Chapter 22 #2
“Let him try, Harry, we’re already here,” Lisa said in my defense, handing me the egg, but I could tell she, too, was doing so reluctantly.
I took the egg, then quickly opened it by pressing and pushing the bow tie.
But rather than examine the egg’s interior, I focused on the bow tie.
The diamonds that encrusted it sparkled, reflecting the light.
I ran my hands over them and felt carefully around each diamond with my fingers.
Lisa and Harry watched, enthralled. One of the diamonds, as I pushed, gave way, and I pressed gently.
It slid to the side, revealing a tiny compartment. Inside, I saw a narrow steel needle.
“No way!” Lisa exclaimed. “Ivan! But how?”
“I don’t know.”
Carefully, I handed the bow tie to her.
Lisa reached into the compartment and took out the needle.
“Is that what I think it is? Could this be it?”
“The soul of Kashchey.” I nodded. “My nurse told me the soul was in the tip of the needle and needed to be broken.”
“So then what happens?” Lisa opened her eyes wide. “Would Quinn die?”
“Once the needle is broken, Kashchey loses all of his powers,” I said. “So I think Quinn will stop bothering you.”
I noticed Lisa was hesitant to proceed. Did she not want the needle to break? Did she not want Quinn to leave her alone?
“Do you want me to go ahead?” I asked.
“Just go for it, Ivan,” Harry neighed. “What are you waiting for?”
“Lisa?”
“Yes, do it,” she muttered, staring at me in awe.
It was eerily quiet in the studio as I took the needle, squeezing its tip between my fingers. I didn’t expect it to break so easily, but the tip snapped off, dropping onto the floor. It made no sound. I held up the broken part of the needle, showing it to Lisa.
“This is it?” she asked in disbelief. “I can’t believe all this time there was this awful thing inside it.”
“Yes. It’s done.”
“So, what do we do with it now?”
“We should bury it. The tip and the rest of it. Separately,” I said.
I wasn’t sure where the idea came from, but once I said it, I realized that was the only thing that made sense. We needed to bury the needle, apart from the broken tip, in the woods.
“Bury it?” Lisa mumbled, reassembling the egg by snapping it together and twisting the bow tie in place. Once she had done so, she closed the tiny compartment that had contained the needle.
“I can do it,” I offered. “I’ll take the broken needle into the woods.”
“Sure,” Lisa said and walked out of the studio first.
“What’s with her?” Harry asked.
“I guess she’s upset about the egg.” I shrugged. “It’s a lot, isn’t it? I mean, she was expecting to find the Ring of True Love, and instead there was the soul of Kashchey. But once I bury it, she won’t need to worry about Quinn any longer.”
Harry and I had walked out of the studio and were standing at the top of the steps.
“We have a problem,” Harry neighed as he stared apprehensively in front of him. “I don’t think I can get down these steps.” Harry blinked fast and moved his ears back and forth. The poor pony was nervous, and now I was at a loss as to how to help him. Going down the steps was much more challenging.
“Let’s try? I can hold you up, Harry,” I offered, wondering how I would be able to help the horse. Though small, Harry weighed over three hundred pounds, and I couldn’t carry his weight.
“Just forget it. Leave me here!” the pony whinnied. Lisa, who had already made her way outside, came back in and, seeing us at the top of the steps, let out a sigh.
“Oh, no, Harry! What have we done?”
“I don’t know.” There were panicked notes in Harry’s voice.
“Maybe we can call the fire department? They do these kinds of things, don’t they?” Lisa suggested, surveying us.
“The fire department? Didn’t you say you didn’t want any officials to see Ivan?” Harry shook his head. I wanted to remind the pony it wasn’t just me Lisa wanted to hide, but kept my mouth shut.
“So, what are we going to do?” Lisa crossed her arms. “I really want to leave. And not to mention our flight back to Fernwood.”
“Wait, wait, I have an idea.” I raised a finger to the sky. “Harry, what if you flew off the balcony? What do you say?”
“Well, that certainly beats going down these steps.” Harry backed away from the stairs, turned, and nearly galloped back into the yoga studio.
“I’ll be outside so I can help you guys from there,” Lisa yelled after us.
Maneuvering Harry onto the balcony took some time.
Lisa cheered us on, trying to get the little horse to feel more confident, but by the time he’d finally managed to leap off the balcony, hovering a bit over the ground, then landing right near the entrance, the sun was about to set.
Harry’s legs had almost buckled underneath him, and he lay down on the ground in exhaustion.
“I need to rest,” he complained and closed his eyes. “I’ll take a quick nap.”
“Poor Harry.” I squatted next to him, only then noticing the concerned expression on Lisa’s face.
“Ivan, can we talk?” she called after me, and I got back up, following her behind the building, where Harry couldn’t hear us.
The Seven Birches was nothing like I had expected.
Standing in the meadow in the early evening, with the mountains dark against a pale sky, I could tell why Lisa had picked this place for her retreat center.
There was a pull to it, something indescribable.
Lisa stood next to me with her arms crossed, her chin raised in defiance.
It was as if she were trying to fight something.
“It’s as beautiful as you said here,” I offered.
“It is, isn’t it? I’d almost forgotten. You know, Quinn never liked it here. After we bought it, he kept complaining it was too remote, too rustic. I should have known then.”
“Known what?”
“That Quinn and I weren’t meant to be. He couldn’t feel the beauty of this place, and I should have seen the signs. But I kept thinking I could make him feel something, as if I could make him fall in love with it if only he saw in this place what I saw. As if love worked that way.”
I wanted to take her by the hand, to tell her it was all right.
“Do you know how love works?” I asked, my eyes open wide.
“I think I’m learning.” Lisa bit her lip.
“Me, too.”
She was looking at the mountains rather than at me, but she was standing close enough that I could see her breathing change.
“I’m scared,” she said.
I knew exactly what she meant. She was afraid of falling in love. I knew because I felt the same way.
“I know how you feel.”
She finally turned to look at me. In the fading light her face was open in a way I hadn’t seen before. Not the careful, watchful openness she usually maintained, but something raw, as if just being at the Seven Birches helped Lisa let go of a pain she’d held on to since the divorce.
It was a fleeting moment, but it made my heart flutter with hope. Her hands were close enough that I could almost brush my fingers against hers. I didn’t dare move, and the small gap between our hands was its own entire conversation.
“Ivan, so what do we do about Harry? I don’t think we should let him travel back tonight.”
“I agree. That wouldn’t be wise. Let’s spend the night here?”
“But it’s cold. We aren’t really prepared for that.” Lisa furrowed her brow. “We’ve barely got any food, just some bread. I didn’t think we would stay here overnight.”
“Don’t you worry, I’ll take care of the heating.
I’ll just go find us some firewood. And maybe I can get us something to eat,” I said, only then remembering I had not thought to bring the bow and arrow I’d made for hunting while I was staying at Fernwood.
“Do you have any tools here? Like a saw or a hammer? I’ll also bury the needle while I go to the forest.” I decided not to mention the axe I’d wrestled out of Quinn’s hands so as not to remind Lisa of the traumatic moment.
“I think there’s a shed where Josh kept all the tools.”
“Who’s Josh?” I asked, tensing.
“Oh, that’s the handyman. He lives nearby, and whenever we needed something done, we just called him. I don’t even know what he’s left there”—Lisa started walking to a set of buildings on the side of the property—“but I can definitely show you.”
We crossed the field in silence, Lisa walking purposefully ahead. “I really didn’t prepare for this. There’s nothing nearby, so we usually drove to a grocery store. I should have brought my car. But with Harry— I just didn’t think we’d stay here as long as we did.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure I can catch us a hare for dinner,” I said, trying my best to reassure her.
“You can catch one in the dark?” Lisa asked, turning to face me. Her pupils had dilated and her eyes looked almost black.
“Sure, I’ve hunted in the dark plenty of times.
Mostly for boar.” I remembered the hunting trips with my father, immediately picturing how the two of us would set out at sunset.
He’d taught me to sense the animal’s presence with my keen hearing, waiting for a snap of the branches, a sign.
And then to trust my instincts and shoot in the direction of the sound.
“But here, I don’t know if I’d find a boar.
But I’ve seen plenty of smaller animals in your forests. ”
“Every time I think I’ve learned everything about you, you manage to surprise me,” Lisa said wistfully. “And how you got that needle out. What will I do without you?”
I wanted to tell her she wouldn’t have to do without me for long.
That I would come back. All she had to do was ask.
But I wasn’t sure it was the right moment.
Keeping my voice even, I said, “It’s nothing, really.
If only you could see our forests back in Zorya—we’ve all kinds of animals.
The only thing is the wolves. But I hear you don’t have them over here anymore. ”
“Very true. Here we are.” She pointed at the shed. It was a tiny wooden construction with a crooked door that was hanging off its hinges.
“All right, let’s see what we got here,” I said, trying to conceal my discomfort.
I reached for the door, expecting it to fall off, but it didn’t budge.
I pulled again, but the wood must have expanded and changed shape, and I had to use all my strength to pry the door open.
With a creak, it gave way, revealing a small, neatly organized space.
Whoever Josh was, he certainly knew how to care for his tools and took his job seriously.
There were boxes with nails, several sets of saws, a hammer, and, in the corner, I saw a sharpened axe, its blade reflecting the moonlight. I could barely contain my excitement.
“This man, Josh, was he a blacksmith? These are of very high quality.”
“Oh, no, I think he got these at Home Depot.” She shrugged.
“With these, I can repair the steps tomorrow. And if you want”—I rummaged through the shelves—“I can build Harry a place to sleep. The stables. You’ve got so much room here—how about it, Lisa?”
“But I’ll need a permit for that,” Lisa said distractedly. I could tell her thoughts were far away.
“A permit? From the forest witch?” I asked, opening my eyes wide, thinking life in Virginia was more similar to Zorya than I’d realized. Finally, there was something that made sense.
In Zorya, whenever anyone built a house, they consulted with the green-eyed forest witch, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain.
She lived deep in the woods and appeared only when it suited her.
Some said she was as old as time. The forest witch was a very beautiful woman who could take the shape of a lizard or a snake and would come out on warm days to sit on a rock, basking in the sun.
If a villager wanted to expand a home, the family would make an offering to her, and now I pictured Lisa doing the same thing.
“No, no, there’s a zoning office. The county runs it.” A rueful smile crossed Lisa’s face. “But a witch would be easier to deal with, I swear.”