KHATUNA. THE GIRL WITH THE DOLL

«Well, let’s see what else your father brought you from Stavropol,» Ulyana said with interest, examining a transparent orange lollipop in the form of a bunny that glittered in the sun.

«He brought me some toy soldiers,» Nikolka said before his sister could answer, and, bending down under the bench, took out a wooden box. Opening it, he placed on the table in a battle formation painted and varnished figures of hussars, who seemed to immediately rush on horseback to attack directly at the samovar standing in front.

«Come on, I’ll show you something else,» Varya said, calling everyone, and pulled Ulyana by the hand into the next room.

There, on a table by the window, stood a metal box, decorated with patterns and mother-of-pearl. Varya pressed the lock lever – and another smaller lid opened from the top of her lid, from which a mechanical bird, similar to a nightingale, jumped out. She was turning in directions, flapping her wings and spilling into trills. The inside of the box was trimmed with wood and upholstered in red velvet. Amazed by the little thing and full of childish envy, Vasilisa suddenly blurted out, «Just think, a box with a bird! But we have such a beautiful doll that no one else in the village has ever seen. Isn’t that so, Pelageyushka?»

Pelageya, in response with a grim face, said in a quiet displeased voice, «What are you talking about? There is no doll.»

«Well, how is that not?» Vasilisa did not calm down. «We saw her at your place lately. You hid it in mother’s empty linen chest in your room.»

Hearing this, Pelageya turned white with anger and was almost ready to pounce on Vasilisa.

«Don’t quarrel over nothing!» Nikolka intervened. «Let’s better all of us now climb Mount Kutsay together. Let’s look at our village and its surroundings from above.»

«Oh, this is so amusing! Why not really climb the mountain?» Ulyana was delighted. «They say that sometimes the great Elbrus is visible from there.»

Vasilisa and Varya also happily supported this idea. Only Pelageya silently looked out the window, plunged into her thoughts.

Having gathered, the children set off on a long journey, making their way up the rocky slope through dense thickets of hazel, rose hips and wild plums. At the top of the mountain, they really had an amazing view of the village and its surroundings. With its white huts, yellow thatched roofs, haystacks, a river and green gardens in the rays of the sun and against the background of a clear blue sky, it looked like a huge cake from above, miraculously concocted by some unknown but skillful magician.

«What a beauty!» Varya exclaimed. «Oh, look! Over there you can see our hut with the yard.»

At that moment, to the surprise of the children, a frightened hare suddenly jumped out of a nearby large briar bush and rushed down the slope, quickly hiding in the thicket of plums.

«Look! And there is Elbrus!» said Nikolka, pointing with his hand in the direction opposite from the village, where a majestic mountain was visible on the horizon. Its two-humped snow-white peak resembled a sleeping white camel, which seemed to hover and soar in the blue sky.

While everyone was admiring the view of Elbrus, Vasilisa noticed a small cherry plum tree growing off to the side at the edge of a steep cliff. Deciding to feast on wild fruits, she stood on a stone right on the edge of the abyss and wanted to pick the fruits, but suddenly she felt that someone was standing behind her. The girl looked back and saw Pelageya, who was looking at her with some cold, frozen, repulsive gaze. Vasilisa got scared, recoiled back and, stumbling, almost fell down – only at the last moment did she manage to firmly grasp the branch and, resting her feet on the mountainside, hung on it. Pelageya approached the edge of the cliff and continued to look from above with her magical gaze, from which Vasilisa’s whole body was shackled. Vasilisa felt that she was about to unclench her fingers and fall. Some unknown force tied her throat and did not allow her to scream to call for help.

Suddenly, the swallows flying around were greatly alarmed in the sky. They gathered in a large flock and began to attack Pelageya, striking her head and face with their claws. Waving aside the birds and hiding behind her hands, she distracted herself from Vasilisa and backed away. Varya turned around at the noise.

«Look!» she shouted. «How many swallows! Strange, they attacked our Pelageyushka!»

«Where is Vasilisa?» Ulyana asked anxiously. The girl ran to the edge of the cliff and saw her little sister clinging to a tree branch, who was trying to climb up. Bending down, Ulyana began to pull Vasilisa, grabbing her clothes. But her strength was not enough. Nikolka saved the situation – he immediately rushed to the rescue of Ulyana and helped pull Vasilisa out of the cliff.

«How did you get there?» Ulyana asked her sister in a trembling voice.

«It’s all she! She scared me, and I fell down!» screamed Vasilisa in tears, pointing her finger at Pelageya, who was standing to the side.

«It’s your own fault! There is nothing to blame on others! Be cautious and careful next time! And do not go to such places without asking,» as if in an adult way, Ulyana scolded her younger sister, brushing off her clothes.

From below came the bell ringing of the village church.

«Okay, it’s time to go back! We are probably already being searched for,» said Nikolka and, once again taking a look at the village from a height, led everyone back.

The girls returned home quite late. Pelageya retired to her room, and Ulyana and Vasilisa sat in the kitchen and began vying to tell their mother about their visit to Nikolka and Varya – about the treats and gifts that their father had brought from Stavropol.

«Where did you scratch your feet so badly?» Mother asked Vasilisa in surprise.

In response, the girl told her about what had happened on the mountain. Whimpering, she again began to complain about Pelageya, that it was she who scared her and pushed her off the cliff, and then with her unusual gaze fettered her body and did not give the opportunity to call for help, and only the swallows at the last moment saved her by flying at Pelageya.

«Stop it, Vasilisa!» Ulyana intervened. «Pelageyushka has nothing to do with it. You were just scared, not expecting to see her behind your back, and you fell down yourself. The fear of falling into the abyss immobilized you and did not allow you to call for help. Although,» Ulyana thought for a second, «the swallows really behaved unusually when they pounced on Pelageyushka.»

Galina listened to her daughters and became wary, recalling the strange events that happened last night, and how much the goats in the yard were scared at the sight of Pelageya.

In the morning of the next day, Nazar got ready for business in the village. Galina asked him to stop by on the way to Granny Efrosinya – a longtime acquaintance, a local fortune-teller and sorceress – and invite her over for tea, and at the same time tell fortunes on the cards.

CHAPTER 5. THE FORTUNE-TELLER

In the afternoon, already closer to the third hour, shuffling up the winding road, Efrosinya reached Nazar’s house.

«Hello, Galinushka! Good to see you! I haven’t seen you for a long time,» the old woman smiled, pretty heavily panting after the hard climb up the hill. «Oh, the road to you is very difficult; once again no one will go. This morning Nazar stopped by me and said that you wanted to see me. It is necessary-so it is necessary. As soon as I figured out my affairs, I went to you.»

«Good day, Granny Efrosinya!» Galina greeted her happily. «Yes, you haven’t come to see us for a long time. We were already getting bored. I kept getting ready to visit you too, but in no way – now children, now household chores… Well, let’s go, let’s go to the hut to the table, otherwise the samovar is already getting cold. Forgive me for distracting from urgent matters, but I really need to know what awaits us in the future. Now something has become alarming in my soul.»

«Time for you, Galinushka, I will always find when it’s necessary,» the fortune-teller continued in response, having entered the hut and sitting down at a table. «And that’s right, I have a lot of things to do these days. Someone asks to tell fortunes, another one to make a love spell, and the other one to lift curses. So, last Thursday Ustinya came to me. Well, Tryphon’s wife. She was crying, ulcers, said, all of a sudden, have appeared down her legs for no reason. It hurt to step. And it all started after she found the charmed coins right at the gate of Pantelei. And I asked her, why did you pick up other people’s coins? They were not meant for you! I conjured over her, gave her a decoction of herbs, and told her to throw those coins away from people’s eyes,» said Efrosinya, looking at the treats. «Oh, you always have wonderful baked food, Galinushka! Every time I try it and every time I’m overjoyed’ the old woman praised the hostess, taking a bite of a large patterned spice-cake and washing it down with tea from a saucer.

«Help yourself, Granny Efrosinya. Eat, don’t be shy! I know you love something sweet,» Galina smiled. «In the morning I baked everything myself. It’s nice that you liked it.»

«Well, what gnaws at you, Galinushka, if you called me so urgently? Or did anything happen?» asked Efrosinya.

In response, the hostess told the fortune-teller about how Nazar picked up the girl in a deserted place and about the strange events that began to occur afterwards.

«Let me, Galinushka, tell fortunes on this girl. The whole story that you just told is too suspicious for me,» said the old woman.

Pushing the cup and saucer aside, she pulled an old battered deck out of her skirt pocket. She quickly shuffled it, pulled three cards out of the middle at once, and spread them out on the table with the back side. Then she began to take out more cards one at a time from the deck and lay them around. As soon as the fortune-teller turned over all the cards front side, she gasped.

«Look, look, Galinushka,» she called the hostess closer to her. «You see: the queen of spades has fallen in the middle, and all the cards around it are also in black suits. It’s as if some kind of witch and nearby evil spirits gathered. Only one thing is strange: I’m guessing at a girl, and the cards show me an adult woman.»

«Maybe you are wrong, Granny Efrosinya?» Galina was puzzled. «Besides me, there are no more women here.»

«I could be wrong because of old age,» the old woman answered with barely noticeable resentment, «but these cards have not been lying to me for many years. I sense something unkind in this, Galinushka. Some kind of trouble awaits you and your family. And so far I don’t even know how to help.»

«Oh, Efrosinya, teach me how to be, how to ward off trouble from the house,» Galina lamented.

«I need to think about it. And now it’s time for me to go home,» said the sorceress, looking out the window. «It will soon be evening, and the way from you is not short.»

Efrosinya collected the cards, put the deck in her skirt pocket and got up from the table.

«Oh, wait, granny!» Galina caught herself, taking a small paper roll from the table near the wooden stove. «I almost forgot! Here I have prepared some goodies for you, so don’t refuse to accept them from us.»

«Thank you very much, Galinushka! You are a glorious hostess!» smiled the fortune-teller and took the gift.

She took a couple of steps towards the exit, but suddenly stood rooted to the spot, turned to Galina, and with her hand on her chin exclaimed with an anxious expression on her face, «Good gracious! And isn’t it Khatuna by any chance?!»

«What did you say, granny?» asked Galina not hearing her.

Without having time to answer, the old woman suddenly noticed how the door of the next room opened slightly and behind her appeared part of Pelageya’s face, who was staring at her with one eye. Frightened by something, the fortune-teller hurried, «Oh, it’s time for me, it’s time, Galinushka! I must go home!» and hurried out of the hut into the courtyard.