Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps

By Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna

A young girl named Vasilisa has to go to the Queen of Asps to ask for the Brew of Life to save her dying old father. The Queen is not very friendly and tries her best to see the girl dead.
Meet the glorious and scary Queen of Asps, pale and mysterious Prince of Asps, thousands-years-old witch with attitude, see magic caves, night forest, snakes dancing by the fire, gypsies... Read the book!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
• Release date: Sep 10, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452348735

Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna

Svetlana Kovalkova–McKenna has studied Journalism and Broadcasting at Moscow State University in Russia and has a Liberal Arts Degree from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a writer, an artist and a member of Nashville Artist Guild, mother of three, and a believer in fairytales.

Book preview

Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps

Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna

Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps

Copyright © 2009 by Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

For girls and their brothers

Table of Contents

Gypsy's Advice

Into the Unknown Danger

A Witch, a Queen and a Prophecy

Life in Servitude

The Brew of Life

Escape

Gypsy's Advice

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Vasilisa. She and her father lived in an old little house, surrounded by the small apple orchard, at the very end of the village. Her mother died a long time ago; three older sisters married and moved to houses of their own. Her father was now a very old man. He rarely got out of bed. The only time he spent outside was when the weather was good and Vasilisa would carry him onto a warm blanket under the biggest apple tree behind the house. He would rest there all day watching Vasilisa do her work.

Pretty soon, one humid summer, his health began to fail him completely. Vasilisa was afraid to leave her father alone for the fear that he would die without her. Whatever little money she made to support them by offering her help around the village, or selling fish she expertly caught in the little stream behind their house, was no longer possible to earn. She simply could no longer leave her father’s side for extended periods of time. Feeling desperate, Vasilisa went to her sisters for help.

Vasilisa’s sisters were all considerably older than she. All of them had large families of their own to feed. The sisters were Vasilisa’s half-siblings from her mother’s previous marriage. None of them had much money to give to begin with. On top of it, some believed her to be their mother’s favorite, and they could never forgive Vasilisa for that. Others thought that their stepfather had a long life and now it was time for him to move on to another world. All of them were suggesting for Vasilisa to marry and have her husband be concerned about feeding herself and her father.

Vasilisa did not want to marry; she also was not ready for her father to die. She and her father Fedor were very close. Vasilisa was Fedor’s only child. When he married her widowed mother and Vasilisa was born, her sisters were already grown, and Fedor’s hair were already more gray than black. Vasilisa was the only child in his life he watched grow from a baby into adulthood. They went fishing together and berry picking in the forest. She was the one he taught to hunt, tell the weather for the next day by watching the sky, and find her way in the forest by looking at the tree bark.

When gypsies were passing through their village last summer, an old gypsy woman looked at her father and told Vasilisa that he did not have much more than a year left in him. The only thing to help him would be a brew of life prepared by the Queen of Asps herself. The most powerful Queen of snakes, she is believed to live behind the seventh mountain and has not been seen by a human in more than a hundred years, the gypsy told Vasilisa, her enormous black eyes glistening like two lakes at midnight. On the last day of summer, go to the small clearing in the forest where two large black stones stand under an ancient oak tree and hide upon the tree in the branches. The young snakes come to have their last summer dance in the moonlight before starting to prepare for winter. Make up your own mind what to do to use the situation to your advantage. I already told you too much in repayment for your kindness, said the old gypsy drinking the apple cider in Vasilisa’s garden.

Vasilisa was the only one in her village who allowed forever hungry gypsy children

Reviews for Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps

[darcia_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Vasilisa and the Queen of Asps, by Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna, is all that a children’s story should be. Creative, imaginative, and entertaining, Svetlana takes you on a journey into a fantasy world that you may never want to leave.Vasilisa is a young woman intent on saving her father’s life. Her love for him sends her in search of the Queen of Asps and her Brew of Life. Along the way, Vasilisa meets a troll, a talking eagle, and an old witch. Some want to help her, others want to stop her from getting to the Queen. The challenge for Vasilisa is in determining which is which.Vasilisa’s strong love for her father keeps her persevering through the all the difficulties thrown at her along the way. Her courage and persistence are rewarded in the end. Vasilisa gets the Brew of Life, her prince, and lives happily ever after.