Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps
Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps
Copyright © 2009 by Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
Smashwords Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.
For girls and their brothers
Table of Contents
Gypsy's Advice
Into the Unknown Danger
A Witch, a Queen and a Prophecy
Life in Servitude
The Brew of Life
Escape
Gypsy's Advice
Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Vasilisa. She and her father lived in an old little house, surrounded by the small apple orchard, at the very end of the village. Her mother died a long time ago; three older sisters married and moved to houses of their own. Her father was now a very old man. He rarely got out of bed. The only time he spent outside was when the weather was good and Vasilisa would carry him onto a warm blanket under the biggest apple tree behind the house. He would rest there all day watching Vasilisa do her work.
Pretty soon, one humid summer, his health began to fail him completely. Vasilisa was afraid to leave her father alone for the fear that he would die without her. Whatever little money she made to support them by offering her help around the village, or selling fish she expertly caught in the little stream behind their house, was no longer possible to earn. She simply could no longer leave her father’s side for extended periods of time. Feeling desperate, Vasilisa went to her sisters for help.
Vasilisa’s sisters were all considerably older than she. All of them had large families of their own to feed. The sisters were Vasilisa’s half-siblings from her mother’s previous marriage. None of them had much money to give to begin with. On top of it, some believed her to be their mother’s favorite, and they could never forgive Vasilisa for that. Others thought that their stepfather had a long life and now it was time for him to move on to another world. All of them were suggesting for Vasilisa to marry and have her husband be concerned about feeding herself and her father.
Vasilisa did not want to marry; she also was not ready for her father to die. She and her father Fedor were very close. Vasilisa was Fedor’s only child. When he married her widowed mother and Vasilisa was born, her sisters were already grown, and Fedor’s hair were already more gray than black. Vasilisa was the only child in his life he watched grow from a baby into adulthood. They went fishing together and berry picking in the forest. She was the one he taught to hunt, tell the weather for the next day by watching the sky, and find her way in the forest by looking at the tree bark.
When gypsies were passing through their village last summer, an old gypsy woman looked at her father and told Vasilisa that he did not have much more than a year left in him. “The only thing to help him would be a brew of life prepared by the Queen of Asps herself. The most powerful Queen of snakes, she is believed to live behind the seventh mountain and has not been seen by a human in more than a hundred years,” the gypsy told Vasilisa, her enormous black eyes glistening like two lakes at midnight. “On the last day of summer, go to the small clearing in the forest where two large black stones stand under an ancient oak tree and hide upon the tree in the branches. The young snakes come to have their last summer dance in the moonlight before starting to prepare for winter. Make up your own mind what to do to use the situation to your advantage. I already told you too much in repayment for your kindness,” said the old gypsy drinking the apple cider in Vasilisa’s garden.
Vasilisa was the only one in her village who allowed forever hungry gypsy children of this particularly poor tribe to pick as many apples in her orchard as they could carry in the outstretched fronts of their raggedy shirts. The old gypsy woman with many beads on her wrists and neck, and a burning sunset red scarf wrapped around her head, came out of the weathered wagon, her braided gray hair falling down to her knees to thank Vasilisa and offered her advice after Vasilisa brought her a cup of freshly made apple cider.
“If you ever make it to the Queen of Asps and she asks who told you about her, tell her Katerina, daughter of Lalya, sends you. It may help if you ever anger her like I did when I was your age.” It was the last thing the gypsy told her before turning away and walking back to her wagon as briskly as a fifteen year old would.
A year later, on the last day of summer, looking at her father asleep under the apple tree, Vasilisa remembered the gypsy’s advice. She had a whole year to think about it. The common belief in her village was that gypsies told many strange tales to get their hands on good people’s money. But every day of the year her father got a little weaker and a day older. People started to say that Fedor’s time was coming to an end and Vasilisa needed to find a husband. Watching Vasilisa resist the local matchmaker’s efforts, they also said that it was not good for a young girl to end up alone; good folk might start thinking that she was a witch. Even Fedor himself had been trying to get Vasilisa to pay attention to a few suitors who still came to the door. He did not press Vasilisa into marriage but did nothing to discourage the others. Vasilisa remembered how happy her mother and father were together and held on to her dying mother’s words that she needed to find herself before she found a husband.
Watching her father struggle for breath in his sleep made her realize that if she wanted to help him, the time to act was now. She went to the house next door and persuaded a young woman there with a baby in her hands to take care of her father for a month. In exchange for that she promised her a beautiful pair of dangling silver earrings with real emeralds in them left to Vasilisa by her mother. They were the envy of everyone in the village and Vasilisa’s only peace of jewelry passed on from generation to generation in her family.
The young woman imagined herself in new earrings, admired by her husband and envied by her girlfriends and for all the wrong reasons agreed to do a good deed. Vasilisa warned her that she would only give her the earrings if upon return from her journey, Vasilisa will find the house well kept and her father well taken care of. However, the young woman was allowed to gather apples now as a down payment for her work.
By the time Fedor woke from his nap, Vasilisa was ready for her journey. She kissed her father goodbye and told him she was going to see a powerful healer beyond the seventh mountain. She promised to come back in no longer than a month with medicine to make him better.
Before the sunset, she reached the clearing in the forest where two large black stones stood, hid in the branches of the enormous ancient oak next to them, and set out to wait for the nightfall. Accidentally, she fell asleep. When she woke up and remembered where she was and why, it was already late into the night and two large black stones seemed to come alive in the light of the moon. After looking closer, Vasilisa saw that the stones were covered with swirling little black snakes, rubbing their skins on its polished sides. Suddenly, one snake jumped out of her skin and turned into a young girl, pale as moonlight with slithering black hair up to her waist and yellow eyes. Soon all the snakes lost their skins and turned into young girls one not unlike the other, slender and graceful, all of them with slick black hair and eyes of many shades of green and yellow. The snakes lit a magical blue fire on top of one of the stones and danced and chanted strange songs around it, their hair burning in the light of the moon like a circle of black flames.
While Vasilisa was thinking on how to get the young snakes to take her to the Queen of Asps, one of the girls cried out with fright. She was holding her snakeskin, a small hole burned in it, in her hand. The others started scolding her. “Why didn’t you put it under the stone like all of us did? Now you cannot turn back into your normal self. The sun will come and burn you and your skin at dawn. There is nothing we can do to help you.” After saying that the rest of the girls put their snake skins back on, put out the magic fire, and disappeared into the tall grass.
Left alone, the last snake-girl was crying, holding her burned snakeskin to her cheek. Vasilisa climbed down the tree and approached the girl. “If you let me,” she said, “I will repair your skin with a thread and a needle I have in my bag.” The snake-girl raised her emerald eyes full of tears to Vasilisa and answered, “If you do that, you will save my life and I will forever be in your debt. You may not know it but you got lucky twice today already: if my sisters saw you earlier, they would have bitten you to death for sneaking up on them like that. Humans are not entitled to all of nature’s secrets.”
Vasilisa took the skin and got to work. She had to be very careful with the delicate snakeskin in her hands not to tear it further and not to leave any holes that would make the transformation impossible. Finally, nearing dawn, the job was done and the snake girl was safely back into her skin.
The first rays of sun reflected off the young snake as she turned her head towards Vasilisa. “Tell me your first wish.”
“I need to find my way to the Queen of Asps and ask her for the Brew of life to help my father live longer,” breathed out Vasilisa hoping for a miracle.
“I can not take you with me. We, snakes, fit through cracks and crevices in the ground and between the stones that no human can go in. But I will tell you the way and meet you at the entrance of the seventh mountain. Beware, for if you take too much time to rest on your way or slow down at all, the annual brew of life will be steeped and put back into the ground. You will have to wait until next year, which might be too late for your father. And, remember, the Queen of Asps can feel you coming; she does not like to repay debts and will do all to slow you down. She owes you for saving my life. I am her favorite and youngest daughter, and I will try and help you get into her good graces.”
Vasilisa started walking so no time would be wasted, and the snake curled up on her shoulder, giving her directions. “You have to pass through the six mountains before you get to the seventh, and then the secret passage into the palace of Asps will reveal itself. Take a way around and you will never make it. Only travelers on the straight path to the seventh mountain are protected from snake bites along the way. The Queen will try and lure you out; one step across the snake grass that grows along the path, and you will die from the poisonous fangs of one of her servants or get lost in the forest forever.” Talking like that they made their way to the first mountain. The snake slid off Vasilisa’s shoulder on the ground: “We are not allowed to go through the mountain. Go alone and I will meet you on the other side. Do not stray off the path.” With that, the snake lightly touched a tiny crack in the side of the mountain and a narrow passageway revealed itself to Vasilisa. The snake disappeared into a small hole in the ground, and Vasilisa took her first step inside the mountain.
Into the Unknown Danger
Dimly glowing stones barely lit her way through the mountain. After several hours of walking, the air seemed to stretch thin, and it was becoming hard to breath; her feet were aching from sharp crystals underneath them. Within the short distance, behind her and ahead of her was total darkness.
Vasilisa just kept walking without taking notice. Suddenly, with a loud crash, a door inside one of the walls to her left swung open and daylight rushed in. There was a short walk across the forest, and the second mountain was already visible ahead. Vasilisa closed her eyes from the unexpected sunlight. She looked on the continuing passage into the heart of the mountain to her right and remembered the young snake’s warning. She bent over and picked a small stone from under her feet and threw it into the sunlit road outside; immediately, several snakes shot out of the nearby grass attacking the stone. Vasilisa looked closely and saw that there was no snake grass growing on the sides of this road. Realizing that the Queen of Asps was trying to trick her for the first time, Vasilisa turned and followed the dark passage to her right further deep into the heart of the stone. Behind her, with a great hissing, the trick door resealed itself. Soon more light came her way, and, in a couple of hours, she reached the other side of the mountain.
The young snake was already there, bathing in the warm rays of the morning sun. “You walked all night, but you have no time to rest. The second mountain is easy, but the third is guarded by the mountain troll. He will ask you to solve a riddle; if you do not answer correctly he will swallow you whole. It is not too late to turn back now. Your father had a long life; he would not want you to die for him.”
“No,” said Vasilisa. “I will talk to the troll.”
After Vasilissa passed through the second mountain, the snake told her to lie straight on the path and catch a little sleep. When Vasilisa woke up, the snake was nowhere to be seen, and there was a branch with luscious red berries growing above her face. Sleepily, Vasilisa lowered the berries to her face admiring their shape and color. She was about to eat one when the young snake sped from the forest and across the girl’s chest, stopping Vasilisa’s hand in midair. “This raspberry bush is growing beyond the borders of the path; eat one berry, and it will be a kiss of death for you. Eat your bread and drink water only from the streams I point out for you if you want to stay alive.”
Vasilisa thanked the snake for stopping her just in time, and, for a while, she walked in silence; the snake glided along the path leading the way. At dusk they came to the third mountain. The snake went up on Vasilisa’s shoulder and talked to her. “The way through the third mountain starts from the troll’s cave. Go knock on the side of it with your walking stick, and the troll will come out. I hope to meet you on the other side.” The snake cast a sad glance towards the girl and slithered away.
Without waiting, Vasilisa raised her walking stick and knocked on the troll’s cave. A monstrous creature twice her size with a smell of unwashed flesh thick around him came out of the cave. The troll’s little gray eyes fixed themselves on Vasilisa. In one of his gigantic arms, he held a club. “Answer my puzzle and hurry, for I am powerful hungry,” thundered the troll, patting his stinky pot belly with his other hand. “Why do we, mountain trolls, not like to bathe and do it, at most, once or twice in our entire life?”
Vasilisa looked closely at the mountain troll; his body was bulky like a group of stones thrown together in a hurry, his skin full of cracks and wrinkles smothered with dirt, grass grew out of some of them. An answer shot through her mind. “You are made out of stone, and over time, water sips through the cracks in the stone and ruins it by splitting it to smaller pieces. If you bathe often, it shortens the duration of your life. You simply fall apart faster.”
The troll’s terrible gaping mouth opened in a scary grin, flashing a forest of dirty teeth. “You may pass, ambiguous little human. It is a pretty simple riddle if you think about it, but fear usually runs away with everyone’s brain. You are the first one in my time to come up with the right answer. Pity, I was just getting hungry enough.”
Vasilisa did not have to be asked twice. Trying not to tremble too much, she ran past the troll into his cave. The troll walked in behind her, blocking the sunlight entirely. For a moment, the cave was in total darkness. Then, the troll swung his club off his shoulder and hit the wall in front of Vasilisa. A narrow passageway revealed itself.
“Go,” said the troll. “May the Queen of Asps enjoy your flesh.”
His hollering laughter followed Vasilisa a long, long way into the mountain. Again there was very little light, and Vasilisa’s feet were getting bruised by the sharp rocks beneath them. She was tired and hungry when she finally came out of the mountain.
The young snake appeared to sleep on the stone just off the side of the road. Next to her, on a golden tablecloth laid out on the grass, was a feast for the eyes and a stomach: fresh fruit, nuts, deliciously smelling breads, a jug of water, many types of cheese, and a pillow to lie comfortably on. A warm gratitude filled Vasilisa’s heart as she looked on a sleeping young snake: “She prepared all of that to celebrate my return.” Not wanting to feast without a friend, Vasilisa gently tickled the snake’s tail with her walking stick.
As soon as the young snake raised her head, the feast vanished without a trace. Vasilisa stood astonished. It was not a feast at all, but another trick of the Queen of the Asps. The snake told Vasilisa that there was nothing next to her at all, when she accidentally fell asleep, hoping against hope that Vasilisa would get past the troll. She warned Vasilisa again not to touch anything off the path.
The young snake was very happy to see her; she wanted Vasilisa to tell her over and over again how she solved the riddle. They both realized that each had found a friend in the other.
For three more days they traveled, the snake staying by Vasilisa’s side and guarding her when she slept until one evening Vasilisa came to the fourth mountain. The snake slithered off her shoulder. “I can not travel with you any further. The next time you see me, I will be in the Queen of Asp’s presence. All of us, her daughters, look very much alike; pay close attention and you will recognize me by the small white scar you made on my skin while repairing it. And do not be scared; none of us can bite you once you have met the Queen of Asps except the Queen herself, and she will want to preserve her precious venom for the Brew of life.”
The snake looked deep into Vasilisa’s eyes. “The fourth, fifth, and sixth mountains are just to measure your endurance; the seventh one is a test. A lonely witch lives there. She sees the future by looking into a mirror-like stew that she makes out of melting precious stones between her hands. She is believed to be a thousand years old, and she has never been wrong. You are a brave and kind girl, Vasilisa. I wish you luck.” The snake lightly touched Vasilisa’s cheek with her head and went into the parted ground by the mountain side. Vasilisa was left standing completely alone.
Suddenly something rolled off the side of the mountain, and, before having a chance to think about it, Vasilisa outstretched her hands. She looked at a strange object she was holding now, terrified that the Queen of Asps finally caught her off guard. It looked like a large speckled egg. Momentarily, something large covered the sun in the sky and landed on the rock next to Vasilisa. It was an eagle the size of a small dragon. The eagle raised its wings, half a mile long, and brought her fierce-looking beak close to Vasilisa
“Give me back my egg and I will be at your service,” said the eagle in a human voice.
A hissing came from under the ground. “Throw the egg on the rocks, let it break, and I, the Queen of Asps will move you past the seventh mountain now and grant you an audience.”
Vasilisa looked at the intensity in the eyes of the giant eagle. A tear had started to form there as the eagle watched her precious egg in Vasilisa’s hands. She slowly stretched her hands and gave the egg to the eagle. “I am the Mother of all eagles, and I thank you for your kind decision. The eagles are natural enemies of the snakes. The queen of Asps herself had pushed my egg with my son inside it off the cliff when I was away on important business. I sensed it and flew back as fast as I could, but not fast enough. If not for you, he would be dead by now, and I am too old to produce another egg. Tell me, what can I do for you in return?”
Vasilisa sat down on the ground and told Mother Eagle her story. “I can not fly you over the rest of the mountains,” said the eagle. “To be granted an audience by the Queen of Asps, you have to complete your journey yourself; then she can not refuse to see you. But nothing says I cannot make it easier for you. Take this feather and throw it up in the air once you are inside the mountain. It will light up your way and guide you. When you need me, just rub it between your hands, and I or one of my confidants will appear. Otherwise, keep it up your sleeve.” A small white feather flew up to Vasilisa’s hands, and she took it and put it up her sleeve. The eagle lovingly brushed her head on her egg. “I have to go now; wait here for a few minutes. I will send one of my eagles back with something special for you.” Holding the egg in her impressive claws, the eagle flew off.
Vasilisa stayed sitting on the road. Soon, two regular sized eagles appeared in the sky. They brought Vasilisa a shoulder bag full of food. At the bottom of it was a warm blanket to keep her comfortable at night. Vasilisa ate with gusto, put the blanket on her shoulders, and entered a cold wet passage through the fourth mountain, the eagle’s feather lighting the way.
There were no tricks as she quickly made her way through the fourth mountain. The terrible hissing of an angry Queen of Asps, though, followed her all the way to the end, jumping into her ear, startling from behind, or mellowing away, only to come back with tremendous speed, right in her face.
The walk through the fifth mountain seemed even more uneventful. It was cold and dark there, her feet ached, but no tricks were played, no riddles to be solved, no hissing to be scared of. On her way from the fifth mountain to the sixth, Vasilisa’s path was through a white birch tree forest. While enjoying its grace and beauty, Vasilisa’s spirits lifted, and she was starting to feel more hopeful about the outcome of her journey. For the first time since her journey began, she allowed herself to think back about her father, to remember her home, the apple orchard, and the village.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her sensing a presence of another person. She looked around and saw a young man with a thin golden crown going across his forehead standing under the tree nearest to her. He was tall, with raven black hair. His face was very pale, and his eyes were emerald green with speckles of yellow in them. Dressed completely in black, he was standing next to a gorgeous white-and-gray-apples horse, his hand resting on her back. His face turned to Vasilisa now; he was viewing her with increasing intensity. Though different from many, his face did not appear unkind to Vasilisa. There was something about him that made her want to talk to him.
“Go talk to him, he is your destiny,” hissed a familiar voice from under the ground. “No,” cried out the young man, giving Vasilisa a warning glance, pointing to the safety boundaries of the path. He quickly mounted his horse and rode into the woods away from Vasilisa. Though it was clearly unsafe to talk to the mysterious stranger with the crown on his head, Vasilisa was left standing and wishing they could have exchanged a few words, maybe without her crossing the path.
As she got closer to the sixth mountain, a heavy rain started falling from the sky. It came on as a blinding wall of water. Soaked to the last thread by the icy cold rain, Vasilisa could barely manage to stay on the path. What appeared a relatively short distance to the sixth mountain before the rain started, took hours to cross. When she entered the sixth mountain, she discovered that, in the rain, she had lost the feather the eagle gave her. Trying not to be to upset about the loss, Vasilisa went on. The walk through the sixth mountain lay in complete darkness. After what seemed like forever, Vasilisa came to the place where the path inside the mountain split in two absolutely identical ones. Her heart sank; she did not know which one to take, and the wrong decision could cost her everything.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a small black snake appeared. It was wearing a thin golden crown on its head. The snake took the right path, stopped for a moment to look at Vasilisa, and continued on through the mountain. Everything in her heart told Vasilisa that she needed to follow that snake. She did, walking fast to catch up with the quickly moving serpent ahead of her. The crown on the snake’s head cast a little light in the otherwise pitch dark tunnel inside the mountain. Whenever the snake turned its head to look back on Vasilisa, its eyes, emerald green with speckles of yelllow, glowed in the dark. In the dark of the tunnel, she could feel the invisible connection establish itself between herself and the snake.
When the daylight from the exit had entered the tunnel, Vasilisa saw the snake glide into one of the cracks in a stone wall and disappear from view. Vasilisa stepped out of the tunnel and stared down at her feet. Her shoes were completely torn from walking on the sharp stones inside the mountain. There was nothing left to do but throw them away. Without thinking, she threw the wasted pair of shoes into the grass of the path. Momentarily, hundreds of snakes came out of the grass and formed a line on both sides of the road, hissing and dripping poisonous venom off their bared yellowish fangs on it. Vasilisa gathered strength in her heart and remembered what the young snake told her about how the Queen of Asps could not harm her as long as she stayed on the path. Feeling better and trying not to look at the snakes, she went on barefoot to the seventh mountain.
The birch forest was mixed with the other trees there. It appeared darker and less friendly than the forest before it. She wondered about the possible connection between the young man she meet there and the crown-bearing snake who lead her out of the trap inside the mountain.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the small eagle who landed right by her feet. “The Mother of all Eagles is sending you back the feather you dropped in the rain. She also thought you may need this.”
And he laid out a well made pair of boots in front of Vasilisa. Floating in midair, the feather made its way back under Vasilisa’s sleeve.
“Good luck at the witch’s cave in the seventh mountain,” said the eagle and flew off into the sky.
A Witch, a Queen and a Prophecy
A short distance from the witch’s cave, Vasilisa sat down on the ground to eat. The snakes were long gone and the food in her shoulder bag, given by the eagles earlier, somehow did not get wet from the rain. She ate without rushing and lay down to rest for a few minutes. Watching the clouds peacefully drift across the sky, Vasilisa wondered how long it would take them to travel from here to her house. She followed the clouds with her eyes for a while, then moved her glance away from the untroubled skies and got up to go to the witch’s house inside the cave.
The entrance to the cave was decorated with animal skulls and empty cooking pots, each on a tall wooden stake of different length. Moving in the breeze, the skulls and pots made clanging sounds just above a whisper. Black ravens sat on many of them, enjoying the bits of dead flesh still stuck to the newer ones. Not paying attention to the feasting birds, Vasilisa bravely walked into the cave.
“Did you enjoy your last meal, cutie?” said a low, cackling voice from the dark of the cave. The witch snapped her fingers and several torches along the wall shot out fire. Standing now in front of Vasilisa, the witch could as well have been a thousand years old. Her long twisted chin rested in the middle of her chest, her nose reached far away from her wrinkled face, blazing red eyes were half hidden under the bushy eyebrows, and her skin was almost black from dirt and old age. Stinky gray hair stood straight up on her head, as if terrified of the owner.
“Did you come to take a peek at the looking glass inside my cauldron? You may not like what you see. Once the prophecy is made, it can not be altered. Your fate will be sealed. Still eager to take a look, dear?” asked the witch, wiping her ugly hands with overgrown nails on her raggedy garments that were made out of the skins of different animals unlucky to have crossed the witch’s path. “Have you considered other options, sweetie? In exchange for that eagle feather up your sleeve, I may be kind enough to fly you back home on my broom, all in one piece.”
“I want to see the mirror steeping inside the cauldron. And I want to know why the Queen of Asps does not want to see me so much,” said Vasilisa in a firm voice that was stretched just a little thin.
“Oh, do not be shy, you have all the reasons to be scared dear,” mumbled the witch, throwing something she took out of her enormous pockets into the cauldron. “Since you are such a smarty pants, sit on the bench by the table,” ordered the witch. “I will look into the mirror and tell you what I see.”
Vasilisa wanted to look into the cauldron herself, but the witch’s broom jumped out of the corner and blocked her way, pushing Vasilisa against the wall. Unable to move, Vasilisa followed the witch’s movements with her eyes. A silvery glow from the mirror inside the cauldron appeared on the witch’s face. The wind flew out of the cauldron and tangled itself in the witch’s hair. With her hair, moving now like the trees in a storm, the witch cast a heavy glance on Vasilisa.
“I see you living a long happy life after you come back home now and bury your father. If you go on to see the Queen of Asps, you will die a slow and terrible death.”
“I want to see the mirror for myself. You are lying to me. I have a right to see the prophecy about my own life,” Vasilisa yelled at the witch, struggling against the broom that was not letting her move an inch. The witch made a circular movement above the cauldron, and the silvery light went away, taking the wind in the witch’s hair with it. The broom flew back up on the wall.
“You have earned a right of passage to the land of the Asps, but this is all you have earned so far,” said the witch without turning her head to Vasilisa. A previously invisible door behind the witch opened with a screech.
“Go,” said the witch. “I do not want any drafts in my house. There is a key on the wall next to the door; take it if you plan to pass through this door on your way back. Put it around your neck.”
Puzzled by the witch’s words, Vasilisa took the key and entered the door to the land of Asps. At first, the forest behind the witch’s door seemed just like any other she had passed on her way here. Suddenly the road started dropping from under her feet, and, without ever realizing how, she found herself entering a tunnel of a cave leading inside a mountain. That cave was monumentally different from any cave she had ever seen. Many gems and blocks of marble lined its walls. There was no clear pattern carved into them, but here and there, as Vasilisa walked, she thought she saw a carving of a majestic snake always carved in blood red rubies with a large spiked crown on her head occupied with different stages of preparation of a drink in a tall goblet.
The tunnel to the inside of the cave was lit as though it was daytime, but Vasilisa never guessed the source of light. After one of the turns, the tunnel stopped abruptly, and Vasilisa found herself standing in front of solid golden gates, blocking her way further. The gates looked like they were made of many snakes. By weaving one snake into the other, an unknown master had created an intricate pattern unlike any Vasilisa ever saw before in her lifetime. Joining the halves of the gates was one round door handle the size of a human head. It was shaped like a head of the snake wearing the large spiked crown. Made from many masterfully encrusted emeralds, the eyes of the snake glittered. Taking Vasilisa by surprise, the crowned snake head moved and stared at her, bejeweled eyes shining their unwelcome light.
The snake opened its mouth and the deep hissing followed. “So you made it this far. A pity to waste a life so young, so precious and brave, as a punishment for defying the laws of nature. Your father cannot live any longer than he already has. The human life is what it is; you have no right to alter the way things are.”
Vasilisa took a deep breath and stepped closer towards the snake head. “Stop scaring me; my life is obviously not in your hands, since I am standing here despite all your best tricks.”
The snake’s eyes flashed in anger. “Oh, you have yet to see my best tricks, little girl, but by any means, come in, since you are here already. Your life is yours to give.”
With those words, the snake head disappeared without a warning. The small snakes that weaved the pattern of the golden gates came to life and effortlessly slithered apart, revealing an entrance to a large hall lined with a great number of tall columns, finished in pale yellow marble. Many young men and women, all with slick black hair and dressed beautifully were standing and talking or moving about casually. At the very end of the hall was a throne made out of a solid black stone. First, Vasilisa thought it was empty, then, as she came up closer to it, everyone silently stepping out of her way, she saw a large black snake, wearing a tall gold crown decorated with emeralds of many shades.
The snake turned her head towards Vasilisa and hissed in a familiar voice. “Welcome human child. I am in debt to you for saving my daughter’s life. Make a wish, and I will have you delivered to the edge of the forest where your village stands, pockets lined with gold and precious stones. Your father still has a few days in him, you will have a chance to say good-bye. I am grateful to you. And I am impressed that you made it this far, but I do not owe you a Brew of Life.”
Vasilisa looked at the Queen of Asps’ smart, cold, glittering eyes that had something else at the very bottom of them, something that Vasilisa could not name.
Then Vasilisa spoke. “An old gypsy woman named Katerina, daughter of Lalya, told me to come here. If getting here did not entitle me to a small portion of the Brew of Life, then let me earn it.”
“Yes,” answered the Queen of Asps. “I heard that silly woman yell at the edge of the forest the other day that she passes my debt to her mother to you. I accidentally spilled a cup with the Brew of Life I brought to her mother as a payment for a great service she performed for me. We had a heated conversation about her daughter Katerina that did not go my way. I spilled the Brew, hitting it with my tail on my way out. There was no more Brew in it, as it was an annual cup. I came back with a new cup a year later, but she had already passed away from old age. I do not owe Katerina anything. She should have listened to me years ago; things would have been different.”
The Queen of Asps slithered off her Throne and went in angry circles around Vasilisa. “You have to go in my service for one year to try and earn a small cup of the Brew of Life for your father.”
For the first time Vasilisa felt really scared.
“But you said he only had a few days left. How can I stay with you for a whole year?”
“That I can not change,” said the Queen of Asps.
Vasilisa tried to fight her tears and looked away from the Queen of Asps. Accidentally, a tall girl with a delicate white scar on the side of her face caught Vasilisa’s attention. The girl was actively nodding her head, as if encouraging Vasilisa to agree to the Queen’s terms. Vasilisa recognized in the girl the young snake she saved and turned back to the Queen of Asps.
“I accept your conditions,” she said firmly.
“Very, wise of you,” answered the Queen of Asps. “I see you made your decision not without help from my daughter. Time runs differently for humans in service of the Queen of Asps; a year here will pass in a mere day of human time. You father will still be alive when I am done with you.”
“What do I have to do?” asked Vasilisa.
“Oh, nothing much, but it has to be done with diligence and attention to detail. Take her back to my chamber.”
The Queen waved Vasilisa off, and two large guards positioned themselves next to Vasilisa and started walking towards a previously unnoticed door in the corner of the hall. When Vasilisa reached the door, one of the guards held it open for her.
The Queen of Asps showed her head from behind the Throne and hissed again. “One of the conditions of your employment is that you can not wash or bathe for one year. Your hands touch water for any reason other than drinking, and you will find yourself back on the path without any protection you had before. Surely my daughter mentioned that to you.”
Satisfied with herself, the Queen turned away from Vasilisa. After informing her that her work for the Queen of Asps would start tomorrow, the guards showed Vasilisa her room near the kitchen and left her alone. At nightfall, the lights that came from the unknown source were dimmed everywhere in the cave. Vasilisa was sitting on a narrow bed in the room the Queen of Asps had chosen for her. The room was very small with no windows to the outside world. Tired as she was, Vasilisa could not go to sleep. She was worried about what kind of jobs she might have to do for the Queen of Asps. A little snake slipped out from one of the cracks in the ceiling and turned into the Queen of Asp’s daughter, the one Vasilisa had helped earlier.