Chapter 37
The Pool Portal
Harry landed softly in a spot right next to the bathhouse, where my adventure in Virginia had started. As Lisa and I dismounted the horse, we saw Grayson approach. He dropped the gilded cage with the Firebird at my feet, panting loudly.
“Those birds were something.” Grayson shook his head indignantly. “If it weren’t for the Firebird, I would have loved to chew off their heads. Such ugly peacocks.”
“Ugly? But their tales are quite pretty.” Lisa opened her arms wide.
“When a creature behaves like that, it’s ugly,” Harry chimed in. “I agree with Grayson.” The two of them high-fived each other.
“Aren’t you guys something?” Lisa smiled at them sweetly.
“I’ll miss you, Grayson,” Harry said simply.
“Be good, buddy,” the wolf responded to the humpbacked horse. “And don’t let those guys bother you, you hear me?”
“I won’t.” Harry neighed as a lone tear rolled down his cheek.
“Vanya, I will miss you. I love you.” Lisa gave me a look full of yearning. I knew she was doing her best not to cry.
“I love you, my beautiful, wonderful Vasilisa. You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.” I kissed her sweet lips. Holding my bride in my arms made me feel strong and powerful. Nothing could go wrong.
“Vanya, please be careful. And Grayson, please do everything in your power to protect him.”
“I will.” Grayson said gravely.
“Vanya, do you have everything? The mirror? Please call me as soon as you’re back in Zorya.”
“Yes.” I patted my pocket. “It’s right here. Don’t worry, my love. I’ll come back to Virginia before you know it. Grayson and I will just pop over to Baba Yaga’s, return the Firebird, and then I’ll check on my family and come right back.”
“Come on, Ivan, it’s time.” Grayson gave me a serious look. Then he picked up the cage and walked to the door of the bathhouse.
“Harry and I will be waiting outside in case something goes wrong,” Lisa said.
But something told me, as I followed the wolf to the bathhouse, the portal would work just fine. It was that feeling of lightness and transcendence that I’d experienced only once before: the day I was at Baba Yaga’s.
I’d almost made it to the door, but stopped and turned around. I ran back up to Lisa. “I love you, Vasilisa,” I whispered as we embraced.
“I love you, Vanya. Be safe. And come back to me.”
“I will,” I told her, letting go of her hands.
This time, I didn’t turn around. I knew that if I did, I might not make it to the portal. Lisa’s pull on me was too strong.
Inside, Grayson stood at the edge of the pool with the covered cage next to him, his body tense in expectation.
“Ready?” he barked. He moved to pick up the cage, but I stopped him.
“Yes. Listen, it might be best if I held the cage, just so we’re sure we both make it through the portal.”
The wolf nodded and let go of the cage, placing it on the ground next to my feet. I lifted the cage easily, swinging it lightly, as I popped straight into the pool. The Firebird was quiet, so I assumed it was sleeping.
“Here goes nothing.” I waded through the water toward the center of the pool, holding the cage with the Firebird in my extended arms. Grayson followed me into the pool.
I imagined that I would immediately be lifted up and flow up to the sky, but nothing happened.
For several minutes, just long enough for me to question my conviction, I stood still as the water splashed around me.
It was warm and pleasant, but standing with the cage started to get uncomfortable.
Come on, come on, why is nothing happening?
I tried my best to ignore doubt creeping into my mind.
Grayson stood quietly next to me, shifting on his paws.
Outside, I could hear Harry and Lisa’s voices, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying to each other.
My heart ached and despite myself, I felt tears well up in my eyes.
Lisa. Vasilisa. She was the one. I didn’t want to part with her.
I needed to stay. What am I even doing? I thought, and at that very moment, I saw the full moon that had taken position right above the opening in the roof of the bathhouse.
That was the last thing I remembered seeing.
My eyes closed, and I started falling. The certainty that I was about to die as I went under the water took over my being, but I couldn’t resist the pull of going underneath its surface.
Gasping for air, I tried to scream, but no sound came.
I tried yelling for Grayson, but the air around me was too thick. I could barely breathe.
“Hello there, Ivan,” I heard a screechy voice. “Welcome back, Dimwit.”
Struggling to open my eyes, I rubbed my forehead. “You came back, Dimwit,” the voice persisted. “Now, let’s see what you brought me.”
I forced myself to open my eyes and saw her. I was in Baba Yaga’s hut, and the old hag was sitting on a bench across from me, staring my face.
“You came back, Dimwit,” she repeated.
“Good morning, babushka,” I squeezed out, trying to avoid looking at the witch. She was much uglier than I’d remembered, and seeing her unsettled me. The long, disheveled hair, the grotesquely crooked nose. The missing teeth, the sunken-in lips.
“Welcome back,” Baba Yaga said. “Now, I didn’t think you would ever come back, young man. You certainly took your sweet time.”
“It was the quest for the Firebird, babushka. It wasn’t easy to capture the bird.”
“The quest, you say.” She narrowed her eyes, squinting as she examined me. I shriveled under her gaze. She came closer and pinched my cheek, squeezing it hard with her bony fingers. “You’re lying to me, Dimwit.” She scrunched up her nose as if she’d just smelled something putrid.
“I’m not, babushka,” I insisted.
“Don’t you ‘babushka’ me. You can’t sweet-talk your way out of this,” she snapped. “What is it that you aren’t telling me?”
Baba Yaga circled the hut, sauntering to her enormous pechka and back.
She was hunched over, hands on her hips, her toothless mouth moving as she spoke to herself in a language only she could understand.
I noticed the cage with the Firebird sitting in the middle of her table, right next to a large black cauldron, out of which steam rose.
The cage was still covered with the canvas sheet, and I wondered how the Firebird would react once Baba Yaga lifted it and the magical bird saw where it would now live.
I felt sorry for the creature. It hadn’t done anything to deserve this terrible fate.
“Aha!” Baba Yaga exclaimed, raising her finger to the sky. “I knew it! You messed with another witch, didn’t you? That’s the smell. That musky, earthy smell. Was it her? The Copper Madam?”
“She likes to be called ‘the Mistress,’” I corrected Baba Yaga and immediately realized it had been exactly the wrong thing to say. The expression on the hag’s face darkened, and she walked over to me, shaking with anger.
“You’re going to tell me what she wants to be called, are you? Do you realize what you’ve gotten yourself into, Ivan the Dimwit?” She hunched over me.
“I’m sorry, babushka,” I mumbled, trying hard not to offend Baba Yaga any further.
The old hag wasn’t about to let me go, that much was clear. I had only one hope: Grayson. Had he managed to come through the portal with me?
If so, where was the wolf?
“Babushka, babushka,” Baba Yaga screeched in a mocking tone.
“You sit right here, I’ll get the cauldron going.
” She huddled to the table, hunching over the pot, and threw something right into it.
The cauldron made a loud hissing noise, and the steam that had been rising from it turned green. A rancid smell filled the room.