- Varaha! You... - the bald warrior only growled in response, strangely twitching. His clothes and hands were bloody, as was the floor around him. He looked at Vtorak with glassy, hazy eyes and probably did not recognize him.
- What is that? - Koba asked in dismay, looking at the unnaturally twitching body in front of Vtorak. - You know him?
- He is a glorious warrior... and a faithful servant of the light. We need to take him to Uttama, maybe she can help him.
- So that was that hermit? What about him?.. - asked Sonmar.
- I dont know! - snapped Vtorak. He was annoyed by unnecessary questions, for his nerves were already at the limit. He looked at the convulsing mercenary and looked intensely for a solution. The young guards, freezed in fear, would not have been able to do anything themselves now, - Okay, Koba, take his legs. I will try to lift him by the shoulders. We need to at least get him out from under the stairs. Hold the torch. So. Are you ready?
As soon as the guard's hand trembling with fear touched Varaha's boot, he attacked him with wild fury with a hidden dagger, stabbing him under the cuirass to the chest. Vtorak had no choice but to jump on the mercenary and, having knocked him down, press him to the floor with all his weight. The dagger fell out of his hand and rolled to the side, but this did not help to the young guard. Koba was ulready dead. Vtorak grabbed Varaha's throat with his hands and squeezed tightly. Fingers pressed his veins, and after some time the madman went limp, spread on the floor. Sonmar still could not believe what was happening. The first time someone died before his eyes.
- Sonmar! We have to take him to the city, can you hear me? It is important! - the guard could hardly realize what was happening. He was still completely numb for a while, until the warrior approached him and plunged a strong slap in the face.
- Oh hell... he is... too?
- Varaha is alive, - answered Vtorak, - I just strangled him a little so that he could not twitch. This person knows a lot. We must deliver him alive to Uttama!
- Okay... - the guard unconditionally believed Vtorak, although Vtorak himself understood that he was lying mercilessly. Varaha was not valuable to the city. He was valuable only to Vtorak.
It was decided to burn the body of Koba near the tower so as not to carry the corpse into the city. Ashes was scattered over the mountains, welcoming such a native ashy world. After a hasty farewell ceremony, the guards decided to move back to the city without an overnight stay. The bound Varaha hung behind Vtorak, and Sonmar made sure that the madman did not wake up too early. Fortunately for travelers, the exhausted Varaha fell asleep soundly and did not cause inconvenience along the way. Sonmar did not stop looking around in dismay.
- What do you want to find there in the darkness? - asked Vtorak.
- I'm afraid that enemies could appear.
- It's dark now. We are walking at the very foot of the mountains. Believe me, they will not be able to notice us.
- I heard that ashen savages see in the night, like cats. I heard that they are running faster than a mountain goat, and in order to prove their strength to each other, they are fighting with bears in their arms!
- It's all just fairy tales, friend. Before the raid, we had a house in the country. I often saw them when I went hunting. They themselves were afraid of me. They were hiding in the trees and never attacked.
- Yes, but now they are pretty bolder! What if an entire group sees us? There are only two of us. We can't fight back...
- Northerners do not need to attack us, Sonmar, - the warrior said reassuringly. - We have no food for them.
- We ourselves are food for them, master Vtorak, - the guard answered sadly. It is no accident that the villagers nailed to the city when ashen barbarians arrived into the valley. Outside its walls, it is dangerous to live. And wander like that too. You know, this is the first time I have been beyond the city limits...
- It's only the beginning, - Vtorak touched up Varaha on his shoulders and accelerated his pace.
- Do you think one day we will live better? Will not be afraid to go beyond the walls? - suddenly in a voice asked Sonmar from behind. Vtorak took a deep breath and stopped. He laid Varaha on the ground and finally, with a pleasant crunch, straightened his tired back.
- It depends on what you mean by a better life, - Vtorak shrugged, glancing at the young fellow traveler. - When I was young, the valley was a much safer place. Yes, there were robbers on the roads, but there were warriors who were ready to protect travelers for a fee. In fairness, I will not miss the opportunity to say that the pay was quite affordable for them, although they were still unhappy, - Sonmar smiled nervously for the first time at the joke.
- You yourself were a mercenary then, I heard?
- Yes, I did. And you know what? Then the ice did not stand at our mountains, and the northerners did not atrocities in the valley. People traveled quietly on the roads, and the climate was much warmer. Stargrad traded with peoples from other lands, but people were still mostly dissatisfied with theirself existence.
- But why?
- Because it is in the nature of people, - said Vtorak, - You need to overcome your nature in order to understand that you already have a good life. You have food, a dry home, and a family. Do you have a family?
- Yes, parents... - replied Sonmar.
- And I have a wife and a son, - Vtorak smiled, - Can we say that we live poorly? - Sonmar smiled warmly in response, - Let's go. The city is not far.
- Yes, on the way, - the young man nodded. Vtorak grabbed the bound prisoner by the chest and put to the shoulder, but Varaha suddenly bit his hand painfully and, falling to the ground, burst out laughing. The hoarse laughter of Varaha was spreading, it seemed, throughout the valley, reflecting off the rocks and trees. Sonmar this time orientated faster than Vtorak. He jumped to the prisoner and gagged him tightly, tearing off the rag from his own ragged shirt.
- Damn, what...
- Now should we be afraid of savages? - asked Sonmar.
- Now we should, - Vtorak answered briefly.
The travelers accelerated their steps. Very soon, dry branches of shrubs began crunching and rustling to give out scouts of ashen people scurrying around them. The guards began to run. Vtorak did his best to run fast enough with Varaha on his back. The prisoner only complicated the task, spinning and breaking out of the fetters. Clattering teeth were heard behind his back: the ashen ones were already looking forward to prey. They were now chasing the trinity without any cover, feeling the fear of their prey. They laughed and screamed until a mountain fortress suddenly appeared from behind a hill. The torches of its walls shone in stunning imagination, proudly showing its own greatness and impregnability. Sonmar was so inspired by the approach of the city that on the run he turned around and slashed with the sword of his closest ashen human. The rest of the barbarians hissed evilly at the guy, but fell behind and picked up the wounded fellow. Very soon, their whitish bodies disappeared into darkness, and Vtorak and Sonmar triumphantly entered the city.
- Where are you going? - asked Vtorak, noticing how his associate rushed to the fortress, - the House of Uttama is on the other side.
- We must report on the arrival to Vyazem, right? - exclaimed puzzled Sonmar as if there was no other option.
- He needs to be shown to a witch, it is dangerous to take him to the fortress! Okay, go report, and I'll take it to Uttama myself. You can bring Vyazem with you to her place.
- Good! - the young man answered, and each guard went in his direction.
Having broken into the old woman's house, Vtorak threw Varaha to the floor and was about to knock on Uttama's door, but she herself opened the door and looked at the delivered captive. Mara and Udaya woke up from the noise, and left their rooms.
- Did you foresee that I would be back at night? - asked Vtorak, a little taken aback by the meeting.
- No, - the old woman answered, - I saw you through the window.
- This is Varaha, - the warrior said, while Uttama examined the bounded man, - He went crazy. I decided that you could somehow help him ...
- Hm, I see... - the witch wondered, - Obviously, he found a way to defeat Akshayah. He has been immortal for some time, but this drove him crazy. I feel... such pain in him, - she fell silent and closed her eyes, as if listening to something, - Take him to the free room, lay him on the bed. Wake Rina, let her make a clean bed there. I will make a decoction that may alleviate his suffering and restore his mind.
- Forever?! - Vtorak did not believe his ears. He always knew Uttama as an unsurpassed sorceress, but to find out that she was able to heal such...
- I don't know, Vtorak, - these words echoed in the man's skull, - For an hour, for a year, for decades. I do not know.
- For the first time I hear you so confidently admit your ignorance. It seemed to me that you know everything.
- I know a little more than you are, but not that is my secret. I just look at everything a little from a higher point, however, I am the same person, even here. I see a lot, but I'm not omnipotent, alas.
- Okay, please do everything you can! I want to talk to him! I want to look into his real eyes, not clouded by madness...
- I understand. Take him to the room.
Vtorak carried Varaha to an empty room and went out at the request of the sorceress into the corridor. Sonmar and Vyazem while arrived in time, but Uttama, not too ceremoniously, set them behind the door in the name of the Council. The work now demanded complete concentration from her. A few hours later, she left Varaha and ordered Vtorak and his family to go to bed. She said that she did everything that depended on her and now you just need to wait. After listening to an elderly witch, everyone went into their rooms, locked Varaha in a room. At night, Mara could not fall asleep. Varaha scratched the door and walls by his nails, filling the house with a creepy sounds. Vtorak also did not sleep. He reflected on what could have happened to the old teacher over the years. About what he could tell, being in the mind. About whether the next morning the magic of Uttama will work.
The next morning everyone gathered near the door to Varaha's room. His room was completly silence. Uttama entered the doorway and returned only after a few minutes. "You can go to him in the evening," she told Vtorak, "now he is not yet ready for visits." He nodded and gathered for service. The day passed unnoticed in thought. When, finally, the long-awaited evening arrived, Vtorak returned home and, with the permission of the sorceress, stepped into the darkness of the cherished room. The door shut behind him. He sat down in front of the table, at which Varaha, who seemed perfectly sane, was eating.
- Oh... - the old warrior almost choked on porridge, - It's you...
- Hello to you, Varaha...
- Hello, - the man answered.
- What happened to you? We found you crazy in the tower... you were covered in blood, - asked Vtorak.
- I know. Uttama told me... In short, they took everything from me... and I took immortality as the price for this, - Varaha said thoughtfully, - What a fool...
- Who? What was taken?
- My daughter, Vtorak... my poor daughter...
- Who? - Vtorak leaned closer to the old man.
- She was born a couple of years after you and I met in Stargrad. My dear Lima... she was so bright... so innocent... She sang to me in the evenings... to me and her mother. She was... so pure... I only then understood why they were always called like that - the warrior's eyes were filled with tears. The second man has never seen a former mentor in a mood like that.
- What happened? Tell me, finally, what happened?!
- Rosha... He found me shortly after the death of Stargrad. I believed him... he promised to teach me how to defeat the death demon, but in return I had to help him defeat Orrick. I agreed. He taught me a lot, but time passed. I loved. For me, victory over Akshayah was no longer so important when... my daughter was born.
- Daughter... - Vtorak repeated automatically.
- Yes... she became everything for me and my wife. I did not want to take up arms anymore, but Rosha demanded the fulfillment of promises. According to his idea, we should suddenly attacked Orrick, but... we could not even hurt him. Here he is omnipotent. Orrick only played with us, and then he broke every bone of the lizard with his magic and then tore Rosha's body to pieces. Then I prepared to die. You can't imagine how scary it is when your death looks at you, smiling, and you understand that you certainly can't escape it. I thought this was the end, and everything inside me were opposed it. Perhaps this is how my self-preservation instinct worked. But I understood that I could neither run nor attack. He has not done anything yet, and I have already lost. I have lost when agreed to fulfill a promise to oppose him. I've never been so scared... - Varaha was silent. His eyes widened and his face turned white. Memories of that day still tormented his troubled soul.
- What happened then? - asked Vtorak.
- Then?.. Then he spared me. Yes... just imagine... He said that he knows why I helped him and does not want to take my life for it. And I returned home. I returned from there, where there is no way back... I returned from the battle with God himself.
- He just let you go?
- I was not important to him. There is nothing important for him... He was looking for a way to get out of our world. He was looking for Pure.
- And your daughter? He did not know about her?
- No, he didn't. For several years we lived in peace. I did not want to move to the city to other people. Settlements attract more attention than a lonely hut near the mountains. In such a life, of course, there were difficulties. There wasn't enough food, we all the time moved away from the migrations of the northerners, we lived in constant tension due to the fact that we were in the middle of the wars of ash tribes... but, you know, we were happy nonetheless, only because we had each other. I loved them so much... so loved... But still, the sorcerer found out about Lima. I don't know how, but he came for her. We lived in a valley near the old tower where you found me. Orrik distracted me, taking me aside from the house, and he attacked the child... on my poor Lima... - Varaha thundered down his head on the planks of the table and burst into tears as only a man who has lost his relatives could sob. Remembering his own powerlessness and the horror that it led to, Varaha suffered inhumanly. Vtorak could not comfort him now. The wound was too fresh. He only prayed to himself to the bright god so that such a grief would not befall either his family or the family of those whom he knew, for he was now able to see the full weight and bitterness of this incredible loss. He struggled to drive away the frightening pictures that his imagination now painted, where his own son fell victim to the attack. After a while, Varaha continued, - Finally, he laughed in my face, saying that I "take it too close to my heart." He said that in his world, every magician passes a similar exam at the end of training to prove that he has enough magical knowledge to get out of any hole in the universe. He understood neither my tears, nor my pain... I was not alive human for him. I was not real. He treated me like... to the decoration... And to leave our world... do you think he needed a song of Pure, as he said before? Do you think that all he needed was a gap in the cloud of veils? Oh no... he lied from the very beginning! He needed the soul of the Pure. The soul that will leave this world, but will not perish in the womb of Akshayah. Then he... - Varaha struggled to gather his strength and growled to wrap the overwhelming weakness in a stronger violent impulse. - When he killed her, he grabbed hold of her bright soul, leaving the mortified body, and disappeared with her, piercing the clouds through. He left our world, having played enough with it. Last year, my wife was swept away by a fever, and now... - the warrior covered his face with his hands - Have you ever seen how Pures die? I bet not. Do you think their bodies become light, and then turn into a seed, from which the tree sprouts? Oh no... And I saw... I can tell you the truth, Vtorak. A tree grows directly from their flesh. It grows rapidly in a matter of days. Branches literally cut through the skin and dissolve their filthy foliage. I could not even bury my girl, as it should be... I was forced to watch her decaying remains, until only her skull and several bones remained to look through the bark. At first I struggled with this... I broke off the branches that so terribly mutilated her beautiful face... but all in vain. In the afternoon I broked off the branches, but during the night they grew twice. I did not begin to burn it, Vtorak, although I knew that in this way the whole process could be stopped. But I could not ... I simply could not destroy the last reminder of her in this world. When, finally, I decided to leave her to go in search of other Pures... from a distance her tree seemed to me so beautiful. So thin and elegant... bright, just like her. But so far it seems only from a distance. Nearby, you can see her bones, ingrown into the bark, her skull sticking out of the tree trunk. Damn Orrick... - said the man and, gritting his teeth, turned away. Vtorak paused respectfully before asking another question.
- Did you seek death in that tower, aren't you?
- Oh no... Now I can't die. I finally took advantage of the knowledge that Rosha passed on to me. Akshayah will never come for me again, and if he does, I will overcome him again. I vowed that I would not leave this body that had been training all my life. It should serve me one last time. I will repeat what Orrick did and I will appear in his world to torture him to death... to torture him in front of eyes those whom he loved... I am alive only by this dream already... - he suddenly thought, - There is no more time for me. There is only a thirst for revenge.
- Think it over, Varaha! Listen to what you say? You lose yourself. Do you want to be like the one who caused you so much pain?
- Yes! Maybe I'm crazy. So what? I know what the dwarfs would say. They would explain to me that this is the destination. What was so destined. The little girl was destined to die such a death?! - cried the warrior, - No! To the hell! So the next Pure is destined too! Also "destined" to die! Only from my hand...
- I do not believe, Varaha. You cannot kill a child. Think it over! -
exclaimed Vtorak, getting up from the table. Varaha flinched and tiredly took a deep breath.
- You're right, Vtorak... just listen to me... what am I talking about... let's sleep... And forgive me... forgive me for everything I have ever done and told you. I would... like to do otherwise. Know in advance... only know in advance... at least a bit... Everything for me is now such a mess... I do not know what to do... what I'm doing...
- I forgive you, Varaha. Get some sleep. You should make up for lost strength. Uttama will take care of you.
- Thanks.
Vtorak left the room and locked the door behind him. Everything mixed up in the shower. He did not want to be alone now, because he was afraid to drown in a seething brew of feelings and thoughts. He wanted to return to the material world of conversations as soon as possible, where at the same time only one real voice could sound, and not thousands of those that sound only inside the head. He passed the corridor and entered the bedroom, where Mara was waiting for him. She woke up from a light nap, hearing his footsteps, and gently wrapped with her thin hands his strong neck, as soon as Vtorak sat on the bed next to her.
- Tell me all, dear. Share with me your pain, - it is amazing how sensitive and insightful all these years this woman managed to be. At the right moments, she wrapped him in care and affection, or she inspired the exploits by the volitional fire of the eyes. So now she looked into his eyes, and he felt his wife see him through and through. But this feeling did not bother him, for with her gaze she penetrated the soul gently and carefully, carefully trying to understand the cause of the sadness. Then Vtorak without hiding said everything that he managed to know from the talk with Varaha. He talked about terrible tragedy of the old master. Mara was not able to answer right away, she needed to ponder what she heard.
- Just imagine, - Vtorak said softly, - Because of all the horror that he had to see and experience, his pure love for his family was transformed into all-consuming hatred. Is he able to really kill in despair an innocent child, having learned that he was born Pure? What is left of this former Varaha in this man?
- Love very often pushes to extraordinary extremes: to eternal hatred and unhuman cruelty or to controversial all forgiveness...
- Yes, - Vtorak smiled thoughtfully and hugged his wife in response, - I still won't understand how you managed to love me at all. I didn't deserve it...
- Love is the only right feeling in this world, - the woman replied, - We should never make the obstacles to it. This is the only real light that we can find here...
- The light... yes, - he lay down next to her on the bed and was silent for a long time, pondering and preparing words, - I remember many people told me that everyone can become Pure. I feel that... my destiny is just that. I need to become Pure myself. Everything says it to me now. I've been looking for so long who will reveal to me the secret of my destination, but it turns out to be... I need to fix everything that I have done and return a calm life to the valley.
- Why exactly you? Why do you think so?
- The Pure have left the world for too long time. They need to us. Their strength and wisdom. If a small child will born Pure, Varaha will do everything to get to him. Crazy, he will definitely kill the child. But if I become the new Pure... I hope he won't be able to deal with me too easily. I need to take this blow for the sake of the valley.
- You are trying, by your own intention, to change the world... but this is not the best idea. Responsibility is too great. Is it worth it to radically change the world if it is already arranged that way? Knyazes and kings, magicians and scientists, warriors and merchants all dream of domination. They are struggling to take possession of the universe, to conquer it. But maybe you should just try to live in it? Just remain part of it? Instead of conquering it with weapons, maybe you should open your hand and offer it to the world? We still have the light, Vtorak. He will always be. No need to take someone else's debt. Every part is important. Even the smallest. You yourself said that you are no longer the warrior you were once. It is not your duty to become Pure and again stand in the way of Varaha.
- Then what is my duty?
- Your duty to be with your family, - Mara simply answered.
- But in the valley now there are no warriors who could stand against him. Even among the northerners, hardly anyone will be able to defeat Varaha in a fair fight.
- Some things you cannot change. And it is right. Otherwise, every fool would tailor reality as he pleases and it will desroy it. Reconcile with what has already happened, I pray you... it will become much easier for you to live, - she gently rubbed her cheek on his shoulder, - and now let's go to sleep, dear... I'm glad that you returned unscathed ahead of schedule, but it is already late...
- Of course, dear. Let's sleep...