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
This village was called Vestovoe, but the lone traveler did not know about it. He chose the road by chance, focusing only on the fact that it seemed to him the most traveled. He did not have a horse, he walked, from the things only a sword in a sheath on his belt, and a small bag over his shoulder.- It is he? – Swirly asked doubtfully, he openly looked at the tall dark-haired guy approaching the gate. Today he and Cybor were acting as guards, and the warriors had to be bribed to take their place for a while. Both are of medium height, thin, lithe, and not at all similar in build to the guards. The form obtained from someone else's shoulder looked baggy on them, but there was no other.The traveler looked very young, almost a boy, but he walked confidently, as if this road did not lead from the forest, along which only well-armed detachments dared to move. Bright gray eyes with calm curiosity looked at the self-proclaimed guards, lingered on the open gate and glanced further - to the
The damned prince was forced to stop and looked inquiringly at the soldiers blocking his way. Cybor, with slight concern, did not see even a hint of fear on his face. Now he was able to examine him more closely - a handsome face, with a little sharp, but subtle features, if you think about it, you can immediately understand that the guy is not an easy tramp. But who cares here? Certainly not the Daitras.Two massive, broad-shouldered warriors stepped forward a little and started talking about the fact that it is not customary for them to let travelers go without food and rest. Moreover, their company is ready to share food and drink with a tired traveler, and then the traveler will have to share his supplies with them. No other way. Good soldiers will teach this sucker to drink properly.The guy barely perceptibly shook his head, a strange smile slipped across his lips - mocking and angry. He let go of the horse's reins, stepped back and slapped him on the rump, forcing him to step as
As a child, this forest was perceived as just a terrible fairy tale told at bedtime by an old teacher. And how could it be otherwise? When you lie under a warm blanket in such a familiar, comfortable room and you know that you are safe. It becomes completely unimportant that the cursed forest actually exists. He's too far away to worry about the living dead, werewolves roaming among the monstrous red-leafed trees. The border is inviolable, monsters cannot cross it. And still, an obsessive thought beats in the mind that this fairy tale is not fiction. Especially when the teacher draws attention to the fact that it does not and cannot have a happy ending.Perhaps the teacher exaggerated too much to give the story of the forest of the dead a really fabulous sound, or maybe on the contrary, he downplayed the truth so as not to frighten his ward too much. The only thing that remained unchanged was that he heard this fairy tale every evening, it was repeated every day - like a spell, but he
Although a lot has changed in five years, he was not going to return home, no one was waiting for him there. He just wanted to visit his mother's grave, say goodbye, and then leave for Vistolca forever. However, he was only too well aware that memories and stubbornness would not allow him to live in peace for the next five years until the opening of the portal, without even trying to understand the tragedy that had happened in their family.He forced himself to change, stepped over his own desires. That's just longing for the happy days of childhood, when my mother was still alive, and continued to burn the heart, twisted consciousness, did not give rest. He could not kill in himself the love for his home, for his relatives, who no longer exist.And now even that opportunity to know the truth has disappeared. The return played a cruel joke with him.Yarsi glanced around almost indifferently. Around him was a world that used to be just a fairy tale. A world that exists far beyond its o
A dream, just a nightmare, nothing more. His eyes were closed, but even through his eyelids he could feel the bright rays of the sun hitting his face. The skin was gently touched by a warm breeze, the nostrils caught the smell of grass and some meadow flowers, the carefree chirping of birds could be heard.I did not want to open my eyes, the eyelids were very heavy. He lifted them with difficulty and immediately turned his head to one side, escaping from the sun's rays. Grass stalks swayed in front of his face, tickling his skin. It was surprisingly good and peaceful, especially after the nightmare that I had at night. hmm . Why then the feeling of dull pain spreading throughout the body? And there was also some incredible weakness that prevented him from opening his eyes to the end.So was it a dream? From his mind, suddenly, as if a veil was pulled off, still intoxicating the brain, his thoughts became clear, and all sensations became aggravated to the limit. Only grass, a meadow, s
Yarsi sank back to the ground, exhausted.“But... I don't understand, I killed them. There in Reet... I know that their lives, the lives of werewolves, were cut short... forever.“Congratulations, you have a gift, Yarsi, it’s funny,” Matzher carefully looked into his eyes. - And if only for this reason, I don't want your life to end soon.Yarsi shook his head stubbornly.So you need a gift? Do you mean a magical gift? Then I turn to the wizards.Matter sighed.- Not every sorcerer has the Force capable of killing a werewolf. Such a minority. But any sorcerer is able to shackle a werewolf with spells for a while, then put him on an enchanted chain and calmly conduct experiments on him. You will become a very rare and very valuable booty for them. You will never be released. In the hands of sorcerers, there was not yet a werewolf outside of Reeta. You will never be killed, and you will become their guinea pig for life. It will be a very long time, Yarsi! Therefore, I do not advise you t
“These seven days, Yarsi, until you pass the conversion,” he said in a lifeless voice. “The border will be unstable, think about it. And then only you will be responsible for the safety of people from Reeta. And you are not Alato, and becoming king, you can probably do much more for people than he can. If there is a desire. If you can overcome hunger. It's difficult, Yarsi, but you are stronger than Alato, and you have the Gift.Yarsi shook his head.- A gift? I do not need it. I just wanted… never mind.” He slowly stood up. - I agree to everything, just help me, Matzher. I need to get to Ereald before I become a werewolf.“You won’t make it in time, but you know you have a chance to preserve the essence of a person. The chance to remain yourself and turn into a beast only when you yourself wish it. Of course, if in these seven days we can find the sorcerer of the old blood, who will agree to give you this same blood.“Old blood? Who are you speaking about? About the First? They are n
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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
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
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