make a woman happy. Well, not true; she knew several henpecked peasants who watched every word they said, so as to avoid getting a tongue-lashing or worse from a shrewish wife. But such men were despised, and... and Ivan was nothing like them. "Why does he care whether I'm happy?"
"That's a very good question," said Sophia. "And it's one you need to answer, because he's been trying to make you happy for quite a while. From what you told me this morning, he walked naked through the woods, getting whipped by branches, because he wanted to make you happy."
Her memory of this event now looked different to her. She thought of the shrewish peasant wives and realized that this might well be the reason Ivan had complied with her. Having betrothed himself to her, he found himself subject to a woman who spoke scornfully and he meekly bowed to her will.
She was not such a woman. He was not such a man. "I don't understand it," she said. "I thought he had simply come to see what was right and wrong, and chose the right."
"Maybe that was it," said Sophia, but amusement still played around the corners of her lips. Katerina would have probed more, for the conversation was teaching her to see events in a new way, and she felt herself to be on the verge of acquiring a bit of wisdom, but at that moment the door opened and Mikola Mozhaiski - no, Marek - strode into the room, the floor booming like a drum under his bold steps.
"I'm hungry," he announced as he came into the kitchen. "What, is Vanya still asleep?"
"He isn't hungry," said Sophia dryly.
Apparently some communication passed between them without words, for now Katerina saw the same half-hidden smile lurking on Marek's face. Sophia laid a plate before him, and piled it with bread and lard, cheese and fruit. He ate with such gusto that the food seemed to melt from the plate like fog. Marek saw the wonder on her face and misunderstood her thoughts. "Of course I eat. I'm immortal, but my body still wants food. I wouldn't die if I never ate - but I'd get very, very hungry."
"What did you find on your search?" asked Sophia.
"She's here," said Marek simply.
Katerina felt her heart begin to race. "She followed us!"
"She didn't come through in the same place," he said. "If she had, I wouldn't have seen her spoor. But there was a trace of stink in the rocky hills south of the road, overlooking that Armenian fellow's farm."
"The Arkanians," said Sophia. "And his father bought the farm before he was born. You act as if he were a recent immigrant."
"I just don't bother learning the family name till they've been here for a few centuries." Marek grinned.
"You seem cheerful enough, with her here."
"She didn't bring Bear with her," said Marek, "or much of his power, if any. There was no scent of him at all."
"Without him, she could never have made such a crossing," said Sophia. "So she does have his power."
"Not ready to hand," Marek insisted. "I know what I'm talking about. She left footprints, that's what I mean."
Everyone knew that Baba Yaga did not leave footprints on the ground or reflections in water. Katerina was astonished. "Is she weak, then? Is this our chance to kill her?"
"Don't even think of that," said Marek. "Even at a quarter of her normal strength, she's more than a match for any weapon in this world or yours. No, you must avoid her."
"I meant you could stop her... permanently."
Marek shook his head. "Don't you understand? That's not how my powers run. Sailors call on me because I have an affinity for wind and rain. Snow in the north. Sometimes a little lightning. Drought, if I'm angry enough, though it takes constant vigilance to maintain a good long one, and I rarely have the temper for it. I'm not much for war. And assassination is out of my league entirely. That's a matter for Petun, and those who put their trust in him are usually sorry, I can promise that. He's not good at clean killings. There are always some unintended targets that fall whenever he tries to bring down an enemy."
Katerina sank back in her chair. "So Ivan doesn't get his wish," she said.
"What wish?" asked Marek, looking from Katerina to Sophia and back again.
Sophia finally answered. "Vanya offered to annul the marriage as soon as you finish off the old bat."