Excerpts from the book:
The girl's attention was attracted by the hunter. He was courting a young widow. Throwing an excellent fox skin over her shoulders, the hunter said:
"Buy it, beauty, you won't regret it! I shot this fox myself, carefully going straight into its eye so as not to spoil the skin. See how it suits you..."
The widow peered into a small mirror made of silver amalgam, specially taken to the fair for such an occasion.
"Oh! I have red hair myself! If I sew a fox fur collar onto my winter clothes, I'll look like a fox. Won't you shoot me by mistake then, Lesyar?!" the young woman was flirting with the hunter.
At this time, Ladomira's mother, Miloslava, was distracted by trying on a necklace, and Ladomira decided to approach the hunter. The widow was just paying for her purchase and exchanged a meaningful look with the hunter. Suddenly the girl felt annoyed...
Lesyar was extremely stately, handsome in face, and strong in body.
"What do you want, beauty?" he turned to Ladomira.
She lowered her eyes to the ground: the hunter's voice excited her.
"Squirrel skins for decoration..." she answered in a strange voice.
Lesyar took a bag from under the wooden counter and laid out its contents in front of the surprised girl.
"Choose! All is yours! We'll agree on the price!"
Ladomira ran her palm over the shiny red-brown skins with black markings.
"I buy everything..."
Lesyar grinned.
"Then I'll discount a couple of copper merculs," he promised.
Ladomira unfastened her belt wallet, filled with copper and silver coins, called merculs in these places. Because on one of the sides of the coins there was the face of the god Mercury, unknown to the Slavs. Once upon a time, the Slavs used river pearls to pay for their purchases, but then, four hundred years ago, merchants from distant countries appeared, their wallets were full of mercul coins. The Slavic knyazs liked the appearance of the foreign god of trade and the mints that appeared began to regularly replenish the princely chests with copper, silver and gold merculs.
"Tell me your price..." Ladomira said, putting her hand in her wallet.
"Two silver merculs and three copper ones."
The girl counted out the said amount and handed it to the hunter. He deftly grabbed her wrist.
"I heard that you are a novice at the Temple of Damp Mother Earth. Are you preparing to become a priestess?" Lesyar said.
Ladomira freed her hand and threw the coins next to the skins.
"Put the goods in the bag!" she answered sharply.
***
...Clouds were gathering over the sacred city of Radogosh, towering on Mount Alatyr, which stood deep in the forest. The atmosphere among its inhabitants became tense. Tension has been in the air for a long time, but lately it has only intensified. The inhabitants of the sacred city, the Vyrajians, those whom the Slavs revered as their 'gods', were by no means going through easy times. For the cult of Logos was gaining strength in the western lands located beyond the Alba River.
The cult of Logos was considered young, because it appeared only about seven centuries ago. But, despite this, the new cult pushed aside the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian gods, they sank into oblivion, and reached its zenith. And even Rod, the creator of everything living and existing on the lands of the Slavs (the Vyrajian by birth), who was the first to descend to Earth in a golden egg more than five thousand years ago, whom the Western Slavs worshiped and considered their ancestor, as well as his grandson Dazhbog, were consigned to oblivion, giving way to younger gods.
The followers of Logos united...