I got off the couch with curiosity watching Danila's work - always herbalists are needed, especially in our country. And in the city, too. Practitioners will gather, maybe even a lord, if they're lucky. And no, the countrymen should be treated either for sickness or for any other disasters.
- That's how it is, - the herbalist reluctantly agreed, - tokmo would be better in tannery... calmer somehow...
Danina thought, her face frowned again and the inner light was gone. I remembered the rumors that reached us last year that two herbalists were executed in Starovest, accusing them of witchcraft, blackmail and condoning the Call. They were executed fearfully, quartered, and then burned, and ashes were taken to the Black lands, which means that there will be no peace for those sorcerers, and their souls will be tormented forever by the monsters of the Black lands.
Brr...
- Danina, is it true that children are missing from the village?
A stone pistil fell out of the hands of a herbalist and rolled around the table with a dry knock. I followed it with interest and translated it into a look at a frightened woman.
- Who do you...? Oh, Chickenpox! Who told you that?
- And I overheard," I answered sincerely, "is it true?
The herbage is heavy, the cosoboco is down on the bench.
- I do not know what is true now, Vetriana. I don't know, Vetryana. Strange times have come, dark ones... Talking... Talking that they're missing.
- In the Wastelands?
- Yes, both in the Wastelands and in Pychizhensk, two have disappeared. And in Zagreb... And then, almost at the border, too. And most importantly, with the hunting dogs were searched, men combed the whole area like a scallop, no, no. And there were no traces! Like they'd evaporated.
- What do you mean, no traces at all? Where did they go?
- I don't know where they went! There are traces from home to the forest edge, clear like this, and dogs taken and hunters visible, and then - pouf! - and that's it. How the kids have vanished!
- How did they get out of the houses at night without being seen? - I gave them a thoughtful stretch.
- Why at night? - Danina was surprised, all in broad daylight! At night they would have been wary, they wouldn't have let them in, and nobody even noticed!
- So it's not the Call? - I was too excited.
Danina fooled around with a rag like a flies. It was a judgmental look.
- Yes, Holy Mother is with you and her faithful spirits, holy elders! What are you saying out loud! You'll get in trouble again! No, I don't think so... that's it. In the afternoon, and the children had no signs beforehand.
There was no sign of them. Of course, who's to say, if there were? Yeah, look for fools. However, the thought of missing kids going off the hook made me feel better.
- It wasn't enough to make us feel better, all the troubles of the Zov, all the sorrows... and now they're gone in the afternoon! What's that doing?
- Maybe it's a wolf or a bear," I suggested. "There are so many of them in the woods!
- What about the tracks? There are no traces! Can't hunters recognize a trail of a beast? Or will they not? There are no traces!
I'm thinking again, going through the dry roots. It's really weird. Where did they go? I imagined a boy in short pants, shoes and tulip, here's a funny thing, he's stomping around the village, driving a stick on the ground, chasing a delicious sweet berry with honey behind his cheek, kicking a bump. Top-top, there are clear traces of his shoe on the ground, and he has fun and does not want to go back, only the sweetness is running out and mom will swear that again he has reached the very edge, where you can not go, but so want. And all of a sudden...
And suddenly... I squeezed like I was about to see it, I knew what had happened there and where the pink-eyed boy with the twig in his hand had gone.
- Hold your tincture! Take a sip when it's hard to sleep, but no more than three sips at a time, Vetriana!
I met him, staring at the equalizer. It wasn't even immediately that I knew what it was like to be in my hands. Ah, the tincture... well, yes. Disappointedly, I stuffed a flask in my skirt pocket, remembering to thank the woman.
* * *
- What took you so long," Xena jumped up to meet me, "get dressed, we'll be late for the evening!
She herself had already wrapped a handkerchief in her hair, pulled up the hood.
- Come on, let's move! I couldn't get my fingers crossed for being late! Everyone's already gone!
I grabbed my tulip, twisting my braids under my handkerchief. Having jumped out, we just managed to get into the tail of the procession, traditionally every evening praising the Order's holy elders. We used to walk along the entire shelter with candles in our hands, but in recent years the wax has been saved and the novices carried fir and oak branches.
Even Aristarchus, who sang psalms at the head of the procession and Alphia arenas, waved branches like us.
The frozen procession walking along the building and waving the spruce looked so comical that Ksenka and I used to giggle, but immediately made serious, spiritual faces. With spirituality, I think we overdid it, because Alphia sagged and waved the rod. We stretched out the string and sang diligently (i.e. mournfully) after Aristarchus. The hegumen Alphia, unlike Harpy, did not own a whip, but perfectly owned a flexible willow bar, which gladly whipped the students' fingers for lack of zeal.
So we sang diligently.
During the time spent in the herbalist's quarters, the night confidently fell to the ground. Blue stars were shimmering in the frosty sky, and the yellow moon was staring at us with all its spots. Somewhere in the woods, the wolf howled a little hoarsely and stretched out of the fir trees, getting so clearly in tune with Aristarchus as if they were training for a couple. We couldn't help but sprinkle.
Alphia sparkled at us with her eyes, but here in the spruce wolf's whine was picked up with a dozen more animal sips, wild forest song muffled our frightened voices, Aristarchus coughed up and shut up. Apparently, not knowing what to do, still it is no longer clear who sings to whom... and then singing psalms to the wolf's howl is somehow... blasphemous!
Several other animals howled to the right and left, creating a very unpleasant feeling that we are surrounded. The girls lost their way, breaking the solemn order, fearfully gathered in a shaking pile. Aristarchus and Alphaeus anxiously looked around, not knowing what to do. Whether to continue the procession, or to spit and hide behind the stone walls of the shelter. I wanted to spit, the desire was so clearly read on their faces lit by the moon that even the freshmen understood it.
- It doesn't go away," Alphia said, shaking the rod and watching anxiously, "everybody stop! And by the beginning of the procession, or rather a bunch, she had shaken them.
- Wolves are so close," Xenah said quietly in my ear, "they've never come this close. It was as if they were howling at the fence.
I nodded, piled on frozen fingers, disrespectfully sticking a branch under my arm. My friend's right, I don't remember wolves getting that close to Riverstein. Sometimes, of course, there were long wolf songs, but far, in the woods, closer to the Boundary.
I listened with interest.
- And they were singing beautifully," I was surprised, "with a feeling.
- Still you, Vetryana, said. With what feeling, they are wolves! They want to eat. They'd like a couple of novices to sing. I'm glad they did!
- There's no romance in you! - I'm staring thoughtfully at the stars. - It's beautiful!!! Look at this.
- Yeah, I prefer to look at the pie shop by the stove. That's the beauty," the girlfriend said, "and it's uncomfortable... so close to howling... scary.
- But I'm not," I confessed and was surprised myself. But, really, I'm not scared. Even somehow... I like it. It's a beautiful singing, really!
I covered my eyes. The fact that wolves are singing, not howling thoughtlessly with hunger, I had no doubts. And it seemed that I even knew what their song was about. About freedom... about unbridled runnin
g on the loose snow... about the sharp smells of the forest that keep you awake... about the wind with which you can play herringbone... about loneliness... about the hope that they will survive the winter, meet spring and flowering herbs...
I wanted to raise my face to the moon and sing... or get high!
- Vetriana, what's wrong with you? - Xenya looked at me suspiciously.
- I wanted to sing," I said seriously.
- Ahh... well, it happens. I thought you were listening to them.
- Well, yes, I am. The words are beautiful...
- What words? - Xu squeaked, rounded her eyes.
- Ah... - I waved my hand, - Come on, ours are reaching for warmth over there.
And I wandered to the orphanage, swinging at my girlfriend. The wolves, as if upset that the listeners had left, were silent.
Chapter 3.
Dinner was delighted with liquid oatmeal and rye peel.
- We're not going to be wolves with such churros, but we're going to eat them," Ksenia said, smearing the contents of the plate. I giggled, introducing my fighting girlfriend with an axe in one hand and an insane wolf in the other. Xenya smiled, too.
We were still giggling, so I remembered what had happened and got serious.
- Danina says there are children missing from the villages. And also, in our orphanage, too. Only the prioresses are hiding it. - I whispered, looking back, so the others wouldn't hear. However, nobody paid much attention to us, the novices were rushing to knock with spoons. The mentor at the window was lazily looking at the room, looking after the students.
I slowly told Kseni everything I heard from the herbalist. The overheard conversation between God and Harpy, or rather the part about me, did not speak, he was too ... strange. I wanted to think about it myself first.
My friend thought about it.
- I don't know... where did they all go? And there wasn't even a trace of them? No snow, no broken branches, no prints on the ground?
- No way! Hunters were looking, with dogs and - no traces. Or rather there are traces, children, to a certain place, and then it breaks off!
- Did they fly away or what? - Ksenia's forehead wrinkled perplexingly, it doesn't happen that way! Or maybe they're all country stories? You know, they make up tall tales!
I shrugged my shoulders. Maybe they're stories, but it's hard on the soul. And our mentors walk scared, anxious, and our gnawers are not so easy to scare.
- We're losing them too," Xenia said thoughtfully. - Think about it, the novices are getting smaller and smaller, where do they go? The younger ones used to have five tables, but now they have three...
- Well, the rotten spring..." I wasn't sure, I said.
- Yeah... that's what they told us. That Rot... we should go to the Wasteland," Xenia said, "to find out what's going on. Oh, I don't like all this!
Oh, I don't like it either...
- How are we going to get there? They won't let us in!
- We'll figure it out! - a friend licked an empty spoon for the third time and looked at the empty bowl with regret and went up. I had no doubt that Xenia would figure out how to escape to the village.
* * *
Unfortunately, plans to visit the village had to be postponed. From the evening, cheerful and determined Xenia woke up in the morning with a hot head and red, inflamed eyes.
- Student Hvoroba! - We were delighted by Danina, who had run away.
Xenia was moaning. Everybody knows how disgusting the tincture tastes of this attack is! Ugly so much that we sincerely try to get sick with Hvoroba!
- And I don't like you, Vetryana, either," Danina said, show your tongue!
I slipped my tip out on the disgruntled Harpy, which had frozen in the corner. One of the novices could still stay in bed, but she had two!!! No way!!! What about her favorite morning entertainment with a whip?
But Danina stood firm on her own.
- Chickenhead, Xenia, get to bed now! I didn't have enough of all the novices to infect! How can I treat you later? The Lord Rector will come, and we've got everybody on our bunks lying down, sniveling, infecting him! He'll be fighting, saying she didn't see Danina, she missed him, slapped him!!! Get in bed now, to whom I tell!
Harpy cried out, she obviously did not like the mention of the Lord Rector, but she did not like the prospect painted by a cunning ragweed even more. Because then it's not just her, it's Harpy too.
But the Mistress did not regret giving up so easily.
- Let Xenia stay, but Vetriana doesn't look like a sick person...
- It doesn't look like it? - There's a weedy weed, look at her! Her eyes are red, she's blue, shaking like a fit!
I was really shaken. From another sleepless night and drunk an almost completely invigorating tincture. The effect of it was, I did not want to sleep, but now I was shaking more than hot Kseni.
- Terrible as a new cemetery! - killed me, Danina.
I was offended. Not pretty, of course, but cemetery new??? I think it's too much!
But Harpy liked the comparison, she even stretched her thin lips like a smile. To please her, I mowed my eyes and fainted breathing. And since I hadn't had time to brush my hair in the morning, and my hair was standing on my head, I must have looked noble.
Danina moved her eyebrows so I wouldn't overdo it.
- I'm gonna go get the decoction from Hvoroba! - The herbalist rubbed her hands happily, and bigger! And the mohair root, too, to be sure!
Harpy stretched her lips harder. The tincture is disgusting, and the mossbush root, which must be chewed with fever, disgusting so much that easily knocked down the horse. Having made sure that nothing joyful shines on us, and these drugs can be equated to the morning exequiations, Harpia graciously allowed us to get sick and removed.
- Uh... - Danina wiped her forehead off. I threw up on my bunk.
- Hit the cemetery???
- Well, I'm sorry, I should have convinced the Mistress. Although... - She gave me a skeptical look and killed me, - Although the cemetery will paint you again! All right, I went to get the tincture, and you're under the blanket now! There was also a lack of truth to infect everybody with pigeon fever. - And with a sly smile, the harmful herbalist came out.
I gratefully looked after her and stretched out in a narrow bunk. Still, the opportunity to sleep in the warmth instead of running in the barren courtyard from the whip and tedious activities very pleased. Even if you had to be interviewed for that! And then the question of my own appearance did not worry me much before, and now it's a lot. Scary me, so what can we do, we still do not get married. The novices of the Order took celibate, a vow of celibacy. And in order to enlighten the people, may they carry a holy word and my caseless appearance will do.
And yet... Put up the cemetery!
- Didn't you sleep again today? - Xenya asked. And how did she notice? She's been sleeping the baby all night. I didn't say anything, I didn't know what to say. My friend's dark as ripe cherry eyes were judging me from under the blanket.
- Sleep now. It's morning. It's okay.
There were tears in my eyes. They protected me, and I was cramping my mouth for real.
- I guessed... I whispered.
- You're a fool, Vetriana, - chiplo, but with a sense of summary Xenya, - sleep. I'll talk to you later.
The relief of being able to tell everything, that Xenia wasn't afraid and didn't turn away from me, was so strong that I couldn't stand it, shaken by the tears. And I curled up and turned away, staring at the wall with an unseen look.
- Sleep," Xenah whispered again. And I relaxed and... fell asleep.
When Danina brought the tincture, we were rinsing it in unison on our bunks.
* * *
We couldn't talk. Tormented by the forced awakening of the last few days, I overslept until sunset, even the smell of porridge brought by the devilish woman did not respond. And by evening Ksenka got worse, the fever was getting worse. The girlfriend was throwing herself on a narrow bunk, red hot spo
ts spilled over her cheeks. Danina anxiously wiped her with a damp cloth soaked in a herbal tincture and cursed under her nose.
- You can't leave her here, I'm afraid it's worse than I thought," said the herbalist.
She flinched, realizing what the woman was silent about. At least not the Rot, from which three novices were never saved last year.
- Get her things. Natsional shirt, dress, handkerchief. And fold the blanket, she's cold, I'll try to keep her warm. I'll get someone to take Xenia to my place in Travnitsa.
- I'm with Xenia!
- Stay here. If what I'm afraid of... sit here!
I stubbornly put out my skinny chin.
- — Я. With Xenia. Even if it's Ink Rot, it doesn't matter. I'm not leaving her.
Danina shook her head, then waved her hand tired, agreeing.
In the herbalist's room we put the patient on the couch with two blankets, but her friend was still shaking from the cold. While Danina was preparing the potions, I lit the fireplace without feeling sorry for the wood, so after half an hour there was nothing to breathe from the heat in the little room. However, Xenia was still freezing. All night Travnitsa, grabbing her teeth, wiped her hot, wet body with a canvas. Sometimes she couldn't stand still in the corner, on a pile of tail and hay, and then she was replaced by me.
Xenia cried as we pulled the blankets off her, grabbed at him with hot fingers, and asked to leave her alone and not to torment her.
- It's so cold," she muttered, knocking her teeth, "awfully cold...
Her skin could have been burned.
The news that the two novices were sick of rot, as a devastating tornado swept through the shelter, sowing terror and panic. Our meagre possessions were sent to the fire on the same day. Even the feathers we used to write Ksenin's carved hairpin with, her only memory of her dead parents. Fortunately, I managed to wrap my wearable things in a knot, or even my friend and I would only stay wearing nightgowns and caps.
The herbalist's quarters began to bypass the tenth corridors, even Harpia did not dare to sink in, but only ordered a white rag to be hung from the door when it was over. Danina hummed.
The Wind of the North Page 3