Time Of Traitors

6

Enough of these games, dear. Your cat is tired.

There was nothing he could do now, he had to move on if he did not want to wander around this place in the dark. Then Cres quickly gathered the remaining things and threw a bag over himself. He dragged the saddle into the house and plugged it deeper from prying eyes. The thing is expensive, but it was impossible to carry the girl and carry this thing with you.

With great difficulty, he managed to put the girl on his back and rise, holding her by the calves - Ada did not even flinch. It weighed a little more than the saddle left behind - his eternal thin man on water and bread was losing weight very much every day, and the road promised nothing but sweat and tears. A couple more careful steps and he was more or less used to the new burden. It seems to work, if only the boots would not fall off her thin ankles and then they would not have to come back for them.

They went deep into the unknown, and the days were intensely followed by days.

* * *

I had to stop often to catch my breath and give my back a little rest - still, carrying a limp body turned out to be another task. At short stops, he sprinkled water on his pointed face, slapped his cheeks, and as he walked, he chatted various nonsense incessantly, sorting out funny stories from a past life. Naively, I thought that a familiar voice would help her wake up. But all to no avail - over the past three days, Ada has not regained consciousness. She and Senches so punished him.

What if Ada doesn't open her eyes anymore? - a terrible thought haunted him, although it was impossible not to admit that the days and nights had become incomparably calmer.

The deeper they delved into Taiga, the more it resembled some madman's nightmare. The thicket was now filled with bird cries, then it suddenly plunged into an alarming, echoing silence. The silence could be broken by a strange sound - a long and heavy rumble that resembled the voice of a battle horn. His appearance always took Cres by surprise - he, along with Ada, threw himself on the ground and lay motionless with his head in the grass, guessing the beats of a frightened heart. When everything calmed down, he went out, looking around in a hunted way, like a hare in a wolf's den - he was frightened of every trunk from which some unknown creature might jump out.

Deeper and deeper Cres with Ada on his hump dug into the impenetrable Taiga, and with each step the trees increased in size. At first, Cres thought that it was from fatigue that his head began to play stupid games with him - even birds rarely climb to such a frightening height. But the vegetation seemed to have completely forgotten all decorum, and soon the sky was almost completely hidden by a web of branches in red-yellow leaves. Only a stone tree could withstand such a whopper - ref , which is unthinkable to cut down alone. And a dozen people, if they tried to clasp his trunk, they could not achieve anything worthwhile.

Pressing his forehead against its dark bark in reddish veins, Kres felt the grave cold emanating from within, antiquity and his own insignificance compared to such a giant that has been standing here for millennia. Ref was simply cyclopean in size and literally buried in twilight skies. Grow it up a little more and its branches will definitely begin to cut off pieces of the clouds, like butter knives. And there were hundreds of such trees.

At first, there were refs on his way, straight as pillars, but they were clearly not the last thing that Taiga was ready to surprise. Other trees grew in breadth, as if they were fashioned by the hands of a mad sculptor. The branches spread out in dirty black beards and sank into the ground like roots. Some trees, quite alive, had wide hollows resembling mouths - from the inside it smelled of something sweet and wafted with warmth. The ugliest snags were swollen from the inside and trembled slightly, as if they were being torn apart by a rapidly flowing disease. A suffocating smell came from the foulbroods, and the grass stopped growing even on the outskirts. Kres did not dare to put his foot on the burned areas, especially after something huge and extremely thin jumped out of one such hole. He almost felt in his pants at the sight of a disproportionately large head with a wrinkled, crooked muzzle under a crown of curly horns. Shreds of skin hung from the sides in greasy folds, something sad and ugly looked at Cres from the sagging belly. The animal jumped up on the spot, shaking a luxurious bush on its head, and with some kind of croaking it rushed away on its ten thin legs. Since then, Cres no longer approached especially outlandish trees.

A dense cap of crowns did its job - the uneven ground was overgrown with small grass, interspersed occasionally with ugly bushes, all in a sticky thorn. Without overgrowth, the soil went to pieces - ditches and pits were constantly thrown underfoot. Some of the holes in the ground were perfectly round, as if drilled with a drill. Looking closely, Kres noticed small clouds of steam there - as if the earth itself was breathing.

Sometimes green lights stood in his way - they flickered to themselves in the distance and tinkled softly like bells: either singly, then in pairs, or even came across by whole families, the ringing from them could be heard ahead of time. Soon there were only more of them, and in the eternally gloomy forest, at least a little, but it became lighter, but Cres did not come close to them - from a mile away, the pale light reeked of death.

He trudged forward until the sun tiredly winked through the branches, and Taiga set off to drown in the twilight. Kres had long been looking for a place for him and Ada to spend the night without fear of waking up in someone's paws, and soon came across the remains of a stone house. At first he thought that he was seeing some kind of giant turtle with its mouth wide open, but as he got closer, he recognized a heap of dozens of large blocks the height of a man. Once the building was clearly twice as large, but tireless nature successfully ground to dust and brought down several walls and left only the most durable.

Kres staggered hesitantly, trying to look out among the time-torn green stones for a lurking danger. He still remembered the monster from the hollow, remembered the giant six-legged shadows that slowly walked, dissolving into the morning mist, remembered strange sounds and lights, and he did not smile to get to know them better. Recently, there were almost no ruins under stone roofs, so there was no choice - he shouldn’t climb into the stinking hollow, which were scattered in abundance around the district? Cres carefully lowered Ada to the ground, and he himself released the whip to its full length and took a few cautious steps towards the house, shuddering at every extraneous sound, covered with goosebumps from the slightest breath of the breeze.

But inside it turned out to be empty - a dark and dry lair was suitable for shelter, as well as possible. And after Cres built a kind of lounger out of spruce branches and sketched a small fire, he could only dream of one thing - a bathhouse. That would be a sight.

* * *

The last traces of the sun had long since melted away, followed by impenetrable darkness, but restless thoughts and some kind of foreboding did not let me close my eyes. After dejectedly chewing his portion, Cres pulled off his boots and lay down next to Ada. Her shoulders trembled every time another piercing gust of wind blew into their shelter. He brought with him the creaking and mournful sighs of the trees before the merciless cold. Or was it the moaning of the creatures raging in the air? Suddenly there was a solitary cry, but with such a wind, I didn’t want to poke my nose out at all. Some disturbing clatter followed, and soon Taiga began to hum, howling furiously, depriving her of any hope of forgetting herself.

A grave weight fell on his shoulders, Kres felt buried for tens of miles deep underground with no chance to part the thickness with his shoulders and get to the surface. He stroked Ada's head and could not get rid of the oppressive feeling that she would never wake up from this swoon.

The noise grew louder and louder, echoing with laughter. Ada was shaking and breathing harder and harder. Suddenly, Cres noticed a barely noticeable glint of wide-open eyes, in the depths of which lurked a primitive, animal fear.

- Good night. Creepy night.

... they said no, they purred nearby. If cats knew human language, they would speak the same way.

Kres had never considered himself particularly fearful, but now even the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end - something was sitting in the darkest corner.

- Such a beautiful night. Such a delicious night. Some kill others, and we feast on those in whom there are already too many holes. You guys are missing out on a lot.

Dream? He overslept the arrival of the overnight guest? To throw off the delusion, Cres blinked his inflamed eyes, but the shadow in the corner did not disappear. Before bringing Ada here, he climbed the ruins far and wide, looking for even the slightest gap where some kind of dirty trick could lurk, and then did not leave the place, never taking his eyes off the semicircular opening to the outside. Then where could it come from? Cres did not believe in ghosts to believe that it just came from the other side , in order to scare tired travelers to death.

- Who are you? - only Kres could squeeze out of his instantly dry throat.

He was already halfway to drawing his whip and dagger, but he hesitated - for some reason he thought that going against this opponent with such toys was like hitting a knight with a broom handle. The enemy is not really visible - just a purring blurry spot. What does he have there? Teeth, fangs or something more serious?

- You? the creature chuckled. “More respect, frightened boy with a toothpick in his belt. What is he doing here with his goat, when there is such fun in the forest - the question.

Wood creaked, iron rang. Through the howling of the wind screams were torn - people and nonhumans. Hell was already shaking like a fever.

"If you're having so much fun, why did you come here?" Cres said. - All the fun in the forest. Go and have fun in the air, I won't keep you.

“There is a smell here, an interesting smell,” the creature sniffed with its invisible nose. “Only a girl can smell like that.” How far from home did you get with her, fool... Can I ask you a favor? - suddenly asked an unknown interlocutor. It even sounded polite.

- Which? Cres was worried.

- Sheer rubbish. Your girlfriend has such fragrant skin, I'm just going crazy. Can you tear off a piece for me? At least the most horny ...

“Come closer, if you are so hungry,” Kres threw into the darkness and released the whip to its full length. The leather whip clicked deafeningly and hit the floor, raising a column of dust to the ceiling. “Maybe I can find a hotel for you.” I'm a master at all sorts of tricks.

“You drag a lamb with a drag, and you protect it, as if you were going to eat it yourself. AND? What are you planning to start with? I would start with heels, finish with cheeks, hehe.

Ada was trembling more and more, the poor thing began to whimper softly, and it was hard to blame her for this.

- Lucky for you - we are full. If it weren't for this sweet slaughter in the wind, they wouldn't scratch their tongues, they would grab your goat and ...

"I can't hear what you're mumbling about."

He suddenly fell silent, as if choking on saliva.

The noise from the forest grew. The sounds of battle burst into them and cut off their bickering with all their might. Iron clanged, and huge creatures growled. Cres did not hear the answer - the wild cry of the dying beast took over. He absorbed all the sounds to the last, even their stone trembled when something gigantic thumped onto the roof. This is how a demon falling from heaven must howl.

Cres leaned against Ada and involuntarily closed his eyes. For a moment it seemed to him that the vault was about to collapse on their heads. Another beat of a wildly beating heart, and the world again plunged into an unsettling silence. Cres opened his eyes and came across an empty corner. Kres blinked in bewilderment and for some time more looked at the spot where, as he thought, the obsessive visitor was sitting, but even that grave feeling of something alien evaporated - their mysterious guest had left them.

Didn't he fancy it? Was it a dream or a harbinger of Thirst?

Everything, Ada. Everybody. It's over, - he breathed and lowered his eyes to the girl whom he swore to protect from everything in the world.

But he stumbled upon the murderous fury of a she-wolf. With a long, naked claw that darted like an angry viper into his stomach.

Cres reflexively grabbed her arm and held the blade halfway into the meat. But Ada did not calm down on this and, screeching deafeningly, answered him with an elbow and a knee in the groin, driving the knife deeper along the way. Cres, blinded by pain, pushed her away and rushed to the side, dragging the knife behind him, but flew into the wall with the back of his head and lost consciousness for a moment. His eyes were covered with a bloody veil, it became completely dark. Another moment, he lifted his eyelids and saw how the screaming figure was carried away into the night, burning with blood and fire. And either from a blow to a stone, or for real - the laughter of an invisible creature resounded in my ears.

Do not get up on shaky legs - Kres gave up trying and slid down the wall straight into a bloody puddle of despair. How could this happen? How could he be so screwed up? The handle of the dagger protruded from his stomach like a deadly rebuke. Consciousness almost left him again - the blade barely came out, leaving him in the snares of merciless pain. Bloody foam bubbled along the edges of the cut, promising an imminent tide of trouble.

A vial of black liquid was not immediately found. The wooden cork also had to be fiddled with before every last drop ended up in his stomach. The bitter remedy flared up and broke into a cold sweat - obviously he overdid it, the damn doctor. There was only one thing left to do - to hold out and not give up the hooves before the train grabbed the reins and dulled the pain. But there was no time for survival. Cres, staggering and cursing the whole wide world, had already climbed out into the fresh air, smelling of pain and blood.

The world met him with the thunder of the winds and the sound of swords. He slipped on the wet grass, and disfigured his face with the sharp needles of the bush, and smashed his bare feet into blood on the roots. Losing life, drop by drop, I wandered forward - into the frightening forest darkness, where she disappeared.