Schimmel is a robber lord on a dead mare, a midnight demon, an old undead from the impenetrable swamps. He comes for a short time - from the first snow to the first severe frosts that freeze the rivers - to lead dashing people along the forest border region. He is a legend and a terrible fairy tale, the curse and scourge of Chudovye Meadows. Young Kai Ventiska declares himself the son and heir of Schimmel, and gathers a new robber freemen under his arm. But can the undead have a hot-blooded son? Is he a man or a monster? Will he find the strength to defy his father’s will or will he become another Schimmel? What will Swallow, the doctor from the city hospital, answer, because only she knows Kai better than anyone - and even better than himself? The book was written in collaboration with Anastasia Voskresenskaya. The cover is mine, and the illustrations inside were drawn by Olga Sluchanko. From the author: The book uses legends about nightmare, a nightmare - a demonic horse that transports the human soul from our world to another. In Germanic and Celtic legends, the mara, the night mare, is usually white or gray. A later Christian version of this legend tells of a devil in the form of a pale mare or a devil riding a cemetery horse.