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The birth was premature and painful, several times I lost consciousness from the unbearable pain that the child gave me, as if he felt my hatred for him and was eager to get out as soon as possible. In agony, I screamed, screamed everything that tormented my soul.
Bushy-Boo, who was present at this, listened with horror to my speeches about the worm, about another world, from where the man from the launcher and his assistant Rob came. That the child is cursed and must be killed, now, as soon as he takes his first breath. For, as my heart felt, he would drown the whole world in destruction.
My hands reached out to my stomach, trying to do him at least some harm, but all my strength went into fighting the pain. Soon I was tied up, and a stick was stuck in my mouth, which I bit through, and suffering forever became with the taste of sawdust.
But everything has an end. I woke up alone, on the table, still with my hands tied. Somehow, I managed to pull one out of a strong knot. Freed, I barely got to my feet, slipped and fell. There was blood everywhere. My blood.
With a tremendous effort, I got up and went out into the corridor. The palace seemed to freeze, only I and the wind got lost in the empty staircases. My legs, though resisting, themselves led me to the main courtyard. From the balcony I watched all the residents of the palace gathered in front of Sanorisun. My child was handed into her hands. She lifted him above her, there was a cry and the tears of the baby fell on the golden curls of the ruler. Something flashed on the horizon. Sanori handed over my child to Game, whom everyone now knew not only as her personal bodyguard, but also as the sister of the ruler. Game moved away from her, and a cannon shot hit the place where Sun was standing. The metal block dug in ten meters forward, scaring away the crowd and covering it with stones and earth.
Game rushed to the ruler, but the horizon sparkled all over and people rushed to the walls of the palace in panic.
As they will write later, it was the last day of the Khanate of the Dial. The Irian towers managed to cross the Mineian Hights, and were approaching the capital from the southeast. They will also write that Sanorisun Gama the First treated the power that fell on her in worst incompetent way possible: disbanded the army, conducted shameful negotiations, destroyed the remnants of the economy. This allowed the Irians to outwit her and attack unnoticed. Her sister, Game the First, who ruled for about twelve hours, instead of taking the initiative into her own hands and organizing at least some resistance, spent that time fighting former colleagues from the underground cell “Num Sarog”, translated from khedat - “a flock of dead birds”, who did not recognize her power. I've been speaking khedat all my life, too. I grew up in the foothills of the great Khedat peak.
The memory of my childhood filled my head. I sat under artillery fire and remembered how I was a girl. How I went to school, built right over the abyss. All knowledge seemed so fragile to me. It was always about to fall into the valley between the mountains.
Chicag brought me out of my trance. The bull picked me up with his hand and rushed to run down the corridor, while the place where I was sitting exploded in a fiery tornado.
The bull dragged me to another balcony and pointed to the figure of an old man running to the river.
"He's taking your damned child away.”
"We have to stop him, please," I groaned with difficulty.
The bull grabbed me under the arm and rushed through the garden after Router Ping.
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I remember my birth. How I first saw the sky. Women's faces. The old man's face. But I don't just remember him. I remember what he said.
“At least I'll do it well. Do you hear?” he asked me, who was carefully examining his mechanical eye.
He ran under the darkening sky, where the first stars were coming out.
“I've never done anything right. I followed everyone's lead. But now. I'll do it right now. Look, they've made up their minds. Kill a child. Nasty six-throated hornets. Do you hear? Baby. I'll save you!" the old man babbled breathlessly.
I perceived the whole world around me so acutely that I didn't utter a sound.
“This war or that war, whether you have lost or won,” he persisted, “everyone thinks only of themselves. And I'll think about you. Maybe the moons will count that in for me. Not long left. I don't have long time left; you know? The book of the “Testament of AU” says so. Do good, and you will be cleansed. Do good, Router. At least one thing in a life. At least one.”
He handed me into someone's arms, which hung me on my chest, facing forward, so that I saw an old man standing in water, waving his hand to me. The one on whose chest I was hanging was paddling rapidly away from the shore, struggling with the current. The figure of a huge bull appeared in the darkness behind the old man. A sword flashed in the moonlight and the giant pierced my savior and lifted him above, so that his body sank along the blade to the hilt. Someone was screaming in the dark in a language I didn't know. But I couldn't see anything anymore, the water was carrying the boat away. And its measured swing put me to sleep.
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Many years have passed. But I remember that night as it is now. And it beckons me. Beckons to the Coast of Bones.
I grew up in a shelter at the Trade Federation Academy in the Free Land of Plotania. The federation itself was a kind of super government of smaller states along the entire coast of the Sea of Whales, as it was called by those who had the misfortune to sail in it. In each of the states there was a representation, in it the masters were updated by inheritance or elections, depending on the political structure. Each master collected taxes, maintained an army and navy with it, or engaged in trade. Everything depended on the nature of the federation's representation.
My Master Eleanor Grummays was the head of the largest trading company in the whole Sea of Whales. And that's why we, his pupils, were studying mainly economic sciences and rhetoric. But I showed a special zeal in a completely different direction, in history. I was fascinated and interested in the idea of divine gifts. The gods have sprinkled our world with magic rain, and we have grown out of it. They sent us on great airships and now we have to sort out the clues they left and learn to live by their precepts. “DVD region 3", so the "Testament of AU" read. A book written by our distant ancestors.
But I was even more interested in what happened before Irrigation. Many excavations on the coast of the Sea of Whales dated back to times before the arrival of the Outs to the World of Moons. The genetic material of the beastmen did not intersect with the heirs of those who came from the sky. And there were also ordinary peoples who differed not only internally, but also externally, for which they were brutally persecuted by the descendants of the Outs. Surprisingly, the federation took very big care of this information and kept it. And I, being inquisitive from birth, fell in love with this mysterious world of secret ideas and meanings.
My master watched my passion and finally took pity and freed me from the hated sciences by opening the entrance to the part of the library where all deviant finds were carefully catalogued. So, at the age of 17, I became the youngest chronicler of the academy. And my power was boundless.
I could send expeditions to the old graves I was interested in; I could request funding for any project. And as if by magic, my requests were fulfilled. Former classmates fawned over me, but I knew that behind my back they despised me and called me a Tree worm for my love of books. I didn't care about them; I was doing what I loved and was completely devoted to it day and night.
But even more than all the mysteries of the world of moons, I was interested in my birth. The old man's words, the image of a bull with a sword and that cry among the waves. So the desert dogs screamed in times of the greatest danger. How much time did I spend analyzing those crumbs of information that could point to the place where all this happened?
And it had to happen that on one of the projects I started on the Coast of Bones, in the ruined capital of the Khanate of the Dial – Salat Sarai, they found an image of the last ruler – Sanorisun Gama. In her I instantly recognized the woman who first lifted me into the sky.
I lost sleep and peace. I wandered around my bedroom and ran out onto the balcony, watching the moons disappear over the horizon, just where the Coast of the Bones was. I wanted to jump to the ceiling and hide under the blanket from the fear and curiosity that tormented me. And finally, closer to the cold weather, I managed to equip an expedition to the Salat Sarai and appoint myself its head.
Two ships full of provisions and equipment for underground scanning set off across the Sea of Whales at dawn. And a month later they anchored near the Coast of Bones.
When I stepped on the ground, I immediately felt my connection with it. My instinct, which has never failed me, whispered words of encouragement to me and told me to move towards the ruins of the city. Taking only a small detachment with me, I hurried to the towers looming black on the horizon.
Along the bed of a dried-up river, we climbed to what looked like the walls of a palace. The sands covered it by half and it was difficult to move, one of my companions fell into a hole that turned out to be a well. But I was drawn further.
So, we came to the complex where the rulers of the Khanate lived. And yes, oh moons, yes! I recognized the yard destroyed by artillery. Sanorisun, who lifted me into the sky, died here. I rushed forward and fell on the shattered stone ledges, trying to hug them, and then spun on them like a snake with pleasure.
“Well, he's definitely a worm," I heard my companions whisper behind me.
But I didn't punish them. Especially here, away from the camp. They could have stabbed me. And who would know? Fear sobered me, and I got to my feet. And the feeling immediately carried me further, inside the palace.
We were lost for a long time, in endless cold corridors, until chance brought me to the great hall. Its roof was pierced and the moonlight illuminated the chairs and the warped stage. On it, a huge white moon was sticking out from under the collapsed curtain. I sat down on a half-sanded chair in the front row and closed my eyes, turning to my gut, which brought me here. But there were no further signals. And then shots were heard.
The clapping came from the balcony above me, and I saw my companions, one by one, falling between the chairs into the sand. Some still managed to hide in the boxes. A miracle saved me. I stepped in the sand and fell into the cavity under the floor where the prompter's place used to be. After checking my arms and legs, I crawled in the dark.
When I got out behind the stage, the shooting was still heard in the hall. I looked out of the wings and saw that the situation had changed. My companions held the balcony under heavy fire from automatic weapons. Soon its booming chirping could be heard on the balcony itself. A black figure jumped and swooped onto the stage from the balcony directly to me.
I fell back in surprise. The figure came near and rushed at me. Strong, thin arms wrapped around my head, and I found myself in a death grip. My neck cracked, and I felt like my head was going to be torn off. Consciousness began to leave me. But then the grip loosened, the opponent's hand began to fumble in the sand. It was enough for me to reach some ropes behind the stage and pull them. Loads fell down from above one by one.
My opponent rolled away. And I crawled on all fours to the wings. I was stopped by a sharp pain in the bum.
“Manager Bike,” I heard behind the voice, “it’s a dart.”
Someone pulled the blade out of my backside, and I gasped loudly.
“We got her.”
I turned around and saw two panting men holding a girl chained in magnetic shackles.
“No! No, monster, I'm not looking at you. No! Damn of Minea! You can't subdue me!” she screamed heart-rendingly.
Surprised and delighted, I stared at her without looking away. Glittering evil eyes, metallic hair, slim figure. My inner voice sang, he was delighted with this meeting. But the pain reminded me of itself, and I lost consciousness.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
