"How the Wind Wooed Me" by Dakha Taratorina, summary Automatic translate

This book is a romantic fantasy, published in 2022. The story reimagines the classic fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast. The protagonists’ emotional development unfolds against the backdrop of Slavic myths and the harsh laws of survival in the harsh mountains. The novel is filled with complex moral dilemmas. The main characters are constantly forced to make difficult choices between duty to their families and personal freedom.

The beginning of the story

Five years ago, Tissa’s father made a fatal mistake. He challenged a monster named Wind, who terrorized the town of Foothills. His attempt to kill the monster failed, and the father died. The enraged tyrant demanded retribution. Young Tissa pushed her weeping mother aside and offered herself as ransom. The monster took pity on the girl’s courage. He left a magical bridal mark, a golden vine, on the fifteen-year-old heroine’s forearm. The monster promised to return for her in exactly five years.

Over the years, the mark grows, causing intense pain. It’s not the old tyrant who descends from the sky after the girl, but a lean young man named Poloh. He is the monster’s illegitimate son. It turns out that Old Wind is dead. The magic of controlling air currents, along with the bride’s mark, has passed to the legitimate heir.

Life in a mountain mansion

Poloh snatches the protagonist and carries her off to his mountain mansion. The young man is mocking and cold, declaring that he has absolutely no desire to marry. However, they are inexorably bound by a magical vine. The brand burns their backs with an unbearable fire whenever they try to break the distance. The girl meets the modest staff of servants — the lively old nanny Rhea and Grandfather Laiko. The old woman treats Poloh like her own grandson. The relationship between Tissa and the young Wind is full of caustic bickering. The girl accidentally falls off a mountain cliff. Poloh saves her from the fall, then heals the mark, inflamed by fear, with medicinal herbs.

Childhood friend Roy sneaks into the mansion to rescue his beloved friend. The young man is armed only with a wooden club. Poloh easily blasts his rescuer away with gusts of air, mocking his clumsiness. Tissa furiously rushes to her friend’s defense. She begs the master to spare Roy’s life. Poloh throws the boy out the window onto the rocks, leaving him alive. Tissa demands the brand be removed. The groom cynically replies that the magic will only disappear after the marriage is fulfilled.

Miracles of the Green Night

Rhea dresses Tissa in a light dress. A servant secretly leads the girl across a bridge of sunset rays to the mountain folk festival, Green Night. Hiding her face behind a living mask of jasmine leaves, the protagonist succumbs to the general merriment. She escapes an insistent, frog-skinned suitor with the help of a handsome stranger. The dancer hides his face behind a mask of hops. A sudden passion flares between them. Hops tenderly kisses the girl in the fog. Tissa flees, tormented by a sense of duty to her official fiancé. In the morning, the deception is revealed. Tissa finds the mask of hops on Poloh’s bed.

The girl demands to break the magical engagement. The groom admits there is another way to gain freedom. He agrees to travel to the ancient shi creatures at Star Peak to learn the secret of removing the brand. Tissa makes a counter-condition — to allow her to visit Aru’s mother in the Foothills. The visit brings only disappointment. The woman has become rich thanks to the ransom money for her daughter. Ara mercilessly drives Tissa away, fearing to incur the monster’s wrath upon his new life. The girl’s heart is broken by her mother’s betrayal.

Secrets of the ancient mountains

The travelers head to Star Peak. They wait out the storm in a cave. There, Poloh rudely attempts to coerce Tissa into intimacy in exchange for freedom, but stops just in time. The heroes are attacked by stone creatures — children of the mountains. Poloh engages in a fair fight with a stone giant. The young man skillfully defeats the giant without resorting to magic. The children of the mountains allow the couple to pass through their dungeons. Soon, the travelers find a ruined city. Poloh’s presence instantly awakens the dormant shih magic. The dried-up underground lake once again fills with crystal-clear water.

The Shee priestess explains the true origin of the Wind. It was created by an ancient people centuries ago as a powerful guardian to protect against humans. Marital bonds can be broken without intimacy. The groom simply needs to speak the words of release in the ancient Shee language. Poloh deliberately concealed this fact from the protagonist. He had fallen deeply in love with the wayward girl and was afraid to release her into the cruel human world. Upon learning the truth, Tissa is deeply bitter at yet another instance of male selfishness. She demands immediate release.

Siege and insidious plan

Upon returning to the mansion, the heroes find a bloodbath. Incited by a mysterious stranger, Roy has led the embittered townspeople to kill Wind. The foothillers brutally beat old man Laiko and the nanny Rhea. Protecting his beloved servants, Poloh flies into a blind rage. He mercilessly maims the attackers by hurling wind at the walls. Tissa stops his bloodthirsty frenzy with a lingering kiss. The stunned foothillers cowardly retreat.

That evening, the girl decides to voluntarily surrender to her fiancé. She hopes to break the stigma of the old rules. Poloh refuses to force her into intimacy. The young man realizes the full weight of his attachment.

Revealing the Antagonist

The true enemy finally reveals his identity. Old Wind is alive and full of malice. His magic began to rapidly fade after the murder of Tissa’s father. After drinking Rhea’s sleeping potion, the tyrant faked his own death. His magical gift automatically passed to his son. Now the old monster intends to kill Poloh with someone else’s hands and regain his lost power. The villain beats Tissa in Ara’s house and takes her hostage. Roy, sword in hand, awaits his command. Poloh descends from the heavens, ready to destroy the Foothills with a hurricane to save his beloved.

Old Wind orders Roy to stab Tissa with a blade. The death of the branded bride will surely kill Poloh, who is bound to her. Roy finally realizes the scale of the deception. The young man refuses to spill the blood of his innocent friend. He deals the fatal blow to the true villain. The mountaineer himself receives a fatal dagger wound to the neck and dies in the arms of the weeping Tissa, a true hero. Seeing the bride’s sincere suffering, Poloh utters the phrase "shi." He releases the girl forever. The golden vine dissolves without a trace.

The finale

With the connection severed, the young man immediately loses his ability to hover above the ground. The townspeople attempt to lynch the weakened Wind right there in the square. Tissa’s love awakens the dormant mountain spark within her. The girl rises gracefully into the air and scatters the crowd with a powerful whirlwind. The shih appear, led by a priestess. They tell the foothill dwellers the hidden truth about a once-united people, ending the centuries-old feud once and for all.

In the finale, Tissa masters complex aerial somersaults. Poloh relearns how to control his gift. The young man asks Tissa to become his true wife. He gives his beloved magical wedding bracelets crafted from shi. The girl happily accepts.