Catherynne M. Valente
PROLOGUE
Three birds sit on a branch. An illiterate farm boy is brought before a staff sergeant and she asks why he did not report for duty when he was supposed to. He says he is only 11 and his hurt leg would make him useless to the army anyway. The sergeant asks him if he wants to join the front lines or be put in front of a firing squad. The boy starts to cry loudly and the officer behind him tells him to run. He is stunned silent and she repeats the order. He takes off running.
PART 1: A LONG, THIN HOUSE
1. Marya Morevna sees three birds in the tree. When Marya is six, the first one falls to the ground and becomes a man. He knocks on the door and asks Marta’s mother to marry her daughter. He is Lieutenant Gratch and has fields and lands. She gives him Olga. He knows she is not the girl he asks for, but decides to love her because the one in the window was not meant for him. Similar situations happen for her other sisters, Tatiana and Anna, when Marya is 9 and 12 respectfully.
2. Marya stares out the window again. She has 12 mothers and fathers because other families have come to live with them. She doesn’t get along with any of their children. She wonders if all husbands come from birds, or other animals, or a specific country. She thinks she doesn’t get a husband because she saw the world how it was. She vowed to never be blinded by the world. She tried to share what she had seen, but quickly learned never to do it again. At school, she was given a red scarf. She loved books and each of her parents brought a box of books to their house. She wants knowledge and to be ready for anything that could happen when magic comes. She reads on her way to school who speaks of Baba Yaga. At school, she wondered aloud what kind of bird Lenin was before he was Lenin. After school, her classmates slap her and call her crazy. The pretty blond girl takes her red scarf. Marya begs for it as it is the only thing they don’t have to share. The blond girl tells her it belongs to the people now. They spit on her and call her names. She decides to keep the Magic’s secret from then on.
3. One day, while using her feet to measure the house, she notices that the measurements are not the same as her previous ones. She stops when she sees a domovoi, Chainik, and asks where he is going. He is on his way to the House Committee and she asks him to take her with him because she has found discrepancies in the state of the house. He leads her through the kitchen and over the sleeping Blodniek family to a small door behind the stove, but she has trouble fitting through. Chainik spins her and she shrinks down to where she only has to duck to get through the door. There are twelve domoviye meeting for the committee. Marya thought each house only got one domovoi, but they each came along with their families from their previous houses. Zvonok is the imp that has belong to the house since before Marya was born and she saw the birds lure her sisters away as well. She is the one that broke her favorite teacup for not leaving out cream and biscuits. She tells them the house is bigger than it was before and they explain they have been widening it with magic to make room for the extra families and them living in the walls, but she must not tell. She promises and they threaten to report her to the Big Committee if she does. Sometimes they impersonate the humans to make the reports. Venik does his best to scare Marya. Zvonok comforts Marya and warns Venik that papa (Koschei) will deal with him when he arrivesz. She starts to take Marya back to her own part of the house. She warns her to keep away from the magic and only think of things girls are supposed to instead of drawing attention to herself. She gives her a silver hairbrush that used to belong to Svetlana who was a ballet dancer when she was younger. Zvonok tells Marya she needs the brush and to keep it hidden from Svetlana because she would want it back.
4. A skinny widow, Likho, moves in next door and agrees to help with laundry and looking after the children. One day while over, Likho has Marya read a book. Marya has a bad feeling about the book. It talks about how the Great War started between Life and Death. Marya stops ready to tell how the war started according to humans. Likho ignores her comments and asks how Marya keeps her hair so tidy. Marya tells her she has a silver brush that used to belong to a ballerina. Likho talks about a ballerina that had been beautiful, but cold. One day the ballerina’s shoe wasn’t tied well enough and she hurt her ankle. Her four lovers left her, but she was pregnant. She find the first person that would take her and married him having four children and ruining her beauty. Marya asks who she really is. Likho is Bad Luck. By using the brush, she called her. Likho is not allowed to have her as Marya’s name is already written on someone else’s paper. She tells Marya to read the book and come back to Likho for tutoring for things that are coming. Marya rushes home and hides the book away. Marya’s mother starts to have bad luck, but Marya is still too afraid to go back to Likho. She tries to go back, but when she reaches for the doorknob, she throws up. She rushes in and tells Likho to leave her mother alone. Likho says she likes her mother and hasn’t done anything to her, but she cannot help what she is. She says her hour is up and she must leave because “he” is coming and they do not do well in the same space.
5. At 16, Marya is old enough to work after school and is sore and tired. She sits in her room and cries. The moon watches her and an owl falls out of the tree and becomes a dark, handsome young man. He knocks at the door and Marya is the one to answer. Koschei Bessmertny introduces himself, gets on his knees, and says he has come for the girl in the window. Marya has many different feelings about his arrival and that she did not see him fall from the tree. He asks for her to invite him in, but she refuses. He tells her to get her things and come with him. She grabs someone else’s suitcase and starts to pack. She puts the block book from Likho under her clothes. Zvonok comes to say goodbye and understands why she isn’t telling any of her mothers. The imp wonders what she will do for her wedding night and Marya confesses she doesn’t plan to marry. Zvonok warns her about keeping a space for herself. The deathless cannot impregnate her, so she thinks she should be fine there. They say their final goodbyes and Marya rushes out to Koshei’s car and closes the door sealing her fate. Koschei gets in the backseat next to her and the driverless car starts moving on its own. He kisses her greedily.
6. Koschei is cold and when she notices, he only becomes icier. When they arrive at Koschei’s house, she sees a table full of food. She is excited to eat as her house never had enough food. He stops her and explains that he is going to smash down her will and take it from her. He says he will keep it safe for her because he is very experienced at it and she is not. She doesn’t want to be ordered around. She wants him to explain everything. Instead, he has her drink vodka and taste the caviar. He feeds her bread, beets, and a cow’s tongue. The questions swirl in her head as he feeds her and she becomes drowsy. Marya falls asleep with his mouth on hers. She wakes in the night and rushes outside to throw up. They travel in the driverless car and it is cold. When they stop for dinner, Koschei tries the wine first and he says it is too sweet and she must get used to the bitterness. He feeds her again and she gets sick in the night again. She starts to get sick and Koschei uses little glass vials to catch the fever. The next night, he takes her to a bathhouse. He brushes her hair and it becomes lush and healthy again. He wraps her in bandages and he opens up a black jar that smells mustard. He puts it over the wrappings. She cries far all she had lost. He takes her to the bathe and beats her with a birch branch. She sleeps and dreams of a London model saying the girls are all wearing their deaths. When they start moving again, she gets a glimpse of the car becoming a horse and going off to graze. He tells her they are almost to their final location and they will rarely be alone together. He tells her he will be cruel to her. He soaks up her nightmares by rolling an egg over her body saying he will create new ones for him. He kisses her and then bites her. She is hurt and shocked by the blood on her lips. He tells her she must never disobey him.
PART 2: SLEEP WITh FISTS CLOSED AND SHOOT STRAIGHT (75)
7. All of the Tsars chose their kingdoms (The Tsar of Birds the sky, the Tsaritsa of Salt the cities, the Tsar of Water the bodies of water, the Tsarista of Night chose the dark and between places, The Tsaritsa of the Length of an Hour chose sorry and misfortune). The Tsar of Life and the Tsar of Death were to argue over what remained. Their war consuming the entire word. Zemlehyed (Zemya) the leshy has Marya’s book and thinks it is boring without picots. Naganya the vintovnik has a rifle scope for any eye and agrees the book is boring. When Zemya takes a bite out of it, Naganya (Nasha) warns her that Marya will show him his insides if he destroys his things. Marya and Madame Lebedeva, a vila witch, ride up to them and asks if they have seen the firebird they are hunting. They tell her it flew past an hour ago. Marya warns them to get along or else she won’t tell them stories of Petrograd. Nasha wants to go to Petrograd and be useful as a rifle imp searching out enemies of the people. Madame Lebedeva asks when Koschei is going to marry her. Zemya says Koschei can’t marry anyone until Babushka comes and approves it. Madame Lebedeva tells them to stay out of refined matters and Nasha spits a bullet at her that singes her hair. Marya calls the imp to her to punish her. She pushes her into the ground until she can’t breathe and finds pleasure in punishing her. She takes back her book from Zemya and asks who Babushka is. Before they can answer, Marya grabs her rifle and shoots a firebird from the sky. As they go back to the road, Marya asks by the place is called Isle of Buyan. They tell her it used to be an island, but the war with the Tsar of Death had changed it. Nasha suggests they go mushroom picking that night, but Marya says she is going o Koschei to see if he has any need for her. She offers to let Nasha sleep with her that night and Nasha dances in celebration.
8. Koschei is on his throne when Marya brings him the firebird. He scolds her for killing it and adding to Death’s kingdom. He cuts off her dress and they have sex and he leaves bruises on her shoulders. She asks where she keeps his death. She guilts him into tell her where he keeps it: in a glass box guarded by four dogs, one a wolf, that all have names starting with the same letter. Marya goes to her own room after and Nasha joins her. Nasha wants to play a game where they go out and shoot to see what they hit. One time she played the game with a boy that hit a frog. The frog became a scared girl and the boy married it. Marya agrees to play later. She tells Nasha about the first time Koschei punished her for speaking when she promised she wouldn’t. Her mouth stayed shut and she couldn’t eat or breath anything until the punishment was over. She worked through the pain of being away from home. The white horse in the stall, the dawn gelding, Volchya-Yagoda (wolf-food), told her she had to ride his siblings to get there. She brushed and oiled him and gave him new shoes. Volchya layed down to lay with her and shared his water and oats with her. He told her he liked her best because none of the other girls had ever changed his shoes. In the morning, he denies he ever said there were other girls.
9. During lunch with … and …, Marya tries to explain what different types of writes do. when she gives an example of a poem, it mentions Baba Yaga. It isnmt long before the old woman appears in a carriage with four chicken feet. She comes inside and sits at a table eating an entire goose. She looks at Marya and wonders if she is worthy for her brother. She automatically calls Marya “Yelena” saying most of the girls have that name. Marya introduces herself and says she is the only one. Baba Yaga hops in her back and has her run. Marya does and Baba Yaga’s car follows behind. Marya runs until they reach a factory full of girls. She points out the few that aren’t named Yelena, but all of the girls are weaving soldiers on looms for the war. One girl finishes a soldier and blows into each pant leg to inflate them. Baba Yaga tells her Koschei’s story is always the same. He finds a girl and steals her away from her home. He feeds her, takes care of her when she is sick, and brings her to the horse stall. He has sex with her and she falls in love with him. In the end, the girl always kills his death. There is a funeral, but he can’t die and always comes back. The girl is sent to the factory to work for eternity. Most of them never made it past Baba Yaga’s own test. Marya vows to free the women. She tells Marya if she passes three trials, she can marry her brother, but if not, Baba Yaga will eat her. Marya said she through it was the man that was supposed to pass trials to prove loves. Yaga tells her that only happens if the woman doesnmt sleep with him first. Yaga has been married 17 times and knows men. The trials are to see if she can rule and are fit to be part of the family. Marya wonders if it is still what she wants after being lied to for a year.
10. Marya must find and old woman, chain her hands, and walk her across a field in the moonlight until the shackles fall off and create rashovnik. This is the first trial. She tells Nasha about it and the girls in the factory. Nasha already knows because she had curled up with each of them. For ever Ellena, there is a Yonis that comes. Baba Yaga tells him what to say to win the girl over. They kill Koschei’s death and run away together. Marya vows to kill any man she meets named Yonis. Nasha says Marya is one of them. She asks how she is to find an old woman and Nasha tells her thee are places that are weak from Life and Death fighting. She will be able to reach the human world from there. Marya must stay on the horse and Nasha will bring the old lady to her. They cross over and Nasha tries to scare an old woman to Marya. Mother Svetlana calls to Marya and tries to get her to come down to her. She tries to guilt her down over stealing her brush. She says she died and death is nice. Marya refuses to leave her new home to return with her. Marya get dizzy. People appear all around her and pull her off her horse and kiss her. She recites the things she has grown to love in Buyan and climbs back onto her horse. Nasha returns with the rashovnik and they take it to Baba Yaga. She tells her humility is the highest virtue in marriage and tells how she likes to get pretty and play dumb. She gives the boy what he wants and then he wakes up next to her real face.
11. Marya’s next task is to get white and black gold from a dragon. Zemya knows where the dragon Gorinich nest is. She agrees to a kiss for his help. He jumps up and digs a hole. She takes the leshy’s hand and is dragged into a through the hole and into another forest. Zemya because a beautiful man. He takes her to a hut where they meet the dragon Gorinich that collects the bones of criminals. He tells her that her crime is abandonment and he will kill her and take her bones now as payment for her crimes. She declines and asks for a black and a white coin from his gold. He laughs at her. She says she has a soul, unlike him. Zemya walks outside and Gorinich asks what he is doing. She says she doesn’t know, but he could go check himself. He tells her he can’t because he is too big. He starts to strangle her, but she points out his file says she does a different way. Next thing she knows, she is in a cotton field outside. Zemya diverts a river to flood the dragon’s hut. She finds a puff of white cotton and realizes it is the white gold and oil must be the black gold. She asks Zemya how they can drill oil and he moves the earth to make it shoot out of the ground. Marya takes the items to Baba Yaga. Once again, Chairman Yaga is not impressed with the offerings, but she is happy the dragon left a scar under Marya’s eye. She gives her the final and hardest task: ride the giant mortar and make him obey her. On the northern boarders of Buyan. Is a cave in the cliffside with a chest inside. Marya must bring her what she finds there. Baba Yaga then has Marya sit on her lap and tells her marriage is war and you must do whatever it takes to survive. Marya says she is not like that. Baba Yaga tells her the only thing that matters is who is to rule.
12. Marya goes to L for help with her last task. Madame Lebedeva points out how Marya was cruel to her and made fun of her fixation on makeup. Madame Lebedeva uses the make up as a type of magic to help her with her tasks. Marya asks her to paint her for the task, but Madame Lebedeva refuses again. She does tell her what the different colors do though: Blue for bargains, green for daring, violet for brute force, coral coaxes, pink insists, red compels. Marya goes to Volchya and asks him to never take her back to … because that is where she will die. He promises. He offers to take her to fetch what is in the chest, but Marya says the task is really the mortar. He tells her it must have a mistress that is cold and she is still too warm. Back in her room, she paints up her face, puts on a heavy leather apron and fur coat, and puts her hair up to a tight bun. She goes in the night to the mortar. It knows it is not her when she climbs in. She holds onto the pestal best she can. After hours of being tossed around and bruised, she acts more like Baba Yaga and changes her way of riding to have her legs open wide. She is able to stead the mortar using the pestal and it takes her right to the cave she needs. Inside, she meets the four dogs. They don’t quite recognize her, but she gives them stories on why she looks, sounds, and smells different. In their arguing with each other, they all of their names are revealed. She says each one and they die. She realizes it is Koschei’s death in the chest. If she brings it out, he will think she is trying to kill it. If she doesn’t, Baba Yaga will eat her. She takes out the egg and wraps it up carefully before leaving the cave.
13. After Marya presents the egg to Baba Yaga, the old witch takes it to Koschei. She kisses him and tells Marya he was her ninth husband (even though he is her brother). She eats the egg thinking it is his death and tells him it is Marya’s fault for finding it. Koschei tells them it is not really his death. He sends Baba Yaga aside because she would have eaten it thinking it was his death. She gives her blessing for them to marry. He is also not happy that Marya killed his dogs and stole what she thought was his death. He tells her she should have instead spent her time planning their wedding. He says they will have complete freedom to do whatever and whoever they want, but she must never leave him. She tells him they must be completely honest with each other; she insists on knowing where he keeps his death. He tells her it is kept in the eye of a needle, inside of an egg inside a series of animals that he has a butcher watch over. Baba Yaga says that is as good as wedding vows. Death, Viy, comes along in a gust of wind. He is able to grab Marya’s death and pull her around by it. Marya thinks she should have asked Koschei to hide her death as well, but Death tells her it doesn’t work like that for her, only the deathless. Baba Yaga (Night) asks how the treaty was broken to allow Death into Bayun. When Marya was pulled the horse, they followed her back. Viy turns into an Albatross and toys away. Marya chases him. Vi’s men come and smash the windows and throw in the heads of Marya’s companions: Zemya, Nasha, and Madame L.
PART 3: IVANUSHKA (169)
14. Ivan Nikolayevich is an officer smoking a cigarette and remembering he was able to have delicious butter on his toast that morning. He sees a dead man and wonders about taking his new-looking boots. When he gets closer, he sees there is also a dead woman with horns on her head. When he looks out more, there are thousands dead. HE calls out to see if anyone is alive. The threads at a man mouth comes lose and Ivan knows the dead belong to Marya. A bird comes along and tells him she is there to make sure he goes into the tent. The story will play out like it always does because it must. He debates going into the tent and knows if he doesn’t he will be wondering about it for the rest of his life.
15. when Ivan enters the tent, Marya knows exactly who he is. She has grown older and lost some of her sight. She sits at a telegraph typing out her report for the war. Ivan started to seduce her from the moment he walked in the tent. She knows she vowed to eat his heart, but she cannot seem to bring herself to kill him. She thinks she could have left the trail of bodies to lure him to her. He knows who she is. He tells her how his mother took him to the graveyard everyday for a year when her father died. On the last day of her mourning, an old woman was there and fed Ivan. He says he wants to do that for her now. He asks why she is so hard. She says she joined the army and then all her friends died.
16. Marya explains to Ivan that she fights in the war against the Tsar of Death because she is married to Koschei. She reads to him from Likho’s black book and hopes he doesn’t understand so she can send him away. He believes her and agrees to go back to Koschei’s house with her. She takes his hand and leads him through the land of Death warning him not to look at anyone. arya’s friends follow her everytime she goes through. When a girl he used to long for calls out to him, and he doesn’t look. Marya shoots one of the girl’s braid off. When he is hit in the back by a clump of earth, he turns to see who threw it. Marya tells him to run and he does.
17. When they arrive at Koschei’s house, Ivan thinks it is hell. Marya tries to explain that everything around them is living and part of life. Koschei is fine with her having brought a pet home, but when he finds out his name is Ivan, he is furious. Koschei says he must be called something else while he is there. Koschei pulls Marya to him and she only has eyes for him in that moment. He tells her she can run away with him and have babies. She wonders what life would have been like if she had never seen the magical world of his. He tells her to run, but she knows it is not what she wants. He offers to grow old with her, in the end she will still die and him live on.She asks if he will put her in his factory if she runs. He says he will and keep her forever because she is his.
18. Marya goes to the factory. She tries to talk to the girls inside, but none can answer her. She tries to get them to run away, but they all ignore her. Ivan tries to wrap his head around what Koschei really is. Marya and Ivan have sex and he asks her to go back to her hometown with him. Marya notices the red scarf tied around the arm of his jacket. He said it always made him feel safe so he kept it. He takes it off the coat and puts it around her neck. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, Madame Lebedeva’s ghost is there to see her. She tells Marya she should run away with Ivan and enjoy what peace she can. If she stays, her master, the Tsar of Death, will come and feast on her soon. Marya claims she is different than the girls before her, but Madame Lebedeva tells her she isn’t before she flies away out the window.
19. Marya and Ivan run away in the night. They come to Marya’s sister, Olga’s house who has had many children with her rook bird husband. Olga scolds her for not telling Olga he was a bird when she knew all those years ago. While they eat, Marya tries to tell him not to talk and to do what she tells him for the rest of the night. He does not obey and starts eating what he wants. Marya is furious. When they are getting ready to leave, Olga gives Marya a ball of red yarn saying it will always lead her home. The next day, they arrive at her sister, Tatiana’s house. She has heard the rumors of Marya leaving her husband and running away with Ivan. She admits she has had several affairs herself. In the morning when they are getting ready to leave, Tatiana tosses her a red apple and tells her as long as she leaves the core, it will always be whole in the morning. Lastly, they go to Anna’s house. Anna’s house is bare because she doesn’t think it is right to have more than her neighbor. She leads them out to a bathhouse where Marya takes care of Ivan, but he falls asleep on the floor before she can complete the ritual. In the morning, Anna tosses Marya a key with brass teet and tells her it is the key to their old house and one of them should live in it. The key was sent to Anna when their mother died because she was the only one the Housing Ministry could find.
PART 4: THERE ARE NO FIREBIRDS IN LENINGRAD (235)
20. When they arrive at the house, no one is there. She pretends she can see how all the children grew up as she makes her way to the kitchen. She calls out to Zvonok, but there is no answer. She starts scrubbing the floor and is tired by the time Zvonok appears. She tells Marya how everyone has left. Many got sick and died. A few remnants have tried to stay in the house, but she scared them away because she didn’t like them. She pulls out Marya’s teacup from her pocket and disappears through the hoop of the handle. Marya wakes up and Ivan has brought them a roommate, Kseniya a nursing student, and her infant daughter Sofia. Marya tells them to take the downstairs because it is closer to the stove. She has Ivan take her upstairs and make her feel something. At night, Marya is restless and wonders to the kitchen. She finds Kseniya getting ready to bathe. Marya thinks it will make the young woman sick, but she says she and her daughter have a condition where they cannot allow themselves to dry out. Marya suspects what she is, but doesn’t say anything about it as she helps Kseniya with her hair. She asks Ivan to get her something from Buyan, it he tells her those are not part of the new world. A year later, Marya decides to put in her red dress and some lipstick and take herself out. When she opens the door, a dark haired man kneels down and says he is there for the girl in the window.
21. Koschei begs Marya to come back with her. He says he will let Viy win the war and they can be together all the time. He has tried living without her but cannot. She says she cannot be constantly dragged back and forth between the two worlds. He hands her his death (a black egg). She takes him to the basement and chains him to the wall. She tells him he must endure what she went through when she first came to his house. He will give her his will and return her will as well. She tells Ivan he must never go in the basement. Marya spends the days with Koschei and the nights with Ivan. A woman named Ushanka says she is from the same office as Ivan and has come to investigate Marya. She asks if she is actually married to Ivan and where she is from. Marya sees the game she is playing. She shows her out of the house and tells her to come back again and they will be friends.
22. Marya tells Koschei she thinks they are finally really married. He likes being kept by her. She asks Ivan what he remembers from when they first met, but it is hazy to him. Kseniya takes Sofia and Marya to a festival and there is a house painted with different folklore. She sees Koschei, Ivan and Yelena, but not herself. Kseniya knows what is going on but promises to never go in the basement. She then explains she wants to become a nurse to find out how men breathe. She did hates that men tell stories of how beautiful women drown men in lakes. They never stop to think that maybe the woman just didn’t understand how the man breathes. Ivan is given peaches from work and says it is because he is good at his job. Marya asks about Ushanka, but Ivan says there isn’t anyone by that name at his office. Marya sneaks one down to Koschei. He confesses all of the lies he previously told her. As she is about to leave, a bit of silver catches her eye and she finds the old hairbrush. Likho arrives and seems to be proud of Marya. Marya wants to make her go away, but suddenly an air raid siren goes off.
23. The war drags on and tensions are high as resources become scarce. Ivan resents Mary’s for making him forge her papers and making him have a secret to hide from the people. Marya uses the apple her sister gave her to make sure everyone is eating something, but they all are wasting away to nothing. Zvonok is under the basement stairs one night when she sees Marya drink blood from Koschei’s neck. Zvonok trades some jewelry for some meat that Baba Yaga sells in the market and they feed it to Sofia. She does not to long after and her mother shortly after that. Ivan finally gets fed up with Marya’s secret and thinks she is hiding food in the basement. He goes down stairs and see Koschei hanging in the wall. He frees him. Marya asks him to take her away from there and he does. Ivan dies shortly after. Zvonok does because her house died.
PART 5: BIRDS OF JOY AND SORROW (285)
24. The Tsar of Birds, Alkonost, potties his brother. They make an egg together and when it hatches, they look inside the shell. They close it up and hide it away so no one will see the co tents of what they created together.
26. Koschei and Mary live in the village of Yaichka like mortals with neighbors. Mary’s doesn’t seem to remember the magic from her life before or that she has ever lived anywhere else. Marya riders her horse Volchya two days a week and brings back meat from hunting. One morning, she wakes up to see a man in a coat of many colors working the fields. Koschei tells her not to look at him and she thinks no more of it. Their neighbors, Vladimir and Nadya have two sons: Josef and Leon. On Marya’s other side is Georgy who plays a gusli, and his wife Galina. Down the road is Nikolai and Aleksandra and their daughters: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.
27. One day a week, Ushanka comes to visit. Marya starts to remember things from the past, but Ushanka assures her they have always been there. When Marya sees a man with a many colored hat working with large sheers, Koschei again tells her not to look at the man and she obeys. Marya tells Koschei she wants to have a baby, but he keeps putting it off. She does eventually grow pregnant and he tells her she is going to have a baby girl. Grigory and Aleksandra experiment and find they are not able to be killed. Marya walks through the woods and shoots a firebird. It falls out of the sky and Marya catches it. However it is not dead and Marya is not burned. It says it forgives her for killing it and takes off again. The town has a potluck. This is when Marya’s daughter decides it is time to be born.
28. Marya’s daughter is born right there. She drinks from Marya’s breast and becomes fully grown and 17 years old. She is still naked and covered in Mary’s blood. She goes to Koschei and hugs him and they disappear in a silvery light. Mary’s wakes up in her bed and the copper key on the wall is bleeding. Alkonost is there to comfort her. He tells her the egg made by him and Koschei contained Koschei’s death and this town, Yaichka, where Marya could live with a whole version of Koschei that includes his human part, Ivan. When Marya asked Koschei to take her away, this was where he took her. Alkonost fed her until she got better and let her into the village to play out the end of their story. He recognized that they tried to change the story, but could not no matter what they do. Marya asks about the bleeding key and is told it means Ivan is dying back in her own house.
29. When she gets to her house, Marya finds part of the roof missing from shelling. Zvonok is there, but very sick because the house is sick. Mary’s finds Ivan in their bed. He tells how he had sat on the roof watching for the Germans. Zvonok had made herself big and pretended to be Mary’s for him. He told her the story of how he searched for her and three times birds followed him home and asked for something of hers. First he gave her red dress, then her silver hair brush, and lastly her rifle. The birds return one by one to bring the items back, but the dress is now colorless from Marya’s pain. The brush is tarnished from Marya’s grief. The rifle had shot itself signaling the death was growing in Marya. Ivan dies. Marya puts on the dress and takes the rifle. Some men call out to her asking if she knows how to shoot. She tells them yes.
PART 6: SOMEONE OUGHT TO BE (329)
29. Ushanka scolds Marya for letting a little boy go. Marya can’t stand to punish children that are just trying to survive. She pulls the red yarn out of her pocket and puts it in the ground. It starts to roll and unravel. She and Ushanka get in the car and follow it. It leads to a town and points to a black building. Marya asks Ushanka to get a drink with her. Zemya is behind the bar. Marya rushes to greet him, but he doesnmt know her and says his wife Nasha will get jealous. Madame Lebed is there (owns the dress shop), but she doesn’t recognize Marya either. They go down to the butcher shop where a girl named Yelena offers to cut them off a piece of meat. When they ask where she is from, she tells them there is a woman’s collective where they all live in love. She left when she met her husband, Koschei.
30. Outside, Marya confronts Ushanka who takes off her skin and reveals her true self: a golem daughter of a Yelena. They are in Buyan, but it has since been taken over by Viy. He makes sure that death looks as much like life as possible. When Marya left Koschei, he set the Yelena’s free and tries to take Likho teach them how to be Maryas, but none of them could be. He lost the war and Viy took over. Ushanka tells her to go to the cafe and then pulls out a spool of golden yarn and drops it to the ground. She follows it until she disintegrates and is swept away by the wind. Marya goes to the cafe and finds Baba Yaga there. She is the only one who seems to remember, but she says she doesn’t because it is against the rules. She tells Marya where Koschei is and gives her a red scarf. Marya finds the burnt out building and goes to the basement to find Koschei.