"Wild Bird" by Elena Kondratskaya, summary Automatic translate

This book, published in 2024, transports readers to the harsh realities of the Volsk Kingdom, where the calculating impostor Rogneda is willing to do anything for the crown. The heroine is strikingly different from the usual bright characters: cold, ambitious, and easily drawn to dark magic, she is forced to reconsider her views when faced with true affection and mortal danger. The cruel princess undergoes a difficult journey of inner transformation, discovering within herself the capacity for empathy and love.

The work is part of the popular Slavic fantasy series "Divnye Shorega." The story serves as a standalone spin-off, taking place between the novels "The Raven Has Two Lives" and "When Fairy Tales End."

Memory loss and assassination attempt

The girl comes to, completely bereft of her memories. She finds herself in a luxurious wooden tower in Dargorod, where an unknown man, terrified, kisses her feet, begging for mercy. The frightened heroine runs outside. Outside the city walls, near a lonely willow tree, she encounters a young man in a scarlet cloak. The stranger, Prince Daren, openly despises the girl and accuses her of witchcraft. It soon becomes clear that she is Rogneda, Princess of Charograd, the official bride of the old Tsar Radomir.

Healer Anyana examines Rogneda. The Volsk Guardswoman uncovers a terrible truth: the heroine has fallen victim to the curse of "Oblivion." The princess’s own powerful magic partially overcame the dark spell, leaving the girl alive but erasing her memories. Rogneda begins searching for answers.

At night, in a dark library, Rogneda and Daren are attacked by a flock of dead jackdaws. The birds’ talons are poisoned with a deadly venom. Rogneda intuitively calls upon the magic of the air, scatters the flock, and saves Daren. At that moment, her memory returns. She recalls her true name, her ability to control the birds, and the ultimate secret: Rogneda herself had planned to kill the prince. The jackdaws belonged to her, but someone deliberately turned her own weapons against her. The princess manages to heal Daren, deciding that a living ally would be more useful than a dead enemy.

The search for the elusive killer

A Falcon named Finist, a self-assured guardsman assigned to investigate the assassination attempt, arrives in Dargorod. Rogneda decides to conduct the search on her own. Daren volunteers to help. The trail leads to an underground gambling den run by warlocks. The heroes find the mercenary beekeeper Ivako, but he turns out to be dead. In the river, the terrifying Mavka attacks Rogneda, trying to drag her to the bottom, but Daren kills the evil spirit with his sword.

Returning to the mill at night with her faithful servant, Voiko, the girl performs a dark ritual and temporarily resurrects Ivako. The dead man reveals that a young woman with golden hair ordered the murder. Voiko, realizing his secret betrayal has been exposed, shoots his mistress with a crossbow. Rogneda brutally deals with the servant, crushing him with air magic.

The guardsman Finist blackmails Rogneda into going to Koschei’s forest tower to steal a crystal box. Daren goes with her. While the prince distracts the immortal sorcerer with conversation at the table, Rogneda penetrates the vast treasury. She ignores the box and steals her deceased mother’s old wooden comb. Rogneda magically locks Koschei in a golden sarcophagus with sharp spikes. On the way back, they encounter the guardsman Kirshi. He demands the box, attacks Daren, and is seriously wounded. The intervention of the house spirit Tirg stops the fight. Rogneda and Daren bring the wounded Kirshi to Anyana, who miraculously saves the guardsman.

Swamps and dark betrayal

To discover the curse’s formula, Daren and Rogneda travel to the sacred forests of the goddess Makosh, to the swamps of the old Yaga. The old woman gives Rogneda a potion, sending her consciousness to the mystical Valley of Spirits. There, the heroine confronts her inner demons. It turns out that Rogneda is an impostor. Several years ago, she and her cruel father killed the real Princess of Charograd. The girl took her place to escape poverty and claim Radomir’s crown.

Returning home, Rogneda encounters Finist. It turns out that the Falcon has been purchased by the real mastermind behind the murders. Finist kills Rogneda’s bird, plunges a knife into her stomach, and cuts off her ring finger to bring proof of death to her employer. As she dies, Rogneda slits the throat of her cook, Lyuba, sacrificing her to activate the dark protective rune.

Magic resurrects the heroine deep in the forest. A disoriented Rogneda is attacked by a blind ghoul. The monster’s venom poisons her blood, but the girl miraculously escapes, swims across an icy river, and falls unconscious.

Healing in Svetlorechye

Rogneda awakens in the small mountain village of Svetlorechye. The local sorceress, Varvara, nursed her back to health. Rogneda lives with Varvara’s family and meets Lyudmil, Nadezhda, and their adopted children. The youngest, Ruta, turns out to be a werewolf. One night, the child transforms into a werewolf and escapes to the village. Varvara risks her life to protect the girl from an enraged mob of peasants with pitchforks and torches.

The residents of Svetlorechye spare Ruta’s life, demanding that she leave the village forever. Varvara and her adopted family decide to leave with her for the shores of the Amber Sea. Rogneda feels the warmth of a real family for the first time, but refuses to go with them, realizing that she must complete her work in the capital.

Daren, having learned of his beloved’s disappearance, turns to Yaga for help. Having defeated the Leshy, he obtains a magic bell and, with the help of a jackdaw, finds Svetlorechye. The heroes confess their love and return to Dargorod together.

Revelation and a Bitter Ending

The city is preparing a lavish feast in honor of the arrival of King Vegeir from the Northern Lands. Rogneda analyzes the dead man’s words about the woman with golden hair and recalls the king’s fifteen-year-old niece, Yesenia. The girl realizes that it was her young relative who tried to eliminate her to protect her future wedding with Daryon.

At the feast, a drunken Radomir causes a huge scandal, jealous of Rogneda’s relationship with his own son. Rogneda publicly refuses to marry the Tsar. Radomir beats the girl, and Daren bravely rises to her defense. Vegeir forcibly takes the enraged Tsar away, preventing bloodshed.

Rogneda and Daren secretly search Yesenia’s room. They find a black gift box. Finist had previously given this item to Yesenia, including the girl’s severed finger. Yesenia is frightened by the strange find and swears she’s never seen Finist. Rogneda realizes the terrible truth: the little girl’s consciousness is constantly being controlled by an alien mind.

The girl goes to the highest tower of the Royal Chambers and finds Vlasta there. The gray, inconspicuous adviser to the Tsar and Yesenia’s mother turns out to be a powerful sorceress. Vlasta had been suppressing her own daughter’s will for years, planning to eventually completely occupy her young body and rule the country alone. It was she who hired assassins and controlled Yesenia’s every action.

Vlasta attempts to take over Rogneda’s mind. A brutal magical duel ensues. Rogneda’s mother’s magical wooden comb protects her from the other woman’s spells. Having repelled the powerful attack, the heroine overpowers the old sorceress’s will. Rogneda forces Vlasta to step out of the open tower window to her death.

Daren finds Rogneda in an empty office. They quickly go down to Yesenia. The girl is alive, but her consciousness has fallen into a deep sleep, freed from her mother’s years of control. Rogneda doesn’t know if Yesenia will ever wake up.

Realizing she must find her own path, Rogneda decides to leave forever. She spends her last night with Daryon. At the cold dawn, she leaves him her mother’s comb, extracts from Daryon a firm promise to care for the sleeping Yesenia, and rides out of the gates of Dargorod, heading east.