Orson Card - Enchantment

"It's all those additives," said Esther dryly.

Ruthie gathered up the rest of the food and put it back in the hamper. "I'm going home," said Ruthie. "I'm sorry about the dog. I—I'm sorry about everything."

"Bye, Ruthie," said Vanya. "Thanks for lunch."

In halting English, Katerina echoed him. "Bye, Rut'ie."

Clutching her hamper to her, Ruthie staggered around the side of the house. Somehow her wig had become askew on her head. It suited the moment.

Esther walked over to where Ruthie had ground the brownies into the lawn. The brownies themselves might be biodegradable, but Esther wondered what the poison would do to the grass. Not to mention the insects that lived in the lawn.

Well, she'd find out soon enough. A wasp landed on the mess of brownies and was crawling all over it. In fact, it looked for all the world as though it were deliberately smearing it on its abdomen.

On its stinger.

The wasp rose into the air and headed straight toward Vanya.

"The wasp!" shouted Esther, realizing at once that she had found Baba Yaga's familiar.

Vanya turned around just as the wasp reached him. It was going for his throat. Whatever the poison was, apparently Baba Yaga knew it was potent enough that just the little bit carried on the wasp's stinger would be enough. And there was no way Esther could get there in time to stop it. The question then was how quickly the poison would act. The dog had died in only a couple of minutes.

Piotr's voice came from right beside her. She hadn't heard him come back out. "Vanya, close your eyes!" A stream of liquid spurted fifteen feet from Piotr's hand, catching the wasp as it reached Vanya's neck. Vanya was splashed with the stuff and there was definitely some of it in his eyes, but all Esther cared about at the moment was the wasp. It crawled feebly for a second on the neck of Vanya's T-shirt. Then it dropped dead into the grass without stinging him.

"Got the little bastard," said Piotr. He was holding a can of Raid Wasp & Hornet Killer.

"My eyes!" shouted Vanya.

Piotr was already reading the directions on the can. In Old Church Slavonic he called out, "Wash his eyes with water, and keep on washing them!"

Esther turned on the hose as Piotr got the business end pointed at Vanya's eyes. Not too strong, just enough to bathe the eyes, not sandblast them. Katerina fussed over him, helpless because she didn't understand the magic that Piotr had sprayed from the can.

Terrel looked at them in awe. "Man, you guys are really quick with wasps." He picked up dead Edwin, whose little corpse had fallen when Vanya grabbed at his eyes. "I better get home with the dog," he said.

"No!" said Vanya.

"Wait a minute, Terrel," said Esther, in her heavily accented English.

In proto-Slavonic, Vanya explained. "If he takes the dog home dead, they're going to find the poison and then we have to explain how Ruthie was trying to kill me and got the dog by mistake. I don't think we want to testify at Ruthie's trial."

Esther moved immediately to examine the corpse Terrel was holding. She closed her eyes, passed her hands over the animal, and then stroked its belly while inhaling deeply. Sniffing.

In Ukrainian she said, "She didn't use any kind of detectable poison. It was a spell carried on a potion. There'll be nothing that a chemist would recognize."

"How did you do that?" asked Katerina. "How did you test it without tasting it?"

Esther was ready to explain, but then Terrel, increasingly frustrated with all the unintelligible language, interrupted. "I got to get home with this."

Vanya answered him in English. "You've got to know—it wasn't poison that got him. Nothing that any vet is going to find if there's an autopsy."

"They do autopsies on dogs? Cool."

"They do when people think the dog must have been poisoned. But I'm telling you that there won't be any poison to find. So why mention anything beyond finding the dog dead?"

Terrel's face was impassive as he answered. "You mean I don't get to tell Mom how he twitched his little legs while he was croaking?"

"You shouldn't take the dog back, anyway, Terrel," said Vanya. Water was still trickling into his open eyes, carrying away the Raid. "Let me do it. Or my father. We'll just say we found it dead in our yard. You shouldn't be involved."

"No way," said Terrel. "I get to hand little Edwin to her." He sounded very firm about it. A little frantic, even.

"Whatever," said Vanya. "It's your life."

"No," said Piotr. "It's his life, but he is not going to take the dog to his mother. Give it to me." He handed the hose to Esther, to continue bathing Vanya's eyes. He strode to Terrel and took the dog out of his arms. "Esther and I have watched what you endure, ever since your family moved into the neighborhood. Because your mother loves the dog more than you, you think you want the revenge of giving her the dead body. But what you really want is for your mother to love you. Therefore she must not have the memory of this dog's body in your outstretched arms. Do you understand me? You must be a mile from here, flying your kite, when she gets this dog that we found dead in our yard."

Terrel thought about this for a moment. "Whatever," he said.

"So you should go now," said Piotr.

But Terrel wasn't done. "What about the kite, Ivan? You want to take it up?"

"Later. Tomorrow. You going to be in town for the Fourth?"

"You kidding? We never go anywhere."

"Tomorrow, then. You get it up and bring it over here, we can fly it from our yard."

"If he's not blind," added Piotr.

Terrel seemed excited. "Any chance of that?"

"Don't get too thrilled about the idea," said Vanya dryly. "Blind people are only interesting for the first ten minutes."

"He's joking," said Esther.

"So was I," said Terrel. "I better go now. And, uh... thanks." He took the kite and trotted out of the yard.

When he was gone, they were silent for a few moments, until Piotr set down the dog's corpse. Then he sighed. "Well, that's one less yipping pest."

"That dog died for me," said Vanya. "Speak no ill of him."

"He was talking about Terrel," said Esther. "And it wasn't a nice thing to say."

"Maybe I was talking about Ruthie," said Piotr.

"Oh," said Esther.

"I think my eyes are OK now," said Vanya. "Hose down those brownies. Dilute them into the lawn."

"It's going to be a bad day for the earthworms," said Piotr.

"Was it the Bitch Widow who put her up to it?" Vanya asked in proto-Slavonic.

"I think she lied to Ruthie about what the potions would do. The chicken was obviously supposed to be a love potion."

"What about the wasp?" asked Vanya.

"The Widow's familiar," said Esther.

"So is she dead now?"

"The wasp is. But the Widow is still ruining perfectly good air by breathing it."

Piotr brandished the can. "Your magic may be good for some things, but it was Johnson and I who stopped the wasp."

Esther hugged him. "Even though you don't understand all that we do, Piotr, you stood beside us when it counted."

"I feel like I just won a joust," said Piotr.

"Good lance work," said Ivan.

"I can't believe she found a way in," said Katerina.

"There's always a way in," said Esther. "Always."

"I hope so," said Vanya. "Because somehow we've got to return the favor and get past her defenses."

"You'll do it, too," said Esther. "But the picnic strategy is out."

They laughed. Nervously.

Baba Yaga

That afternoon in Tantalus the fire department was called out seven times, and not one of the fires was a false alarm. No one died, but five houses, a gas station, and a barn were lost. Every one of the fires was obviously arson, even without the presence of detectable accelerants, because they started in such impossible places. But no one saw anything suspicious before or after the fires, and after this one night of rage, the arsonist never struck again in Tantalus.