“But that would poison the water.”
“You’re right. In the river, then.”
“Do you have a zerca here?” I ask the man. “A blessing would be welcome. We still have a long way ahead.”
The man points us toward the zerca’s cottage a few houses down the main road, and we take off.
“You could have introduced me as your sister, or better yet, an aunt,” Jaga fumes quietly, gritting her teeth. “No one in their right mind will believe we’re married! You saw the way he looked at us.”
I grin, because this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. “He wouldn’t have believed we’re related, either. I tried telling you, but you were adamant to be a mouse.”
“Stop teasing me. I almost grew a mouse tail before I remembered I can’t do any spells.”
“Mhm. That’s why I don’t do this often. It’s hard not to use magic when it’s at the core of you, is it?”
“Good day,” Jaga calls out to a man in his forties tending a garden by the house we were shown. “Are you the zerca? Blessings be!”
He gets up from where he kneels on a thick cloth spread on the ground and rubs dirt off his hands. His eyes are bright and shifty, instantly taking in our attire. His lip curls just a little before he smoothes his expression.
“Guess what his vice is,”I say to Jaga.
“Good day, travelers,” he says with a shallow nod. “What can I do for you?”
“A blessing,” Jaga says with a small smile. “We’ve come a long way and still need to go much further. Also, do you know how safe these woods are to travel? We heard many stories along the way, but it’s hard to say what’s true these days.”
The priest’s expression grows troubled, and he shakes his head with exaggerated regret, his long, brown hair swaying with the movement.
“Oh, you will need blessings for sure, on such a perilous journey. And not just the usual ones, I’m afraid. There are many bieses in these woods, and only the strongest blessing will protect you. I will make a sacrifice in your favor.”
He watches us expectantly, and Jaga gives him a sour smile.“He wants a large payment by the sound of it.”
I reach to the pouch at my belt and take out two rough, misshapen pieces of silver. “Will this suffice for a sacrifice? We don’t have much to offer, as we’ve come from far away.”
The zerca takes the silver with a barely suppressed sneer, and gives us an insincere smile.
“I will do my best to plead with Perun for a safe passage for you.”
“Curse him with something horrid, like incurable hemorrhoids,”Jaga says spitefully as we walk down the road, and I search for the person who prayed to me.
“I will do no such thing. He will find a bag of gold under his bed soon, and a sign of Weles burned into the floorboards so he knows where it came from.”
She stops, staring at me with outrage.“You cannot reward such greediness! Zercas are supposed to help people!”
“I’m only interested in making that zerca helpme, dear wife. This is the house.”
I stop time, plunging us into a soft, downy darkness. Jaga glares at me, which looks utterly misplaced on her plain face.
“Can’t you find some good, hard-working zercas and recruitthem? Instead of the greedy leeches?”
I lean in, and my grin widens when she recoils, avoiding the glittering gaze of my long-lashed eyes. “Dear wife, we’re supposed to make millions of people believe in me again. If I only answer the prayers of the good ones, I’ll gain maybe a handful of believers.”
“Fine. What are we doing here? Another bag of gold for a greedy bastard?”
“We’re going to heal someone.”
Chapter thirty-four
Pilgrimage
