Marya’s death-grip on Solovey loosened. “What kind of story?”

“Any story you like. Ivanushka and Alenushka?” Then Vasya’s heart misgave her. Sister, dear sister Alenushka, said the little goat. Swim out, swim out to me. They are lighting the fires, boiling the pots, sharpening the knives. And I am going to die.

But his sister couldn’t help him. For she’d already been drowned herself.

“No, perhaps not that one,” said Vasya hastily and thought. “Ivan the Fool perhaps?”

The child pondered, as though the choice of tales were a momentous one that could change the history of that bitter day. For her sake, Vasya wished it were so.

“I think,” said Marya, “that I would like to hear the story of Marya Morevna.”

Vasya hesitated. As a child, she had loved the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful, her own fairy-tale namesake. But the tale of Marya Morevna would cut deep—perhaps too deep—after the night before. Marya wasn’t finished though. “Tell about Ivan,” she said. “That part of the story. About the horses.”

And then Vasya understood. She smiled, and didn’t even care that smiling tugged at the burnt skin on her face.

“Very well. I will tell that part, if you will let go of Solovey’s foreleg. He is not a post.”

Marya let go of Solovey reluctantly, and the stallion lay down in the straw, so that both girls could curl against his warm side. Vasya wrapped Marya and herself in her cloak and began, stroking Marya’s hair:

“Prince Ivan tried three times to rescue his wife, Marya Morevna, from the clutches of the evil sorcerer Kaschei,” she said. “But each time he failed, for Kaschei rode the fastest horse in all the world, and moreover one who understood the speech of men. His horse could outrun Ivan’s, no matter how great his start.”

Solovey snorted out a complacent, hay-scented breath. That horse couldn’t outrun me, he said.

“At last, Ivan bid his wife Marya to ask Kaschei how he had come to ride such a matchless horse.

“ ‘There is a house on chicken legs,’ replied Kaschei. ‘Which stands upon the shore of the sea. A witch lives there: a Baba Yaga, who breeds the finest horses in all the world. You must cross a river of fire to get to her, but I have a magic kerchief that parts the flames. Once you have come to the house, you must ask to serve the Baba Yaga for three days. If you serve her well, she will give you a horse. But if you fail, she will eat you.’ ”

Solovey slanted a thoughtful ear.

“And so Marya, that brave girl”—here Vasya tugged her niece’s black plait, and Marya giggled—“stole Kaschei’s magic handkerchief and gave it to Ivan in secret. And he went away to the Baba Yaga, to win the finest horse in all the world for his own.

“The river of fire was great and terrible. But Ivan crossed it by waving Kaschei’s handkerchief and galloping through the flames. Beyond the fire, he found a little house by the shore of the sea. There lived the Baba Yaga and the finest horses in all the world—”