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Author: Emeldaline
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

There are a thousand roads leading away

There are thousands of roads that sang the night.

My path is one

And in it the moon again smiles without sleep,

Now she is my lady

I am her slave, servant in the night ...

The time was drawing near to dawn, but low black clouds hanging almost overhead made the twilight a real darkness. Heavy, joyless and impenetrable.

The horses trotted along at a quiet trot, as tired as the riders from the furious ride that had lasted all night. Matzher led their small detachment, Yarsi rode at the rear. He saw that people could hardly sit in the saddles, they didn’t get a good rest, they didn’t manage to sleep and even have dinner, and now they were holding on with their last strength.

People. He caught himself thinking that he no longer identified himself with people, himself and Matzher. Only three of them were human. Their smell tickled his nostrils, he heard their hearts beating, he felt how hot blood was running very close through their veins ... His mind
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  • Wanderers Of the Night   15

    In the morning, Vic grumbled for a long time, argued with Matzher, tried to convince him of something. Yarsi watched their exchange impassively. He refused the proposed breakfast, which caused new exclamations of displeasure from the Vistolian, who claims that the hungry werewolf might again try to dine with him. Matzher only shrugged his shoulders, as if through a great distance, Yarsi heard his words.“…At least your presence won’t force me to chase him all over the forest, his game is always around….”“…Well, thanks.” Vic rubbed his neck. – I’m glad I can help, your concern for my health brings me to tears…All day long, their little detachment moved through the thicket of the forest. Yarsi seemed to be watching himself from the sidelines. Half-sleep was replaced by brief moments of wakefulness, then consciousness again plunged into a fog. Awakening was like emerging from a deep viscous pool. He began to hear voices, his eyes cleared, reality rolled so close that he felt the beatin

  • Wanderers Of the Night   16

    Life cannot be a dream, but sometimes it suddenly becomes the most cherished desire. Right now, more than ever, I wanted to forget and not think about anything. But, unfortunately, Yarsi perceived everything that was happening too clearly. The day is running out, not just a day - the last day. And the promised help remained an illusion. It's not scary. Now it's not scary anymore.– And now what? Vic's voice broke the long silence.For quite some time the horses had wandered aimlessly through the woods, unguided by their riders. Matzher was immersed in his own thoughts, he seemed to be remembering something. Vic looked around nervously, glanced anxiously at the prince.“Maybe it’s time for you to turn towards Daitra?” Yarsi asked. - You will reach the nearest village and you will be safe.The Vistolet shook his head stubbornly.“That's stupid, Vic!“I want to stay until the end, but not because of the contract, but because you are my friend, Yarsi.“Thanks, but that doesn’t make sense

  • Wanderers Of the Night   17

    A huge eagle glided smoothly over the forest. Its wide-spread wings were almost motionless, it only shook them slightly, adjusting to the air currents. His keen eyes caught the slightest movement below. As if the waves of the sea bent and straightened under the gusts of wind, the tops of the trees, nimble animals jumped from branch to branch, carefree little birds flew.The eagle made a wide circle and dropped slightly, peering into the gaps between the trunks. The wind suddenly changed, stood in its way like a cold, elastic wall, so that the bird had to make several powerful flaps of its wings to break through this wall. He let out a long cry, an icy wave penetrated through the feathers and seemed to dig into the body. The eagle tumbled, its wings flapping helplessly under the merciless gusts of the hurricane. The forest below stood motionless, he watched the attempts of a living creature to continue its path in the world of the dead.The eagle shouted again, this time angrily, fierc

  • Wanderers Of the Night   18

    A narrow but well-trodden road ran along the very edge of the forest. On the other hand, huge meadows with lush, bright green grass approached it. Here and there, a strip of a narrow, fast-moving river shone, emerging from the lush greenery. A light warm breeze swayed bright meadow flowers, from which a charming aroma emanated. Furry bees buzzed, multi-colored butterflies fluttered, and the only thing missing here was grazing herds of domestic cattle, and nowhere was there even a hint of the presence of human habitation.Untouched nature, silence, tranquility. Only the road stood out from the general impression of the complete absence of human activity. But as soon as you turn your head in the other direction, look at the forest, and immediately there is a desire to put the horse into a gallop and rush away from this celebration of wild nature.Only a few rows of trees seemed normal, alive, but even their trunks were serpentine cracks, and reddish veins glistened on the leaves. And th

  • Wanderers Of the Night   19

    Bright sunbeams glided through the spreading crowns of trees and lay like a sparkling cobweb on the clearings. Rainbow light seemed to saturate the entire forest, filling every emerald green leaf, every fragile twig, every drop of dew. He was everywhere, often giving a particularly bright and joyful look.The sun flickering between the swaying branches also illuminated a small hill, inside of which a deep hole was dug. Four wolf cubs were scurrying about near the round entrance. They clumsily rolled over on plump paws, jumped up and attacked each other, trying to knock their brothers to the ground.Their house was not quite usual for wolves, inside the hole was more like a dugout. The ceiling and walls were reinforced with thick smooth boards, four pillars served as supports for the roof. There was also a round window that let in the light. There was a table and chairs by the window, and beds against the walls.But now the family did not sit at home, but basked under the warm rays of

  • Wanderers Of the Night   20

    So we are prisoners! - exclaimed the Vistolet.– Did you expect something else? Yarsi was surprised. He sat down on the couch and leaned back against it. Vic paced the room nervously.- And you seem to have been waiting for this from the very beginning? And what was supposed to happen in the tower? Was it just me or were we going to be sacrificed?The werewolf shrugged.- They were going.I don't understand, why are you so calm? Isn't it time for us to get out of here somehow?- How, for example?Vic waved his hands in disgust.- If you knew everything in advance, then you should have an answer to this question too! - the Vistolet suddenly stopped pacing the room, came closer and squatted down in front of Yarsi. “Somehow I didn’t attach any importance to how you are sometimes called before - that werewolf at night when the delonchi attacked, then the sorceress in the forest who refused to give her blood. King. They called you king!Yarsi, who had previously been staring at the ceiling

  • Wanderers Of the Night   21

    The thickened evening darkness turned into a network of sounds and smells. They showed him the way, he too easily read this invisible book of shadows, too easily perceived the space torn apart by magic.A familiar smell hit his nose, a cage, three wolves silently follow him with their eyes. Yarsi slowed down his run, without stopping, he cut the bars with his sword. The white blade ripped open both the metal and the magic barrier unhindered. The werewolves howled, broke through the resulting hole and, once free, caught up with their king with huge leaps.Yarsi looked around, voices were heard very close. He looked at the wolves.“Hold them,” he ordered.Werewolves readily stopped, bared their mouths. Their eyes shone with a deadly light. Yarsi nodded curtly and ran on. A growl was heard behind him, astonished cries, quickly filled with horror, the sound of torn fabric and a crunch .... Short delay, they don't stand a chance. Magic swept over the fighting wolves, threw them out of the

  • Wanderers Of the Night   22

    The huge moon, which had barely begun to wane, silvered the tops of the trees with a cold, lifeless light, played with crimson reflections on the red leaves. But its insistent light could not break through the tangled branches and reach the low undergrowth and grass. However, they were not in this forest. Thick crooked trunks with cracked bark rose from the stone-hard, bare earth, covered with a layer of black ash. Grass did not grow here, young trees did not grow here, there were no mushrooms and berries. Darkness reigned here for centuries...The inhabitants of this forest did not need light, their eyes could see perfectly in the darkness. The night was the time that stirred their frozen blood, bit into their essence, forcing them to rush through the thicket of the forest, in the vain hope of finding food for themselves.Gray humanoid creatures glided between the black trunks of forest giants with swift jumps. That night, their movements did not resemble their usual convulsive throw

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  • Wanderers Of the Night   Epilogue

    The soft, very smooth movement turned into a jerky wave of the hand, the silver of the blade sparkled in the setting sun and sank into the insides of the half-decayed body. The corpse swayed, a bloody-fiery reflection flashed in the empty eye sockets and immediately went out - it hid in the depths of the skull. Hidden. The dead man stared straight in front of him for several long moments with blind holes in his eyes, and then began to sag, kneel down, scrape the ground with his knuckles and hiss menacingly. He did not want to leave, there is too much energy here to stay.Vic smiled crookedly, the creature was found to be tenacious, already three necromancers, after meeting with this walking monster, lay in the nearest forest and pretended to be dead. Until the time - until it's their turn. It could be assumed that this dead man was once a sorcerer, even such rumors circulated. Didn't really listen.He stepped back abruptly, knuckles ripping through the air, aiming at his legs. The Vis

  • Wanderers Of the Night   96

    Radolyub fell to his knees, rested his forehead on the ground and could not stop himself in order not to laugh. His whole body shook with hysterical laughter, tears flowed from his eyes, his fingers scraped the ground, raked in dust. Mida looked at him blankly. A large crowd of the dead had gathered around their dome. The walking corpses snapped their jaws furiously, hissed furiously and fought against an invisible barrier. The only free place where one could look and not stumble upon their faces distorted by death was the sky.“We beat ourselves,” the mage said with difficulty through spasms of laughter. – They beat… But he was a man, Mida. Understand? Human in essence. King of Reeta, dragon and human.He turned with difficulty and looked at the sorceress.- You do not care?"We did what we had to do," the woman said coldly.- So, what is next? Your pride, your hatred, your arrogance - how will they help you now? We ruined our world, Mida!She closed her eyes, slowly sank down next t

  • Wanderers Of the Night   95

    The horse wheezed, shreds of foam flew from the bit. Elena looked ahead with despair, she had long been separated from the rest of the horsemen, but this did not make her feel any better. I wanted to find wings like Vic's and fly up into the sky and cover the distance to Keront in a few moments.This was not necessary, the city flashed as a blurry streak on the horizon, and right in the middle of the road a monstrous action unfolded: a black streak flashed in the air, strangely resembling a giant blade that hung vertically behind ... Yarsi. The blade turned, resounded in breadth, and now, instead of a blade, an oval funnel was spinning above the ground.Elena realized that she had already seen this, once a green-eyed demon, who called himself Brother Yarsi, had gone into a similar portal, and then King Bortan created something similar and also left this world. So doesn't this portal mean that Yarsi must now leave?The girl gritted her teeth and hit the horse with her heels, forcing th

  • Wanderers Of the Night   94

    In the approaching twilight of the evening, the city seemed strangely lonely - the walls had lost their colors and were filled with gray tones, the crimson reflections of the sunset fell on the roofs, making them ominously bloody.Radolyub kept looking back, glancing at Carival. Like saying goodbye.Their little band was trotting towards the Valley of the Wind. He took only five magicians with him - young and very capable, from those who took the coming of dragons very close to their hearts. They hardly had to explain anything, everyone was ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of destroying the monsters.Radolyub with hidden trembling peered into their faces, they will serve only to divert attention, but the main blow will have to be dealt to him. Or will it be Giton? Or maybe Mida?The woman and eight magicians from Bitra joined them at the crossroads with Tinasa, they slipped out of the hills like shadows, silently nodded and did not utter a word. Radolyub carefully ran his ey

  • Wanderers Of the Night   93

    His own movements reminded him of the attempts of a seriously ill person to get on his feet, his body almost did not obey, but Kim, with desperate persistence, forced himself to move, crawl, flounder in place. Yes, anything to get out of this lingering pool of weakness. The vague gaze now and then stumbled upon the motionless figures of the sisters, their pale faces, disheveled hair and barely rising chests. It was terribly unusual to see restless, cheerful girls like that ... A feeling of guilt before them firmly settled in his mind - he used them and could not protect them.He put his hand on the ground and got down on one knee. A cloud of ash shot up around, hung in the air and reluctantly fell. Kim almost did not notice how Vic flew away, suddenly the Wistolet was simply gone - he disappeared, disappeared among the endless whirlwinds of what was happening. And left them here. Next to the dragon.The guy ran his hand over his face, smeared soot on his cheeks, shook his head, trying

  • Wanderers Of the Night   92

    “My son, a flame lives in you…. My heir!”What is the heir? The indifferent look of almost colorless eyes continued to live in my memory. Inhuman eyes! Too cold and almost dead.You only came to life when you met your mother, and then you killed her....His head was torn from an endless stream of images. Shadows, color pictures, some fragmentary memories suddenly decided to merge into a single round dance and fall on the mind. Right now, right at the moment when clear thinking was needed.Perhaps this is how they start to go crazy?I saw double, jumped from the distant cloudless sky to the deformed wasteland of the Valley, then to the forest, to the endless line of the dead, continuing to advance from Tinasa and again to the strip of mountains framing the black, ash-like earth, split by faults.A wide road ran along the edge of the Valley, dust was raised by the hooves of horses. A long file of horsemen trotted out from behind the hills, all in battle armor, well-armed, all but three

  • Wanderers Of the Night   91

    They sat on the ground, trembling. The girls quickly came to their senses and even smiled sadly. Mila ran her finger along the wing, nodded thoughtfully and quite like an adult.- Now you are very beautiful, Vic ...Sarsha's hand carefully lay on her head, stroking her hair with a barely noticeable movement. A moment... Vic slowly pulled away and gathered his wings behind him, nodded to Yarsi, then turned to Erto. He stared at him with wide eyes, his fingers gripping the hilt of his drawn sword so tightly that they turned white. Vic chuckled wryly and drew the thorn across his throat in a very unambiguous manner. Erto stepped back, clattering his weapon back into its scabbard.“I don’t know what kind of creature you are, but now I’m not going to find out,” he said in a hollow voice."Vic is my friend and that's enough," Yarsi said calmly. So, what else do you know about dragons? What's next?Erto raised his head to the sky. In the pale blue, a black shadow slowly glided, rising higher

  • Wanderers Of the Night   90

    With each step, a thick cloud of ash rose into the air. The smallest black particles resembled homogeneous weightless dust and were torn off from the slightest movement. Ordinary ash is not like that. And there is no such thing as fog. And the frost crystals remaining after it should not dig into the ground with spikes and harden with ugly thorns.The earth was dying, underfoot, instead of soil, a lifeless stone rang. The ash was not just an outer cover, it became a death shroud for this forest...The border of living trees moved a huge distance, edging the black, cracked wasteland. The disfigured land stretched all the way to the hills, from behind which a string of walking corpses continued to crawl out. The swaying figures, paying no attention to anything, stepped into the ashes and indifferently wandered forward.Yarsi was forced to move away from the main scene of action in order to remain under the crowns of trees. The gigantic skeleton of the dragon turned back to the dead. Sno

  • Wanderers Of the Night   89

    Inside the body, something irritatingly crunched and shifted quite palpably so that Vic could hardly restrain himself from screaming. A recently seen picture immediately arose before my eyes - new bone outgrowths come out of the dragon's skeleton and begin to crawl, intertwine, strengthen the backbone. But what happens to his own body?The Vistolet moved cautiously, sat up with difficulty, hoping very much that he would not begin to turn into something new right now. The skin of the back kept the feeling of icy cold, which stuck into the flesh with needles and continued to twitch with pain. He tried to look around, all he could see was a shoulder covered with countless red dots."Dragon's breath," Yarsi said, a mocking smile on his lips. “Your skin is strong, Vic, don’t worry. You were almost unharmed. Can you create such a protective zone again?- Wh-what? The voice sounded hoarse, he coughed.- Do not sleep, Vic, now there is no time to delve into yourself. Accept everything new at

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