The soldier was beaming by the time she finished. “I was sure my parents hadn’t left me there because they didn’t want me! Thank you so much! I’ve wanted to know the answer to that question my entire life.”
“And Dielle was able to answer your question because she is the new Baba Yaga!” Serafina announced.
Dielle had looked surprised when she’d started talking in her Baba Yaga voice, but was even more startled when she looked down at her hem. “I’ve grown!” she cried. “Everything is shorter now. And tighter,” she added, tugging at her collar.
“That will keep happening for a while,” said Serafina. “There are clothes of different sizes in one of the trunks.”
“If she really is the new Baba Yaga, you’re finally free, Serafina!” Alek said, an enormous grin spreading across his face. Drawing her into his arms, he spun her around, laughing, until they were both too dizzy to stand. They collapsed on the ground as everyone cheered.
“If we leave now,” Alek told her, “I know of an inn we can reach before nightfall. We’ll get to Prince Cynrik’s castle tomorrow, then home three days later.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Serafina told him, “but I can’t leave just yet. There are so many things I have to do first! I want to put things away and make sure everything is clean for the new Baba Yaga. Oh, I have to say good-bye to Maks and the skulls and the cottage. I’m going to miss them all so much! Promise me we can come visit them. I’ll want to see Dielle and everyone as often as I can.”
“Of course,” said Alek. “Whenever you want. Did you say you’re going to miss the skulls?”
Serafina nodded. “They’re my friends, too. Maks and the skulls helped me when I was Baba Yaga, and the cottage rescued me I don’t know how many times. I know that all I wanted was to be normal again, but I can’t just walk away from my friends forever! And it’s very important that I tell Dielle what her duties and responsibilities are, what she can and can’t do, what to feed the cat, how to polish the skulls, and everything else I can think of that she needs to know. I have to tell her all the things that I wish someone had told me when I became Baba Yaga.”
“Including how to pass the job on to someone else?” Alek asked, brushing his lips across hers.
“Especially that,” she said.
Reaching up with one hand, Alek tilted her head back and kissed her with so much love that she felt her muscles go limp. It was the kiss she had been wanting for a very long time.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to Grace Piskorski for helping me with Polish names and words, and to Serafina Rayner for lending me her first name.
In addition, I found my information about teas, including rose hip tea, in Magic and Medicine of Plants, by the editors of Reader’s Digest, 1986.
Also by E. D. Baker
THE TALES OF THE FROG PRINCESS
The Frog Princess
Dragon’s Breath
Once Upon a Curse
No Place for Magic
The Salamander Spell
The Dragon Princess
Dragon Kiss
A Prince among Frogs
Fairy Wings
Fairy Lies
TALES OF THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS
The Wide-Awake Princess
Unlocking the Spell
Copyright © 2013 by E. D. Baker
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published in the United States of America in October 2013
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
www.bloomsbury.com
This electronic edition published in October 2013
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
The author wishes to acknowledge useful information gained from Reader’s Digest’s
Magic and Medicine of Plants.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, E. D.
A question of magic / by E.D. Baker.
pages cm
Summary: Serafina is summoned from her village to the magical cottage of a great-aunt she has never heard of and learns that she is meant to become the new Baba Yaga, whose magical role is answering the first question any stranger might ask her with the truth.
[1. Fairy tales. 2. Baba Yaga (Legendary character)—Fiction. 3. Witches—Fiction.
4. Magic—Fiction. 5. Questions and answers—Fiction. 6. Aging—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ8.B173Que 2013 [Fic]—dc23 2013009598
eISBN: 978-1-6196-3056-7
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E. D. Baker, A Question of Magic
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