Inquisitor

by Mikhaylov, Dem

  - Hey! Are you still there?

  - Can’t you see?! – Flatis snapped, he was standing in the water at the chest-level – Do you think I can swim with this pot?

  - Alright. Stay there – Lery replied – I’ll call him. But when the host appears, don’t waste time!

  Flatis was enviously looking at Lery who inhaled deeply and dove. The water surface covered the boy’s head and got still. Flatis switched from one foot to another glaring at the center of the pond – it was the place where Lery’s wet head would emerge. Several seconds passed but Lery wasn’t seen anywhere. When, according to Flatis calculations, Lery was under water for one minute, he started worrying indeed – generally ten seconds was enough to reach the bottom and to find the catfish sleeping quietly in the ooze.

  ‘He must be kidding’ - Flatis thought, but he couldn’t get rid of anxiety. There were too many strange things that he had noticed at the hammer-pond – the host hadn’t come despite they were calling him; all the frogs and fish had disappeared. Even black glowing bugs that lived in sparkling bubbles attached to algae couldn’t be seen anywhere.

  Flatis was getting more and more worried. He needed three leaps to reach the bank, then put down the pot on the ground again and hurried into the water as fast as he could.

  ‘Oh, Lery! If it’s a stupid joke, I’ll beat you like hell!’ – he thought while swimming fast to the middle of the pond.

  He was about to reach the center when the water boiled and a pillar of splatters suddenly rose into the air. A silhouette of Lery flashed inside it. Flatis saw a grimace of fear on his face and rolled out eyes. At once he understood that Lery wasn’t mocking at him – something bad did happen.

  - Fl… Flatis – Lery could hardly say, spitting water out of his mouth – the host…

  Lery didn’t finish speaking – one more pillar of foam rose into the air, a black shadow glimpsed at the bottom. Lery raised his hands and disappeared under the water with a muffled sob.

  - Lery! – frightened Flatis yelled – It’s not funny!

  He needed two strokes to swim up to the spot where his friend disappeared. Flatis inhaled fast as much air as he could and dove. He opened his eyes under water and started spinning around in attempt to see Lery who was obviously mocking at him. But the only thing he could see was the greenish thickness of water. Suddenly Flatis noticed a blurry shadow below, he decisively dove deeper to look closer at the strange object on the bottom. A fast thought came to his mind: ‘It can be a cramp, if only I could bring him out…’ and then he saw it…

  Frozen eyes of the giant catfish were staring at him from a muddy cloud of the raised ooze – there wasn’t a sight of the gigantic body of the fish, just the head with a shaking collar of shapeless shreds of pale meat was left. It looked like as if somebody had sawed the head off the body and had thrown it away as a useless thing with negligence.

  The ancient host of the deep water was dead.

  At last frozen Flatis realized what exactly he was looking at, he forgot that he was under water and yelled soundlessly with a wild terror exhaling bubbles of air. Moving his hands and legs as fast as he could, Flatis darted upwards to the sunshine far away from the nightmare he had just witnessed. His head broke through the water surface. He started gulping the air and turning his head around again and again to find Lery, but the water surface was empty and lifeless. Lery wasn’t able to reach the bank in one minute and Flatis understood that his friend was still under water, on the bottom. Inhaling air again, he dove and opened his eyes widely trying to find the friend. Finally he succeeded – in some yards he noticed a shadow struggling furiously at the bottom. Breaking through long catching algae, Flatis directed towards the shadow. And as soon as he was close enough to see the shadow distinctly, he hardly resisted one more scream of terror. Flatis was right. It was Lery who was trying to get his leg free that was squeezed in the jaws of the most frightening creature Flatis had ever seen. It partially resembled fish. The black body in the shape of a spindle was crowned with a head with long narrow jaws and teeth protruding in different directions that were squeezing the boy’s leg like a clamp. The fish got frozen on the bottom waiting when the prey was suffocated because of the lack of air and stopped trying to escape. Noticing a new movement, it turned the head in a threatening manner and lazily waved its tail as if it was warning the visitor – don’t touch, it’s mine.

  When Lery saw Flatis who was hovering over him, he opened his mouth to scream something but just spent the remains of precious air – Flatis came to the consciousness and did the only thing he could do. He needed one fast movement to reach Lery. But he decided not to waste time trying to unclasp the sharp-teethed jaw – he took the aim and suddenly poked his thumb into one of the eyes staring at him. Flatis felt slimy mess getting pressed under his thumb and pierced it further. It worked. The fish started with pain, opened the jaw and jerked aside, raising a huge cloud of black ooze from the bottom.

  Lery was free but he had almost lost his consciousness because of the lack of air. Besides, a cloudlet of blood was wrapping his leg.

  Flatis felt that his lungs were burning, rainbow circles were floating in front of his eyes but he didn’t give up. He grabbed Lery’s hair tight and pushed himself from the bottom dragging the exhausted friend up to the surface. The light above their heads became brighter and brighter. Finally Flatis came up to the surface. He inhaled deeply and started coughing. In a moment Lery emerged from the water gulping life giving air by his blue lips and sobbing.

  - Oh my god… what’s the hell… what was it? What a beast! – he could hardly say, holding on Flatis’s shoulder.

  - Swim to the bank! – Flatis cried out as soon as he recovered his breath – Faster!

  The horrible injured fish was thrashing about in the deep water below them and it wasn’t a good idea to procrastinate in the pond. The monster that had intruded the mill hammer-pond was injured but not defeated.

  - Come on! – Flatis rushed Lery who was swimming slowly – Hurry up!

  - I can’t. I can’t control my hands – Lery murmured swallowing water – And… and my leg.

  - Swim to the bank! It’s not far away.

  It was true. There was a dozen of yards left to cover to reach the bank. But it seemed to be very far away. Flatis looked back in panic to search for the fish, but the water surface was still. Flatis didn’t relieve as the monster that tried to kill Lery could be straight below them waiting for the appropriate moment to attack – to close its jaws in a fatal capture.

  Rushing and pushing slow Lery, Flatis had covered about two yards when he felt some movement of water under his feet and got frozen with terror. The sharp-teethed beast was back, but the bank was still far away. The decision came up suddenly. Flatis patted Lery’s shoulder who was hardly floating on the water and cried out:

  - Swim to the bank! Don’t stop!

  Exhausted Lery didn’t object. He nodded and kept on moving. The terrified boy was shivering. The blue lips looked bright on the pale face as well as the black spots of the eyes, that were wide because of horror. They were fixed on one thing – the edge of the bank that was approaching unbearably slowly. Flatis remained on the same place. He lowered his face in the water to find the terrible fish. The boy relied on his agility and ability to swim fast – he wanted to divert the predatory fish’s attention to let Lery get out to the bank and then try to reach the bank himself. Flatis had seen that the fish didn’t have any limbs. He hoped that it wouldn’t be able to get out to the ground.

  Wiggling his legs as fast as he could, Flatis started spinning around at one place and looking below. He hoped to notice a shadow of the predatory fish approaching him.

  Flatis’s plan was almost ideal – he managed to divert the fish’s attention but he hadn’t expected that the monster was so fast. It was too late when the boy noticed the dark shadow swimming closer to him. There was one yard left between them. Suddenly Flatis felt a burning hit on his chest and yelled with an unbearable pain.
Flatis couldn’t know that he was lucky indeed – the beast, that had just one eye that could see, didn’t manage to focus precisely and missed the target. The huge jaws caught empty water, but the spindle-like body entirely covered with sharp thorns scratched the boy’s body like a gigantic saw shredding his flesh apart.

  Flatis had never experienced such a pain. He almost went mad because of that torture. He was yelling with terror while looking at his chest torn apart so that his bones could be seen and at the bloody clouds floating in the water around him. His strength let him down, the boy started sinking slowly. His scream turned into gurgling and soon died away. There was nothing but for black clots of blood and shreds of algae on the surface. By that moment Lery had already reached the shallow water. Shaking and crouching, he rushed to leave the dangerous pond. After reaching the dry ground he was so exhausted that he fell down, hid his face in grass and started crying. He knew that Flatis was there… in the water. But he wasn’t strong enough to turn around and look at the hammer-pond. He was suffering from dreadful horror that was overwhelming him so much that the boy even forgot to check his bleeding leg.

  An absolutely different image was in front of his eyes.

  Again and again he saw the same black ugly monster that was biting his leg. Again and again he suffered from the same severe pain when the giant teeth closed on his leg in a fatal capture. Again and again he experienced the same awful terror when the fish dragged him to the frightening dark bottom…

  The curled-up boy was lying on the ground and sobbing quietly…

  Cold water near the bottom of the hammer-pond relieved Flatis’s pain a bit. He recovered enough to be able to keep the remains of air in his lungs and to look around. The strange fish was coming back. Twisting like a monstrous snake, it was swishing the water thickness easily, keeping its jaw open widely to catch the offender and drag him to a deeper place. Flatis was helplessly looking at the predator approaching him fast. He got frozen – he was just a kid who didn’t possess braveness like an experienced warrior who was used to facing death – so he gave up. Flatis closed his eyes not to see the death coming closer to him and stayed put in the dark water.

  The damned monster had shredded the kind old host of the deep water apart, it had almost killed his best friend and then it was going to kill him… why? They hadn’t done any harm!

  The boy – who had just a few seconds until the end and who had already given up – suddenly started and opened his eyes widely. The blind rage against the enemy was rising in him. It was doubled by the pain caused by his injury. In a few seconds the fish came closer to the boy and opened its jaw even more widely. It was ready to cast the final hit.

  But Flatis did it. He looked into the single black eye of the fish and grinned.

  He managed to control the rage that was boiling inside him. He managed to formulate it in a single phrase and to throw it at the murderer:

  ‘Die, damned beast, die!’…

  He managed to see scarlet-red aura that wrapped his hands and was getting brighter and brighter…

  Finally Lery, extremely pale because of fear, raised his head from the wet grass, rolled to his back and looked at the still water of the mill hammer-pond.

  He couldn’t see Flatis anywhere. Lery pulled his legs to the chest and hugged the knees. His thoughtless eyes were staring blank.

  The boy was at the edge of insanity although he wasn’t aware of it. If there had been a wise old man nearby at that moment, he would have immediately shaken the frozen boy to divert him from dangerous thoughts that could lead to the dark abyss of madness. But Lery was absolutely alone. Nobody could help him. The poor youngster got frozen.

  Unexpected help came from a different side. From the hammer-pond.

  First, a bright blinding flash tore the dark thickness apart. Then a huge boiling hill bulged on the water surface. Hissing pillars of steam soared into the sky. The bank vibrated hard. And a muffled roar of vaporizing water sounded over the ground. Lery was thrown back and dragged over the grass. The water hill that was bulging inside out slowed down a bit and then started reducing reluctantly. The speed of its fall was increasing second by second until the huge amount of water fell down in the hammer-pond overwhelming its banks with boiling muddy waves. One of those waves threw to the bank some shreds of algae, liquid mud together with stones and… coughing Flatis.

  Soon the hammer-pond water calmed down. A few of surviving water lilies emerged on the surface and started dancing on the carpet made from algae shreds. Some air bubbles came to the surface near the bank and the dead sharp-teethed fish followed them with its bulged belly upside down. Then stayed put on the water surface. Suddenly, stunned Lery smelled rich fish-soup.

  Having recovered, he ran to Flatis limping because of the injured leg. He shrank when he saw a long wound spreading on his friend’s chest but then managed to control himself and started shaking Flatis as forcefully as he could.

  - Flatis! Flatis! Wake up!

  - Lery… You’re alive… - Flatis whispered and a weak smile appeared on his face.

  - Yes, I’m alive, I’m alive – Lery said very quickly.

  - What happened? Do you know? A flash… then a bang! I thought it could pierce my ears! Flatis! What was it?

  - I have no idea. My chest hurts… - Flatis burst out coughing. – That’s bad. Lery, don’t tell Mommy anything…

  - Are you mad? Have you seen your wound? – Lery exclaimed – Here it is, press my shirt against the chest, I’ll run to the village to call for help! Don’t move! Got it?! I’ll be back in a minute!

  Flatis nodded, then lowered his head back and stared at the ultra blue sky. He could hear Lery’s fast steps dying away in the distance – Lery was going to the village to ask for help, he was falling down and assertively standing up again. Lery knew for sure – Flatis had rescued him and he was not going to let his best friend die because of bleeding.

  Soon all the sounds disappeared as Flatis lost consciousness and it saved him. Later he got to know that it had taken Lery less time to get to the village than it usually took them. He was shouting as loud as he could and shook the entire village up. Flatis didn’t see how fast the men were running to the village through the woods and that his father was the first who was rushing with a grimace of madness on his face. Flatis didn’t remember how carefully he was bandaged and how cautiously his father was carrying him home without ever stopping. Flatis didn’t hear his mother crying and the old woman – the herbalist – murmuring to calm her down. Meanwhile he saw the black vacuum with a roaring fiery sphere in the center that was burning brightly…

  The peasants brought the dead beast to the village. They needed a big dray to do that. They hardly placed the body on it and the tail was almost touching the ground. Everybody was shocked by the size of the unknown fish and its sharp-teethed jaw. No one could remember seeing such fish – even the oldest men just shrugged their shoulders and scratched the backs of their heads in puzzlement. To crown it all, the fish was boiled – ready to be served. And it surprised the peasants most of all. They shook their beards and sighed in confusion and then decided to go to Flatis’s and Lery’s houses.

  The main hero of that event was unconscious. And no one was allowed to enter his house further than the threshold. They had to question Lery who was lying on the broad bench at home as his injured leg was being treated. Lerri told them a lot – that they had been going to treat the catfish and to beg him to send rain – at that moment the priest shook his head with disapproval but didn’t say anything aloud. Lery said that the catfish hadn’t come up to the surface and he had had to dive and found the host’s head torn apart from the body that was lying on the oozy bottom and its dead eyes were staring at him – at that moment all the women began groaning loudly and the elder had to bark to return the silence. Lery also told about the fish that had bit his leg. He confessed that Flatis had rescued him from the fatal jaw of the fish. But he couldn’t reveal the main mystery – why the huge fish died and, importantl
y, who boiled it.

  Lery spread his arms helplessly. He could say a few words about a bright flash in the water and about pillars of hot steam but that was all he knew. The bemused men looked at each other and no one noticed that the elder narrowed his eyes as if he was thinking about something and soon rushed to leave the house.

  Flatis’s unconsciousness lasted the whole week. But he was young and it helped him to recover fast. All his relatives were happy as the wound was closing up very quickly. The old herbalist assured that only his flesh and skin were injured, as for the inside, it hadn’t been even touched.

  In three extremely hot days an elegant cart, that belonged to the mage who could send rain, came to the village. It was escorted by two imperial soldiers. Everybody was looking forward to seeing the mage. The best carpet was spread under an ancient oak beforehand and a small table with delicacies was put on it. The elder personally served a jug of cool wine to the mage who settled down as the host. The elder had bought the wine specially for such an occasion when he had taken the tribute to the town. The mage tasted the wine with pleasure, wiped off the well-groomed small beard, quacked, looked around the villagers who were crowding at some distance and then said carelessly:

  - So you are suffering from drought. And you are likely to lose your harvest.

  - You’re right, sir – the elder answered in a hurry – Your infinite kindness is our last resort.

  - You know the price. Five silver coins and it will rain in the evening. If you delve properly in your bins and draw out a gold coin, it won’t stop raining till morning. You are to decide.

  - Where can we find so many coins, honorable mage? Thank God, if we scratch together a couple of silver coins.

  - Well… then you’re just wasting my time – the mage grumbled with discontent and started standing up.

  - Wait, sir, wait a bit! – the elder was really nervous – There is one boy…

  The longer the elder was speaking, the higher the mage’s eyebrows were rising and the greater interest it was provoking. The mage was carefully listening to the old man who was murmuring something in a hurry…