Sarwat Chadda - Billi SanGreal 02 - Dark Goddess (8 page)

Arthur wrapped Vasilisa in a wet blanket. The three of them ran into the gardens of Middle Temple. The blanket was smoldering by the time he unrolled her into the snow. Desperately they scooped handfuls over her, and great wet puddles formed as the snow almost instantly melted. But with the three of them at work they managed to get Vasilisa's skin back to a normal temperature. Vasilisa gazed around her.

"Oh. So much snow." She turned to Billi. "It's Fimbulwinter... " Vasilisa's voice fell into a murmur and she slumped.

Elaine put her hand against the girl's forehead. She waited a minute, then sighed.

"She's okay."

Arthur lifted Vasilisa, cradling her in his arms. Elaine struggled to her feet.

As they made their way back home they passed a house with the lights still on. Billi paused outside a window.

It was indistinct, but the newscaster was repeating the same sentence over and over again, as though eventually she would believe her own words.

The eruption is over, but Naples has been destroyed.

THE ASH KEPT FALLING OVER NAPLES. NEWS COVERAGE continued as the scale of the disaster climbed. Towns had vanished, completely submerged under the millions of tons of volcanic detritus.

The pyroclastic blast had petered out as it smashed into the eastern face of the city, so the western inhabitants avoided the worst excesses of the eruption. Huge crowds of terrified people clustered at the bay, all struggling for a space on the flotilla of boats and ships that had gathered as part of the rescue operation.

For a while reports still came out of the city, mostly telephone calls from people who had hidden in basements while the volcano raged. But slowly the signals faded as they were buried alive, trapped forever underground.

They'd put Vasilisa back in bed, and she was sleeping soundly. Elaine had made sure the talismans were firmly in place before closing the door.

Billi, Arthur, and Elaine sat in the kitchen; by midmorning they'd all had enough of watching the news. Gwaine arrived, somber and carrying an armful of newspapers.

"What I want to know is, did Vasilisa do it?" asked Arthur. "Did she cause that eruption?"

"No... " Elaine began, but her tone was ambiguous. "Vesuvius is an active volcano. Sooner or later something like this was bound to happen." She stared at the scorch marks on the floor. "Vasilisa's sympathetic powers meant that she felt the eruption coming—she got worse as it did—but by the same token, as she cooled down, so did the volcano. She stopped the eruption. If it hadn't been for Billi's quick thinking, things could have been much, much worse... "

"There are
thousands
dead, tens of thousands. How much worse could it have been?" asked Gwaine. "And in the future?" His hand rested on the day's
Guardian
, NAPLES GONE gone was the headline; the rest of the front page was black. "Will Vasilisa be able to cause volcanic eruptions?"

Elaine looked at Arthur, biting her lip. She spoke in a low whisper. "Yes. It's possible—if she's an avatar."

Avatar? Wasn't an avatar a computer icon? Somehow Billi got the feeling this was something different.

Elaine continued. "It's a concept I came across in India during my traveling days." In the bright overhead light the wrinkles around her mouth were deep black crevasses. "A super-Oracle."

"Christ Almighty," muttered Gwaine.

"Yes, like him. Don't you get it? Vasilisa stopped a volcanic eruption. To be able to manipulate such energies requires incredible psychic strength; it would be like Kay trying to read the minds of everyone in London at once. The fact that Vasilisa survived and didn't self-combust makes me think she has vast potential. It's all lurking there, deep within her. She's just too young to access it consciously." Elaine gazed at the stairs that led to Vasilisa. "But once she learns how to control her abilities she'll be able to create hurricanes with a clap of her hands. Stomp the ground and bring on earthquakes. Manipulate nature to suit her whims."

"Oh," said Billi. "Is that all? I was worried fora minute."

This was the girl she'd rescued: someone who could destroy cities. Billi struggled to match the image of the frail blond girl with the destruction that had been wrought in Italy. She had powers and responsibility no human should be burdened with. Billi pitied her. She was a pawn in a game between the Templars and the Polenitsy. Whoever possessed Vasilisa could control nature.

"No wonder the Polenitsy want her so badly," said Billi. They must have suspected Vasilisa was powerful, to have come all this way.

"Not just the werewolves," added Elaine. "Can you imagine what the
ghuls
would give for the blood of such a powerful psychic? Or the devils for her soul? The powers they would gain by devouring her?"

"And if Baba Yaga finds her, she'll gain all of Vasilisa's powers. Not good," said Arthur. He gazed out at the snow. "That's who tried to possess her, isn't it?"

The others looked uneasy as Elaine tapped the ash off her cigarette.

"Yes. She obviously made a brief connection with Vasilisa's mind, but the talismans stopped her. If she didn't suspect it already, she'll know now that Vasilisa's an avatar. No way is she going to pass up a meal like that."

Billi shivered. The way Vasilisa had thrashed and screamed. The voices, they had been a major freak-out. How many minds had been in her head? "But there was more than one voice. I heard a dozen at least. They're all Baba Yaga?"

"Who knows? Baba Yaga's not doing to be like anything we've seen before, but even if half the stories about her are true, she
must
be an avatar. The voices could be the echoes of all the souls she's consumed over the centuries. Maybe that's what she is—an insane old witch with thousands of spirits trapped inside her. All subservient to her single will."

"Careful, Elaine, you sound like you admire her," warned Arthur.

"I respect her, Art. We all should." Elaine watched her smoke trail rise upward. "It's always wise to respect gods, whether they're yours or not."

"And Fimbulwinter?" Arthur said, grim-faced.

Elaine nodded. "The Norse legends talk of the long winter that will herald the end of the world."

"Why would Vasilisa say that Fimbulwinter is coming?"

"Because she told me." The little girl stood barefooted in the doorway, the Russian doll in her hand.

Elaine got up. "You should be in bed. Why don't we—"

"Who told you?" asked Arthur, stopping Elaine.

Vasilisa's small hands rubbed the doll nervously. "Baba Yaga. She told me. Or I heard her." She bit her lip, staring at them, white with fear. "I heard her." Billi led Vasilisa to a stool, then leaned on the windowsill behind her.

Vasilisa had shrunk, or so it seemed. It looked like she'd had her insides drained out. Dark rings circled her eyes, giving her a sunken, haunted look. She bit her lip and pressed her fist against her temple.

"She was in here, whispering in my head. She wanted more. Much more. She wanted the world to be covered in ice and snow. I could see her dreams," Vasilisa whispered. "She wants it all, Billi. She wants it all covered in white. She wants to bury the world."

Gwaine shook his head. "That's not possible. How can you freeze the entire planet?"

Billi spoke. "Eruptions affect the weather." With her class studying what had happened in Pompeii, she'd picked up a lot on volcanoes. "The eruption throws up huge volumes of sulphur dioxide into the air. That reacts with the water in the atmosphere and acts like a great big mirror. It reflects the sun's heat back out into space. If the eruption was big enough, it could definitely create a volcanic winter."

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "You think Vesuvius will cause Fimbulwinter?"

"Even a medium-sized eruption like Vesuvius will affect temperatures, but for Fimbulwinter, something much, much bigger would have to happen." Billi racked her brains, trying to recall what had come up at school. "A super-volcano. If one of those blew, we'd have a global temperature drop—cooling, may be even freezing, most of the planet. Could last ten years."

"Long enough to obliterate crops and livestock. Most people would starve to death," added Elaine.

"A
cull
," said Billi. Wasn't that what humans did if any other species overpopulated? Hunt them down until they reached more "manageable" numbers? Now Baba Yaga wanted to do that to mankind.

Gwaine shook his head. "But it would wipe out everyone. Polenitsy included."

"She doesn't care," said Vasilisa. She sat between Elaine and Arthur, her shoulders hunched and her voice a bare whisper. "She wants to clean the world. Start it over again."

Arthur spoke. "She's nearly immortal In a few hundred years the planet would repopulate, but humanity would be nowhere near the six billion it is today. Baba Yaga's seen so many species come and go, the loss of a few more wouldn't bother her in the least, and neither would the time scale. A few centuries mean nothing to her." He looked at Billi. "We got any of these super-volcanoes this side of the equator?"

Billi nodded. "Yellowstone. The entire park is a gigantic one. When that goes, it's good-bye for all of us."

Arthur cleared his throat and squatted down in front of Vasilisa.

"You look tired, child. I think it best you sleep." He held out his hand. "C'mon."

As Arthur took the girl upstairs, Billi went to the kettle. She tried to fill it, but her hand wouldn't hold it still enough. She gave up.

Baba Yaga wanted Fimbulwinter. With her and Vasilisa's power combined, could she do it? Wipe out the world?

Arthur returned and stood in the center of the kitchen. "I'm moving everything forward." He glanced at his watch. "Vasilisa flies out tonight. Elaine and I will go to Jerusalem with her until she's handed over. I want all knights on duty until Vasilisa's on that plane. Gwaine, you're in charge while I'm gone."

Gwaine nodded.

Arthur put his hand on Billi's shoulder. "You get some rest, girl. I'll need you later."

"What about the Polenitsy?" said Billi. "They'll be coming for her."

Arthur stood by the window, immobile in the pale winter light. "Let them come."

THE EVENING PASSED WITH THE KNIGHTS CONSTANTLY checking in on the house. Billi couldn't rest, painfully aware that things had reached a crunch point, not just for the Templars, but for her personally.

Tonight Vasilisa joined the Order. There would be no ceremony, no all-night vigils or prayers. Billi couldn't let Vasilisa go to Jerusalem without making peace.

She knocked on the door. "Vasilisa? Can I come in?"

"No."

The sun had gone down, and the room was in gloomy darkness. Billi turned on the light. Vasilisa sat on her bed, huddled in the corner, holding her knees.

Billi moved a few stuffed animals aside and sat facing the girl.

Where to begin?

"I'm sorry it's come to this, Vasilisa. But it's the only way you'll be safe."

"I was safe until you came along."

"We saved you from the werewolves."

"I wish they'd killed me too."

"Don't say that." Billi stared hard at the girl. "You don't mean it."

"They say I'm going to be the new Oracle. What happened to the old one?"

"I'll tell you about him. Kay was my best friend and I loved him more than anything." Billi stopped. It had just burst out, this confession. She looked down at her shaking hands and clasped her fingers together, forcing them to be still. "There's a hole inside that sometimes feels so big I think I'll disappear into it— but he's gone. He's gone and you're here."

Their eyes met. They'd both already lost people they loved in the Bataille Ténébreuse. Billi joined Vasilisa in the corner.

"When I found you, Kay came back. In away. I dreamed of him and he told me he was saying good-bye."

"Because of me?"

"The dead should not linger. I should look to the living." Billi smiled at the girl. "That seems like a fair trade."

"What will happen to me, in Jerusalem?"

"You'll be taught how to control your powers. Kay was going mad with all the voices in his head. He used to say it was like having a radio on and the dial was always moving but never off. You'll learn how to protect yourself."

"And become a fighter, like you?"

Billi inspected her call used hands. All those years of weapons training and punching wooden boards. Hardly ladylike. She scratched her knuckles, then took the girl's hand. "There are a lot of ways to fight, Vasilisa."

The two of them sat together in the darkness. Outside the window the tree branches scratched at the glass and the old roof beams creaked. Below, Billi heard her father and one of the other knights scraping steel against whetstones.

"What is that called?" Billi asked, pointing at Vasilisa's Russian doll.

"A
matryoshka
."

"Can I look?"

Vasilisa nodded, and Billi opened up the doll. The next one was equally exquisite. Each flower was delicately painted into the shawl, and the dress's embroidery looked as though it had been done using a single hair. The next doll matched it, and within that was a stone figurine covered in flaking gold leaf.

"It's beautiful," said Billi. It was a woman, crudely shaped, with a small head and large breasts and hips. Billi had seen statuettes like this in museums. It was a Venus figurine—they were prehistoric religious items, found throughout Europe.

Billi inspected the stone. The gold leaf had fallen off in patches and the stone beneath was highly polished, like black obsidian. Dark veins of iron ran through it.

"Babushka said it was the goddess."

"Baba Yaga?"

"No, not just Baba Yaga." Vasilisa took back the statue. "Baba Yaga is the Dark Goddess, the Winter Crone. But sooner or later winter ends and spring comes." Vasilisa kissed the statue gently. "My babushka's mother made this and the
matryoshka
dolls around it when she lived in Tunguska."

"Tunguska?"

Vasilisa waved at the window. "Out in Siberia." She picked up the gold-covered figurine. "She used to say this was magic. That's why she covered it in gold."