The Winter of the Witch characters

Also known as Vasya

Appears from the start

Pyotr Vladimirovich's youngest daughter, who can see the chyerti, the old spirits of Rus', and who spent the winter in Moscow passing as a boy in the Grand Prince's household. That is over. The city has burned, her disguise is public knowledge, and Moscow has decided she is a witch. She is nineteen years old, has no place in the world of her sister's terem or her brother's church, and is not willing to give up either her family or the old powers she is one of the last people able to speak to.

Appears from the start

The bay stallion out of the winter-king's herd who has carried Vasya since she left home. He speaks, chooses his own rider, and will wear neither saddle nor bridle. He is the one thing in the world she is sure of.

Appears from the start

The priest from the north, now the most persuasive voice in a frightened, half-burnt Moscow. He knows exactly what Vasya is, he has always known, and he has spent years being unable to decide whether he wants her destroyed or wants her. What he says from the pulpit, a terrified city will do.

Appears from the start

Vasya's elder sister, Princess of Serpukhov, mistress of a household in Moscow and mother of a young family. She has spent the winter shielding her sister at a cost she cannot really afford, and she is a formidable woman inside the narrow room her world has given her: she manages people, and she does not panic.

Also known as Masha

Appears from the start

Olga's daughter, a small girl with her aunt's sight and her aunt's disinclination to be told what to do. She can see the household spirits and the things that come with them, and unlike Vasya at that age she has somebody to say so to.

Also known as Sasha, Brother Aleksandr

Appears from the start

Vasya's brother: monk of the Trinity, cousin and companion of the Grand Prince, and a fighting man whichever habit he happens to be wearing. He lied for his sister in front of his order and his prince and has not been forgiven for it. He believes in God and in Vasya at the same time and has stopped trying to make the two fit together neatly.

Appears from the start

Olga's servant: blunt, unimpressed, entirely trusted, and in that household longer than anyone can quite account for. She says almost nothing about where she came from.

First appears in chapter 2

The Grand Prince of Moscow, holding a half-burnt city, an angry population and a fragile alliance of quarrelsome princes. He was publicly deceived by a girl over the winter and is not inclined to let it go, but he has a much larger problem coming north out of the steppe and very little time.

Also known as the Bear, the one-eyed man, the Eater

First appears in chapter 4

Chaos: the winter-king's one-eyed twin, who eats fear and madness and is fed by every frightened crowd in Rus'. Chained once by a man's freely given death, he is loose again and thoroughly enjoying it. He is a liar by nature but keeps the letter of a bargain, which is the only handle anyone has ever had on him.

Also known as Frost, the winter-king, Karachun

First appears in chapter 5

Frost and death both: the one who comes for people who die in the cold, and who walks the dead to where they go next. His power is what people remember of him, and Rus' remembers less every year; he spent most of what remained on keeping Vasya alive through two winters, and the season he draws his strength from is ending.

Also known as Midnight, Lady Midnight

First appears in chapter 9

The chyert of the midnight hour, a black-haired woman on a black horse. Midnight is a place as much as a time in her keeping, and the road that runs through it can take a traveller almost anywhere. She is proud, impatient, bound by older loyalties than Vasya's, and helps only for a price.

First appears in chapter 11

A very small mushroom-spirit with no obvious powers and no sense of self-preservation, who decides that Vasya is his and follows her regardless of what she says about it. He is a great deal more useful than he looks.

First appears in chapter 13

The witch of the oldest tales, who lives where the midnight road runs out and keeps her own counsel. She is far more closely connected to Vasya than Vasya expected, and she knows where the women of that line came from, what they could do, and what was done to them.

First appears in chapter 20

The golden mare, fastest thing alive, who was caught once with a bridle that forces obedience and has no intention of being caught again. She is contemptuous of people on principle and will not be ridden by anyone who has not earned it. Her name means fire.

Also known as Mamai

First appears in chapter 26

The commander of the Horde, who has raised an army and is marching north to break Moscow's growing independence for good and restore the tribute and the obedience Rus' has been withholding.

First appears in chapter 26

The Horde's champion, a magnificent horseman who spent part of the winter in Moscow as an envoy and made a strong impression there. He now rides with Mamai's army.