"Mary" by Tatyana Korsakova, summary Automatic translate

This book is a mystical thriller set in 2024, where the destinies of characters from different historical eras intertwine around an ancient swamp. The aquatic swamp possesses a mind of its own and cruelly punishes people for broken oaths. This work opens the "Mary" book series. This cycle also includes the novels "The Puppeteer" and "Puppets." This text is the first part of a mystical trilogy.

Chronotope of modernity

The story begins in the present day. Stefan, a collector, buys an old aluminum flask at an underground auction. Inside the artifact, he discovers a yellowed note from 1941. The text reads: "Stepa, I’ll be back soon! Stesha." Stepan is Stefan’s grandfather. His grandson decides to discover the fate of the mysterious Stesha.

Stefan hires a flask salesman. His partner, Pavel, goes by the alias Ares. Ares moonlights as a gravedigger and possesses a mystical gift for seeing hidden places on old maps. The heroes set off for the provincial wilderness. They rent a dilapidated wooden house on the banks of Snake Creek. Ancient protective symbols are carved into the house’s threshold. The cuneiform inscriptions depict snakes, fish, and eerie eyeless infants.

The suspense builds on the very first night. Frightening creatures come to the door. The entities resemble small children. These are "marevki" — the souls of children drowned in the swamp. The monsters beg with pitiful voices to be let in to warm themselves. Ares tries to open the bolt. Stefan stops his friend just in time. The warding thread saves the companions from certain death. The creatures transform into monsters with bluish tongues. The marevki suck the life force from people. Drained of blood, their victims go mad and voluntarily drown in the swamp.

Agrafena joins the investigation. A local twenty-year-old girl is a skilled motorcycle rider and knows the safest swamp trails. She wields an old wooden walking stick. Hidden within the iron handle is a carved wooden wolf’s head with fish scales. The stick was passed down to her by her grandfather, Felix. Felix Fischer, a former German soldier, miraculously survived the swamps and remained in the USSR forever. Agrafena volunteers to guide Stefan and Ares. The trio join forces to search for clues deep in the swamps.

War years in the swamp

Flashbacks to 1941 reveal Stesha’s tragic story. Twenty-year-old Stefania flees the horrors of war with her mute five-year-old sister, Katya. The girls’ mother died in a bombing. The orphans find shelter with their grandmother. The villagers consider Granny Marfa a witch. The old woman lives as a recluse in that very house near Snake Creek.

Baba Marfa greets her granddaughters sternly. The old woman forbids them from approaching open water. The swamp hides a powerful ancient entity named Mary. The entity can change its appearance. It appears to people as a giant fish or a gigantic snake. The local holy fool, Seraphim, gives the girls amulets carved from bone. Katya gets a wooden owl, and Stesha a bone snake. Seraphim hears the voices of the swamp and foresees the future.

The swamp lives by its own merciless laws. At night, fiery corpses come to the house. They are called "ugarniki." Baba Marfa successfully drives away the monsters. Stesha secretly follows the old woman to Mari’s domain. The girl loses her red woolen scarf. The swamp takes it as payment for blood. Stesha discovers mystical powers. She can freeze water with her mind.

Soon, Stesha commits a selfless act. The girl pulls a drowning wolf cub from a fetid swamp. It is a cub from Marie’s pack of dogs. The enormous swamp wolf graciously accepts the help. The animals, with their pearly, scaly fur, acknowledge Stesha as their mistress. The dogs receive a silent command. The pack pledges to protect the girl and her little sister from any threats.

A detachment of German punitive forces invades the village. The soldiers are commanded by Sturmbannführer Gerhard von Langer. The officer is a member of the occult society Ahnenerbe. The German is obsessed with finding a mythical floating island in the swamp. A relative of von Langer once told him of this miracle. The officer suffers from a hereditary disease and yearns for a cure. At the same time, the soldiers pursue the surviving partisans.

Underground fighters derail a German military train. Stesha secretly rescues a seriously wounded partisan. The young man’s name is Stepan. The girl removes a bullet from his chest using her father’s surgical instruments. Stepan is hidden in an abandoned hut on stilts in the middle of the water. A genuine romantic feeling blossoms between the young people. Stesha vows to Stepan to always return. Two other partisans, Vasily and Pyotr, accidentally open the door of the hut to the Marevkas. The men instantly lose their minds and walk away to certain death.

Pre-revolutionary tragedy

The plot reveals the secret of Baba Marfa. In her youth, the old woman bore the proud title of Countess Maria Kaminskaya. The young aristocrat gets lost during an autumn hunt. She falls into a swamp and sees the ghost of a boy drowned by his mother. The countess is rescued by a passing district doctor, Gordey Smolsky. Maria falls head over heels in love with her savior.

Maria’s parents are categorically against the misalliance. Gordey lacks a noble title and a large fortune. Maria leaves her parents’ mansion forever. The young couple secretly weds in the village church. The couple lives happily in a house near the Snake Pool. The Countess’s younger sister, Anna, is tormented by bitter envy. She has long been in love with Gordey.

Anna commits a monstrous betrayal. An envious woman lures Gordey to the burning wastelands. The peat bogs conceal the Thirteenth — the fiery spirit of the swamp. The doctor falls into an underground trap and burns alive. Grief-stricken, Maria cries out to Marie. The Countess begs the mistress of the swamps to return her beloved husband. She agrees to any price without looking.

The swamp grants the Countess’s wish with merciless mockery. Gordey returns to life. The doctor becomes a permanent "carbon monoxide poisoner." During the day, he sleeps soundly in deep peat ashes. At night, the man wanders the woods as a flaming monster. The monster comes to his wife every midnight. Controlling the fiery beast is impossible. The touch of water briefly restores the monster to human form. During these moments, the Countess conceives his daughter.

Maria remains forever a prisoner in the house on the edge of the swamp. The woman transforms into the stern village healer Marfa. The grandmother tries unsuccessfully to sever her family’s connection to the ancient entity. Marfa hides the painful truth about their aristocratic roots from her growing granddaughters.

Fatal choice

The action shifts back to 1941. German officer von Langer shows up at Marfa’s house. The Sturmbannführer turns out to be a distant relative of the Countess through her envious sister Anna. The German mercilessly takes Granny Marfa and little Katya hostage. The officer gives Stesha a cruel ultimatum.

Von Langer demands to be shown the mythical island immediately. If they refuse, he promises to shoot the old woman and child on the spot. The German gives Stesha exactly fifteen minutes to pack. The girl agrees to become a humble guide. Before leaving, Stesha secretly leaves a wooden owl in a conspicuous place. She hopes Seraphim will understand the hidden sign. The holy fool is to lead the wounded Stepan away from the executioners.

Stesha confidently leads the enemy deep into the deadly swamps. The girl boards a flimsy boat with the Sturmbannführer. The remaining guards remain to wait on the shore. The Germans are instantly torn apart by Marie’s hungry dogs, who arrive in time. Stesha brings the officer to the very center of a deep body of water. The girl uses her ability to control the elements of water.

Stesha creates a perfect illusion of solid ice over the moss. Von Langer joyfully steps onto the imaginary ground. The ice instantly melts beneath his boots. The German falls into the cold abyss with a scream. Stesha falls into the dark water after the fallen enemy. The girl consciously sacrifices her young life to save her loved ones.

The heroine quickly sinks to the viscous bottom. In the crystal-clear water, she sees Marie’s gigantic body. The ancient fish graciously welcomes its new victim into its silent domain. Katya, Baba Marfa, and Stepan survive unharmed. The girl fulfills her vow and saves her beloved at the cost of her own existence. Stepan recovers and hides the flask with the farewell note.