“Here,” Hayreddin said to Len. He pointed at the tavern. “There is a pirate hook right on the sign, and it is called The Hook and Anchor. Clearly this is a good place to look for men to hire for our ship.”
Len rolled his eyes in a way Red found particularly annoying. Not that there was anything about his new partner he did not find annoying. Even his mode of transport was foul smelling and belched, although apparently that was the way of things in this modern world. Red was finding the Otherworld more appealing by the minute. As soon as he found and retrieved his final treasure, he would happily return to his cave and never cross the borders again.
“It’s just a sign. Probably something to attract the tourists,” Len said, peering in the window. “On the other hand, this is definitely not a tourist bar. Lots of locals in there. So maybe you’re right.”
And maybe you should start with that assumption, Red thought. But he didn’t bother to say it out loud. Instead, he just shoved by Len and led the way into the tavern.
Once inside, they sat at the well-worn but gleaming bar. An attractive red-haired wench in the unbecoming man’s clothing that seemed to be the fashion these days served them their beer and then left them alone. Red pulled out his pipe.
“You can’t smoke that in here,” Len hissed. “It’s against the law.”
“There is a law against pipe smoking?” Red said in amazement. Apparently the entire Human world had gone insane while he slept in his cave.
“Any kind of smoking in a public place,” Len said. “It’s not just cigarettes. Where have you been, France or something?”
Red sighed, wafting away stray wisps of smoke (a hazard with dragons) and wishing he could light his pipe to disguise them. Fortunately, the tavern was dark enough that no one seemed to notice. “Or something,” he said. “Now, let us be subtle, and observe those who patronize this place to see if there are any likely fellows looking to hire on for adventure and glory.”
Len rolled his eyes again, and Red had to resist the urge to rip them out of his useless skull.
“How about that guy?” Len asked, pointing across the room in an manner directly the opposite of subtle. “He looks like he could take on an entire ship all by himself, even without the help of our mythical friend.”
Red swatted Len’s hand down and gazed at the man who had caught his attention. Red had to admit, the fellow looked like a reasonable prospect. He was huge - bigger by far than any others in the place - and it appeared to be muscle and not fat. He wore his brown hair long, and his beard was neat. He lacked the earrings of a proper pirate, but Red could see the hint of a tattoo at the edge of his shirt. The man sat by himself, carving what looked like a table leg with a wickedly sharp knife.
He definitely had the look of a rough man who could handle himself in a fight, but there was something about him that made Red hesitate to approach him. Something almost…familiar.
But Red couldn’t figure out why until the slim blonde woman entered the tavern and sat down beside his quarry.
A Baba Yaga! What in the name of the dragon goddess was a Baba Yaga doing here? Now he knew where he had seen the man before. That was no Human. It was the Black Rider, what was his name? Alexei Knight, that was it. A Baba Yaga and a Rider here. That could be no coincidence.
Red gnashed his teeth. Curses. That was all he needed, a Baba Yaga and a Rider meddling in his business. How on earth was he going to accomplish his goal with them hanging around? But then he remembered what all in the Otherworld knew, a stunning development that even he had heard about, when rising from his long rest to feed. The Black Rider was Rider no longer. More than a Human, undoubtedly, but nothing like the power he used to be. The Baba Yaga, now she might be a problem. But the former Rider, he was nothing more than an annoyance. One which could no doubt be dealt with if he got in the way.
“Well?” Len said interrupting his thoughts. “What about him?”
“No,” Red said. “Not him. He is not suitable. In fact, I suggest we look elsewhere. Now.” He rose from his seat, leaving Len to throw some of his ugly paper money down on the bar and follow him out, protesting all the while. Fortunately, the Baba Yaga and her companion seemed to be deep in discussion, and paid no attention.
In theory, he should appear as any other Human to them, but it never paid to underestimate a Baba Yaga. Even if you were a dragon.
* * *
“Did you feel that?” Beka asked Alexei. They had been talking about using the dolphins as scouts, and the best way to check in with them, when she’d felt a shiver run down her spine. The kind of shiver that said magic and Otherworld and maybe danger. She might be the youngest of the three United States Baba Yagas, but she’d learned the hard way not to ignore that feeling.
“Feel what?” Alexei asked. He seemed a bit more cheerful tonight, and Beka wondered if it had anything to do with his new friend Bethany, who occasionally smiled in his direction from her place behind the bar.
“Hmm,” she said. “I’m not sure. But something just tripped my witch-dar.”
“Witch-dar?” Alexei repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Is that a thing now?”
“It is when I sense something paranormal in a room where nothing paranormal should be,” she said.
Alexei glanced around, but didn’t seem to see anything out of the ordinary. “Are you still feeling it, whatever it is? The place looks pretty normal to me.”
Beka opened her awareness, but didn’t pick up on anything other than a tiny sprite who had apparently come in to get out of the cold.
“No,” she said. “Whatever it was, it is gone now. But there was something.”
“I believe you,” Alexei said. “Of course, it might not have anything to do with our other situation, but just in case, let me know if you sense it again.”
“Will do,” Beka said. “I have a bad feeling… But never mind. Let’s talk about how we can have the dolphins spy for us without putting them in any extra danger. And how often you can go out and chat with them without people starting to think you’re up to something.”
“I am up to something,” Alexei said with a grin. “I’m up to getting another drink, since Bethany is finally letting me have beer in here again.”
* * *
A few days later, Alexei wandered over from the guest house to help get Calum out of bed and scrounge a cup of coffee. An ever-larger Lulu trudged along behind him, then plopped onto the kitchen floor with a sigh.
“Still no sign of babies?” Bethany asked, patting the dog sympathetically on the head while handing Alexei a mug that sent divine caffeine-scented steam into the air.
“She says maybe today, maybe tomorrow,” Alexei said absently, most of his attention focused on the dark nectar in his cup. “But I’m not sure if she really knows, or if that’s just wishful thinking.”
“She told you that, did she?” Bethany said, sounding amused. “I didn’t know you spoke Dog.”
Alexei sloshed hot coffee over his hand, suddenly much more wide awake. “Ah,” he said. “Better than I speak Dolphin, but that’s not saying much.”
“Uh huh.”
Now that he was more alert, Alexei thought he heard an odd off-note behind the laughter. Peering over his mug at her face, he saw lines of tension that weren’t usually there, the skin stretched taut around her eyes and mouth.
“What’s up?” he asked. “Is something wrong with your dad?”
“No,” Bethany said. “I haven’t even gone in to see him yet this morning. Just some bad news in the paper.” She handed it to him. “I was debating about whether to tell my father or just hide it in the recycling before he got up.”
Alexei drained his mug and clunked it down onto the counter so he could take a look. The newspaper was folded to the third page, where a brief article showed the picture of an older man with his arm around a young boy, standing proudly in front of a small fishing boat. The headline read “Third Generation Fisherman Lost at Sea.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexei said. “Someone you knew?” He scanned the rest of the article quickly and felt a gnawing in his stomach that couldn’t be blamed on the coffee.
“One of my father’s friends from his days on the water, although they haven’t kept in touch much since my father’s accident. Or, to be more accurate, my father didn’t encourage anyone who tried, so they all eventually gave up and left him alone, the way he wanted.” She sighed, her shoulders drooping a little.
“Henry was a nice guy. That’s his grandson in the picture with him. The kid worshipped him.” She wiped away a tear without noticing. “It’s an occupational hazard, and the families are always prepared for the worst, but the officials can’t seem to figure out what went wrong this time. The weather was fine, there was nothing wrong with Henry’s boat that anyone knew about, and Henry was never reckless or careless. I talked to his daughter a few minutes ago and they’re completely baffled.”
“Are they sure he isn’t just missing?” Alexei asked, even though he knew the answer.
“Pieces of the boat were spotted by another fisherman,” Bethany said. “Small pieces. They haven’t found Henry or the other two men who sailed with him, but they don’t really expect to. There were sharks in the area where they found what was left of The Maryann.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexei said, handing her back the paper. She crumpled it up and stuffed it in the garbage, then blew her nose. He put his arm around her and gave her a brief hug, trying not to be distracted by the scent of her shampoo, a mix of lemon and lavender that went straight to his head. He wished he could do more, and an unwelcome echo of remembered helplessness made his muscles bunch and quiver.
“Me too,” she said. “Let’s go get my father out of bed, shall we? For once I might actually be grateful to hear him gripe at me about my lousy cooking.”
* * *
“Do you think it was the kraken?” Beka asked him later. He was still at the house, minding Calum while Bethany was at the bar, so Beka had come over. They sat in the back yard, conversing in low tones. Calum was asleep in his recliner in front of some game show, and Lulu lay panting at their feet, occasionally shifting position in a futile effort to get more comfortable.
“Maybe. Probably. This guy was an experienced sailor and he disappeared in about the same area as the dolphins reported seeing their monster. About ten miles away, but in the ocean, that’s not that far.”
“Why that area of the sea?” Beka wondered out loud, more to herself than to Alexei. “It’s open ocean with nothing around except fish, before the fish disappeared. Why would a kraken suddenly be hanging out there?”
“And where did it come from? I mean, if the thing had been around all this time, I’m pretty sure someone would have noticed.” Alexei tugged on his beard. “Did the Merpeople and Selkies come up with anything else useful?”
“They’ve just got stories left over from hundreds of years ago. The elders didn’t know anything more than the folks we met with,” Beka said. “So if there was one, it either went away or went into hibernation or something, and now it’s back.”
“Huh.” Alexei tried to wrap his brain around a gigantic hibernating squid-monster. “So what brought it back or woke it up again? And why?”
“All good questions,” Beka said a trifle grimly. “None of which I have any answers to. I’m not even sure where the hell to look for any, but we have to do something, or I suspect people are going to keep dying, and their blood will be on my hands.”
“Our hands,” Alexei growled. “I don’t ever want to see that look on Bethany’s face again. Nor do I wish to explain to the high queen of the Otherworld if her sea-dwelling subjects start disappearing. They can’t hide out in their homes forever.”
Beka turned pale at the thought of telling the queen she’d failed in her mission. “We could call in Barbara and Bella, but I’m not sure what they could do that I’m not doing already. I tried a finding spell, but they don’t work well with water, and all I got was a vague location, which we already had, more or less.” She shook her head. “I am working on some defensive magic in case we meet up with it, especially if Chewie isn’t around to go all dragon on its ass.”
The Chudo-Yudos usually stayed with their Baba Yaga’s traveling homes when the witch in question was out and about. The dragons (in their guises as gigantic dogs or cats) guarded the Water of Life and Death the Baba Yagas drank to increase their powers and prolong their lives; the Chudo-Yudos also kept an eye on the portals to the Otherworld that was concealed in each updated hut.
They did, on special circumstances, leave to assist a Baba Yaga with a particularly tricky situation, but Chewie especially didn’t like to leave Beka’s converted school bus alone for long, since one time when he had, Beka’s former mentor had stolen the Water of Life and Death and caused all kinds of problems. To put it mildly.
“Going dragon only works if there are no witnesses,” Alexei pointed out.
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure how we’d explain a giant sea monster either,” Beka said. “Either way, we have to find the damned thing before we can worry about how we’re going to take it out, although it would be wise to be prepared. And if magic can’t help us, I guess we’re back to taking Calum’s boat out and hoping for some kind of clue to miraculously pop up out of the blue.” She looked as frustrated as Alexei felt.
“I’ve got a better idea,” he said. “That is, if you can figure out a way to persuade sharks to talk to me without trying to bite my head off. Literally.”