In olden times, in a certain kingdom that was not our own there lived a prince. He was the most handsome man in the whole territory. Prince Ivan was so handsome that the women flocked to him regardless of being a prince. One day while visiting the neighboring village of Gitzing he saw a maiden in the field. The pail of water nearly tumbled out of her hand when he approached her. 

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“My prince,” she said, bowing low. 

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“Rise,” he said softly. “I have never seen beauty quite like yours, the flowers of the field look dull compared to you. The sun shines half as bright as your eyes. The moon shivers at your smooth complexion. Please, bless me with the name of the maiden whose beauty has encapsulated my mind.” 

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“Dana, my prince.” 

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“Ivan, call me Ivan.” 

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Dana looked to the setting sun and stepped away. “Ivan, I must be going. Stepmother will be needing me.” 

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“I’ll be back tomorrow. If you wish to see me, meet me at the edge of Lake Baikal,” Prince Ivan said. 

 

Every day for the next three months Dana and Ivan would meet at the edge of the Baikal lake until finally Ivan declared his love for her. “My darling, Dana.” Ivan said. “My sun, my stars, my moon. I would tear down the heavens for you and conquer the pits of hell to have you by my side. In three days time, meet me again and I’ll have you as my wife.” He fell to his knees and clenched her hands tightly in his grasp. “My beloved, do not leave me without answer. I have loved you since the moment I set eyes upon you.” 

 

“Oh Ivan, how I wish to be your bride.” Dana sighed, stirring him to his feet. “My stepmother, she would not have me leave. I am her servant and I could not abandon her home.”

 

Ivan cradled her head in his hands while looking into her big, sad eyes and said, “I would fight the gods themselves, your stepmother does not strike fear in me.” He pressed his lips against her forehead for a mere moment before pulling back. “Three days time, my betrothed.”

 

Refusing any further objections from Dana, Ivan turned and departed leaving Dana alone by the side of the lake. She practically flew back home with her heart as light as a feather. For the next three days she obeyed her stepmother’s every command with a smile. No matter how many times she had to fetch water, clean the fireplace, or scrub the floors did her smile ever falter. Her love for Ivan kept her strong. 

 

Unfortunately Dana’s stepmother noticed her strong spirit and grew curious. Her stepmother was Dana’s sole guardian after the death of her father three years past. Stepmother was a cruel woman who could only find joy in bringing down Dana to push her own daughters up. So when Dana was humming the entire time she cleaned the stove, Stepmother grew angry. What could this child be playing? What wicked schemes was she conjuring? Three days of unending bliss, Stepmother could barely take Dana’s merriment, it was nauseating. So when Dana went to fetch water Stepmother could not resist to follow. 

 

Unbeknownst, Dana led her stepmother to the edge of Lake Baikal where she would meet Ivan. There she listened to her stepdaughter lament, “Oh my darling Ivan, when will you come to take me away. My stepmother is oh so cruel, but my heart has stayed light with thoughts of you.”

 

She was mindlessly throwing flowers into the lake waiting for her fiancé to return when a stepmother’s face emerged in the reflection of the water. Stepmother, overcome with rage, pushed Dana into the water. How dare her wretched stepdaughter be betrothed to the Prince while her very daughters remain unwed. Before Dana’s head breached water, Stepmother grabbed her head and pushed her deeper into the lake. 

 

Once Dana had passed, Stepmother walked away with her pail of water. 

 

That evening the Prince returned to the lake with a bouquet of flowers and two horses to carry them away, but there was no sign of Dana. When the sun began to set he called out her name. “Dana, Dana, Dana.” 

 

But she would not return. 

 

He ran to her home, hoping she was held up by her stepmother’s chores, but when he arrived home he saw the house in mourning. The sisters saw the Prince’s approach from their window and ran out to meet him. They dropped into a low curtsy as he dismounted his horse. 

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“Oh Prince Ivan, what have we done to be blessed with your company?” the younger stepsister asked. 

 

“What happened?” he asked his betrothed’s stepsister. “What has become of my Dana?”

 

“She fell into the lake, my prince,” Dana’s eldest stepsister replied. 

 

“Where is her body, so I may lay eyes on my beloved once more?” 

 

The sisters exchanged a look before the eldest responded. “We do not know, Mother told us she drowned this evening.” 

 

“Nonetheless, Prince, one of us can be your bride,” the middle sister prodded.

 

The prince shook his head at the women. “Nonsense, if I shall not have Dana only death can take me now.”

 

Ivan took off to the lake trying to hold onto a piece of his beloved. He ran to the very spot where he kissed her forehead and begged her to be his wife. The same place she drew her last breath, flowers still lay in the water. Peonies, lilies, and azaleas scattered across the surface of the lake, the petals dancing with the emerging stars in the skies. 

 

“Oh my Dana, what have the cruel fates done to you?” Ivan sobbed into the air. “What have I done to make mockery of the world, to cause the gods to separate me from my love.”

 

As Ivan wept his tears of sorrow, the hours rolled by without any comfort to his grief. He found himself wanting nothing more than to succumb to his heartbreak. There would be no day, no light, no happiness without his Dana. 

 

A giggle skipped across the lake as if mocking his pain. Ivan raised his head searching for the fiend who dared insult him in his time of mourning, but what he saw on the other side of the lake left him frozen. 

 

Women. A large group of women naked and dancing in the moonlight. Ivan bowed his head in shame for looking at the scandalous sight. His cheeks flushed, warming the tears that remained. Another explosion of laughter drew his attention. They seemed oblivious to him. The women twirled and danced in a circle. The maidens all looked so differently, but all of them were beautiful as if they were created with the image of the gods in mind. A woman stood in the center of their circle singing an enchanting tune with a crown of flowers on her head. 

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Ivan stared on at their hypnotizing movement. One woman turning over to the next, giving Ivan a look at each woman standing there. As the last woman appeared in his sight, the world went still. There was Dana. His Dana. She looked alive, and she was frolicking naked in the forest. He shook his head, it didn’t matter what she was doing, all that mattered was that she was alive.

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Those cruel, cruel sisters of hers, they must have lied. Trying to trick Ivan into marrying one of them instead of Dana. Treacherous evil sisters. Ivan rose to his feet, but Dana did not see him. He drew to her, his foot sinking into the water. He would get her as quickly as possible, take her away to be his wife.

 

He took another step forward, his foot sinking deep into the rich black mud. Pulling his foot from the water was strenuous work, but he would cross the world for Dana. Ivan waded deeper and deeper trying to get to the women. They were still dancing as if he didn’t exist. 

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“Dana,” Ivan called. “My beloved, I have come for you. I have come to take you home. I’ll take you far away from your wicked stepmother and cruel stepsisters.”

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His grin went ear to ear at the sight of his Dana alive and breathing. She must have not heard him. She was still dancing with the women. She was completely oblivious to Ivan who was nearly up to his chest in water. 

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“Dana, my Dana,” Ivan called. He lifted his chin so his neck was outstretched like a swan. Still he moved deeper in the water. “It is me, my love, it is your Ivan.”

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He took a step forward and found no land under foot, he plunged deep into the water. Even though Ivan knew how to swim, it was no use, he was being pulled down into the depths of the lake. He struggled against the pull, however the strength of the force dragging him down was too powerful. He looked up, catching the silver shimmer of the moon against the water until his body slammed against the muck at the bottom of the lake. A bubble of air escaped his throat as he called out a single word. 

 

“Dana.” 

 

As Dana stayed dancing on the edge of the lake, she heard her name called, pulling her from the love of her new-found family. She knew that voice. That plea. It was none other than Ivan. She would know his voice anywhere. She looked to her new sisters, but was met only with toothy grins. 

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Without hesitation, Dana hurled herself into the lake. She swam to the bottom of the lake, begging all the powers in the heavens that she would not be too late. When she reached the bottom of the lake there was Ivan, lying with his eyes closed as her new sister held him to the floor amongst the countless skeletons of drowned victims. Dana pushed her off of him and wrapped him in her arms. She swam with all her might to breach the surface of the lake. 

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She pulled Ivan to the bank and laid him out in the grass. He did not stir and Dana worried she was not quick enough to save her love, so she cried out, “Oh Ivan, please awaken. Do not let the waters claim you, it is not your time.” 

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Once these words were spoken into the universe, Ivan sputtered out a mouthful of lake water. He retched and coughed as Dana stroked his wet hair. Ivan could not believe the sight, Dana saved him. 

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“Dana, my sweet princess, I thought I had lost you,” Ivan said. 

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“My sweet prince,” Dana cooed. “I’m afraid I am lost.” 

 

Ivan sat up and took her hands. “No, you can not leave me. I am yours, you have my heart, my soul, my love.” 

 

“I am confided to this lake,” she said. “I can not go with you, and you can not stay. They will hurt you and I can not go on knowing you are in harm’s way. Please, you must go on. You must forget me.” 

 

Ivan chuckled desperately. “Dana, I can not go on without you. You are my world. There is no point in living without you. My passion, my joy, my purpose is gone without you. What is living without the sun, what is living without light. My life will be shrouded in darkness without you.” 

 

“You can not live here,” Dana begged. 

 

“Then I shall not live!” 

 

Dana and Ivan stared at one another, silence stretched between them. A silence that captured all of the brief moments they had together. A silence that captured all of the laughs they shared. A silence that captured all of their love. Dana took his hand, a single tear fell from her eye. Her hand was cold in his. The warmth evaporated from his skin as they sat there. 

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While they sat there with their hands intertwined, the rusalka of the lake gathered around watching Dana express her sorrow. The eldest rusalka who had been trapped in the lake for hundreds of years approached the pair. She rested her hand on Dana’s shoulder and offered her a smile and her magnificent flower crown. 

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“Is that what you wish?” Dana whispered to Ivan. “To not live?” 

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“If I can be with you?” Ivan did not hesitate, “absolutely.” 

 

Dana reached out cradling his head in her hands. She leaned in and kissed him on the lips. He pulled himself against her, wrapping her in his arms. The rusalka parted as Dana took a step backwards and sent both of them into the water. Together they sank to the bottom of the lake. When their lips separated, Ivan opened his mouth, letting in a torrent of water flood his lungs. 

 

As the couple plummeted into the lake the rusalka did the unthinkable. They left Lake Baikal—only for the night—to find the woman responsible for the suffering of their sister. As they entered Gitzing the shutters flew shut to all but one house. The rusalka entered Dana’s old house and strangled the stepmother and her daughters in their sleep. A small trail of water dripped from their mouth as the women fled back to their home. 

 

It only took a minute for Ivan to transform. The prince of the kingdom died in the waters, but out of water came consort Ivan to Queen Dana, the new ruler of Lake Baikal. Ever since that day citizens of the kingdom have come to the edge of Lake Baikal to offer flowers as tribute to their fallen prince and his princess, in hopes of receiving the blessing of true love.