Ivan Tsarevich and Morozko trekked farther each day.  Ivan told Morozko of the legions of cherti that guarded the deathless lands, of the women who had crumbled to dust upon trying to leave Kashchei’s kingdom.  Their spirits haunted the thick black forests bordering the area.  So many maidens that had been spirited away over the centuries now lingered there.  Bodiless, they roamed the wilderness, leading travelers astray to try and suck the life out of them.  There were packs of vucari, Greyback’s people, who would as likely help a traveler as eat them.  Finally, there was Zmei Gorynych, the fearsome three-headed dragon who guarded the portal to the deathless lands....