The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy #3) - Katherine Arden Page 0,19

you never thought that heaven and hell are both nearer you than you like to believe?”

“Heaven? Nearer?” said Konstantin. He could feel every ridge of the wooden wall pressed against his back. “God abandoned me. He gave me over to devils. There is no heaven. There is only this world of clay.”

“Exactly,” said the demon. He spread his arms wide. “To mold to your liking. What do you desire of this world, little father?”

Konstantin was shaking in every limb. “Why are you asking?”

“Because I need you. I am in need of a man.”

“For what?”

Medved shrugged. “Men do the work of devils, do they not? It has always been so.”

“I am not your servant.” His voice shook.

“Nay—who wants a servant?” said the Bear. He stepped closer and closer still, voice dropping. “Enemy, lover, passionate slave you may choose, but servant—no.” His red tongue just touched his upper lip. “See, I am generous in my bargains.”

Konstantin swallowed, his mouth dry. His breath came short, with eagerness and despair; it felt as though the walls of his cell were closing in. “What would I get in return for my—allegiance?”

“What do you want?” returned the chyert, so near that he could murmur the question into Konstantin’s ear.

In the priest’s soul was a desperate mourning. I prayed—all the years of my life, I prayed. But you were silent, Lord. If I am making bargains with devils it is only because you abandoned me. This devil looked as though he were following his thought with an easy and a secret delight.

“I want to forget myself in men’s devotion.” It was the first time he had ever spoken the thought aloud.

“Done.”

“I want the comforts that princes have,” Konstantin went on. He was going to drown in that single eye. “Good meats and soft beds.” He breathed out the last word. “Women.”

The Bear laughed. “That too.”

“I want earthly authority,” Konstantin said.

“As much as your two hands, your heart, and your voice can compass,” the Bear said. “The world at your feet.”

“But what do you want?” breathed Konstantin Nikonovich.

The devil’s hand curled into a clawed fist. “All I wanted was to be free. My bastard brother penned me up in a clearing on the edge of winter for life after life of men. But at long last he wanted something more than he wanted me confined and I am freed at last. I have seen the stars and smelled the smoke, and tasted men’s fear.”

Softer, the devil added, “I have found the chyerti faded to shadows. Now men order their lives to the sound of damned bells. So I am going to throw the bells down, throw down the Grand Prince while I am about it; set fire to this whole little world of Rus’ and see what grows out of the ashes.”

Konstantin stared, fascinated and afraid.

“You will like that, won’t you?” asked the Bear. “That will teach your God to ignore you.” He paused and then added more prosaically, “In the short term, I want you to go tonight where I bid you and do what I tell you.”

“Tonight? The city is unsettled; midnight has come and gone and I—”

“Are you afraid that you might be seen out past midnight, consorting with the wicked? Well, leave that to me.”

“Why?” said Konstantin.

“Why not?” returned the other.

Konstantin made no answer.

The devil breathed against his ear, “Would you rather stay and think of her dying? Sit here in the dark, and lust after her, dead?”

Konstantin tasted blood where his teeth had come together on the inside of his cheek. “She was a witch. She deserved it.”

“That does not mean you didn’t enjoy it,” murmured the devil. “Why do you think I came to you first?”

“She was ugly,” said Konstantin.

“She was as wild as the sea,” he rejoined. “And full, like the sea, of mysteries.”

“Dead,” said Konstantin flatly, as though speaking could cut off memory.

The devil smiled a secret smile. “Dead.”

Konstantin felt the air thick in his lungs, as though he were trying to breathe smoke.

“We cannot dally,” said the Bear. “The first blow—the first blow must be struck tonight.”

Konstantin said, “You tricked me before.”

“And I might again,” returned the other. “Are you afraid?”

“No,” said Konstantin. “I believe in nothing and I fear nothing.”

The Bear laughed. “As it should be. Because that is the only way you can play for everything, when you do not fear to lose.”

6.

No Bones, No Flesh

DMITRII AND HIS MEN TORE apart the fire on the river. Sasha worked alongside the others in the most hopeless