* * *
Two days later.
Jack arrived to meet Koschei in Ded Moroz’s Dacha.
“Koschei, please come with me” Jack said, “I have something important to show you”.
“What’s it?” Koschei said with a grumpy tone.
“Why to spoil the suspense?” Jack said “You’ll see it yourself-just come with me outside the mansion”.
“I should take some bodyguards with me” Koshei replied warily.
“Take as many body guards with you as you like” Jack replied.
Koschei, surrounded by his three faithful guards, followed Jack and went outside the Dacha to the vast, lush green lawn. They came upon an old and rusted, enormous iron chest, with embroidery of gold, embedded crystals and gems, lying on the lawn.
“Break it open” Jack ordered.
Three men, waiting and armed with crowbars attacked the three rusted locks.
Crack! Crack! Crack! The locks broke with loud sound. Then they moved the latches and flung open the iron lid.
Instantly, an enormous hare of the size of a cow sprang out, and bolted off.
“Shoot!” Jack shouted.
A bunch of arrows, followed rapidly by another and yet another, from archers hidden behind the hedges flew at the hare. When it fell down, it looked like a porcupine, with a coat of struck arrows.
“Now rip its stomach”.
A swordsman emerged from behind the tree, dashed forward and split apart its stomach. Instantly, a duck emerged and flapping its wing rapidly, it soared up. An arrow struck the duck with accurate aim and brought it down to the ground.
The swordsman sprang forward, waving his bloodstained naked sword, and with one masterly strike of his sword, he slit open its stomach. He thrust his hand inside its belly and pulled out an egg. Then he ran towards Jack.
“Here it is, master” he said and handed it over to Jack.
Jack held it in his hand, smiled, and turned towards Koschei.
He found that Koschei was feebly moaning “Water! Water!”
Koschei was holding his head with both his hands, and was wobbling.
“What happened?” Jack asked.
“I…I...I am feeling dizzy” Koschei said, “I am feeling very sick. I…I am…I am feeling very weak…as if I will collapse”. Koschei collapsed down on the grass and started moaning.
“Now listen, Koschei” Jack said “That was the same chest you buried under the green oak tree in the island of ‘Buyan’. You see, hiding your soul into some object, to achieve immortality, is like fighting with a double-edged sword. Now you are completely in my power. If ever you disobey me, all I have to do is break this egg”.
“For heaven’s sake, what do you want?” Koschei moaned, and with great effort he stood up.
Jack put his two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Within a few seconds Snegurochka came running.
“She will tell you, what we want,” Jack said.
Snegurochka took a step forward and slapped on Koschi’s face. “You betrayer! You cheat!” Snegurochka screamed, “You were supposed to faithfully serve grandpa. And is this how you repaid him? Will you release him immediately, or should I slap you again?”
“That won’t be necessary” Jack rebuked Snegurochka with a smile “I possess his life”.
Jack turned to Koschei and said, “What do you say?”
“I’ll release Ded Moroz immediately…” Koschei moaned “…and I’ll ask my gang to surrender unconditionally”.
“Good” Jack said “Apart from that, I want you to hand over the command of the army of ‘Liches’ you have secretly built, along with all objects of Phylactery into which you have hidden their souls”.
Jack held the egg high in a dropping gesture, just about to release from his fingers and continued “You must always remember in future, this egg is in my possession. You dare to hatch a dirty plot again, and your soul shall hatch out from this!”
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Chapter 41
Devil’s scheme
“Beelzebub” Devil commanded “I want you to go to Ded Moroz and ask him to start paying off his debts immediately, before maturity period. Moroz’s days are limited, and I don’t want my money to sink along with him”.
“Will Ded Moroz be able to repay immediately?” Beelzebub expressed his doubt “I guess he is neck deep in debt”.
“I don’t care how he will arrange the money” Devil snapped furiously “let him sell his mother if he wishes”.
Beelzebub bowed silently and left.
He came back two days later, hanging his head down in shame.
“What happened?” Devil demanded angrily.
“I beg your pardon-I didn’t succeed”.
“What! You failed!” Devil thundered, “You know the consequence of failure; don’t you?”
Beelzebub shivered with fright and fell at Devil’s feet and kissed Devil’s boots. “Forgive me my lord” Beelzebub said with a trembling voice.
“Forgive?!” Devil roared, “I don’t know the meaning of that word” Devil removed Beelzebub with a powerful jerk of his feet.
“You must have expected a great reward for this failure; isn’t it Beelzebub?” Devil pulled out a voodoo doll with Beelzebub’s face and a nail from his drawer. Then he pulled out a rolled parchment from his robe and placed all of them on the table “Tell me how I should reward you, Beelzebub? You have two choices. Should I throw this parchment in the glowing embers?”
Beelzebub broke into a sob like a small child. With folded hand he prayed, “Please don’t be so angry master”.
“Oh! Shouldn’t I?” Devil mocked “I am supposed to be very happy over my right-hand person returning empty handed; isn’t it?” Devil looked at Beelzebub with a severe frown “Now tell me what happened” Devil scolded Beelzebub harshly.
“Moroz refused to pay anything before the time period as stipulated in the agreement” Beelzebub spoke guiltily like a condemned person about to be hanged.
“I see!” Devil spoke in a bitter tone, displaying his cold anger. “I’ll have to adopt another strategy. By borrowing money, Ded Moroz has swallowed the hook. He simply can’t digest my money”. Devil’s voice had an uncanny undertone of vengeance.
A grin appeared on Devil’s face “I heard that Santa Claus was considering a monetary package for Moroz-what do you say?”
“It’s true, my Lord” Beelzebub said, still trembling with fear “Santa Claus and his cousin Sinterklaas were considering monetary help to Ded Moroz”.
“So Santa was pulling out my prey?” Devil said with terrifying laughter. “Let me see how much money this generous Santa Claus is willing to cough out. And let me see how Moroz will refuse to repay! I’ll devastate Ded Moroz. And I’ll severely punish Santa Claus”.
“Are you planning to assassinate Santa Claus?” Beelzebub asked with deep suspicion in his eyes.
“Nonsense” Devil growled “I want him alive”.
“You mean kidnapping Santa for torture?”
“Nope, something better” Devil replied “I heard that Moroz’s granddaughter has attained marriageable age! Why didn’t that ever occur to you?” Devil grinned “And, why haven’t you ever thought of Santa’s wife?”
“You mean?” Beelzebub exclaimed, “You can’t be serious! Do you really mean that?”
“Of course, I really mean it. And I am dead serious” Devil replied “Aren’t they planning to go out for a hunting expedition in the Black forest soon?” Devil licked his lips like a wolf, and a glint of revenge appeared on his eyes.
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Chapter 42
The Hunting Party
Santa’s secretary-cum-manager ‘Knecht Ruprecht’ led the hunting party. They entered deep in the Black forest, according to schedule. Beelzebub managed to obtain a copy of the schedule and hand it over to Devil, who was inflamed with anger and revenge like a mad dog.
Ruprecht was dressed like ‘Odin’, wearing a hat, carrying a spear and riding a Norwegian ei
ght-legged ‘Sleipnir’ horse. Instead of two ravens, he was carrying his two pet eagles on his shoulders, which he had named as ‘Hugin’ and ‘Munin’ after the names of Odin’s ravens. His greyhound and bloodhound ran ahead of his galloping white horse.
It was unbelievable to see Knecht Ruprecht in this role. He hardly appeared a white-collar person anymore, but looked like a professional hunter: even his leather boots were soaked in mud. A second nature of his character was emerging! But then, he had been taking a few weeks leave every year to take part in trekking expeditions in the Alps & Andes and such ‘wild hunts’ in the black forest.
As a token of emerging mutual friendship, Santa Claus and Ded Moroz also took part in this hunt for the first time.
The female group followed the male group. After much arguments and reluctance, Ded Moroz had finally agreed to let his granddaughter Snegurochka join the hunting party. She was sitting in the horse drawn black carriage along with Mrs. Santa Claus. The shining black carriage often jerked uncomfortable in the narrow forest road of the wooded mountain range.
The leading hunting group had to stop at times to let the trailing ladies group catch up.
They travelled several hours, heading for the Danube river, where they had planned to camp at night. On both side of the road, there was a dense growth of conifers-mostly pines and firs, which blocked out most of the sunlight.
All of a sudden, Knecht Ruprecht pulled the reins. His horse stopped abruptly, rising on its back legs and neighing loudly. Then it stood still on all its eight legs.
Ruprecht raised his hand to signal the party behind to stop.
When the carriage stopped, Snegurochka raised the glass pane and craned out her head to glimpse outside.
She was amazed by what she saw. About a hundred yards ahead of them, a deer was grazing quietly. A strip of sunlight was falling on the back of the deer. Its fleece was yellowish and was shining like gold!
“I had only heard tales of the ‘Golden deer of Artemis’ till now” Snegurochka said to Mrs. Santa in a mesmerized tone “I have never seen one like this before”.
The whole hunting group stood motionless and speechless, watching the natural wonder.
All of a sudden, the deer stopped grazing, raised its head, and glanced at them. Then it started running away.
“It’s escaping-the golden deer” Ruprecht shouted “we must get it. We can’t miss this golden opportunity. Let’s get it, guys”. He charged at the swiftly running deer along with most of the hunters.
“You must get it alive” Snegurochka shouted after them.
Within seconds, they all vanished out of view.
The remaining people, mostly ladies, and three hunters remained rooted to their spots waiting patiently.
About half an hour passed, but the hunters didn’t return.
“There it is” someone shouted, pointing in the backward direction of the carriage “it must have simply taken a semi-circular path through the forest and deceived them. They have gone in the wrong direction”.
“Let’s get it!” another person shouted. All three hunters charged at the deer. Ded Moroz followed them. Mr. Santa started following Ded Moroz reluctantly.
“You stay behind, honey” Mrs. Santa Claus shouted after her husband “You look ill. I’m worried something might happen to you if you join the chase”.
“Nonsense!” Santa Claus shot back with hurt pride “If Moroz can go, so can I. Or else he will think I have grown too old”. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and joined the chase.
Now only Mrs. Santa, Snegurochka, and their lady attendants were left.
Another ten minutes passed.
“There it is!” Snegurochka pointed towards the front of her carriage “it has deceived them again”.
Mrs. Santa Claus craned her head outside the carriage and said, “You are right! How clever it is! Or maybe it is another one?”
“I don’t think so” Snegurochka said “look carefully. One of its branching horns is half broken. I have noticed that every time”.
“You are right” Mrs. Santa said, “It has deceived everyone as if it were an optical illusion”. She was stunned by her own words. A sudden fear appeared on her face.
“What happened?” Snegurochka asked.
“Illusion!” Mrs. Santa whispered “Can’t you see…The golden deer appeared twice, each time drawing off some men, till there are none left. I smell a rat. This might have been…must be a trap!” her voice trembled as she spoke.
“What do you want to-“
Before Snegurochka could complete, they were both startled by a sudden howl.
They glimpsed outside, and saw that the deer had raised its head towards the sky and was howling like a wolf.
The half-broken horn on its head broke from the base and fell off.
The other horn fell off too. Its teeth became sharper and shining canines emerged. It got furrier, its shape changed, till it turned into a huge ferocious wolf, howling even louder.
A volley of dozens of distant reply howls entered their ears.
Another volley of howls arrived. It seemed that a whole pack of wolves was rushing towards them from all directions, encircling them completely.
“They are closing in on us-the wolves!” Snegurochka said with a trembling voice “I suppose it will be wise to move away immediately”.
“You are right!” Mrs. Santa replied. Fear and urgency appeared in her voice too.
At that instant, a distant rumbling of horse hooves came from the backside of the coach.
“Ah, we are saved!” Snegurochka said, “they are returning back”.
Mrs. Santa listened to the sound carefully and appeared even more terrified. Her face was white as chalk with horror. “We are in even greater danger now” she blurted out “only five men, including my husband and your grandfather, went in that direction. Listen to the sound of hooves: several dozen horses are coming. It’s a deadly trap-they are after us”.
Snegurochka froze with fear. “You are right” she whispered.
“Ladies, let’s escape immediately” Snegurochka shouted at their lady attendants on horsebacks. “Come on, drive as fast as you can” she ordered her coachman.
The coachman whipped his horses and immediately they sped off.
As they passed along the huge ferocious wolf, it bared its canines, growled loudly and leapt at the coachman. It snapped the coachman’s shoulder and brought him down to the ground instantly. Before anyone could even realize what was happening, it dragged the profusely bleeding coachman into the deep forest.
Snegurochka noticed some black furry object hurling past the coachman’s seat and glanced forward through the coachman’s small open window. “Oh my god!” She gave out a shrill cry.
“The carriage is running at full speed without a coachman!” Snegurochka shouted with horror.
Mrs. Santa was so stunned that she couldn’t even react or utter a sound.
Snegurochka craned out her head outside and shouted at the top of her voice “Please someone save us”.
The lady attendants were galloping as fast as they could. The coach was trailing far behind them. Nobody even heard Snegurochka’s scream.
“I can’t drive a coach” Snegurochka said “but I must occupy the coachman’s seat”.
She opened the side door. Holding the edge of the roof for support, and an iron rod as footing, she inched her way on the perilously jerking coach. Somehow, she managed to reach the front end from outside the carriage. Then holding the roof edge tightly, she swung and managed to reach the coachman’s seat.
All their lady attendants had disappeared from view, and several dozen of Devil’s henchmen were chasing the carriage. They were hardly two hundred yards behind them, and rapidly approaching the carriage.
The main road had a narrow left branch. Snegurochka suddenly took a left turn.
The carriage was running at full speed and almost overturned.
“What are you doing?” Mrs. Santa shouted “All o
ur ladies went straight ahead”.
“I don’t know” Snegurochka shouted back “I acted on impulse. Now it’s too late to turn back”.
“Then drive forward at full speed” Mrs. Santa shouted. She took off her hand gloves and threw them one after another through the coach window.
By now, the chasers had approached within a hundred yards. Two of their fastest men had come within fifty yards.
“Throw off your scarf” Mrs. Santa commanded.
“Why?”
“It will make it easier for our rescue party to locate us”.
The road was very bad. Still they sped, bouncing and tilting dangerously.
They reached a deep gorge. There was an old hanging bridge, just wide enough to allow a carriage to pass. It was so old that the wooden planks were covered with moss and the ropes appeared to have rotten.
Snegurochka drove over the deep gorge at full speed. The bridge swung dangerously, making loud cracking sound of snapping planks.
The two leading chasers were also galloping over the creaky wooden bridge, making the fragile bridge swing even more violently. They were within a few yards from the coach.
Mrs. Santa Claus picked up a sword and held it tightly.
Just as the carriage passed the bridge, Mrs. Santa slashed one of the supporting ropes. The rope snapped, hurling two horsemen deep in the gorge. The other rope snapped too, and the bridge collapsed.
The chasers stopped abruptly on the other side of the gorge. Then they turned right and galloped along the edge of the gorge at full speed.
Mrs. Santa watched them through the back window and said, “There must be another bridge, towards which they are heading. Let’s move on straight as fast as we can”.
Mrs. Santa threw out her handkerchief. Snegurochka whipped the horses.
The carriage darted ahead at full speed.
The wheel hit a small boulder. The carriage jerked violently and the wheel came off. The carriage tilted and the axle touched the pebble covered ground, making screeching noise.
Snegurochka pulled the reins hard and the carriage came to a halt. She jumped off the coachman’s seat to inspect the problem.
Mrs. Santa Claus also got out of the carriage.
They heard a distant rumbling of horse hooves coming from the right side.