Immortals. Dead Princess from the Forbidden Island. Seven stories about Elga

“Twelve,” Elga answered, looking at the others.

— And you are all the Chosen Ones? asked the new girl, not believing her eyes, looking at girls from fifteen to eighteen years old.

— Neither did you, Raxa laughed.

***

A thin girl’s hand leaned out into the street, checking to the touch whether it was raining or not. Following the hand, a young, freckled snub-nosed face appeared, and a mischievous rain dropped its drops directly into the wide-open blue eyes, so that the girl smiled and blinked, and began to hastily wipe her face.

“Thank you,” she said, her face in the air, “but I was washing myself today,” and she pulled the hood of her fur jacket over her very eyes.

She climbed out with a basket and dragged sledges for luggage, carefully getting out from under the hanging walrus skins that closed the oak door, which closed the entrance to this dwelling in a stone mountain. In the morning, a corrosive and boring rain dripped. He was unable to wet the rocky soil with sparse grass, but he could not allow novices to pick mushrooms and ripened lingonberries. The girls could only quickly do the necessary — feed the dogs and collect fish from nets woven from willow rods, where she managed to get full overnight. Today Elga was unlucky, she had to do all these important and necessary things. So the girl set off, hung a bronze dagger on her belt, and in her hands was a long club, taller than her height, with a stone top. Only three likes volunteered to accompany her. The dogs did not like the rain either, and they were already bored under the canopy, and the walk promised them a bit of prey, fresh, not frozen fish. True, they had to honestly work out all this, they lay in a sled and post-frames for dogs to harness them on the way back when the sled is full of fin and fish. True, Elga also took the fire with her, in an ivy-covered clay pot closed with a lid, the coals cooled less in it, and it was always possible to light a fire to warm up on the way. Alatyr was a very large island, or rather, two islands lying opposite Gandvik and Ob Bay, from which you could get into the great Ob River, stretching with its branches from the distant South in the Studenoy Sea. And along this river lived the people of the union of the Seven tribes, but they were all Hans and Mansi, and the surrounding tribes called who was more convenient. So the novice pulled the sled forward, to the bay, where there were fences where the fish got, especially at high tide. On the shore lay parts of the trees that the girl left in a heap, away from the surf, and the dogs, Ukhvat, Chernushka and Squirrel, sniffed the shore in search of something edible. But on the stones, apart from algae, they still did not find anything, but did not lose hope, ran far ahead, so that only the tail of Squirrel was visible, glistening with whiteness among the boulders. Elga went to the net, half hidden by water, and took out from the sled a net woven from a bast, with a long handle, began to pull out fish and put them in the basket. There was little prey, and she sighed, dragged the sled further. In another bay there were more fish, and she fed the dogs, giving each, so as not to offend, a fish. Her assistants were crammed together with prey, and Elga fastened baskets in a sleigh, and prepared frames for dogs.

— We ate, we need to work, — she said affectionately, wearing a harness for each of her tailed assistants.

The sled was now pulling likes, the girl was having fun, but here, as always before the storm, she had a headache, and so much, then she closed her eyes and grabbed her fingers in the whiskey. From the refuge, at home in the mountain, where all the novices lived, it was far away, and she knew that they would not be in time, and it was better to wait out the storm in safety. Not far, as she knew, there was also a mountain eaten by passages in the stone column. Elga decided to escape there, and teased the tailed assistants to move faster. They also felt unkind, and let down, pulled the posts, but obeyed the person. The sled runners all glided across the rocky ground, bringing them closer to the target. The cavern in the rock was half her height, so Elga climbed into the shelter on all fours, and dragged the stubborn animals there, who almost turned over the luggage, but the girl clung to the baskets in time with two hands. The novice dragged each of the pets by the scruff of the neck, who whined plaintively, resting their paws, but it did not even occur to them to bite Elga’s hand slightly. The girl prepared a place for a fire, broke knots, and took out the coveted pot of coals. Next to the wall lay a large pile of firewood, it is not clear who left, but so useful today. With bronze tongs, she took out a suitable, hot burning corner, and threw it next to the firewood, fanned the fire, and soon the warmth was warming the girl. The dogs all held on to her back, huddled together, and so warmed each other. Elga took out the fish, gutted, gave her head and giblets to her now very timid defenders. She watched branches crack in the fire, and a storm rages outside, with strong winds and piercing rain. The fish was soon ready, the novice took it off the rod. Dinner did not take long, and Elga, wrapped up, tried to fall asleep. She woke up from the fact that it seemed to her that someone was looking at her. She opened her eyes, but in the dark she saw only the glowing embers from the burnt fire. And suddenly it seemed to her that some creature had slipped past, and heard the dogs whining, who warmed her back. Here, a small figure slipped past the brightly flaming embers, and Elga rubbed her eyes, believing that she was close to her, and she shook her head, driving away the dope. But then two came up, and stood up so that she could see them, these fingertips, and they were the width of a person’s finger.

***

Novices stood in the open, wrapped in raincoats. Mara showed the Chosen stars, and how they revolve around the Earth. How to find the Queen, the North Star, and how to find the way to the North along it. She showed the most important constellations, and presented each with a calendar made of wood, with notches on the days of the most important holidays. Summer solstice, winter solstice, spring and autumn, all of which were noted on these tables. And how to find planets among the stars. The novices listened to all this, opening their mouths, trying to remember and understand everything. Each repeated Mara’s lesson, and they were able to find both the North Star and other stars in the firmament. Then, everyone gathered, and as if listening to the music of the heavenly spheres, and went to the meal.

Dinner in the cave ended early, it was barley porridge and always fish, washed down with herbal infusion. Wooden bowls and spoons are already clean of leftover food, because Mara does not like when food is wasted.

“What did you eat?” — asked the mentor for the sake of the order of her novices, — remove from the table, and sleep.

— Mara, and you will not tell us a fairy tale, — asked the youngest, gracefully smiling at Mara, knowing that she would not resist her request.

— Clean up after the meal first, — all the same confidently, but not at all strictly added a young woman, or looking young.

The mentor left the table and went to her cell, and behind her Elga winked with her friends, and they only shrugged their shoulders in response, making signs to each other with their fingers, and who was terribly grimacing, nevertheless fearing that the mentor would turn in their direction. The girls quickly collected the dishes, brushed the crumbs off the table, and their famous oak millennial table, covered with ancient carvings, was tidied and cleaned. Two went to wash the wooden dishes, and the rest put the shops in place. Soon they returned, Tansy and Tina.

— Elga, well? Tansy, the oldest of the novices, asked, taking the hand of the girl, the youngest of them, Mara’s favorite.

— Go to her, — pushed her and Vlast, and Nara, Gata and Una stood nearby. And Vara, her friend, put her chin on her palm and looked kindly, without taking her eyes off.

— Yes, go already, I suppose waiting for you to ask, — added her pinch of salt and Gata.

Elga sighed heavily, pretending rather than really, and deliberately barely moving her legs, looking back at her friends every step, went to the mentor’s bed, covered with a fur curtain.

— Mara, you’re done. Tell us a fairy tale, — the girl said in her unctuous honey voice, — do not fall asleep in any way.

— What are small ones? ‘the woman replied, strictly done, suppressing the chuckle.

— See, the storm will be, does not give us sleep — the novice did not even lie, — tell us.

— Well, let’s go to bed, — agreed Mara, opening the curtain, and the girls, like mice, fled to their shops, and took cover with furs, only their curious eyes stuck out.

The mentor took a chair, put it in the middle of the cell, sat down, and began her story:

“On a distant — distant Grumant island, there was an old man with an old woman. All their children and grandchildren died, carried away by a reckless woman, and only an old deer remained from good, and the nets and traps were fishing, which the grandfather bypassed day and day, collecting some fish for food. In the spring they saw off flocks of goose flying to the North, all thinking whether children and grandchildren from the kingdom of Ella would return to them. So grief and poke the old man and the old woman until dactyl came to them one wonderful night.”

— Who? Gata got into it with the question, and everyone shook at her.

— Dactyl, a little man, growing in width of a finger, and therefore is called dactyl. Well, continuing? Mara sighed.

— Yes, — the girls eagerly agreed, having stopped tossing and turning,

“At first, the people are old and did not consider him, he was very young, showed up to them somehow, began to help in business. I climbed onto the deer, climbed into the very ear, and let’s rule it like a driver. The neighbors see that the sledges, full of fish, themselves, are going without an old man. They were surprised, thought — an enchanted deer with a grandfather and grandmother, and offered them to replace a young deer. Grandfather agreed, but the dactyl remained in the ear of the old deer. They sit, the old man and the old woman are sad, they remember their dactyl finger, the grandmother cut the fish, but she began to divide.

“This is for you,” Grandma says to her grandfather, and puts a piece of fish in his bowl, “and this is for me,” and puts it for herself, and eat it in sorrow.

Well, the dactyl is small, but his voice is sonorous, he came home, sees, the fish is divided without him.

And the dactyl will scream: -And me?”

The narrator shouted very loudly, which is why a couple of girls, frightened, climbed under the blankets, and Elga only laughed loudly.

“Go to bed,” Mara said imperiously, and blew out the lamps, leaving only one.

***

Elga did not believe her eyes, such a very small man, less than a toy, and next to him stands the same.

— What came? — one shouted piercingly, so the girl’s ears were blocked, — here is our house.

— Get out of here,” another munched a bumblebee, -we live here.”

— Hello to you good people, — said hello, as she was taught, novice, — you see for yourself, a storm. I’ll leave in the morning.

“Get out of here. Come on, come on, it won’t blow away, I suppose. Mara said that no one else would come to us.

“Until morning, please.

— You are looking, dylda persistent. — the eldest of the dactyls got angry, — Well, if you serve and help us, come here whenever you want, and live here as long as you want. And we will fulfill your desire too. One thing.

“What do you want me to do?”

— Lemmings expel. Climb everywhere, just like you. They don’t let you live. Ours is a cave, and they are right there.

“How am I going to get them out of here?” Will I run after them with a stick?

— Think for yourself, oryasina. Mara learned you many wisdom, so you decide.

The girl thought, after all, the mentor taught them a lot about everything, how to treat, how to calm down blood, how to take childbirth, and drive away the reckless woman. She sat down, bent her fingers, spoke all the lessons of Mary, remembering them by heart, whispering to herself. And so, it seems, they remembered — lemmings love playing the pipe in a certain key, and the pipe should be reed, about seven holes.

— I need a reed, dactyl, — said Elga, — with her, I will do everything right.

“All right, wait,” one of the fingers said, disappearing into the mountain.

She sat and waited, just prepared a knife in order to create a pipe.

— Take it, — a familiar voice rang out, — you will be ready, call.

Elga cut off the knee of the desired length, and making the necessary holes, made a pipe. I cleared her of litter with a twig, looked at the fire, saw that everything was done well. Elga once again meticulously examined her product, frowning at her blonde eyebrows and pursing her lips.

“What are you looking at?” Haven’t seen enough? asked her familiar thin voice, — holes, you think, a lot or a few? was acutely interested in dactyl.

“What’s your name?” asked the novice.

“I am Talin. And you, recluse?

— Elga, yes I am a novice only, soon I will return to myself, in Lukomorye. I did what you want.

— Will you drive them now? — immediately got down to business finger, sitting on a small bench — I will look.

— Where do you live? — the girl looked around, — here only you two.

— In the depths of the mountain. We can’t dig big tunnels because of these… If you do more, they are right there.

“And I thought you were at war with them.

— Sure. We fight with swords! — laughed, clutching his stomach, finger, — oh yes. Forgot. With me, it’s Faline. Get started.

“One more thing. Have you seen the shuttle here? On the water to swim?

— Yeah. Away there, there is. In the tunnel away, whole. And what’s next?

— I will play, lemmings will follow me, I will go to the shuttle, and to the bay, and lemmings will drown in the sea.

— Let me think… Who will be in the boat sitting on the oars? We will make a gate, fix the rope by the bow of the boat, and we will pull the rope, and then we will pull you with the boat together across the bay, and after you the lemmings will go to sea.

“I’ll go get the shuttle. — the girl decided, and did not hesitate to go to the branch of the cave.

In her left hand was a burning branch, weakly illuminating the road. On the road lay many stones, large and small, the girl carefully stepped over them. But Elga walked forward, and suddenly, near the wall itself, all covered with cobwebs and dust, stood the long-awaited shuttle. The novice came closer, and the branch began to collect a silver thread mixed with dust. Cheln was small, with sides of solid whale skin. At the bottom, at the very bottom, lay the remains of a man. These were only bones covered with blackened skin, dressed in leather clothes. The body curled up, obviously, as the girl thought then, the deceased froze in the cave without waiting for help.

In a decaying bag lay two longest sword-stingers, in expensive scabbard. One was trimmed in Indrik the Beast bone and the other in gold. And nearby lay two wands, carved from stone, on the handles of a deer horn. The girl left a bag of loot in the shuttle. Elga only sighed, with anxiety that she would have to disturb the remains, and began to dig a hole with a stick to bury the bones. The work took a long time, and the girl was tired. Carefully, so as not to scatter, she lifted the dead body, and cried out in horror, dropping the body to the ground. The dead man’s eyes were scorched, and red clay was stuffed into his eye sockets, his hands and feet were cut off, and his body was sprinkled with ochre. A hefty piece of petrified ochre fell out of the jaws of the skull. Elga covered her mouth with a handkerchief, containing her feelings, and her heart beat often, often. Her instinct almost vomited, the girl covered her mouth with her hand. She was able to calm down violently.

“Who are you,” only this thought beat in her brain.

The novice nevertheless overpowered herself, and with shaking hands put the remains in the grave, and covered the dead man’s last refuge with stones and pebbles, trying to drag larger stones onto the grave hill. She sighed with relief, having finished work, and carried a light boat to the exit, but stopped several times, catching her breath. She stained her palms in dust and cobwebs, and now she really wanted to wash her hands and wash herself. At the exit, many dactyls awaited her, they looked like a red-brown swaying carpet on the floor, and in front of them lay tools more like spools of thread.

— Here, and the shuttle in place. — Falin shouted to her, — now we will fix the bow of your ship with ropes, and we will pull, and you will play the pipe. Don’t be afraid, you won’t step on us, we will all be ahead of you.

— Okay, I’m waiting, tell me how you will be ready.

— All right. And I need to wash my hands.

— You are looking for the princess. Here, there, and he pointed with his hand at a small stream that was beating in another tunnel.

The girl was able to wash her hands and wash herself with ice water. At first, she fiercely wiped her hands with sand, almost peeling off her skin in order to wash away even the memory of the buried dead. She came looking around where she would rest. Elga sat down on a log, and leaning her back on the wall of the cave, dozed off. It was already night, she was tired and exhausted, and there was no strength at all.

— Wake up, dormouse, — Falin shouted right in front of her nose, — and do not be afraid, why did you immediately turn up? Your fish will not disappear.

The girl hastily opened her eyes, and in front of her again stood her, already her, fingers. And exactly, she turned around, looking at whether her sledges with luggage were in place. Elga got up and looked at her, now her shuttle. His nose, like a net, was covered with hundreds of tied dactyl ropes, and they stretched twenty cubits forward. The novice sighed several times, and started playing. From where, it is not clear, but hundreds and hundreds of rodents moved nearby, and without turning around, Elga went to the bay, and the shuttle smoothly stretched to the water, as if by itself. Sometimes she turned around, without ceasing to extract the melody from the reed, and saw a gray carpet of lemmings stretching behind her. Step by step she was approaching the bay, already her lips were starting to close, but the girl tried her best. Finally, the shuttle slipped through the low water, and she went faster and jumped into the boat. The ship jerked, slightly scooped up water, but stretched along the water surface. She turned around and saw that the lemmings were not thinking about going into the water after her, trying to swim. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that none of the rodents were climbing into the water anymore, and hundreds of them had already disappeared under water. Her lips and cheeks were numb, but Elga tried to give out the melody from the pipe. But finally, it was over. The sea water swallowed everyone who went after her. Exhausted, she lowered the pipe and sat down at the bottom of the shuttle. She caught her breath, and unhooked the dactyl ropes, and took a small oar, and began to rake to the shore. The oar was small, so it moved slowly, and the shuttle did not come to the shore soon. She felt the friction of the bottom on the pebbles of the shore, and raising the hem, jumped out of the boat, and then dragged her into the cave. Elga has already pondered how to deal with her prey. She was not going to leave her here. But the girl really wanted to sleep, she almost fell from fatigue. She was transported midnight, and so tired! Although it is not night here, and now the sun almost does not set over the horizon. But I still want to sleep, and Elga, falling asleep right on the go from fatigue, almost struck the rock with her head, but still filled the bump, and immediately woke up, and fiercely rubbed the sore spot.

— How it hurts, but it became easier. I even woke up. ‘she said aloud.

She again crawled into her shelter, lit a fire, laid out furs, hoping to sleep at least a little. Her dogs climbed to her, wagging their tails. Two lay down to warm her back, while the other settled in her legs. She sighed, reached out a couple of times, and fell into a rough sleep. As Elga recalled later, it would be better not to fall asleep.

***

She saw the same cave where she was forgotten. The darkness of the caverns was illuminated by brightly burning torches, and three women, wrapped in raincoats, quietly crept across the floor covered with sand and pebbles. The long shadows on the walls seemed to be peering into the hidden corners themselves. Three, who wanted to remain unknown, were looking for someone, already looking at each other in confusion. But Elga’s dream did not indicate her faces, they were covered with felt raincoats. The trinity searched the tunnel after the tunnel, not letting a single back street pass. They were already struggling to rearrange their legs, when suddenly they saw two burning torches in the impenetrable darkness of a small cave. The pursuers turned their faces to each other, covered with raincoats, drank each potion from small eggplants, and… extinguished their fire. Elga saw a man sitting in her, now of course, her shuttle, carefully sorting through his treasures. First, he took a sword trimmed in gold, took it out of the sheath, turned it like that, and removed it, pushing the blade into the mouth. He also played with a sword trimmed with Indrik’s tooth. The torches burned out, she saw the shaved head of a wanderer, and a braid on the back of her head. But the bad thing is that she saw his face, and his eyes, and he jumped up, feeling her presence.

Too late. A cleverly thrown rope, with three tethered stones on each side, wrapped itself around his throat and loads hit his face, smashing his nose and forehead into blood. In surprise, he dropped his sword, and then another similar weapon wrapped around the torso, and then a heavy club fell on his head. The unfortunate man fell, and he was immediately tied with the strongest belts. The women prepared torches by sticking them on four sides and lit them. They stood opposite the shuttle, and suddenly, one of them, hit a bone-bound dagger in the chest, plunging the point into flesh to the handle itself. The convulsions twisted the dying man, and everything seemed to be over, but Elga somehow knew that she was not.

The witches, and it was they, sprinkled the body of the killed with ocher, the other opened her eyelids and pulled out her eyes, throwing them to the ground, and covered her empty eye sockets with ocher as well. The third witch was waiting for her turn, and the girl, herself cold with fear, could not escape from this dream. She couldn’t feel her arms or legs. And so, the third, with a quick blow, obviously a silver dagger, cut off the tongue, stuffing the sorcerer’s mouth with ochre. Then she separated her hands, dodging the stream of blood that hit from the body. After standing a little, she cut off her feet just as quickly. Blood flooded the entire bottom of the shuttle, and two bloody, mixed with ocher flow, flooded the face of the executed. Women stood near the body, their faces also covered their hoods. They did not remove the daggers, then they wiped the blades off the clothes of the dead, turned around without saying a word, and went into darkness. The torches were left to burn. Much time passed, the torches began to go out..

The body begins to move, bending, like a fish thrown ashore. Then the corpse rose, but without support on the feet of his feet flopped back into the shuttle, and fought for a long time, trying to break the belts. All attempts to free themselves were in vain. The cracked torches went out.

***

Breathing heavily, Elga jumped up, almost stepping on the dog’s tail. She was sweating through and through. The whole body was bursting with fatigue, and her right arm and leg were reduced, and she could not walk normally yet. Before her eyes, everything stood the face of the murdered man, the one whose body she threw into the pit, covered with stones. She wiped her face with a towel, trying to catch her breath.