Alatyr

The three bohatiers crashed onto the ground, with their dushe and the stallion nowhere in sight.

The threads around their wrists disappeared.

Dragomir pressed a palm against his chest. “So you decided to come with me…”

The moth that had escaped Nav with them landed on Milena’s nose.

“Huh?” She waved her hand, and the moth flew away, landing on top of her head instead. Milena tried to shoo it away, but it simply repositioned itself there again. “I’m not sure whether this thing is trying to kill me, or whether this is my mom’s way of telling me she’s watching over me…”

Dragomir sat up and made sure everybody was fine. Zduhach lay on the ground, huffing.

The grass around them wasn’t green. Although perfectly trimmed, every blade the same length, it now shone gold.

The sky was perfectly blue, and the road looked like a carpet woven from red thread. The rocks beside it gleamed like emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. Everything was too luxurious to be natural.

“What was that you did with the pocket watch?” Dragomir stood up.

Milena looked at the watch in her hand. “I wanted Morena to stop. So when she shot that ice at me, the second hands multiplied and ticked five times. However, one hand stayed still. And I think that made Morena freeze.”

“So you managed to use its fourth function. Some kind of time freeze.” Dragomir rubbed his chin.

“No, I think this one was fifth.” Milena sprang to her feet as well. “The fourth one must have been that blast that killed my dusha. Which means…”

“You have only one use left. And we don’t know what it does,” Dragomir concluded.

A warm, gentle breeze blew as the bohatiers’ conversation was cut short by a clink.

Their eyes shot toward a huge stone the size of a regular house in Yav.

The stone glowed in three colors: red, blue and yellow.

Atop it stood a figure.

“What are you doing here…” Dragomir immediately pointed his battle-axe at him. “…Jarilo?!”

The rival bohatier stood atop the stone, hammering it with both hammers.

He paused and gave them a disgusted look. “Hey, darling. Hope you didn’t cheat on me back there.”

Jarilo raised one of his hammers to strike again.

But at that exact moment, a bolt of lightning struck the hammer and surged through his body.

Three gods stood on the other side of the stone.

“Stay back!” Dragomir motioned his fellow bohatiers behind him, positioning himself in front of Milena and Zduhach. “This is very… and I mean very bad.”

Perun.

Dazhbog.

Radegast.

“What are you doing to the sacred Alatyr, you jerk?!” Dazhbog shouted, his fiery ring hovering behind him.

So that’s Alatyr, the foundation stone governing travel between the three worlds, Dragomir thought. We’re finally at Buyan.

“I say we slay him!” Radegast readied both axes he held.

“Wait.” Perun raised his hand. “Look. That lightning didn’t do anything to him.”

Jarilo smirked at the gods and struck the stone again, completely unharmed.

“Isn’t that the guy we sent Morena after? What’s he doing here?” Dazhbog pointed at him.

“I grabbed that crystal-white-haired bitch and made her carry me over here.”

“What did you say?” Radegast tightened his grip on his axes.

“She said she’s too ashamed to show her face in Prav in front of you now.”

Dragomir’s thumb traced the wedding ring. “So she couldn’t hurt him, and he made her his personal horse…”

“Let’s talk this through, bohatier.” Perun rested his axe on his shoulder. “There’s nothing to gain from destroying Alatyr.”

Jarilo spat on the stone. “You say that because spirits never peeled the skin off your parents’ faces and made stew from it, huh?”

Milena gagged as shivers ran down her spine. “Must he be so specific…?”

“I entered Prav because I have a score to settle.”

“With the spirits?” Dazhbog asked.

“Or… with us?” Radegast added.

“With humans.”

Dragomir perked up. The feelings echoing through his head screamed pain and loyalty at the same time.

“I’ll never forget that stupid face of yours, Dazhbog.” Jarilo pointed one of his hammers at him. “You slaughtered every single adult in my hometown. You thought it would be fun to make them fight for their lives in a tournament first.”

“So that’s… Dazhbog!” Zduhach reached for an arrow, but Dragomir stopped him.

“Wait. Let’s think this through. We can’t afford any missteps at this point!”

“For some reason, they’re ignoring us. Is Jarilo really that much of a threat to them?” Milena asked rhetorically.

“Haha, yeah, I remember! That was really fun!” Dazhbog laughed so hard he had to wipe a tear from his eye. “Ah, so nostalgic. But as a father myself, I spared you and the other children!”

“Aww, wasn’t that nice of you?” Jarilo’s voice rose into a mocking pitch before dropping back to normal. “Spirits, gods, humans. Everybody is the same.” He gestured toward his empty eye socket. “My younger siblings could tell you stories about the human bandits who stole our money, if they were still alive. I was the only one who survived that night, and all it cost me was an eye.”

“That sucks. But what does any of that have to do with this boulder?” Dazhbog asked.

“Hey, that was my line!” Zduhach yelled.

For a brief moment, father and son locked eyes.

Silence.

“Who the hell are you?” Dazhbog finally asked, tilting his head.

“I’m-”

“Don’t.”

Zduhach was about to say his name, but Dragomir stopped him.

“I wouldn’t test my luck if I were you.” Jarilo straightened up and pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Zduhach. “That archer is stupidly strong. He killed Lada effortlessly, even while she was protected by a wedding ring. I don’t think there’s anyone else who could have done it.”

Radegast gulped. “Your brat must have become stronger, then.”

“Are you saying he’s my offspring?” Dazhbog asked. “But he doesn’t have a fiery aura around him. Nor does he seem to be a weaver.”

“Forget it.”

Jarilo tightened his grip on the hammers. “This stone keeps the paths between the three worlds open. That’s how gods and spirits can reach humans. So I…” He raised both hammers above his head. “…will destroy those paths.”

“No!”

Everyone shouted at once as the iron struck the foundation stone.

A massive crack tore through Alatyr from top to bottom.

Red, blue and yellow light burst from the fracture before the entire stone faded to a lifeless grey.

The sky flashed red.

Then blue.

Then yellow.

Cries erupted around them as dushe and spirits flickered between the three colors surrounding Alatyr.

One by one, they were hurled back and vanished from sight.

Then the red, blue and yellow paths collapsed.

“What the…!” Radegast whispered.

“Without Alatyr, all of us are stuck in Prav forever!” Perun’s voice boomed.

“What?! We’re… not returning to Yav?” Milena gasped.

The ground shook and cracked beneath Dragomir’s feet. Before anyone could even call his name, the earth swallowed him.

***

Dragomir opened his eyes. Wooden benches surrounded him.

He was inside a building whose ceiling stretched so high he could barely see it.

Sculptures and ornaments covered the walls between tall colorful windows.

“Milena…?” He looked around. “Zduhach?”

“Didn’t they teach you not to shout in church, Drago?”

Dragomir sprang to his feet. At the end of the aisle between the two rows of benches, Veles sat on what looked like an altar.

“Great. Just what I needed.” Dragomir rolled his eyes, but then he noticed one crucial detail.

His pupils shrank. He slowly walked toward the god, making sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

Something hovered over Veles.

Its remaining eye was gently closed, the other nothing but an empty socket, while a faint smile rested on its lips. Its entire body radiated a gentle warmth.

A thread was tied around its wrist and stretched all the way to Veles’ wrist.

“Jarilo…?” Dragomir squinted.

“This bohatier was much more fun than any of you. Before I even asked for anything, he offered me one of his dushe in exchange for entering Prav. ‘I don’t need it since I have two,’ he said.” Veles’ golden eyes glowed as he giggled.

“Where are we? And where are the others?! Get me back to Milena and Zduhach!”

“I didn’t call you here, Drago. You’re here because Prav is rejecting you.”

“Rejecting me?”

“Since Alatyr has been destroyed, your end of our deal can no longer be fulfilled.”

“What do you mean?”

Only then did Dragomir notice the crystal orbs resting on the benches.

“You weren’t this ignorant before, were you?” Veles rolled his eyes. “I let you into Prav because you agreed to sell me your right to return to Yav.”

“Should I fail.”

“Should you fail… whatever. But now you no longer have that right to sell. So either sell me something else… or Prav will send you back to Yav.”

Chapter 41: END