Sadness and concern reigned on the Golden Galley. The Sea King, having finally understood the futility of his attempts, sent no more storms, and the shining sun played with thousands of lights on the slightly agitated blue silk of the sea. Only occasionally in the distance, on the very horizon, a black triangle of a shark's fin flashed, but after the death of the White, the surviving servants of the King could no longer harm the ship.
Chani was gloomy, he could not forgive himself for his weakness. He should have stayed with the Sea King, as the eldest, he, not Khani. Chani answered all the princess's attempts to talk sullenly and briefly, but Toril was not offended, she felt sorry for Chani, she really wanted to help him.
However, she herself was worried, she could not get the promise of a new meeting that the King had promised out of her mind. Toril knew well that for all his lies and absurdity, promising to do harm, the King fulfilled his promises with unusual care. And his possible appearance on the shores of Tan-Khorez at the head of a horde of fierce and merciless ice soldiers did not please. Until now, it was unknown where the Ice Ones came from and how to defeat them. They only knew that they were practically immortal, that no weapon could touch them. True, the Black Sword was in the hands of the princess now, but there was only one. And there could be many hundreds of Ice Ones...
Ruby, too, was sullenly silent. Why? One could only guess. She said nothing about the days spent with the Sea King, and in general, as if she did not notice Toril and Chani, did not raise her eyes.
One morning they saw a shark's fin sliding alongside the Galera, raising a white breaker. Sometimes the striped back of a Tiger appeared above the wave with a noisy splash.
"I'll teach her a lesson now," Chani said gloomily, raising the heavy crossbow he had found in the Galera's arsenal.
"Hey, wait!" Tiger cried out quickly. "I have a task for you." And just in case, she dove.
"What?" Chani asked incredulously, but lowered the crossbow.
The shark stuck the tip of its nose out of the water.
- And you won't shoot?
- No.
Plucking up her courage, she raised her head.
— My most noble lord, the mighty Sea King, sends greetings and best wishes to Princess Toril or-Twyne or-Edelster or-Tan Horez-ed-Kildangan…
"I know my titles without you," the princess interrupted. "What have you come for?"
- My master most politely asks that the fugitive be handed over to him.
- What? - Toril didn't understand.
"Do you have several of them?" Tiger asked in return.
- I know about that, but it doesn't matter to you.
The tiger crawled almost halfway out of the water and with a predatory gleam in her eyes demanded:
- Give us the bird.
- Why is that?
"I know about that, but it's of no use to you," the shark answered mockingly.
Toril laughed.
- A life for a life, that's what the King says. Give me back the boy, and I'll give you what you ask.
"But we don't have any bird," Chani whispered in her ear, but the princess gave a sign to remain silent.
- That's exactly it, - Tiger happily picked up. - A life for a life. Give us the bird, and you will be most graciously allowed to sail wherever you wish.
"Otherwise…" Toril suggested sarcastically.
- Otherwise you will see.
The princess shook her head.
- We're ready to see. Now go back to whoever sent you.
"You chose it yourself." Tiger bared her teeth angrily and dove.
"I don't understand anything," muttered Toril, watching the fin recede. "What bird?"
The answer to this question was given to her the following morning. Rising from her cabin to the deck, Toril saw the Stone Woodpecker, who had settled on the mast, sorting through his feathers. Noticing the princess, he interrupted his toilet and bowed ceremoniously.
- I am glad to welcome you.
"Me too," the princess said, a little confused.
— Our friend sent me to you.
"Another?"
- Yes. The boy who is now sitting in the Sea King's dungeon.
"What's wrong with him?!" Ryubi shouted as she approached.
- Oh, although I suspect that he was deceiving me, he asked me to tell you that he is completely fine and that there is no need to worry about him. The King is guarding him as a hostage. Just in case. The King does not allow even a speck of dust to settle on him.
- This will be credited to the King.
- And he also asked me to convey that the King is going to land with his army...
"We?!" Toril interrupted impatiently.
- Exactly not. He is going to first bring down the Ice Ones on the cities of the people. He will take on Tan-Khorez last. But it will get there too, it will definitely get there.
"Here it begins," Chani said sadly.
"Nothing has started," the princess replied calmly. "Everything is going well, we are not in any danger."
Chani looked at her in bewilderment, Toril became a little embarrassed and began to fussily adjust the sling of the Black Sword, which she now never parted with for a minute.
- And he also asked me to tell you something...
Ryubi, Chani and Toril listened to this "something" with their mouths open just as Khani had done recently.
Far to the north, where eternal night reigns, lies the domain of the Master of the Mist. The sleeping seas are bound by thick ice, and icy winds whistle over the snow-covered, deserted plains. Cold and night reign there, and only polar bears and walruses dare to look there. And so, with the help of cold and darkness, the Master of the Mist created his fierce and invincible soldiers. He carved hundreds and thousands of statues from ice and breathed life into them with a stream of cold. So it would be more accurate to say he froze them, not breathed them in.
Everyone is frightened by the black holes of the Ice Ones' eye sockets, which suck in the light and colors of the surrounding world without a trace. Everything falls into the black holes of their eye sockets, like into bottomless pits. Not a single ray, having entered the Ice One's eye, will break out. On terrible northern nights, when the frost is such that birds freeze in flight, in the darkness and cold the Master of the Fog catches the rays of distant stars, indifferently shining over the endless ice fields. The rays are as prickly and cold as the ice, but unlike the ice, they cannot be warmed or melted by any fire, as long as the stars that gave birth to them shine. Having caught a ray, the Master of the Fog sends it into a small glass ball, mirrored from the inside. And the ray flies endlessly inside the ball, reflecting off the walls, unable to break out. Along with the beam, the cold of a distant star flies inside the ball, multiplied by the cold of the northern night.
The Master of the Mist inserts these balls into the eyes of his warriors. The star cold prevents them from melting under the hottest sun. The warriors are as indifferent and heartless as the distant northern stars, who do not care about what is happening on earth.
"Yes, you have comforted us," Chani said gloomily.
— I was asked to tell you what I know, and I told you.
"If he had also told us how to fight the Ice Ones, that would have been great," added a frowning Toril.
- Didn't I tell you?
"No," Chani answered.
- I think you're deceiving me. I should have told you.
"He should have, but he didn't say anything," Ryubi confirmed.
- Well, if so... The remedy is very, very simple. The star shines at night, and while it shines, the Ice One is invulnerable and immortal. But during the day, when the sun rises in the sky, we do not see a single star, they die. Hot sunlight is stronger than the cold of the stars, and if you use a mirror to launch a sunbeam into the mirror ball - a hot sunbeam,
- then the Ice One will come to an end. He will melt.
"That's good," Ruby said happily. "We'll remember that."
- He also asked me to tell you that he will try to lead the Ice army into Rainbow Gorge. And he also added something for you.
The woodpecker jumped down onto the deck and beckoned to Ruby; when she came up, he whispered something in her ear. Ruby blushed.
- Is it true?
- Absolutely so.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome. Honey, I'm very, very grateful. If you only knew what a blessing it is to fly under the open blue sky, to see the sun, the clouds, and not to squeeze through narrow and damp caves. B-r-r-r,
— Woodpecker shuddered. — It was he who advised me to fly out into the world. Give him my deepest, most sincere gratitude when you meet. The world is even more beautiful than he described, and I am forever in his debt.
The woodpecker bowed to everyone once more and, flapping his wings, rose into the air.
"Get him!" came a shrill cry from somewhere below.
Something hissed loudly, and a huge striped body shot up into the air. However, sharks cannot fly, and Tiger fell back into the sea with a deafening splash.
"Hold him!" she repeated.
But seeing that no one was going to catch the flying bird, she, burning with anger, screamed:
- And I heard everything! And I saw everything! I will report to my most noble lord how you spoke with the damned traitor! He will punish you as an example! Next time you will learn to do it!
"I doubt it," Ryubi said quietly.
"I will definitely report it!" Tiger raged.
In the heat of the moment, she completely forgot about caution and came very close to the Galera.
"You won't tell anyone anything else," Ryubi snapped.
How she ended up with the purple spear in her hands again, no one understood. However, a swift red lightning split the sky, a short squeal was heard, and a dirty gray belly began to sway above the waves.
"That's it," Ruby said quietly. "The second. That means I've almost done my duty, there's the third one left. And one more thing."
Apparently, this day was destined to be a day of great events. Not even half an hour had passed when another shark fin became visible ahead.
"The third and last one," Ryubi said with a gloomily happy expression.
However, the Hammer was in no hurry to approach the Golden Galley. First it fell behind the ship, then it caught up with it again, circled at a respectable distance, and stuck its head out of the water for a moment to make sure everything was all right. But before Ryubi could take aim, the Hammer dove back. Ryubi only had time to notice that the shark had a large box, or rather a chest, made of polished steel in its mouth.
"I don't like this," Toril said anxiously.
"Me too," Ryubi supported, looking intently at the shark spinning around the Galley.
The foam rings left behind the Hammer's tail were not getting any narrower. The shark was clearly not going to get any closer, but it was not letting the Golden Galley out of these rings either. Now the Hammer's nasty face became visible again. It really did have a chest in its mouth, but this time it was open. Some black dust was flying out of it, a barely noticeable plume streaming behind the shark. The dust hung in the air for a short time, and then settled on the water. Where it fell, the water seemed to boil for a moment, became covered with large greenish bubbles, a translucent cloud of fog rose up, and the water calmed down, falling into complete immobility.
Toril screamed in fear.
"What happened?" Ryubi turned to her, lowering her spear.
"She kills the water," said the princess, turning pale.
- That is?
- She caught us in a ring of Dead Water.
"And what does this threaten us with?" Chani asked quite calmly.
- You'll see.
- We'll see. But later. And now I'll finish her off! - Ruby swung her spear, but Toril stopped her.
- Wait. She'll have it even worse than us. She caught herself, too, wait a bit.
And they saw. The galley was in the very center of a bright green ring, gradually narrowing as the circles of the scattering Hammer narrowed. The water turned into an incomprehensible viscous jelly, became so transparent that everything that was happening deep below could be seen. Not the slightest wave rose on the surface of the dead water, smooth as glass.
"Here it is, Dead Water," the princess repeated.
The shark, forgetting about everything in the world, continued to scatter black powder right under the oars of the Galley. Ruby raised her spear again, but Toril intercepted her hand. And what was supposed to happen happened - one of the oars cracked Hammer on the spine. The shark jerked in surprise, dropping the empty chest, and stared dumbfoundedly with stupid eyes at the Galley. Hammer did not understand what had happened and where to swim now. In front of him was a wide strip of Dead Water. Hammer looked back at the Galley. Fear flashed in his bloodshot eyes. He hit his tail hard and rushed straight ahead, but the water seemed to part under him, just as dead throughout its entire depth, and without a single splash, the shark, convulsively writhing, went down, leaving behind only a half-strangled scream.
"She drowned," Toril commented.
"And we too?" Chani suggested.
- No, we shouldn't, the Golden Galley can't sink, but...
Indeed, there was a small "but". Only now did Chani notice that the Galley's oars were helplessly furrowing the water. In vain - the ship did not move from its place even a step.
"What are we going to do?" asked Chani.
- Wait.
Chani whistled sadly and trudged to the bow. He sat down, dangling his legs, and began to hum a carefree song about a cheerful duckling who... No one had time to find out what exactly the duckling had done - the singer fell silent. He fell silent against his will.
Far from the Galera, beyond the glassy-green circle of Dead Water, a shapeless white mass, swaying and gelatinous, was slowly rising from the depths of the sea. But it was not the motionless, imperceptible jelly of Dead Water. The whitish jelly was elastic and flexible, it was moving, something was sparkling in it all the time. The monster was writhing and twisting, it was obvious that the sun was causing it terrible pain, but still it was rising.
Having emerged, it rocked helplessly on the waves for some time - four huge eyes, larger than a human head, dimly glowing with a phosphorescent bluish shine. Then something in them blinked, and Chani saw that in each eye there were two pupils - one black, the other green. A weak greenish light streaming from the second pupils doused Chani with waves of heavy animal horror, forcing his hands to fall helplessly, his tongue to ossify and fall silent, horror that covered his eyes with darkness.
The monster's eyes slowly turned, the black pupils blinked, and Chani, pale, with his mouth half open, shuddering with his whole body, saw how the tight balls unfolded and thick tentacles, covered with black hooked claws and pale pink suckers, rose into the air. They grew and lengthened, smoothly wriggled, stretched towards the Golden Galley, and Chani imagined that they were about to grab him and drag him there, into the depths. Still not a sound was heard - Toril and Ryubi either did not notice the danger that had appeared, or they too could not do anything.
And then the first tentacle hit the deck with a nasty wet squelch two steps away from Chani. The claws clicked predatorily, contracting, the suckers smacked, and the tentacle firmly grabbed the handrail. A second one appeared after it, a third... As if a ball of whitish slippery snakes were swarming on the Galley's deck. Chani, gathering all his will into a fist, tried to get up, but only managed to rise slightly and collapsed back.
A new tentacle flew very close, brushing his cheek, but Chani could not turn his head away. On the ends of the tentacles were green bronze rings with a four-pointed star stamped on them... And Chani understood with some sixth sense that this monster did not obey the Sea King, that someone else, much stronger, had driven it up...
The galley rocked noticeably, it tilted and scooped up some greenish jelly with its side. Chani watched with fixed eyes to see what would happen next. And suddenly the galley moved. The monster, apparently deciding to deal with it for sure, greedily grabbed the bow of the galley and dragged it towards itself.
Chani managed to see the Galley cross the mirror-smooth circle of Dead Water, and the first wave crashed against the side with a cheerful splash, dousing him with salty spray. But everything started spinning before his eyes, a column of fire flashed from behind, something hissed, tentacles suddenly shot up, the monster's second pupils lit up with a yellow-green fire...
Then everything turned black and disappeared.