Chani woke up because he thought he heard a sound. A sound in this deathly silence! Something like the knocking and scraping of iron on stone and a dull slap. He listened. Had he imagined it? When tired, one can hear even more… No, the knocking sound came again. He nudged his brother with his elbow, who sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
- What do you want?
- Listen.
Khani listened and shook his head.
- I don't hear anything.
- Someone is chipping at the stone.
"You dreamed…" Khani began, but fell silent, hearing the distinct scraping of someone's claws on the stone.
They decided to wake up Toril, but she woke up on her own after hearing these sounds.
"Who could it be?" Chani asked her.
- I have no idea. No one lives in these caves.
The grinding sound was getting closer. The princess took out the Golden Torch.
Khani began to tremble slightly with excitement. He grabbed the hilt of the sword, squeezing it with both hands.
Suddenly the verse creaks.
All three of them held their breath and peered intently into the greenish glow of the cave.
"Good day, you know," a quiet, slightly hoarse voice suddenly sounded from somewhere above, making them all flinch. "What are you doing here, I wonder?"
The travelers raised their heads. A large bird was sitting on the ceiling, clinging with its claws to the unevenness of the stones. Its plumage was greenish, and on its head was a red cap with a tuft. But most impressive of all was its beak - long, sharp, it sparkled like polished steel.
"Hello," Chani answered automatically. "We're sitting here."
The bird looked at them with its right eye, then with its left.
- For some reason I feel like you're deceiving me. This isn't the best place to relax.
"See for yourself," Chani suggested politely.
"Yes, it seems so," the bird nodded in agreement. "But I doubt it…"
Toril asked:
- Excuse me, but who are you?
"Who, who..." the bird muttered unfriendly. "I live here, that's who." Suddenly she turned her head warily. "I beg your pardon..."
Spreading her wings for balance, she deftly ran from the ceiling to the wall, listened again and began to peck at the wall with her beak. Sheaves of sparks rained down, fragments flew like a fan, crumbling stones flashed... And then, already half hidden in the hollowed-out hole, the bird pulled something bright orange and desperately screeching out of the wall. She swallowed and, taking a deep breath, blissfully closed her eyes.
"Wow…" Khani whispered.
The bird began to breathe peacefully, apparently asleep. Chani coughed carefully, and the bird fluttered, ruffling its feathers.
- Oh yeah... So what are we talking about?
"Excuse me," Toril said with exquisite politeness, "you are so deft at chipping the stone..."
"Yes," the bird agreed a little smugly. "I won't hide what I can do."
"Could you break through this stone?" the princess pointed to the boulder blocking the road.
The bird narrowed its right eye suspiciously.
- Why is this?
— To admire your incomparable art once again.
The bird became embarrassed and blossomed.
— I've been hammering away at stone all my life, but this is the first time I've been praised.
"You were not appreciated," Chani continued fervently. "After all, this is a rare skill."
"Of course," the bird agreed. "But why do you need to break it?"
"We will go further," Toril said bluntly.
- You'll go, you'll go... - the bird clicked its beak. - For some reason it seems to me that you're deceiving me. Something's wrong here. - She narrowed her left eye.
"We really will go," Khani and Chani said in unison.
The bird sighed.
- Of course, that's true... But something's not right here...
She flew up to the stone, took aim and began to work her beak. Sparks began to flash again, stone chips flew in all directions. Cracks ran across the stone, something crunched and rustled. Then everything became quiet, and the bird, sticking its head out of the hollowed-out hole, asked suspiciously:
- No, are you really not deceiving me?
- How can you? - Khani pressed his hands to his chest. - You do such a wonderful job...
- Oh, I doubt it.
The bird disappeared again, there was a knock, a crack, a grinding sound, dust flew, and the stone with a roar crumbled into a pile of small fragments.
When the travelers were finishing their showers, they saw a contented bird covered in stone chips.
"Here," she said and sneezed too, "please."
The bird shook itself, raising another cloud of dust; when it settled, the bird settled itself, as usual, on the ceiling, upside down.
"Are you really going to go further?" she asked for the umpteenth time.
"You see for yourself," Toril answered, grabbing her brothers by the hands and pulling them along with her.
"I can see, but I still doubt it. Don't believe your eyes," they heard.
The tunnel went down steeply, now they had to cling to the walls to stay on their feet. But the walls of the cave began to move apart, the ceiling slowly rose higher and disappeared from view, dissolved in a deathly greenish glow. Frost began to sparkle on the walls of the cave instead of drops of water, and pieces of ice crunched faintly under their feet. And imperceptibly for themselves the travelers entered a huge hall.
Its size was impossible to determine, it was filled with a glowing greenish mist. The stone floor was polished to a shine, and mysterious angular runes were carved into it. Khani wanted to examine them better, but the princess did not let him stop.
Right in the middle of the hall, on a low stone pedestal decorated with an intricate ornament of intertwining runes, an octagonal pyramid of Black Ice dimly gleamed with smooth polished edges. It was enveloped in a barely discernible, slightly swirling cloud of darkness, blurring the outlines of the pyramid, which made it seem as if it were swaying, breathing.
"Here he is," Toril stopped.
"Who?" Khani didn't understand.
"Have you really forgotten?" his brother threw at him mockingly. "Black Sword!"
These words echoed unexpectedly under the vaults of the hall, where all sounds had been stuck before, and rolled like distant thunder through the tunnels and passages. The rustle of pouring sand and the noise of falling stones could be heard.
- Quiet!
Toril held out the Golden Torch, and with a noise and snorting, a red flame shot out, licking the ice block. A suffocating stench filled the air, but nothing changed - the flames wriggled helplessly around the pyramid, not even touching it, they were reflected by the fog. Toril recited a long, complex spell, and the flames filled with a blinding whiteness. There was an angry hiss, as if a tangle of giant snakes had been disturbed. The sparkling edges of the pyramid became foggy, large drops appeared on them, the pyramid shook, but remained standing.
Without turning around, the princess said imperiously:
— Move away.
The brothers obeyed.
Toril began to pronounce the words of the new spell. They sounded mysterious and strange, a triple echo accompanied them. The flame roared like an angry dragon, now it was sunny yellow. Its huge tongues seemed to fill the cave completely, extinguishing the greenish light. The brothers' faces were hit by an unbearable heat, and they involuntarily backed away.
There was a terrible roar, the walls of the hall shook and swayed. Chani felt as if they were about to collapse. For a moment the hall was filled with suffocating steam, then everything became quiet.
When the eyes got used to the semi-darkness that reigned in the hall, it became clear that on the pedestal lay a large straight sword in a black sheath. Its hilt was made of gold in the shape of a grinning dragon's muzzle, two large emeralds inserted in place of eyes flickered menacingly, as if the golden dragon wanted to grab someone, but could not and was furious from its own impotence. The same black smoke swirled around the sword.
"Here he is," Toril repeated enchantedly.
Khani wanted to raise his sword, but the princess grabbed his hand.
- Don't you dare!
- Why?
- You are not able to wield the Sword of Hatred, you can become not its master, but its slave.
She approached the pedestal, stood for a long time, peering into the black haze, then extended her slightly trembling left hand and raised the sword. Suddenly, casting aside all doubts, she snatched it from its sheath. As if a blinding lightning flashed in the dungeon. Again there was a roar and stones flew... The blade of the sword in the princess's outstretched hand sparkled with a cold, icy shine, rows of angular black runes ran along it as if alive, the dragon's eyes shone with an unbearable red fire.
Chani took two more steps back, so terrible did Toril seem to him at that moment. He suddenly realized that the runes on the blade of the sword formed verses in a barbaric and crude language, not at all like the melodious language of spells. But he understood their meaning.
Kindness and pity? All the same.
Forget about them as soon as possible.
And remember just one thing:
Kill. Kill! Kill!! Kill!!!
But then the blade disappeared into its sheath again, the dragon's eyes began to glow green again, and the voice that had been reading the poems fell silent…
"That's it," Toril said wearily. "Now let's look for a way out."
The brothers turned around. Indeed, the exit from the hall was blocked by a pile of fallen stones.
What happened next? Then they wandered along endless passages, ascended and descended, ran into dead ends and returned. The impenetrable blackness gave way to a ghostly bluish light, which again grew dim and died away. Stones rained down on them and cold water poured down, they made their way through thickets of some moving plants... Strange red glowing flowers, with which the princess calmly talked, appeared and disappeared. They followed the red fireflies, flashing in the darkness of the dungeon... They saw the unkind gray sky of the island above them... And again the black fog of the Underground Night crawling out, merging with the darkness of the ordinary night...