I needed to be Princess Olga.\u00a0 Her people had followed her into battle when she ruled Rus three hundred summers ago. \u00a0I, on the other hand, couldn\u2019t even talk my townswomen into evacuating before the Tartar siege.<\/p>\n
Avdotia, a serf\u2019s widow, was the eighth woman I had visited today.\u00a0 Just like the other seven, she bowed, offered me my favorite tea\u2014<\/em>mint with raspberry jam\u2014<\/em>and refused to respond to my request directly.\u00a0 A serf never says an outright no to her liege.\u00a0 If anyone asked me what failure smelled like, I would\u2019ve told him, \u201cLike mint and raspberries.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWill you go, Avdotia?\u201d I asked for the second time.\u00a0 \u201cMy father\u2019s men-at-arms are freezing their feet outside.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to contemplate what my father would say when he found out I had failed him.<\/p>\n Avdotia did not meet my eyes.\u00a0 Instead, she studied a plaited lapot<\/em> shoe, which she was weaving from linden bast fibers.\u00a0 The flame from a clay oil lamp made her skinny, long shadow tremble on the log walls.\u00a0 Her one-room, semi-dugout hut smelled like wood smoke and straw.<\/p>\n Finally, she said, \u201cI dripped a candle for you, Princess Yaroslava.\u00a0 It don\u2019t look good.\u201d (Author\u2019s note:<\/em><\/strong> In the XIII century, Rus (now Russia) was divided into many city-states that were ruled by princes who engaged in frequent warfare with each other.<\/em>)<\/p>\n I listened to the blizzard that wailed like a chained hound at the door.\u00a0 I stroked my cat Polosatko\u2019s stripy fur.\u00a0 I asked Christ for patience.\u00a0 \u201cWith the Tartars only a day or two away from Yelnik, whose fate would look good?\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to hear Avdotia\u2019s dire predictions\u2014<\/em>the upcoming siege was dire enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I needed to be Princess Olga.\u00a0 Her people had followed her into battle when she ruled Rus three hundred summers ago. \u00a0I, on the other hand, couldn\u2019t even talk my townswomen into evacuating before the Tartar siege. Avdotia, a serf\u2019s … Continue reading