She shook her head. “No, Chewie—you’re forgetting one important thing.”
“I am?”
“The Water of Life and Death,” she said. “The Water of Life and Death will cure anything, even radiation poisoning.” In fact, she could kick herself. If she’d just remembered to take a drink at some point in the last week, she’d be feeling fine right now.
Chewie let out a gusty sigh of relief. “Of course! Belobog’s balls—don’t ever scare me like that again.”
Marcus’s rugged countenance bore a look of almost comic befuddlement. “What are you two talking about? You have a cure for radiation poisoning? How is that possible? Are you sure?”
Beka’s weakness and queasy stomach almost vanished as relief washed over her like a wave. Here was the answer to another part of the problem too.
“The Water of Life and Death is an enchanted elixir that the Baba Yagas drink to increase their strength and magical ability. It also extends their lives so that they live longer than your average Human, and has miraculous healing properties in larger amounts,” she explained to him. She’d tell him how much longer sometime when there wasn’t quite so much going on. “If I’d been drinking it all along, the way I should have, I might not have gotten sick at all. Or at least, not as much as I have. But I’ve been having doubts about remaining a Baba, and Kesh must have figured out that I was slacking off on my dose while I was trying to make up my mind.”
Marcus looked almost as relieved as she felt. “So all you have to do is go back to the bus and have a swig of this stuff, and you’ll be as good as new?”
“Pretty much,” said Beka. “What’s more, it should work on the sick Selkies and Merpeople too. I’ll have to get permission from the Queen of the Otherworld before I can share it with them, but under the circumstances, I think she’ll probably allow it.”
“The Queen of the what world?” Marcus asked.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Beka said.
Chewie rolled his eyes. “Here’s the short version, dude. There is another plane of existence, kind of like the fairylands you read about in stories. It’s called the Otherworld, and it’s where most of the magical creatures went hundreds of years ago when it became too dangerous for them to stay here in the Human realm. The Otherworld is ruled by a King and Queen, and the Queen is kind of like Beka’s boss. If your boss is drop-dead gorgeous, all-powerful, and turns people into swans at the drop of a hat. There—now you’re all caught up. Can we get going, please? I for one will feel a lot better once Beka has taken her medicine and no longer glows in the dark.” He turned and marched in the direction of the front cabin, just in case the other two had somehow missed his point.
Marcus hugged Beka before grabbing her hand and starting after Chewie. “You’re sure this stuff will cure you?” he asked.
“Absolutely sure,” Beka responded, feeling hopeful for the first time in days. “And if I can use it to cure the sick water dwellers, then I have fulfilled half of my assignment to the Queen, and my promise to the King of the Selkies and the Queen of the Merpeople. You know, I actually think everything is going to be okay.”
TWENTY-FOUR
BACK AT THE bus, Chewie ground to a halt right inside the front door like a giant roadblock, causing Marcus and Beka to barrel into him. Beka, not as steady as she usually was, almost fell over his huge rear end and planted her face on the floor.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked, grabbing onto Marcus for support.
Chewie lifted his black muzzle into the air, pulling it in through his nostril in great snorting gulps. “Someone has been here,” he announced ominously.
“What? That’s impossible.” One of the reasons that Beka hadn’t been too worried about dragging Chewie away and leaving the bus unguarded was because the former hut was perfectly capable of guarding itself. There were magical protections built into the very walls, handed down from Baba to Baba. Maybe she’d slacked off a little on refreshing them, what with everything that was going on, but they should still be more than capable of thwarting any would-be trespassers.
“Impossible or not,” Chewie growled, “someone has been here. I smell the sea, and fish, and . . .” he sniffed again. “I think that’s Old Spice.”
“Kesh!” he and Beka said at the same time, and exchanged equally alarmed glances.
Beka bolted for the secret cabinet where the Water of Life and Death was hidden. She didn’t know how the hell Kesh had gotten past the defenses, but he couldn’t have found the Water.