2023-03-06 22:22:45The boy looked at her. Fear on his face gave way to doubt, then to determination. He went to the nearest barrel and made a hole in it the third time. A thin trickle flowed, filling the rest of the barrels. He did the same with three more.
"Now go," Sister Charlotte said. - Do not take sin on your soul. I will do everything myself.
She swayed and fell. The boy rushed to the still-smoldering torch and fanned it. Then he handed the torch to the woman and rushed upstairs from the cellar. At the exit, he crossed himself and carefully locked the heavy bolt behind him.
Sister Charlotte held the torch to the nearest soldier. The fabric of his pants, soaked with wine, took up quickly. Sister Charlotte crawled over to the next one. Soon the whole basement was on fire like a big fire. Sister Charlotte threw the torch into the barrels and sang "Te Deum"*.
From the heat and smoke, some soldiers began to wake up. However, the sleepy grass made them clumsy and drowsy. And before anyone realized what had happened, the fire engulfed their bodies, clad in light armor.
Finally, one soldier woke up from the dope and furiously began to pull off his armor and slap his body, trying to beat down the fire.
"You're wasting your time," Sister Charlotte said. “You will still die here. The door is locked. In barrels, in addition to wine, there is also resin and gunpowder. So you will make a great dinner at Satan's feast.
The soldier looked at her wildly and rushed to the door. The heavy bog oak stood motionless.
- Oh, you witch! the soldier roared, rushing towards Sister Charlotte. - I'll kill you!
“I’m going to die anyway,” she said, smiling evilly. “And after what you and your master have done here, death will be your reward.” Only I will not die alone. And with all of you.
The soldier clutched his head and rushed to the door again. The heavy air made it difficult to breathe. The heat that penetrated under the light armor baked the body no worse than a brazier. The howls of awakened soldiers blocked the noise of the fire. Sister Charlotte watched this with a cruel smile on her lips.
Finally, feeling the approach of death, she cried out:
- God's justice be done! and laughed an evil laugh.
As the last sound of her voice died away, her head fell to the stone floor with a dull thud. The basement continued to burn. Acrid smoke crawled out from under the door. The soldiers, barely moving their legs, coughing and sneezing from the suffocating air, crowded around the door and tried to break it, shouting loudly. Soon the screams subsided. Following them, the knocks on the door subsided.
Dawn broke over the monastery. Heavy clouds, driven by the wind, briskly ran across the sky. When the first rays of the sun fell on the roof of the monastery, Bertrand de Gault and Catherine le Muy came out of the church. The baron looked around the empty courtyard and the fallen cross.
- What the hell happened here? he growled.
Katerina pointed to a puff of smoke rising from the monastery building.
- Some nun survived.
She drew her dagger and walked towards the door. There was a dull explosion behind them, causing the woman to jump away. The baron walked around the yard and stopped at the cesspool. A smile appeared on his lips.
- Well done guys, nothing to say. Made work easier.
He noticed a ladder against one of the walls. The stones above it were scratched. Obviously, someone did not have enough height of the stairs and he, clinging to the old stones that had fallen out in places, climbed the wall. Bertrand de Gault stepped on the first rung.
When he reached the top, the wall rose another eight feet above him. He did not follow the path that someone else had taken before him. On the other side of the wall there is a deep ditch with water, and whoever ran this way must have either drowned in the cold water or froze to death if he could swim out.
Bertrand de Gault descended to earth. Catherine le Muy approached him.
"All our soldiers are dead," she said grimly.
- What's happened?
- Some nun spilled wine and burned them.
- Well, to hell with them. Let's hire others. We have money. Yes, and the monastery is not poor.
He burst into loud laughter and slapped his girlfriend on the back.
- I like it here. I'm staying here.
- Fine. We'll just do it our way. This will be our castle. Our house. Our nest.
- Agree.
The sun peeking out from behind the clouds illuminated a man and a woman in black robes, who stood embracing, a fallen cross and a bunch of charred bodies in the middle of the devastated monastery courtyard.
A lone figure in torn, wet, sooty clothes, constantly crossing herself and whispering something, without looking back, fled from the monastery. Joes, to whom fear, despair and determination gave strength to get out of the monastery, breaking off his nails and freezing in the icy water, weakening, ran to the forest. Leaning against the broad trunk, he sank to the ground. Frost bound his body. He really wanted to sleep. Struggling with sleep, he kept repeating and repeating what he composed on that terrible night:
How the sun is born
Over our sinful earth,
So now the lover, having broken his vow,
In the arms of someone else's wife.
As long as the husband wanders on distant wanderings,
Ready for different dangers
The wife betrays the deeds of the lascivious
Vows that are given in the wedding.
The vow is broken - and there is no salvation:
Waiting for the marriage life of their death.
Wife - in the dungeon, lover - death,
The duel is ready cause.
However, the cruel lover is ready -
Having attacked her husband from an ambush,
Insidiously killed him - blood was shed,
God has no mercy on him.
Believing that he was favored by fate,
Abandoning all principles of honor,
He became, we curse the native side,
Robbery with the devil together.
Nuns in a distant forgotten skete,
If they are alive, they could tell
How he ruined the skete, arranged a revelry,
How he celebrated the wedding with blood.
How he dishonored God's sheep
How he killed priests
Like a kind and quiet holy father
From the grave threatened him with hell.
That in eternity his family will suffer,
Endure all this pain
That the angels in the sky will all weep
And pray to God for forgiveness.
Forgiveness will be given only when
When in this hellish clan
Soul born without sin
She will sacrifice herself.
When the cruel torment itself
Will go with a smile, without fear,
The generation will be forgiven and the darkness will recede:
God no longer requires execution.
Finally, his strength left him, and the Christmas sun illuminated a lonely small crooked figure in the winter frozen forest - the last victim of the massacre perpetrated by Bertrand de Gault on the eve of the holiday.
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After a while, when there was no place for the apple to fall in the hall, the door slammed shut with a loud noise. Katya looked doomedly from one face to another: so different and so the same. Bodily deformities and mental pathologies, the gifts of the psyche and the curses of the soul - all this must soon be destroyed. All this will die and not be reborn. The poems written by a novice boy centuries ago were just poetry. And no prophecy. And now some fanatic decided in his own way to fulfill what he considered a prediction. All of a sudden, all heads went up to the glass ceiling. Katya also heard a sound and raised her head. High above her in white robes and a white mask on his face stood a man.Dear relatives! Suddenly, a voice sounded in her head. “Today, the prophecy of the old monk who was killed right on this spot will be fulfilled. Many years ago, the abbot Gilbert Orsi was crucified by our ancestor and, dying, predicted his punishment up to the thirteenth degree. Only
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During the same week, Katya tried to leave the castle , worrying about Agnia. She was also made nervous by the ever-increasing number of relatives gathering in the castle . And also the strange behavior of golems, wearing something all the time, dragging and repairing. What caused such a pilgrimage of relatives to her, no one could clearly say. However, the sane, interrogated by her, fell into some kind of inhibited state and insisted that they should be here. By the end of the second week, Katya became more and more worried. Moreover, Guillaume became somehow apathetic and clearly tried to avoid her. And Katerina just stopped noticing her. Discouraged Katya tried to act herself. But then her clothes suddenly turned out to be dirty or washed, then the keys to the car or passport disappeared somewhere, then it rained from morning to evening, turning the roads into impassable obstacles, then the candles in the car flooded, then gasoline disappeared somewhere, then she herself ha
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Guillaume looked attentively at Katya, sighed and opened his mouth to continue the story. Suddenly he became alert. Katya also had an unpleasant feeling. For a while, an uneasy silence surrounded and weighed on them. Then there was a thump of feet, and the door swung open. Katerina stood in the doorway, alarmed.Catherine,” Guillaume turned to her. “I feel the presence of a member of our family. Who is this? Katerina suppressed her surprise and spoke quickly.Some woman came and brought the police. She screamed that her friend had gone mad here and she was being locked up like a beast. That people are being killed and eaten here. She brought her hands up to her face. “And worst of all, the commissar who came with her is a distant descendant of ours. Guillaume looked at Katya with a smile. Then he turned to Katherine.But is it possible to influence him?Bertrand finds out just that,” Catherine said calmly.And what is the name of a friend, she did not say? Katya ask
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Well, - Guillaume clapped his hands and rubbed his hands. – Would you like to have a bite to eat? A simple question reminded Katya of a monstrous feast, and nausea rose in her throat.No, no, she shook her head. - Do not worry.Then coffee. Suddenly, quickly, the little man rode up in his chair to the corner where he had a kitchen. It really was a miniature kitchen with a refrigerator, electric stove, microwave and dishwasher. A switch flipped, and a soft, muted light lit up the corner. Everything was sparkling clean and tidy. Jars of coffee, a sugar bowl, a teapot, a salt shaker and other little things were at arm's length. Katya watched in amazement as Guillaume deftly managed all the objects, moving his chair along the way.Yes, in this sense I am not disabled, - he said without looking at her. I have been living with a chair for a long time. It is my legs, and it would be surprising if I had not learned to manage it for so many years. He pointed Katya to
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The room they arrived at was huge, dark, lit only by candles and torches. Through the high window openings one could see the starry sky and the full moon. A circle was drawn in the middle of the room, in which a pentagram was inscribed. There was an inscription in Latin around the circle, black candles burned at the corners of the pentagram. A cross was inscribed inside the pentagram. A smaller part of him was looking at the door. In the place where the planks of the cross met, there was a bowl. Along the walls of the round room were couches with pillows and bedspreads, which could be guessed from the outlines, since most of the room was in the shade. Bertrand de Gault came out of the darkness with a tarred torch.“Here you are,” he said, and lit a torch from a nearby candle. Sweetish smoke drifted across the room. Bertrand waved his hand. Pierre put a three-legged stool over the cup in a pentagram and led Boris to it. Boris, who had already begun to have its effect on the smoke,
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Entering, he saw the hostess standing by the fireplace. In her hand was a frighteningly long mouthpiece, at the end of which a cigarette smoldered, spreading a sweet, intoxicating aroma.I don’t understand you, Boris,” she said. - Why was it necessary to hide and eavesdrop if you are a member of the family, and everything will be told to you anyway?However, about Agnia, you fooled me. Boris walked over to the fireplace and took a cigar from a box on the shelf. The flame of the candle danced merrily at the tip. The woman smiled as she puffed out a puff of smoke.You already think we're out of your mind. What if we told you the whole truth right away? You would run and call a psychiatrist here. We don't need more noise today. Boris thought and nodded in agreement.You were talking about guests. Will there be someone else? The woman stepped away from the fireplace and, taking a cigarette out of the holder, put it out in an ashtray on the table.I received a
60
The silence was broken by the melodious chime of a clock that stood somewhere in the darkness. The candles had long been extinguished, and only the light of the moon, softly pouring from the window, dispelled the darkness. The clock, having finished cooing, struck eleven.It's time to get up, - Katya said languidly, stretching under a light sheet. The shifted corner revealed Boris's contentedly resting nature.So you can’t see a damn thing, ”he muttered, sitting up on the bed.And what? - Katya jumped off easily and ran barefoot to the door. – Peter! she called. - Light!What are you? - Boris involuntarily covered his penis with a sheet and stared in amazement at Katya. - Cover up! But she did not pay attention to his words, impatiently tapping her bare foot at the door, while the impassive Pierre lit the candles in the room. He walked from one chandelier to another. It seemed that the darkness and twilight did not bother him at all. When he finished with th
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Finally, the forest ended with a clearing, which in turn turned into a small clearing. The outlines of a castle rose on the horizon . Light shone from two windows. The trees creaked ominously in the wind. The road through the clearing led to a high wrought-iron gate that locked a stone fence. When the car pulled up, the gate swung open noiselessly and closed behind her just as silently. After making a semicircle around the dark mass of a flower bed, the flowers of which were difficult to see in the dark, the car stopped in front of a high dark door, which immediately swung open. A tall, gray-haired man in a gray sweater stood in the doorway. Approaching him with a simple luggage, Boris shuddered: on both eyes of the man there were thorns that completely covered the pupils.Welcome to us, - he said in a hollow voice and smiled. His face instantly changed: he looked like a cunning dwarf. Pierre will take your things. A stocky man with a stiff expression stepped out o
