“I want earthly authority,” Konstantin said.

“As much as your two hands, your heart, and your voice can compass,” the Bear said. “The world at your feet.”

“But what do you want?” breathed Konstantin Nikonovich.

The devil’s hand curled into a clawed fist. “All I wanted was to be free. My bastard brother penned me up in a clearing on the edge of winter for life after life of men. But at long last he wanted something more than he wanted me confined and I am freed at last. I have seen the stars and smelled the smoke, and tasted men’s fear.”

Softer, the devil added, “I have found the chyerti faded to shadows. Now men order their lives to the sound of damned bells. So I am going to throw the bells down, throw down the Grand Prince while I am about it; set fire to this whole little world of Rus’ and see what grows out of the ashes.”

Konstantin stared, fascinated and afraid.

“You will like that, won’t you?” asked the Bear. “That will teach your God to ignore you.” He paused and then added more prosaically, “In the short term, I want you to go tonight where I bid you and do what I tell you.”

“Tonight? The city is unsettled; midnight has come and gone and I—”

“Are you afraid that you might be seen out past midnight, consorting with the wicked? Well, leave that to me.”

“Why?” said Konstantin.

“Why not?” returned the other.

Konstantin made no answer.

The devil breathed against his ear, “Would you rather stay and think of her dying? Sit here in the dark, and lust after her, dead?”

Konstantin tasted blood where his teeth had come together on the inside of his cheek. “She was a witch. She deserved it.”

“That does not mean you didn’t enjoy it,” murmured the devil. “Why do you think I came to you first?”

“She was ugly,” said Konstantin.

“She was as wild as the sea,” he rejoined. “And full, like the sea, of mysteries.”

“Dead,” said Konstantin flatly, as though speaking could cut off memory.

The devil smiled a secret smile. “Dead.”

Konstantin felt the air thick in his lungs, as though he were trying to breathe smoke.

“We cannot dally,” said the Bear. “The first blow—the first blow must be struck tonight.”

Konstantin said, “You tricked me before.”

“And I might again,” returned the other. “Are you afraid?”

“No,” said Konstantin. “I believe in nothing and I fear nothing.”

The Bear laughed. “As it should be. Because that is the only way you can play for everything, when you do not fear to lose.”

6.

No Bones, No Flesh

DMITRII AND HIS MEN TORE apart the fire on the river. Sasha worked alongside the others in the most hopeless and terrible desperation. In the end, a field of smoldering logs lay glowing across a stretch of pitted and steaming ice. The cage looked just like the rest of the charred wood; they could barely tell which pieces had formed it. The crowd had fled; it was the coldest and blackest part of the night. They stood in a field of dying fire, caught between the cold earth and the spring stars.