Sweat ran like rivers down his spine as he put a hand to the door of the sanctuary.
The Bear said, “I wish to go in.”
“Then go in,” said Konstantin, his mind elsewhere.
The devil made a sound of impatience and took Konstantin’s hand.
“You must bring me with you.”
Konstantin’s hand curled in the demon’s. “Why can’t you go in yourself?”
“I am a devil,” said the Bear. “But I am also your ally, man of God.”
Konstantin drew the Bear into the sanctuary with him, and gave the icons a spiteful look. See what I do, when you will not speak to me? The Bear looked about him curiously: at the gilding, and jeweled icon-covers, at the scarlet and blue of the ceiling.
At the people.
For the cathedral was packed with people, a shoving, swaying throng, smelling of sour sweat. Crammed together before the icon-screen, they wept and they prayed, watched over by the saints and also by a silent devil with one eye.
For the Bear walked out with the clergy, when the doors of the iconostasis were thrown open. Surveying the crowd, he said, “This bodes well. Come now, man of God. Show me your quality.”
When he began the service, Konstantin did not know whom he chanted for: the watching throng or the listening demon. But he flung all the torment of his tattered soul into it, until the whole cathedral wept.
Afterward, Konstantin went back to his cell in the monastery, kept against the furnishing of his own house, and lay down, wordless, in his sweat-soaked linen. His eyes were shut, and the Bear did not speak, but he was there. Konstantin could feel the dazzling, sulfurous presence.
Finally the priest burst out, without opening his eyes, “Why are you silent? I did what you asked.”
The Bear said, almost growling, “You have been painting the things you will not say. Shame and sorrow and all the tedious rest. It is all there, in your Saint Peter’s face, and today you sang what you cannot bring yourself to utter. I could feel it. What if someone realizes? Are you trying to break your promise?”
Konstantin shook his head, his eyes still shut. “They will hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see,” he said. “Make what I feel their own, without understanding.”
“Well, then,” said the Bear, “men are great fools.” He let it go. “In any case, that scene in the cathedral should make enough.” Now he sounded pleased.
“Enough what?” said Konstantin. The sun had gone down by then; the green dusk brought some respite from the savage heat. He lay still, breathing, seeking in vain a breath of cool air.
“Enough dead,” said the Bear, unsparing. “They all kissed the same icon. I have use for the dead. Tomorrow you have to go to the Grand Prince. Secure your place with him. That monk of witch’s getting—
Brother Aleksandr—he is going to come back. You must see to it that his place by the Grand Prince’s side is not waiting for him.”
Konstantin lifted his head. “The monk and the Grand Prince have been friends from boyhood.”
“Yes,” said the Bear. “And the monk saw fit to lie to Dmitrii, more than once. Whatever stiff-necked oaths he has sworn since, I assure you, it will not be enough to get back the prince’s trust. Or is it harder than setting a mob to kill a girl?”
“She deserved it,” Konstantin muttered, throwing an arm over his eyes. The blackness behind his eyelids gave him back a bruised, deep-green gaze, and he opened his eyes again.
“Forget her,” said the Bear. “Forget the witch. You are going to drive yourself mad with lust and pride and regret.”
That was too close to the bone; Konstantin sat up and said, “You cannot read my mind.”
“No,” the Bear retorted. “But I can read your face, which is much the same thing.”
Konstantin subsided into the rough blankets. Softly, he said, “I thought I’d be satisfied.”
“It is not your nature to be satisfied,” said the Bear.
“The Princess of Serpukhov wasn’t at the cathedral today,” said Konstantin. “Nor her household.”
“That would be because of the child,” said the Bear.
“Marya? What about her?”
“Warned,” said the Bear. “The chyerti warned her. Did you think you killed all the witches in Moscow when you burned the one? But
never fear. There will be no more witches in Moscow before the first snow.”
“No?” Konstantin breathed. “How?”
“Because you brought all Moscow to the cathedral today,” said the Bear, with satisfaction. “I needed an army.”
“THEY MUSTN’T GO!” MARYA had cried to her mother. “No one!”
Daughter and mother each wore the thinnest of shifts, sweat dewing their faces, identical dark eyes glassy with weariness. In the terem that summer, all the women lived in twilight. There were no fires lit indoors, no lamps or candles. The heat would have been unbearable. They opened the windows at night, but fastened them all tightly by day, to keep in what coolness they could. So the women lived in gray darkness and it told on all of them. Marya was pallid under her sweat, thin and drooping.
Gently Olga said to her daughter, “If folk wish to go pray at the cathedral, I can hardly prevent them.”
“You have to,” said Marya urgently. “You have to. The man in the oven said. He said that people will come away sick.”
