Part 2. - Chapter IX. An unexpected meeting

Costa, his grandfather, and Princess Pava got to the right place very quickly. It turns out that the shoes presented elsen men, as if he were moving it through space. The terrain around them was blurry, and only occasionally did they pause for a minute to gather their strength for the next spatial jump. So for a couple of hours they reached the river Casareta, where he made a halt for lunch. By evening they had passed the border posts of Kurtum and Letras, that are occupied by the Black Queen and the troops of Kamarian. Thanks to the spatial movement, the enemies did not notice them. By midnight they reached the river Sarencia, where they had to decide where to move further.

Then Costa told them a little about his adventure with the crows and suggested that they follow their advice and go to the place where the Left and Right Alatyrka merge and separate. Pavlina took the advice of the Raven seriously and explained that the place where the two Alatyrkas mingle is called Whiteaqua and the Tirren is also located at the confluence of these two rivers. Without incident, the three travelers passed by Tirran, which has been under siege for a year, in pitch darkness. Boots-runners hid travelers and from the eyes of enemies, and from the eyes of friends. Only on the Bank did they stop. Before them was a fairy-tale picture: in the pre-dawn haze, fog swirled over the water of an unusual color. Whiteaqua appeared before them, as if from an old Russian fairy tale about the milk river and the jelly banks. The left and Right of Alatyrka expired from completely different sources, but their channels United at the first corner, forming a common pool. And when the waters of the two magic rivers mixed, they turned into milk-colored water. But the confluence of the two rivers did not last long, only until the undercurrent separated them again. The white water was heavier than normal and thicker, so it always sank to the bottom, where an invisible separator returned the water to its original state and sent the waters of each river to its own channel.

It was the milk river that appeared before the astonished Costa and grandfather Vadim. While her companions admired the river, grandma Pava began to unpack her backpack. She was looking for a spell that would reveal an invisible bridge across this part of the river. It was built by the elves of Tirran and made invisible for protection; only the initiates and friends of the people of Tirran knew the spell of manifestation. Princess Pavva was a friend of the elves, so she was revealed the cherished words. But she never used them, and she didn't know them by heart. While Pavlina was searching for a spell in her backpack, she had to lay out an ancient sword, a waterproof cloak, a tent folded up, a pile of magic books, jars and strange devices. All this grew in heaps around the dear old woman.

"This is amazing!" – exclaimed the Costa, not paying attention to grandma Pava and grandfather Vadim. – A real milk river!

Suddenly, grandfather Vadim saw a small figure running out of the forest on the opposite side. Her white hair shone pink and silver in the morning light.

Costa saw her too and recognized her immediately:

"It's Nea! - the boy exclaimed and shouted at her, waving his arms. - "Nea! Nea! Here we are! Nea!"

But the girl kept running, and Costa soon realized why. After her, a monster – a huge ant-leaped out of the forest. The monster tried to grab the neck of the fugitive with its mandibles or sink its sting into it.

"No, Nea!" - Pava shouted, dropping her pack and running to the water's edge. - "You can't go in the water! You can't! Don't!"

But Nea plunged into the milky water and swam through it. Grandfather Vadim rushed to help the girl.

"Vadim! No! You can't go in the water! My God!" - grandma Pava shouted and ran into the water after him and Nea.

Only once in the water, grandfather Vadim realized that something was wrong around him. Nea, escaping by swimming, saw both grandfather Vadim and grandmother Pava, but managed to swim to them. She felt a terrible burning sensation, as if she were in a lake of hot iron. Grandfather Vadim and Pava felt the same. The burning was so intense that it was bone-chilling. All three screamed in pain and horror.

Costa did not notice what was happening in the water, because the creature that was chasing Nea, surprisingly quickly jumped over the river, it turns out that she had transparent wings behind her, which helped to cover a short distance. The creature landed right in front of Costa. He dodged the deadly sting, but the creature stabbed him with its claw-tipped foot. Costa rolled to the side, onto a pile of rags that grandma Pava had laid out. Seeing a strange silver-colored sword, Costa grabbed it and began swinging it in different directions. The sword was heavy with unaccustomed weight, but in a minute he was used to its weight and tried desperately to fight off Boogeyant with it.

Three figures were floundering in the river, their faces covered in milky slime, and their figures were emitting chemical vapors. Three people screamed in unison in a death scream. Each of them has lost their bearings and even forgotten themselves. Grandfather Vadim still kept his mind clear for some time, he grabbed Anna and dragged her in the direction of the shore, but a veil rose before his eyes and soon the pain swallowed his mind completely. They felt as if they were being cut by a thousand swords and pricked by hundreds of thousands of needles at once. It was as if every cell in her body was made up of pain and fire. Grandfather Vadim and Pava began to sink into the milky muck with their heads, but suddenly the girl tightly squeezed their hands, felt the bottom and dragged them all to the shore. Milk river could not kill a girl bound by a marriage contract, the laws of magic were violated.

Nea pulled Pavlina and grandfather Vadim to the shore with incredible efforts. The girl didn't open her hands, and she couldn't have, because their skin had melted and seemed to stick together. Nea regained consciousness in the middle of the river, and even in pain, she pulled out those who rushed to her aid without thinking. Grandfather Vadim and grandmother Pava lay on the Bank and shouted. Nea looked at grandpa Costas and saw that his face seemed to melt and spread, the skin was like wax, and it was the same with grandmother Pava, because they were screaming in terrible pain. But Nea still looked the same, her skin not melted, only the burn scar on her shoulder had completely disappeared. Then Neya realized that White water destroys flesh. Nea, protected by the magic of the leshaks, imagined that she was absorbing all this magic. After a second, she began to feel a terrible burning and pain, then the girl screamed as well as grandfather Vadim and grandmother Pava, losing their faces and minds. But now, when Anna screamed, the skin seemed to gather back, it flowed smoothly around the skull, hands, and acquired a healthy color. Grandmother Pava and grandfather Vadim had already stopped shouting, and Nea was still screaming, soaking up the smallest drops of the milk river.

Costa was fighting the monster to the death, he did not follow what was happening on the beach. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that all three of them got out on the Bank, but then Boogeyant fell on top of him, Costa held out his sword and it smoothly entered the ant's belly, but the ant also plunged its poisoned sting into the boy. Boogeyant howled a death cry and was echoed by his relatives somewhere across the river. It was over. Costa barely got out from under a black creature, and a staggering gait walked to Nea, his grandfather and grandmother Pave. What he saw before him almost drove him mad. The effect of Nea's treatment exceeded all expectations.

Nea was holding the hand of two people he didn't know. On the right lay a woman with a long white braid, looking no more than 20 years old. Thick black lashes, arched brows, red lips, and milky skin. To Nea's left lay a young man. Brown straight hair, neat nose, thin mouth, brown mustache. Costa could not understand who was in front of him, but when he noticed his grandfather's clothes, he was stunned. Indeed, the young man's features were very familiar. Costa realized that this was his grandfather, and the young beauty was grandmother Pava...

The boy looked at the three young men lying unconscious, but alive and well, and felt a terrible chill. His vision darkened, and a sort of blue haze came over him. Costa exhaled and a cloud of steam came out of his mouth, as if in the cold. Something cold, like a vise, squeezed his hand, and pain came over him. Costa's knees buckled and he fell unconscious in the tall grass.

Nea was the first to Wake up. She opened her eyes and was blinded by the bright sun that shone high in the sky. Butterflies and grasshoppers buzzed and soared. Nea could smell burning grass, but there was no smoke. Suddenly she remembered everything that had happened that morning. She sat up abruptly and saw that she was still holding the hands of her grandfather Vadim and grandmother Pava... That's just it... They were the hands of some young men. Nea was startled, and abruptly got to her feet and stared in horror at the unconscious newcomers. Where Nea lay, the grass was burned away, and under the strange young men, too, there were burnt remnants of grass. The strangers were coming to their senses.

"Oh, my back," - the young guy groaned-Forgive me, dear young ladies. All my bones ache, I'm numb.

"Grandfather Vadim? Is that you?" - Nea asked carefully.

"And who else?" – the guy was surprised. – "You must have hit your head hard if you don't recognize your own people!"

"Oh, Nea..." - Pavva moaned. – "!How did we survive? And? After all, who enters the white water, will not come out alive."

"Well," - Nea said, scratching her ear and not looking at her companions, - "you're not quite right... Not the same... You've changed a little. But since no one usually survives, it's probably a good thing that they did, even like this..."

"Who are you babbling about?" - grandfather Vadim was afraid. -" What is this "such", and? My wife recognizes Me at least?"

At this moment, grandfather Vadim looked at grandma Pava, but did not see her. In the old woman's place, a young girl, whom he had seen 50 years ago, was looking at him. Pavva also stopped asking, because she looked at grandfather Vadim. I didn't see the old man. They stared at each other in shock...

"Where's the mirror?" - the boy asked, startled.

Pavva (and now she was Princess Pavva again) went to her bag and took out a mirror with a long handle in a silver frame. Vadim snatched it out and looked at his reflection.

"Holy mother!" - The guy gasped. – "What's going on? What's going to happen, huh?"

Vadim sat down and put his head in his hands. He became very, very afraid, he did not understand what was happening and where he was, and suddenly in his thoughts flashed the thought of his grandson.

"Where's Costa?"

Nea suddenly remembered that he had fought Boogeyant.

"Oh, no! Oh, my God! " - she exclaimed.

Nea ran to the carcass of the dead ant, but Costa was not there. Nea, Pavva, and Vadim looked around for Costa. The grass on the Bank was high, but where the three victims of the white water lay, the grass was burned out by their outlines. Costa was found by Vadim, not far from the place where they themselves were lying a minute ago. Costa was blue in the face, and there was a feeling that he was even covered with a thin crust of ice. A magic sword lay beside him. Pavva looked at the boy, and realized that he was badly injured, and probably cold. Pavva built a large fire in the clearing, using a magic spark that could ignite anything. But the fire could not warm him, though the icy crust was gone from his skin.

"What's wrong with him?" - Pavva complained. – "I've never seen anything like this before.

"Grandmother... "- and Nea broke off, for Grandmother Pava was no longer there, but the young Princess Pavva stood before her. - "Princess Pavva, have you ever met a Boogeyant?"

"Boogeyant?" - Pavva asked. – "Who's that?"

Nea took Pavva by the hand and led Him to the dead carcass of a giant ant.

"That's the Boogeyant."

"God, what a monster!" - I was amazed Pavva. – "No, I've never met or heard of such monsters. Is that what you called them?"

"No," - Nea said. – "I had a companion. He told me that these creatures accompany the reconnaissance of Kamarian."

"Scouting party? Did you run into him?" - Pavva was scared out of her wits.

"No, of course not. I wouldn't be standing here. But here is with such a creature we with a fellow traveler met. He told me about them.

"What kind of satellite? Where is he?"

"He's dead," - Nea lied. The girl decided that there was no need for Princess Pavva to know that the crown Princess of the Middle Kingdom had befriended a descendant of the Kamarian, and the son of the Black Emissary himself.

"Did you see anyone else there? Have you seen people? Kamarian of these? Or their leader?"

"No," - Anna lied again. The girl didn't know why she did it. I just didn't want to talk about the horror and all that was left there, across the river...

Princess Pavva calmed down. You can see that she was very afraid of what Nea said.

"We are on the verge of death. We need to leave now. This time, Nea, I'll help you talk to your grandfather. He's very disappointed in you," - Pavva said harshly. – "But first we need to do something to help the guy. He's dying right before my eyes. It's probably some kind of poison. But I have no antidote..."

Nea went to Costa and took his hand. The boy was unconscious and cold. He looked more dead than alive. That strange blue... and a dark blue spot on Costa's shoulder stared at Nea. The smudge on her friend's shoulder caused a wave of revulsion in Nea, but a minute later she saw that it was from this spot that the blue wave was coming and rolling over her body. Then Nea saw a strange blue and jagged crack start from the spot. The crack moved in jerks and kept heading toward the heart. And then Nea realized, as she had with the ant, that this spot was the cause of all the trouble. This is Boogeyant's poison, from its sting... But no... This is the sting itself, and the poison spreads in waves and cracks!

"Grandma Pava... Oh, sorry ... Princess Pavva, Costa's condition is caused by this blue spot on his shoulder."

"What is the blue spot?" - Pavva asked irritably. – "There's no blue spot, it's just a wound."

"It's not just a wound," - Nea said. – "I see. The wound contains a poisoned ant sting. It poisons the coast. It needs to be pulled out."

"How do you know that?"- Pavva asked.

"My companion noticed my magic talent and showed me how to use it."

"Magic talent?"

"Right. I do not have the same magic as you, but I see the magic. I can see visually how your spells work. I see the essence of magic things, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that I see the path that magic energy takes and can describe it, and sometimes I can even affect magic. That is, to resist it. I don't know exactly how it works, but I can see a blue smudge on Costa's wound. It radiates pulsating waves of blue light that envelop Costa's body, and now there is a blue crack. Which moves to the heart. If we don't get the sting out, Costa will be dead within the hour."

Princess Pavva looked at Nea with a kind of horror and surprise, because Nea was saying very correct things and was becoming more and more like the great Hope of the Midlands from the Prophecy...

Vadim sobbed and said:

"Pavva, give me a thread. I'll get this thing out myself."

Pavva rummaged in her oversized backpack and pulled out a pair of long scissors. Vadim (no longer a grandfather) took the scissors and knelt next to the body of his grandson. He carefully inserted the point into the wound and opened its edges. The boy began to tremble. In the depth of the wound, Vadim saw a black point of the sting, wrapped it around the scissors, as if with tongs, and pulled on himself. Costa groaned and his hands suddenly stretched out and his fingers curled. Even though he was still unconscious, his body was in terrible pain. Tears were streaming down Vadim's cheeks, but he pressed the boy's body with his knee and continued to pull the poisoned sting out of the wound. As soon as Vadim pulled out the sting, the boy's body relaxed, he made a convulsive exhalation and fell silent.

"Well, Nea? How's Costa? Look, eh?" – Vadim asked.

Nea went over and looked at the wound, it was no longer blue, the blue waves had disappeared, but the crack remained, although it began to move very, very slowly.

"We won more time for Costa, but the blue crack is still there, although it has started to move slowly. Perhaps we should neutralize the poison that got into his wound."

"But how can we find the antidote, when there are hundreds of them?" - Pavva exclaimed in despair.

"Why don't you drop antidotes on the sting, and I'll see if there's a reaction?"

Pavva smiled, squeezed the girl's shoulder in agreement, and picked up her set of bottles and potions, which were in a special square organizer and were almost miniature in size. Pavva chose the bottom row, with tiny, plump cones of various colors. She took turns picking up the liquid with a pipette and dripping it on the sting. Only on the fifth attempt did I get what I needed. Pavva dropped a silvery drop on the sting, and suddenly the sting hissed and crumbled into dust, as if it had never been there. Even without Nea's abilities, it was clear that this was the antidote.

"Oh, great. This is a tincture of silver root, no wonder that it helps with such poisoning. Silver root has a cleansing effect. Everything dark and bad cleans, disinfects and heals wounds."

Princess Pavva filled a pipette with silvery liquid and dropped a few drops into the sting wound. Nea saw the silvery waves begin to envelop Costa. Silver seeped into the blue crack and began to fill it. The crack closed before my eyes and disappeared as if it had never existed. The boy's skin took on a healthy pink hue, and he breathed steadily and deeply, and soon opened his eyes. He didn't know what was happening yet. Costa looked around as if he didn't recognize anyone, but when he caught sight of Nea, the boy's gaze stopped and he instantly remembered everything, even the last memory before losing consciousness. Costa sat up abruptly, suddenly dizzy.

"Constantine, take your time," - Pavva said, putting the boy back. – "You're not strong yet. Your body was severely poisoned and you have almost no strength left. Now we will cook on the fire to eat, and you close your eyes and rest."

Costa nodded obediently and fell into a healing sleep.

Pavva took from his magical backpack food supplies, which gave them elshenawy men. The Princess quickly put the pot on the fire and threw the mushrooms to cook. These were unusual mushrooms,and mushrooms are Precotious. Precotious, unlike all other mushrooms, cook for only 20 minutes. As the name implies, they grow quickly and prepare quickly.

"It is good for the patient to eat mashed soup, so I will add mashed potatoes to the soup."

Also added to the soup were goat's cheese, cut into chunks, a fragrant spice (whose name Neya did not know, and was too shy to ask) and green onions, finely chopped. After 30 minutes, Pavva woke up Сosta and put the soup in front of him, with a terrific spicy smell. All four travelers dined with great gusto. Сosta was getting better, and he kept looking at the younger grandfather. Vadim kept a low profile and tried not to attract the attention of his grandson, but getting used to his grandfather, who began to look a little older than Сosta himself, was very difficult. Сosta did not even know how to address his grandfather now: either as before, or just by name.

Suddenly, in the clearing where they were camped, there was a sound of something electric, as if someone had turned on a tube TV. An image of an unusual girl appeared in the air. The fact that this image was immediately clear, because the image shone through like a Ghost, and constantly flickered, like a TV with a bad signal. The girl was wearing a long Golden dress made of autumn leaves, with a high collar from which thin strings ran and hung in an arc like an ornament. The girl was beautiful, but her skin was a light purple color. Her brow was dusted with yellow powder, her eyelids were shaded with Golden shadows, and her brows and lips were painted with gold. On her pointed ear was a long earring that ran up from her earlobe. On the girl's forehead shone a Golden ornament-an unusual diadem of gold was woven into her hair, and the hair itself shone, powdered with gold dust, it froze in an invisible wind, in an unnatural teardrop shape.

"This is an elven messenger from Tyrren," - Pavva said.

The elf said, without moving her lips:

"If you are the ones the Order of Mithras warned us about, then we apologize. We can't help you. The multiverse crystal is destroyed by the Queen's spies. The city is about to fall."

After this message, the image of the elf disappeared.

"What? Why? After all, he held the siege for so many years..." - Nea was surprised.

"Tirren could hold a siege because he moved between worlds, he could be in several dimensions at once, and in each world he looked like a part of the landscape, as if adjusting to the usual image of the world in which he was. This feature of multiple presence in different worlds was given to them by the multiverse crystal. Without it, they will not be able to deliver food and water to the city; without it, they will only be in one dimension: where they come from. And Tirren's homeland Is the Midlands. Without the crystal, they were defenseless. The siege of the city will become real, and the inhabitants will not live long without food. Magic won't help them conjure food. In addition, the magic of Tirren is such that it is impossible to move in and out of it in any way, except for the crystal portals, which operate from the energy of the Multiverse Crystal. It remains only to eat up on the weak protection of magic artifacts or go out in an open duel with the Black Queen, but the elves will not be able to resist her evil magic. Elves are alien to evil, they can't even kill without being killed. This is how their pure magic works. Besides, the fall of Tirren will be even more disastrous for us than for the elves." - Pavva replied.

"Why?" - Costa asked.

"If Tirren falls to us all," - the Princess Pavva explained patiently, - "the Prophecies will lose their power and their Dark counterparts will take over."

"How's that?" - Nea asked. – "Except the Prophecy may not come true?"

"Yes, it can. The prophecy does not come true if the conditions about which the prophecy was made have changed. For example, there was a prophecy that evil would creep into the king's heart through the Northern wife and destroy the Midlands kingdoms. But king Gaar did not take the Princess Igirmah to wife; he chose me, the Princess of the Kingdom of Birches, to be his wife. That is why this prophecy has lost its power and another One has come into effect."

"What do you mean?" - Costa asked, who was very excited about the cancellation of the Prophecy.

"When the Light Prophet makes a Prophecy, the same Prophecy makes the Dark sibyl by the name of Daga. But her Prophecy will not come true until the prophecy of the Light Prophet is canceled. What happened to Gaar is a prophecy of Daga, so we did not know what to do. Without knowing the Prophecy, you can quickly fall into the trap of evil. Because Gaar and went with his daughter to another world, he did not know the details of the Prophecy of Daga. However, everything that concerns Nea is a light Prophecy, and if even one condition of the Prophecy is changed, then we will again lose the advantage and the dark sibyl's Prophecy will take effect. Tirren is one of those conditions. The eternal city must remain that way. If it is destroyed, it will destroy the power of the Prophecy that will save us and Nea. The dark sibyl never predicts the victory of good, it accurately says the conditions under which evil will prevail."

"Mother, honestly, very complicated", - exclaimed Vadim. - "So why are we standing here and sharpening our teeth?Let's go save your Tirren."

"Wait a minute!" - Costa suddenly exclaimed.

"What is it again?" – stopped by Vadim.

"I forgot to tell you that the Raven advised us to summon The Guardian of the worlds to save Tirren."

"Really?" - Pavva asked.

"Yes, and you must summon him, Princess Pavva."

"Oh..." - was all Pavva said, looking very tired and anxious and trying to remember something. – "The summoning ritual must be performed, and the message must be sent to him. Through the smoke of the fire I will enter his sleep, and he will hear my call and then come. It's a long time. You'll have to wait."

Grandfather Vadim heaved a sigh and plopped down on the grass with a grunt:

"How dear you all are to me!"

Nea and Costa sat on the hill and watched the work of Pavva's. As it became clear to the children, the magic talent of Princess Pavva was in the brew potion, and she also managed a little alchemy and spells to change the size of things. But she couldn't do anything else. To send a message through the veil, Pavva threw mysterious odorous herbs into the fire, which made her companions fall fast asleep and did not see the main ritual.

Pavva shook them when the sun began already on the wane, at about 6 PM.

"The Guardian is about to arrive," - said Princess Pavva. – "I didn't tell him what happened to me and Vadim, I used the familiar image of an old woman. It's good enough for sleeping. But when he gets here, he won't recognize me. That's when you guys explain everything to him."

"I'd like to know how you both suddenly look younger," - Costa said

"I don't know how it happened. Did I neutralize the white water magic? Can they explain everything to us in Tirren and bring you back to your old age?" - Nea asked hopefully.

"And that's right," - Vadim and Costa were happy, although Pavva only chuckled. It was immediately obvious that she did not want to become an old woman again, and she would definitely try to avoid it.

Suddenly there was an electric crackle, miniature lightning bolts ran through the grass and air, and a snow-white electric canvas appeared in the middle. It fell from the top down like a waterfall, washing away one reality and adding another to the place. Beyond the waterfall stood Cabris. He was dressed in a velvet doublet and leather breeches, and a gray hooded traveling cloak fluttered over his shoulders.