The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy #3) - Katherine Arden Page 0,115

lip. “You have my oath—Vasilisa Petrovna.” He put his bound wrist to his mouth and bit his hand suddenly, just where finger met thumb. Blood, clear and sulfur-smelling, welled out. He put out a thick-fingered hand.

“What does your blood do to someone who is not dead?” she asked.

“Karachun told you, did he?” he said. “It gives you life, wild girl. Haven’t I sworn not to harm you?”

She hesitated, and then clasped his hand, her blood sluggish on his skin, his blood stinging where it touched. She felt a jolt of unpleasant energy, burning away her weariness.

Pulling her hand away, she said, “If you are forsworn, then back to this tree you will go, tied hand and foot and throat with this golden thing. And I will put out your other eye and you may live in darkness.”

“You were such a sweet child, when I first met you by this very tree,” remarked the Bear. “What happened?” His voice was mocking, but she could feel the tension in him, when she began to undo the golden clasps.

“What happened? Love, betrayal, and time,” said Vasya. “What happens to anyone who grows to understand you, Medved? Living happens.” Her hands slid along the oily gold, working at the buckles. She wondered briefly how Kaschei had made it. Somewhere, perhaps, there was an answer, somewhere there were secrets of magic beyond the setting of fires, the seeing of chyerti.

One day, perhaps, she would learn them, in far countries, beneath wilder skies.

Then the gold slithered away, all in a rush. The Bear was very still, flexing his unbound hands with a disbelief he couldn’t quite conceal. She got to her feet. The gold was in two pieces: what had been the reins and the headstall of the bridle. She wrapped them around her wrists: a terrible prince’s ransom, shining.

The Bear rose, and stood beside her. His back was straight; his eye glittered. “Come then, mistress,” he said, half-mocking. “Where shall we go?”

“To my brother,” said Vasya grimly. “While it is still midnight, and he is still alive. But first—”

She turned, seeking, in the darkness. “Polunochnitsa,” she said.

She had no doubts of her guess, and indeed, the midnight-demon stepped at once into the clearing. Voron’s great hooves crunched the bracken at her back.

“You betrayed me,” said Vasya.

“But you understood at last,” said Polunochnitsa. “It was never your task to pick out the good from the wicked. Your task was to unite us. We are one people.” The rage was gone from her face.

Vasya stalked forward. “You could have told me. They tormented my brother.”

“It is not something you can be told,” said Polunochnitsa. “It is something you must come to understand.”

Her great-grandmother had said the same. Vasya could feel the Bear watching. He breathed out a laugh as she, wordless, unspooled the golden rope, snapped it out, caught Polunochnitsa around the throat. The midnight-demon tried to wrench back, but couldn’t, caught by the power in the gold. She made a single, shocked sound and stood still, wide-eyed.

Vasya said, “I do not like being betrayed, Polunochnitsa. You took no pity on me after the fire; you had no pity on my brother. Perhaps I should leave you tied to a tree.”

The black stallion reared, squealing. Vasya didn’t move, though the great hooves were a handsbreadth from her face. “I will take her with me, Voron, if you kill me.”

The horse subsided, and Vasya had to harden her heart. Midnight was looking at her with genuine fear. “Medved owes me allegiance now, and so do you, Polunochnitsa. You will not betray me again.”

The midnight-demon was staring at her with horror and unwilling fascination. “You are Baba Yaga’s heir in truth now,” she said. “When you have finished with the dealings of men, go back to the lake. At midnight, the witch will be waiting.”

“I am not finished yet,” Vasya said grimly. “I am going to save my brother. You are going to swear an oath to me as well, Lady Midnight, and you are going to help me.”

“I am sworn to your great-grandmother.”

“And, as you said, I am her heir.”

Their eyes locked, a silent battle of wills. Midnight was the first to lower hers. “I swear then,” she said.

“What do you swear?”

“To serve you and to heed you, and never to betray you again.”

Vasya, with a snap, freed Polunochnitsa of the golden rope. “I swear to sustain you as I can,” she said. “With blood and with memory. We can no longer afford to fight