The Wind of the North

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The Wind of the North Page 32

by Eckehard Brahms


  I flinched. Once again, I took a close look at what scared me so much at night and looked my friend in the eye.

  - Ksenia, tell me what happened that night. When you got sick with Ink Rot. Tell me what happened to you.

  The girlfriend sighed, covered her eyes a little. Her face turned pale.

  - I died, Vetriana. I know that for a fact. The Dark came for me, and I followed her into the world of shadows. It's not scary there. And it doesn't hurt. There's nothing there. Words, feelings, worries disappear. Everything we burn, everything we fight for, everything we love... everything becomes irrelevant, unnecessary. It falls like leaves in the fall. And that's the worst thing that can happen. I have walked through this world, among hundreds of other shadows, ethereal spirits. They looked at me with empty eyes, but even that didn't touch me. The further I walked, the more indifferent I became. I started to forget... Forgetting Riverstein, my parents, my grandmother, you... It was so terrible, but I couldn't do anything, I couldn't fight... And then it was like something stopped me. First, I saw the forest. Can you imagine? Our border forest, with pines and spruce, above which there was a bright month. In this foggy place, something so surprised me that it was like I woke up, I remembered. I remembered who I was! And then I saw the door. And on the other side was you, and I went to you. I also thought you were singing me a lullaby, can you believe that? - Xenya smiled a little.

  - And the Dark? - I quietly asked, - The Dark that took you to the world of shadows?

  - The darkness? - Xenia got confused and woke up trying to remember. - I don't know... The darkness wouldn't let me in... but I kept walking and walking... and then I woke up in the darkness!

  I nodded, not knowing if it was worth saying what I saw. But I already hid too much from my friend. And so I turned to her, encouraged her with my palm.

  - Xenia, I don't think that part of your soul has returned with you," I said slowly, "I don't know how to explain it... you're just different. It's like you have a hole in your aura... and it fills with darkness... that day, I don't know how I got you out. I still don't know how I got you out. I was just madly afraid of losing you... But maybe I wasn't strong enough. Or maybe I did something wrong... I don't know.

  - Do you see the aura? - I admired my girlfriend.

  - Xenya! Can you hear me? No, this is unthinkable! I'm talking about her sowing a piece of herself somewhere, and she's talking about my new abilities! Ow!

  - Not in the woods," said Xenya and looked at me seriously, "I understand, Vetriana. Yes, Vetryana. I myself feel that something is wrong with me... I'm talking as if someone ugly inside has settled...

  I jumped in, walked around the room.

  - Lord Darrell must know how to help you! Or the Archarrion. Don't worry, girlfriend! We'll think of something.

  - There's nothing to worry about," Xenah said melancholy and smiled, "Mother Superior nearly cut us all, the orphanage is over, somewhere in the world of shadows there is a part of my miserable soul, and in Riverstein awakened the magical Source. Nothing to worry about, actually. Let's go eat, shall we? Cause your edge is gone, and there's no way it's caught...

  I laughed. Xenia is incorrigible. Holy Mother, let her always be like this, please...

  - We'll just get some sleep before," Xenia said sweetly, yawning in her mouth. - One day I was swallowing today...

  She settled on my bed, pulling a pillow to my stomach like a small one. She didn't even take off her dirty dress! And immediately she fell asleep!

  I stroked her on the head, gently pulled Kseni's shoes off and covered her with a cloth cover.

  - Sleep, my dear, sleep," I whispered, "don't be afraid... I will definitely think of something....

  I went up and out, quietly covering the door behind me. I wasn't sleepy at all. Either from nervous excitement after today's events, or from the stream of Power that I had missed through myself. Most of all I wanted to wash myself. The dress is dirty, in terrible spots of earth and dried blood, the hair is one knots that have fallen. And I'm still barefoot! I don't know why. I guess that's what it took for the ritual, at least in the pentagram I woke up without my shoes.

  So when I squeezed, I quietly went back to the room, picked up a blue dress, shoes and came out again. Xenia dribbled, turning to the wall, and did not wake up from my rustles.

  There was a pleasant warmth in the ablutions room from the hot coals, and I plunged into it with pleasure. Well, I didn't even notice how cold I was... I couldn't feel the cold at all, but I walked barefoot on the cold ground, without a handkerchief, in one dress...

  And now it's coming, shaking in the chill.

  I pulled a brown hoodie off me and threw it in the corner. Okay, now it's just for the rags! I'm not wearing it for any more sweet buns! It's better to be blue...

  The bottom shirt is just as dirty and torn and I decided to wash and sew it. I didn't have the other one. That's why I started laundering first thing and started doing my laundry with a mixture of ash and sand, usually with little water and rubbing the cloth. I put a clean shirt on myself again, it is forbidden even for naked novices to do ablutions ... And it is not so easy to get rid of longstanding habits.

  I poured dirty water into the wall opening, listened to it float down between the walls of Riverstein. And picked up a spoon for herself.

  But before climbing in, she looked at herself. The skin on her chest in the crust of dried blood. But no wounds. At the upper rib, where I stuck the blade, a thin white scar. And the incisions on the palms of my palms didn't heal at all.

  After scattering an already shaggy braid, I climbed into the spoon and relaxed.

  We used to do ablutions quickly, and there was no joy before, to splash in the cold water. But now it was warm, frozen body, thawed like an ice floe, I even closed my eyes with pleasure.

  And at once we remembered the thermals in Chaos... bluish water, steaming out, bitter smell of unknown snow color, red-eyed Albie, Archarrion...

  The door banged quietly. I opened my eyes and went blind.

  - What... what are you doing here?

  The archpriest looked angrily, yellowness flashed in the dark eyes.

  - What am I doing here? You called me!

  - — Я?? - I was genuinely surprised. So I even forgot for a moment that I'm sitting in a cough with water. - What do you mean? I didn't call you!

  He unceremoniously leaned his hands on the side of the spoon, so the evil eyes were too close. I shuddered, trying to dive deeper, but I was already sitting on my knees, so my head and shoulders were still sticking above the water.

  - You're thinking too loud, Vetriana! What a darkness! Why did you strengthen the merger?

  Did you strengthen the merger? Holy Mother, of course! Afraid he wasn't recovering, I repeated what the Archarrion did in the Black Earths. I cut my palms and mixed the blood. And I repeated the words... I didn't know what they meant...

  - I thought you were dead... I whispered, you weren't breathing, and there was no blood current... And all those burns... I was scared.

  He screamed, pulled his arms away, turned away.

  I looked at his back. A naked back. Just like the pentacle, all he was wearing were leather pants and boots. Black hair covered with ashes, burn marks and bloody crust on his chest and back. It's horrible.

  - I have to get dressed," I mumbled.

  He turned quickly and in one movement pulled me out of the reel. The streams of water were pouring onto the floor and onto him, but the demon seemed to ignore it.

  - You've enhanced the fusion, silly," he said quietly, "that's very... reckless of you.

  He almost moved his hands without letting me out, and slowly looked around. The gaze slid across my body, covered with a wet shirt, across my lips, across my face, across my hair... such an outright hungry man's gaze from which my knees bent and my face flashed.

  - No... - I whispered.

  He smiled, looking me in the eyes. Confident in his power. He lazily wrapped my hair in the palm of his
hand, forcing me to put my head back. He slammed his fingers around my neck, touched my lips...

  - Yeah. - A little hoarse, he said, - Okay. I like it...

  I closed my eyes for a moment. Just for a moment.

  And then I opened my eyes and looked into the hungry eyes of a demon.

  - And I didn't," I said quietly.

  The water from the reel swung a pole, and then fell upon us, enveloped the demon, becoming frostbite on the fly, bounded by ice. The puddle in which we stood was covered with ice, as a living crawled at his feet, embraced the cold.

  I pulled away from him, broke out. I grabbed a blue dress from the tributaries and hurriedly closed with it. And I was worried.

  The demon laughed.

  - You think that's gonna stop me? - He asked.

  He led with his shoulder, throwing down the ice. The ice crust went cracked, melted, splashed. Yellown yellow in his eyes, I saw the excitement of a predator chasing its prey.

  I stepped back a little bit. I sighed. A gust of air obediently licked my palm. I threw it as the demon took a step, and it was thrown away by the air wave so that it flew across the room and hit the wall with its back. But it flipped over like a cat and landed on its feet easily.

  I clutched a blue dress to myself without letting him out of my sight.

  The archpriest threw wet hair from his forehead, shaken it.

  - That's how," he said. But he didn't move," he said. - So, I was not mistaken...heir to the Schemiths.

  I shuddered.

  - You were there... You were in the Shit settlement, with Saarkhard. Killing them... I saw it. - I wanted to say it harshly, but it turned out to be miserable...

  - Yes. I was there, he bowed his head. And he stepped gently towards me. He laughed when I stood back.

  - Don't be afraid. I won't touch you.

  But I had already seen for myself that the beast had disappeared and my eyes were filled with darkness. And fatigue. Mortal fatigue. Like that time in the Black Sands, after the battle with the snakes... Heavy oppressive desolation.

  - Who is he to you? - I asked, Saharhardt?

  I wish he had said "no one"... But I felt the answer myself. It was impossible not to notice their resemblance.

  - Brother," said Archharrion calmly, "the elder brother. He is the only bloodsucker.

  He turned away.

  - Go, Vetriana. We will talk... later. Go on. - and he smiled as if he were himself, the blood of the schemits is stronger than the blood of man. Much stronger... Go.

  I hurriedly pulled a dress over my wet body and, tangled with my fingers in the lacing, jumped out into the corridor.

  * * *

  Xenia still slept in the blue room. I froze at the window, pressed my palms against my burning face. Then I was surprised to look at them. The air flow gently stroked my cheek. I awoke.

  How do I do that? I did everything without even thinking about how I swung my hand! And it seemed so natural, right to me!

  I fearfully mowed down on Xenya for fear of waking up. And I drove my palm. The warm wind shook my hair, shattered it, wrapped around me like a hug. Tickled my skin, my eyes, my lips. Went through my dress, wrapped the hem around my legs. And a verse. He lay down by my feet, hid himself.

  I marveled at the fabric of the dress, dry. And even my lower shirt dried up and became warm as if it had been hanging over coals for a day. And it didn't drip from my hair anymore.

  Amazing

  - Thank you," I whispered to my beast of the air. Strangely, I felt it that way: a living creature hidden at my feet.

  The air licked my heels. I couldn't help myself and laughed with delight.

  - Let me sleep, my friend muttered through my sleep. I silently ouccised myself, put my hand on my mouth, put my shoes on, and slowly slipped out of the room.

  The sounds of chanting were heard from the lower floor, pulling the resinous spirit clearly. So Aristarchus finally came to his senses. Oh, poor novices!

  I quietly walked the wall around the staircase to the lower hall and turned to the exit. I wasn't sleepy at all. I wanted air, snow, forest... I blissfully squeezed myself in anticipation... No, I'm not going to the forest now. Tomorrow. When the sun rises, when this night is finally over.

  I slipped a shadow past the refectory and pulled the heavy front door of the shelter. It came out.

  The dark forest behind the walls of Riverstein was lighter, no longer hovering over a dark pile, but golden in the dawn's rays with needles, branches, and trunks. A light mist of snow enveloped the world of the frontier, and the new dawn of the Alel on the horizon promised joy and light. I breathed in full chest and laughed again.

  It's so good to live!

  How beautiful is our world, in which there are these pines and stones and snow and a new, delightful day! Why, to understand it, one has to stand on the edge of the world of shadows and look into the empty eye sockets of the Primordial Darkness?

  I slowly walked along the building, smiling and breathing with my chest full. A small building with a font attracted and pulled me, and I did not resist.

  In the sanctuary near the Source, Lord Darrell stood with his back to me. I stayed quietly back until he saw me, but Shyder heard me, turned around.

  - Chickenpox? I thought you were asleep?

  - Xenia fell asleep, and I... I stopped at the font side.

  - How's Danila?

  - Oh, after feeling the rising power, I thought he was the most powerful magician in the underworld! - the lord smiled.

  I laughed.

  - Yeah, that sounds like him.

  - It's true of everyone," he shrugged, "that initiation is the first contact with the Source, with the real, living Power... It causes such a surge of emotion and euphoria in those who are awake, that the people of Elloar try to keep their eyes open. Newly baked magicians prank like an elven nectar had too much to eat! The little ones, understandably, are taken to the School at once, but those who are older ... - he smiled. - I woke up after my initiation night on the spire of the Southern Tower. I hung, clinging to the crystal elf crowning the spire, and had no idea how I got there! About half a mile from the ground...

  - So how did you get in there?

  - I have no idea! I open my eyes in the morning, yawn sweetly, put my head down and realize I'm hanging at a terrible height with my pants caught! It's while I was afraid of the heights of my childhood... The sun is warming, the birds are singing in the morning, and I... hang! Yes... how did you get in? I must have slipped, or for the first time I turned into a crow. But, it was unconsciously, it was just a power bubbling, and consciously I couldn't even make a candle then. And the pants weren't even leather, ordinary, linen, and not too new... Crackling, so...

  - So what? - I got interested.

  - that, that... yelling started... Yeah! Cats on rooftops all over the county got jealous!

  I imagined Lord Darrell hanging from a spire screaming all over the county, and I laughed...

  - How did you get out of there?

  - Oh, that's a separate story! I'll tell it sometime! So I got Daniel drunk on the grass, just in case. Otherwise, he'll climb somewhere like me... how are we gonna shoot him?

  We didn't say anything. The Lord was smiling, immersed in the memories of his youth. Then he easily held his hand over the font, sighed.

  - I've seen different Sources, the Vetriana... in the Rainbow Empire, in Chaos, at the foot of the Free Mountains and in the underground city of dwarves... I've never seen anything like it... Such a pure, amazing and living Power!

  I looked into the water of the font. I wanted to put my palms down there, but in front of the Lord I did not do it, I was shy. And I remembered how I sat on the board of Solmei, leading to the ice-hole with a silver tail. But a little mermaid showed me the right way, though I did not understand it then! When I closed my eyes, I saw the Source! That's right...

  - What happens to the orphanage now? - I asked.

  - They will, of course. I'm sorry. I'll send a m
essenger to Starover in the morning, notify them of the transfer of the shelter from Riverstein to Zagreb. Or another place. Nothing has been decided yet, you know... But the fact that Riverstein has a new one... or rather the old Source has awakened, it's incredible! It's unbelievable! Not at once, of course, but after a while the Power of the Source will spread all over the Northern Kingdom and even beyond the Devil will be felt... - he spent his hand over the water again as if he did not believe.

  - And ordinary people, without power, will realize that this is not just a font? - I asked.

  - No, - he shook his head, - of course not. For those who have no magical power, the Source will be just water.

  I nodded. And I wrinkled, not knowing how to ask.

  - Lord Darrell, tell me... is it possible for a human soul to be divided? And part of it is sort of... lost?

  Shyder was surprised to raise her eyebrows, thinking.

  - Xenia," he said affirmatively, and I nodded sadly, "yes, I felt the darkness in her... though I had never seen it before. Can you tell me what happened to her?

  I opened my mouth, but I couldn't continue. The one we talked about broke into the sanctuary, and I'd never seen a friend so angry! The hair on Xenia's head was literally standing there, her hands clenched in her fists, her face clearly imprinted with a pillow mark, and her face burning with such anger that Shader and I moved away at the same time.

  - Where is he? - Xenia yelled angrily... Where's that... that... bastard! You bastard! The sinner's disgusting! Ass of a dead merino! Haa moon chmyr!!! I'm gonna tear him up! I'm gonna rip off all his fucking hands and shove it in his ass...

  We had eyes on our forehead from that set of curses, which with the speed of a crossbow gave an angry girl.

  - Ksenia," I asked very kindly, retreating into the depths of the sanctuary by the font. "Ksenia, what is wrong with you?

  - Yes, I... yes, he... yes, at all...

  - Ksenia, have you been eating rotten this morning? - The lord has kindly asked.

 

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