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Chapter 11 - The road of goodness. 11. RAINBOW GORGE

"I don't understand anything," Toril stopped. "I remember the map perfectly well, I know how the Seaside Path should go, but I don't recognize the road!" They were standing on a tiny platform, clinging to a steep cliff that seemed to go right up to the sky. The platform was so small that three people barely fit on it, and they had to be on guard all the time so as not to fall into the abyss.

Above, in a thick cloud of fog, the crimson fire of the volcano glowed dimly. From time to time, a heavy rumble was heard, slightly muffled by the fog, a whistle and a bass hiss could be heard. A glowing block flew out of the crater and, flashing for a moment, disappeared in the same impenetrable curtain of fog.

The stones underfoot shook from the constant jolts, and it began to seem to the travelers that the path was twisting and twitching, running somewhere, and not lying in place, as it should have. In the distance, above the snow-covered peaks, a transparent green light flared up, first spreading in waves, and then turning into a steady glow. The mountains responded with a muffled rumble, stones rolled, and, to the horror of the travelers, a good chunk of the path behind them silently fell somewhere down. The way back was cut off.

"Now I understand why I can't find the way," Toril said, looking thoughtfully at the missing path. "Only one thing is unclear: who did the work here... Although I feel that someone is directing this fog. The effect of black spells is clearly felt here.

They moved forward slowly, feeling each step with their hands like blind men. The fog grew thicker. Now Toril became worried. She began to urge her brothers on.

- Faster, faster...

"Aren't you afraid of falling down in this milk?" Chani couldn't help asking. He carefully held his hand, afraid of breaking it on the rocks.

"I'm afraid," she answered unexpectedly seriously. "But I'm much more afraid of something else."

"What?" asked Khani.

— This is too good a weather for fog bats.

"Who is this?" Khani's curiosity flared up again.

"I don't want to scare you unnecessarily," she said sullenly. "Otherwise my legs will start to tangle. We'll have to go fast now, much faster than we've been going so far. And we shouldn't get distracted."

She straightened up to her full height, stretched out like a string, and closed her eyes. Then she raised the Golden Torch with both hands. After standing there for a minute, Toril began to sing. This time, Chani thought he was beginning to understand the words of the Witch Language. The spell said something about the sun dispelling the darkness, about the road, about evil forces driving the darkness, about their defeat... Although, perhaps it only seemed that way... Gradually, a transparent golden glow began to spread from the Torch, not a flame, but a trembling rainbow halo.

"Follow me," the princess said quietly to her brothers. "Carefully, step by step."

And without opening her eyes, she strode swiftly along the path. Khani, without hesitation, rushed after her; shuddering as if from a chill, Chani followed them.

"Will we fall?" Khani managed to squeeze out, out of breath from walking fast.

"No," answered the princess. "Faster!"

Everything that followed seemed like a bad dream to Khani. He had never dreamed of such adventures; adventures should be exciting and safe. And then… Stones fell from under his feet, thundering far below on the rocks, and the sound of their fall flew painfully long. Whistling stripes of fog rushed past his face, which was painfully cut by ice pellets. No, if I had known what kind of journey lay ahead of me, I would never have agreed, Khani repeated to himself for the thousandth time, looking anxiously at his brother's face, distorted by a grimace of pain, holding his left hand, at the pale princess, jumping with closed eyes over abysses that were scary to even look at. Sorcerers, dragons, adventures – that's good when you're sitting in a warm room by the fireplace…

And Toril kept urging on:

- Even faster!

They were already running.

"For…what is this?" was all Chani could stammer.

"Do you hear?" asked the princess.

Chani paused for a second and listened, but heard nothing but the pounding of his own heart and the ringing in his ears. But then he heard a thin squeak.

- I hear, but I don't understand.

- It's flying after us. And if we don't manage to get out of the fog, things will be bad for us.

The noise was clearly approaching. It was already possible to understand that it was the flapping of huge soft wings, and the squeak clearly conveyed a threat. Khani, who was walking last, noticed the huge, blurry silhouette of a bat that had almost caught him. It cut through the fog with uneven thrusts, its eyes glowing with a piercing yellow fire. And at that moment the bright sun hit his eyes, the wall of fog suddenly broke off. The path went down sharply, but became much wider.

They found themselves in a deep, narrow gorge, surrounded by sheer grey cliffs, so high that they seemed to reach up to the sky. Behind them, where they had come down, no road was visible now.

The sun was directly overhead, and there was not a cloud in the sky, only somewhere very high, on the very tops of the mountains, a light haze was visible. And here, in the gorge, it was stuffy and hot. The steep cliffs that surrounded it did not cast the slightest shadow, not even a quiet breath of wind swayed the grass. Perhaps because of this heat, or perhaps because of something else, it seemed to Khani that on the gray cliffs a multitude of multi-colored dots were glittering - red, blue, green, yellow - casting sheaves of sparks.

A tired smile appeared on Toril's lips.

- I think I know where we've ended up. Let's go.

"Where are we going?" Chani didn't move.

- To where they will help us.

They had barely walked a few dozen steps when the entire valley began to sparkle and play with a multitude of multi-colored lights, pure and bright. Their brilliance almost blinded the travelers - green and blue, red and silver, piercing white and honey-yellow. Then everything around was filled with a slightly trembling, thick green light, displacing the rest. The whole world turned green - the rocks, the sky, and even the sun itself became emerald green. But this obsession lasted for a few moments. The green light went out, giving way to the sun's rays.

When Khani rubbed his eyes, he saw two tall warriors in green chain mail and green helmets standing before them. They held large, heavy bows in their hands, arrows were on the strings, but the bows were not drawn.

"Who are you?" asked one of the warriors. "And why did you come to Rainbow Gorge?"

Toril straightened up and stepped forward.

— Greetings to the valiant guardians of the Emerald. Sunshine and happiness to you. We came as friends and want to see Diamond.

"Sun and happiness to you," the warriors answered in chorus. "Come in, our prince will meet you and speak with you."

They parted, letting the princess and the brothers, who were turning their heads in amazement, pass. The multi-colored lights began to sparkle and shimmer again, but this time the slightly cold white colors predominated. Bizarre, deceptive figures and images flashed in the radiance of the lights, it seemed as if a bright rainbow, split into many pieces, had poured out into the gorge. The brothers even closed their eyes, it hurt their eyes so much.

"You can watch calmly," they suddenly heard someone's voice.

Khani carefully opened his left eye. The glow disappeared. Then he opened his right eye. Before him stood a tall, stately knight in armor made of polished steel, gleaming in the sun and decorated only with a modest silver pattern. His long blond hair, falling on his shoulders, was intercepted by a thin silver circlet, on which a huge diamond was fixed.

"Sunshine and happiness to you," said the knight, smiling. "Welcome to Rainbow Gorge. It's been a long time since we've seen the Lords of Fire in our area."

"I greet you, valiant prince," the princess bowed. "Does the sun still shine in the realm of the Rainbow People?"

The prince stopped smiling.

- Alas. The sun does not rise over our gorge so often. Clouds often cover it, which did not happen before. But I hope that everything is fine in the glorious city of Tan-Khorez, that the fair wind does not fail the brave sailors?

- And I can only say: alas. The wind is now not so much favorable as contrary, - Toril darkened. - Trouble surrounds us, the sea is advancing. For now we are holding on, but who can say what will happen tomorrow.

"The Sea King," the prince grinned unkindly.

- He.

- So now we have a common enemy. I have a score to settle with him too.

Toril was surprised.

- But you haven't met him.

— Until recently. But now everything is changing literally before our eyes. Recent enemies become friends, and best friends turn into sworn enemies. I don't know whether it was through deception or flattery or something else, but he managed to attract the Pearl clan to himself. It's unheard of to split our unity. Of course, they were always drawn to the sea, to the water, which was understandable. But they were always with us, too. And a year ago, their leader declared that he no longer considered it necessary to have any dealings with us and would henceforth do as he himself wanted. It turned out that he was doing as the Sea King wanted.

- Bad news...

"Excuse me," Khani intervened. "Who are the Pearls?"

- You are not familiar with this ancient and warlike tribe? And who are the Rainbows, do you even know?

"Not at all," Khani admitted honestly.

"Why didn't you tell them anything?" the prince asked the princess. "See how awkward it is."

- I didn't make it. We were running away from the fog bat. Looks like luck smiled on us.

Khani looked impatiently at Toril, then at the prince:

- Excuse me, but maybe you could explain who the Rainbow People are?

Diamond patted him on the head.

- Oh, you lover of secrets and miracles. - Khani blushed. - The Rainbow People live in precious stones. We appear from the reflection of a sunbeam on an uncut crystal. You people do not understand the stone and, giving it an elegant but unnatural form, you kill the soul of the stone, you kill the Rainbow that lives in it. - Diamond darkened. - There are clans of Diamonds, Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds, Topazes and many others, less known.

— And already quite sullenly Diamond added: — And the Zhemchuzhnikov. Only they always stood apart from us. After all, pearls are born in water and they are the only ones of all precious stones that are opaque. No one knows what is going on in their souls... However, why are we talking standing up, it would be much better... — he remembered.

He clapped his hands three times loudly. It seemed to Khani that the world was spinning around him. The cliffs of Rainbow Gorge began to move apart rapidly, they were no longer standing in a narrow gap between the cliffs, but in the middle of a wide plain, strewn with flowers with strange translucent sparkling corollas. Right in front of them a stone pavilion arose, it trembled, sparkled and shimmered with all the colors, but not sharply, but slightly muffled - it was not painful to look at it. The pavilion seemed to be made of smoky topazes.

"Please," the prince invited politely. "It looks like our conversation will be long."

Chani, with difficulty taking a few steps, literally collapsed on the bench, white with fatigue and pain. Diamond asked:

- What's wrong with you?

"Black Ice," the princess answered instead of Chani.

"I told you they were united," Diamond said reproachfully. "Show me your hand," he said to Chani.

He held out his left palm, still icy and dead. Diamond's face became serious.

- Let's try now.

He snapped his fingers again, and the gazebo was filled with trembling flashes of pink and red. When they died down, a girl in a long red dress without any adornments stood next to the prince's chair. Only her long, slightly wavy dark brown hair was adorned with an elegant golden crown with strawberry leaf-shaped teeth, inlaid with large rubies. Khani caught his breath. He had never imagined that one could meet such beauty. Of course, the princess was also beautiful, very beautiful, but it was a dark beauty, cold and a little frightening. And one could not forget that she was a princess, the heir to the throne... And this girl charmed at first sight.

"Meet," Diamond introduced. "This is Ryubi."

The girl smiled at them, and Khani felt himself blushing again. No, he was positively doomed to feel embarrassed all the time, and this made him blush even more, literally to the very tips of his ears. But he still managed to smile back, more like a grimace, though. To his great surprise, Toril limited herself to a cold nod, which he immediately attributed to her arrogance and excessive pride. Chani simply lost consciousness and therefore did not react in any way.

Ruby quickly but carefully felt the icy palm and, shaking her head, thought. Then she turned the wide ring with a ruby that adorned the middle finger of her left hand and recited a long spell. A circle of crimson flame flared in the air, but Khani did not feel the heat. He shook Chani by the shoulder, Chani opened his eyes, but his gaze was cloudy and dim, he did not recognize anyone.

"I'm coming," he muttered weakly. "I'm coming, but it's very cold."

Khani slapped him on the cheek in frustration. Chani winced.

"What happened?" he asked. "Where am I?"

But Ryubi stopped him with a gesture and ordered:

— Give me your hand!

Chani obeyed slowly, as if half asleep. His palm passed through the ring, and he cried out terribly. At the same moment the fiery ring turned black, trembled, and crumbled into thousands of tiny sparks. Chani started and stared at his hand in amazement. It was alive and warm again. He moved his fingers carefully. It worked.

- Hurray! - he cried joyfully. - It worked! - And then he fell silent, embarrassed. - I am so grateful that I simply cannot find words that can adequately express the fullness of the feelings that overwhelm me, - he addressed Ryubi floridly.

And although Khani was glad that his brother was finally healed, he felt an unexpected, instantaneous pang of discontent. Toril, too, sat incomprehensibly gloomy, she even turned away without saying a word.

"Now let's get down to business," Diamond suggested. He looked at Toril questioningly and a little sadly.

"Sorry," she said, embarrassed. "I seem to have forgotten myself a little."

"Okay," Diamond boomed good-naturedly, clearly pleased that the princess's gaze had warmed. "So where do you intend to go next?"

Ryubi suddenly jumped up and raised her hand in warning.

- Wait!

"What's there?" the princess asked, alarmed.

— I thought I heard a rustling sound.

"How could anyone be eavesdropping here?" Khani didn't understand. "Even a mouse couldn't slip past your guards," he said to Ryubi.

"Maybe, maybe…" she answered, listening. "No, it seemed so."

"Our target is the Black Sword," Toril answered the question asked earlier, lowering her voice just in case.

"But that means a new voyage," Diamond sighed. "And besides, I'm not sure we should release evil into the world again."

"We have no choice," Toril said firmly, "The North Wind can only be repelled with evil. Strength against strength, blow for blow."

"And come to an agreement?" suggested Ryubi.

- With the Sea King? Or with the Master of the Mist? - the princess did not hide her grin. - This is not serious. They are used to respecting only the force of arms. And we will speak in a language they understand.

"Your journey will be long and dangerous," Diamond objected.

- It doesn't scare me. And there is a ship that the Sea King cannot stop.

"The Golden Galley?" Diamond half asked, half answered.

— Yes.

- You won't find her.

"We'll see," the princess repeated evasively.

Diamond frowned, thinking, then said with concern:

"The price of your expedition is too high. We are obliged to help. And then, who knows what will become of the Sword of Hatred after the attack is repelled."

"You don't trust us?" Toril asked, offended. "As soon as we deal with the villain's minions, we will bury the Black Sword forever. But now I'm going, the question is decided. What, besides the Black Sword, can resist the power of the Golden Talisman that the Sea King found or stole somewhere? Do you know? Then tell me, for I don't know of such a means. Do you really think that the Fire Lords couldn't deal with some vile dragon, that all their might is not enough for this? No, the enemy is using the power of gold. The dragon is enchanted… After all, he now has a pair of golden wings. Let it be steel against gold."

"But in our valley the Golden Talisman is powerless," Ryubi noted.

— In your valley... Precious stones are pure and transparent, there is no turbidity in them, there is no envy, greed, malice in their souls... But the Sea King will not come here. And we live in an ordinary world. After all, even the Pearls succumbed, so what can we say about ordinary people...

"That's true," Diamond agreed sullenly. "But perhaps we can still help you with something?"

- Unlikely. - Toril thought. - Unlikely. Unless you lead me out of your gorge.

A bright red lightning flashed and a large ruby fell into Diamond's palm. Khani couldn't help but gasp as Ruby disappeared.

- If you still need help, throw him so that he ends up in a ray of sunshine.

Diamond held out the stone to Toril, but Khani, jumping up quickly, took the ruby first. Toril smiled faintly and did not protest.

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