Pavel Konstantin decided to let his wife do the talking for both of them. She had a lot

of knowledge of arcane subjects, and she had pronounced all of the combatants

around them as walking dead.

None of the females seemed to like that from the look on their faces.

Pavel wasn’t sure he liked it either.

“We’re not dead,” cried one of the girls. She looked down at her hands. “I’m still

alive.”

“None of you are,” said Mrs. Konstantin. She glared at the group. “And one of you

tried to kill my husband. I can’t have that.”

“What do you think you can do about that?,” asked the mistress of the honey dogs.

She smiled to show her smugness.

Pavel rubbed his face. Someone was about to learn a lesson in real magic now. He

didn’t want to be close enough to be involved in the teaching.

“Husband, take these girls and find Ivanoviska,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “I don’t want

them in the way.”

“Yes, dear,” said Pavel. He waved at the girls in their silly looking costumes. “Come

along. You don’t want to be this close.”

He started walking toward where he had left the ghost and his victim. The sound of

crackling filled the air. He reached where the gumdrop building had fallen over and

started climbing.

“Aren’t you going to help that woman?,” asked one of the girls. Pavel glanced at her.

She pointed back the way they had come.

“You heard my wife,” said Pavel. “She is already dead. There’s no help for her now.”

“That woman is your wife,” said the girl. “What about the witch?”

“She is already dead,” said Pavel. “Sonya doesn’t like undead monsters.”

“And she has a bad temper,” said Ivanoviska. He waved at them to hurry to his perch

above the candyland.

“She is angry at you, Ivanoviska,” said Pavel.

“What else is new?,” said the ghost. “How do you do, ladies? I am Ivanoviska. I have

taken up a temporary residence in this body until I can get some things straightened

out.”

Thunder sounded from where Mrs. Konstantin and her enemy discussed each other’s

futures. The smell of cooked sugar filled the air.

“She is very angry indeed,” said Ivanoviska.

“Does anyone want to explain what is going on?,” asked Pavel. He snapped his

fingers to get their attention. “There are five of you in fancy dress, and you came here

to fight the candy woman. I think some answers are in order.”

“We signed up to fight witches,” said one of the girls. “And that’s why we are here.”

“Don’t say that around Pavel’s wife,” said Ivanoviska. “You’ll find out what a real

witch can do fast enough.”

Pavel glared at his old friend in his new body. He would have some words with him

later.

“So you became undead monsters to fight witches?,” asked Pavel. He made air quotes

at the word witches.

“We’re not dead,” said someone else in the crowd. “Why do you keep saying that?”

Ivanoviska’s face flickered for a moment. He shook his head.

“You’re dead all right,” said Ivanoviska. “There’s nothing to grab in any of you.”

“Ivanoviska is a spirit who can possess others,” said Pavel. “He’s saying that none of

you are alive to be possessed.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” said the leader again. She looked at her friends. They all had

expressions of fear and disbelief. “We were supposed to be vessels for power to fight

the witches that infested the city.”

“It looks like part of that didn’t work out,” said Pavel. “Maybe Sonya can fix that part

of things for you, but I don’t know how. Ivanoviska?”

“I’m still getting used to being a ghost myself,” said Ivanoviska. “Someone messed

up big time, Pavel.”

“If they made a mistake at all,” said Pavel. He rubbed his chin. “I think this is what

our deal maker wanted. I just don’t know why.”

“What happens to us?,” asked the leader. “We knew there would be danger, but we

didn’t think the empowerment would kill us.”

“My wife will know what to do,” said Pavel. “Don’t worry until she tells you to

worry.”

“She does have a good reputation,” said Ivanoviska. “She’s always helping people.”

“Shouldn’t we be helping her fight that witch?,” asked one of the girls. “There’s no

way she could beat one on her own. They control the space they set up.”

“Sonya will ask for help when she needs it,” said Pavel. “I don’t know what we’ll do

about all this when she is done. I’m not sure Ivanoviska is supposed to be wandering

around body to body like he is.”

“It’s tough being dead, Pavel,” said Ivanoviska.

A blast of thunder washed over the group. Lightning poured down out of the strange

sky. The smell of fired sugar filled the air.

“All right,” said Pavel. “We should be going home in a minute. How do you want to

deal with your conditions?”

“Can we have some time?,” said the leader of the witch hunters. She looked at her

friends. “This is a bit much to take in right now.”

“All right,” said Pavel. “I’m Pavel Konstantin. If you want to talk, we live in the

South near the Fae, and the Alvas. We will be glad to have you come by. What about

you, Ivanoviska?”

“I think I am going to keep on with whatever this is until someone from the

Underworld decides they want to take me away,” said the ghost. He smiled with his

borrowed face. “I’ll have to make sure to stay away from anybody who can kill me

again.”

“You’re asking for trouble,” said Pavel. “Any magician who sees you will want to

make you his servant.”

“Let them try, Pavel,” said Ivanoviska. “Maybe in a few years, I will get tired of this

half-life and ask to be put down. Until then, I plan to enjoy every moment I can.”

Pavel shook his head. One wrong encounter with an exorcist and Ivanoviska would

be destroyed and reduced to ether on the wind.

The building they stood on started melting. Cries of anguish and relief filled the air

around them. Pavel covered his ears as he watched streams of spirits heading up into

the sky.

The group touched down on the ground. Mrs. Konstantin wiped the smoke from her

hands as she approached. Her grim face boded ill for the remainder of her problems.

“I think I will be leaving now,” said Ivanoviska. His face changed as the mind he

used woke up from its sleep.

“He came back, didn’t he?,” said Piotr Wulf.

“And left again,” said Pavel. “Ladies, this is Master Wulf. We’re taking him home

with us so he can get on with his life.”

“Where is Ivanoviska?,” asked Mrs. Konstantin.

“He fled,” said Pavel. “The girls here will be joining us for dinner at some

undetermined time in the future. I have already extended our hospitality.”

“Is that so?,” asked Mrs. Konstantin. “I suppose that will be all right for the time

being. We will need to talk about what is going on. Am I understood?”

The candied land burned away bit by bit around them. The girls frowned at the older

woman. Her hair floated in some unfelt wind as she looked at them.

“We would be glad to have dinner with you,” said the leader of the witch hunters.

“Will three days be soon enough?”

“Yes,” said Pavel. “Stay out of trouble until then, but if you can’t, send a message to

my home. We will try to work something out for you.”

“I am going to open the door,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “Once we are clear, this space

will collapse and break apart. We will split up until the appointed time. You are also

welcome to eat with us, Master Wulf.”

“I’m fine,” said the unpossessed Wulf. “If you see your friend, give him a kick for

me.”

“I will be glad to do that,” said Pavel.

Mrs. Konstantin raised her arms. The jewelry on her hands and forearms glowed with

fire. She twisted her hands and a sound like a gong washed down over them. Then the

group began floating up.

“This is great,” said one of the girls. “We’re flying.”

“We’re falling upwards,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “Be ready when we reach the door.

The ground will be hard on the other side.”

“Don’t worry,” said the leader. “We can handle a landing.”

Mrs. Konstantin nodded at the assurance.

Pavel looked down. The place that used to be home to gumdrop buildings and honey

hounds broke apart as they fled. He could see pieces falling away to nothing as

everything came apart below them. He closed his eyes.

If the door closed on them, they would die trying to get out. He could feel that. He

looked up and willed the flight to speed up out of the trap they were in.

He reached the door and passed through. He saw the ground coming up. Reflexes

took over and he landed on his feet, catching his wife before she could fall. One hand

grabbed Wulf’s arm to help steady him so he didn’t fall to the floor of the alley they

stood in.

“Back where everything started,” said Pavel.

“This was a boil that needed to be lanced,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “Even if it was for

Ivanoviska.”

“That’s the first time we didn’t have to fight one of the witches,” said the youngest

witch hunter.

“You shouldn’t be fighting them anyway,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “I will see you in

three days.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said the witch hunters as a group. They waved as they fled down the

alley.

“I have to go too,” said Wulf. “Thank you for bringing me back from wherever that

was.”

“Ivanoviska shouldn’t have involved you,” said Pavel. “I know he did it because he

needed a body, but there are other ways. If you need help, call on us and we will do

what we can.”

“Thank you for that,” said Wulf. “Fair days, Konstantins.”

“Shall we go?,” Pavel said. He made a curtsey-like wave of his arm.

“We shall, husband,” said Mrs. Konstantin. She smiled slightly at the gesture. “We

have much to talk about.”

“I know,” said Pavel. “I finally caught that jerk of a mailman loading my desk with

extra work. I am thinking about pushing him down some stairs if he does it again.”

“I was thinking about the dead girls,” said Mrs. Konstantin.

“I’m not,” said Pavel. “They will be eating with us in three days. I can think about

other things for that amount of time.”

“Like what?,” said Mrs. Konstantin.

Pavel leaned over and whispered in her ear. She blushed furiously. Then she swatted

his arm.

“You nearly died,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “Your stupid friend did die. And we know

there is someone making walking dead. And that’s the most important thing you can

think of at the moment.”

“I didn’t die, Ivanoviska will find some use out of his new ability which I hope he

doesn’t attract so much attention that an exorcist is called, and I am not chasing

anybody for the rest of the night,” said Pavel. “I think that I am being reasonable.”

“All right,” said Mrs. Konstantin. “We’ll see who wakes the neighbors.”

Pavel hugged his wife with a smile.