was dying to ask him about the sca
rf. But Lycus had intentionally left it balled up his sleeve. Dawn was going to have to wait for it, and if Yaga for some reason changed her mind it was good to have a little leverage.
Dawn set about inserting a dry stick into the first pot. When she pulled it out, the moisture was visible.
She looked Lycus up and down critically. "How did you get the water for the plants? You couldn’t have gone outside…" Dawn thought for a moment and then sniffed the pot.
Lycus coughed. "It’s water, I can assure you, milady."
Dawn blushed again. She obviously enjoyed being treated like nobility.
She checked a few of the other pots. One after the other, they were moist as if they had been out in the rain.
"There was no water on the stove…" she muttered, looking around. "You must have used magic! Tell me your secret!"
Lycus looked suitably taken aback. "But milady, I can’t just give away my secret lest Mama Yaga eat me."
Dawn shook her golden tresses. "I won’t tell, I swear."
Lycus leaned closer. "Fine. Nyx gave me a magic towel."
"What?" Dawn bit her lip. "I knew it! Why would she do such a thing?"
Lycus shrugged. "She liked the scarf, I guess. Speaking of which…" and with a flourish he extended one arm and pulled the long yellow scarf from his sleeve. Dawn gasped with delight.
"Is that…" she reached out with trembling fingers, "for me?"
"It’s all yours, milady," said Lycus with a conspiratorial grin.
In truth, the scarf wasn’t all that good. Lycus was half-asleep when he made it, and there were a few errors in it that anyone trained in weaving would be able to spot. But it didn’t matter. Dawn was competing with her sister. That made it all the more precious.
Dawn wrapped the scarf around her throat and pirouetted in the room, giggling. "It’s beautiful! It’s much better than that ugly old black scarf of Nyx’s!"
Lycus wisely kept quiet.
Yaga hobbled into the room, her beady black pits of eyes glaring. "What’s going on in here?"
Dawn stopped spinning. "Nothing Mama. Lycus passed the test. All the pots are watered."
Yaga’s bushy caterpillars-for-eyebrows shot up. "Is that so?" She leaned over a pot, dipped a long, crooked finger into it, and then sucked on it, dirt and all. She gummed the dirt in a mouth for a second. "So it is, so it is." Yaga looked disappointed. She turned back to Lycus. "Well good. Now you can finish what you started. By tomorrow, I want all of those trees bearing fruit. You have one day!"
And she thrust aside the curtain and stomped out.
Lycus’ eyes widened. "Now she’s asking for the impossible…" he began.
Dawn put one hand on his shoulder. "No, no! You can do it!"
"I can’t. The water was a stretch, but I did it…but this…nothing can make the plants grow. Not without magic."
Dawn grinned. "Stay right there!" She bounded out of the room.
Lycus looked back at me. I gave him a rat-shrug. He shrugged back.
Dawn came back in with a plain-looking comb in her hand. "Here!"
Lycus took it. "Uh, no offense milady but I don’t think…" he pointed it in the direction of one of the pots filled with dirt, "…the trees are going to need to be combed."
"No, silly!" Dawn smiled and raked the dirt in one of the pots, slowly and carefully, as if tilling a field. "It’s a magic comb. Far better than my stupid sister’s soggy old towel. This comb, when you rake it over a place where a seed is buried, causes it to grow. Watch!" She pointed, and slowly but surely, something was beginning to unfurl.
"I don’t understand," Lycus said in disbelief. "Yaga keeps feeding me and treating me well, then she gives me impossible tasks!"
"But you’ll pass this one too," said Dawn. "And then my sisters will be so jealous! I’ve chores to do today, so I suggest you start combing right now. It will take some time." She gave him a peck on the check. "Bye!" And then she was gone.
Lycus touched his cheek where Dawn had kissed him. "What just happened?"
"We just bought you another day," I said.
* * *
By this time we had a busy network of informants. Ivasik and Dog were both happily fed, aided by Lycus, who was given a veritable feast of food to consume. Knowing that Yaga might eat him, Lycus decided he’d rather die fat and happy. He ate what he could and gave the leftovers to the rat, cat, and dog.
While Lycus spent the day tilling his tiny fields, I pumped Dog for information when the hut settled down for the day.
"Why do we keep moving?" I asked.
"Yaga is hunted by the villagers," said Dog. "Those ‘seeds’ are from the corpses in their graveyards. She distills their hearts in a special ritual. They’ve hired some of the finest hunters to catch her, but she is quite good at covering her tracks, as you know."
"Because of her broom?"
Dog nodded, busy eating the entire loaf of bread Lycus donated to our cause. "Yes. Every day, Yaga goes out, digs up corpses, casts her ritual, and then she plants those gems."
"And they turn into soul trees, right?"
"You’re catching on," said Dog. "This information will do you no good though."
"Why not?"
"Because you have a spy in your midst."
"A spy?" I blinked. "Who?"
Dog shrugged. "I heard Yaga talking with someone, and she mentioned a spy."
"Ivasik!" I swore. "I knew I couldn’t trust a cat!"
If he could have, Dog would have smirked. "Never trust a cat," he said.
I reentered the hut and asked to speak with Lycus alone in his room.
"What’s up?" he asked.
"I think Ivasik has been spying on us. He sold us out."
"The cat?" Lycus scratched his head. "But that doesn’t make sense! Why would he do that?"
"I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t need a reason—he’s a cat, after all."
"That’s rich, coming from a rat," said Lycus.
"Very funny. Point being, we have to be very careful. Do you still have the comb and towel?"
"Yes," said Lycus. "Why?"
"We need to hide them. We’ll need them later, and I don’t want Yaga on to us. You have the key?"
Lycus showed the key that he kept dangling from a leather thong around his throat at all times, tucked under his shirt. "Of course."
"Use it to hide both of those items somewhere near the door. Do it when Ivasik isn’t paying attention."
"Is he ever?"
"I think he’s always paying attention. We’ll have to bribe him with more of that…" I said slowly, "…ham."
"I’ll give him the whole hunk if it’ll help."
"Don’t be too obvious. Drop it by accident."
Lycus shrugged. "But—"
Just then Eliana burst into the room. I scurried under a pile of musty clothes.
"I heard you made scarves for my sisters!" began Eliana.
* * *
Lycus had just finished weaving Eliana's scarf when I came into the room. "We're leaving."
"Huh? Now?"
"Yes," I said.
He bundled up the scarf. "When were you going to let me in on these plans?"
"I didn't want to say anything until I was sure it was time to go. But we're running out of scarves. I think Yaga's going to eat you tomorrow if we don't get out of here."
That was enough to make Lycus stop moving the shuttle. "What do we do?"
"You remember where you hid the comb and towel?"
"Yeah, it's—"
I put one paw up. "Don't tell me! It's best I don't know about it until just before we use it. But get ready. We're going to grab Will and the broom as soon at daybreak, which is in a few minutes. The hut should stop moving. Then we run for it, heading south."
Lycus fished the key out from under his shirt, turned it against the floor near the door, and deposited Eliana's scarf. "That's it? That's your plan? She'll catch us!"
I shook my head. "I don't think so. We'll have the broom, which will
cover our tracks. And with the use of the comb and towel, I think we can—"
"What? Hide behind a sapling?"
"I think I can enhance it with my magic."
"What about the dog and cat?"
"I can handle them."
"This is a terrible plan," said Lycus.
"Alternately, you could stay here and be eaten."
Lycus stood up. "Let's go." He scooped me up and walked to the door. Will was there, with a different expression, less surprise and more fearful.
The broom was by the door. Any second and Dawn would enter, like clockwork.
"Where are we going?" asked Will.
"We're getting out of here," I said.
Ivasik stretched by the black iron stove. "Leaving so soon?"
Lycus reached for the jack-o'-lantern but accidentally hit a plate, spilling meat all over the floor. Ivasik lithely hopped to his feet and immediately began eating it.
Lycus grabbed the jack-o'-lantern and the broom. He backed out of the entrance to the outside of the hut.
He turned back around and we nearly bumped into Dog. The huge hound eyed Lycus warily.
"Leaving?" he asked.
"Yes," I said to him. "Will you let us pass?"
Dog sniffed us. "You shouldn't. This is too dangerous. She doesn't just plant the seeds indoors. You'll be caught."
"Dog!" I practically shouted. "We don't have a lot of time here. As a friend, will you let us leave?"
Dog let out a heavy sigh. "Very well. But you're making a mistake."
Lycus spun on his heel. There was a clearing around the hut, as if a titanic scythe had sliced through everything—trees, grass, rocks—to make a path. Lycus took a few tentative steps forward.
Gaining confidence, he took a few more. And then he broke into a jog.
"The key!" I moaned. "We forgot to grab the comb and towel!"
"Too late for it now—" began Lycus.
There was an explosion of dirt in front of us. A skull burst through the earth, topping a long spinal cord. It unfolded a pair of skeletal arms and extended them outward, blocking our path.
Lycus stumbled sideways—running with a rat, a pumpkin and a broom wasn't easy.
The ground rumbled beneath us. Lycus took a step backwards, and another skeleton blasted upwards. It performed the same gesture, opening its arms to grasp the hand of the skeletal torso next to it in a mockery of friendship.
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