“Or?”
A second claw joined the first. “Or two: he was there, but either keeping a lower profile, or using a different name. Luckily, we know someone who lives out there who might be able to do some poking around in person.”
Barbara suddenly cheered up, both at the possibility of solving the mystery, and at having an excuse to talk to one of her favorite people.
“Good point, your furriness!” she said, and went to fetch her scrying mirror.
***
Barbara might not have had a cell phone, but luckily, she didn’t need one to talk to one of her fellow Babas. In this case, she was going to try and contact Beka, the youngest of the three Baba Yagas who lived in the United States. While all Babas traveled around quite a bit while taking care of their various duties, they tended to have a one particular place they called home. Luckily for Barbara, Beka liked to park her converted school bus (also once a hut on chicken legs, of course) on a small lot overlooking Monterey Bay.
With the curtains closed against the oncoming night, Barbara placed her scrying mirror—smooth black glass backed by silver that was etched with arcane symbols and ancient runes for communication—carefully on the table in front of the couch. With Chudo-Yudo sitting quietly next to her, she turned off the light and lit a fat yellow candle with a snap of her fingers.
The flickering glow of the burning wick danced across the dark surface of the glass like the shadows from a bonfire, and Barbara remembered the last time all three witches had been gathered together, sitting around a fire and sipping Chablis from carved wooden goblets. She focused on that evening, and the rare feeling of companionship they’d enjoyed.
With a whispered spell, she sent that connection out into the ether, along with a mental call to Beka. Then she waited, relaxing into the light trance state necessary for Baba-to-Baba communications across time and space; legs crossed and hands resting lightly on her knees, she settled in to wait for as long as it took. Beka would probably sense the summons right away, but there was no way of knowing how long it would take her to find the quiet and solitude she would need to be able to answer.
Some time later—an hour or three—a deep ringing sound arose from the mirror, much like the tone one heard from the metal rim of a singing bowl. Barbara opened her eyes and stared into the dark center of the scrying mirror. A dim glow slowly brightened to show the face of a lovely young woman, as blond and tanned as any California surfer girl. Which this particular Baba Yaga was, when not out chasing monsters or preventing ecological disasters.
“Beka!” Barbara said, a rare smile lightening her usually severe face. “How is the world’s most ridiculously cheerful and perky Baba?” Barbara herself only had a rare acquaintance with cheerful, and if she met perky in a dark alley, she’d probably stab it if no one was looking. But she was quite fond of Beka despite her very un-Baba-like sunny disposition.
“Hi Barbara!” Beka said, her voice echoing slightly as it traveled through from her mirror to Barbara’s. “I’m sorry it took me so long to respond to your call, but I was in the middle of an epic wave, and I hated to leave it. I figured that if it was something urgent, you’d yell louder.” A crooked grin made her look even more adorable, if that was possible. But Barbara saw dark shadows under Beka’s eyes that belied her light tone.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Barbara said. “I would have. Are you okay, Beka?” Beka’s mentor hadn’t been as emotionally distant as Barbara’s had, but there had been other issues there that Barbara suspected had left their mark. “I know Brenna has only been retired for a couple of years. Have you been running into anything you need help with?”
The glow in the mirror dimmed briefly as Beka looked away, and her smile wasn’t as bright as it had been when she focused her attention back again. “No,” she said. “I’m fine. Why, don’t you think I can handle the job?”
Barbara blinked in surprise. “Don’t be silly. Of course I think you can handle it. Hell, you had a longer training period than any Baba Yaga in history.”