Why didn't I ever think she'd changed at all over the years? Yes, she started wearing a stricter hairstyle and dress, but her face is still young and beautiful... and why did I forget that every time I meet our Mother Superior, I wrap myself in an invisible cocoon and avoid looking at her?
But is it possible that Alira, the mighty priestess of the lunar temple, might still be alive? And what is more, still alive today?
A book with a knock fell to the floor, falling out of my weakened hands. The knife rang against the board. I leaned awkwardly, picked it up and went to the door.
* * *
A spiral stone staircase, worn by many legs over the years, led to the lower hall of Riverstein. The torches were unburned. I gently pulled one out to light it, then I thought and put it back into the wall ring. Something said it was better to go down without drawing much attention to myself.
She went quietly, gently putting her feet in her shoes and trying not to make any noise. And clutching the knife firmly in the palm of her hand.
Quietly. Too quiet.
From here, from the stairs, I should have heard the voices of the novices, the sound of prayers, the rustling of skirts... but none of it happened. An oppressive silence spilled over the lurking Riverstein. And the lower I went down, the more this strange, lifeless silence pressed.
Fascinated by anxiety, I accelerated my step, and I almost flew into the lower room, or rather fell down! And I froze. In the faint light of the two oil lamps, the bodies on the floor seemed to be fake... Polada, Sayana, Mrs. Beaujolais, Aristarchus... the younger girls, old Mrs. Pava, Zagada... Everyone was here, frozen on the floor, sprinkled with straw, in twisted poses!
I put my hand on my mouth so I wouldn't yell at you, and I was afraid to move forward into this terrible hall. And I froze by the stairs.
The light figure came out of the darkness and I couldn't help but scream.
- Chickenpox? Is that you? The Lady of the Village asked alarmingly.
I looked into her beautiful face, framed by golden hair, into the anxious transparent eyes. I was wrong. Of course I was wrong. It can't be her. It can't be!
Mother Superior's lips trembled, formed into a slightly contemptuous smile.
- You're early. - That's what she affectionately said. - I have not yet finished all the preparations for the ritual.
I choked. I wasn't wrong. And Ksenka guessed even earlier and told me. As she could. Or did a sneaky friend look at something and hear?
- What did you do? What did you do to everyone?
- Oh, they're just sleeping! - She answered a little irritably, while they were only sleeping...
- But how... You... How so? So this is all you? Killing children? Reconfigured the portal? You're Alira, Priestess of the Moon Temple!
The villages smiled mockingly.
- I guessed, but... Your friends never got it. Well, it doesn't matter anymore. I've waited so long for this night, so many painful days... years... centuries... So long to get my life and power back! - she laughed joyfully, today is a great day, Vetriana. You may consider yourself lucky to attend the greatest event in your worthless life!
I looked at her in terror. She's crazy...
- It's not gonna work out.
- Who's gonna stop me? - shrugged easily by a priestess, or do you rely on your friends? - The villagers laughed merrily, - don't be silly. Oh, how I had fun watching our dear curator, Lord Darrell! How funny he was running around Riverstein trying to find me! And he couldn't see beyond his own nose. Men... they're so confident in their power and authority, that it's easy to fool them... all you have to do is pretend to be a weak, helpless woman! He has paid for his excessive curiosity.
- But there was no magician or magic background in Riverstein! - with despair, I exclaimed.
The Lady Village came closer, carelessly kicking in Mistress Beaujolais's way. She moaned quietly, but did not wake up.
- Magic... yes, she was gone. There was knowledge. Ancient knowledge, given to me by the Abyss for the promise to serve her forever and through the ages... and ancient artifacts. There's so much you can do with them...
I couldn't help but look with desperate hope at the shadow behind the world. Where is it?
- ...even to make a trap for a demon," finished the Villages. I shuddered and clenched the knife in the palm of my hand. The priestess smiled. - I told you, men are easy to fool. Almost everyone... Even the Arch'arrion, the dark demon... so strong, so powerful... Even he couldn't see the point. The blue ribbon from your hair that absorbed your scent became his trap, a portal to the untimely devil. And he cannot return until the sand has destroyed the portal.
- But to build a portal, you need the Force!
- And she was," she said tenderly and licked her lips, "the Power of little magical children! The power of their blood!
Crazy...
So no one can help, I'm alone. I squeezed my teeth and bit my lip to blood.
- Then I will stop you," I said quietly. Her cheerful laughter swept through the lower hall, clogged against the walls. Then the heels of her shoes caught her on the stairs, and Rogneda's frightened face appeared all around the world.
- The chickenpox? The Lady of the Village? Well, what are you...
- Rogneda! - I screamed, get out of here! Run away! Hurry up! Run to the Travnitskaya, Danila's there, run to the Wastelands for help! Come on!
Rogneda translated a perplexing glance from me to Mother Superior, her eyes widened, moving to the crooked bodies on the floor.
- Rogneda! - I was backward, afraid to turn away from the frozen in the middle of the village hall, - Rogneda, we must hurry...
- Yes, - whispered the girl, - yes... We must hurry.
She took the rag out of her pocket and gently turned it around.
- Rogneda, what are you doing?
- I promised you'd be sorry, scarecrow," she smiled and blew the grey powder in my face. The last thing I heard, falling into oblivion, was displeasure:
- Neda, hurry up... We still have a lot to do...
Chapter 12
The smell of blood mingle with the smell of scorched earth, burning and nauseating mash, from which the gut turned out. I raised my head. The full moon filled with reddish mare, like an evil eye. You can't see the stars.
And to look down is scary... so scary...
But you have to.
Shaky, up on her feet. I was standing in the middle of a huge pentagram written on scorched earth in Riverstein's courtyard. A closed five-pointed star, surrounded by a double ring. Its lines sparkled slightly with reddish light, illuminating the space. There wasn't a single window shining or sound coming out of the shelter building. Is it possible there are no more alive there? Only the souls that I couldn't save...
Ten corners of the pentagram were poured with black, five external and five internal. I took a closer look.
Kids... missing kids from the dungeon. So they were here in Riverstein the whole time. So close... Their blood and life were jerking out of their bodies, feeding the pentagram, pouring unawakened power into it. The blood of each one, as it flowed down the chute to the center, closed the lines, and they flashed red, blinding light.
There was a bone blade at my feet.
At the lower base, the lower beam, stood the Lady of the Village. Dressed only in a white hoodie, barefoot, with loose blond hair, she was so bewitchingly beautiful and at the same time disgusting that it was impossible to take her eyes away from her. Next to her stood Rogneda, and at her feet with her arms and legs bound together lay insensitive Xenia and Danila.
The priestess was smiling. And why didn't I notice how awful her smile was before? The smile of a creature willing to do anything for its own sake...
I translated the look at Rogneda.
- Neda, what are you doing? You don't even know who you're helping...
- What makes you think I don't understand? - The novice smiled, I understand perfectly well. I heard the Call at six, unlike you. And that's when Moth
er explained everything to me. And she gave me an amulet to protect me from Zov. After tonight, I will be the strongest magician in the underworld. After Mother, of course.
I tiredly shook my head.
- You're just a doll, Rogneda, a phantos... A weapon in her hands.
The villages smiled and nodded at the novice.
- Go, Neda. Keep an eye on the people so we can't be disturbed. Go on.
I looked at the priestess in despair.
- Let go... - I said it hoarsely. - Let them go. What do you need them for? The pentagram is almost closed...
- Yeah, almost. - The villages looked calmly at the red moon, then at me again, a little bit left.
I knew what it meant. But still she asked me.
- What was it?
- Your death, of course," the priestess smiled affectionately, "the voluntary death of the guardian of Argarde breaks the time chain. You'll kill yourself, you silly little girl, you'll kill - and your friends, - The villages kicked Daniela in the belly and he groaned, - will stay alive. And perhaps they will even mourn you...
Xenya barely raised her head. There was blood in the corners of her lips, a cloudy look...
- Don't do it, Vetriana, please don't...
The villagers laughed funny.
- Of course she'll do it," she said.
Yes, of course I will do it.
The children's blood flowed more and more slowly, reaching the inner pentagon as if it were meditating. But it was still flowing. The villages were making this movement with a greedy look. Her nostrils trembled, she licked her lips like a hungry vampire.
To stall... to stall time...
- Why would you do that? - I asked.
- Haven't you understood yet," the priestess was surprised.
I waved my head.
- A brainless human girl," she said with hatred, "of course... how can you understand? You can understand how to lose everything... everything that was my life: the power, the Force, the power... the man I love, my demon... how to be alone in the devastating Black Sands! They pulled everything out of me, dried me up, there's nothing left of me! Only an empty, useless shell, doomed to live! And the knowledge... the ancient knowledge of the lunar priestess...
- But you're alive for many... many years!
- You're alive? You're alive?!! Who needs this life? To become a man, an ordinary, worthless man!!! What a terrible punishment... to lead a life in these cold, dense lands among the wretched men with their miserable faith and useless destinies. To see them born and die, to see your rulers changed, to see the flow of empty lives and to drag them out! When I got out of the Black Earth, I could not believe that the Weaving Thread of Destiny punished me so cruelly, for I was sure that I would come out from the other side! And what was my horror when I realized that I had made a loop and found myself again in these disgusting lands, but almost without power, on the verge of death! The last thing I could do was to move my spirit from a dying body to another shell, the young daughter of a stupid man who picked me up and came out. I ripped his throat open as soon as I was strong enough to get my teeth into it. But I became a man, I had to accept it. Oh, I learned to wait! To adjust, to please, to accept... not being able to cross the Line or enter the portal, not being able to return to my world! And the worst part is, not hoping to see the one who's so needed... What can you understand, a ridiculous creature of nature! For the sake of getting him back and coming back... - she's stuck, - I would gladly carve out the whole Northern Kingdom, all these stupid animals that you think are reasonable people, and that in fact are no different from cattle! Lucky for you, I don't need any of them...
She suffocated with rage. I looked at her silently through the red light of the five-pointed star lines.
- You wouldn't understand. You don't know anything about life. And you know nothing about love. - She already said calmly.
Yeah, I guess she did. I don't know.
The blood was crawling slower and slower, with only a few elbows left and the line closed. So my time is running out. I thought of the two who are locked in the Black Sands now sucking the life out of them. No, you can't... you can't think, you can't feel. Otherwise, you don't have the strength to save your friends... you don't have the strength for anything. I was weakening. Argard wasn't pulling life out of me anymore, but in a continuous stream...
The villages shaken up, dropping emotions like a snake skin.
- Time is coming," she said, "you will do what is right and your friends will be alive.
And the Villages will be able to enter the Time Loop. My blood will open a passage into the past, tear apart the temporal tissue. But not spatial. That's why we're standing where it all happened, that's why the Settlements stayed here so long, waiting.
We were wrong to think she needed Argard. She needed the power of the demon in the human body. Two entities in one. With the help of the Night Guest, the Village made sure I went into that refectory and saw Argard. And I ripped him off the neck of the Arch'arrion. And then it was simple. The Moon Priestess had no doubt that the dark demon would pour its blood and power into me to protect the artifact, to prevent it from slipping into the world of shadows.
- Why me?
- Why you? - I was surprised at Selenia and I smiled. - Silly, did you really believe in your chosen one? Thought you were special? Don't flatter yourself, you're just unlucky... I created the Probability, and I didn't care who would be the host of the Argard. It just had to be a child with magical powers, the one who hears the Call. The girl. A human girl can't exactly resist trying on a ring!
I've been depressed and silent. Well, she's right, I couldn't help it.
- That's why it took me so long to figure you out," the priestess said thoughtfully, "yet you are no longer a child... magical powers rarely appear at this... age. It's strange that I haven't seen you... I haven't paid attention... But thirteen years ago, when you appeared in Riverstein, I felt bad in you... Those wild eyes of yours... Fortunately, you were stupid and made a light in the room with the portal. Or rather, his pathetic resemblance. Didn't they tell you that the walls have ears? And eyes? Then you gave yourself away with your head...
I couldn't hold my legs and I fell to the ground. I wanted to lie down and fall asleep. Yeah, I did everything I could to get the Villages to stand here now. Well, should I have thrown a dull ring in the nearest bushes? Although... then I wouldn't have recognized Lord Darrell, seen the Rainbow Empire, met the Arch'Arrion.
So I don't regret anything. After all, there's no escape from myself.
But there's one more thing I have to do.
- You must promise," I said...
- Promise? Are you bargaining with me, silly?
- ...I have to promise... - I hardly said, - that you won't touch... Xenya and Danila... and no one else... human.
The villages grinned.
- I promise," she said.
- No," I raised my head. - You must take the indestructible Oath of the Moon Temple. That you will not touch them. And then I will willingly stick a blade into my heart.
The eyes of the Village have widened, becoming almost black. She knew, like me, that Argard was killing me. By resisting the pentacle, he is draining my life's resources. And if he kills me before my voluntary blood is spilled, the loop of time will not shut. I'll just die, and Argard will be lost in a world of shadows.
- You know too much," the beginning of the Village, and you're half-worded, "well... that doesn't change anything. Belogorskaya Vetriana, I give you the Moon Temple Oath, which I dare not break, that I will not kill anyone else in Riverstein.
The red face of the moon blinked and faded for a moment, scattered with sparks around Xenia and Danila.
I put my head down again. That's it. Somewhere behind the glowing lines, like in another world, Xenia was crying, and I felt terrible for her... But she will live. And that's the most important thing.
The deaf rumble in her head, the forces were fading away... the last drops of blood str
etched out and merged, closing the five-pointed star. I listened to the fire of chaos burning inside. As long as I had enough strength not to miss...
The red light blinded me, and almost without feeling, I concave the blade into my chest, next to my heart.
* * *
I opened my eyes.
How strange... the gray fog is swirling around me, forming a tunnel. I climbed uncertainly, stepped forward. I did not know where to go, the tunnel was moving around me like a living one, behind the white fog echoes of some actions and events were unfolding, shadows of people and creatures were moving there.
I was walking through it in a hurry, choking. The fog pressed, keeping me breathing, taking air until I saw a hole like a rip in an old Riverstein tapestry. And it fell into it.
...and it was summer here. Warm, fragrant, smelling of herbs and young pines. And blood... again, blood. I gently lifted up from the dewy grass and looked out from behind the fallen trunk.
A terrible and wild picture of the unfolding fight almost made me scream. I clutched my palm to my mouth, suppressing the vomiting calls...
...a beautiful little house with a straw roof, wrapped in ivy and wild grapes...from there run sleepy frightened people...a man falls, struck by blue steel...a woman screams and the demon turns to her...his black wings shine in the sun.., like buttered dogs... wildly howling... people are choking on screams... snow-white unicorn jumping over a low fence and rushing into the forest... A man with dark hair raises his hands to the sky and a black whirlwind sweeps away the demon nearest to him... a woman.., standing behind his back, holding a child against him... a light black plumage arrow pierces a man, he wobbles...
The rider on a black stallion with the same black hair smiles and pulls the bowstring again. Villages. She had a different face and body, but her eyes were the same icy lakes.
The dark demon Saarhard smiles back at her and turns away, throwing himself into the thick of people. The blue blades in his hands seem to be elusive lightning.
The earth rises to its feet under the call of men, the wind tears the wings of demons, the river rises, but there are too few schemits, they can't kill, they can't hurt, it's against their essence... And they are caught off guard... they die...
The Wind of the North Page 29