Chapter 34
Time
In the days that followed since we’d gotten back from Martha’s, and Lisa taught five classes each day.
She told me she was trying to stay as busy as possible to avoid thinking about the Firebird and my imminent departure.
And it made sense to me. I’d been doing the same thing, only I kept busy helping her at the studio and taking long walks in the nearby forest. Every morning, I rose before dawn and headed there, exploring the woods on my own.
Being in nature calmed my spirits, and I decided I would try to understand everything I could about Virginia’s plants and animals.
Lisa had shown me how to use an app that identified them.
It was incredible. Back in Zorya, my nurse, Arina, had taught me about medicinal plants and berries, so I relied on my memory, but here, all I had to do was ask the iPhone and it gave me all the answers.
Some of the plants were similar to the ones in Zorya, like the valerian root, but some, like goldenrod, were native to Virginia.
Each day I wandered deeper and deeper into the forest, and the more I did, the more I fell in love with the place.
I wanted to stay. No matter how much I missed my family, being with Lisa meant more to me than anything else in the world.
* * *
“Vanya, I really worry about you. I’ve been doing everything, meditating, you know, just trying so hard to stay calm, but I’ve got this weird feeling,” Lisa told me the night before the full moon, when we would capture the Firebird.
She’d finished teaching yoga, and we were sitting in her apartment.
Harry was in his corner, chewing on fresh carrots. He was unusually quiet that evening.
“Don’t worry, my love. I’ll be just fine,” I said. “Tomorrow, the Mistress will be here with Grayson, and we’ll get so much help.”
“I know, but I’m still so nervous. But look at this,” Lisa said, handing me a piece of paper. “I’d been preparing a list for your trip.”
“Thank you, Lisa.” I leaned to kiss her on the cheek as I looked at the list, written in Lisa’s neat handwriting.
“I put it together from analyzing the fairy tales. Here’s what you can expect once you get back to Zorya.”
“Oh, Lisa. This is so thoughtful of you.”
“Remember, Vanya, you have to be very careful.”
“And why is that?” I gave her a playful wink, glancing over the list.
“Because, Vanya, your brothers.”
“Not that again.”
“Please, this is important. It’s a theme. Your brothers think themselves superior, and when the power dynamic turns, when you come back and they see how strong and smart you are, they don’t take it well. And once they figure out you’re able to win over a princess, they set out for revenge.”
“Lisa, this is silly. The fairy tales aren’t about me at all. And it’s just a coincidence that I happen to have two older brothers.” I gave her a long look. “And you know what else doesn’t fit me? I’m not after some princess. I only want you, my love.”
“You’re too sweet.” Lisa smiled at me. “But please take this seriously.”
“Listen, none of this is true. Peter and Ilya are my kin, they are my blood—if they mock me, it’s all in jest.”
Lisa didn’t respond but only shook her head in quiet condemnation, so I suggested something that had been on my mind for some time: “How about you and I try to open the Fabergé egg again?”
“The egg? Oh, I completely forgot about it.” Lisa looked over at the china cabinet, where the egg had taken a prominent position and was on the middle shelf, surrounded by a pretty flowered tea set she’d inherited from the grandmother.
“Let’s see if we can get the Ring of True Love!” I suggested.
“There’s no point.” Lisa shrugged. “I mean, we tried a few times before already, and it just doesn’t work.”
“But maybe it’ll work now?”
“You know what the definition of insanity is?” Lisa chuckled.
“No.”
“It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
“I see.”
“And in the case of the egg, we’ve already seen all the magic it has.
I mean, you managed to steal it from Quinn, and it brought us together.
And you even got the needle with the soul of Kashchey and snapped it, saving me from Quinn.
What other purpose can it possibly serve?
” Lisa reached for me and gave me a slow, passionate kiss. “I love you,” she said softly.
“I love you, too.”
“You’ve got a big day tomorrow.” Lisa rose from the couch and stretched. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”
“Me, too. But I just want to see the egg one more time before I leave,” I insisted.
“Of course, Vanya. I didn’t even think of that.
” Lisa walked over to the cabinet and took out the egg.
She turned it slowly, the diamonds catching the lamplight, the rose quartz glowing faintly between her fingers.
I watched her from across the table. She was the most beautiful woman in the world, my lovely Vasilisa.
A loud snore reverberated through the room. The pony must have fallen asleep while Lisa and I were speaking.
“You’re doing it again,” Lisa said without looking up.
“Doing what?”
“Watching me like I’m about to disappear.”
“Just trying to remember what you look like.”
The lamplight made her face soft and open. Full of hope. She held my gaze for a moment and then looked back at the egg. Her thumb moved along the seam where the two halves met.
“I keep thinking about what you said,” she said. “About wanting things that were too big.”
I didn’t answer. I’d learned that Lisa followed her own thread and interrupting it only sent her back to the beginning.
“And I think it’s exactly what you should be doing. Dreaming is what makes the world go around.”
She set the egg down on the table between us and folded her hands around it, both palms cupped beneath it the way you’d hold something warm.
“And now I’m sitting here with a man from a fairy tale and a flying horse and an egg that allegedly contains a ring that only appears to a couple that’s truly in love.
” She laughed quietly at herself. “Which is objectively insane. And I can’t find the part of me that thinks that’s a problem.
So, if this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up. ”
“I don’t, either, my love. I want to be in this dream with you. Always,” I said.
I reached across the table and placed my hands beside hers so that they were both cupping the egg, her palms below, my hands alongside.
Lisa looked down at our hands around the egg. She opened her mouth to say something. I could see her building toward it, the sentence taking shape, and then she stopped.
Because the egg was warm. It was a warmth coming from inside the rose quartz itself, moving outward through the seam, through the diamonds, into both of our palms simultaneously.
We looked at each other.
“Is it?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
The Fabergé egg popped open all on its own.
It wasn’t the way Lisa had opened it before, with the twisting of the bow tie, when the egg opened lengthwise.
Now, it opened horizontally, with the top coming off completely.
There was a lining, only this time it was a different color, a dark shade of blue. And in the middle was a ring.
A band of gold so pure it had a reddish warmth to it, set with a single emerald. The stone was a bright-green color. It wasn’t large, but it shone brightly in the lamplight and was the color of fresh leaves in early spring.
Neither of us moved for a moment.
Harry snored, shifted, and snored again. The lamp flickered once. Somewhere outside a night bird called.
“The egg opened on its own,” Lisa said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “It was so easy.”
“It did,” I said.
“So does this mean? This is the ring?”
“It must be.”
She looked at the ring for a long time. I watched her face move through several things—wonder, disbelief, the old reflex toward doubt—and watched the doubt lose, which was the thing I most needed to see.
“Count Yusupov said it would only reveal itself to a couple whose love was pure and deserving,” she said softly.
“Yes, I remember.”
“Does this mean we’re that couple? Are we a couple?”
“I believe so.”
Lisa gave me a long stare. I lifted the ring carefully from the velvet lining. It was warm in my fingers, like the feather, and the egg before it opened. I held it between my thumb and forefinger in the lamplight so that both of us could see it.
“I don’t have much to offer you. Not yet. But know that I’ve never gone back on my word. And that you are my love. Forever. My one true love.”
Lisa’s eyes were bright.
“Vanya,” she said.
“I know you’re still deciding whether I’m real. And whether this is a fairy tale or a dream. Please believe me. I’m real. And so is my love for you.”
A tear ran down her face. She didn’t wipe it away.
“You’re the most real thing in my life right now,” she said.
“Then let me ask you something.”
“Ivan, Vanya,” she uttered.
“Vasilisa.”
She went still at her full name.
“Will you be my wife?”
Lisa looked at the ring in my hand. She looked at my face.
Then she held out her left hand, and I placed the ring on her fourth finger.
“It’s a little loose,” she said.
“Let’s try the right hand? In Zorya, we put the engagement ring on the right hand.”
“All right.” She held out her right hand, and I took the ring off her left and put it on the right.
It fit perfectly.
“Yes,” Lisa said, smiling brightly. “This feels right.”
From the corner came the sound of Harry very carefully pretending to wake up, a small performance of yawning and hoof shuffling that fooled absolutely no one, followed by a silence so loaded it was practically a speech.
“Harry,” I said.
“I was asleep,” Harry neighed immediately.
“You were not.”
“I was in a very light sleep. A transitional sleep. I heard nothing.”
Lisa laughed, pressing the back of her ringed hand briefly to her mouth.
“He heard everything,” she said.
“Every word,” Harry confirmed now, smirking. “And I want it noted that I have been saying this was inevitable since the day I introduced you. You’re welcome, both of you.”
“Thank you, Harry,” Lisa and I said in unison.
* * *
The following morning, I woke up to the sound of Harry and Lisa speaking in the kitchen. I could hear them through the door, a sense of urgency in their hushed voices.
“And then what?” Lisa was saying.
“And if I ever suspect anything, you’ll be the first to know,” Harry responded.
“Suspect what?” I asked through the door. Lisa opened it and walked over to me.
“Oh, we’re just speaking about Martha,” she sighed.
“Why did you tell him?” Harry bleated.
“Because Ivan should know. I’m just a little concerned Martha’s not entirely truthful with us. That’s all.”
“Why? She gave me the silver mirror.”
“Yes, and the stones. And the gilded cage. It’s too generous. Too good to be true,” Lisa said.
“But she wants me to come back.” I rubbed my eyes. “Isn’t that why?”
“I think she might have some secret agenda. Who really knows what it is?”
“Don’t worry so much, my love.” I rose from the couch and stretched.
“I told you, he doesn’t like to listen,” Harry neighed.
“I’ll be just fine, Harry,” I said to the horse. “Now, where’s that canvas bag we prepared?”
“It’s right here.” Lisa pointed to it, and I noticed the brand-new gloves. Lisa and I bought them the day prior, and they lay on the table, a stark reminder of my upcoming quest.
“You know, we keep talking about Zorya, but I might not even succeed in capturing the bird,” I said, reaching into my pocket to check for the feather. I took it out so Lisa and Grayson could see it.
“I’m going to miss it once I do get the Firebird,” I said.
“Well, you never know, maybe you’ll get to keep it. The fairy tales are unclear about the feather and what happens to it once you do get the bird.”
“Very true. The only thing that’s consistent is that the bird always comes back for its feather,” I said as I stuffed it back into my pocket. I was just about to go to the bathroom to wash my face when there was a knock on the door.