"Russian Pyetra" by Natascha Roeoesli

The Eldren who become members of the Czarina Pyetra are extraordinary. They are taken from their families at an early age, typically 5-6, and then subjected to an intensive regime of schooling, training and indoctrination, sometimes by the Czarina herself but more usually by her steppegoblin and spirit allies and older Death Guards. They must learn the courtly arts, to speak French and critique art, but they must also kill a man before they are 10 and master at least three weapons before their eleventh birthday. They must learn the six silent speeches, to communicate with wolves and spirits, and their lives will rest on these skills. They will be hurled into pits full of hungry wolves before their eleventh birthday, and must emerge accepted as a pack alpha. They will be abandoned in the midst of a Siberian winter, when not even their survival skills will help them unless they can appease the spirits of the steppe and the tundra and win their help. For every ten children chosen, six will die, three will fail and be allowed to join other magical or military units and one will join the Czarina Pyetra. Some of the successful candidates have become grim, dedicated agents of the state, devoted to nothing beyond their work. Many others, though, revel in their triumph and glory in their personal prowess.

A whole body of soldiers’ myth has grown up around them, of naked, feral Eldren women laughing as they tear a soldier’s throat out without even touching him, of riders howling through the air on the wings of a sudden blizzard, of bullets being slapped from the air. Worse yet, many of these stories are true.