Warrior Princess Marya

Based off of The Death of Koschei the Deathless from The Red Fairy Book collected by Andrew Lang

Short story by Colleen Griffith

It was a dark and stormy night, the kind of night where something like this was almost expected to happen. Prince Ivan wandered around the empty halls while his queen was up late preparing for her coronation and looking over reports from her various advisors. 

“My home, my kingdom, and my realm are open to you, Prince Ivan,” Marya said as she led him through the halls of her castle. He passed by the now familiar tapestries and trophies from the centuries her family had ruled the realm, remembering when he had first arrived at the castle. There was still one item in the halls that caught Ivan’s attention-- the grandfather clock. 

As months went by and Marya prepared for her coronation as queen of the realm, Prince Ivan found himself drawn to that clock through his loneliness and boredom. He couldn’t place why. Maybe it was how she had hurried him away when she caught him staring at it. Maybe it was how he thought he heard the chink of chains out of time when he passed it or stray noise from it every so often, or how Marya would assure him that was not the case and quickly change the subject. 

It was on this ominous night, he walked past the familiar grandfather clock when a loud clap of thunder surprised him and he fell into the clock. He panicked, thinking he had destroyed one of his wife’s previous family heirlooms, but then stepped back in shock. This was no ordinary clock. It was a door. A flash of lightning illuminated the passageway and Ivan could see the hidden passage. The corridor was dusty and gray, littered with rusted armor and decaying skeletons. On the walls were crosses, as if something unholy lurked beneath and he could faintly hear something in the distance. It sounded like… screaming?

A few months since he had moved in, Prince Ivan thought he had explored every inch of his wife’s castle and found himself unable to resist the mystery before him. He lit a candle and slowly descended down the long, winding passageway. The sound had been so soft before, he thought it had just been the wind, but with every step he heard it more clearly along with the violent rustle of chains. He descended down stairs, wondering how far beneath the castle he would go. He kept walking until at the end of the stairs he found a dungeon, abandoned from the looks of it. He could faintly hear someone calling his name from up the steep staircase, but their call was drowned out by the sound he heard from the only locked cell in the dungeon. There was the sound of scrap of metal on stone, the clang of chains, and screaming. Always screaming, screaming unintelligible sounds. He heard a loud thud against the door and then silence. 

What could be here? Prince Ivan asked, ideas swirling around in his head. Who ever is in here has suffered a fate worse than death. He took one step forward and a cloud of dust circled around the tiny room. The dusty clouded his eyes and his lungs and he turned away and coughed. He slowly took another step forward, moving as carefully as possible to keep the dust settled. Whatever this room used to be used for had been long abandoned.

As he got closer to the door, he started hearing cries of pain coming from the other side of the door. Strange, he thought. My princess does not take prisoners. He was inches away from turning the lever.

“What are you doing?” A familiar voice asked. Ivan turned around to see his wife. She looked at him, not with the loving eyes of his eyes, but with the merciless eyes she had when in battle, clutching the key that hung from a leather strap around her neck. 

“Who is in there?” He asked. “You don’t keep prisoners.”

“This one is… different.” She replied. “Let’s go to bed. I don’t want to discuss this.”

“But Princess--”

“I said I don’t want to discuss this. I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” She went to go  “Never tell anyone about this door,” Marya said. He barely recognized the woman before him. The woman he married was a strong warrior who took no prisoners, not this scared little girl who stood in front of him. 

“I thought there were no secrets between us,” Ivan pleaded. “Whatever is back there, I want to know. You can trust me.”

“This secret is too powerful. Some monsters from our past should never see the light of day. There are some creatures even I’m not ready to face again.” And with that, she left. 

Though she held her head high, Ivan could see the fear in her eyes. Whatever was in that dungeon scared her, and to this man, who had taken a vow to protect and honor his princess at all costs, that meant whatever was there must be destroyed.

Ivan noticed a change in her after that. She was colder to him and he noticed she was always wearing that key around her neck. He thought to back to when he first met his love. 

It was shortly after his parents had passed and his sisters had all been married off. Prince Ivan was lonely in his castle and he went off to visit them. His people were left in the care of a steward while their Prince went off on his adventure.

The prince and his men had been traveling for weeks through what seemed like an endless forest when they saw smoke far off in the distance. Prince Ivan, a curious person by nature, told his men to stay back so he could go investigate. As he got closer to the smoke, he saw the remains of an army strawn across the clearing. The lifeless bodies of knights and stewards were littered around him. And the strangest thing was none of the attackers had fallen, though from the tracks it seemed like the attackers should have been outnumbered. He saw tracks from horses around  He dismounted his horse to see if there were any survivors. 

“Who could have done this?” Ivan wondered aloud. That was when he heard a groan. He turned around and saw a man-at-arms clinging to life. He rushed to the man’s side and asked what he knew. The man uttered the name Morevna and drew his last breath. The prince went back to his men and said they must find the man named Morevna. Someone this powerful and skilled must be made an ally before they become enemies.

Prince Ivan and his men went off in search of this Morevna person, imagining who they might find when they did. They followed the tracks and found themselves in at a campsite. Prince Ivan introduced himself to the warriors and made his way into the leader’s tent.

“Morevna,” He said, addressing the figure who sat with their back to the entrance of the tent. “I demand to speak to you at once.”

“Who do you think you are coming into my tent unannounced?” Marya said, not even turning her head from her work to look at him. She was deep in thought, examining a map of her realm, plotting the next spot to take camp, looking over letters from her advisors on where to visit on her campaign through the land.

“I am Prince Ivan,” He replied, stunned to hear a feminine voice in the captain’s tent. “I seek the warrior known as Morevna.”

“Then look no further, little prince.” She smoothly got up from her map and went to face him. “I am Marya Morevna, the warrior princess.” For the first time in his life, the prince was speechless. Surely the lovely creature standing before him was joking. The women in his land were intellectuals, not warriors.

“Forgive me, you highness,” “But someone as lovely as yourself belongs in a castle being courted, not on a battlefield.”

“Oh really?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she reached for her staff. “You forget yourself, little prince.” In one swift movement, she disarmed the prince and knocked him off his feet. She put one foot on his chest and smirked. “Who says I can’t be both?” 

He grunted in pain. “Forgive me Princess, I not accustomed to--”

“Save your excuses for someone who cares,” She interrupted him. Though she was annoyed by his intruding on her previous time, she found herself intrigued by him. He must not be from around here. He must not know who I am. Anyone who did would never dare come into my tent unannounced. “Now what are you doing in my camp?”

 He blathered on and on about the remains of her last battle and asked if she was taking him as prisoner.

“I don’t take prisoners. That’s something you should know about me.” She took her foot off his chest and picked up his sword, examining the blade and admiring the craftsmanship. “This is nice. I think I’ll keep it as a trophy.”

“Bu that’s my sword.”

“I suppose you could win it back from me. Tomorrow at sunrise. I’ll send a champion.” He met her by a cleaning near her camp and battled for the sword only to end up on the ground by a knight in shining armor. When he yielded, the knight removed the helmet to reveal it was Princess Marya.

“I thought you said you were sending a champion to fight.”

“I did,” She replied with a smirk. “I’m my own champion.” And that was the moment Prince Ivan knew this was the girl he wanted as his queen. At her request, he traveled with her troops and the two of them fell in love. When the day came for Marya to return to her castle, he asked her to marry him and join their kingdoms. In flash, they were wed and he moved into her castle.

All the time he had known her, she had never shown a weakness. Not until today.

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

Day had passed since the encounter in the basement, and things between the prince and princess were anything but normal. Guilt and shame nawed at Marya’s heart. She wanted to tell him what was down there, but just saying the name of that thing down there struck fear into her heart. She threw herself into her work to distract herself from such feelings. 

Meanwhile the prince could not concentrate on anything else. Who was locked down in that dungeon? It had to have been decades since anyone had been down there, so how was that thing, person maybe, even alive at this point. Why didn’t Marya want to talk to him about it? What was she hiding from him? What could have scared a warrior princess? And why didn’t she want to tell him? Whatever was in that room, Ivan was determined now more than ever to find out. He had a feeling that the key she wore so protectively around her neck was the way into the cell. He studied it whenever he had the chance and found a replica in one of the markets near town.

One day, Marya received news that tribes on the edges of the realm had united and were going to stage a rebellion and had to be dealt with. As she was preparing for her trip, Ivan saw his opportunity arise. He found the key in a pile of clothes when she went to bathe and switched it with the duplicate.

The royal couple said their goodbyes as they usually did, but before she left, the Princess looked her husband in the eye, as if she knew what he was planning, and gave him a warning.

“Whatever you do, my prince, do not open that door. If you do, it will unlock more evils than you can imagine.” For a second, only a second, Ivan saw the scared little girl he met in the cellar. He put his hand in his pocket and gripped the key tighter. His resolve had only grown stronger to slay whatever creature she had imprisoned there. He feigned innocence and watched her troops march off until they faded into the horizon, then sprinted to the hidden corridor. He knew it well, even in the dark. Every step and every corner he had memorized. He made his way up to the door to the cell, shoved in the key, and unlocked the door. The hinges of the door had all but rusted into place, but he was eventually able to get it to open. He lit a candle and crept into the cell, his other hand on his sword.

Inside the inky blackness of the cell were two yellow eyes staring back at him. A voice moaned “Help me!” Prince Ivan crept closer and saw the yellow eyes belonged to an old man so brittle and thin he looked more like a skeleton dipped in wax. Chains were tightly wrapped around his body, suspending him to the middle of the room. His arms hung from the ceiling and left him dangling so his feet did not touch the ground. His sunken yellow eyes stared at the visitor and he licked his cracked lips and whispered “ten years I have anguished… Water… please...”

Ivan, horrified at the state the prisoner was in, ran to get water. The prisoner drained the bucket and Ivan made two more trips to get water. All the while he wondered who the man was, and what could he had done to have been treated so poorly. He had always known Marya to be merciless, but this was beyond that. He knew she always had her reasons, but to leave this man to die like this was just cruel. This is a fate worse than death.

When Ivan returned with a fourth bucket of water, he no longer saw a frail emaciated old man and instead saw an impossibly strong figure, not entirely human, before him. The water had renewed and returned the man’s strength. In one swift movement, he tore the chains from the wall and roared in fury. As he roared, a wave of power radiated from his body, dissolving the chains into dust.

“Impossible,” Prince Ivan whispered, unable to believe his eyes. He drew his sword and pointed it at the man’s neck. “What are you?”

The figure cackled. “Ten years the princess has kept me here. No food, no drink, no rest, no light, no visitors.” He swatted the sword away and took a menacing step toward Prince Ivan. “I have died a thousand deaths at her hand, all in the dark. All alone. But now,” He grinned, “Now it is her turn. Now she can learn what happens when you go up against Koschei the deathless, and she will pay for her insolence.” He locked eyes with Ivan, determining he must be a prince based off of his clothing. “And I have you to thank for this, little prince. Thank you for freeing me To return my debt to you, I will let you live.”

“You will not harm a hair on her head.” Prince Ivan exclaimed, raising his sword to strike. Before he could, the man cackled and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Ivan spinted to get his weapons and some provisions. I should have trusted her. I should have listened to her. I have to warn her before it’s too late. He rode his horses to find his wife before it was too late. Before whatever evil he had set loose found his revenge on her.

It has barely made it to their camp when he saw the destruction, the scorched earth, the body of the horse. He saw the pack his wife had prepared just this morning, the saddle she had made just for her. Ivan dismounted his horse to see it. Her horse, the horse she had ridden since she was a child, lay dead before him, struck by lightning someone later told him. 

His princess had been riding ahead of her army when the lightning struck, a steward informed him. It hit the horse and struck it dead. The men barely heard his screams, just saw the lightning and dark figure appear in a swirl of smoke. When they reached her, it was too late. The Princess was gone. 

As the different people told him what happened, Ivan saw something hidden in the grass shining in the light of his torch. Ivan went to pick it up and saw that it was a ring. Her wedding ring. Ivan fell to his knees and screamed. As he screamed and cried out, it began to rain. He slammed his fist on the ground. I should have listened to her! The soldiers tried to restrain him, but he thrashed at them until they backed away. Ivan panted and seethed with rage. Then, a strange calmness took over him.

“I have to find her,” He said, his voice low and cool. The princess’s battalion demanded a chance to go search for her with him, but Ivan shook his head. “No, Princess Marya would never want you to leave the rebellion unchecked. She is my wife and it was my job to protect her. I must go alone to find her.” Despite their protests, the army agreed to continue on their mission on behalf of their princess. Meanwhile, the prince was off to find the friends who would be able to help him. After all, he thought, The only way to fight magic is with magic.

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

The last thing Princess Marya remembered was a flash of lightning when he came to her. He wore a long black cloak that whipped and moved with the wind and had these unsettling yellow eyes that seemed to see into your soul. 

“I remember you,” He hissed. “You were the girl who dared to defy me. You came for your friend. Now I have come for you.” Before she could respond, smoke clouded around her, blocking her vision. She screamed for her guards, but it was too late. She knew who this was. She would never forget Koschei the deathless.

Word of the missing girls had come trickling into the castle over the years. First it was just a few farm girls. Then one of the maids went missing. There were stories of a skeleton man who would appear just before the girls went missing, but they had just been rumors. Clouds of smoke would fill rooms where the girls had been before they went missing. There was a report of the skeleton man turning a princess in a far off kingdom into a snake after he proposed and she said no.

A king far off sent word to her father that Koschei was after his three daughters, friends of their family. When Marya got to the castle it had been too late. The kingdom had been bewitched. All the subjects were petrified, except for the three princesses. When Marya arrived, the eldest sister was already dead, stabbed forty times for refusing to marry the skeleton man, but the middle sister still clung to life. She had managed to slow the bleeding just in time for Marya to arrive.

“My sister. He took her--” the dying princess cried out. “He took Katya. He said he would keep her at his castle.”

“Where is his castle?” Marya asked in a cool and even tone as her friend shook with fear and rage.

“HE TOOK HER!” the princess screamed, convulsing. “My poor sister!” She gripped Marya’s hand, digging her nails in so hard she left a mark. “Promise me, Princess Marya,” She said, looking at the warrior princess. “Promise me you will get her back. Promise me you will save my sister.”

“I will,” Marya promised, struggling to keep her composure. “I promise. And when I promise something, I never break that promise.” Her friend nodded. Marya called for the medic, but it was too late. Her friend was dead. I will not let their deaths be in vain, Marya silently pledged. She worked for weeks and months on end, tracking the sorcerer. She used every resource her kingdom had and was able to find where the castle was, but her army was not big enough to take on the castle.

Another woman went missing.Tsar Bel-Belianin's wife the Tsaritsa was abducted. The Tsar’s three sons tried to rescue their mother, but couldn’t. She had offered aid to them each time they tried. The first two refused her help, claiming a woman would not be able to save other women, and perished as a result. The third son, Petr, learned from his brother’s mistakes and worked with her. They joined their forces and invaded the castle. Petr wanted to use brute force, but Marya knew a mission like this was delicate. This was a stealth mission.

Marya remembered the look of surprise when the girls saw her. She had snuck into the castle with an elite team from both armies, men and women who trained in stealth missions like this. They disguised themselves as . As she walked the lonely halls of the castle, she remembered how the princesses and maidens thanked her. She remembered rescuing the princess who had been transformed into a snake and lived a life of hiding in the castle. They snuck most of the princesses out, except one, the Tzaritza. She was his favorite of the moment and he was always demanding her company. He never touched her, but he was determined to control everything she did, everything she wore, everything she said. The others were usually locked in their rooms until dinner time. And none of them were ever allowed to leave.

With the help of a mage in her army, Marya used a glamour spell to pass as the Tsaritsa. She remembered, as she descended the grand staircase yet again, how she had tricked Koschei and stabbed him. She remembered how weak he was when the armies stormed in, how they beat and restrained him. 

But she didn’t have an army this time., Marya reminded herself.

The look in his eyes of pure hatred. Koschei cackled when she raised her weapon. How he vowed to get revenge as her sword slit his throat. The way the blood oozed from the gash and yet he wouldn’t die… Over and over they tried to poison, beat, and break this man to end him, but he always lived. They starved him and he was weak but never died. 

Each time she gave the orders, he would tell her this is how she would end up. He would tell her how he would torture her once he was free. 

Then the nightmare started. She started having dreams where he would come to her in the middle of the night. The guards were asleep, the whole castle was asleep, and no one heard her screams when he went into her bed and--

She shuddered, unable to finish the thought. Never, she told herself. I will die before I let him touch me. Marya made her way down the stairs and into the dinner hall. She felt nothing like herself. She was in a dress without any weapons, looking the opposite of the warrior princess she was supposed to be. She went out to the garden, trying to distract herself from her dismal surroundings. Then she heard a voice.

“Princess,” the voice whispered. She looked around. It sounded like her husband. Impossible, she shook her head. I must be going mad. Then she heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from one of the bushes. She quickly grabbed a fallen branch and raised it as a weapon, just in case, and crept over to the bush.

“Marya, it’s me!” The voice said, still not revealing itself.. 

“Who are you?” She demanded.

“Your husband,” The voice whispered. He slowly lifted a branch to reveal it was in fact him. Marya froze in shock, dropping her weapon. For a moment, he thought she might faint.

“Ivan, my love” she whispered, her voice caught between hope and anger. “What have you done?”

“I’m sorry, my princess. I should have listened to you.” He admitted before she even had a chance to berate him. “This is all my fault. But I will fix this. Tell me, how is he treating you? Is the sorcerer here?”

“He’s out hunting right now, as he usually does during the day.” Marya replied. “He has not laid a hand on me and it seems like he just wants me as his companion, at least for now.” She knew all too well about what happened after Koschei decided he had been nice enough to the girls he kidnapped. And she knew how cruel he could be if they rejected his advancements. “I want to leave, but there is no way for me to get out. Koschei does not die.”

“There is one way,” Ivan said. “There are rumors that he keeps his soul separate from his body. That was why he had lived so long. If you can find where he hides his soul, we can destroy him together.” Marya smiled and said there was nothing in the world she wanted more.

That night when Koschei came back for dinner, she studied him in silence, as she had seen him so often do to her. Though he was old, she could see that he radiated an unnatural power and strength in his tall bony frame. She knew she would never be able to take him in a fight, but maybe there was another way to find his weaknesses.What was it Katya told me? She thought, remembering when her friend told her about her time in the castle. Obedience. He wants a woman who will obey him. All I must do is play the part until I find his weakness. Then I can strike.

Marya sat in her room, growing sick of the castle.

“What are you staring at?” He hissed, pouring himself another cup of ale.

“You came back later today than normal,” she said with a pained expression plastered on her face. “I was worried you wouldn’t return.”

“You were worried? About me?” Koschei mused, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” She said, forcing a smile. “It would hurt me to think the most powerful man in the world, a man who could capture of princess like myself, would die in the wilderness like an animal.” She reached out and held his bony, scarred hand and looked at him, imagining the face of her husband in his place.

Koschei smiled, feeling the warmth from her touch, something he hadn’t felt in ages. He told her he would be fine. “I am deathless, as they say. My soul was separated from my body long ago, somewhere safe. It’s in the broom by the fireplace in the drawing room.” He studied her face as he told her this, noting how her eyes widened, the flicker of hope and surprise as he spoke.

This is too easy, Marya thought to herself. He must be testing me. He wants to see what I will do with this information.

Marya forced a smile. “Thank you for trusting me with this information.” She moved her chair closer to him, putting a hand on his shoulder while the two sat at the table and talked. She watched his face, noticing his features soften and the tension in his body easy as she sat with him. For Koschei, it had been so long since a maiden had spent time with him. He felt a small sliver of happiness in his heart.

The next day, Koschei walked into the drawing room and saw Marya with the broom and fire blazing in the fireplace. He had expected to find the broom in the fire, but instead she had wrapped it in a blanket to protect it, and placed it as far from the fire as possible. He asked why she had done that.

“This is your soul, Koschei. I would hate for something to happen to it. It shouldn’t be sitting in the corner of a dusty old room. It should be protected.” She waited for him to respond. He smiled. She had passed the test.

“No, my love,” He said, chuckling. She held back a shudder and listened as he went. He said he had to see if she could be trusted, his soul was not actually in the broom. Since she had shown she could be, he would tell her the real location. Marya felt pangs of guilt as he told her it was in the goat outside. She sat with him, listening to his stories from when he was a young mage, feigning interest.

Marya knew this was another test and continued to play her part. When Koschei returned from his afternoon hunt, he saw that the goat was no longer outside. He smirked as he went to confront her about it and saw she had brought the goat in and put it in a safe place., again saying his soul should be protected at all costs.

Koschei felt something strange in his chest. He was not used to being shown such kindness, especially from a captive. He brought her back into the drawing room and lit a fire, telling her to sit down so she could hear the real story.

“The last time I told this story,” he began,“it was when I was a young and handsome man. I told it to someone who left me the very next day. I found her in the forest, and when I went to bring her back she took her own life. She killed herself to avoid being with me.”

He revealed the real location of his soul, laughing to himself about it didn’t matter if she knew because she would never find it since she would be here with him forever. It was in an egg inside a duck inside a rabbit. The rabbit was inside a strongbox buried beneath an oak tree on an island in the middle of the sea. 

“I know it took some time, my sweetheart, but I knew you would learn to love me.” The old man said, with delirium in his eyes. “I knew it.” He went to lean in for a kiss, but Marya turned so he would only kiss her cheek. He chuckled at her modesty and told her she should get some rest. She fled to her room, send word to Prince Ivan with a messenger hawk, and scrubbed her cheek with water so hot it nearly burned her skin.

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

The island where Koschei had left his soul was a strange place, Prince Ivan thought to himself. He had spent weeks upon weeks traveling south of the castle and was nearly out of food. He stumbled across a dog with puppies, an eagle with eggs, and a lobster. All three pleaded with the prince to be spared, promising they would help him on his quest if he would let them live. He did not eat them, since he did not know what kind of help he would need on this journey, and found berries and nuts to eat instead.

The fisherman said he would be back in a few days, Ivan told himself as he looked at the dense forest around him. He grabbed the shovel from his pack, took a deep breath and went searching for an oak tree. After two days of searching, he found it. He frantically dug at the roots until he hit metal and dragged the strongbox out and started hacking at the lock. A giant rabbit hopped out and ran to the forest. Ivan ran after it but lost it in the dense woods around him. He sat down and cursed himself when he heard something- barking? He stood up and walked towards the sound and saw a dog just like the one whose life he had spared. The dog came toward him and presented the hare to Ivan before taking off with the pack.

Ivan gets his knife and makes quick work of killing and cutting open the rabbit, seeing feathers shed as he cuts. A duck flies out of the corpse of the rabbit and takes to the sky before Ivan has a chance to reach for it. Just before it flew too far away, an eagle swooped down and snaps it's neck before giving it to Ivan. Ivan tears the duck in two and find the egg, the last part of the puzzle.

The next day, Ivan went on the boat and as he was boarding the ship, the satchel he put the egg in fell out of his hands and into the murky water below. Ivan dove down to try to get it back but it was too late, the satchel was gone. He came back to the surface, dejected that the mission had been for nothing, when suddenly he feels something in his hand- the strap of the satchel. He looks down and sees the lobster handing it off to him before swimming away.

Ivan gets back on the ship, tucking the satchel away in a safe part of the ship and set a course for the castle of Koschei the deathless.

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

Princess Marya paced back and forth in her bedroom. She had received word that her husband had made it to the island, but never heard if he had made it back. For her, it was the silence that worried her. What if he died on the island, killed like an animal? What if he hadn’t been able to find the soul? She grew more worried each day she went with no word from him. She started to wonder if he had found another woman and would leave her behind to life with Koschei until the end of her days.

The more days she spent with Koschei, the more her hatred for him eroded. The more time she spent with Koschei the Deathless, the more Marya almost felt sorry for him. Underneath his dangerous and chaotic facade was a man who had lived too long, who had seen things that drove him into madness. She saw his yearning for a human connection and so much pain, she almost pitied him. Almost. 

For all his longing for intimacy, she knew there was a great need inside him. The need to control. Anything she wanted to do would have to go through him. He decided when she would eat, what she would wear, when she could sleep, everything. He gave the illusion of choice in what she could do, but she would never be able to leave. She was trapped in the labyrinth of a castle to fade away into obscurity.

No, she told herself. I will not be another maiden taken by Koschei. I am a warrior. I am Princess Marya. Kings bow to me. And this man will too. I will escape here and I will be the death of him. Everyday she had played the part. She feigned interest in the sorcerer’s stories.

Marya stopped her pacing when something in the window caught her attention. It was a flare, the same kind she used in battle. It was Ivan. It had to be. She smiled. It was time.

During her time spent with Koschei she had managed to coax him into letting her train with her sword again. She was a warrior first and a princess second, after all. Koschei had been resistant at first. “A woman’s place is not on the battlefield,” He said with a laugh, but agreed to let her do it. 

When she is my wife, this nonsense will be put to a stop, He thought when he saw her practice. She trained as though her life depended on it, because once they had the egg, it would. 

Today she challenged him to a match while they had their breakfast. He laughed and gloated to her about all the centuries he had to learn the craft and asked if she was sure she wouldn’t be embarrassed when she lost. She put on a devilish grin and said, since he was so sure he would win, they should make it more interesting.

“If I win,” Marya wagered, “I get my freedom and I can leave without being followed or brought back.” He laughed and agreed, making it clear he did not think it would happen.

“If I win,” Koschei said, licking his lips. “We will be married and live as husband and wife.”

Marya held a back a grimace and agreed. She knew with stakes this high, he wouldn’t play fair. She had seen the way he looked at her at the dining table. He would stop at nothing until he had her for himself, whether it was by choice or not. It was moments like this she was unable to pity him. Marya knew she would need Ivan to help her. She left the windows open throughout the castle, saying she needed a nice breeze while she trained.

The match began and Koschei saw that he had underestimated her skills. He started muttering incantations, just as she had anticipated, to throw off her balance. He manipulated the shadows in the room to dance and distract her, but she refused to take her eyes off of him. She itched to put her sword through him, this enemy to women everywhere. But she knew she had to wait.

“I didn’t think you knew how to fight,” He said with a smirk as she blocked his attacks. “A woman like you needs to learn her place.” He kicked and sent her tumbling to the ground. “But you will learn that soon enough, my pet. I will make sure you learn your place in my house.” 

She swung her sword and knocked him off his feet and leapt back up, ready for him to strike again. Just as he got up to face her, Marya saw in the doorway the silhouette of a man holding something. She smirked and went into her fighting stance, ready. Koschei readied himself to make a final blow to win the match. He raised his sword, telling how he will turn her into an obedient, submissive wife.

Then he felt it. The egg shattered on his back and a bright white light radiated. No, no, not this, Koschei spun around. Ivan still had the egg in his hand and stared at him with a steely resolve. The boy from the cellar? Koschei thought, confused. But why? How? Ivan wasted no time and grabbed his arms and bound them before forcing him to face the princess. 

“You betrayed me,” Koschei cried out, unable to believe he had been bested by a woman.  He was in disbelief, rambling about how the time they had spent together had brought him so much happiness and he had always been so kind to her.

“Kindness does not entitle you to me, my body, or my heart.” She replied. Her blood was boiling and she was shaking with anger. The past few months she had grown to understand this man, his loneliness and fears that had turned him mad. But that didn’t mean anything to her. A person’s past does not give them a pass to be cruel. And though her situation could have been worse, it had been cruel.

“You took me from my people, my home, and my family.” Marya hissed. “You tried to control me, to tame me, to break me. But I cannot be broken by a weak man like you. I will always put myself back together. I will never give up in a fight, and I do not take prisoners.” 

She thrust her sword into the chest. It exploded out his back. His body went limp. Another sword thrust and cry in pain. Koschei fell over, bleeding out and staring at her. The princess wiped the blood off her sword. Her husband grabbed her hand and led her out of the castle prison. Ivan held her as they made their way to his horse. For the first time, Princess Marya wept, not for sadness of what she had endured, but the happiness that she had married a man who would fight for her as well as she could fight for herself.