Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1)(95)
The giantess wavered and Maya spat on the packed-dirt floor. “Oh for heaven’s sake, Zorica, you are four times her size. You can snap Baba Yaga like a twig, and have her pet Human for dessert. The queen need never know you have the child.” She put on a wheedling smile. “You know you want to keep him. Just kill Baba Yaga for me, and you won’t have to grow old all alone, pitiful and scorned in this ugly tumbledown hovel.”
Zorica scowled, her face as terrible as a summer storm. “What did you say about my house? Humph. You want Baba Yaga dead, kill her yourself.”
“See?” Baba whispered to Liam, whose hand still hovered hesitantly over his gun. “Rude. Not a good idea.” To Zorica, she said, “The queen has declared this woman’s life forfeit to the crown for her crimes. I am taking her in to court. It would be best for you not to interfere.” She bowed again, even deeper.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Maya said, pulling out a sword of her own that glowed a sickly poisonous green in the dim light of Zorica’s huge room. “I’ll kill the boy before I let you take him back. And then I will happily kill you too.” Rage distorted her exquisite face and turned her as ugly as the giantess standing above her.
Terrified, Petey started to wail in earnest, and Maya reached out the hand not holding the sword and delivered a vicious slap across his tear-stained face that sent his small body tumbling to the floor. “Shut up, you stupid little troll. Your noise hurts my ears.”
Baba felt a surge of fury rush up from the toes of her black leather boots and straight to her jewel-netted head. Flashes of lightning seemed to reverberate through the room as she leaped the space between her and the Rusalka, her silver sword in her hand without any conscious intention of drawing it. Since she couldn’t use magic here, and Maya could, Baba knew her only chance was to strike first and end this fight before the other woman could use her advantage.
Luckily, that would be a distinct pleasure.
“You. Do. Not. Hit. Children.” Each word came out with a slashing strike from her sword as she backed the other woman toward the rear of the cavernous house. “Never, ever, again.”
Maya fought back viciously, parrying thrust after thrust, but she was clearly less practiced than Baba, who had spent her formative years sparring in the forest with Alexei until she could fight in her sleep. Finally, a twisting flick of the wrist sent Maya’s sword flying across the room and into the back of a chair, where it hung, quivering for a moment, before the wooden chair started to sizzle and char.
Maya’s crimson-tipped fingers curved into claws, and she barred teeth that suddenly looked sharper than they had a moment before. “You will never take me, bitch!” she shrilled. “Come, fight me with your bare hands and I will show you which of us is stronger!” A shimmering ball of magic began to form in the air above her head.
Liam made a protesting noise as Baba placed her sword gently on the floor. But she’d been waiting for this moment for a long time. Besides, it would be rude to turn down such an invitation, and it never paid to be rude in a giantess’s home.
Maya had a moment to gloat before Baba hauled back her arm and punched the Rusalka in the face with every ounce of energy she had. She channeled all her anger over stolen children, tormented farmers, her own ruined reputation, a disintegrating Otherworld, and most of all, every single lie that Maya had told about good, honest, wonderful Liam into one glorious, long-overdue blow. Maya slid to the floor with a whimper and lay still.
“And I think you meant to say ‘witch,’” Baba said to the unconscious form at her feet.
The sound of applause brought her back down to earth, and she turned around to see Liam clapping his hands, a huge grin on his handsome face. Little Petey launched himself across the room and into the arms of the only person in the room who hadn’t terrified him, holding on for dear life, and Liam’s applause turned into a hug as the boy threatened to strangle him with his limpet grip.
“Don’t worry, Petey. You’re safe now,” he said reassuringly, trying to move the boy’s arms from around his neck. “This nice lady and I are going to take you back to your mama.”
Baba looked down at Maya’s limp body. “Just as soon as we run one little errand.” She heaved Maya over her shoulder with a grunt and headed out the door, followed by Liam and Petey, and trailed by a dolorous giantess in a large flowered tent.
“So, Petey,” Baba said. “How do you feel about meeting a real live queen and giving her a present?”
THIRTY
CLOSER TO THE palace, the Otherworld had managed to hold on to its enchanting beauty, although every once in a while Baba spotted a wilting flower or a jagged thorn on a rose that should have had none. As their strange parade neared the throne room, armed guards carrying curved silver rapiers stepped forward to stop them. But one look at Baba and her burden and they just shrugged and stepped aside. The giantess didn’t merit a second glance. This was the Otherworld, after all.
They stepped through a pair of twelve-foot-tall black onyx doors carved with fantastical animals into a magnificent room with a vaulted ceiling so high, even Zorica was dwarfed by it. Baba heard Liam’s gasp of wonder as he took in the pure white birch trees that grew in measured splendor along a grass-carpeted floor to form a path that led to the throne. A fountain chortled merrily in the middle of the room, throwing rainbows over the crystal chairs scattered nearby. Colorful birds with long, elegant tails flew in and out of its sparkling droplets.