Capítulo 58: Chapter 5
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***
Damian.
The mage sit downs had only lasted two days after the banquet we had been to.
The whole time I was either with my mum or Triss in the same room playing and talking about different topics. And the funny thing is, I can clearly see that Triss is slowly falling in love with me. All I had to do was talk to her about things that were important to her, compliment her on a few things, sing a few songs like Mama said with a sly smile for all the ladies and gentlemen who were gathered in her chambers, including Taren Merigold, Radcliffe, Rita, Tissa, Philippa and Keira. I don't particularly enjoy performing for many individuals, but they loved my performances. Especially Triss... about love!
I didn't think that in this world such banal songs as "Eternal Love" by Charles Aznavour, "Tsarevna" by Dmitri Koldun, "Belle" from Noterdam-de-Paris and many others not only about love or tragic lyrics about feelings would be so well received. But it is about love and snot that the ladies want. Sometimes I regret that I even picked up a guitar in this world. But now I have an opportunity to catch the thin threads that lead to trust and sympathy of enchantresses.
As I said, the sit-down didn't last long. There were attempts on the part of Lo-Antille, de Vries and Keira to keep us on Thanedd to meet an old friend of theirs, one Litta Nade, but Mama, though she apparently wanted to meet her, chose to go to Oxenfurt, which was the closest of all the towns and lands of Redania. Mum, me, Philippa, and Taren Merigold and his "granddaughter", who had travelled with us on a sudden diplomatic mission to Tretogor. Philippa was hardly happy about it, but she didn't say a word against it. And it wasn't her decision. So there were five of us.
We didn't use the teleport the whole time, we travelled on horseback through Temeria. It didn't take us very long, though. After a little over a hundred miles from Gorse Velen and six days of leisurely travelling with excursions and conversations about nature and sights, and about Temeria itself, we arrived in the free city of Oxenfurt.
What can I say about this town?
Oxenfurt is located on the northern, right bank of the Pontar River to the south, near the city-state of Novigrad. It is built on the foundations of an old dilapidated elven city or palace, different legends and lore say differently, and the elves are silent.
The city of fifteen-something thousand people had narrow streets and wooden buildings with peaked roofs. The streets are dirty, packed with numerous workshops, shops, shops and shops. There are: inns, taverns, stalls, booths, stalls, stands and portable counters. All in all, it's probably easier for me to say what's not here than what is.
The city's economy is largely fuelled by the Academy and science-related crafts. A great many illegal and simply exotic goods are available for sale. Populated mostly by students and the people who provide them with entertainment, this city hardly sleeps. It has its own harbour area, packed with the appropriate contingent.
On the second step in the development of the city is already trading internationally is fishing and duty from passing ships. But in comparison with the first point the second one seems to be lost.
We're staying in Philippa's cottage. She's recently completed it. And though she prefers to live either at court or in her castle, she sometimes appears here.
It was indeed a cottage, but it was quite refined, like my mother's and my old house, except that it had a third floor and a staff of two old maids and a gardener.
But all in all quite a nice little house.
The day after we arrived, we went shopping with Mum and went to see the local sights.
Philippa accompanied us, as did Triss and Taren. It felt at times like Grandpa was walking his two daughters and two grandchildren. I even said it out loud, which made Triss laugh harder than ever.
- Stop talking, Dami. - Mum patted me on the head. - Let's go find you some new clothes.
- But I don't want new clothes. - I'm on the fence about it. - I've got a whole wardrobe like a girl's.
- You're the son of Jennyfar of Wengerberg and you should look the part.
- But I want to buy a sword! - I begged.
- A new doublet!
- A sword!
- A doublet! - echoed Mum with her arms at her sides.
- Sword!
- Sword!
- Doublet. - I said, and I knew something was wrong.
- Well, a doublet is a doublet. - Mum gave up and smiled. - But since you'll have a new doublet, so will the sword.
- All right, Mum. - she made me, and in a childish way.
- You two are so cute when you argue. I can tell you're related. - Eilhart has spoken.
- I'm told I don't look much like my mother because of my hair colour and darker skin tone than hers.
- Appearance is not the only thing that counts in kinship. - she smiled. - Please allow me to escort you to the right shops and workshops so that you can choose the best.
As we made our way to the shop where the best fabrics were sold, we came across an old wrinkled woman with warts, smelling like a sewer, wearing rags that Dobby would be ashamed to give.
- Blackheart! Black heart! - she was pointing her finger at me, trying to get closer, but she was stuck against the shield Mum had put up and staring at her. - It's the Black Heart that's come for our souls.
- What are you talking about, you old bag? Get out of here! - Mum shouted at her.
- It's him! He will bring death to the knights. He'll bathe in blood! - she shrieked, pointing her fingers at me, and I cringed at the surprise that some lunatic would know about my nickname from a past life.
- What's she talking about? - Triss clapped her eyes shut.
- When the Sun comes from the South and the Elder Blood is gone, the Black Heart will beat again, drowning the brave men in blood and dancing on the bones of those who oppose it. - she wailed as if in a trance. - Black Heart is his name. In black armour and scarlet sword, he will walk the earth round and round.
- Shut up old woman, you've had enough of your shouting. - The shopkeepers started throwing rotten fruit and vegetables at the old woman, and a couple of guards, who were nearby, dragged her away from us.
- Don't mind us, sirs and ladies. - one of the guards addressed us. - It's our local lunatic, Grandma Glafa. She went mad when all her sons died in the war. She's been talking rubbish to everyone she meets ever since. She's just come back from her sons' graves. They're buried here near Oxenfurt under Black Mountain.
- We wouldn't have noticed. You can tell she's not in her right mind. - Mum hummed in her usual way, not really looking at the guard, just holding me against her thigh and stroking my hair. - I'm not interested in what happened to her. I'm not interested.
- She's scary. - Triss shivered and snuggled up to Taren Merigold.
- Don't be afraid, little one. - grinned the old man. - There are plenty of people like that. Just ignore them. They talk rubbish because of their grief, and it's not worth worrying much about. Such "predictions" are just empty air.
- It's a pity we ran into that old woman. - said Philippa. - It's my fault. I should have booked a home fitting.
- It's all right. - I said, looking her in the eye. - I wasn't scared, more surprised.
- At what?
- That I might be... scary and bloody in the future. - I lied.
We've got to find this grandmother and find out from her personally. If this lunatic managed to predict my nickname and the inevitable clash with the Nilfgaard. That's disturbing! If that grandmother could predict such a thing. I don't want to get caught in the crosshairs of oneiromancers and elf seers. They can see through me, and I don't like that. If they do it when I've learnt enough magic and am old enough to defend myself, then it's not so unpleasant. Right now, though, I'm better off not attracting attention for now. And besides, I shouldn't attract attention when people like Eilhart are around.
As far as I could tell from her facial expressions and words, and trust my intuition, she didn't suspect anything supernatural in Glafa's words. Aren't there a lot of crazy people out there? That was reassuring! But from now on, one should keep contact with great schemers to a minimum for the time being.
- Don't take it badly. - Mum smiled. - Let's go. We still have a lot of work to do to update your wardrobe.
Soon everyone forgot about the old woman very quickly. Everyone except me.
All the fitting, choice of fabrics and other procedures unpleasant for an ordinary man I tolerated stoically and did not talk much, but thought about the possibility of closing from the "soothsayers". The idea is interesting, new and difficult to fulfil. But as my experience tells me, you can do everything the main thing is to have stamina, desire and imagination.
A few hours later we went to the armoury. Triss and Philippa had little interest in it. Triss, having managed to attract the attention of both Jennyfair and Philippa, was asking them about the fashions of the courts of Tretogor and Wengerberg. So the ladies were minding their own business. Taren knew a little about weapons, but was not particularly interested in them, but tried to advise me on a lot of things.
But I didn't need instructions as such. I was pretty good at it myself, and the red-human who tried to shove me a beautiful sword, but not a combat sword, soon realised this and smiled through his thick red beard.
After a few more good shops and workshops, I realised that I wanted a certain sword. That one and a half black coloured sword with Runes on it.
Moving through space, meteorites pierce all other planes, so - the plans of both elements and parastichi, since they are said to exist too. The elements and parastichys are saturated, as it is known, with powerful energy from the source of all kinds of magic and supernatural power, and the meteorite piercing them absorbs the received energy and keeps it in itself. Steel, which masters manage to smelt from the meteorite, as well as the blade, which manages to forge from such steel, contains the power of the elements. It is enriched with magic. And the whole sword is magical, without magic.
But this one comes with Runes. Which protect the sword, from the effects of elemental magic on the owner, levelling curses, imposed on him, which impregnated the owner's energy.
Besides, it seems that this sword was forged in the Blue Mountains, and there are recognised masters there. And the price for it is quite decent at 8,000 crowns. But my mother allowed me to buy it with a twist of the nose. But I feel that I'll have to go shopping with her all day and night. But Mum's not a poor lady. She has a lot of clients and customers to treat. And she has a certain amount of money in the affairs of one of her friends.
I was pleased. It's still a bit big for me, but I can get used to it now. And I'm growing up fast. I am not the only one who has noticed it, and I think that in a year and a half or two years I will be able to train with it more comfortably and confidently.
Then we had lunch and Taren Merigold took me fishing. He is an inveterate fisherman and was able to get me, as the only man in the company, to join him as a mate. I didn't mind. The ladies stayed home to drink and teach Triss a lesson.
I was glad of that. I wouldn't get caught in the hands of a drunken, raving wizard.
* * *
Blue Mountains, 24 hours later.
Ida Emean aep Sivney woke up in a sweat. A sticky and nasty feeling of dread would not leave her, even when she got up from her sweat-wet bed and walked to the high but narrow window that overlooked the Blue Mountains, the place where she had lived so long and felt so good.
Fear of something unknown restrained her will and mind for a while.
She was naked, but she didn't care about that at first, she didn't feel the cold, but then after a few minutes she did start to come round and so did her body.
Though she wrapped herself in a soft silk sheet and sat down by the fireplace, she didn't feel any warmer or cosier.
Ida was, like all elven women, extraordinarily beautiful, at least to human men. She had large eyes of bright orange colour and vermilion red hair.
And now those eyes were fixed on the fire, but they saw not flames, but events that had developed more than eleven years after she had first begun to receive those first strange and then terrifying visions.
Ida was a Knower, or what they call a Knower. The elite of elven society.
In fact, it is a scholarly title, or a kind of title, which is used to name a magician who has certain abilities. Even for the elves themselves, the Veduns have long been a real mystery, a legend, and only a few can boast of close acquaintance with Aen Saevherne (the Knower).
The Knowers are endowed by nature with the special gift of prediction and prophecy, and according to legends some of them even possessed the ability to travel through time and between worlds, as well as to move other sentient beings.
They were the first to recognise the arrival of humans on the continent, and predicted wars in which streams of elven and human blood were spilled, but they were not listened to only once, and in the end, the elves paid for it. There was the rise of the human race and the decline of the elven race.
In addition, the Veduns have extensive knowledge, primarily in the genealogy of the Elder Blood, whose selection was engaged in order to regain power over space and time.
Very often it was the witches who were the first advisors and friends of the rulers of Dol Blatann, the Blue Mountains, and elven chieftains in general. Ida was no exception. For a century now, Enid an Gleanna, better known to the human world as Francesca Findabair, has held the unspoken place of queen of all elves. Even if not all elves on the continent obey her in everything. And Ida has become her counsellor and loyal friend.
Often her predictions and advice bailed Marguerite out of the Valleys, but these visions Ida could not identify and tell her friend what exactly to do... them all.
Eleven-odd years ago, Ida had begun having strange dream-visualisations involving a murky male image, which brought on bewilderment and then fear with each new vision. He grew more terrifying and horrible each time. Often killing people in his manifestations. And he himself just oozed blood. Ida felt as if she was seeing a new kind of golem, a 'blood golem'. He was constantly oozing blood, it was constantly dripping off him, and it showed no hair colour, no skin, and no other identifying features by which she would be able to recognise him in real life. But she knew for a fact that this monster was already out there somewhere.
He was killing, torturing his victims, burning them alive, beating them and talking to her about something. But she couldn't hear any words.
To herself, she started calling him Bloede Cáerme - which means "bloody rock".
For the last couple of years, he'd been really scaring her and sometimes Ida was afraid to sleep. But luckily for her, he didn't come round that often. About once every month or two. Mostly it happened either on an important holiday for the elves or during a full moon.
Neither yesterday nor today had been a full moon or holiday, and it wasn't due for another five days. And that was already a clear sign that something had changed.
And in a new vision that was already different from the previous ones with a new important detail.
Bloede Cáerme had appeared to her before, usually without weapons, and if there were any, they were usually daggers and a trident, which also seemed to be made entirely of blood. This time he had a blade in his hand that was not stained with blood. She could clearly see its shape, its length, the black as night steel, the scarlet Runes that were on it, and the same blood-red ruby on the hilt that glowed with every swing and shone brighter and brighter with the taking of human life. And soon the flames that came from the end of the blade of the sword were all around his body.
Then the bloody figure turned in her direction, and grinned in an eerie, but still appealing grin, coming closer and closer to her.
He was right in front of her, and in his completely dark eye sockets, where it was as if there had never been eyes, a scarlet flame began to dance, and with each second it grew bigger and faster, making her feel the heat on her. She drew her gaze downward in horror and stumbled across his chest. Where his heart should have been, there was a void. She didn't see a through hole, like from a gruesome wound. No. He was simply missing a piece of flesh and... heart. The darkness that raged there prevented her from seeing anything.
- What are you? - For the first time then, Ida was able to ask Bloede Cáerme in all the time she had started to see him.
He grinned even wider and tilted his head slightly towards her. "Blood Rock was a good head taller and also more massive than the elfess, so she felt down on herself.
He spoke and with each word, she, then surprised, then delighted, then horrified at what he said.
Soon black crows began to circle around them, and behind Bloede Cáerme came bloody individuals like him - bloody riders, they didn't even have ordinary horses, they were only made of bones, white, not stained with blood or anything else. Soon he removed his smile and strode away from her towards the riders.
And after that, she woke up.
- Dana Blathanna еѕѕе еn'leass еigean. Esseath еѕѕе hael Dhu Harde! Elfe Aen Seidhe an Dhu Seidhe еѕѕе comple Rag nar Roog!
She uttered this phrase in pure Elder Speech. The phrase that Bloede Cáerme had told her in her vision. And if translated into common, it would mean something like the following:
"The Queen of the Fields will be bound by duty. You, on the other hand, must welcome the Black Heart! The elves of the Mountain People and the Black Mountain People must prepare for the battle of Light and Darkness!"
Only now, for the first time in her life, Ida could not understand what those words meant, what they directly said about the personalities of the sentient ones and the events to come. She didn't know if these words were good warnings, good advice, evil threats, random predictions, or something else.
"I must tell Marguerite about it all! Maybe she'll understand what even I can't!" - The thought flashed through the mind of the Host, and she immediately began to hurriedly pack for her ruler and friend.
She rushed to the bed, which was near the low dressing-table, to take her small jewellery from it. But froze like a statue when she saw the blood on the sheet. Her regurgitation had started, but due to important business and fatigue, she had even forgotten about it. But it wasn't her blood that scared Ida, it was the fact that it was heart-shaped. The blood that had already dried up was dark red . She gingerly touched the dried blood because of an irresistible strange desire, and immediately pulled her finger away. The blood ignited into a small flame that did not spread to the rest of the cloth, but burned quietly until it went out, leaving a hole with black burnt edges.
Ida huddled in a corner and stared fearfully at her index finger.
- What kind of monster is after me? Gods... what do you want from me? What is the meaning of this?!
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