Wednesday bowed low. “Zorya, my dear, may I say how unutterably beautiful you look? A radiant creature. You have not aged.”
The old woman glared at h
im. “He don’t want to see you. I don’t want to see you neither. You bad news.”
“That’s because I don’t come if it isn’t important.”
The woman sniffed. She carried an empty string shopping bag, and wore an old red coat, buttoned up to her chin. She looked at Shadow suspiciously.
“Who is the big man?” she asked Wednesday. “Another one of your murderers?”
“You do me a deep disservice, good lady. This gentleman is called Shadow. He is working for me, yes, but on your behalf. Shadow, may I introduce you to the lovely Miss Zorya Vechernyaya.”
“Good to meet you,” said Shadow.
Birdlike, the old woman peered up at him. “Shadow,” she said. “A good name. When the shadows are long, that is my time. And you are the long shadow.” She looked him up and down, then she smiled. “You may kiss my hand,” she said, and extended a cold hand to him.
Shadow bent down and kissed her thin hand. She had a large amber ring on her middle finger.
“Good boy,” she said. “I am going to buy groceries. You see, I am the only one of us who brings in any money. The other two cannot make money fortune-telling. This is because they only tell the truth, and the truth is not what people want to hear. It is a bad thing, and it troubles people, so they do not come back. But I can lie to them, tell them what they want to hear. So I bring home the bread. Do you think you will be here for supper?”
“I would hope so,” said Wednesday.
“Then you had better give me some money to buy more food,” she said. “I am proud, but I am not stupid. The others are prouder than I am, and he is the proudest of all. So give me money and do not tell them that you give me money.”
Wednesday opened his wallet, and reached in. He took out a twenty. Zorya Vechernyaya plucked it from his fingers, and waited. He took out another twenty and gave it to her.
“Is good,” she said. “We will feed you like princes. Now, go up the stairs to the top. Zorya Utrennyaya is awake, but our other sister is still asleep, so do not be making too much noise.”
Shadow and Wednesday climbed the dark stairs. The landing two stories up was half filled with black plastic garbage bags and it smelled of rotting vegetables.
“Are they gypsies?” asked Shadow.
“Zorya and her family? Not at all. They’re not Rom. They’re Russian. Slavs, I believe.”
“But she does fortune-telling.”
“Lots of people do fortune-telling. I dabble in it myself.” Wednesday was panting as they went up the final flight of stairs. “I’m out of shape.”
The landing at the top of the stairs ended in a single door painted red, with a peephole in it.
Wednesday knocked at the door. There was no response. He knocked again, louder this time.
“Okay! Okay! I heard you! I heard you!” The sound of locks being undone, of bolts being pulled, the rattle of a chain. The red door opened a crack.
“Who is it?” A man’s voice, old and cigarette-roughened.
“An old friend, Czernobog. With an associate.”
The door opened as far as the security chain would allow. Shadow could see a gray face, in the shadows, peering out at them. “What do you want, Votan?”
“Initially, simply the pleasure of your company. And I have information to share. What’s that phrase? . . . Oh yes. You may learn something to your advantage.”
The door opened all the way. The man in the dusty bathrobe was short, with iron-gray hair and craggy features. He wore gray pinstripe pants, shiny from age, and slippers. He held an unfiltered cigarette with square-tipped fingers, sucking the tip while keeping it cupped in his fist—like a convict, thought Shadow, or a soldier. He extended his left hand to Wednesday. “Welcome then, Votan.”
“They call me Wednesday these days,” he said, shaking the old man’s hand.
A narrow smile; a flash of yellow teeth. “Yes,” he said. “Very funny. And this is?”