A viscous, stifling night descended on the island. It was not the clear, transparent darkness they were accustomed to, the night shot through with sparkling arrows of starlight. No, suddenly and abruptly they were overwhelmed by an impenetrable, dense darkness. Nothing could be seen even at arm's length, any danger could lurk in the darkness, any enemy could creep up on you - and still you would not be able to discern anything. The darkness descended from above and simultaneously crept up from somewhere below, as if thick clouds of Black Fog were pouring from the ground. But it was not fog, there was no sense of that cold in it, only an indifferent, impenetrable blackness. The travelers shuddered every now and then with a chill, although it was so hot that it was difficult to breathe.
In the darkness, the vague outlines of some huge trees could be discerned, their silhouettes literally growing in front of the face, the piercing creaking of dry branches and the vague murmur of foliage were the only sounds. All the rest were hopelessly bogged down in the hot darkness.
"I think," Chani whispered hesitantly, "that it would be better if we waited until morning. In such pitch darkness it would not take long to break one's neck."
No one objected to him.
They did not light a fire for fear that someone would notice them. The darkness brought on a vague fear, oppressed, and weighed them down. Huddled close to each other, they covered themselves with their cloaks, but no one managed to doze off - the same vague fear made them peer tensely into the darkness and become nervous, although nothing was happening.
The night hours dragged on painfully, but gradually the darkness began to thin. First, it turned into a thin black haze overhead, through which the sun shone like a dim pearl ball, deprived of its usual golden fire. Shaggy black streams ran somewhere, absorbing the smallest patches of darkness. They swirled, hid, were drawn into unknown crevices, went deep into the earth, as if someone's huge hand was jerking away the remains of the ominous curtain.
The travelers saw that they were in a small clearing, surrounded on all sides by huge oak trees with strange, black-red leaves. They were real giants, their thick bark was covered with wrinkles and cracks, green with age and overgrown with long, thin strands of colorless whitish moss. The knotty branches intertwined, crossed overhead, almost completely blocking the sky. And although it was now much lighter than at night, it was still not daylight, the forest was in semi-darkness, and one involuntarily wanted to speak in a whisper, as if someone could overhear.
"Where to go?" Chani asked quietly, nervously fidgeting and looking around.
"Straight ahead!" Khani determined. "And then we'll come out somewhere."
- Where to? To punch someone in the teeth again?
- Ha! You scared them! Remember how we... - but he suddenly became gloomy and fell silent.
Toril cut them off:
- Stop it.
- What do you mean, stop it? - Khani was offended. - What do you mean, stop it?!
Toril clenched her fists, but held back, remembering something... And then Chani added fuel to the fire:
- You are wrong, princess.
- I?!
Chani hesitated, but continued:
- In general, we can't quarrel now. Who knows, maybe that's exactly what they expect from us, for us to quarrel, fight, tear each other's throats out... And in any case, each one of us should be on our own. But we should be together.
Toril, closing her eyes as if she had a headache, said:
"You are right. Alas, I forgot that this is Kelatrionazvern, the island of the Underground Night. The breath of darkness is becoming stronger. Forgive me," she said to Khani.
He blushed and, looking at his feet, answered:
- And you me too.
"So," said Chani, "where should we go?"
"Don't you see?" Toril asked in surprise. "There's only one path here."
The brothers turned to where she was pointing. A path… That was too bold a word. It was just that in one place the oaks stood a little more sparsely, and the stunted brown grass that covered the clearing was slightly flattened.
"This?" Chani asked incredulously.
"Yes," answered the princess.
Khani, without thinking, moved forward, but suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
"Look!" he exhaled in amazement and fear, looking at the ground. "Traces…"
Chani and Toril ran up to him and froze as well. The prints were clearly visible on the dry clay ground.
"Oh my," Chani whistled, looking at the print of a gigantic, three spans wide, four-fingered paw, similar to a bird's. Each finger ended in a huge claw that cut through the dry, rock-hard clay. Chani looked questioningly at Toril, but the princess only shrugged her shoulders in bewilderment.
"I have never read anything like that in any manuscript," she answered with a slight hesitation. "And I have never heard of it."
"It's an interesting picture," Chani drawled. "It's a pleasure to meet you…"
His usual mood had already returned to him, and he began to be slightly sarcastic again.
"What's there to think about," interrupted Khani, "let's go ahead, we'll see. We have no choice, we have to go. After all, we have the Golden Torch."
"Not all magic is within the power of the Golden Torch," the princess objected. "But you are right, we must go."
"Maybe we should go through the thicket?" Chani suggested.
- I don't think this will work.
- But you can try.
However, the attempt to break through the undergrowth that crowded between the oaks failed. The leaves of the vines left painful burns, and the stems were stronger than the strongest rope. Chani with great difficulty cut several stems with his sword and was completely exhausted. When Khani, who had replaced him, slashed at a pale green vine with a backhand, a nasty, drilling squeal was heard, as if a rat had been stepped on the tail. Responding to this squeal, the oaks creaked and rustled, their branches, long and gnarled, like the hands of giants, slowly bent, blocking the way, and gnarled black branches, greedily bending, stretched out towards Khani, trying to grab him.
Khani jumped back in fear.
"Well, well," he said, out of breath. "I never would have thought that."
"This is the Island of Night," the princess said sadly. "Absolutely everything is possible here. Everything bad."
"Won't the fire take them?" Khani asked hopefully.
- Burn this whole forest? I don't know what will come of such an attempt. And won't we burn ourselves in the fire we start? It's better to follow the path.
The path wound through the trees that surrounded it, and each time he turned, Khani, who was walking ahead, clutched his sword tighter. But around the bend there was the same wall of black and red foliage, entwined with pale green vines. From time to time, other tracks flashed through the withered grass - small round hooves.
The trees were getting closer and closer to the path, their branches had long ago formed an impenetrable vault, and the travelers were walking in an endless winding tunnel. There was not the slightest breeze, but the oaks were creaking rhythmically: creak-creak... At the same time, the leaves remained completely motionless, only the branches themselves were moving. Roots were jumping out from somewhere under the ground, trying to entangle their legs... And right behind the travelers, the trees froze, but in front they began to creak impatiently. It was hot and stuffy, but everyone was covered with a cold shiver, the travelers kept turning around and throwing up their heads, expecting an attack from above.
"I can't do this anymore," Khani whispered through dry lips. "Let's go back, I can't do this anymore."
"We cannot turn back," Toril replied. "Our duty is to move on."
"Look!" Chani suddenly cried out joyfully, rushing forward, towards where a clearing had lit up in the thicket. But at the same moment he jerked back, bumping into the princess who was following him.
In the silence, a sound was heard: dumb-dump-dump... Someone's huge, heavy feet were thumping, approaching.
"There…" Chani whispered, stuttering, "there…"
"What is it?" Toril asked again, but immediately covered her mouth with her hand.
The trees creaked joyfully and ominously. The footsteps died away, and somewhere very close a squeaky voice was heard:
- I'm tired. We're running back and forth in this wild heat. And I'm tired. I want to sleep.
A deep bass voice, as if from a damp cellar, answered him:
- But we haven't eaten yet. Personally, I'm hungry.
- Always the same, - a thin voice responded grumpily. - I'm hungry, I'm hungry... - he mimicked. - You have a base nature, you can't think about the beautiful and the sublime. For example, about flowers. - There was a whistle and a sniffle, someone was sucking in air with force.
- Yeah, but you're our aesthete, - the bass snapped. - But what will you do without me? You'll be lost.
"I'll find it," the grumpy voice answered, not entirely confidently.
- Well, go ahead and look for it.
- I'll find it.
- Go on looking, look.
"That's true, let's go look," suggested a thin voice.
— In the forest?
Toril gripped the Torch's handle tightly.
- At least.
"No, I don't feel like it," the bass replied. "It's hot. And I'm lazy anyway. If someone does come here, which I'm not entirely sure of, or rather, I'm not even entirely sure of, then sooner or later they'll come out to the edge of the forest."
"That's right," the thin voice confirmed.
- And who is at the edge of the forest?
- Who?
- We.
- Right.
- So is it worth it to beat your legs and tear your skin in the bushes? My scratches still haven't healed. We ran, but what's the point? Well, if we come across Krysyuk, we'll have a talk with him.
— Exactly.
"Now let's go back and lie down," the bass concluded.
- Went.
Footsteps thundered again, this time moving away. Toril sighed with relief.
"Who was it?" asked Chani, intrigued. "And they know Krysyuk."
"I don't expect anything good from such an acquaintance," she answered evasively.
"So who is it?" Chani insisted.
"I just remembered," the princess answered reluctantly, "that I read about this beast in an ancient manuscript a long time ago. It's better not to meet him, be on your guard."
They came out to the edge of the forest and hid behind a thick oak tree that was growing a little out of the way. The forest ended, and now a rocky plain stretched out before them, gradually rising upward. Individual tufts of tall, dry, silvery grass that had broken through between scatterings of gray rubble rustled anxiously in the wind. Several large, deathly white flowers looked like drops of paint carelessly splashed onto a dull, gray canvas, and only emphasized the lifelessness of the rocky plateau even more.
The slope ended in a flat, seemingly cut-off peak, on which some ruins were visible. Huge stones, rolled far to the sides, were covered with a lumpy black coating, reminiscent of a thick layer of soot, but much blacker and very cold in appearance. In the ruins one could guess the remains of a large square tower, once surrounded by walls. But now it was an almost shapeless pile of stones.
"What is this?" asked Khani.
"The Cave of Night," Toril answered in a whisper, gently stroking the ruby star of the Golden Torch. She was clearly uneasy, but she overcame her fear and remained calm.
"I hope we're going in the wrong direction?" Chani suggested unnaturally cheerfully.
"You're wrong, that's where it's going," Toril snapped. "No one in sight?" She looked around the gloomy plain once more, barely illuminated by the dim, pearly-gray light.
"Nothing and no one," Khani said.
"Then forward," she ordered and was the first to bend over and quickly walk up the slope.
But before they had even gone half the distance, a shrill, ringing bandit whistle was heard, cutting through their ears, and a familiar thin voice joyfully squealed:
- I see, I see! They're coming, my dears!
- Oh-ho-ho! - boomed the bass. - It's lunchtime!
A large grey boulder, covered with slightly swaying shaggy moss, rose up and turned into…
Chani gasped, not so much from fear as from surprise at how ridiculous this couple was.
A thick, rounded carcass, most of all resembling a tightly stuffed sack of wool, stood on six short legs covered in scales. The middle pair twitched convulsively, scraping the ground, and torn clumps flew from under the claws. The sack had no neck at all, but the head ended in an impressive-sized mouth, studded with white, sparkling fangs. A long red tongue popped out every now and then, as if feeling the air. Small, completely pig-like eyes were almost invisible among the unkempt, matted wool, hanging in disorderly clumps on all sides. But on the top of the head stuck out a huge, burdock-like ear, delicate and pink, curiously spinning in all directions.
Next to the bag, on tall, thin legs that looked like they might break at any moment, a deer was swinging. More precisely, an animal that looked like a deer, since its muzzle was long and extended forward, like a trunk. It was constantly spinning, sniffing and sniffing. But its eyes were remarkable - large, green, moistly gleaming.
But the tails of this couple were absolutely identical - long, thin, pink and naked. And for some reason these tails were tied together with a flirty bow.
"Get it, go ahead!" the sack yelled in a bass voice.
But the "deer" gracefully shook his head and squeaked:
- No, I don't feel like it.
- So they will leave!
Indeed, Chani, having come to his senses, grabbed Toril by the hand and dragged him up the slope to the tower. Khani was running after him in great leaps.
"No, they won't," whispered Hvatayla.
The air was filled with a strange hum, as if many tightly stretched strings had been pulled at once. Khani screamed desperately. Chani, turning around, at first could not understand what was happening. His brother, lying on the ground, convulsively grabbed at stones, at grass, scraping his hands until they bled, but some unknown force was dragging him back. Sack, standing on four hind legs, danced impatiently and had already stretched out two front ones, spreading his claws. He purred with pleasure. Looking more closely, Chani made out two thick transparent ropes or strings, almost invisible, ending in clusters of small sharp hooks that had grabbed onto Khani's jacket. These strings were drawn straight into Khvataila's eyes, pulling Khani closer and closer to him.
- Grab it, grab it! - the sack danced with impatience.
- Kusaila, bite! - Khvataila squealed joyfully.
Chani tried to hold on to his brother, but Khvataila's eyes were stronger and he was dragged along too.
"Help," Khani wheezed.
Toril ran up to them and with two swings of her knife ripped open Khani's jacket, freeing him. The strings whistled into the air, and Khvataila, not expecting the resistance to suddenly stop, flipped over his head and rolled across the stones, dragging the tied-up Kusaila along with him.
The brothers, jumping to their feet again, ran headlong towards the tower. But Khvataila had no need to run! The same ringing roar was heard again, and Chani saw clusters of hooks flying. Before he could marvel at his own dexterity, he instinctively drew his sword and tried to cut them down. However, the strings were strong, and the sword bounced off with a glassy ringing sound. But that was enough - the hooks flew past from the blow.
Hvatayla, grunting in surprise, once again dropped his weapon from his eyes, but Chani again blocked it with a precise blow.
- Grab it, come on, - Kusaila switched to a pleading whine. - I'm hungry-e.
Khvataila tried a third time, but even the third time Chani was on his guard.
- Well, Hvatayla-a... I'm hungry!
"What does it matter to me?" Khvataila, realizing the futility of his attempts, turned his back to the travelers. "All my life I've dreamed of indulging in a quiet rest, and all my life you've been bothering me."
"But I feed him," Kusaila flared up.
- What would you do without me? - Khvataila boiled over. - You poor short-legged thing!
- Toothless creature!
The brothers and the princess did not listen to the end of this squabble, they hurriedly headed towards the ruins. They were not bothered anymore, the couple was busy sorting out their relationship.
A shudder ran through them as they approached the ancient ruins. A cold, damp breath blew through the low, half-buried archway, and for a moment it seemed as if a wind was whistling. Toril paused at the entrance, looking at the two eyeless, ferocious masks carved from black stone that flanked the arch. Icy indifference and implacable ruthlessness were written on those faces.
Toril glanced at the unfriendly sky once more and, squeezing Chani's hand tightly, stepped forward.
The dark, damp tunnel went steeply down. The lit ruby star barely dispelled the darkness, but could not really illuminate the dungeon. Dirty streams flowed along the sooty, time-pitted masonry, the stones were covered with a nasty greenish slime, and the drops that fell from the ceiling did not fall with a ringing sound, as usual, but slapped onto the stone floor with an indistinct squelch.
Toril walked along the tunnel, not paying attention to the side branches, in which a swirling black mass was swarming with a quiet rustling and croaking sound, throwing out soft tentacles when they approached, timidly pulling back when the light fell on them.
"Are we going the right way?" Chani asked cautiously. "Wouldn't it be better to think a little?"
"That's right, that's right," the princess replied impatiently. "I remember the way perfectly well."
— Was she on the map too?
— Yes.
Khani said nothing. He was quite pleased. But his pleasure was sometimes mingled with acrid bitterness when he remembered… And he only pressed his mouth tighter and walked, walked…
Gradually the stonework disappeared, and the tunnel imperceptibly turned into a narrow cave, snaking through the thickness of the mountain. Toril, her face pale, biting her lower lip and her eyes half-closed, walked less confidently, she remembered the road with great difficulty.
How much longer did they have to go? The air in the cave was heavy and stale, as if no movement had touched it for centuries. It pressed down like a lead weight.
One thing was good - gradually the darkness thinned, the cave was filled with a strange, dim gray-green light. But it made it even more eerie - it turned faces into greenish masks of the dead. Toril extinguished the Torch, which was no longer needed, and it was as if a new weight fell upon them. Chani lightly shook the princess's trembling hand, she smiled gratefully.
"What kind of cave is this?" Khani asked, his voice dull and dead.
- This is the Cave of Night. It is from here that the Underground Night crawls out onto the island, you saw it recently in the side caves.
- What if she starts crawling while we're here?
"It will be bad," Toril answered briefly.
They went lower and lower. It was getting colder, their breath steamed as if it were freezing. Chani rubbed his freezing hands, trying to warm himself with his breath, but it didn't work. Khani slapped his sides - the shreds of his jacket did not protect him from the cold at all. Only the princess, not noticing anything, stubbornly walked forward.
But suddenly she stopped abruptly. There was no road further - the cave was blocked by a huge stone block.
"What is this?" asked Khani.
"This stone shouldn't be here," Toril said, puzzled.
"But it exists," Chani noted melancholically. "And we have to get around it somehow."
- Somehow... If only I knew how. There is no other way, only along this corridor, the side ones will lead us into the fiery depths.
"Try burning it," Chani suggested.
The princess smiled sadly.
- Just as the Golden Galley is beyond the Sea King's control because it was made long before he was born, so these stones are beyond my magic. They are much older than Tan-Khorez. No one can say how many millennia this cave is.
Khani, dulled by the stormy events of the day, unexpectedly yawned and suggested:
- Let's rest, sleep. And we'll sort this out later.
Toril looked at him strangely and agreed.
- No one enters these caves, so no one threatens us. We have already descended below the level of the Caves of Night, even she does not descend into these dungeons.
"What's this?" Chani pointed to a small symbol carved into the stone.
Toril turned pale when she saw the four-pointed star enclosed in a circle.
"Ice Star," she whispered. "But how did he manage to lower that stone? He's a coward, after all. Or is it just a disguise? And that one worked here... Diamond was right..." But out loud she said cheerfully: "I don't know, what nonsense. Really, let's go to sleep."
They chose a drier spot on the floor, although it was still damp enough, and lay down, huddled together. Fatigue overcame fear, and soon all three were fast asleep.