CJ Cherryh - Rusalka 2 - Chernevog by C. J. Cherryh
The ember began to glow again, and burst into fire in the middle of Draga's hand.
"That," Draga said, "is magic."
"A straw actually does as well," Eveshka said, with Pyetr's stubborn pragmatism: her mother was pushing her, undermining her way of doing things, and a straw was better, not least because it did not tempt one to throw wishes about carelessly.
"Wishes just don't matter. That's the thing, dear, you don't have to be that careful. If you make a mistake you can retrieve it."
'' Don't eavesdrop, mama!''
"You don't want me to know certain things?"
"I'm not your echo, mama, and I like my privacy, thank you.
And what happens if you do make a mistake? What happens if you don't understand what else you're wishing?"
"That part is the same. There are consequences. Only some of them happen here, in the natural world.''
"Can magic find them out beforehand? Reliably?"
"Some of them."
"Then it's damned stupid, mama, doing anything of the sort.''
"Shhh. You raise a rainstorm. Do you know every leaf that falls? The law is that leaves will fall. Which leaf is meaningless to know. What you care about is that the rain come—and stop in due course. The difference is scope, dear."
"My husband is no leaf, mama!"
"Neither is that baby."
"I don't know that I want a baby! I don't know I want one at all"
''The one you don't want, dear, is the one you and Kavi might have had. Or the one you and Sasha might have had. This one is manageable. But not, considering your enemies, the way your father managed you." Draga shook ash from her hand. That was all that remained of the ember. "Does it matter in the magical world that a bit of wood burned? No. And yes—if it makes you understand what's essential, it's of extreme consequence there and here. There's no reason by which that bit of wood should have that value. But it may."
"The value isn't in the wood," Eveshka said doggedly, "the answer isn't in the smoke."
‘‘That's Malenkova, did you know that? She used to say that.''
She had thought it was her father. She had thought so many things were only his.
Draga said, "The value of a piece of wood, dear, is wherever a sorcerer assigns it. That's the important thing. You can vest a value in a thing ... put a spell on it, if you like. You command a thing to be of a certain value. Or state."
The fire was out. There was no light. Suddenly it burned again, as if nothing had happened.
"That wasn't a trick," Draga said. "It happened. Do you believe me?"
"If you can do it you can make me believe you did it, don't you? So it makes no difference. I'll grant you did. Why did you do it?"
"You do sound like your father. I did it because I wanted. Because I can do it."
"Well, why bother with fires? Wish yourself tsarina of Kyev. Wish yourself a dozen handsome men to wait on you and rings on all fingers..."
"I could do that."
''I prefer my husband.''
"I've had one, thank you." Draga dusted her hands one against the other, wiped the soot off with a towel. "And of course you're right, nothing's that easy. My little business with the fire was showy—but a straw is better, with a little wish in help it, and ten handsome servants might be nice, but then, I've help when I need it."
"What help?"
"Oh, him or her, whatever suits."
"A shapeshifter?" Eveshka was appalled.
"Dear, you won't have a dvorovoi or a leshy anywhere near you if you do magic. They don't like demands on them. A shapeshifter's one of the most selfless creatures you'll deal with if you're careful what you let it be. You have to be very stern with it. And you have to be aware there are creatures that aren't at all selfless, and they'd very happily take any situation and turn it to their advantage. You have to learn your way in magic— and the wizard who's very likely to find serious trouble, my dear, is the one who's doing magic without knowing what he's borrowing from, because a good many of your silly, childish spells are, truly, borrowing from something outside the natural."
A rusalka had no trouble understanding that: Eveshka bit her lip, clenched her hands and tried not to remember that feeling, that flood of life into death—
'' A wizard-child does it—and there are always creatures ready to help, unless he's guarded."
"I knew one that wasn't guarded! He had no help. And he's not a sorcerer."
"Sasha's very unusual. But Sasha burned his parents to death. Did you know that?"
"He told me."
"So he did make a mistake. It scared him out of doing magic at all until your father got his hands on him. He's very innocent. His wish was not to do harm. And the strength of the innocent in magic is like the strength of children—naive and terribly dangerous."
'' How do you know about him?''
"I have my sources. I even know what wanted him. It still does. And of course he'd be very foolish to deal with it. You never deal with the one that wants you most. You deal with Something just a bit stronger—and you have to be very stubborn. You can smother a gift the way your young friend did; but it's very unusual for a child to do the right thing. Usually they don't. Horn in an ordinary situation, they can do very dangerous things—and very many fall right into the magical world and become—the god knows what. If a child is being attacked—" Her mother caught her hands in hers and held them so tightly the bones ground together, pain she opened her mouth to protest, but her mother said, "As you were attacked, dear. Kavi wanted you dead and you wouldn't die. You fought back as hard as a wizard could fight, you fought him by wanting your life so much ... so much . . . you pulled at everything in sight, like someone drowning—"
"I did drown, mama!" The pain was nothing. The image scared her. It reminded her—
"You can drown in magic or you can strike out and swim, clear, you don't have to draw on the natural world. There is a place to get everything your wizardry can use—the right way. It was your fathers damnable teaching that made you a killer. You wouldn't do what was reasonable, no, you followed your father and you ended up Kavi's creature—say what you will, Kavi was using you; Kavi's wishes have been, even while he was sleeping, and he'll go on using you, against everything you want for yourself, unless you listen to different advice.''
Listening to anyone's advice frightened her. There had been so many lies.
"Kavi has your husband in his hands," Draga said, and squeezed hard, while cold panic swept over her. "Don't wish! Listen! Sasha's run, he's had to, he's completely out of his element. He can't help your husband at all, he's in danger himself, and there's precious little he can appeal to, unless he does resort to magic—alone, untaught, and with your father's ideas to cripple him. I can't reach him. You're the one who has a chance, but you've got to listen to me now, daughter, you've got to believe for once in your life someone is telling you the truth."
Something had happened, Pyetr had no idea what, except it meant they were ahorse again, riding in the dark—he had opened his eyes by firelight with the side of his face stinging and Chernevog holding him painfully by the arm, saying, "Get up, get up, pack up. Move, damn you!"
He still had a wobbly, hollow feeling from that sudden waking, he still had no idea what had put fear on Chernevog's face or what hour of the night it was, but a dream kept coming back to him that Sasha had called his name in profound distress, just before that waking; and he doubted Chernevog would tell him anything but lies.
But Chernevog said, as they rode, ”Your friend's found something, or something's found him."
He wanted to know, dammit, he could not help wondering, and Chernevog said, holding to him,
"He's upstream from us. He went back toward the house and doubled back east and north following the river—looking for Eveshka, I'm sure: it's what he hopes to do I can't figure—or how much he understands of anything he's doing."
That was a question. Like ghosts, it came at him with fewer distractions in the dark. Pyet
"You felt it," Chernevog said. "You know he's in trouble."
"I don't know that," he retorted, "but if you are, that does me good, Snake."
Chernevog made him think of shapeshifters then, and his thoughts jumped to Uulamets' likeness, the creature trying to lead him—
"Where?"
—east. To the river. . . .
"My old servant," Chernevog said. "But slippery. Damned slippery."
He remembered Sasha saying—the vodyanoi had corrupted Chernevog, not the other way around.
"Corrupted me?" Chernevog asked, and shifted his seat as if that idea had truly startled him. "Corrupted me, god, no!"
Pyetr thought, And you aren't, Snake?
Chernevog said nothing for a moment, and shifted his hands to Pyetr's shoulders, both, too friendly for Pyetr's liking. Chernevog's presence was very quiet for a moment—enough to make a man's skin crawl, and Chernevog:
"Be still."
"Be still, hell." He gave a violent shrug, remembered Vojvoda for no reason, remembered 'Veshka, remembered the river and Babi and Sasha and planting the garden, all so rapidly he knew he was not recalling these things for his own reasons. He grew alarmed—and got the notion—while it was weaving its way through his thoughts he realized it was not his either—that Sasha's safety might rely on his willing cooperation.
That's a damned lie, he thought, but he could not make himself absolutely sure of that. He thought—if it were true—
If it were true—
Chernevog said: "If Sasha thinks the vodyanoi's corrupted me, then he's mistaken what he's dealing with. He's terribly, dangerously wrong. And so might Eveshka be. You don't deal with a creature like Hwiuur. You don't."
He did not understand, except that no one in his right mind would trust the vodyanoi for anything. He thought, Sasha's not a fool.
"Sasha's not wholly a fool. But Hwiuur's a great liar. He'll try to frighten you. And if you're going to deal with magic, Pyetr Ilyitch, you don't deal with something like him—god, you don't." He put one hand on Pyetr's back, said, quietly, compelling his attention, "Forget about my corruption. It has nothing to do with anything. I'm wanting him to hear you, right now, for whatever you want to tell him, Pyetr Ilyitch."
He thought, It's a trap, it has to be.
But immediately it seemed Sasha wanted assurance of him and quick as that he wanted Sasha not to trust the vodyanoi, to make no bargains that did not involve Chernevog's guidance
No! Pyetr thought, but he doubted anyone was listening to him any longer—he knew Sasha was worried about him, and Chernevog was anxious to find Sasha before Sasha made any bargain with anything, because he needed Sasha, he was afraid Eveshka might have slipped into something that would make her—
He could not think about that. He could not even imagine Unkind of thing trying to shape itself in his mind, Eveshka would never do that, but Eveshka had never wanted to kill anybody either.
Then for no reason he could think of, and very frightened, he was sure Eveshka had conceived a baby, and that it was his, and that nothing was safe or sure in those circumstances. When? he wondered, and, Why not tell me? He was wounded, and fearing she was running from him—but he decided then Eveshka was not, she was concerned for him—
She wanted him the way Draga had wanted Chernevog, nothing to do with his own good.
That was not so. No. And of a sudden he was aware of Sasha wanting his whole attention, of Chernevog behind him again it had seemed otherwise for a moment, as if Sasha and Chernevog were face-to-face—Sasha saying, in words he could almost hear, Pyetr, listen to me, don't listen to him, it's very dangerous for you to listen to him.
At the bottom of his heart he was mortally afraid for his sanity. Sasha was telling him to be wary, Chernevog's hand was holding the reins in his hand and he was leaning against Chernevog with a sense of warmth and ease he told himself was a lie.
Chernevog said, aloud, "Your young friend doesn't want to be found. But he's afraid of your wife—he's afraid of her and he's afraid of the old man's ghost, which I think he's found. At least he's come to his senses. He's very much afraid your wife is gone, Pyetr Ilyitch—at least, that she's fallen into a trap he can't get her out of—and so am I. He's very much worried that you may be particularly vulnerable to her—and he wants me to keep you safe and away from her."
"You're lying, Snake."
"He's going to try to find out what he's dealing with. I hope he survives it, I truly do: I want to know what he finds out. Most of all we don't want to lend your wife any help—or any victims. Specially one carrying what you hold. Do we, Pyetr Ilyitch?"
"Go to hell," he said. He refused to believe Sasha had said any such thing, even if it had elements of reason in it, even if it was thoroughly like Sasha to go to help Eveshka and try to keep his tool of a friend ignorant of it—but trusting Chernevog enough to tell him anything about his intentions was not reasonable.
Chernevog had used him to reach Sasha, that was what he had just done, Chernevog was lying to him and he hoped to the god he had not just put Sasha in more danger than he was already in.
"Hardly possible," Chernevog said. "But the danger's not from me. It's not even from your wife, if that gives you any ease of mind."
He felt too calm, too much at ease, considering what he was hearing. He hated it. He hated Chernevog for doing it to him, and he thought of breaking Chernevog's skull—if he could so much as lift a finger toward that purpose.
Chernevog said, "Owl had no pity. He never understood my fondness for him. He did like the mice."
It had come on him suddenly while he read, without warning, . . this presence of Pyetr's-and he should have known then, Sasha thought, in one blink of an eye he should have realized that Pyetr could never have caught his attention without magic, and magic never could have gotten to him through his own precautions without Pyetr's need to drive it.
Which meant—if he had had any forethought—Chernevog.
He leaned his elbows against Eveshka's book, thinking—god, he had told Chernevog too much of that as it was, especially the part about the baby. He had thought of that news the instant he had felt he was truly dealing with Pyetr, it was part of his reasons and his heart had led him to admit that without so much as thinking. Now he asked himself what he had done and what he might have agreed to.
II you want to bargain, Chernevog had said, first off—don't take anything the vodyanoi might offer: he's easily any shapeshifter's master, but there are things so far beyond the vodyanoi's reach.
They'll waste no time, Chernevog had said, gobbling him down to get you. If you're going to want magic, young friend, don't be modest: deal only with real power . . . me, for a first instance.
After which Chernevog had added, so slyly and smugly he could almost see the smile, After all, if you think I'm a bastard, what do you think my rivals are?
Deal with me or deal with them—and remember we have at least one interest very much in common. Do you want him free of me? I'm certainly willing to talk about that.
And he, perhaps foolishly: Help me at a distance. I'm not ready to bargain with anything. Keep Pyetr safe, hear me? Don't let him follow me.
—Because he knew, he knew beyond a doubt Pyetr would bo off toward Eveshka if he had the chance; and he was, himself, so scared, so scared for 'Veshka and of Veshka—
Don't deal with Hwiuur, Chernevog had said. Certainly he's not my master. He may act completely on his own—I involved him once and it's only natural he take an interest, but how fur that interest goes, or if it might involve someone else. . . .take a lesson from me, young friend, never ask for help from subordinates. Some Things are hell to get rid of—…
Something was leaning over his shoulder of a sudden. He tu
God, the old man had hated Chernevog; and more—he had hated Pyetr. . . had feuded with him constantly—Uulamets was angry, he knew that he was.
Cold blasted through him like a winter gale, bringing memories of the house, memories of the lightning, the fire, the vodyanoi, muddy bones, a puddle of weed—dark, deep dark, echoing with crazed voices. He felt his knee hit the deck, felt the deckhouse slide past his arm and snag his sleeve—he was on the boat and the boat went back and form across the river, travelers came in numbers, and he was running, hiding among them, while something across the river wanted him—
There were too many memories. They tumbled one over the other, shrieking for his attention. He wanted his own, only his own, he tucked down with his arms over his ears and held on to what was Sasha Misurov with the barest awareness of where he was or when or why.
He thought, when, after a long time, the flood had subsided . . . Chernevog is right: he's fragmented, he's not sane—god, he's remembering things all out of order—he can't make sense, he hates Pyetr, he'll never accept any compromise…
Bargain with what has power, Chernevog had said. Bargain with me . . .
He wanted sense out of it. He wanted the ghost to find the pieces in right order, the way he remembered them—Malenkova's house, Draga, the river house— It howled at him, it whirled about him and tumbled all the pieces out of order again in rage, frustration, fear— He cried aloud into that gale:
"Master Uulamets, I've no choice—you can’t help me and I've no damn choice, have I?"
He felt as if master Uulamets had gathered him up and hit him in the face—repeatedly. He felt cold, and weaker, and weaker.
It was theft—he knew what Uulamets was doing, the same deadly robbery that he had done to the trees, the same that a rusalka did to her victims. He wished it to stop—but he felt the cold deepen, until his jaws locked and his teeth were chattering, the lamp flame making wild shadows about the deck as the wind swirled about him.