The second figure descended from the wall.
"You will not pass," she said.
Darkness poured from her blackened eyes and engulfed the surrounding space.
They were in a basement. It was dark here, but they could see perfectly well in the darkness.
Numerous closed crates stood along the walls.
The Queen sneezed several times.
"Did you notice?" she asked. "There is too much dust here."
They climbed the stone stairs. The door was locked as well.
The Ice Queen frowned.
"For some reason, my magic isn't working," she said.
"And I have lost my sword and weapons. And I cannot create a sword or dagger as I have done many times before."
"Then who is going to break down the door?"
"You."
"I suggest rock, paper, scissors."
"Okay."
The Cursed got rock. The Ice Queen got scissors.
The door was metal. The Queen kicked the door with force. It shook but held firm. She struck it again, cursing, and the door was knocked out of place. It flew several feet down the corridor behind it and crashed heavily onto the floor. Clouds of dust billowed upward. There was even more of it here than in the basement.
The windows were tightly shut. The shutters would not open. Beyond them were the night and a dense forest. The walls were old, peeling, and covered with grooves made by what could have been long claws or teeth.
At the end of the corridor, a tall figure appeared. In a white wig, a nobleman's suit, with a long rapier in a scabbard at his left side.
An inscription appeared on the wall in large white letters: "Warrior of the Unkillable Lady: he walks on a carpet of dust."
The nobleman's figure moved toward them. A hissing rustle was heard as he drew his rapier from its scabbard.
The first swift thrust like lightning in the middle of the night sky. The Ice Queen dodged and kicked. She missed. Her foot slammed into the wall, and the crash echoed through the entire corridor.
The corridor was narrow. Only one person could fit in it. The Cursed had to stay behind the Queen while she was smashing the nobleman with the rapier in hand-to-hand combat.
From the constant movement, dust filled the corridor and hung in the air.
Several more lightning-fast slashes of the rapier tore through the darkness with fire. There really was magical flame dancing along the blade.
Several more kicks, and one blow broke through the corridor wall. Dust and splinters rained down.
"He draws his power from the dust," the Queen snapped between attacks. "Open the windows so it can blow away."
Outside, as if echoing her words, a strong wind was rising and violently shaking the branches of the trees.
The Cursed tried to break the shutters with all his strength. Then he struck the glass dozens of times. Without result.
"There are no locks visible here. They are sealed with magic."
"There will be now."
The Ice Queen was holding her own like a perfect mechanical machine. She did not let a single rapier strike her. At the same time, she landed three powerful blows on the enemy. He was thrown backward down the corridor and slammed into the wall. Cracks spread across the walls. The shutters on two windows unlocked. The Cursed immediately rushed over and threw them wide open.
A wild night wind burst inside, picked up streams of dust, and carried them away. A series of loud clicks ran down the corridor — the locks on the remaining windows were unlocking. The Queen and the Cursed opened them as well.
Now the wind was whistling through the interior of the building. It swept away all the centuries-old dust.
The enemy lay defeated against the wall at the far end of the corridor and no longer got up.
The Queen approached, grabbed his rapier, and pinned him through to the wall. However, his eyes remained fixed on her. He was not dying.
"There's still dust in the basement," said the Queen. "It is keeping him alive."
She grabbed the enemy by his clothes and jumped out through the window with him. On the ground, she pierced him with her rapier again, and he breathed his last.
The Queen searched him and took a spyglass from his jacket pocket. She unfolded it and carefully surveyed the night surroundings. Then she handed the spyglass to the Cursed.
"Do you see the city beyond the forest? That's where the Black Stone of the Unkillable Lady is. Now look at the houses farther into the forest. There are two more besides this one. These warriors live there. They are the hands of the Unkillable Lady, through which she carries out her dark deeds. We won't be able to enter the city while they exist. Let's go and kill them all."
She took the enemy's rapier with her.
They headed toward the second house nearby.
There were many of the dead lying in the forest. Several times, their limbs twitched as if trying to catch those passing by. The Queen and the Cursed tried to stay farther away from them. An atmosphere of horror and silent stillness hung over the entire forest.
They did not find the house. It was clearly visible through the spyglass, with all its doors, windows, porticos, and towers. But when they took the optical device away from their eyes, there was nothing among the trees. They crossed the area several times. There was no house, while the spyglass showed only darkness. They stepped back beyond the perimeter of the house and saw it through the spyglass again.
"The first house must have an underground passage leading here," said the Ice Queen.
In the basement of the first house, there was a door behind the crates. Behind it lay an underground tunnel.
In the second house, they heard a horse neighing.
An inscription appeared on the wall in the corridor: "Rider of the Unkillable Lady rides around her domain on horseback."
A new enemy appeared at the far end. Another nobleman. But this one had spurs on his boots that jingled with every movement.
He drew his rapier and entered the fight.
The Ice Queen drew the rapier of the slain enemy. Now she was no longer fighting with her bare hands.
The opponent's rapier was longer, a cavalry weapon, but that did little to help him. The Ice Queen's fencing skills combined with combat acrobatics proved unsurpassed.
Only one thing kept the opponent from complete defeat. He did not lose his strength. Even when the rapier pierced his body three times and came out through his back, he remained just as strong. Then the Ice Queen seized the opportunity, grabbed him with one hand, and threw him through the window. Sending a cascade of shattered glass flying, the Rider fell to the ground.
The Ice Queen landed beside him and stabbed him in the throat with her rapier. But he knocked it aside. He was still alive.
The Queen snatched his long rapier and pierced him with it. He began to slow down. Then she pierced him several more times until he stopped moving completely.
"Only his own weapon could kill him," said the Queen.
She gave the first rapier to the Cursed. Even without the ability to destroy, it could still be used for fighting.
The third building could only be reached on horseback, using the horses they had found in the stable.
An inscription appeared on the wall of the corridor in letters: "The Count of the Unkillable Lady has the key to the city."
At the far end, they encountered a tall nobleman. He had large iron teeth, and a medal hung from his uniform.
He drew his rapier and engaged the Queen in combat. But despite the fact that she wounded him twice, his strength did not fade either. She threw him outside just like the Rider, but she could not kill him with her rapier. The Warrior's rapier, which the Cursed stabbed him with, did not kill him either. Even the Count's rapier could not kill him.
"What kind of filth is this?!" cursed the Ice Queen, while the wounded Count was crawling and trying to reach them. "There must be a weapon somewhere in the house that can kill him."
They returned to the house and began searching it.
In one of the rooms, the Cursed pointed out a painting to her. It depicted a rapier lying on a stone slab in the middle of a clearing surrounded by forest trees.
The Ice Queen approached and touched the painting. Then she raised her leg and stepped over the frame.
She found herself in the clearing. She began approaching the rapier on the stone slab. At that moment, figures in dark hoods and cloaks flew out from behind the trees surrounding the clearing. Their hoods concealed their faces. The Ice Queen sped up, intending to outrun the guards and reach the rapier first. But the figures performed a completely different action. They began spinning around the clearing. Strange magic rose in the space and knocked the Queen to the ground. Each time she got back on her feet, she fell to the ground again. And the sinister hooded figures continued spinning. The Ice Queen felt more and more dizzy. And suddenly she realized that all this magical action had only one end. Her death. She screamed.
And at that moment, one figure's head exploded in a fountain of blood. Then the same thing happened to the next figure. One after another, their heads exploded into bloody pieces.
The Queen got up, took the rapier, and found herself back in the room of the house. The Cursed was standing in front of her by the painting. The fingers of his right hand were covered in blood.
In a sudden impulse, the Queen grabbed him by the neck, pressed her entire body against him, and pressed her lips to his.
Then she went downstairs and stabbed the Count to death.
A key appeared in his pockets.
They reached the city on horseback. They opened its gates with the key and rode inside.
The city, as it turned out, was a gigantic palace. A guard of heavily armed dead warriors was already rushing at them from the side corridors.
The Cursed remembered that he had already been in a similar city. The one where the dead lived and an ancient demon, whom they fed, was kept in a dungeon. And suddenly he understood what kind of cities the demoness was capturing and combining into a terrible mechanism in the Dark Kingdom. Perhaps somewhere up on the upper floors of the palace, a terrifying nobleman covered in worms was sitting in a pool and transforming yet another victim into a new horrifying form of life.
In the central hall stood a chest containing a black stone.
The Cursed smashed it.
Now he and the Ice Queen were once again sitting on horseback in front of the capital of the Dark Kingdom.