"This will make our way much more difficult," grumbled the princess, nimbly jumping from stone to stone. "A detour was not at all part of my plans, but who could have known that they would be so frightened?"
"What?" Chani asked, grabbing her by the elbow as the boulder turned and the princess nearly fell.
— My galley was being chased by the Sea King, I ordered it to go to Briscope. Well, everyone understood there.
- Underpants.
"No," Toril chuckled. "They just value permanence too much."
Now, instead of a road, they had to wander along a narrow path clinging to the edge of a cliff. It slowly crept upward, twisting intricately. The travelers walked, taking off their fur-lined cloaks and unbuttoning their jackets, since sweat was streaming down their backs from the heat and fatigue. The path was overgrown with thick, thorny blackberry bushes along the edges, through which it was impossible to push through. However, even if they had managed to do so, the mountainside was so steep that they would have had to crawl along it. When they crossed one ridge, a second one immediately arose before them, even higher and steeper, which they had to climb again.
"I'm tired of it," Khani stopped. "We're barely making any progress."
"Try faster," Chani suggested.
Khani scratched his head, looked at the grey wall rising before him, here and there decorated with sparse thorny bushes in which wisps of black fog were entangled, and touched the wall with his hand. A stream of small stones fell down with a quiet rustle.
"What? I'll try," he said uncertainly.
Khani parted the thorns and prepared to dive into them to get to the rock itself, but Chani tugged at his sleeve.
- Stop fooling around.
Khani waved him off and stepped forward, the branches swaying and closing behind him, slapping Chani hard across the cheek. He wiped away the blood that had appeared and returned to the princess. Khani tried to climb up the rock, he even managed to climb a little, but then the rock tore out from under his hand and he, dragging a pile of rubble with him, slid down, right into the thick of the thorns.
"What, did you eat it?" Chani asked, while his brother, groaning and moaning, pulled the sharp, hard thorns out of his hands.
Hani only sighed, looking at the sleeves torn to shreds, and said nothing. Toril, who was watching what was happening, asked coldly:
- Have you had fun? Enough? Then let's go!
Hani picked up his pack and led the way down the path. Chani, grimacing with displeasure, followed, muttering under his breath that the easiest thing in the world was to command. Toril pretended not to notice his grumbling.
They climbed higher and higher, but the mountain peaks still sparkled like blinding white dots in the blue sky, not getting any closer. On the contrary, they seemed to be getting further away. The air gradually became colder and colder. The brambles were replaced by some kind of hard black thorn, the scratches from which were especially painful and bled for a long time, as Chani was convinced of when he carelessly flew into the thickets. Here and there in the bushes, patches of the same strange fog were visible, as if someone, pushing through them, had left shreds of clothing. Toril frowned worriedly, looking at the fog, but for now she did nothing.
Gradually the thorns disappeared, leaving only the flabby strips of slippery grey-green moss fluttering in the wind, which had gone from being warm and gentle down there to being cold and sharp. With a piercing whistle it lashed the travellers in the face, jumping out unexpectedly from the crevices. The mist settled on the stones in drops of drizzle, and their feet began to slip even more. The stones, jumping out from under their boots with a noise, fell into the abyss. Even the sky changed. From blue it turned into a deep blue, slightly violet, deep and transparent. Khani thought he could make out the stars, although it was daytime.
The path began to be crossed by chasms that they had to jump over. Chani squinted warily, watching Toril coolly walk along a ledge the width of a palm, pressed against a rock polished by rain and winds almost to a mirror shine, which was impossible to grab onto. The brothers had long since decided that it was time to rest, and Khani kept licking his lips longingly, thinking about dinner. And anyway, wouldn't it be better to turn back? Adventures are good in moderation. However, looking into the cold eyes of the princess, they involuntarily dragged themselves on without objection.
Chani noticed that the princess began to look anxiously at the sky, across which a dark cloud was crawling, like a disheveled rug. It was a strange cloud. It did not move smoothly, as all normal clouds should, but in convulsive jerks. First, a shaggy gray tentacle-sleeve was thrown forward, as if clinging to something invisible, and then the rest of the mass was pulled in. Chani realized with slight fear that the cloud was moving against the wind!
Gradually it approached the sun and swallowed it. It immediately became gloomy and cold, the stones were covered with frost, as if an invisible ice giant had breathed on them. The cloud, however, seemed to have settled in the sky for a long time. In any case, it no longer moved anywhere, but began to spread to the sides, staining the blue sky with dirty gray blots.
Toril clenched her fists nervously. Suddenly someone touched her shoulder, she turned around in fear. But it was Chani.
"Don't be afraid," he said.
"What makes you think I'm afraid?" the princess's voice was still mocking.
- Noticeable.
She raised her head haughtily.
- Nonsense. I don't know what fear is.
"I believe you," Chani agreed, "but you're still afraid now."
Confusion flashed in her cold eyes, but the princess immediately came to her senses, although her voice did not have the same firmness:
- You're lying. Don't forget yourself.
Chani looked at her in amazement.
- Again?
But, as if burned by the icy gaze, he became confused and fell silent. Hani's scream came at just the right time, defusing the situation.
- Look! Look!!
They ran up to him. Hani pointed down. There, from a narrow crevice, a thick black cloud was billowing, it had already filled the abyss, along the edge of which the path ran, and was now slowly rising upward, clinging to the rocks.
- Stones! Quickly! - the princess ordered.
"What stones?" Hani didn't understand.
— Collect the stones and pile them up. Just hurry up, if you value your life!
The harsh, commanding tone seemed to spur the brothers on. They began frantically, their fingers bleeding, gathering rubble and pulling out cracked stones. Soon there was a large pile on the path, and Toril stopped them with a gesture.
Meanwhile, the black cloud was already very close. The haze that had risen from the abyss merged with that which had descended from above, and they found themselves inside a black sphere. Chani noticed that tiny blue lights were sparkling along the edges of the cloud, and silver sparks were flickering. It even seemed to him that he could discern the tiniest four-pointed stars…
Toril, chalk-white but calm, took out her Torch and pointed it at the pile of stones. She uttered a long and complex spell in an unfamiliar singsong language, and the Torch immediately sprayed a stream of white fire… The flame of the Torch quickly turned yellow, and to the surprise and fear of the brothers, the stones themselves burst into bright yellow flame. Khani, who was standing too close to the fire, backed away.
But he was stopped by Toril's shout:
- Stop! Back!
She grabbed Khani by the hand and pulled her forcefully towards the fire.
"We mustn't move away from the fire. We mustn't!" she repeated. "Perhaps we can save ourselves."
The dense black wall was advancing, throwing out swaying tendrils. Even through the heat of the fire, its chilling breath could be felt. A steady, measured hum was heard, as if a swarm of angry bees had flown nearby, the silver lights began to spin faster, merging into a glowing vortex. But the unusual flame, which was composed of hundreds of tiny golden-yellow cubes, also flared up more and more.
"So this is what you are like, Black Fog," Toril whispered incomprehensibly.
The darkness strained, trying to close in on them, to embrace them, but, encountering the flames of the fire, it retreated. The humming grew louder, turning into a thin, angry howl. Again and again, the black wings reached out to the travelers, but, having fallen into the fire, they melted, leaving behind the smell of disturbed dusty cobwebs. The sparks of the Mist began to shine brighter. Then a booming rumble, like thunder, was heard, and everything became quiet.
Toril sat down tiredly right on the wet stones of the path.
- That's all...
"What's that?" Khani asked again.
— Look for yourself.
The black sphere surrounding them quickly grew white and thinner, the silver sparks that had been flickering before disappeared or went out. And soon the most ordinary damp fog swirled around, quickly melting under the hot rays of the newly appeared sun. The stone fire burned out with a quiet crackling and popping. Toril ran her palms over her face, as if brushing away fatigue, and rose with a light, elastic movement.
"Forward!" she ordered.
- What are you talking about? - Chani objected. - You can't see anything. How can you walk through the mountains in such milk?
- It won't last long. The Mist has used up its power. And anyway, it's time for you to stop questioning my orders.
Chani was angry, but did not dare to protest; the princess was not the kind of person to object to. Her blue eyes turned into pieces of ice and looked at him, squinting mercilessly, as if choosing a target for a blow.
"Forward," she repeated.
And indeed, the fog quickly melted, and the brothers gasped. Everything around them—the path, the rocks, and the rare bushes—was covered in a thick layer of snow. Somewhere in the distance, the remnants of the fog were still moving, forming a thin, whitish, translucent veil through which the black masses of the mountains and the bottomless chasms of the abysses were visible.
"Forward so forward," agreed Chani. "But please tell me, what was that?"
— I saw it myself — Black Fog.
"Witchcraft?" Khani asked warily.
- Yes, and very soon we will see what we were all threatened with.
The loose dry snow crunched underfoot, and it was hard to believe that it was summer now, that it had been hot just recently. Toril shivered, wrapping herself in her cloak, she was shaking, but when Chani, noticing this, began to take off his fur jacket, she shook her head.
The sun began to gradually decline toward the horizon, painting the west in a piercing orange color. Light cirrus clouds blazed with fire. The travelers continued to climb the mountain, but the pass did not come closer. Gradually, the mountains approached the path itself. Orange and red reflections trembled and shimmered on their snow-covered slopes.
Suddenly Chani, who was walking in front, stopped so abruptly that Toril involuntarily bumped her nose into his back.
"What's there?" she asked discontentedly.
"Look!" Chani stepped aside.
Right across the path lay a huge block of black-green ice, it even hung over the cliff. Somewhere inside it, a dim white light was visible. Chani, drawing his sword, struck the block, but the sword clanged dully, as if it had hit a stone, and bounced off, leaving no trace, but almost dislocating Chani's wrist. And as if in response to the blow, tiny silver bells rang. Or maybe it only seemed that way to Chani. The glow inside the block became stronger, and he, stretching out his arms, slowly, as if enchanted, walked forward.
"Don't you dare!" Toril screamed desperately.
But it was too late, Chani touched the ice floe with his left hand. And to his horror, he felt that he could not tear his hand away. Then it was as if a huge cold needle had pierced it, and the hand was gone. No, Chani could still see it, but his fingers no longer obeyed him, and he could not feel them. Chani jumped back in fear, and the ice let him go. Not believing himself, Chani carefully touched his left hand with his right. It acquired a strange marble-white hue and became cold and hard, like ice.
Chani noticed that tears had welled up in Toril's eyes, but she quickly blinked and the tears disappeared.
"It's my fault, I didn't warn you," she said in despair.
"No, nothing," Chani said with trembling lips, still not fully believing what had happened, "it was me."
Toril's slender fingers felt his hand.
"I can't lift the spell. Only the Rainbows can do that. I can destroy the frozen thing, but I can't free it."
"Nothing," Chani repeated as cheerfully as he could, trying not to give in to fear. "We'll meet the Rainbow People, everything will be fine," he concluded, although he had no idea who the Rainbow People were.
"What is this?" asked Khani.
- Black Ice, the spawn of the Black Mist that recently attacked us.
- Attacked? - Hani didn't believe.
- Yes, he did. I didn't believe it either, although I knew; I thought it was all fairy tales, scary legends. But it turns out that sometimes fairy tales tell the truth. Far to the north lives the Master of the Fog, to whom all the clouds, clouds, all the fog obey, including the most terrible and dangerous one - the Black. With spells, the Master of the Fog calls it from the dark caves in the distant Land of Sunset and directs it where his evil will is directed. The Black Fog fills the air, penetrates houses, seeping into the tiniest crack, envelops trees, people and animals. And then a new spell is cast, and the Fog turns into Black Ice, hard as stone, much harder than stone. And all living things that find themselves in the Fog now remain bound by Ice. Bound and frozen, and itself gradually turns into ice. Just one touch of the Black Ice is dangerous. If Chani had held on to the ice floe any longer, he would have turned into an ice statue. And I can't unenchant his hand, the princess repeated sullenly. The Master of the Mist is stronger than me.
- And your hand won't freeze any more?
- No, because it's made of ordinary ice. So now you need to stay away from fire if you don't want to lose it.
Chani obediently stepped back.
Toril aimed the Golden Torch's fire directly at the block of Black Ice. There was a soft crackling sound, the block began to shudder and writhe as if the flames were causing it pain, and rivulets of dirty, almost black water began to flow. Pieces of the block began to break off, softened, they fell with a nasty plop into the dark puddle and seemed to squeal softly as they disappeared.
Then everything became quiet. The hot, stinking steam gradually dissipated, and the travelers saw a flower in a puddle. Its translucent, pointed petals were surrounded by a glowing halo and slightly rang with that thin, silvery ringing that had beckoned Chani.
"Edelweiss?" Toril asked herself. "Why not? If we've met one miracle, we can meet a second one."
"Edel...what?" Hani's talkativeness was endless. "I've never seen a flower like this before."
— Mountain snowdrop — edelweiss. But why didn't it freeze? Or is it Crystal?
The flower rang something, as if in response. So it seemed to the brothers. Toril wrinkled her forehead, remembering something, perhaps words of a half-forgotten foreign language. Then she approached the flower and knelt before it. She stretched out her palms and carefully touched the petals, they rang gratefully.
"He says 'thank you,'" Toril turned to her brothers. "And he also says that soon we will find a cave where we can spend the night and find shelter from the weather."
"Speaking?" Hani was amazed. Chani was silent, listening with alarm to the growing pain in his hand.
"Of course it does," the princess answered. "All trees, flowers, and grasses have their own language, you just have to understand it."
The edelweiss rang again. It seemed as if a whole orchestra of small bells were playing – silver, gold, crystal – ringing out an intricate, pleasant melody. Toril listened carefully, and then translated:
"He says that now, in gratitude for his release, the flowers will help us in any way they can.
"They?" Chani chuckled incredulously, wincing.
- Yes, that's it. Thank you, - she waved her hand to the edelweiss. - We must hurry, the night is coming, and I would not like to meet her on the path.