I pressed my palm to my swollen lips so I wouldn't scream. The Arch'arrion lowered his head, closed his eyes, and his palms clenched his fists, ripping up his skin with his claws. He tries to hold back the conversion, the darkness rushing around him like shreds of a torn cloak.
- I'm sorry," he said quietly, without looking. The darkness has dispersed, and there was a man standing in front of me again," I lost... control. It will not happen again.
And as I turned away, I stepped quickly into the shadows, opening the passage. I rushed after him.
- Wait! Rion!
But the empty shadows lay still by the trees and he was no longer there. I sat in the snow, wrapped my hands around my knees and stuck my face in them.
* * *
I don't know how long I sat there until I heard a sniff and raised my head. There was a wolf sitting in the arbor from me. He just sat there, with his head down, looking at me with nut eyes. My handkerchief, which had fallen from my head, was dark in his paws. I just staggered up and went to the breach in the wall. The wolf moved slowly after me.
- Will you leave me alone? - I shouted peskyly and turned around and climbed over the wall. The wolf bowed his head sideways, looking like a raven...
But I didn't get off so easily. All I could do was get to my room when the lord came in after me.
- I thought you were only turning to the bird," I said indifferently.
Spider frowned. He gave me a handkerchief, a little wet from the snow. Or was it a wolf's mouth?
- I shouldn't have told you that... I shouldn't have done it.
I shrugged my shoulders, not wanting to go into his remorse. What difference does it make now? Well...
- Why is that? I'm very grateful to you. I hate to feel... stupid. I must thank you, Lord Darrell, you did me a favor.
The Lord took a swift step towards me, I turned my back.
- Chickenpox... I didn't mean to... hurt you," he said quietly. I turned around, surprised.
- Lord Darrell, what do you mean? You had nothing to do with what was happening. And once again, thank you for your frankness and your concern, but you shouldn't... worry about me. There's nothing wrong with me.
He was still standing there with a strange wait, looking at my face like a dog, waiting for the master to hand me over. I froze awkwardly, not knowing what to say or how to fill the painful pause. Fortunately, my unceremonious friend showed up. She fell through the door, tripped a little when she saw the Lord, and froze on the doorstep.
Most of all I wanted to be alone, and that this endless day is over after all! But...
- Lord Darrell," I said, shaking my head, "I accidentally dialled a strange room in an abandoned wing today. It must sound very silly, but someone there has wiped the dust on the floor, I don't know why... the dust is thick in the next room, and not in this room. Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but still... I thought it was weird. And it worried me...
The Lord became focused, the peanut eyes lost their frightening expectation.
- Where is this room?
- It's a corner room, in the west wing. There's nothing there but old junk, and the room isn't in use, but...
- Can you show me? Without a wolf sniff, I can't find your footprints, and I can't walk around Riverstein with a beast. - I've been interrupted by a lord. I nodded uncertainly, Xenia looked at the man in surprise, frowned and decisively clenched the knife in her fist (did she steal from Avdotya or something?), prepared to come with us. And so at that moment she was like a big road lihodeyka that I could not stand, smiled.
Hurriedly curled her hair, and we went out into the corridor.
We got to the gallery quickly, without meeting anyone. It was evening prayer time, all in the sanctuary. And I just remembered it now.
- It's strange that Aristarchus and Alpheus are not looking for us, - Ksenia was also surprised, - and in general ... before, when we missed classes or prayer, we were certainly waiting for punishment! And now, as if no one notices!
- The mentors have a lot to think about," Shaider said, "I've given them a lot to think about. At the same time, I instructed them to ignore the absence of some of the girls in class, if any!
Xenia giggled joyfully, but I, on the contrary, was upset. I can imagine what the mentors thought of us ... right, quickly found the answer, why the Lord has such an affection for us! And yet, everything is empty... let them think what they want.
We are dangerously frozen at the gallery. The night darkness fell on Riverstein, and it was so dark in this part of the building, at least an eye popped out! I don't even know what a miracle it was during the day, and at night, it's not even real! What was I thinking?
I voiced my thoughts to the companions.
- I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go back and go the other way. The boards are completely rotten, during the day I saw a few holes from which the rubble fell. We can't get through here, let alone in the dark!
The Lord turned around, looked carefully at the dark space behind our backs, made a pass with his palm, exhaled a sound, and took both of us by the hand. We looked at him from both sides. And very slowly all three of us came off the planks, our socks froze in the air, and we hung at a distance of our palms over the break.
- Holy..." Xena exhaled, caught the Lord's gaze, and blushed. I fearfully moved my feet. My socks fell a bit, the hem developed freely, like the breeze. It felt as if I was standing on a ghostly bridge made of a stream of air. We moved smoothly through the gallery without touching the floor.
- Can I do that, too? - I was interested.
- I don't think so," Shyder upset me, "at least not without an injection of extra power. Before the dedication, your potential isn't very clear, Vetriana. And you're too dependent on emotion, it's not even magic, it's just spontaneous outbursts of power. And the "bridge" spell requires a rather large infusion of Power, plus a kickback that you can't quench. - he looked at me from top to bottom and smiled - but in the future, I'm sure you'll learn.
We passed through the gallery and fell on the stone floor of the hall. I thought, remembering the road, the light on my fingertips was already familiar.
- I had already mastered the pulsar," I said. The Lord grinned.
- He smiled," he said, and snapped his fingers at the white glowing ball above our heads. My pitiful light sizzled and faded away sadly. I turned my back a little offended. Big deal... Xenya almost slammed her hands, but in time she regained consciousness and followed me, raising her hem. It was dusty in here.
Fortunately, I didn't get lost, and in the light of the ball easily found the right room. We took a good look at the floor, and I couldn't even breathe. It's all clear, no dust, no traces.
However, he was hardly interested in the floor and looked at the bronze curl of the lamp on the wall with exaggerated attention. Xenia was also interested, came closer, reached out, but the Lord intercepted her palm.
- Don't touch it," he said.
- What's wrong? - I approached them, too.
- It's a portal.
- A portal? - I stared at the lamp in astonishment. - This? Is it a portal? But I thought...
- That the portal is a door? - A humming lord is a common misconception. The portal could look like anything, it could be a lamp or a hollow in a tree. Or the baby's toy. Or a clay plate! This portal I set up personally, many years ago. And I was closing it myself when I left. But now... the portal is active and more than that, somebody has reconfigured the path.
Xenya pressed her hand to her lips, looking at the Lord with her eyes widened. I think I turned pale too.
- Who had to reconfigure him? So who's doing it, here in Riverstein? Is it a magician?
- I don't know! - almost desperately said the lord, I don't understand... there's no sign of magic again! But the portal is active and where it leads now... there's only one way to check! - the lord is wary of looking around the room, you must leave. Can you get to the living wing yourself?
I nodded, and Xenia was worried.
/> - But Lord Darrell! What about you?
- I'm going to check where the portal leads! - almost funny, he answered.
- You and me!
- No. You go to your rooms and go to bed," said the Lord firmly, "and that is out of the question. Come on... get out of here!
- No," Xenia said suddenly, "we are with you.
Shaider looked surprised, and Xenia blushed, but stubbornly pointed out her chin.
- A man can't enter the portal, Xenia," I said quietly. My friend didn't seem to immediately understand what I had said. Then I did. Slowly she turned her head.
- A man can't..." she repeated, "So I can never leave the Northern Kingdom? I'll never see the world beyond the Devil?
I sighed and looked at the Lord with hope. He shrugged his shoulders.
- I did not deal with the matter on purpose, there are basic rules of transition and it says that reasonable beings with Power can pass. Perhaps the portal can be set up differently, I don't know...
I emboldened my friend's palm.
- I'm sure there is a way! And we will find it if...
If... Xenia nodded silently.
I looked at the matte curl of the lamp.
- What if it's a trap?
The Lord thoughtfully looked at me, squinting and squeezed the faded curl into his palm. Xenia flinched.
But nothing happened. The Lord took a step back, led his hand along the wall, from his fingers was a light silver haze. Then he took up the scroll again. And then again, nothing.
- That's what I thought," he hummed, "the portal is one-way.
- Can we only go this way? But from where?
- Well, that's a question. But I suspect that's the way from the border portals.
Xenia and I looked at it in terror.
- So the kids walking on the call got into Riverstein? Blessed Mother! But why? And where could they be? - Xenya exclaimed.
I stepped back, looking at the wall and wrinkled my forehead. Something didn't add up, but what? The lord wouldn't let me think, knocked me down with some important thought.
- I have to go back," he said, "I don't feel any magic, but still ... you must go.
I remembered the feeling of someone else looking at my back. It wasn't there now, but I still felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave this room. It seemed like the lord felt something similar.
- Come," he said, and dragged us to the door. I looked back at the wall. Something gave me trouble ... but I couldn't grasp the elusive thought again, and I was angry at myself, so stupid.
We walked back in silence. In the living wing, the lord nodded at us and left in a hurry. Xenia and I stomped on the spot, watching him follow.
- Why don't you come to bed with me? - I whispered. But Ksenia shook her head and put her head down and went to the common bedroom. I shaved my head to myself.
Chapter 10
In my room, I got undressed and went to bed. But such a welcome and long-awaited dream did not go, shy away as a village girl not nice, ordinary groom. I stretched out on a narrow bed, and the edak whipped a hard mattress, several times turned the blanket over. I whispered evening prayer and asked the holy elders to send me a quiet dream.
But it didn't help. It was stuffy in the dark room... The closed eyelids trembled, not wanting to remain closed, opened, and the eyes began to stare at the dark ceiling by themselves.
Thoughts and images ran into a wave, beating against the pebbles and rolled back hard to rush again in a minute. As I surrendered, I threw back the blanket, lowered my legs, and found my shoes on the floor. I ponuro went from corner to corner, looked out the window at the snow-covered courtyard. The corner of the sanctuary shone palely with a lamp burning inside.
Maybe we should go. Sit at Mother's Eye, pray? Maybe what the Order says isn't true, but what's true? And in the Underworld, they don't know where the truth is, they pray to the sacred tree of life and set the eternally hungry Abyss... maybe it doesn't matter what you believe in, but what your faith is for. And who you are in your faith.
And in the sanctuary, I always liked it, really, when there was no Aristarchus or Alphea.
I didn't put on a dress, put on a cloak over a long nightgown and left the room. Through the yard she ran, the wind, played, rubbed the floors of the cloak, bit his legs like a mischievous puppy. The shaggy stars hung over the snow-covered fir trees, and the moon slowly floated from one side. Riverstein was asleep. There were no lights in the dark windows, the wings of the building whitewashed on both sides by snow and gleaming mattly, reflecting the light of the heavenly conductors.
And where did the unclean take me at night?
I was already thinking of turning back, crumpled, then I reached the sanctuary uncertainly and pushed the door. The small room smelled of fir-tar and candle wax, and the round font in the center was covered with thin ice. I sat down with a sigh on the low side, thinking. I wanted to say a prayer to the Most Pure Mother, but the words did not go. Only memories. The dark spruce tree, the hard lips... or the cruel ones? And is there any difference...
Oh, I came to the sanctuary with the wrong thoughts, but also for comfort... Sinful woman.
I bowed down, wanted to scoop holy water from the font, splash it in my inflamed eyes, but my fingers banged on the ice. And from there, on the other hand, a pale face with bloodless lips looked at me from under the ice. I cried out, recoiled, but immediately I came to my senses, and my fingers fell off the fragile ice. A thin, translucent face appeared from the dark liberated water, looking at me with a familiar curiosity. I recognized her: the siren girl from Lake Im.
The mermaid stretched out on thin arms, sat on the edge, a cave in the font with a silver tail. I hoped that Aristarchus did not have a habit to examine his fiefdom at night, otherwise, I am afraid from such a spectacle the Honourable Arena would have a blow.
- How did you end up here? - I was amazed.
- The essence of the siren - water," said the girl, imitating the adults, "and not holding back, smiling slyly," she walked along the underground river. There are many of them: rivers and lakes and whole seas, you can swim everywhere!
I thought that such creatures, capable of getting to any place where there is water, would make an indispensable spike. Isn't that their quality used Chaos in the war?
- Only they wouldn't let me in...
- Why is that?" I asked, looking at the fragile, almost transparent calf, all the way to the neck covered in thin scales, moistly shining in the light of the lamp. The face framed by light green hair is curious and the eyes are blue, too big for a human face, but bright, not yet whitened by the passage of time.
- They are saving," the mermaid sighed and immediately met with childlike immediacy, "I am Solmeya!
- And I am Vetryana. And why are you here?
- I've never seen anyone like you before," Solmea smiled, "and asked the Mistress about you, and she chased you away, went into the whirlpool of Him, and still sits there. So I decided to see you myself before the Mistress gets to me. I took a drop from the lake that's left of you, and she paved the way to you with the lake grass. She came here, called you, and you came.
- You called me? - ...and that's right, I remembered, a siren can lure a voice to attract you...
The young mermaid stretched out her palm, wiped the treacherous saltwater off my cheeks. The tear was melting on her finger as if it had been absorbed.
- What's that? - She was surprised.
I was surprised, too.
- Aren't the sirens crying? - she shook her head.
- No, why would she do that?
I was wondering how to explain it to a little girl?
- People cry when they are sad," I said uncertainly, "or in pain. Or even scared. And the sirens? What do you do when you're in pain?
- Sirens don't hurt," said Solmea a little arrogantly, "we are water, and water only speeds up its run before the cliff.
- But do people," I sighed and wiped my palm off the moisture, "not fly you for runnin
g away?
- Yes, it does! - Solmey nodded willingly, and recklessly led with a fragile shoulder," if they knew. But I will not tell them, and they will not go to them with such foolishness, afraid to make them angry.
I gave them a smile.
- You are brave, Solmea. Xenia looked like my friend when she was a child, she was just as brave and brave, she used to beat me up with all kinds of daredevils all the time. To steal apples, to catch a ghost in the attic... but she still is.
- Do you have a girlfriend? - The mermaid asked me, listening to me with her eyes wide open...
- Of course she did. Don't you have one?
- No, - the girl loaded, led her tail in a slowly shrinking ice-hole, - it's just me in them. The rest are all adults. - and sighed bitterly.
So that's why the mermaid came to me! The girl, like any child, wants a girlfriend, she's bored with adults. It's true, and I'm not a little girl, but my jump from coast to coast must have convinced the mermaid that she wasn't an adult.
- But I can show you your way, you want me to? - I'll be the Mistress one day, and I can see the roads now!
I shook my head with a smile.
- We believe that it's better not to know our way. And why should I? - but seeing how upset the girl who clearly wants to please her new acquaintance nodded. - Let me see.
- Close your eyes! - The girl told me to put a cool, narrow palm on my forehead. I closed my eyes obediently. In front of my eyes stood the same font of dark water, wrapped in ice.
- How was it? - Solmea asked me with a breath," Solmea said, "did you see?
I nodded. I didn't want to upset the girl.
- And what is it??
- The prince on the green dragon," I said seriously.
- How?
- On top. And the dragon has wings of five arsons... and the flame from the mouth is a pillar! All the orcs are angry...
The Wind of the North Page 21