those of a child. It smiled and touched what was left of Jakub’s face, and for the first time, she recognized the slender fingers as human. Ren’s heart dropped into her stomach.
“It’s human,” said Lukasz, realizing at the same time she did. Then he added, more slowly: “It’s still human.”
The one-eyed man was weeping.
“What—” she began.
“Oh my God,” said Lukasz suddenly. “I’ve heard of these. Nawia are the souls of unbaptized infants. If they wander in the forest for seven years, then they become . . . these.”
“How do you know that?”
Sword gripped in both his hands, he swung at another nav. Beside him, Koszmar fenced rather elegantly with another monster, one of his service revolvers propped against his shoulder.
“My—someone told me, once,” stammered Lukasz. “I just remembered. Oh my God, it’s a child. Did Rybak have a child?”
Ren lashed out with a paw and severed a nav’s arm.
“Who’s Rybak?” she demanded.
The ground was silver ice. The trees were silver ice.
It was Felka who answered.
“Yes!” she screamed, while five nawia swarmed her, and Koszmar blasted them away with his revolver. “He had a daughter! She died, five years ago!”
Lukasz looked back at Ren.
“You can’t kill her—” he gasped.
The nawia kept attacking. Her mouth tasted bitter with the monsters’ smoky blood. Strzygi, rusalki, and now these nawia? It had to stop—it had to stop somewhere—
“I have to!” she burst out.
Lukasz stopped for a split second. Sweat carved lines through the silver smeared up his neck as he turned to her.
“Please,” he said. “I’m begging you.”
A nav loomed behind him, claws brandished. His name tore itself from her throat.
“LUKASZ!”
He spun around too late. The claws came down. He gave a strangled yell and fell. The nav recoiled, claws over its head, shrieking, and struck again. There was a streak of black, and Czarn leapt past him. The vivid white body fell away. Silver sprayed across them, flecked even Ren’s fur.
“Lukasz—”
He was already struggling back to his feet.
“I’m fine,” he gasped. He had a hand clamped down on his shoulder, and crimson spilled over the black glove. He stared at Czarn, looking a bit dazed. “I’m fine. Thanks.”
It was so cold among the nawia that steam uncurled from his blood.
A few paces ahead, Felka and Koszmar were back-to-back, Koszmar skillfully dancing in and out of the terrible claws. Meanwhile, Ry? was on his own in the middle of the fray, tearing into the heart of them. Enjoying the battle alone. Typical Ry?. Always the daredevil.
“I have an idea,” said Lukasz, turning to Ren. He was breathing heavily, hand still tight over his shoulder. “We can save her. I need you, though.”
Ren swiped at an encroaching nav. It retreated, hissing. Lukasz swung his sword with both hands and took the head off another one that got too close.
“I’ll keep them out of the way,” Lukasz was saying. He ripped at his coat, getting the first few buttons undone, and then tore a scrap of bloodstained fabric from his shirt. “Take this.”
He held it low enough for her to take it in her teeth.
“What is it?” she said, around the metallic taste of his blood.
“You have to baptize her,” he said. “You can do it, as the queen. Literally just say—I baptize you, or something. It’ll save her. At least, it’ll save her soul.”
“Bap . . . baptize?” repeated Ren. She had no idea what that meant.
He stepped sideways and put himself between her and the remaining nawia. Czarn crossed the expanse and joined him.
“It will work,” Lukasz said over his shoulder. “Trust me.”
His shirt and coat were soaked with blood. Koszmar and Felka backed up to join them, their human clothes stark against the crushing white bodies. Six of the living against a thousand who, until this night, had never really died.
Ren turned back to where the man and his dead daughter spoke in their ghost world, serenely unaware of the war being waged around them. The man didn’t even blink when Ren, a huge lynx, wound around them. His glassy gaze was fixed on his daughter.
Ren addressed the girl.
“Little one—”
The child turned toward her, face wet with tears. Ren gulped but didn’t recoil. Even though she found herself shaking a bit, she nuzzled the child’s cheek. It was as cold as steel. Around them, nawia screamed and died.
Ren felt the child’s fingers in her fur, and the little nav stroked her ears.
“You cannot stay here,” said Ren. And not quite sure why she said it, she added: “Your father loves you.”