Immortalls. Princess Swan from the Golden Mountain

© Sergey Solovyov, 2026

ISBN 978-5-0069-9522-2

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Smile goodbye

Prologue

A huge elk carried its mistress through the forest, stepping over fallen trees, squeezing a powerful body through the branches of a windbreak. Branched horns helped to spread the dense branches of often standing trees in the forest. Ilda stroked the head of a dry, her tireless horse, which has now become so strong. But when she received a very small calf as a gift from the son of a fisherman she had cured, she did not think that in a few years he would become a real lord of the forest. Karia, as she called the dry, then only fed on milk from her nipple, everywhere ran after her on her funny twig legs. The girl straightened her disheveled hair under a felt hat, and pinned her naughty silver curls with a hairpin, thoughtfully going over the end of the longest braid. She was not gray, no, but she was not from these edges, distant and dense forests next to Oum. Her mother, as she herself said, was then visiting raw Gandvik…

Mika worked as a paddle, which was strength, trying to leave the hated Varta as quickly as possible. She sometimes turned around, looking sadly at the sandy line, where the parents’ old house was still nearby. Her leather shuttle was strong, her knees rested on a bag of hair thrown by the Magi Hind, and his evil words rang in the woman’s ears:

“Get out, and don’t you dare come back!

Mika only swallowed bitter tears that all rolled from her eyes. I should have been angrier, she said everything to herself. For some reason, she tried to save the woman in labor, who had already suffered for two days. I saw, after all, that she was no longer a tenant, but took up, did not burn herself. Although at first she drove this stupid husband out of her house with a long pole.

— Fail, would immediately call, now everything will die! He was afraid of me, so why did he come? she shouted to him.

— You can help, witch, you honor the Testaments! Here, this is all for you! — and he dumped a pile of beaver skins on the grass of the yard.

— Yes, — the woman sighed hard, I can do a lot, but not everything, — Mika said deafly, raising her red face with anger to the man, — I’ll try…

She examined the vapor-covered face of the woman, whom her husband put on the bench, and everything stood nearby, clenching his fists in impotence.

— Go to your relatives in the yard, you are only hindering me, she said, taking out her tools from the best bronze, lying in a leather bag.

The witch palm felt the heat of the woman in labor, touching her forehead, and only in despair squeezed her lips.

“You fool, you wretched coward,” she whispered as she removed the woman’s clothes.

I felt my stomach, and almost screamed with rage, things were very bad… In thoughtfulness, she stared at the blade of a bronze knife, trying to come to terms with the inevitable…

— Maybe I’ll save the child…

Much later, she went out into the yard with a child washed and wrapped in felt. The kid turned out to be strong, survived this, and now he did not even scream. The witch in the crowd of relatives saw her husband, and he immediately approached her.

— Take it, did what she could, — she said deafly, handing him a child, — and take the body of his wife. She could not survive.

The child’s father just nodded to her, and shouted:

— Father, mother! Gotta take Dana home!

Not two, but four strong men from the relatives of the supplicant, taking a stretcher, went up to her in the upper room, and put the body on felt and carried it away. No one said a word to her. No gratitude for the living baby, no reproach for the deceased woman. The witch lit the herbs in the tripod, driving away the filth of death from the house. The room began to fill with the aroma of smoldering ephedra leaves, so that the air in the house became very thick, only the fire of the lamps hardly made its way through the bluish smoke. She thoughtfully washed the knives in the hot water of the trough, swiping her finger on the blade, and again feeling the horn handle of her faithful assistant. And again in front of her was this picture of lying dying, and blood, a lot of blood on the tanned skin of the shop…

And the next morning…

The next morning came the magician of the tribe, Hind, tapping a staff on the floorboards of her house. He looked at her for a long time and sighed. Then he quietly said:

— Get ready witch, but don’t forget your things.

Mika’s heart just shrank… What about? Why?

— Hind, I saved many people here… — the woman tried to explain, — I did what I could, and the child is alive!

— It was impossible to cut the womb of the mother, — the magician said harshly, storming her with his prickly eyes, — it was necessary to let both die… Ella, queen of the kingdom of the dead, what will she do now? I still pity you, — he sniffed under his bushy eyebrows, — the staff remains with you.

— She won’t punish for good, — the witch answered confidently, — the husband is to blame for everything, before he would have brought his wife to me, everything would have worked out.

“They were afraid of you. And on you, it turns out, the blood of the woman in labor. Get away from trouble in Gandwick, the refuge of sorcerers, until everything settles down. And the point here is the madness of the elderly father, Mick.

The witch grabbed her head, bent low-low and sobbed with despair.

Hind stood up, took his staff, and in a voice as hard as bronze said:

— Tomorrow you leave, my people will bring you a shuttle. Be ready to sail at dawn, and then the trouble will leave the village, drown in the river when it chases after you.

Refuge at Gandwick

Mika rowed and rowed. Nothing, my hands are strong, I’m sticking out, she thought holding on to Obi’s rod. Her like lay at the bottom of the boat, resting her head on her paws without interfering with the hostess and not attracting her attention. Soon she was trying to work with a paddle easier, which would have enough strength before noon.

— Yes, only you stayed with me, — the exiled woman said, looking at the dog, — now we’ll dock, we’ll eat.

Cheln buried himself in the shore, the dog jumped out first, and the owner followed her to the ground. She pulled out a load, four bales, and for protection the leather shuttle also left to dry on land. She cleared the place for fire with a wooden spatula so as not to let her fall on the forest, and not to burn herself at night. The pot, tied with a vine, stored the seeds of home fire. Mika grabbed a hot flaming corner with small bronze ticks, inflated it and put it in the prepared dry branches of the fire. The fire took up quickly, giving the long-awaited warmth to the wanderer. Mosquitoes have already begun to curl over her, bringing out their mournful songs, feeling an ambulance. It was evening, and the river was getting cooler, a woman fur sleeveless on her back. Birds they chattered in the trees, as if greeting her, discussing their own bird affairs. She took smoked fish out of the bag and honestly shared it with the dog. The dog was not sad, and cheerfully overwhelmed with his share, rejoicing in the past day. Vedunya looked at her comrade, and felt that she was very tired, decided to rest, that there would be strength to get to Lukomorye. She drank grass infusion from fur, extinguished the fire, buried a pot of coals in the sand, and wrapped in a felt cloak, lay down on thin branches of trees and bushes collected nearby. Tyapa, her dog, lay down next to her, warming her back. Sleep was heavy, accumulated and pain and fatigue, not even letting sleep. I also got up with a heavy head, and after eating a little, I pulled out a shuttle to the water, putting both belongings and a dog in it. Mika went further down the river, and even the bizarre shore did not brighten her bitterness. One hope was for Nayda, her friend, with whom she was tested on Alatyr, preparing to become the Chosen One. In the morning she sailed in the shuttle, in the afternoon and in the evening she tried to catch fish, this was her daily routine.

Sometimes her fishing happiness varied — on one day several fish, on the other — not a single one. But loneliness did not bother her, on the contrary, the witch felt his charm. She used to live far from the village, from the giant shaft of Oum. There was always something to do — to help one or the other, they came to her, and it happened, and she herself was taken on red tape home to the suffering person. The water was clean in the Ob, mountain oil did not spill into the river. This happened when she once sailed on a large boat past Warta. The river became, as it were, milky, and the banks were viscous, like jelly, only it was impossible to drink this milk, and jelly should be drunk too.

In the evening, she admired the starry sky, putting her bronze map of the sky next to her and remembering the lessons of her mentor on Alatyr Island. The witch measured the height of the star Losihi (polar star) above the horizon. The star rose higher and higher, Mika understood that she was gradually approaching Gandvik. The journey took twice as long as she first thought, twelve days had passed. The weather was good these days, which is rare here in Lukomorye.

Finally, after a dozen paddles, Gandwick opened, lying near the turn of the channel, not far from the sea. Mika has already seen houses standing along the river in the gray haze. The same as everywhere else, only here they stood on pillars, because the ice in the ground melted in the summer, it happened deeply. So the piles of houses were taken to the icy ground, and from above the earth was poured with river pebbles and sand, and only then they made it up, and from above they built a house with residential cells, usually two or three, no more. Although there were Huns and large houses, for several families. Mika swam to the pier, hooked a rope to a pole, and pulling the boat to the shore, stepped on the halves of the pier logs. The woman removed the cargo from the shuttle, turned, and saw two fishermen carrying baskets of catch from their boat.

“Hello, dear,” she said first, and bowed, “can you tell me where Naida lives?”

— Hello and you, venerable woman, — the eldest of the fishermen answered her with a bow, — will you be from Warta yourself? My name is Und and I have Ikrat and Hodota with me. We’ll see you off. Take some red tape for scarba. Ikrat, — he turned to the youngest fisherman, — take another one from the warehouse for the guest.

“All right,” the young man replied.

— My name is Mika, I was with Naida on Alatyr, — the exile called herself, — we have known her for a long time.

“We will help you get to her house, you can see, tired, witch,” Und said, approaching the woman and taking scarb from her hands.

Ikrat returned with a sled, and Mika was laid down on them, tied with belts. Tyapa sat nearby, looking at the fishermen. Und took up the hair straps of the witch, and Ikrat and Khodota dragged the fish to their village, to their homes. The runners of the sled glided along the path, very trampled, apparently, as Mika understood, those who suffered from the whole village often came to her friend.

The woman became uncomfortable, because she did not even have time to wash properly after a long road. I looked at my hands, clean, rubbed with coastal sand today. Fishermen in front of her dragged a skid with her belongings, she was walking behind, lonely, not knowing the road. How unusual it was! After all, she always walked ahead, both at the festivities and at the funeral in her village.

“Well, nothing, soon they will ask me to return, but I will not be in any”

She calmed herself with such thoughts, and almost fell into a cow cake. A cart drove past them, which was dragged by a huge elk with branched horns. There were four children in the carriage, one of whom was controlled by a dry man. Then they came across a small herd of cows, which the shepherd drove back, giving the nurses to the owners. They passed the village, and moved into the forest thicket.

“Far?” the woman asked Unda, who was dragging her belongings.

— No, already nearby, — answered Und cheerfully, who so far has only his face painted from work, — do not worry, I remember the road.

Indeed, it was as if the house behind the wattle had emerged from behind the trees.

rainy here, there were few clear days in Gandvik.

On one of these good and clear days, Mika walked along the seashore with her dog. I haven’t started a team of deer yet, and who can follow them? Heavy alone, she sighed to herself. With the staff given to her by Cord, she moved the branches carried by the waves to the ground, and next to her she saw a log in the water near the shore. Then again the celestial body looked out from behind the clouds, and the golden ray of the sun hit directly into the shadow cast by the trunk of a tree in sea water. And only then did I notice the leather rook, and as it seemed to her, with white felt inside. Tyapa rushed to the find, wagging his tail, and began to sniff it, and barked, calling the hostess.

“What is there?” the woman muttered.

But still went to see. In the shuttle, she saw a bundle, thought it was just gray felt, but blue eyes flashed in the gap, and Mika stopped in anxiety.

— Enough with me, — she said evil, — Hey, there is someone here! Whose child? she shouted, and looked around, waiting to see the parents of the child.

She stood for a long time, looking around when they would come for the child, but there was no one to take the child.

— Why should I again, — Mika muttered through tears, pulling a light shuttle out of the water.

She bent down, took the child in her arms, he did not shout, only looked at her. Mika did not scatter the foundling, and took a quick step to her home, the dog ran ahead of her along the path, but did not miss a single bush, sniffing everything, wanting to find a living.

I quickly went into the upper room, fortunately it was warm, put water in a still hot stove to warm up, and prepared a wooden trough. When the water warmed up, she removed both the felt blanket and the knitted linen diaper. It was a girl, about one and a half years old, but seeing the color of her hair, Mika was scared. The child’s hair was ashen.

— And that’s all for me… And right away, — the witch sentenced, washing the girl with warm water.

She dressed the child, wrapped in furs. Not Oum is here, and not Varta, and it’s cool in summer, Mika thought. The witch hurried to Naida, she looks and tells you how best to do it. She put on a raincoat, took the child in her arms, shook him, and put him in the basket. I also called the dog, we need a guide on the way. She slammed the door, and so let her friend along the path to the house that the dog could hardly keep up. So the cherished gate into the yard, the witch just flew inside, and Tyapa slipped after her, however, immediately tied to the fence. Mika tried to catch her breath, looked in the mirror, which she took out of her bag, straightened her hair, and a necklace that got lost from a quick walk. Knocked. Naida shouted from above

— Come on in!

The woman instantly climbed the stairs, anxiously looked around, seeing only Naida and Winda with their children.

— Hi Naida. It is necessary to consult, — said the witch, breathing heavily, quietly.

— What happened? — the hostess was alarmed, nodding at the basket on the table.

“Look what you’ve found by the sea.

Naida slowly approached the table, seeing a smiling child in the basket. She took him in her arms, looked at her hair, and her face immediately darkened like the sky in a thunderstorm.

“Winda! Go for Cord, you say, it’s important. Faster, don’t hesitate anywhere.

— Well, — she answered, and went down to the basement, going on the road.

Naida took out a couple of clay vessels from the casket, and a leather bag, from which she took out two nipples from the washed sheep udder. One of the vessels filled with milk, and began to feed the girl. She ate voraciously, then screwed up, calmed down.

— Hungry was, — explained the hostess, — and not ours, from distant places. Ashen hair… I accepted the children of all, read, into the world. Did not have this girl, she was not born here, — she said and quickly looked up at Mika, — Found, you say?

— So it is, in the shuttle, on the shore. And in the basket the felt in which it was wrapped.

Mika showed a thin soft felt, good work, although not dyed. The mistress of the house picked up this kind, not prickly, wool, pursed her lips, looking for the pattern, and so on. Naida put the girl’s belongings, and began to walk around the table, thinking. Then the hostess took a knife, and the guest jumped up, almost dropping the shop.

— What are you? — Mika said quietly, getting colder, but preparing to fight to the death for the girl’s life.

— So, you will prick it in the finger… — said the hostess and put the handle in her hand, — what did you think? — Naida amused, — we will wait for Korda, with him we must do so that he sees everything himself, with his own eyes, otherwise he will not believe. And then she will be scared, they say, suddenly she is from the yotuns, ice giants, from the Icy northern lands.

There is nothing more languishing than waiting. Mika rocked a basket with a sleeping girl, who, in her happiness, did not understand what was happening. The witch looked at the door, and at the small windows, trying on how to crawl more easily.

“You really go too far so that your blood is red,” she thought about the girl, — Naida is not a master in throws… I carefully her, so, on the floor, and herself — once, and out the window. Nothing, let’s figure it out. I’ll go to the wends,” she reassured herself.

There was noise and laughter in the basement, but then Cord, inflated with importance, entered. The elder’s staff tapped the floorboards, and the wait dragged on. The first elder greeted:

— Be healthy Light Naida and you Light Mika, our magicians. Heard a lot of good things about you. With what they called, what happened?

“Drink honey out of the way, Cord,” Naid brought him a treat, “with a matter of importance,” she added, “your word is essential here. Take a look.

The elder finished his honey, set up a bowl, and without feeling a catch, went to the table and saw the child.

— The child, I see, — and turned to the wolves, — what have I not seen the children? — and smiled slyly.

— Why are you… Naida got up and went to the table with the basket standing on it, — more attentively…

The elder’s face was made first surprised, then anxious and angry.

— Mika in the shuttle found a child, a girl, — said the Volkhovitsa slowly, — and her hair was ashy. I did not accept her in our village…

— Maybe burn the foundling from trouble? — and the elder looked at both women with hope, looking from one to the other.

Mika jumped up from the bench, and stood next to the basket, preparing for the fight.

“You can’t, Cord, not by the Law.

“And if she’s an ice giant?” the man shook his head, and pursed his lips as he prepared to argue.

— Ice people do not have red blood flowing, but ihor, now we will check, — said Naida quietly.

— I myself, — approved Mick’s decision, taking out a knife from a belt and playing them with fingers. She has already decided how she will leave if the baby is threatened with death… Nothing, let’s manage…

The woman took the girl in her arms, she pulled her hands to her, she carefully grabbed her left with two fingers, and remembering Gemini, especially Ella, the Ellu guard, pricked the child’s finger with a knife. The baby screamed offended, then roared. Mika did not breathe, lowering her eyes from the cut on her finger…

Here, swollen… AND… Red!

“Red!” Micah shouted.

— That’s good, — Cord calmed down, — do you keep the girl, or should I find her mother?

“I’ll have it,” the witch nodded, trying to calm her adopted daughter.

— Name her, what would the Gemini hear and the Spirit-Patroness, — added Naida, — and I’ll bring honey now.

The hostess returned with a small pot and a wooden spoon. Mika ate a little honey in a spoon, dripped into the girl’s mouth, and said:

“You’ll be called Ilda. Remember all! ‘she told both of those who stood nearby, all four who were here.

And they remembered everything, and could not forget, although they wanted later.

From Gandvik to Oum

Ilda stayed with Mika, often Naida came to them with her son Lyy and daughter Iskra. Many were helped by friends, many were cured. And the sailors, frostbitten at sea, were helped, they managed to warm up the sick.

The children played in the yard, the eldest, Lai, concentrated on building a dugout from twigs, and Iskra played with a doll, and Ilda diligently repeated everything after her. Tyap the dog lay nearby, picking up in the sun, sometimes checking if the little mistress was in place. Then he raised his ears, and sometimes opened his eyes, however, making sure that everything was fine, he immediately closed it.

The women were sitting on a bench near the house, looking at the children.

“Nobody wooed you, Mika?” Naida asked deliberately.

“Everyone is afraid. Well, not young already, twenty-five years old. You can’t complain, here’s a beautiful daughter, she’s growing up, “she smiled.

“Not so bad,” agreed her friend.

Then there was a knock on the gate, and the women heard Cord’s grumpy voice:

— Open, Mika, important things!

The woman opened, and three entered the courtyard. Cord. Elder Gandvik, their magi, Aragan and a man, rather a young man, with a shaved head and a clump of hair on the back of his head. The young man was wearing ordinary clothes, but Naida did not see him in the village, but she knew, read, everyone.

— Good afternoon, Traveler. What did you come with? — she asked with a half-smile.

“That’s it, Cord,” Aragan laughed, “you’ve got fox skin.” He said that Naida would immediately guess.

“All right, your skin.” the elder replied. “It’s up to you, Mika. This, he nodded at the guest, is the Herald from Oum. Their trouble — and he mysteriously fell silent.

Mika looked at the young man’s outfit, he was like an ordinary hunter or fisherman in Gandvik. And the Messenger, she herself knew, was dressed in a special dress, so that everyone who saw him. helped, as it should and did not offend anything.

“I burned his clothes, and he sat in the bathhouse all day, washed off the filth,” Aragan said sternly, “His name is Kalya, from Oum. Trouble with them, the pestilence has begun, they are asking for help. Yes, and the Magi and three Magi disappeared in one day. You’re not going to an empty place, Mika. The leader has already ordered the house to be cut down, all honor by honor, in the forest near the village.

Mika watched, and did not know what to say. All this curse drove from corner to corner, from Warta to Gandvik, from Gandvik to Oum. And you will not complain — after all, on Alatyr she swore that she would serve and help people.

— It is necessary to gather, and how to reach Oum?

— Und will go with his waddle. On his boat along the Ob, you will approach Oum. Cord said, Will you gather in a day? The day after tomorrow Und will come to you to help the belongings deliver to the river.

Mika just nodded her head, What do you say? That’s right, alien, so they drive.