While Druvvaldis
watches the perimeter to make sure the escaped smugglers don’t return with
reinforcements, Annar, Plamen and Chonkorchuk deal with the chaos of the
battle’s end. Annar restrains and binds the felled Vasya while Plamen feeds him
berries to ensure he does not die. Upon regaining consciousness, Vasya
alternates insulting Chonkorchuk with complaints about being turned over to
Baba Yaga, whereupon he is gagged. In the meantime, Plamen uses his natural
polevik power over fire to extinguish the burning cottage. The group then moves
in to search what’s left.
The takings appear to
be rather meager. Chonkorchuk finds a dagger with an ivory hilt on one of the
vanquished smugglers, while Plamen takes another, ordinary, dagger. Chonkorchuk
also replaces his torn and bloodied overcoat with another overcoat, as well as
a padded surcoat worn by one of the more dangerous-looking smugglers. Annar,
for his part, lifts a few loose coins from several of the bodies. He is much
more interested in the smugglers’ iron cauldron in the fireplace, and an
incongruous anvil he discovers near the door. The volot undertakes to carry the
anvil, the cauldron, and the bound Vasya as the group travels to find Baba
Yaga, but then thinks better of it, and decides to bury the anvil outside the
cottage, resolving to return to reclaim it later.
The group travels back
toward Chonkorchuk’s neck of the woods, crossing the two rivers in the same
places as they did when they walked to the smugglers’ hut. On route, Annar
enquires where they are to find Baba Yaga, to which Chonkorchuk replies that
she usually finds them. That turns out to be the case. As the group crosses the
Vydra, Plamen spies her sitting on a tree branch, smiling and chortling to
herself. Annar is surprised to
discover that she is the same crone who pointed him in the direction of
Druvvaldis when he first crossed into the Land of Nor’.
 |
| Baba Yaga, sporting some new duds |
The crone happily
receives her cowed quarry, and appears surprised to meet the volot as well,
though claiming she hasn’t seen one in a long time. When asked what he is doing
there, Annar offers that he is seeking Perkons, his divine master. The hag
replies that he has come to the right place, and that this god, and many other
old gods besides, reside nearby, and are making plans to return. She tells him
that she will reveal his presence if he aids the party in its last task – the
recovery of the bride. Annar accepts the assignment, but asks for no reward until he fulfills his part of the bargain, which Baba Yaga assesses as a wise decision. She then takes possession of Vasya, and parts ways with
the party.
Chonkorchuk leads the
group back to Vasya’s old prison underneath the oak tree where he, Durvvaldis,
and Plamen recently spent the night. Annar is too big to fit through the
doorway, though, so the group departs for the hermitage. Chonkorchuk finds his
old abode destroyed, however – it is partially burned, and the logs with mystic
inscriptions have been smashed with an axe. He suspects people from Lazarevo,
and then decides to set up camp nearby. A fire is lit – the experience of the
previous night convinces him that roughing it in the cold is dangerous to his
health. Prior to turning in, the hermit calls forth a vision of the bride they
seek, and sees an image of Katarina, naked, chained to a wall by her arms by an
iron chain. The vision fades, and then changes into another, of Katarina, again
nude, washing herself.
The first half of the
following day is occupied by hunting. While Annar manages to hunt down a couple
of hares to supplement the diet of berries conjured by Plamen, Chonkorchuk has
another vision of villagers packed into a church, where Hegumen Yaakov is
leading a service. Slowly, the group makes its way down toward the warren, as
they come up with a plan of action. Annar can’t fit into the chute, so a
decision is made to send him into the village. He is as yet unknown, and perhaps
may learn something of what is going on with Katarina, and in the village in general,
without being suspected of working with Chonkorchuk and his band of misfits.
After arriving, Plamen, Druvvaldis and Chonkorchuk take cover in Plamen’s old
chamber, while the volot heads to Lazarevo.
 |
| Hegumen Yaakov |
Upon seeing the giant
man, he is immediately surrounded by fearful villagers, and soon, by the monks’
armed servitors, who conduct him to the island along the ice. The volot is led
to the mess hall, and fed, and then left alone for a private audience with
Hegumen Yaakov himself. The abbot seems fully aware of Annar’s collaboration
with Chonkorchuk and Plamen, and of their recent activities, and the threats
these present to the village. He does aver that he dealt with the walking dead
men, however. Annar, largely unaware of the conflict between the monastery and
his strange new friends, reveals the full extent of the group’s work for Baba
Yaga, and their plans for Katarina. Yaakov unexpectedly offers Annar a deal:
deliver the grain requisitioned from Plamenka’s warren to help stave off
famine, and he will not stand in the way of the group’s plans, provided they do
not bring further chaos upon Lazarevo. He also asks Annar to swear that whatever happens to Katarina, he will protect her with his life and ensure no harm comes to her. Annar agrees to the terms, and, being offered warm
accommodations after months in the wilderness, sinks into a bogatyr’s sleep.
The following morning,
Plamen and Chonkorchuk, leaving Druvvaldis to watch Plamen’s room, walk into
town, unaware of Annar’s activities of the previous night. The hermit disguises
himself as a peasant, while the changeling healer turns into a dog. Chonkorchuk
knocks on Katarina’s door, and is confronted by her mother, who seems upset by
the fact that a stranger and his dog are asking after her unmarried daughter.
She refuses to let them in, though they do espy the girl listening by the
window. Chonkorchuk leaves after announcing that they will wait for a meeting
with Katarina a short ways outside the village. After they leave, Annar, who
awakens late, approaches the same compound. He is looking for Katarina’s father
– the smith. After he is fetched by his assistants, Annar solicits him to make
weapons fit for one of his size, and offers him two kopecks. The smith laughs,
and says that he is not really a weaponsmith, and that at any rate, the cost
will be significantly higher. Annar then offers to deliver him an anvil, which
intrigues the smith, if only because it can be melted down.
The volot leaves,
preparing to fetch the anvil, and runs into his companions in the meadow.
Chonkorchuk is not entirely happy about Annar’s revelations to Yaakov, and
doesn’t think that Katarina’s father (as opposed to Zhitko) is the right smith
for the job of weapon making. Plamen, for his part, sees no way in which the
village is entitled to his family’s grain stores. In the middle of the
discussion, a small baked bun made of dough, with raisin eyes rolls in, and tells the group that it was sent by Katarina, who wants to learn what they want. Chonkorchuk replies that they want to meet her in the meadow to speak to her
about a private matter. Annar attempts to kick the bun, but it avoids him, and begins to roll circles around him, insulting him and telling him he is a big dumb oaf who cannot catch it before rolling toward home. Offended, Annar goes off to fetch his anvil, while Chonkorchuk and the dog Plamen return to the warren.
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