When they reached the headman's house, the mercenaries found the door locked. Vtorak tapped hard. A minute later, the headman shows on the threshold. His eyes widened in horror at the sight of an ugly head, on the shoulder of a mercenary. Varaha threw it to the ground, demanding a well-deserved reward.
- What is it? - exclaimed the headman, with horror examining the small grasping hands near his mouth and a huge slit of toothy mouth.
- This is the head of a monster, - answered Varaha. - The soul of the old which your ancestors burned, now wishes you death. She moved into the lost horse and completely perverted its nature to settle near the village and kill you in turn.
- Angelina always looks intrigues, manipulated people like a puppeteer, - the headman said sadly. - Old people often remembered her with an unkind word. Just think, she lived so long... why didn't we please her?
- As you can see, the old witch was vindictive.
- Maybe because of this, she took the form of a spider? She loved to manipulate... pulling the strings... eh? - suggested Vtorak, but the men missed his words.
- Okay. Take a break while in the inn. You will be paid tomorrow. It's good that you are caught a monster.
- A warrior from a leper fraternity also helped us, - Varaha added. - In fairness, this is his victory. Although he refused the award.
- Okay. Be that as it may, the main thing is that the monster is dead.
- Agree.
Shaking goodbye to the headman, Vtorak and Varaha went into the inn. Almost all the people just gathered there for the holiday. Vtorak noted that everyone congratulated one young plowman and his beautiful bride - the daughter of a weaver. As soon as the mercenaries appeared in the hall, the bearded, happy father of the groom jumped up to them and, hugging him tightly, presented each with an impressive mug of honey. The institution buzzed like a beehive from loud conversations. "Maybe the world is not as gloomy as it seems to me?" - thought the young man. Varaha immediately went upstairs to the room, and the boy decided to stay on the holiday. Seeing this domestic happiness and joy reigning here, inside a small tavern, Vtorak realized how he began to forget the horrors of the outside world. He felt so good here that he suddenly felt happy that he did not seem a stranger to all these people. They took him to their place, ate, drank and played fun games with him all evening. It was the best that a young man had ever seen in his short life.
Only after a while, his attention was finally attracted by the cold hatred lurking in one single eye. These beautiful gray eyes belonged to the daughter of an old mercenary who Vtorak cut off his hand. Virgo stood at a distance and looked directly at him. The boy stopped joking and laughing. It was not difficult for the gaze to cool his cheerful fervor. He said goodbye to the men and slowly moved upstairs to his room. The young man had never experienced such a cold.
Suddenly a shabby man in a simple shirt and a hunting vest made of skins burst into the inn. He had brown hair, a dark broad beard, reaching to his chest and to death, frightened, wide eyes.
- Who is this? - asked Vtorak to the peasant that he was standing not far from the stairs.
- It's our janitor, - the man answered, - He manages the household. Hey, Danila, what's wrong?!
- The monster is came to life! - Grunted Danila, panting, - Stranger was strangled... - people froze, in incomprehension, while the man coped with interrupted breathing. Finally, he gathered his last strength and spoke, - It comes here.
Then a genuine panic swept through the tavern. The people jumped out of windows and doors, men ran home to take the pitchfork. "Wake Varaha!" - shouted Vtorak, running to the street. The peasants inflicted torches and surrounded the headman's house. From there, strange sounds were heard, as if someone had scraped the wood of the walls with long nails from the inside. Uttama herself came to the noise from her hut.
- Be careful, young man, - she said.
- It's all right! I'll figure it out, - the boy said, gritting his teeth, and moved forward, holding his blade infront.
- Wait for Varaha, - was heard from the crowd, - You can't do it yourself! It will kill you! Wait!
- You know nothing about it! - snapped at the peasants Vtorak. Their distrust only whetted his determination - I've already fought this creature, and if I say that I'll figure it out, it's not just a empty words. Let Varaha join when he arrives, but the first strike will be mine!
Having said that, the boy fearlessly entered the headman's hut to the peasants amazed exclamations. A wide wooden threshold creaked. Dry floorboards sounded under a heavy tread. It was dark inside. Only light from the torches of the crowd penetrated through the open windows. There was a quiet, mournful whining. The second man walked through the canopy and ended up in the room. Blood spilled on the floor and a black spot on the wall near the ceiling attracted the view. The boy raised his sword and looked closely at the gloomy outline. The headless body of the headman hung from the ceiling. On his shoulders rested the monster's head, which had grown in an unknown way to the neck of the corpse. Disgusting whitish hands were already growing from a dead body, clinging with strong fingers to the protrusions on the wall. The monster, horribly reminiscent of a spider, opened its many eyes and stared at the alien. Vtorak froze with fear. He did not even have time to blink before the creature approached him and drew his sword with thin hands. Another second and a blade pierced the young man's chest through and through. The cold burned the body and stripped him of strength. The guy's legs gave way and he fell. He thought that someone had rushed into the room. Everything that happened began to swim before his eyes, but he managed at the last moment to understand that it was Varaha. He fiercely slashed the monster with his sword, but it seemed to the youth that everything around was incredibly slowed down and each movement lasted forever.
Time stopped. There was a distant hum. He was getting closer until he split into hundreds of howling voices, mournfully praying for pardon. And then the boy saw him. Akshayah crawled into the hut and stopped in front of the lying Vtorak. The faces on his womb reached for prey, releasing their sticky bodies, as if drenched in black resin, from the bowels of the demon. Thin hands reached for the young man, striving to grab him. He had already come to terms with the fact that the end had come, when he suddenly felt an amazing warmth, clarity and strength. He looked up and saw how, exuding a white-gold glow, soft feathery wings lay on his shoulders as a cloak. They covered his cold body, scaring away the black minions of the demon. Two graceful thin arms appeared also from behind his shoulders and pressed their fingers to the bleeding wound on his chest. He felt an incredibly light creature hug him, gently hugging him. Heat spread over the wound and intensified to what seemed like a hot iron. The face of Akshayah, not expressing emotions, did not take his eyes off the luminous creature located behind the Back of the Vtorak. The demon stood for a while, not moving, after which he pulled in the bodies that were halfway free from himself and, turning around, began to slowly move away. When the howling of the pitiful voices subsided, the luminous creature released Vtorak and stood at full height right in front of him. It was a beautiful creature, shrouded from head to toe in white and gold light. It looked like a child in appearance, which made it impossible to accurately determine the gender of the creature. It seemed that in it there are traits of both a boy and a girl. A sincere, open, cheerful smile played on her face.
- Be careful, - the creature said, - I need you. This is your destiny that you so wanted to know about.
- What?.. - Vtorak grunted, but no answer came.
After that, the creature melted in the air, and the young man, finally parting with his strength, lost consciousness.
- A wormhole in the face of the world... - heard the voice of Uttama in the distance. He heard it vaguely through the dream. - He is an uninvited guest... his presence upsets the balance... your destiny... to expel him.
"How ?!" was heard the voice of Varaha. "To kill ...". Vtorak woke up and looked up. Uttama immediately stopped talking and looked back at the young man. Varaha, standing in front of her, also turned his head.
- Good morning, glorious defender of the village, - the witch smiled.
- How do you feel? - asked Varaha.
- Alive ... - the boy muttered. - I feel alive.
- It's good. You have been lying unconscious for half a day.
- What were you talking about here? - Suddenly asked the young man. The mercenary furtively glanced at the witch.
- About nothing. You must have dreamed... we just entered, - answered Varaha.
- You need to rest, - Uttama concluded, with a smile, - We will leave you alone for now. You should get some more sleep. Come on, Varaha.
- Get well soon, Vtorak! - The mercenary waved his hand. - Uttama will make you a dressing in the evening, but for now sleep.
The guests left, closing the door behind them. The boy looked around. He lay on the bed in his room, on the second floor of the inn. His chest was bandaged with bandages, but he did not feel any inconvenience in this place. There was no pain or unpleasant itching. After a while, Vtorak decided to stick his finger under the bandage to feel the place of the wound, but instead of a deep penetrating wound from the sword, which he expected to find, he found only a shallow, protracted cut. He glanced at the heavy sky, visible through the window, through the gap between the shutters. "Thank you!" he thought, sending his thoughts somewhere up above, beyond the clouds.
The whole day the young mercenary was sleeping, recovering strength. Waking up in the evening, when it was already completely dark, he found Uttama sitting next to him on the bed. Apparently, she already changed the bandages while he was sleeping.
- How are your wounds? - She asked, - Heal amazingly fast... What happened then?
- I saw ... - Vtorak whispered. He hesitated a moment, wondering if it was possible to entrust this story to Uttama, given the morning eavesdropping conversation. On the other hand, who else could explain the incident better than the witch? Thinking so, he decided to tell her about what he had seen. And yet he was seriously worried about what Varaha was talking with the sorceress until he woke up. There was no doubt: they talked about him. Is Varaha destined to kill him?
- The light protects you even more than your friend, - said the sorceress, - you were saved from the clutches of Akshayah that an unprecedented rarity... Now you need to understand why you were saved.
- What happened to the monster?
- He was burned along with the body of the headman. The embittered soul of the old witch left this body and sooner or later returning to our lands. But not now.
- But she will be back. Is it not possible to expel her completely?
- No, Vtorak. The clouds covering our sky do not let souls into other worlds…
- What can we do about it?
- The end is always a new beginning, - the woman warmly smiled. - Because of the clouds, the souls of the dead are forced to wander around this world or get into the body of Akshayakh, which will eventually give them a new body and give birth to them again.
- This is terrible…
- Angelina refused to return to Akshayah and became a wandering spirit. This is the price of dark immortality.
- Souls in the body of the demon suffer so much ... - Vtorak recalled.
- Because it's unnatural. That is why people are so looking forward to the appearance of the Pure. They can disperse clouds and open the sky, so that souls after death are not doomed to suffering, but continue their journey in other worlds.
- But children... after the birth of Akshayah, after all, children are borns!
- New souls can enter our world through a veil of clouds. But they won't get out of here...
- Why did I stay alive?
- The light has saved you from death. You did not ask for it, but your role has not yet been played out to the end. That's why you stayed alive. This is not immortality. They helped you only once. From now on, be more careful if you do not want to return to Akshayah.
- I will, - the young man promised, - How did Angelina defeat Akshayah?
- The old witch opposed fate. When Akshayah came for her, she gave him another life. She sacrificed her grandson, in whom her blood flows.
- This is terrible, - said Vtorak.
- Yes. His destiny fell on her shoulders, and she cannot die until she fulfills it. However, her body continued to grow decrepit. And in the end, only the spirit remained. From the pangs of an incorporeal existence, he became mad and became a slave to his strongest feeling - hatred. The soul always becomes dependent on the strongest feeling living in it... - the old woman thought, - And it usually is not something bright.
- Varaha defeated the monster alone... - the boy said annoyedly.
- Do not be sad, - Uttama smiled. - He is an experienced warrior. In addition, he managed to catch the monster by surprise that you failed.
- And that is true ... - the boy brightened a little.
- Now rest. Varaha will come to you in the morning.
An elder Uttama got out of bed and left the room, leaving the young man alone. He could not forget the involuntarily overheard conversation. Has the witch conceived something against him? Should he trust Varaha like that? It was not for nothing that he told Uttama about the vision of an angel, during a wound... these questions tormented Vtorak, but he could not find convincing answers for himself. He darted between the desire to escape from here right now and the need to stay, in order to one day get to the bottom of the truth.
Suddenly he felt something soft and warm on his knee. Vtorak raised his head with difficulty and, to his surprise, noticed that he had a big fluffy cat on his feet. He looked with his yellow eyes directly into the boy's soul and... smiled. Vtorak was taken aback, but the animal gently rubbed his cheek against his leg.
- Mr-r-r-r ... Don't be afraid, boy, I'm just a soft, fluffy cat, - the guest purred in a gentle, human voice.
- That is... it scares me... Why are you talking?
- All cats can talk in our lands... mr-r-r-r... - he said and lay down on the bed with his paws under his head.
- In some such... your lands?
- In the lands of snow and ice... this is a very cozy region, but ... unfortunately we can't stay there anymore, - the cat's eyes slowly closed. His softness, warmth and measured, quiet speech evoked a dream on Vtorak. The cat stretched out his words and purred pleasantly until he spoke.
- Now... will you stay here?
- No, I need to move on, mr-r-r-r... unfortunately... I just came in to help you.
- To help me?
- Do you want me to tell you a fable? It... will calm you down, lull you and heal you.
- Fables are told only to children.
- A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it… - the cat smiled.
- Well, well... - Vtorak agreed and closed his eyes, - All right. Tell me.
And the cat began his fairy tale song. Under his pouring purring chorus Vtorak quietly began to fall into a sweet slumber.
My dear, do not be sad at this hour
Remembering a hard day.
Sleeping pollen showered on us
The darkness comes at night and
Wrapping you by warm cover
It euthanizes in comfort.
Sleep animals on fragrant herbs
Sleep tired people.
Once a wolf cub in the forest heard
The tale of the rainbow color.
His mind was immediately
Сaptured by this story.
A wolf cub scurried through the forest,
He was looking for a marvelous flower.
And no matter how small the wolf cub is,
He met troubles with a smile.
The fox met him on the way,
The fur blazed fire in the fog:
"I will help find your miracle!
There it grows, in a wide meadow!"
A wolf came running into a clearing:
"Where is the flower? Well, where is it? Where?"
Fox laughed: "It's easier to deceive you
Than a catfish in the dark!"
The wolf got angry at such a laugh
Evil growled and chased after the fox.
We drive with our own anger
He did not notice how close the flower was.
A marvelous flower grew in the shade, in a clearing,
Only now the wolf will not get it.
Vtorak woke up on the bed a few minutes after the end of the tale. The bayun-cat was no longer on the bed, only the boy managed to notice the tip of its tail outside the window. He did not leave the obsessive feeling that the fairy tale was somehow connected with him. Well, of course! Varaha is a sly fox! The cat predicted his betrayal! What an amazing creature...
His reflections was interrupted by a knock on the door. On the street and in the room it was already completely dark, many people went to their homes and went to bed. The inn was quiet: probably no one was sitting down at the tables, and the innkeeper himself went to rest. "Who's there?" the boy asked, but there was no answer. For a minute he lay in complete silence before the creak informed him that the door had been opened and he looked at the entrance.
On the threshold, in only translucent, light shirt, with a candle in her hand stood a thin girl. Her golden hair was loose, in her hand she held a cup-candlestick with a burning candle. Vtorak raised himself on his elbows to have better look at her. She was beautiful. Blond hair fell to her chest, large eyes modestly looked at the floor, under the drooping eyelids, and because of the pale skin in the dark, the maiden seemed a ghost. "Who are you?" - He asked, why the girl immediately flinched. She looked up, and the young man saw that eyes were full of tears. Suddenly her eyebrows moved and she, grabbing a knife from behind, rushed at Vtorak. The boy managed to dodge the first strike, rolling down from the bed to the floor, and when the killer waved for the second time, he contrived and caught her hand. The candle fell to the floor, and the wax extinguished the light. In the dark, a mute struggle continued for several more minutes, until the girl managed to dodge and cut the shoulder of a young mercenary. He growled in pain and threw the girl to the wall. "What is there?!" - the loud voice of the innkeeper was heard from below. Having again caught the guest's armed hand, the boy managed to grab the girl by the shirt with the other. Now he kept her at a respectable distance from himself, despite the fact that she managed to scratch his face and neck with free fingers. Another sharp movement and in the young man's hand there was only a tuft of cloth. The killer was again on the floor when men with oil lamps appeared at the door. The innkeeper himself headed them. In the light of the fire brought by the men, Vtorak recognized in the killer the golden-haired daughter of an old mercenary. She was breathing heavily, sitting on the dusty floor. Torn in a fight shirt bared her small white breast. In the trembling flame of fire, the maiden seemed even more beautiful. The sight of Vtorak looming over the half-naked maiden undoubtedly terrified the men who came to the noise. She covered her naked body from human gaze with her free hand and suddenly rose to her feet and with a fierce cry jab her weapon into Vtorak's stomach. She did not have enough strength to stick the weapon deeply, but, nevertheless, it caused a lot of pain to Vtorak.
A girl in the blink of an eye slipped out of the tavern, while dumbfounded men tried to realize the scene they saw. "What are you, a stranger, decided to spoil our girls by force?!" - Finally, exclaimed a lop-eared bald man. Immediately the rest rebelled. The boy would be torn to pieces if Varaha had not arrived in time for the noise. He dispersed the men gathered upstairs and took the wounded youth to Uttama's hut. This wound was no longer in a hurry to heal itself.