Chapter 39 A pretty captive


    Gretel came out of yet another hole and found Hansel cross-legged and irritable before her. “You took your sweet time. If you were lost you should have just followed the sense spell here.”


    “I did, brother. I was using it to navigate the little man’s caves. I’m beginning to get a sense of his style and architecture. I think it is important that we have several options of escape.” She pulled herself out and shook as she did so her hair grew long on her head and disappeared everywhere else save for where her fur pelts covered.


    “Digging into a hole does not sound like escape to me.” Hansel looked up at the sky.


    “Funny, earlier when you spoke to the girl you bragged about it being a usual method. Why do you keep doing that?” She pulled her brother’s chin down. “I know it would be easier to spot wards with Little Love. She is not going to come, she needs her rest.”


    “It’s not that. You took so long that we should probably leave the woods. It is getting dark. If the witch isn’t heading back then our brother will be out in force soon and who knows where the hunter is at this moment.


    “It is a sad day when a Kerwolf cannot roam the night.” Gretel shook her head while acting dramatically like a poet.


    “That makes no sense you idiot.” Hansel gave her a little shove and she giggled. Suddenly she covered her nose. “Ugh! What is that perfume smell? It burns my nose.”


    “I know I’ve been tracing its pattern while you have been below. It seems to lead into her bath house shed.” Hansel grazed his finger over the path of fumes he could clearly smell. “Does the old batty have some kind of bitter shampoo?” he turned to his sister.


    “Not that I recall. She just smells like melting liquorice.” Gretel made a face. She gave a little sniff. “Hmmm, that’s a high quality brand of perfume sold in Volpi. Only the richest of the rich own it. It begins to peel your skin after a while though. Then the merchant starts to sell you creams.”


    “Ah me, it appears she’s captured another light snack. I can hear a heart beating frantically within.” Hansel adjusted his ears a little more. “And she keeps muttering.”


    “Oh yes I can hear her too.” Gretel nodded, “Something about offering to give up all her wares when the old woman comes back.”


    “Funny the dwarf isn’t around, he would be all over that offer.” Hansel’s hackles were up. It was true the witch did not need to worry about visitors but this captive still seemed too well exposed.


    That was when Little Love appeared. The dove lofted through the trees silently and drifted over to one of the trees along the path.


    “Look, she feels better!” Hansel smiled. With relief he leapt over the fence surrounding Baba Yaga’s house. Gretel’s sight revealed in a flash that the fence was all glowing bones and silver interlocked and grinning. She wondered if it had just given off some kind of warning. This made for a more timid jump.


    “I can see most of those trees are warded and so is the path.” She warned placing a hand on her brother’s shoulder when he was about to just walk through them. “Yes, I’ve had longer to study this place since waiting for you. If you look, Love landed on the one that wasn’t charmed.”


    “Of course, I’m not worried about her.” Gretel rolled her eyes.


    “Since she’s here we can disarm the house of all its trappings and get inside faster than if we had to do it by ourselves.” Hansel looked up at all the different hanging homemade wards. To a casual eye this was just a string of drying substances mostly edible to entice. Yet order and placement were very important. If the wrong thing were moved, barely touched magic alarms would be sounded and terrible things could happen.


    “Is it just me or did we enter the wrong side?” Hansel felt the appearance of the structure was all wrong when concerning the path.


    “The house turned its back to us when we hopped the fence. It’s alive, look how it’s staring.” Gretel felt eerie as the light hitting the window structures seemed to create the shadow of moving irises in them. She began to get a bad feeling, worse than any other witches hovel.


    “Brother I’m tired after all that backtracking and searching below. Do you know how many traps and enchantments I had to avoid?” Gretel combed through her hair with her fingers. Then her stomach growled.


    “Oh, I get it, make me do all the boring work. While you help yourself to the witches catch. You are forgetting, she might be soulless, maybe even another witch.”


    “You know you’ll just be distracted while you work knowing she is there.” Gretel kissed his forehead as he growled. Hansel crossed his arms with a sour expression.


    “I have to lead her away and talk to her. She might have information that might be useful.” Gretel skipped ahead carefully to avoid strange areas of the path. Hansel didn’t like this. He hid just as Gretel did around Rose for neither of them ever would risk the both of them being caught.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Gretel made several magic countering motions with her hands before opening the door and immediately the woman inside sprang up and out into the sun. Initially he thought she was lovely which Hansel felt was a pity. Why were all the pretty ones so foolish? After a closer look he found her a bit outlandish and over done at second glance. She was wearing fine silks and her hair had an old fashioned noble’s style that may have come back into fashion. The make-up she wore signified she was not of noble birth. He thought she might be a paid companion for hire and perhaps at one time she was but all the wares she carried in a giant pack made her out as a merchant.


    “I’ll pay you! I’ll pay you anything you want! Oh please! Please just let me go!” The woman shouted as the door opened. She seemed startled that only a little girl was before her. “Are you that wretched thug’s child? Where is he?! Where is the old mother?!”


    “If he is my Father shouldn’t you watch your tongue?” Gretel pointed out.


    The lady blushed or maybe the shadow she wore always looked that way. At any rate she was embarrassed. “Listen dearest.” She changed her tone to a forced sweetness.


    “I need to go. I have to find Sadko of Volhov. I have a message for him.”


    “I live with Sadko.” Gretel clapped in that disarming little girl way. “The old woman told me to wait here after finding me in the woods. She said we would eat cookies!”


    “Oh she doesn’t have any cookies dear trust me!” The female merchant rolled her eyes and pushed her with trembling hands towards the path. “I think you should take me home to your Father?” She nearly posed the last statement as a question and it was painfully clear that though she had other things on her mind she wanted nothing but to escape.


    “Sadko isn’t my Father, he just takes care of me. I’m an orphan, this way…” She grabbed the woman’s hand and led her to a different side path often taken by Ivan. Once the silver fence sprang up she swung her arms behind her back.


    “Will you open the gate for me? It’s heavy.” At Gretel’s request it was done showing that the woman had no magical ability for the bones of the fence didn’t show or react. Soon afterwards the woman grabbed her hand and began to run with her. At the same time Hansel looked up to Love who had landed on one of the wards to begin work. “Let’s finish quickly so we can follow.” He entreated Love, who must have still been lethargic because she only nodded.


    “Are you sure this is the way to the village? I am certain this is the way that Ivan fellow brought me.” The merchant woman sighed; looking up at the trees like it was their fault.


    “Oh yes,” said Gretel slyly, “You must have almost been there before he took you to Grandmother’s.”


    “And Sadko has he wed?” The woman bit her lip nervously.


    “No, he lives alone, alone with me. I am like his daughter. My parents died.” Gretel needed to come up with better lies in the future and she made a note of it.


    “Yes he was always kind like that.” The woman said softly.


    “What is your name? Perhaps he has mentioned you.” Gretel chimed, intrigued by this silly encounter.


    “Oh I doubt that, it was so long ago.” Again the woman blushed through her blush. “I must admit I was eager when somebody wanted to send word to Volhov unlike others who are afraid of the region. We haven’t heard a word in years and so the bridegrooms called off their engagements. Truthfully they both have fallen in love with different girls of the town. I thought it would be heartbreaking if the other girls did arrive to find they had been jilted. So I volunteered despite warnings that no one else has returned. When I explained this to an old woman in the woods she had her son grab me and throw me in that shed.”


    Gretel acted shocked in reality it all made sense. The witch didn’t want this woman spoiling her meals. Her captured brother was surely rounding up those sows as a second course this very moment which is why she had no fear of him being out and about in the woods. And the witch was probably making sure there was no more salt left in the village after being weakened by the circle. As for Ivan, no doubt he was seeking out his run away child again or berating his half wit wife.


    “Well there it is, home.” The village was still a long way off. Gretel had purposely taken the lady to an excellent view point to give her hope. That way she could still stay close in case her brother got into trouble. “Can we sit and rest? You ran with me so fast.” She added for good measure and the woman wrung her hands a bit and finally agreed.


    “I am sorry child you rest. I simply cannot. I have been locked in that shed all morning. My I must be a mess.” She began opening her pack and pulling out items. She smoothed out her outfit changing the frayed ribbon around her waist for a new one. Afterwards she also fixed her hair and her make-up with a variety of combs and pins. Gretel did not quite agree with her style. She did admire nearly everything that was pulled out of the bag. “Oh pretty,” she said this time meaning her words.


    “You know you aren’t so bad looking. I bet you would be pretty all cleaned up.” The woman smiled. “I suppose Sadko wouldn’t know much about raising a girl. You require a woman’s touch.”


    Gretel felt a little affronted just by her tone. She did like the items before her and continued to paw at them a little.


    “Well you did rescue me. What do you say to having whatever you like as a reward?” The woman winked.


    “Oh I couldn’t decide,” Gretel’s eyes were wide and modest, inside she was cheering.


    “Well here I’ll choose for you. You have such pretty pale skin and lovely long hair. How about this comb? It’s the biggest in my collection and made of a very valuable pearl. She handed it to Gretel who felt like the comb was glowing in her hand. It was a tall comb that sparkled. Pearl was representative of the moon and so it was very fitting. She frowned suddenly, it was impractical. She would be spotted a mile away.


    “I wouldn’t know how to wear something like this. And I have nothing to wear it with.”  She sighed.


    “Oh let me show you. You could save it for a special occasion, A special someone you want to impress.” Taking up another brush the woman gently stroked her hair and Gretel closed her eyes and imagined Ivashko’s eyes when he saw her looking radiant, new in celebration of his rescue. Gretel handed her the comb and in turn the woman handed her a mirror to use when she was finished.


    “I do have someone. Someone I traveled here to find. It was difficult through the snow. Many of my family were lost.” Gretel didn’t know why, tears were brimming, in her eyes. Why suddenly did she feel like confiding in a silk-covered woman? Then she thought silk? The woman traveled here in silk? Something fell next to her in the grass. It was the pearl comb but only part of it. Holes were in the top. It was a casing. She quickly turned the mirror up to see not the merchant but Baba Yaga’s vile face behind her and the glint of a silver comb being wielded like a dagger above her head. “This shall replace your ribbon!”


    Baba Yaga drove it down deep into the back of her skull. There was nothing except pain until the darkness.