The Sisters of the Winter Wood

by Rena Rossner

  Something is wrong—

  the fruit tastes bitter

  where it should be sweet

  and the arms that hold me

  are too thin; they smell

  like something sour.

  I try to open my eyes but

  something is blinding them.

  I gag; the fruit tastes bad.

  He carries me down

  a staircase.

  Down down down,

  we go, farther and farther

  in a spiral

  around and around.

  He stops,

  I feel my head loll.

  My limbs are limp—

  I have no control

  over my body.

  What is happening to me?

  Mami! Tati! Liba!

  Help! Help! Help!

  He kicks open a door

  and lays me softly on a bed.

  I open my eyes and I see

  Zusha Glazer,

  on a bed:

  what is he doing here?

  My head lolls to the side,

  and I see Hinda Glazer too.

  They are both sleeping,

  but they look pale.

  Hands force

  my mouth open,

  and the peach

  is there again.

  I try to suck

  at the flesh,

  but my lips

  are sore

  and bruised,

  the meat

  of the peach

  is nearly gone.

  My teeth gnash at the pit,

  my lips pucker

  in search

  of more juice,

  anything

  to keep me feeling

  something

  something

  something.

  I force my eyes open again.

  Why are the Glazers here?

  But I only see Miron

  standing above me,

  not Fedir.

  He ties down my feet.

  He grabs my wrists.

  I try to fight him

  but I have no strength.

  The peach rolls

  to the ground

  and I feel

  pain pain pain.

  I try to cry out,

  but I have no voice.

  He punctures a vein

  at one wrist

  and then the other.

  I turn my head and see

  the first drop of my blood

  drip down a vine-like tube.

  This is all

  you Jews

  are good for,

  he says. Your blood

  is sweeter than wine.

  But your souls

  are filthy.

  I won’t allow

  Fedir to crown

  you Queen.

  I gasp and writhe

  as he clamps down

  on my ankles, first one

  and then the other,

  deep gouges of pain

  and pressure,

  something sucking

  at my veins.

  My eyes are wide

  and searching.

  I feel panic;

  my lips try

  to form words

  but they are swollen

  and numb.

  I can’t form

  coherent thoughts.

  I take deep breaths,

  struggling to keep

  breathing.

  When Jennike fell

  on the ice,

  Bohdan didn’t know

  what to do with her.

  He feared he’d be blamed.

  That’s what Jews are for,

  I told him.

  But Mikhail,

  that pest, was snooping

  around here;

  he kept trying to stick

  his nose in our business.

  Blood is blood,

  I always say.

  But Jewish blood

  is cheaper.

  I can’t

  feel my feet,

  or my legs.

  It is a blessing

  because it doesn’t hurt

  but I am scared

  and cold

  and I feel as if

  I am all alone.

  I was wrong.

  So wrong.

  And now I will die

  and Liba too.

  I couldn’t save her.

  It feels like a drug

  is pumping

  through my veins,

  but my veins

  are pumping

  into other veins.

  My blood

  feeding tubes

  that look like vines.

  I asked for this.

  I came here willingly.

  I should have known

  that it would end

  this way.

  Liba was right.

  I’d hoped

  that it was all

  a misunderstanding,

  that Bohdan

  had taken Jennike

  and killed Mikhail.

  But I was wrong.

  So wrong.

  Miron brings his hands

  to my neck;

  there is a vise-like thing

  with six thorns

  crafted out of wood.

  It is a crown,

  like the one he placed

  upon my head

  that first day

  in the meadow.

  It forms

  six red punctures

  at my throat.

  The pain is exquisite,

  and I think,

  This is how it ends,

  this is how I die,

  everything is over.

  They will blame

  the Jews,

  everyone in the shtetl

  is going to die.

  I will never

  see my parents again.

  He puts his lips to mine.

  He tastes like ash,

  like rotten garbage.

  I try to purse my lips

  to spit at him.

  But I can’t do anything.

  My brother thought

  he could outwit us all,

  he says. My brother thought

  that you were special.

  Now he will see

  that all Jews bleed

  the same.

  The roots are thirsty, Laya—

  your blood will water them

  and you will breed fruit

  red and ripe

  that we will feed

  to all the gullible people

  in all these backwater towns.

  And one by one

  these shtetlach

  will destroy themselves

  with hatred.

  But we will be

  long gone.

  Soon, the Kodari

  will cover everything again

  and all you humans

  will be gone,

  swallowed up

  by the earth,

  by your own hatred

  and stupidity.

  I open my mouth

  and let out a long,

  sharp cry

  just before the world

  goes black.

  It sounds distant,

  but clear

  like the crooning

  of a bird,

  but really,

  it is the sound

  of my heart

  breaking.

  he betrayed me

  he betrayed me

  he betrayed me

  77

  Liba

  I pace the cottage again. I can’t tell Dovid about the swan-man, and I don’t know how long I can wait for Dmitry to come back. Time is running out. “Let’s go back to the Hovlin lodge,” I say. “Come back there with me. Help me take her away from them. She’s being held against her will.”

  “Liba.” Dovid shakes his head with exasperation. “There is no lodge.”

  “How do you know
that for sure?”

  “I saw nothing.”

  “That’s because it’s an enchantment.”

  He shakes his head again.

  “Dovid, I’m not crazy!” I yell. “She was locked in. And she was not herself. I can’t wait anymore. Tomorrow will be too late!”

  “Liba, stop. Please. You aren’t well. Think about it. You went there already and she chased you away. Listen to reason. Maybe this is the choice she made.” He grabs my shoulders and I struggle against him. “You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.”

  “You don’t understand,” I say to him as I pull away. “How can you possibly understand when you can’t even see what I’m talking about?”

  “Laya, do you hear yourself? Okay, listen to this. What if your roles were reversed? What if you’d agreed to be my wife?” He blushes and wets his lips with his tongue. “And you’d come to live with me in a cabin I built just for you.” He pauses, as if the words he says hold physical weight. “But I locked you in because there were creatures in the forest that I wanted to protect you from.”

  “You would lock me in from the outside?” My heart hurts.

  “But what if Laya came to you, to our house—” He swallows. “—and demanded that you leave me? That I’d enchanted you?” He puts his arm out to touch me, but I turn away from him.

  “How do you know that she’s not happy?” he says. “What if she claimed that you’d lost your mind to marry me? What if she didn’t approve? And your parents didn’t approve? What would you do then? Would you still choose me?”

  I stare at him, frozen in place, because his words ring too true. Would I? I don’t know the answer.

  He shakes his arms at the sky in frustration. “Do you even know what you really want? Because if you don’t, then don’t presume to think you know what she wants. Don’t make a decision for someone else when you’re not even brave enough to make one for yourself!” he shouts. There are tears shining in his eyes as he gets up, walks out of the house, and slams the door behind him.

  I choose you, Dovid, I want to say. I’ve already chosen a hundred times. If I could, I would choose you … But I can’t. What man could ever love a beast?

  It’s clear to me I need to end this now. The swans haven’t come back. They won’t help me. Dovid won’t help me. Laya’s life hangs in the balance. I know what I must do.

  I follow him outside. “You don’t understand,” I say. “I’m going to go get my sister, even if I have to kidnap her and fight my way out of there. Are you with me or against me?”

  “Liba! Please—see reason!” he cries.

  “Then you’re against me,” I say. “Goodbye, Dovid.” And I walk away, tears wetting my cheeks as I set out for the Hovlin glen again.

  I’ll threaten Fedir and his brothers. I’ll force them to confess. And if all else fails, I’ll call the beast within me. I’ll become the very thing I fear, once and for all. Laya is worth it. She’s worth everything.

  I get as far as the old oak tree and start to make my way into the pine forest when my foot snags on what feels like a root and I tumble and fall. Someone grabs my hands roughly and something else tugs at my feet. And suddenly my hands are bound. I gasp and take a breath to scream just as a rough rag is shoved into my mouth and a dark cloth goes over my head and face. The world goes black.

  78

  Laya

  I dream that I’m

  with my mother again

  in the glen behind our house.

  She looks at the sky

  and waits, watching silently.

  What are you doing, Mami?

  Wait here, she says.

  I wait wait wait,

  and squint at the setting sun.

  I hear the flapping of wings

  before I see them.

  A dozen birds descend,

  surrounding us.

  As their webbed feet

  touch the ground

  they grow and shift,

  turning from white

  downy feathers

  into pale fuzzy skin.

  I cannot look away.

  Mami cups her hands to my ear

  and whispers:

  Terpinnya, dochka!

  she says.

  Listen to them.

  The swans raise their arms

  up to the sky and feathers

  fall like rain.

  Nmaye! Mami cries.

  Twelve sets of swan eyes

  look upon her.

  Tears fall from her eyes.

  My heart beats so fast fast fast

  I think it will grow wings

  and fly away.

  The time has come

  for her to know,

  Mami says.

  Laya, look upon them, Mami says.

  This is the brother

  of Aleksei Danilovich,

  who was your father.

  His name is Dmitry.

  What is Mother doing?

  Who are these people?

  I close my eyes.

  A cold hand

  touches me. I gasp

  and lurch back,

  but there’s

  another hand,

  and another,

  the hands

  pull me forward.

  They turn me around.

  I bring my hands up

  to cover my face, but someone

  takes them, holds them;

  there are cold fingers

  in mine.

  Ne biytesya,

  the voice croons.

  Open your eyes.

  I shake my head.

  Tears fall.

  Shhh … do not cry.

  Open your eyes;

  look straight into mine.

  I open my eyes a slit,

  enough to see that it is

  the youngest of the swans

  who holds my hands.

  I shiver as his feathers

  brush my skin.

  Just like I shivered

  the first time

  I touched him.

  This is Sasha,

  my cousin’s son, Dmitry says.

  He sees things that others

  cannot see.

  He is your mate.

  You are family, sim’ya,

  he says to me,

  and this swan

  will be your King—

  vash lebid—

  when the first sign of wings

  begin to bud on your back.

  Mami is crying,

  but they are tears

  of joy.

  Aleksei would choose you still,

  dorohyy, Dmitry says to Mami

  and dries her tears

  with his thumbs.

  Come with us.

  Mami shakes her head.

  It’s too late, she says.

  He puts his fingers

  beneath her chin

  and tilts her face up.

  He kisses her cheek.

  Mami shakes her head again

  and says, It cannot be.

  Take care of her? she says,

  and looks at me.

  Dmitry puts his hand out

  and touches my forehead.

  Sasha takes my hand in his

  and squeezes it.

  I feel my eyes close.

  One day you will be Queen,

  daughter of my brother;

  one day you will rule in my place,

  and people will worship you

  as they worship all of us,

  the swans of the cross,

  the children of Saint Anna.

  My head is spinning.

  You will rule in the way

  that your father

  would have wanted

  you to rule.

  I feel myself falling.

  But you will not make

  the same foolish choices.

  79

  Liba

  I groan as I come to, head throbbing. I try to open my eyes, expecting da
rkness. Instead I find myself bound to a tree, with nothing on my face. I see that I’m in a clearing; by my feet are two bedrolls, a smoldering fire, and a makeshift campsite.

  “The prietzteh awakens.”

  I look around. Where did the voice come from? A princess? Me? Was I wrong about the Hovlin men? Are these the men who killed Jennike and Mikhail? Is their fate to be mine?

  Two men come out of the woods. Ruven and Alter. Breath leaves my lungs.

  “Why did you do this to me? Who are you?” I scream. I feel my temper flare, a rumbling ball of fire in the pit of my stomach.

  The men walk over and stand in front of me.

  “I demand to know who you really are!” I try to claw at the tree and the ropes that bind me.

  Alter elbows Ruven. “The zaftige moid is getting heldish.”

  “Shut up, idiot,” Ruven says.

  I shout again in what sounds almost like a roar. “I’m going to scream until you let me go.”

  “Did you hear that, Ruven? Only fools rely on miracles,” Alter tsks.

  “Give me some answers or I’ll scream again and the whole village will come running,” I say.

  “She has a point, Altisch,” Ruven says. I hate the look on his face, the smirk. I hate every hair on his head.

  “Don’t call me that,” Alter says through his teeth.

  “Let’s spare ourselves the agony and get right to it, eh?” Ruven says. “Where is your father?”

  “I told you I don’t know!”

  “But he left. Where did he go?” Ruven’s eyes are cold steel.

  I close my eyes and grit my teeth. “I told you. They went back home. To Kupel, to the Rebbe.”

  “But that’s not possible!” Alter says.

  “What? Why?” My heart drops into my stomach.

  “Because the Rebbe went to his oylam. He passed away. And we didn’t see your parents on the road,” Alter says calmly. “So tell us the truth now.”

  “The Rebbe’s dead? Baruch dayan ha’emet. Why didn’t you say so the first time we saw you? Does that mean that my parents never made it to Kupel?”

  “Maybe they walked a different way,” Ruven suggests. “Perhaps we crossed paths in the woods.”

  “Or maybe something happened to them …” I whisper. I feel my skin go cold.

  “We came to get your father,” Alter says, “because your father is the Rebbe now.”

  “But Yankl came here a few weeks ago to tell us. Why did you have to come too? And why the secrecy?” Nothing makes sense.

  Ruven and Alter exchange a look. “There are politics at work that you don’t understand,” Ruven says.

  “And perhaps your father should have been a bit more forthcoming with you,” Alter adds.