I was nauseous, and my nose was clutched.
- Can you smell it? - I was surprised, Shyder, wow! You don't have the potential to say you can do it!
- Why does it smell so bad?
- Why do you smell so bad? - Xenia didn't understand and smelled it, sticking her nose in the back of the book. It smells good, like flowers...
The lord and I were staring at her.
- With flowers? - deafly, he asked.
- Well, did he? - Xenia was embarrassed, why not?
- I smell decomposition," I honestly said, "a terrible smell... corpse... and blood. Even in my mouth there is a flavour, salty... disgusting.
Spider nodded. He knew exactly what I was talking about. He looked suspiciously at Xenia, he squeezed.
- All right, Xenia, we'll deal with you later. That's right, Vetriana. You felt the power contained in this book, the power of sacrifice and the blood it is written with. The cover of the dragon's skin keeps this power, keeps it from leaking, and the souls of the victims protect and preserve it. The smell of decay is always present in the object that holds the power of murder, remember that. It's true that not everyone can smell it. And not always.
I wince, trying not to breathe deep. But I overpowered myself, and I leaned back into the pages. I didn't dare touch it, really.
The Lord gently turned the sheets over looking at the runes. And froze above the image: a five-pointed star, enclosed in a double circle.
- What is it? Oh, there are runes like in the dungeon... Lord Darrell?
But the lord was silent. He stumbled into obscure curls in a book, frowned his eyebrows and kept quiet. I could clearly smell the evil. Even as if it was a draught.
- Lord Darrell? - I shyly called, did it say something... bad?
Shyder closed his eyes, rubbed his bridge and opened it again. Looked seriously, there wasn't a drop of fun left in his nut eyes.
- There's an ancient ritual described here, the Vetriana. Very ancient, even I do not fully understand its essence. This bloody ritual came to us from the depths of the Abyss, when the priests worshipped the moon and made sacrifices to it. Human sacrifices. Human children, to be exact. The power of the uninitiated in their blood and in conjunction with the Pentagram, this power was released, creating a force vortex and giving its creator the power of the killed.
- But what does that have to do with Argard?
- There is a more complex version of the spell. But it's more complicated than that. This rune can be interpreted as "duality of the whole" or as two sides of the same. I don't quite know what that means. If literally, the power of the artifact, takes the power of the dual whole, but in return it can open the way of what has already been passed. That is, it creates a loop of time. But what are the two sides? I don't understand...
Xenia and I had a puzzling look.
- It's no big deal about your runes," her friend sniffed, "not to write in detail where to go and what to do! No, she wouldn't! You've got a nerve, you can't understand anything!
- And what is the Red Moon? - I remembered, - and Danila said something like that ... that the initiation of the Source occurs on the night of the Red Moon.
- It's the night you call the Night of Exodus. - Lord Darrell stretched out, the last night of autumn... one of nine nights when the Sources are filled with power.
I kept silent, pondering his words.
In the Northern Kingdom, people are afraid of this night. It is believed that all evil comes out of the Abyss at midnight and walks among the living, knocking on dwellings and looking out the window. And if he manages to look into the eyes of a living person, he will settle in that miserable Evil, and this sufferer will be cursed to the seventh knee. That's why already from the evening everyone in the kingdom locked the doors tightly, closed the shutters, went down to the cellar, hung with guards and sacred half-units and prayed to the Blessed Mother to protect them from the gaze of the Abyss.
And in the underworld, on this day, magicians are consecrated. Isn't that where our superstitions are rooted?
- I'll try to make out the strange runes," said the Lord, "and you go to the refectory and eat.
We got up obediently and went to the door.
- Chickenpox, wait," the Lord caught up with us at the door and took my hand, "Show Argard.
- The Arch'arrion cast a spell of invisibility," I explained, stretching out my "empty" palm.
- I understood that, but I am still a magician... hold your hand like this.
I froze, melting my fingers. Shyder sprinkled some powder on my hand, whispered something, blew off, and where I felt the ring thin gray dust curled up in a spiral and wrapped around my finger. The head of the snake was clearly visible, the rune symbols were visible. And immediately the Lord recoiled as if in pain. And through his teeth he scolded. The grey dust swept and broke out without hurting me.
- Well, go," said Lord Darrell disappointedly.
I nodded and jumped out into the corridor, where Xenia was propping up the wall.
- There's hunting, no strength," I exclaimed in exaggerated fun, "I'm so hungry! Come on, Ksenia, we promised Danila some food tonight. So we'll have to suck up to Avdotya.
- She won't say no," smiled Ksenia, "Avdotya is kind! Hurry up, they promised pies for lunch with demand! Let's go, or they'll take it all away!
- I'm coming! I just wanted to run back to the equalizer," I said, "go, I'll be quick.
- Well, then I'll go to the refectory, and you don't stay long.
I nodded to a friend, and we split up. She's down the spiral staircase, and I'm down the hall to Danina's quarters. I didn't want to tell Xenie that I was weak, and I wanted to ask the herbalist for some strengthening herbs or tinctures. Although who I want to fool... I don't think tinctures can help me.
And yet...
I ran into the herbalist's room, but she wasn't there. Probably went out or went to the Wastelands before Danila left. Her den smelled so good with roots and herbs, I smiled, smelling.
Still, in all Riverstein, I liked this room the best. Even though it was small, it was the only place where I felt cozy and peaceful. Maybe it's the eternal scent of the forest that lives here.
The door banged quietly.
- Danina! - I turned around. But it wasn't the herbalist standing on the doorstep, it was Harpy. The pale face is distorted, the hand squeezes the whip to the whiteness of the knuckles.
- Mrs. Karislava! - I sat down frightened, greeting the mentor.
- You lousy girl! - she whispered as she approached me - a filthy creature...
- Mrs. Karislava! I don't understand...
- Oh, you don't understand! Dirty, sinful girl! You traded the light of the Order for the Lord's bed! You lousy girl! And that's for feeding and mentoring you for so many years!
I held my hands to my chest, watching my mentor with terror. The white twisted face glowed with such fanatical hatred that I was really scared. She snapped her whip eagerly at the shin of her boot, her hands clenched like the claws of a bird of prey.
I snapped back.
- Mrs. Karislava, you're wrong, I swear to the purest mother...
- How dare you! - the whip whistled thinly in the air and knocked the flask off the table. It crashed, and the sweet, sweet smell of some tincture ran through the room.
- Don't you dare! - Mistress whistled, her mouth was spitting out, don't you dare swear on Mother's purity, whore! You filthy, filthy creature! Sinful son of a bitch! I should've thrown you out of the gate a long time ago, you should've gone with the wild beast, that's where you belong!
The whip knocked down another flask. I went backwards and stuck my back against the wall. There was nowhere else to retreat.
Mistress was shaking. I saw in her eyes a desire to see my pain, anticipation of sadistic pleasure. But I was still hoping...
- Mrs. Karislava, look... it's not my fault, believe me...
- You dissolute slut! Selling girl! You think if you warm your lord's bed, you can do an
ything? Stay anywhere, behave as you like? No, you bastard! You'll answer for everything...
Her arm was swept in the air, all I could do was throw my hand over my face. And the elbow to the shoulder burned with pain, the whip ripped the fabric of the dress and undershirt, ripped the skin to a long bloody scar. Mistress' face flashed with pleasure, she even almost smiled, bringing her hand to the next blow.
I closed my eyes.
I couldn't see the tear in the space, I rather felt it. And the smell. The smell of ash hit her nose and the heat burned her skin. The strangled rattle of the mentor led me out of my stupor, I opened my eyes...
The Arch'arrion.
The Arch'arrion in its true form. A demon with open black wings, which is tight in the narrow space of a den, twisted black horns and swollen wool along his back. And with a naked blade in his left hand. In his right hand he held my mentor by the neck, raising her up so that Harpy's legs in heavy boots only the tips of his socks reached the floor.
The whip fell out of her hands, Harpie wheezing, her gouged eyes seeming to be falling out of her eye sockets.
- The Arch'arrion, I shouted, don't... please...
The demon looked at me calmly. Dark eyes slid across a bloody strip on my shoulder and filled with darkness.
- The Arch'arrion! - I jumped to him, please! Don't!
He turned his head.
- Are you asking for it? - He was surprised," you ask for mercy for the one who hit you? When we met in the Blacklands, your body was disfigured by scars and blood. And you ask her to be spared? The one who did this? The one who did it?
I swallowed up looking at his face. The face of a demon, scary and attractive with a wild and incomprehensible beauty.
- I don't know how to explain... I said, but I can't answer the evil with murder... Understand.
- I don't understand. You cannot pity your enemies, Vetriana. They must be destroyed.
- Mistress is not the enemy... she...
Well, how do I explain it to him? It's just that I can't kill and destroy... Harpy's wheezing's already dead.
- Let her go, Arch'arrion. Please let her go.
He shrugged his shoulders and loosened his palm. Mistress footsteps fell to the floor, grabbing at her throat and swallowing air. I ran up to her, helping her up.
- Demon," she squeezed the chip out on her knees, trying to crawl away! O Holy Mother, the forefather of all things, protect me, your generation, and keep me from...
She straightened up a little, pointing a crooked finger with a long claw at me.
- Demonica! The bedding! Motherfucker! It's all you... I hate it! May Mother punish you! I will destroy you...
The Arch'arrion came silently, raked Garpius by the scruff, opened the passage, and threw the Mistress into the torn space. From there it smelled of heat and ashes again, and the passage closed. The echo in the chamber echoed the desperate, horrible last cry of Mistress Karislava.
I was staring at him in a daze.
- You asked me to keep her alive. I did not kill her.
- But you threw her out... where, by the way?
- This woman's soul belongs to the Dark. I accelerated their date. Don't worry, Vetriana. She'll live. Well... for a while...
I grabbed my head.
- This is unthinkable! Understand, people don't do this... it's cruel!
His wings folded behind his back, he bowed his horned head.
- I'm not human. And what you say is stupid. It's cruel to hit a defenseless man. And it's fair to respond to a blow.
- But our faith teaches mercy..." I whispered.
He came close, looking down at me from top to bottom.
- Then why wasn't that thing merciful to you? - He asked me coldly. I was numb. Its brutal position was... logical and confusing. All our lives we were taught humility and tolerance, taught not to respond to evil and forgive, taught to obey... but isn't our Order cruel to us? Aren't the postulates of tolerance violated by people like Mrs. Karislava? Or is it the Order of God? Or other mentors?
Oh... I'm completely confused. And I looked at the demon complaining. He shook his head.
- If it weren't for the call of blood, I wouldn't have come. No one would have come. And she would have killed you, Vetriana. Born in Chaos, you can smell death wish. That woman smelled of your death. Do you think that would be the right thing to do? To die by her whip?
I winked the tears and wrapped my arms around me. And I realized he was right. No, I didn't want to die. I wanted to live. Yes, you did! The demon who looked at me carefully nodded as if he had read my mind and moved away. The darkness covered his body, changing his face.
The Arch'arrion, already a man, looked into my face.
- Your thoughts are so alien to me," he said quietly, "and your actions are incomprehensible... Do you have such strange beliefs in your head about good and evil, the illusions of your world... or your own? Why are you like this?
- What's that? - Just as quietly I asked. He was standing too close.
- Unexplicable... different. A stranger.
He reached out his hand by touching my shoulder. I wrinkled when his fingers touched the scar. The Arch'arrion lifted the blade, cut his palm indifferently and pressed it against my wound. I ate my lip. A warm wave that was already familiar walked across the body, from the shoulder to the tips of my feet. And there was also something new in it... a pulling, slightly painful sensation in my stomach and chest, which took my breath away. And the demon felt it, too. I could see his gaze getting darker, his fingers shaking on my shoulder. The blood union, I could feel the intimacy.
I looked into his eyes, into an endless abyss, at the bottom of which was burning the fire of Chaos, and I fell, falling down there like an abyss...
Attraction. Endless monstrous attraction...
He pulled out his hand like it was burned. Although, how can someone born in a fire get burned? He raised his head, listening.
- Shyder. It's close, near the stairs, in a hurry," the demon grinned.
I tried to level my breath, though it was hard.
- By the stairs? And you can hear it from here?
The Arch'arrion nodded with a smile.
- He smelled a spike in the Force. Well done, not for nothing. Shider's an archimagist.
The demon slid me behind his back, and the next moment the door of the chamber flew off its hinges, and Lord Darrell appeared in the aperture. With his hand thrown over his head, sizzling, wrapped in a mortal cocoon of power...
He was standing on the doorstep for a moment.
- Rion! You! Shaa dhar bey! Ghra! What the hell is going on here? - The visible Power in the palm of the Lord's hand slowly faded away, pulled into his fingers. Shaider's exhaled.
- And I greet you, Shyder," the Arch'Arrion answered calmly.
- Vetriana, are you all right? - Through his teeth, the Lord asked. I shyly went out from behind the demon's back and nodded. The blood and the power of the Arch'arrion healed the wound without a trace, only a torn and dirty dress reminded me of what had happened.
The Lord waxed, looked around, guided his hand, and I saw with amazement a ghostly, flickering haze, and in it first appeared Mistress Karislava, whipping the whip at me, and then the shadow of the demon throwing Harpy into the portal.
The Arch'arrion bowed his head in approval.
- "Smoke of truth"! You're growing, Shyder.
Lord Darrell waxed and shrugged his shoulders.
- How far did you send her? - He asked. It was my fault I jumped in.
- The outer circle of chaos.
- Oh, cruelly," admired Lord Darrell, "and why did I not open the portal to her myself quietly? The rare haaa shmir... was!
And the men had quite a look. I was amazed. No, is that how you understand them?
- How do you send people to unknown places? - I got angry.
- You can't send magicians. - The Arch'arrion smiled, at least to those who honor the code and obey the Circle of Light.
- D
emons do not obey," I said rather than asked.
- Save the darkness," said the Arch'arrion seriously.
- But the Mistresses will be looking! - I exclaimed in despair," and if they don't, they'll send a messenger to Starover!
- I don't think you should worry about that, Vetriana," Shider frowned, "your Superior is not the problem. We have more substantial questions. Rion," he turned to the demon, "we need to talk. I think I know what kind of ritual Vetriana and Argard are for. Someone wants to break the loop of time and create a transition to the past. Who and why, I don't know...
The men have looked over.
- Why aren't you in the refectory? - Lord Darrell frowned, go and eat, you need strength.
- But I...
- Go!
I looked at the Arch'arrion, but he nodded. I was offended to turn, holding the torn fabric of the sleeve. Before I could appear in public, I'd have to clean up. And sighing sorrowfully, I went to my room.
* * *
I took out my old dress and wanted to change as soon as the door opened and Xenia broke in.
- Chickenpox! Where do you walk? I already went to Danina's, there's no one there, and you're not there! I've already started to worry! Oh, what's wrong with you? You're bleeding!
- It's okay now, don't worry. - I sighed and sat down on the bed. - How long have you been at the equalizer?
- I just did.
Okay, so the lord and the Arch'arrion have moved somewhere. Well, of course they did. Danina's quarters are not the best place for a secret conversation. Well, at least Danina didn't come back while the demon was there, or the equalizer himself would have to be treated...
- What happened? - Xenia couldn't take it.
I looked at the fault and told her everything. Well... almost everything. And to my surprise, the disappearance of our mentor in an unknown outer circle didn't excite her friend at all, but made her very happy.
- Praise be to the Light Mother! - She cried out, so this bastard got what she deserved! Well, finally!
- Well... I think she was sent to some terrible place.
- Very good! - Xenia nodded cheerfully.
- Don't you feel sorry for her?
- Why would I feel sorry for her? Come on, Vetriana, what are you doing? She's been messing with us for years! Especially you! I don't want to see her ripped to shreds! A hundred years in a row! And when she's exhausted, she's alive, and another two hundred years!
The Wind of the North Page 25