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

I didn’t want to return to the grave in the tunnel, but she was eager to check, but was everything exactly as she saw? Elga got up and put her breath in order, as Mara taught. The arm and leg moved away, the girl went to a familiar place, illuminating her path with a burning branch. The darkness of the underground passage receded in front of her and closed behind her. She remembered the road, and the path did not take much time. Here is the grave hill. Elga winced when she saw the biggest rocks fall off the mound. “probably didn’t lie well,” she reassured herself. “But she was looking for something else. With inquisitive eyes, the girl looked for traces of torches seen in a dream, and no matter how regrettable it was to admit, the dream was prophetic. The remains of torches, not seen by her yesterday, rose above the sandy floor of the cave. The chosen one also examined the stone wall of the cave, trying to find more traces of the incident. Why did this sorcerer come here? Nothing. She just sighed heavily, once again running her gaze across the stone walls. I walked along the sandy floor into my cave, and tied the shuttle to the sleigh. Then, thinking, she untied it, remembering the blood flows at the bottom of the ship. But she put her find, swords, in sledges, and hid the wands in a cave. Baskets of fish stood whole, Elga put out the fire, and pulled the resting dogs with a sleigh out. Finally, she was able to go to the cave of the Chosen. The weather was excellent on the island, and after yesterday’s storm I could not even believe it. The team dragged the luggage quickly, the runners slid along the rocky ground, and soon the girl was already near the entrance to the mountain. Next to the door stood two chosen ones, while others, as she saw in the distance, reached the guest hut. She was spotted and the girls were almost running towards her. She stopped the sleigh, harnessed the dogs, and carried the baskets to the entrance.

“Hello Elga,” Tansy said to her, smiling, “everyone was waiting for you yesterday, but they saw that the storm was playing out. Mara sent Gata and Vlast to check the guest hut, she thought that you were waiting for bad weather there. Uta and Nara go around the shore, and Tina, and she nodded to her friend, is doing business with me. — she made a face, — graze goats. — Well, go to Mara, she was waiting, we will take the fish to the glacier.

Elga only nodded, agreeing, and dragged a leather bag, which Tansy and Tina looked at with curiosity. The girl pretended not to notice this interest, and having bent off the canopy, she went to the cherished door. She felt tired, wanted to eat and sleep, sleep and eat, and it is not even clear what is more. Eyes stuck together on the move, Elga shook her head, and took up the door of the handle, pulled it, and went inside.

Inside warm and well, the girl even smiled with joy, but the smile disappeared after looking at Mara’s face. The mentor shook her head reproachfully, and the novice only smiled, leading her shoulders.

— Sorry, Mara. It just so happened, storm. But this is what I found — and she handed the bag to the mentor.

The chosen one lowered the bag to the floor, sat down and pulled out two swords, and put them on her lap. The scabbard shone with gold, and the bone of Indrik the beast. Mara flattened the finds with her palms, sliding her fingertips across the reliefs as she enjoyed the pattern. Her eyes glided over the beautiful things, and she completely forgot about the novice, and could not tear herself away from the beautiful things.

— Mara… said the girl quietly to the tutor.

— What? — the mentor woke up, — yes, everyone was worried… You disappeared… — she said, but looked only at the swords, — Where did you find it?

— Dactyli tied up, — the girl answered, without batting an eye.

Elga did not expect to hear what she heard. It was a loud laugh from Mara, always restrained like that. She laughed, wiping away tears, and then with two fingers, not having the strength to say a word, showed the size of the men between the thumb and forefinger.

— How is it? she barely uttered, continuing to laugh. — No, I was also an inventor at one time, but you… — Okay, talk seriously. she finished, looking at Elga.

“Well, they told me where they were. I spent the night in their cave. — the girl hardly picked up the words.

— Girl, — Mara came close to the novice, — What were you doing there?

— I waited out the storm… — the student said very quietly.

— AND? What did they demand in return? What in return? — she hung over Elga, and bored her eyes.

— Nothing… — the girl managed to resist rash answers, — helped to drive the mice out of their cave.

“Do you know whose weapon it is?” she pointed to the swords on the table.

“No,” the novice replied almost honestly to the mentor, “they didn’t tell me.

“As they seemed to you, I don’t even understand,” the woman threw up her hands, “how much I tried… Okay, go to your place. Sleep, got you this night.

Elga quietly pulled out in relief, and went to herself, in the cell of the novices. She took off her jacket on the go and fur sleeveless jacket, sat down on the bench, threw off her fur boots, and climbed under a warm blanket of sand skins. Only her head was slightly accustomed to the fur of the headboard, as a healing dream snatched her from the real one. She did not hear the voices of the friends gathered around her, and those who saw the heavy sleep of the youngest of them did not bother her, talking only in a whisper.

She saw in a dream an endless nightmare, all rising from the bottom of the shuttle of a murdered man with his eyes and tongue torn out. The dead man kept turning his face to her, with eye sockets and mouth stuffed with ochre and paths of blood and dirt running down to his chin. Then she saw a hill moving from the inside, with stones rolling and hitting each other from a grave embankment. Only in a dream the embankment was huge, several times taller than its height, and hung over it like a terrible sea wave. These huge, rolling stones fell on her, pressed on her body, preventing her from even breathing. She could not wake up again, only moaned in her sleep, rushing under the blankets, pulled a fur cover over her head, and curled up on the bench.

The next morning, all the inhabitants of the mountain chambers woke up and washed. The girls looked anxiously at Elga, with a gray face and black circles under their eyes. Gathered for breakfast. Mara looked at the girl, who only picked the porridge with a spoon, and she ordered to season it with honey, and not with everyday linseed oil. The novice was not herself. The mentor approached her, put her hand on her forehead with concern. The heat is not. She sat back down.

— Elga, eat come on. Is the porridge tasty, with honey, or did you miss the milk rivers and jelly banks of Yamal? — the mentor tried to joke, — today we’ll go to the bathhouse.

— Yes, jelly shores… how the juice of the earth will spill, so everything… you can’t drink from Obi. Elga answered, staring from under, and grabbed the porridge with a spoon. “Delicious, ‘she smiled

— And then! Eat come on. And then yesterday I worked hard, see.

After breakfast, having a little rest, Mara led the novices to comprehend the secret struggle in order to protect themselves if there was such a case. Pupils threw each other on soft grass carpets, and learned terrible, crippling punches and kicks. Then there were dances, or rather, movements of hands and feet, to the ringing of metal plates, during the service of the gods and with secret spells. Here every turn of the hand or foot, the bend of the finger is important and unique, and means something extraordinary, and Mara forced each to repeat the movement several times.

They also drank a bathhouse in one of the caves of the mountain. The fin was still enough, and the bath was heated hot. Mara only poured water on the stones, and the girls steamed, cleaned the body and soul. Elga stopped looking at one point, as if not seeing anything around, and the circles under her eyes came down. True, after all, they say that those who steam do not age. But Mara decided to take Elga to Pryakh, to find out what happened to the girl.

But then, in the evening, he brought the sailors from Gandvik to them. They raised the flag that they were asking for help, and went to the fellow tribesmen of Mar with Elga and Tansy.

The girl saw a familiar boat on which she was brought to Alatyr, and dreamed, what if there would be the same people, or would they bring news from their own family? But it’s bad that the mournful flag flew over them, got sick right, or who died. The mentor marched slowly, leaning on the staff, and Elga wanted to jump, find out what happened. As always, the dogs guarding the Chosen also ran after them.

— Do not rush Elga, eat yourself, — taught Mara, — you cannot show them that you are just a girl, not the Chosen One. They will not respect — they will not believe, but they will not believe, and they will not come to you for help, and they will not listen to what you say.

— Well, Mara, — the girl answered her without a fight, remembering the lessons.

Tansy was silent, she did not say a word, she was already thinking about her Dedication, which should happen in a couple of days.

The carpenters almost ran towards them.

— Favorites, help. One of my sailors was wounded.

“Now, good man, let’s see,” Mara answered, looking behind the Watazhniks standing, and saw a stretcher with a wounded man.

— My name is Katwar, and he, the merry man, my nephew, is called Sadok.

— Well Katvar, — said Mara, approaching the stretcher, and examining the sick person, — he has a fever, but he is alive, — and she quickly looked at Elga, — carry him to the guest hut, but natopit there, do not spare firewood.

— Well, — answered the feeder, and Vataga picked up the patient, and carried the stretcher to the house.

“Elga, can you?” Mara asked in a whisper, “will you help heal?”

“I can,” the girl answered firmly and confidently, throwing the cloak over her head, covering her face.

Tansy stayed with the dogs, and the other Vedunyas climbed into the guest hut. They started heating, the stove was hot, but the house was still cool.

“Get everyone out,” Elga said firmly, looking at Katwar through the crevice from under his cloak, eyes suddenly prickly as the points of daggers.

“Got it, madam,” the feeder nodded back, “will I stay?”

— You will help, said the novice so convincingly and firmly that even Mara nodded approvingly.

— Let them warm the waters, let them stir with honey, somewhere on four buckets, — the girl already commanded, shining with strict eyes from under a black felt cloak, — and the willow bark must be thinned, — and she served a large piece of dry bark from her bag.

Katvar went into the courtyard, where the sailors took up business, and stopped wailing and guessing at the death of the Watazhnik. Some chopped wood, others pushed bark, the third went for water to the source. The work boiled over, even the feeder rather grinned: “Women know how to find work for men.”

Elga, on the other hand, sat on the bench next to the dying man, breathing with great difficulty, his face was covered with dying sweat.

— Mara, stand behind, — the girl asked, throwing back the cloak, and putting her palms on the sailor’s forehead.

Elga tried to focus, as then, on a terrible day, saving her brother. How’s Takai? I probably grew up above me. Uninvited thoughts crept into my head about my mother and sister. She closed her eyes, trying to distract herself from everything, collecting heat into her hands, and looking only inward with her eyes. Finally, the warmth burst out of her, and she heard the young man’s deep breath. She opened her eyes, knowing that she would not see anything, and with the usual movement she again pulled her hood up to her very nose, so that no one would see her face, which had now become so terrible.

“Mara,” she quietly called her mentor, “come, I don’t see anything,” she muttered, eyes wide, but she saw only blackness in front of her.

She heard the steps of the Chosen One and felt her palm on her shoulder, and the girl took Mara by the arm. Elga got up, leaning heavily on Mara, and still almost fell, her legs buckled, and she lost her balance, so the woman hardly picked her up, weakened so much, and sat her back.

— Catch your breath, — the mentor said quietly, — we have nowhere to rush.

“Drink,” she asked plaintively, barely breathing from the strain.

“I’ll bring it,” came an unfamiliar voice nearby.

“Lie down, just come to life,” Mara joked, “Katwar will bring.

The feeder returned with a warm drink in his hands, and almost dropped it. He did not expect to see his smiling nephew sitting on the bench. Let it be so pale, but healthy, completely healthy.

— Mara, this is a miracle — only Katvar was able to utter, putting the vessel on the table.

The feeder looked again at the smiling Mara, and the healer, groping in front of him with her right hand, apparently a terrible old woman, wrapped up to her eyes in a black felt cloak. The healer barely stood on her feet, probably from old age, and held on to the hand of the Chosen One.

— Thank you, Zadok. — Katwar turned to his nephew, — The chosen one breathed life into you again.

“Yes, uncle,” the young man stood up and bowed hastily before Mara.

“Not me, but Elga,” she nodded at the cloaked woman.

Zadok stood in front of the healer, bowed before her, and said:

“Now I have to serve you,” and the young man tried to put his palms in the hands of the healers, covered with a cloak, but she only hastily pulled them away from him.

“Sadok, Mrs. Elga is tired. — Mara said sternly, — Do not be offended.

“I understand,” the young man nodded, “I would like to stay until tomorrow, and thank Mrs. Elga for her kindness.

“Madam Elga to meet you tomorrow,” Mara chuckled, and hid her smile, “and now we’ll go.” We have a lot to do.

And they left the house, on the stairs the girl just hung on the mentor’s left hand. They went to their monastery, and Elga held on tightly to Mara’s hand all the way, afraid to fall on uneven ground.

— Uncle, but the medicine woman is blind, — said Sadok, looking after the departing women — you see how she walks, how she steps with her feet, she only hopes for the Chosen One.

— Exactly. But she walked here herself, with her own feet. I saw it myself. She is tired of seeing Sadok, she has suffered with you.

In response, the young man only shook his head, and his braid swung at the back of his head. What will happen tomorrow? Who knows.

***

— Don’t say anything, Tansy. — immediately stopped the ohs of the novice Mara, — you took an oath, so keep it.

The girl looked at Elga, her face, invisible eyes, asking for a half-smile on her blue lips, and the way a smiling girl usually holds on to the mentor’s hand. She couldn’t say anything, she just didn’t have the energy to look at it. If this is a gift, then what is the curse???

— Go to Pryakh, say that I want to come with Elga, — ordered Mara Tansy, just petrified, seeing the healer, — but don’t stand with a pillar.

— Well, — the novice woke up, and went, but almost ran to the monastery of Pryakh.

Mara walked with the girl along the path very slowly, trying to walk on flat ground, bypassing stones. The girl still stumbled twice, broke her knee on the stones and burst out of resentment, sitting on the ground. Tears from her eyes rolled like a river, she could not say anything, only wailed, and did not want to rise. The mentor calmed her down for a long time, like a small one, and by force she was able to lift and drag her into the monastery, home. She said everything endlessly, how smart and beautiful she was. Yes, she was now small and vulnerable, with a very sore leg, and even blind now. Not far from the mountain they were met by Tansy, hurrying to them.

— The spinners are waiting, Mara, she said, her eyes fixed on the healer’s burrowed face.

— Let’s go to the Hermits, we are already waiting for us, Elga, — the Mentor said softly and quietly.

“Okay, only it’s hot in the raincoat,” she capricious, “and her leg hurts. Yes, and I do not see now.

— I couldn’t let you in a hut to lie down, I’m sorry, — the mentor answered, — soon you will rest.

They walked together past the rainbow columns, on the way to the chambers of the Recluses. The bronze-covered door, squeaking, opened, and the novice let them inside. Mara led the blind inside, and put her on the bench. The chambers of these women did not differ much from the chambers of seven, the same shops covered with skins, the same lari for clothes and property, nothing incredible, such an expected anger. Now they sat opposite them, three witches and recognized fortune-tellers recognized as Guardians. They looked at Elga without taking their eyes off, and without saying a word. But now, looking at each other, they finally decided.

— Hello, Chosen One, whose fame will now be known not only in Gandvik, but also in Lukomorye and Obdoria. We are about you, Elga, — Pryakha slowly uttered his thought. — and you will pass the dedication in a week. Pulling is pointless. You are the strongest here, and with Dedication you will gain the strength that you need, the strength so that you do not lose your mind. You don’t want to be a fool, do you?

— No, I don’t want to, Pryakha, — the girl answered with a deaf voice.

— Mara, you’ll keep the sailors quiet about the cure. said the mistress of the mountain in one voice.

— And you Elga, tell us about two found swords, but first you will spread the bones of purpose. On your fate, — added the recluse.

— I don’t see anything yet, — the novice was surprised, — how I will be the bones of fate. And I won’t see the signs.

— You don’t need to take bones. Fate is blind herself, and the bones pull, not looking inside.

— I’m ready — and Elga sighed, deciding that it was impossible to argue, and squeezed her lips, preparing for the inevitable.

The spinners got up and removed the silver casket on the legs from the supplier, in the form of eagle claws, and from it, lifting the lid, they took out a leather bag with rattled bones. The recluses looked at each other, and one of Pryakh got up and gave the other the coveted leather bag with bones, and she, taking it with both hands, handed it to the blind.

— He is in front of you, stretch out your hands and take it, — said Pryakha Elge, — Shake it up. Pull three times one at a time, and put on the table. Understood? — said the woman, — Mara, no sound. — sentenced the eldest of the Recluses.

Elga already had a difficult day today, she went blind, albeit very tired for a while. Getting up, she swayed, and only the mentor managed to catch her falling body by the hand. My head was spinning and there was not enough air, she had nothing to breathe. She shook the bag as she was ordered, and through force, groping the neck of the leather bag, she launched her right hand there, wiggling her fingers inside. The bones rattled, and Elga, remembering all the gods, pulled out one, putting it on the table, then, sighing, another, and, already exhaling, put the last one. And so she took out three times three bones, nine in total, no more, and no less.

Mara looked at all eyes. The first, second and third… how good it is that Elga does not see now… But the mentor still looked sideways at the novice, standing straight like a stick, next to the table, trying to hear what was happening. The mentor herself barely stood on her feet, seeing the signs on the bones, and only managed to grab the tabletop.

“What is there?” Elga asked in a weak voice, “why are you silent?”

— Many achievements await you, and the glory is immortal, — answered Pryakhi, showing Mara the wise, that she would be silent, she only shook her head in response, disagreeing.

“We’re done with that. Chosen, since you got swords? — again began the interrogation of Pryakh.

— Dactyli gave, — the girl answered honestly, or almost honestly.

“In the cave next to the bay?” one of them asked, while the others stood with the eyes of a novice.

“It is,” she replied.

“And besides these swords?” said the mistresses of the mountain eagerly, “was there anything else?”

— No, it wasn’t. Elga said firmly, just that. And nearby was a hill of stones, grave, maybe grave.

Again the spinners looked intently at the novice. But she did not see them and it is good that she did not see them. I have not seen this desire, such excitement to pull this secret out of her. Indeed, during this time she got used to controlling herself and being firm. The spinners themselves breathed intensely and winked, were afraid, now they were afraid, to get this secret out of her.

— Until you visit Scarapea, you will live with us. Mara, warn the novices that we will have a girl to live.

“What about Zadok?” Mara asked, grinning to herself, “he must thank him for saving him.” Feeder Katwar thanks very much.

— Well, just after lunch let him come to us, not slow down. — Pryakhi said firmly, — And let him take his chest too, he will not forget. Coming back is a bad omen.

Mara brought Elga out of Pryakh’s chambers, and she barely rearranged her legs.

“Why am I so, Mara,” she lamented, “everything is wrong with me…

— Do not twist, the morning of the evening is wiser. And what’s wrong? The young man saved his life, the Hermits allow you to pass the test. Get enough sleep, and there the world will seem different. So it is clear, I dragged you here, but I myself was forced.

— Probably, it is, — the girl agreed, — went to bed…

***

The night passed like a whole year. Elga opened one eye, and slightly raised the fur blanket, examining the chambers. The shops of other novices were covered with fur covers, but there were no sleeping or at least sleepy friends here. She threw back the blanket, and quickly dressed. All and business-knitted dress and fur sleeveless, and felted short boots. Cool after all. I thought about breakfast, and I wanted to eat so much… She took a bronze mirror, looked, everything is fine, and not blind, as the girl thought.

The girl entered the upper room, where all the novices just sat down at the table for breakfast. Gata and Tansy looked at her with such fear, so Elge immediately wanted to eat, but there was a desire to run away without looking back, and she turned to leave.

“Sit down with us,” Uta and Nara shouted to her, pointing to the place between them, “that’s your bowl.” Put the fish for yourself and settle down. Fresh bread was baked.

Indeed, there was a smell of fresh bread in the upper room, and the youngest novice did not even notice it.

— Good morning,” Mara said to her, “sit down, dormouse.” And then soon go to the pier, to the sailors. I still have to comb your hair and dress you up.

— Why is this? — the girl jumped up, retreating from the table.

— You are now not just a novice, but a great healer, and you can’t go out as to people.

— And now it will always be so? — and she looked at Mara from scratch.

— Always, berry, — answered the mentor, smiling, — Eat come on. The fish turned out well.

Elga sat down between her friends, and put baked fish out of the pot. She looked at her friends, they laughed, looking at her, and ate with visible pleasure. Looking at them, she finished everything quickly, both fish and bread. Then the mentor took her to her, and all the Chosen Ones followed her. Everyone found things to see how Mara would dress up Elga. The woman sat her on a chair, loosened her braid, and began to comb her long hair. First a rare ridge, then frequent. Having combed, she braided, stabbed her hair with a gold hairpin. She decorated it with earrings and temporal rings made of gold, and took out one of her kokoshniks, decorated with Dvina mother-of-pearl. She laid a necklace of small gold beads around her neck. Thinking, she took out a sleeveless jacket.