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to win support and take over.

What Father Lukas didn't understand was that if Sergei had told, Dimitri would have been standing here with a sword when Ivan and Katerina arrived, and Ivan's head would have rolled into the chasm within moments.

For half an hour they all talked - or rather, Sergei and Father Lukas talked while Katerina and Ivan listened, saying little, but looking more sorrowful and more grimly determined as each tale unfolded. Finally, Katerina turned to Ivan and said, "You see? Maybe it's Christ who has been helping us all along, for unless we defeat the Pretender, Christianity is lost in this part of the world."

"Baba Yaga isn't the problem of the moment," said Father Lukas. "There's plenty of time to drive out the servants of the devil from other kingdoms, once we rid ourselves of the devil in our midst."

"Dimitri," Sergei explained.

"Poor man," said Ivan.

"You pity him?" said Katerina. "After what he did to my father?"

"And you would be wise to pity him, too," said Ivan. "He isn't the first person that the Widow has deceived into acting in a way that he never would have on his own."

"He shriveled my father's tongue in his mouth," said Katerina.

"Did he know the spell would do that?" said Ivan. "Or was he like Ruthie, who never knew what she was doing?"

Clearly Ivan and Katerina had had experiences of their own since leaving Taina. But this discussion was leading nowhere. "The story is that the Pretender returned yesterday, with more magic than ever," said Sergei.

"Only yesterday?" asked Katerina. "That's good."

"Good?"

"She left the land where Ivan's family lives more than a week ago. We were afraid she would strike before we could get back."

"They say she has a huge new house that walks around on chicken legs. It's as white as snow and as hard as a sword's blade. So they say," said Sergei.

"Gossip spreads fast," said Ivan.

"She wanted everyone to know," said Katerina. "She probably spread the stories herself."

"The question is," said Ivan, "will we have time to prepare before she attacks?"

"Who knows?" said Katerina. "All we can do is work as quickly as we can and hope that it's enough time."

"But that's all the more reason to be merciful to Dimitri," said Ivan. "We don't have time to deal with putting down a revolt. Pardon him, forgive all who followed him, and then concentrate on finding the materials we need."

"If only we could have made them there and brought them with us," said Katerina.

"In what pockets?" asked Ivan. The two of them laughed ruefully.

Sergei was surprised at how many words the two of them used that he had never heard before. What happened to them while they were gone? Whatever it was, one thing was plain: They liked each other now. No, they loved each other. Sergei could see it in the way Katerina looked at Ivan, in the way Ivan oriented himself around her at every moment. It was as if she was now included within his protective circle - though a look at Ivan's arms showed that he hadn't acquired the muscles of a swordsman.

"You're wearing that robe I burned on your wedding day," said Father Lukas. "I thought Brother Sergei had it last."

"Well, nobody wants this robe," said Sergei, hoping that joking about his peed-on clothing would distract Father Lukas from the nastiness that Sergei could see coming.

It didn't work. Father Lukas simply ignored him. "It seems that Sergei kept secrets from me."

"If he did," said Katerina, "it was at my command, Father Lukas."

"You have no authority over a scribe's truthfulness to his priest," said Father Lukas mildly.

Ivan made as if to answer then, but Katerina raised a hand, just slightly, and Ivan immediately fell silent, deferring to her. "Father Lukas, when a subject gives obedience to his sovereign, yet in doing so commits no sin, does he have anything to confess?"

"The sin was in not telling me," said Father Lukas, growing grumpier.

"Then perhaps you don't wish to have me rule as a Christian sovereign in Taina," said Katerina. "For I could never rule if I thought my subjects owed obedience to the priest before me."

"Sergei is a cleric," said Father Lukas.

"Tell me now," said Katerina. "Are clerics subject to my rule or not? If not, then I won't bother trying to restore Christianity to Taina. It would be a seditious influence, for everyone who took holy orders would believe himself to owe no further obedience to the king."

Father Lukas realized the dilemma he had placed