Mistress of the Solstice by Anna Kashina Read Free Book Online Page A

with swarms of fireflies. They looked like fairies; at a
distance Ivan could imagine seeing them carry small lanterns in their
delicate hands. It became bright like daylight. Ivan could even see
faint rainbows shining in the glassy wings.
    “See?” Leshy said
by his ear. He was so close that Ivan jumped, his heart pounding. How did he get behind
me? He suppressed the urge to draw away, to show
his fear.
    The Forest Man reached a finger past Ivan and poked the nearest flying
shape. With a faint pop it burst apart, splashing Ivan with a tiny
droplet of goo.
    It took all the courage Ivan had to keep still as the beautiful
fairy-like creatures popped all around him, leaving behind ugly reddish
splotches that looked so much like blood.
    The light faded.
    “Aaah,” Leshy sighed.
“I could do this all night long. Such fun, these
light beasties, don’t you find?” He
turned to Ivan and gave him one of his mischievous grins.
“Ready yet?”
    Ivan swallowed. He had almost forgotten about the riddle. Wolf had
warned him, and yet, it had been so hard—
    Think. Concentrate.
    Was “love” the answer to the last
riddle?
    Love was certainly a feeling everyone welcomed and treasured, and
certainly one that from time to time brought more pain than happiness.
Yet, from all Ivan knew about love, there was never a time for it to
slip away. True love was the most permanent thing he knew. Except,
perhaps, time itself.
    Of course, there were many ways to look at love, including the sickly
sacrifice done in the name of love that dominated this kingdom. But
Ivan firmly believed one thing: true love, if one ever had the
privilege to experience it, was stronger than anything in the world.
    Even stronger than death.
    And then he knew.
    He turned to Leshy and met the old man’s eyes.
    “Life,” he said.
    There was a pause. A long one.
    “I lied,” Leshy told him.
“This wasn’t my hardest riddle. In
fact, it was an easy one. Care to try again?”
    Ivan smiled, relief washing over him. He didn’t realize
how tense he had been until he felt his hands tremble from the released
stress.
    “I suppose not,” Leshy mumbled.
“Of course, I didn’t really want you
in my swamp, boy. What would I do with such a smart one as you? What
would my sweet Nikola think of one who’d cracked the
very same riddle that brought about his doom, without as much as a
flinch?” He paused, studying Ivan with a strange
glint in his eyes. “On the bright
side,” he continued, “this way I
gets to know what it was that prompted you to come here in the first
place. Tell me, boy: what do you seek from Leshy?”
    Ivan took a breath. “There is a net. A net that can
capture a certain bird.”
    Leshy’s expression was unreadable. “A
bird. That’s what our fool seeks. A bird. And what bird
might that be, boy? A dove, perchance?” He broke out
in giggles, bouncing up and down on the old log.
    Ivan waited for the laughter to stop.
    “A raven,” he said.
“There’s only one such net in
existence, and you have it.”
    “Now, now,” Leshy wiped his tears,
amber like drops of tree sap. “No need to get
impatient. Who told you I have the Net, clever
boy?”
    “Someone who knows.”
    “Secrets, eh? ‘Old
father’ you called me. Begged me to play. I thought we
were friends now. Do friends have secrets from each
other?” He looked at Ivan for a long moment.
    Ivan looked back, his face carefully blank.
    “All right,” Leshy nodded.
“Fine. Be this way.” He sighed.
“As it happens, I do know where the Net is. It
isn’t far at all. But you have to go and get it
yourself, smart boy.”
    “Where?” Ivan suspected his trial
wasn’t over yet.
    Leshy stretched out a hand that looked like a gnarled beresklet branch, warts
and all. “You see that blinky light out
there?”
    Ivan looked. There was indeed a tiny greenish light shimmering among the
swamp vapors. Cold, death-like, it was quite different from the warm
firefly glow.
    “It’s a glowing
piece of