Orson Card - Enchantment

It took only moments, and the face of a middle-aged man appeared. No doubt King Matfei, asleep, looking peaceful. But then, to Esther's surprise, Katerina made some unfamiliar movements with her hands above the water, and the vision zoomed back to show the whole scene around her father. He was lying on a bed, yes, and he was asleep; but he was also bound hand and foot, and two knights stood guard in the room.

Katerina made the vision zoom in so that it showed only her father's face. Then, placing her hand near her mouth to stop the breath of speech from stirring the waters, Katerina said his name softly. Once. Twice. A third time.

His eyes opened.

"Do not speak," said Katerina. "Do not wake the guards. Look upward to tell me yes. Look downward to tell me no. Are you a prisoner, as it seems?"

His eyes rolled upward.

"Soldiers of the Widow?"

A downward look. No.

"Another enemy?"

No.

"Our own people?"

Hesitation. Then a yes.

"Oh, Father. Dimitri? Because Ivan and I fled?"

Yes.

"She has done it, Father, you know that. Dimitri was a true man—he must have been deceived."

No response at all.

"You're right, it doesn't matter why. A man can't be deceived unless he wants to believe the lie. But Father, we are coming home. Soon. We've learned things. I've seen marvels—but now is not the time. Be content that we will return, and Dimitri will be taken out of his place and you will be restored to the throne."

No.

"No? Why not?"

He rolled his eyes.

"I know, you can't tell me why. But you are the king. You must be king."

No. No.

"Then who, Father? Dimitri?"

No.

"Ivan?"

Yes.

"Ivan isn't ready."

Yes.

"Neither am I, to rule through him."

Yes. No. Yes. Her statement had been ambiguous, and so he couldn't answer clearly.

"You think I am ready?"

Yes. There it was.

"When we come back we'll discuss it. After you're free. But you are our war leader."

No. No. No. And a tear came to one eye.

"You can't lead us in war?"

No. Yes. No. Again, the question could not be answered as she asked it. If he agreed, should he say, Yes, your statement is true, or No, I can't lead in war?

"Have you been injured, Father?"

Yes.

"A physical injury?"

Yes.

"He hurt you?"

Yes.

"I'll kill him," said Katerina simply.

Yes.

"Your arms? Your legs?"

No. And no.

"How can I know your injury?"

He opened his mouth.

It took a moment to realize what they were not seeing. He had no tongue.

Katerina gasped, stepped back, began to sob quietly into her hands. Esther also backed away from the basin and carefully walked around it, then enfolded her daughter-in-law in her arms. "She couldn't kill him, she couldn't even get Dimitri to kill him," whispered Katerina. "But she made it impossible for him to lead in battle. She made it impossible for him to be king."

"It wasn't a wound," said Esther. "Did you see that? It was Molchaniye. Stillness. She gave the traitor—Dimitri, yes?—she gave him the potion to carry the spell inside your father's body. The most powerful I've seen, to shrink the tongue like that. But it must be maintained by the power of the witch who invokes it."

"Is this comfort to me?" asked Katerina. "The Widow will never release him from it."

"No, she won't. As long as she lives."

"She will long be alive after my father and I have rotted away in our graves. She's already more than a hundred years old, and her magic has the power to give her many centuries more."

"But in my time she has long been dead," said Esther. "No one knows how, but she was destroyed or she weakened and died, one or the other, but there was no trace of her until she followed you here."

"I refuse to believe in false hopes," said Katerina. "Even if you came back with us, no one could stand against her and break her power."

"She can be killed," said Esther.

"How?"

"I don't know how. But Baba Tila said that no protection is perfect. There's always a way through."

Katerina raised her head and looked Esther in the eye. "Then there's a way through the protections on this house, yes?"

"Of course. I don't know what it is, but that's why I'm so vigilant."

Katerina pulled away from her, returned to her father.

"Ivan's mother is a witch," she said. "A good one. Not as strong as the Widow, but strong enough to withstand her here."

Matfei looked alarmed.

"Yes, she's here. That's why her armies haven't followed up on Taina's weakness, with you imprisoned and silenced as you are. Father, be patient. I will come back. You will be freed. And we will get this curse taken from you."

He closed his eyes.

"That's right, Father. Sleep. And pay no attention to what I will whisper now to the men who guard you."

He opened his eyes only long enough to wink at her. Then he closed them again.

She zoomed the vision back. Now the guards were visible.

"Shame on you," she whispered. "Shame on you."

Both men at once grew alert.

"Did you hear that?" one of them murmured.

"Hear what?" the other one lied.

"Dimitri made you do it," she said. "Dimitri is in the service of the Vile Widow. She comes to him by night and tells him what to do. She gave him the spell that keeps King Matfei silent. He is the servant of the enemy. But you are the servants of Christ."

Both men crossed themselves.

"I am Katerina, and I will return. I will have my husband, Ivan, with me, and he will teach you the wizardry of his strange and powerful land. All those who stand with Dimitri will be destroyed. All those who stand with me will live, and we will free our land from the shadow of the Widow. You have heard me. As loyal men, true Christians and sons of God, you will keep faith with the oath you made to my father. Prepare the others as well. Let no man move against Dimitri before I come, but let no man stand beside him when I do."

"Yes, Princess," they murmured. "I promise, Katerina."

"And let no further harm come to my father. Mercy will be remembered."

At once one of the men moved to Matfei's side and unfastened the bands that held his wrists together. The other quickly set to work on his ankles.

"Now I see you are true friends of the king, and true Christians. I watch you sometimes, from afar; Jesus watches you always, from inside your heart." She took a deep breath. "Look up, into the air above you, and see the face of her whom you will follow."

At once Esther stepped back, uncertain of what Katerina was going to do. She had never heard of such a thing.

Katerina spat into her hands, rubbed her hands together, then smeared the saliva on her face, rubbing, rubbing. Then, before it could dry, she lowered her face to the water and gently pressed through the surface tension. Esther leaned in, looked over her shoulder. The water shimmered, but the vision held long enough for Esther to see how the soldiers looked up and saw the face of their princess.

Then Katerina lifted her dripping face from the basin. The water spilled and sloshed. There was no more vision in it. Katerina raised her skirts to her face, wiped away the water and the spit. And then wept again into her skirts.

"It's a monstrous enemy you're fighting," said Esther, putting an arm around her daughter-in-law's trembling back. "But you're luckier than she is, for she has to face you, and I have never seen anyone so fierce."

Katerina only wept louder, and buried her face in her mother-in-law's shoulder.

Ivan stood in the front yard, waiting for Ruthie to arrive. The twelve-year-old boy across the street was fumbling with the string on a new kite. Not the most mechanically gifted of children, Ivan concluded. But there was a good breeze this morning, so it wouldn't be as oppressively hot out in the back yard as it had been yesterday. The forecast was thunderstorms late in the afternoon, and then clear again—hot and muggy, in fact—for the Fourth. Today, though, there was a breeze, and that called for a kite.