Rosa and the Veil of Gold

by Kim Wilkins

  “We need to eat,” Daniel said. He was already tearing the remaining bread from the bear and dividing it into two. Em noted he saved the smaller chunk for himself.

  “No, Daniel, you’re bigger than me. You should have the larger piece.”

  “That’s very kind.”

  “It’s just practical.”

  They sat down on a flat rock, munching on the lifeless bread. It tasted like the back of an old refrigerator, but Em chewed and swallowed and wondered when she might eat again. It would take weeks for them to starve, wouldn’t it? By then, surely, they would have found something to eat. Perhaps they would have even found the Snow Witch, and she would have sent them home. Em sighed and pulled her feet up on the rock. She slipped off her sodden shoes and bared her toes to the weak sun. They were wrinkled and white. In all likelihood, she and Daniel would never meet the Snow Witch; they would meet their deaths first. Em didn’t know what else they could do apart from moving forward, trying to catch a few hours of oblivion each night, then moving on the next day.

  Daniel finished eating and started to stow the bear back under his shirt. “Why are you always so practical?” he said as he fastened the bear close to his body.

  Em was confused. The question almost didn’t make sense. “Because it makes life run better.” A noise among the reeds caught her attention. A thud and a rustle.

  Daniel’s head snapped around, alert.

  “Rabbit?” she whispered.

  “Giant rabbit,” Daniel said without a smile. “Don’t want to see a rabbit that big.”

  The noise again, closer. Em was pulling on her shoes in an instant.

  “Which way do we run?”

  Daniel indicated a hundred yards ahead. “Towards those trees. Better chance of hiding.”

  “For him too.”

  “We’re open targets out here. Come on.”

  They hit the ground and ran for the trees. Em caught a shape in the corner of her eye: hulking and black. She pushed herself forward, trying to keep up with Daniel, fighting down dizzying hunger.

  In the trees they slowed, but didn’t stop. Five minutes passed. Daniel grasped the trunk of a tree and paused. Em crouched next to him, catching her breath. The ground was sodden; bracken layered thick in the undergrowth. A chorus of insects buzzed and clicked around them, a perfect soundtrack to the itching physical discomfort and the ripe damp smell.

  “Did we lose it?” she asked.

  “I don’t know if it even saw us.”

  “I saw it. Him. Big and black.”

  Daniel cocked his head, listening. “Can’t hear anything.” He helped Em to her feet. “You’re okay?”

  She nodded, swallowing a pant. “Yep. I’m good.”

  They turned, and in the same second a black shape stepped out from behind a tree trunk. He made a noise, like a cry of discovery. “Ah!”

  Em screamed, Daniel turned to run. The black creature flung his hands out and a jet of salty, oily ink shot into their faces. Em couldn’t see anything. She heard Daniel fall to the ground with a groan. She palmed her eyes, stumbled.

  Then she was swept up, flung backwards over the beast’s shoulder. “No! Put me down!” she shouted. His arm was an iron grip around her knees. Daniel was conspicuously silent over the other shoulder as the creature began to run. Her sight resolved again, and she watched helplessly as the marshy woods disappeared behind her, upside-down.

  Daniel felt himself coming up out of darkness. He tried to cling to it. The darkness, though cold and frighteningly blank, was predictable. Wherever consciousness was taking him, he was certain it was difficult and unpleasant.

  My head hurts, he thought. And was surprised to hear the words out loud.

  “Daniel?”

  He opened his eyes. Em knelt a few feet away, stripped down to her Mir clothes. He looked at himself, and saw he was the same. His furs were gone; the pack with their moleskin was gone. With a quick feel, he discovered that the bear was still strapped against his body under his clothes.

  “Where are we?” he said, sitting up uncertainly. “Is it a cave?” The air was stale and dank and…some other scent. Fishy. It smelled like fish.

  “In a cave on the river’s edge,” Em said. “You must have got more of the ink in your eyes than I did. It knocked you out. I watched which way we came.”

  “Who brought us here?”

  “I still haven’t seen his face, but he’s big, all dressed in black, with a bushy black beard. He took our furs to dry them, he said. The pack is somewhere back at the marsh, so thank God we moved our valuables when we did.” She slapped the rock in front of her. “He put this here so we can’t get out.”

  Daniel looked around. The ceiling of the cave was low, only three or four feet. It was dry but very cold. He heard a flapping sound, and turned to see a net full of fish dumped at an outer edge. They were still alive, choking on air.

  “Fish?”

  “His catch, he said.” Em turned back to the mouth of the cave, where she was peering through a narrow crack. “We’re part of it.”

  “Part of what?”

  “His catch. We’re to wait here and die like the fish, then he’s going to eat us.”

  Daniel groaned. His stomach burned with fear and hunger. “How can you be so calm?”

  “Because we’ll take longer than fish to die. As soon as he returns, I’ll offer him some gold to set us free. I wanted to wait until you were conscious, so I didn’t have to carry you out like a sack of potatoes.”

  “Potatoes…” Daniel said.

  “Mashed with butter and chives.”

  Daniel eyed the flapping net. “Deep-fried chips with battered fish.”

  Em sat back on her haunches, feeling in her pocket where she had stored the gold for safekeeping. “We’ll be down to one piece of gold after this,” she said.

  “Maybe we’ll find the Snow Witch soon. The fisherman might be friendly.” Daniel pulled out the crumpled packet of cigarettes he had bought when they left Vologda.

  “You aren’t going to smoke at a time like this,” Em said, irritated.

  He opened the packet. Within were eight mashed cigarettes, which had been soaked then dried again. “No. But if he’s what I think he is, then these might come in useful.”

  “Oh?”

  “You didn’t happen to see his feet?”

  “They were bare. I only had a glimpse of them.”

  “I bet he has extremely long toes,” Daniel said, calling up from memory Nanny Rima’s stories about water spirits. “I think he’s a vodyanoy. A fisherman demon. He won’t just leave us here to die, Em, he’ll drown us when he’s ready. He has a house on the bottom of the riverbed. He’ll want to take us there.”

  “And the cigarettes?”

  “A vodyanoy is vicious and unforgiving, but he’ll love tobacco.” Daniel began ripping the filters off the cigarettes and casting them onto the cave floor.

  Em turned back to the crack of daylight. “Ah, he’s there.”

  Daniel crawled over to join her, peering out. Sitting among the reeds, dangling his net in the water, was the black-haired creature they had met in the woods.

  “Should we call him over?” Em said.

  “You do it.”

  Em gave him a wry smile, then turned to the opening. “Hey! Vodyanoy! Come here, I want to make a deal with you.”

  The creature turned. Despite his hulking figure, he had a human face smothered under his enormous black beard. He stood and approached, and Daniel could see his features were mottled with algae. The skin around his temples and jaw was dry and almost scaly. His glassy, protuberant eyes fixed on them through the gap above the boulder.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “We have gold,” Em said.

  “Well give it to me.”

  “Not for nothing. You have to let us go and promise not to drown us.”

  He scowled. “Is it much gold?”

  “A gold earring. Finely made and beautiful. On your ear it would
gleam like the sun,” Daniel offered.

  The vodyanoy scratched his greasy hair. He shrugged. “I suppose it’s a fair deal.” He leaned forward and grunted the boulder aside, then barred the way with his hand outstretched. “The gold first.”

  Em dropped the earring onto his palm.

  “Ah,” he said, holding it up to look through it. “Very pretty.” He pushed it through his earlobe and a squirt of black blood popped out. “Go on, then. Go away.”

  They climbed out of the cave and into the mottled sunshine on the riverbank. “Do you know where the Snow Witch lives?” Em asked, dusting herself off.

  “I’m not answering any questions. Not without more gold.”

  “What about tobacco?” Daniel said, offering a cigarette.

  The vodyanoy took the cigarette curiously, sniffed it deeply. The hairs in his nostrils twitched, and an almost-seraphic smile came to his face. He nodded. “I’m Bolotnik,” he said. “Your names?”

  “Em and Daniel,” Daniel said, chancing a glance at the creature’s toes. They were as long as his fingers. “We’re from Mir. We’re lost and we’re looking for the Snow Witch.”

  Bolotnik screwed his face up. “Snow Witch…Snow Witch…Can’t say I know of her.”

  “Are you certain?” Em said. “East and east and north a-ways?”

  “Ohhh,” said the creature, nodding with dawning understanding. “Oh, the Snow Witch. Yes, yes. You’re too far north now. You need to go south a-ways.”

  “She’s south of here?”

  “No, she’s north of here, but you have to go south to go around the Dead Forest. Not a man or beast can survive in there. It’s full of revenants. All those in the history of Mir who have died an unfortunate death gather there.”

  Em and Daniel exchanged glances. The Dead Forest. “That’s a lot of revenants,” Em said.

  “I was just going to fry up some fish,” Bolotnik said. He peered at Daniel hopefully. “If you’ve got another of those sticks of tobacco, you can join me.”

  Daniel’s mouth grew moist. “Oh, yes,” he said.

  “Wait, wait,” Em said. “Don’t you live on the riverbed? We can’t follow you down there.”

  “No, I’m banished from home for two days. I’m in trouble with my wife. Too much vodka with the swamp spirits.” He waved a dismissive hand. “You don’t want to hear of it. I’m cooking up here on the surface tonight.”

  “Well then,” Em smiled. “We’d be delighted.”

  Bolotnik was ambivalent about their company. He made them sit at least six feet away from him, citing the fact that they smelled like Mir and he couldn’t eat with that smell around. Em was grateful for the distance, because he glanced at her across the fire from time to time with a barely disguised expression of desire. She wasn’t sure if he wanted to eat her or rape her, but Em was keen to avoid either possibility.

  The fish was wonderful. She and Daniel both ate beyond politeness, leaving the vodyanoy with raised eyebrows, gathering the net with his latest catch protectively against his side.

  “We need more information,” Em said, licking her fingers and repressing a burp. “Would you help us?”

  He shrugged. “It’s not in my nature to help Mir folk, but nor is it in my nature to go back on a deal. As long as I keep the gold, as long as there’s tobacco for me, I’ll help.”

  Daniel counted out his last few cigarettes and handed them to Bolotnik, who hid a pleased smile.

  “The Snow Witch,” he said. “Tell us everything you know.”

  “She lives in the north, on the crystal lake in a grand palace.” He peeled some tobacco and popped it into his mouth. “She rages all day and all night against her family, who she believes forsook her in an hour of need. She’s hideous to behold. Most people have to turn away.”

  “How do we get there?” Em said.

  “Go south, go around the Dead Forest. You’ll know it when you see it. Then east until you reach the first frost plains. Somewhere around there…north and north…” He trailed off. “It’s a long way.”

  Em’s heart sank. “It is?”

  “You probably won’t make it.”

  “So, south,” Em said, ignoring his last comment. “Follow the river downstream.”

  “Yes, on the western side, not the eastern because that’s directly through the Dead Forest.”

  “I understand.”

  “You’ll run into russalki. And lots of swamp spirits…” He snapped his fingers. “You’ll be safer on the water than on the land. I can lend you a boat.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “Let me see…you’ve already given me gold and tobacco.” The vodyanoy seemed coy, glancing away bashfully. “What else could such a pretty girl give me in exchange for a boat?”

  Daniel was looking at her expectantly, and Em had the distinct feeling she had missed some nuance of the conversation.

  “We don’t have anything else—” she began.

  “I’d never tell my wife. She’s already cross enough.”

  Daniel leaned on her, whispering in her ear, “He wants a kiss.”

  “A kiss?” Em said, too loudly and too aghast.

  “I won’t bite you if that’s what you’re worried about,” Bolotnik protested, wiping the back of his hand over his dirty beard. “And you’ll get a boat for your trouble. And a stock of fresh fish. And a magic fire that burns even when it’s wet.”

  Em had to admit that this was a lot of assistance. “Just one kiss—” she started.

  “That’s all I’d ask,” he said, surly again. “I have a wife, you know.”

  Em realised half-heartedly that it was hardly the only occasion she’d offered kisses without love. “Well, then. I suppose you should kiss me.”

  The vodyanoy bared his teeth in a smile, then beckoned her grandly. “Come here, then. I’m not going to come after you. I’m not desperate.”

  Em cleared her throat as she stood, smoothing down her clothes and tucking her hair behind her ears. She crossed the distance between them and knelt in front of him, where his face was turned up to hers in the firelight, grinning.

  “Mmmm,” he said, “pretty Mir girl.” Then he took a deep breath and held it, and Em realised this was to cover the Mir smell he had complained of.

  “Now,” he said urgently, his breath stopped up in his throat. She closed her eyes and leaned in, felt the brush of scaly lips, the tentative lick of his slimy tongue. She wondered if he was tasting her and regretting the decision to let them go. Then he pushed her away and released his breath. Em climbed to her feet and returned to her place next to Daniel, while Bolotnik squeezed his hands into tight, coy fists. The inky substance he had sprayed in their eyes was leaking from his palms. Em shuddered and gave thanks it was over.

  Daniel was staring at her. “What did you do to her?” he said to Bolotnik.

  Em grew alarmed. “Why? What’s happened?”

  “It’s your mouth, Em,” Daniel said, leaning over and reaching a tentative thumb to her lips. He rubbed his thumb hard over her bottom lip, as a mother might rub a smudge off a grubby child.

  Em pulled back, irritated. “What about my mouth?”

  “Your lips are black,” Bolotnik said.

  “Black?”

  Em wiped her mouth vigorously, but Daniel shook his head. “Still there.”

  “It will fade in a day or two,” Bolotnik said proudly. “It’s just a little of me rubbed off on you. Everyone you see will know you’ve been kissing me. Pretty little Mir girl.”

  “Your side of the bargain now,” Em said, annoyed but smoothing her voice. “A boat, and some fish. And we’d like our furs back too. We’ll leave this evening.”

  “Leave in the morning,” Bolotnik said. “I’ll have to fish all night.” He nodded at Daniel. “You can help me while the Mir girl sleeps.”

  “My name’s Em,” she muttered.

  “Go and get your furs,” he said. “I hung them back a few hundred feet in the sun. They should be dry by now. Just don’t
let my wife see you. If you see a headless old witch with fat knees, run.”

  “How would she see me with no head?”

  “Don’t underestimate Skazki folk.” He chuckled and pulled a net from under his cloak. “Come on, boy. Let’s go fishing.”

  With the fire at his back, the wide night sky dusted starry above him and the oily dark of the river laid at his feet, Daniel felt an odd, dislocated sense of calm. He should not be calm; his whole world was in chaos. He was spending the evening in the company of a huge, hostile water demon, and tomorrow he had to set out on a river journey through treacherous lands in search of a malevolent witch whom he may never find. And yet, fishing in Skazki was like fishing in Mir. A meditative task.

  “You’re not catching much,” Bolotnik huffed.

  “I’m not very good at this.”

  “Never been fishing before?”

  “Not with a net. Only with a rod.” Usually he only caught one or two and threw them back anyway, unable to bear their pathetic flapping deaths. He didn’t admit that to Bolotnik, who would have pointed out, rightly, that they had to be dead before they could be eaten.

  Bolotnik cast his net again, his fingers working the long strings which dragged it through the water. Then he was still, waiting. Calmness came to the water again. The vodyanoy stretched out his legs, wriggling his long bare toes. “Tell me about Mir girls,” he said, indicating the sleeping Em behind them. “Are they all as pretty as that one?”

  Daniel considered his fishing companion by the firelight. “Some are. Some aren’t.”

  “Any prettier?”

  Daniel checked that Em was fast asleep. “There’s one I know,” he said. “More beautiful than sunrise.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Rosa,” Daniel said.

  “Rosa,” Bolotnik repeated, turning the word over in his mouth in a way that made it sound filthy. “What does she look like?”

  “She has long black hair, and blue eyes as dark as the ocean, warm arms, curves and hollows…” He trailed off, embarrassed.