Yuri Ivanovich A slave from our time. Dead Sea

Part 1.

Any secret is carefully hidden from the uninitiated. But among the mysteries there are those that are so dangerous to know that it is worth thinking seven times before embarking on a campaign for the truth. Boris Ivlaev was lucky. He not only learns about the existence of another world, he gets into it and at the same time remains alive, despite the deadly traps. But here's the bad luck: the number of secrets is multiplying here at a crazy speed, however, the number of dangers awaiting Boris is growing at no less speed. And the cannibals, into whose clutches our traveler falls, are not the worst thing that threatens him in the new world.

Part 2.

The World of Three Shields, the dangers of which Boris Ivlaev managed to avoid with such difficulty during his last visit there, again presents unexpected "gifts" to the discoverer of the road between the worlds. This time, the girlfriends of our traveler, who followed in his footsteps to the other world, are crying out for help. And so, taking with him two faithful comrades, Boris hurries to save his friends in trouble. But the laws of transition are unpredictable, friends find themselves far from each other, and in order to fulfill their mission, they are forced not to part with their weapons, making their way among hordes of bloodthirsty monsters.

Part 3

In order to wrest his girlfriends out of the crucible of the war with the cannibals, Boris Ivlaev is forced to make an unprecedented raid through the rear of the Zroaks, while destroying dozens of both the cannibals themselves and the krechs, their flying minions. The former master of circus art Leonid Naydenov helps him in this. Friends who have taken new names for themselves are successful, only the whole misfortune is that the dugouts they are looking for do not stay in one place for a long time, but heroically fight with asps of the human race. Therefore, it is difficult to find them, but it is also impossible to abandon the search ...

Part 8

Boris Ivlaev returns home to his native world and hurries to hide in the remote village of Lapovka. Yes, but he is not destined to sit out in peace and safety, solving problems that have come up. The old house on the outskirts is filled with strangers, and native people are in captivity. We have to act extremely harshly, clearing all traces, then taking our own, and already all together go to Rushatron, the capital of the world of the Three Shields...

Part 9

The legendary "Slave from our time" Boris Ivlaev finally found his girlfriends in the expanses of the world of Three Shields. But how to appear to them in the form that he acquired as a result of his gloomy adventures? How could this bald, scarred man be their old friend and lover! So Boris decided to start looking around. Moreover, the war with the Zroacs continues, and it cannot be said that the valiant troops of Empress Maria Ivlaeva-Gercheri are winning brilliant victories over them...

Part 11

New adventures of the legendary "slave from our time" Boris Ivlaev and his friend Leonid Naydenov! Not bad settled Leonid in the world of Nabatnaya Love. Still would! Great artist. Local women are crazy about him. Even if the two main mistresses, Echidna and Gorgon, do not take their eyes off him, Leonid always manages to show signs of attention to some sexy beauty. The problem is, he's tired of it all. Increasingly, Leonid is worried about his friend Boris Ivlaev, who remained in the world of Three Shields. How is he there? Why didn't he come back for his friend Naydenov, as he promised? It turned out that Leonid was not worried in vain. But there was no need to rush headlong in search of Boris ...

Part 12

Continuation of the adventures of Boris Ivlaev and Leonid Naydenov in Delivery Worlds!

The Creators of the Worlds have become quite insolent, throwing two bosom friends from one World to another, not allowing them to come to their senses. Now they have thrown them to the intelligent tyrannosaurs, which, although they have grown wiser, have not become less dangerous. Boris would be very happy to find out what is here and why. With his magical skills, this is not difficult to do. The problem is that Boris gave his word to his comrade-in-arms Boar Swanh that he would bring his adored nephews home safe and sound. He gave his word, but it was not so easy to keep it ...

Part 13

Continuation of the adventures of Boris Ivlaev! Boris and his friends Lenya, Bagdran, Eulesta and Tsilkhi are captured by a tribe of baby dolls. They would have had a very hard time if it were not for the acquaintance with the mysterious savage woman, whom they call among themselves the Witch Doctor. Boris immediately falls in love with a beauty, for whom, according to the laws of healers, he is only one of many men. Involuntarily, one has to look for ways of salvation from a hostile world ...

Between us, boys, speaking about the beauties of dancers with divine body shapes, I also did not say a word. He dragged in their place some two favorite concubines of the Lord, who allegedly suggested to us the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhealing the supreme ruler. I was not going to confess to copulation, even if it happened not of my will, even under torture. Unless a memory of Baron Belykh flashed by. The old man by this time could recover, restore his memory and tell the princesses all the details of our cruise along Sodruelli. And from then on, later, Mashka will be slandered.

He only calmed himself with the thought: since the master of history has not yet returned to Morreidy, it means that the “roof” has not returned to his place. It's a pity, of course, but such is fate. Although when I return to Gercheri I will definitely try to cure the baron, I promise myself!

But in any case, it was now necessary to arrange a showdown in the Holy Mound. And tomorrow morning, right before the opening, I set out to arrive at the local shrine.

Here I was dumbfounded: everyone present decided to go with me!

The father argued that he had worked hard and that he had a day off tomorrow in honor of the arrival of his son and daughter-in-law. My mother said that she was the only one of my relatives who heard breakdowns in the sound of the music. Well, it was clear with Mashka, she just looked at me, and I realized that it was better for me not to inquire about the reason.

- Without my knowledge of local laws, you, Bor, can easily end up in prison.

"But it hasn't turned up yet!" I defiantly replied.

- Do not renounce prison and the bag! Grandpa reminded me of an old Russian proverb. - Well, to everything, I also have a day off tomorrow. And I really didn’t manage to admire the wonders of the local shrine upon arrival. So let's all go together.

The Lighthouse security chief only snorted when they tried to leave him at home:

“I need to protect you, and then Blachi will cope with the Second.

Fyodor Kvartsev surprised me with the desire to take a closer look at the beginning, and then go through the Hypna rite, while gaining skills in trading. To be honest, this was news to me. I thought that Hypna helps artists grow up, especially artists. It turned out that a gigantic, inter-world artifact also indulges merchants in their strengthening and development.

Theophanes Tsvetogor simply reminded that he had already gone through Hypna, and for perfection in painting, it would not hurt him to improve his skills by re-initiation.

- Or did you put me in charge until the day you died? added with resentment. - As I remember, the agreement was only for the first period of formation of production.

I didn't remember that, to be honest, but I didn't argue. But he stared at Emma in silence, not even trying to guess the reason on her part. She was very respectful.

- It is necessary to receive a blessing for the child from the Kurgan. This is done by all women who have the opportunity to get to Rushatron. I live here and still haven't done it.

Then I tried to dissuade fellow travelers in a different way:

“I don’t want to draw attention to our big company. Can you imagine what will happen around and in the Sacred Mound itself if the people recognize us? And if the news spreads that the Empress Gercheri has decided on a pilgrimage? Yes, they will accidentally trample us! Wouldn't it be better to go separately, each on his own and dressed in completely different ways?

“You're right, we're going there incognito,” my father agreed. But Emma reminded everyone of the obvious:

“But our Chi is a unique, all-knowing excellence. So let him cover us with some kind of averting spell, and no one will recognize us. Or change everyone's appearance with false phantoms. I know Excellence can do everything.

Relatives and friends supported me, unanimously pounced on me with similar advice. Because everyone has heard or read about such miracles. And I sadly looked at the princess, trying to suppress my anger: “After all, she is an ulcer! Now he’s going to sleep, and I don’t know how much I will have to train with the creation of these spruce phantoms! And after all, you can’t take revenge on her, pregnant ... with a bump on her forehead! Little…”

Chapter Seven
Threats - employer privileges

So for half the night I really had to try, experiment and learn. But studying without a mentor is a thankless task, if not stupid. You can also fill bumps, pounding into the wall of ignorance with your forehead.

And the second one didn't help me much. Well, he gave me some kind of memory table with a bunch of incomprehensible notations and a graph of a foggy configuration. Nu stated that these were all ideal calculations for creating complex, long-lived ergi's, thanks to which you can cover anything and anyone you want. And from the outside, this “whoever you want” will look like you yourself project from your own memory. In other words, ergi's is part of my personal energy and is simply obliged to take any peaceful form without exploding and without spoiling the cover object.

I understood the theory, but how to use combat magic that kills, at best, lulls to sleep, on a person? Who would you like to experiment on? And how is it to "project"? Who would tell me?! It's hard without a mentor...

Masha was waiting for me, waiting in bed, but she didn’t notice how she fell asleep. And I kept turning the figs under my nose (figuratively speaking) and trying to put a wolf, a goat and a cabbage in one boat. Or, if in a different way, put together a tortoise and a quivering doe.

My Ergi's are too mobile. Yes, and they rejected everything extraneous from their structures. So I studied for a long time. The first step is to prevent the bundle of energy from flying towards the target, but slowly approaching it and gently enveloping it. The second step is to give the desired image from my memory. I had enough of them for all occasions, but it turned out to be much more interesting, more exciting, to work with “photos” of monsters from the Bottom. Baibuki and terveli turned out to be too huge and scary. And they didn’t “glue” to ergi’s well. But the lizard-like zervs, a little over two meters high, turned out to be ideal in every sense. And they invigorate with their appearance, drive away sleep, increase adrenaline, and are suitable in size.

With the zerv, I got my first phantom snag. A clot of energy spread along the wall, and the monster froze, as if ready to attack. Then it got easier, and soon all the walls of the bedroom were staring at me intimidatingly with evil eyes and threatening with sharp fangs.

And then I was struck by a new skill, which I was taught by Freyny the Hawk, the patriarch, the abbot of the monastery. But before I had full-fledged illusions did not work. So, a pathetic parody, quickly fading away and not far away. And, looking closely at her, even an ordinary person could notice the deception. But, coupled with ergi’s, the illusion turned out to be just a feast for the eyes! And she could scare, and shout, and swing a virtual sword.

That's just the illusion did not want to stay on a living person. It turned out that this is a completely different section of magical transformations. So I tossed the illusions aside as unnecessary and refocused on the phantom tricks.

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Yuri Ivanovich
A slave from our time. Book fourteen. Dead Sea

The series was founded in 2005

Series development S. Shikina

© Ivanovich Yu., 2017

© Design. LLC "Publishing House" E ", 2017

All rights reserved. The book or any part of it may not be copied, reproduced in electronic or mechanical form, in the form of a photocopy, recorded in a computer memory, reproduction or in any other way, or used in any information system without obtaining permission from the publisher. Copying, reproduction and other use of the book or part of it without the consent of the publisher is illegal and entails criminal, administrative and civil liability.

Prologue

The rare event in the world of the Binders, when they gathered five or more, happened about once a century. Bright individuals, and most likely rabid misanthropes, they denied any pressure on themselves, especially pressure from their own kind. They did not take advice from colleagues, they were extremely reluctant to enter into alliances and partnerships with them. Well, except that in rare cases they tried to coordinate their actions against another similar group or tried to somehow influence those who they especially did not like.

Even more rarely, such alliances set themselves the goal of destroying one of the Binders. Oddly enough, the assassination attempts were successful, those who fell into the trap died, although by default they could be considered immortal, but in fact - the strongest magicians among the rational.

The reasons for such attempts are different, but sometimes so insignificant that the conspirators, after many centuries, completely forgot them. More often, the unions themselves broke up, never having reached their goals. But still! Yet they continued to exist at this time. And some participants gathered to discuss their future plans, discuss strategy, and just sit among equals, exchange a word or two with their own similar immortal essence.

There are five of them today. Only five out of ten who once set out to reshape the universes at their discretion. More precisely, to change the development of numerous civilizations, directing this development in a clearly fixed direction. Moreover, initially everything looked like a harmonious experiment, worthy of all kinds of moral support and in accordance with all ethical standards. All ten members of the union wanted the best for their brothers in mind. As if…

But pretty soon it became clear that any cardinal change in the controlled cluster met with fierce resistance from the control programs. That is, the artificial intelligences that oversee the Mounds of each of the worlds are doing everything possible to level the unauthorized interference of the Binders.

From that moment on, discord began in the union. It came to mutual hatred and desire to destroy the opponent. A minority of four people declared that such interference was forbidden, stopped the experiments and reconsidered their actions. At the same time, they tried as much as possible to implement the new recommendations of the Skull Stones. Unfortunately, even among them, the changes in some places have become irreversible and have assumed the character of catastrophes. But all the same, the four conservatives believed that the unity of the entire bunch would, little by little, cope with the distortions that had occurred and correct everything.

Most of the innovators in the amount of six people felt that they were on the right track. And change must continue, no matter what. And in order to once again prove their case, they tried to kill the conservatives from the world. They say that transformations must be done immediately in ten universes, then the result will be positive. Who disagrees with us? So let's get them out of the way. Further, new colleagues will come to an empty place, and they can easily be persuaded to their side.

As a result of dastardly adventures, poison and open battles, two conservatives and one innovator died. Moreover, for the vacant positions, the Iskins of the Clusters not only selected unknown candidates, but it’s not a fact that they acquired Binders at all. For almost immediately they closed access to their worlds to outsiders. And what was going on there now, one could not even guess approximately. It couldn't have happened at all, but still...

But the five Conservatives gathered at this hour had no time for other people's fiefdoms. It was necessary to immediately deal with their sheep.

Presiding, if I may say so, was Mort. Once this man enjoyed great respect, was considered one of the main leaders of the union. And now he was simply allowed to sum up and summarize opinions, because: two of those gathered were frankly too lazy to conduct a meeting, another one had long lost all authority, and the last in the company was an old lax aunt. In general, no one would have listened to her, if not for one mention: it was at the hands of this ancient slut named Tsortasha that both conservatives died in their time. She did not look very good, but she knew how to conjure with such structures that ... In general, it was better not to anger her.

She was not pissed off. They just endured it like a necessary evil. And implicitly respected and feared.

“As you can see, an avalanche-like catastrophe continues in the bunch of our friend Tamikhan,” Mort stated. “More than half of the worlds there have closed access to their inner spaces. Completely closed, tight. AND…

“And only one freak is to blame!” - fat man Tamikhan could not resist the final chord of his just finished report-weeping. "It's Bakcarthrie Petronius!" And this apostate must be killed immediately, throwing all our combined forces at him!

He also pounded on the table with his fist to reinforce what was said. Then he froze and fell silent. All four of them gave him too eloquent looks, derogatory and contemptuous. Perhaps the old sorceress expressed a general idea in a few words:

You said we heard. And now - shut up!

Tamihan fell silent in resentment, then frowned and even made a defiant attempt to get up and leave the high assembly. Still, he was a person, next to which any emperors, kinglets and dictators, taken together, faded. After all, despite his current quarrelsomeness, lack of restraint, extreme lack of solidity, once upon a time, he was still chosen by the system in the Binders. In some way he stood out from the billions of other sentient beings, in some unique way he approached the role of a living coordinator, a litmus test and a comparative reference point for majestic ancient structures that have no analogues in all universes covered by portals.

But to get up, he got up, but did not move further, again pretending to remember something important. He sat back down, opened the folder he had brought with him, and immersed himself in reading it, muttering:

“And here, somewhere, I had…

He could leave. But going back - no. No one would have called him, and no one would have opened admission here to a shrew who had already left the meeting. Yes, and he bothered his former associates worse than a bitter radish.

Why the former? And this became clear from further discussions. And Tamikhan began them with his last word, as if there was no pause in the meeting:

– …And therefore it is urgently necessary to change our impact on reality. From now on, everything must be done so that the terrogral phases of rhythm and logical choice go along the channel of self-recovery. In other words, the time has come to recognize the complete failure of our innovative ideas, their disastrous direction for us. Let's face it: the conservatives were right. At this moment it is necessary to take a closer look at the activities of the same Petronius and do as he did. Or does anyone have other suggestions?

There were no radically different proposals. So, small clarifications, advice and coordination of upcoming approvals in the course of the planned changes. A turnover that might seem boring if it did not concern the fate of entire civilizations.

None of the four Binders had beaten their chests to prove their point in the past. They did not tear the hair on their heads, confessing their current mistakes. Understood. Recognized. Changed policy. Gathered to act differently and already acted.

And only the silent, blushing Tamikhan furiously shredded the folder with his hands, showing with his whole appearance how dissatisfied he was with the intentions of his colleagues. Knowing his explosive nature, everyone just grinned and waited for him to burst into swearing.

Alas, they did not wait. Tamihan only squeezed out of himself at the very end of the meeting, stuttering and blinking his eye nervously:

“A-ah… h-how am I?” W-Who can t-help me break through to the blocked worlds?

- Don't worry, buddy! the sorceress Tsortasha consoled him. We won't leave you in trouble. Moreover, the complete blocking of the whole world is nonsense. There are necessarily backup portals through which natives of other worlds can break through. All we need to do is recruit ten of the smartest swindlers and give them proper instructions. And let the kids have fun. Suddenly they have something sensible and succeed. Hehe!..

Now Tamihan looked at his colleagues in a daze.

– What are you?.. Have you already written off my bunch?.. And me - along with it?.. And now you are giving it to adventurers to plunder?..

“There is nothing else left,” Mort stated with a sour expression on his face. “But it is in your power to put these adventurers under control and direct their destructive activities. With your experience? Yes, with your knowledge? Everything will work out for you.

Without asking anything more, Tamihan stood up and, like a somnambulist, moved towards the failure of the portal, constantly acting on the exit. Looking after him and waiting for the disappearance, the presiding Mort only added as a matter of course:

- Surely in his bunch (if it does not collapse!) A new Binder will soon appear. Why not continue the experiment? And if our seconded… hmm, let's call them Destroyers, will still help?.. It will turn out grandiosely! And? .. And we, as if nothing to do with it, will remain on the sidelines.

Judging by the way the people remaining at the talks grinned meaningfully, they still remained comrades-in-arms. But the losers ... But there is no time for sentimentality, as they say: "... the detachment did not notice the loss of a fighter, continuing to crawl towards the machine guns!"

Chapter 1
YOU CAN FALL DIFFERENTLY

When they kill me, I kill back. And even when I will still be sure that I will die, I will try to take revenge on my killer. Moreover, it is not so difficult with my skills and the remaining supply of magical energy.

As soon as they pushed me, and waving my arms, I fell into the abyss, so I immediately twisted enough to fall back down. At that moment, I was not afraid and not offended by an unknown enemy, but almost exploded from rage and anger:

"Creature! Anyway, you will die!” – with these thoughts, I tore out such a huge ergi’s from my left shoulder, which I have never created in my life. Threatened at least forty percent of the energy on him, leaving himself miserable crumbs of ten percent. Yes, and they are no longer useful ...

But my fiery explosive ergi’s, which hit the middle window, not only pierced it, it exploded, punishing the reptile hiding somewhere there. The resulting explosion tore apart the entire space of the wall between the side windows and threw out all the stones from the floor to the top of the floor. And this is a good five, if not six meters.

That is, all three windows collapsed in a cloud of flying fragments. Moreover, from the room itself, which is in the middle, as if by a return blast wave, numerous fragments of furniture, some kind of carpets and vague lumps of several pieces of bloodied flesh were also swept away. Tight seal? Or are the internal armored doors leading to the corridor and found to be locked with all the bolts to blame? And so they need it! Revenge took place!

True, now all these fragments, pieces and fragments were flying down with me. More precisely, they tried to catch up with me, finish me off, cut me, pierce me in flight.

What else was left to wonder: why the light in the right, extreme room, where I did not have time to look, did not go out. But I no longer had the opportunity or desire to look closely to see if anyone would look out from there. Because consciousness, after a completely successful revenge, hit another extreme. Namely, it screamed: survive! Survive at any cost!

Only everyone can scream, except for the dumb, but only a few survive in such situations ... out of billions. If not less! Next, you need to act. Or to think well, instantly looking for a way out of the current deadly situation. Here the subconscious, skill and experience are already connected. And I don’t know which of them famously offered two options for salvation at once:

"We must have a parachute!" and “Better yet, turn into a moth!”

In whom are they so smart and smart? You don't have a parachute with you. And somehow I did not learn how to turn into a moth. I doubt even that having a full set of Gruans would have saved me. The maximum protection of the Radiant also does not always and does not save from everything.

Nevertheless!

The clues about the parachute and the moth made me do the right thing. Although I did not know how much more I should fall and on what, I began to act immediately. I couldn't fly, but! More recently, the genius, prophet and messiah of the lizard civilization literally forced me to improve my levitation skills. Magic is too much for me and extremely difficult, and it never worked out for me. But I managed to slightly reduce the physical weight, thanks to which I jump higher, further and ... hmm, better. In other words, I was able to greatly reduce the weight of my inflated carcass. By the way, the carcass is not naked, but covered with various weapons, artifacts, storage devices, protective amulets and other equipment necessary for our dangerous expedition.

Remembering this, I threw off my weapon belt and unloading. Twenty-odd kilograms - minus. Lepota! If you do not take into account that the fall after that almost did not slow down.

Now it remains to use the parachute. More precisely, to create it from improvised materials. And do it quickly. In the fall At any moment, expecting a deadly collision with every cell of the body. Why and how can this be done? That's right, from only one item that I had: an artifact scarf. The same trapping net in which the traitor Vayliad was going to catch Almaz, and then poison me and my friend Lenya Naydenov.

I had information about the scarf. Albeit partial, but quite sufficient. Incredibly strong, waterproof magical fabric, which also does not allow air to pass through. Exactly! Air! So I pressed the corners of the scarf to my legs with magical manipulators of force. I grabbed the other two corners with my hands and somehow tried to turn my stomach down so that the dome would open behind my back and, as it were, above me.

The very first attempt showed that nothing would come of trying to find just such a position. So I continued to fall backwards, spreading my legs and arms as far as possible to the sides. And after all, it turned out to create a completely springy dome that slows down the downward movement. Yes, so slow that I began to plan a little to the side, and all the debris from the torn wall, as well as fragments of windows, abruptly overtook me in the fall. Moreover, I managed to plan significantly away from the vertical rocky surface. In the end, it was this that added chances to my salvation.

Intuition (or chance?) also prompted in time: “Look around!” And the second time, already under the makeshift dome, I twisted, trying to look down past my armpit. I confess, it was a difficult action, even for my advanced body of excellence, Iggeld, the keeper of the mound, Radiant and ... others. But somehow he wriggled out, having managed to see a reflection of water fifty meters below him. And what is fifty meters at a falling speed of seven, eight meters per second? Because it was to this rate of fall that my mortal carcass slowed down.

So after the fifth second, I dispelled the power grips connecting my legs to the artifact scarf. Immediately my hands dragged my body to a vertical position and ... A blow followed!

I knew it would hurt. I didn’t even have any hope, to be honest, that I would be able to escape. Yes, and built the maximum protection on the crumbs of the remaining energy around him. Chin chin, as it should be. Grouped up. Inhaled. I tensed up. He pressed his elbows to his body. I managed to close my eyes.

And all the same, k-a-a-ak slammed into the water! The thought flashed: my skin was torn off along with my clothes! In addition, on the back and a little lower - they hit me with several sledgehammers, on the back of the head - they hit me on a rushing dump truck. My elbows were almost torn off my shoulders along with them. Water entered the nose so that it managed to splash out of the ears. Other painful little things are not worth remembering. Or in other words: when you are burned at the stake, the toothache is immediately forgotten.

So I forgot for a while about everything ... Including: who I am and what my name is. Only bad words rushed about in the skull, trying to force out only one question:

“Why does it hurt so much?!!”

It must have been like that for two minutes. Until new questions come up:

“What is there to breathe? Is it necessary to surface for this or not ?! The remnants of logic hinted that I had already been torn to pieces, and the pieces smoothly sank to the very bottom of the deepest local ocean.

Sensitivity is zero. Therefore, for another half a minute he moved his broken limbs, trying to realize the position of the body in space. Only then did I realize: I was floundering on the surface of the water, with my back up. Immediately I guessed to raise my head, inhale the terribly humid air and cough from the all-encompassing pain. M-yes! Am I so unlucky to suffer because of someone else's meanness? Or should I rejoice because of my miraculous, incredible salvation?

Most likely, he should have tuned in to the latter, but he could not. Yes, and I didn’t want to famously yell at the top of my lungs, wave my arms and praise the Shuivs. He just somehow rolled over on his back, spat out the salt water and stupidly tried to lie down.

The following thoughts touched on the ambient temperature and certain properties of the liquid. Relatively cold, no more than ten to fifteen degrees Celsius. You can’t lie still in such water for a long time, hypothermia and death threaten in thirty minutes. Well, if the liquid is salty, then it is marine. Or here is the ocean. Why then is the surf not heard? Not a bit heard! But does that happen?

Or am I deaf from the impact? He listened to what was necessary, strengthened. He made out something: a sort of slapping water, rather her breathing, touching stones. Plus a distinctly audible knock with a clatter and rustling. Like a dozen hedgehogs running on a wooden floor.

A familiar sound from childhood. The village of Lapovka, our hefty family home. Sometimes our beloved grandmother Marfa launched one or even two hedgehogs into it, gave them milk to drink and spoiled them with fried potatoes. In gratitude, the hedgehogs completely harassed all mice and moles with rats throughout the immediate vicinity.

Again, we used to have two hedgehogs, here there are at least a dozen of them. Or hundreds? But at least the rattling, slapping and rustling comes from one direction. So, there is a beach. Or the same sheer cliff with which I crashed. That's where I began to row, grimacing in pain and groaning like an old rheumatist.

By the way, the illuminated window, which remained far above, could not be seen through the hazy fog and haze.

It was not far to swim, one hundred, one hundred and twenty meters. It's good that he moved like a driftwood, a sort of massive, unwieldy log. Therefore, he touched the sharp stones at the bottom carefully, without causing new damage to himself. Somehow he settled himself among the fragments, knelt down and carefully began to examine the edge of the coast. The strip that opened up in front of me, six meters wide, was covered with a moving, gleaming carpet!

"Crabs! Thousands! Epic nut! Why so many of them! And for what reason? - looking closer, I saw those very few pieces of flesh, bloody, torn. They fell after me. The remains of my vile abuser? It was on these remains that the creeping hordes of seafood most of all aspired. Under the shells and paws, it was useless to look for my things at this moment, dropped along with the belt and unloading. And if the makeshift parachute had not glided into the open sea, the impact on the stones would have driven my legs into my own shoulders.

And the troubled head could not have shattered into smithereens. And survive a few minutes watching not only the agony. So he would die consciously, considering how the mandibles of crabs eat away the eyelids, eyebrows, eyes ... Brrr! Horror something! It's better not to think about it ... It's better to focus on checking the internal organs.

One of the tests was that I tried to stand up. It worked, and now I was staggering. But my innate sincerity tried to shame me:

"Do not lie! You got up not to check, but because you were afraid of crabs! And so at least excellent boots with high freebies protect the legs almost to the knee. Who would scare you even more? So that you jumped out onto land? .. "

It's easy to say: jumped out. Here each step was given with such difficulty, as if moving on crutches. But all the same, he came out onto bare stones, from which the carpet of crabs rolled away with a displeased rustling. Ha! After all, they were afraid of me!

Having proved to himself his own coolness, he continued to examine not only the coast. Worst of all was the presence of magical energy: zero point zero tenths. In this connection, belatedly regretted:

“What is the rush with this revenge? Well, an unknown man pushed me, well, he mistook me, mistaking me for his wife’s lover, who doesn’t happen to him? .. It was necessary to postpone the conversation with him until later, taking revenge on him with chilling sophistication and well-thought-out fantasy. But now I would “repair” myself within five minutes, quickly find all the lost property and be fully armed. So no! He smashed a huge piece of the wall and almost died under its rubble ... And who am I after that? .. "

A rhetorical question, to which the same impartial sincerity answered: “Who, who ... A rare choleric! First he does something, and only then he thinks!

By the way, she was right: I didn’t even think that something else could fall on my head! For I had not gone even a dozen steps among the slimy stones, when a small piece of masonry fell next to me. And literally right after it, a piece of stone with a fragment of a wooden frame. Thank the Shuivas that it was not me who died, but two dozen flattened crabs.

Well, yes, after such an explosion, more than one piece will fall off the wall. And if any rescuers, investigators or other avengers arrived at the scene of events, then for the sake of a banal clearing of the scene of events, they, without further ado, will slyly sweep away excess debris into the abyss. And there I am, all so naively weakened, looking for my unloading, belt, quick wits and yesterday.

Of course, I didn’t immediately think better. But looking up, he threateningly tried to clench his fists:

- What are you doing, bastards? .. As soon as I throw ... something ...

While he was indignant, his legs turned out to be smarter than his body and his still ringing head, starting to carry the most valuable aside, to several boulders heaping on top of each other. And there were clever thoughts:

“Really, we have to wait it out… And in general, when does dawn come here?”

The fact that eternal night reigns in this world, I preferred not to fantasize. Otherwise, you can jinx it.

You can’t hide it further than the prince, but at least it was desirable to leave the very moment of moving here from another world a secret for some time. Look around first, agree with each other. Suddenly something sensible and manage to come up with. But for this it was desirable to remove the servants from here altogether. And close the outer doors.

Fortunately, the cleanup is almost over. So the servants can get out of here and in time. The main thing is not to stand idle and not engage in vain boltology. Therefore, a haughty tone and the right threat is the best incentive to accelerate.

The idea turned out to be effective. In less than five minutes, the cleaning was completed, and both candidates for the peasants drove away from the scene, taking with them two heavy bags of garbage. Maybe they will open their mouths somewhere, wondering aloud at a stranger in somewhat strange clothes, but when else will this happen?

In the meantime, Naydenov began to act. I rushed to the doors and closed all three in turn. Then he hurried to the point of arrival. During! Torukh appeared on it with his eyes tightly closed from an excess of emotions.

Leonid grabbed his hand with the words:

There is a wall in front of you. Take a little step forward and to the right... Another one... Be careful, there are fragments of the wall... Open your eyes!

- Wow! - the prince admired, looking around nervously and trying to understand and consider everything at once. – Where are we? And what kind of building is this?.. And where is Boris' excellence?

- Shut up and listen to me! - I even had to pull the baby doll by the sleeve so that he would focus on the sounding instructions: - It's not just a different world here, but they speak a different language. He is unknown to you, and therefore be more silent, behave respectably and puff out your cheeks for importance. Let's try to imagine you as a guest from afar, and me as your translator, assistant and colleague.

“Ah…why don’t we step back?” - showed the prince's ingenuity inherent in him. But as soon as the earthman's finger pointed to the right point, he comprehensionly stretched out: - Wow ...

“As I understand it, Borya managed to fight here and seriously destroy these premises,” Leonid continued in a patter. - At the same time, a local Zouave, a certain Diyallo, died. His wife Malanya Diyallo was left a widow. But she herself suffered at the same time and is now unconscious. That is, I will repeat to everyone that we were secretly invited here by her late husband, and we can only report to her.

- When are you invited?

- Yesterday, probably ... Look, you see the sky on one side is starting to brighten? So, the dawn is on the nose.

- Understood. I start puffing out my cheeks.

And so the round physiognomy of the prince became like a bun, which is about to burst in several places. That is, the titled chidi did not bother at all with the complexity of the situation. Rather, he was glad that his dream had come true and he saw a different world, different from his own. For the second time in the last half an hour, if we recall that he briefly looked into Stepnoy.

But there was no time to exhort an unexpected companion and assistant. It is advisable to leave this place of recent tragic events as soon as possible. After all, faces at the performance can look here at any moment, and it is better to meet them for the first time as far as possible from here.

Without doubting the correctness of his actions, Leonid looked out into the corridor, did not see any of the important people there, and dragged the prince along with him. A few turns, and they noticed the half-open door of an empty room. Kind of like a small workshop or studio. We went there, waited until a noisy company of five local natives with swords passed. The later strangers will be considered and noticed in different parts of this intricate labyrinth, the better.

After that, Naydenov again went out into the corridor, having already tuned in to other actions. And then the opportunity turned up when he grabbed the collar of the first tomboy he came across, rushing somewhere and who, by all indications, corresponded to the position “come, give”:

- Hey, you! What do you hear about the well-being of the zuava? Still unconscious?

“I don't know, sir… er, good one. She's in the hospital...

- Well, take us there, otherwise we are still poorly oriented in the castle!

“So I…” a young servant tried to get away, apparently having a different task from his superior colleagues, but he froze with his mouth ajar and his eyes bulging.

Because after the conditional gesture of the earthling, a chidi came out into the corridor, stepping sedately and puffing out his cheeks. And such an intelligent creature was clearly a curiosity here! Or more precisely: such miracles have never been seen here. This was understood by the reaction of others. Not only the servant's eyes bulged, but also two female persons carrying a basket of linen froze in place, mixing the facial expressions of their quite lovely faces.

And therefore it was necessary to hurry, using the minuscule amount of information received here:

- Why froze like an idol? Take us to the hospital immediately! - He also shook the servant by the collar for warning. “Otherwise, I’ll complain about you to the Zouave and tomorrow you’ll be working in the fields!”

After that, the small one showed such agility and zeal that he had to be stopped at the turns with sharp shouts:

- Do not rush! We weren't in a hurry.

Was it worth mentioning that all the other oncoming-transverse ones froze in place, staring at the importantly pacing baby doll. And Leonid mentally lamented such savagery and frantically tried to come up with:

“How can we make a legend of our appearance? Especially if the countess wakes up and will in every possible way deny her acquaintance with us? Then nothing else remains but to blame everything on the late count. Say, he called us to uncover the assassination attempt on him. Who met us? How did you get to the castle? Where did you settle?.. Ha! They didn’t see anything, they didn’t remember the room, they went out to the noise, they learned about the events from fragments of conversations going on around. The rest I will lie in the course of events, I think I will get out ... "

While walking, I was somewhat surprised by the absence of windows to the outside and very weak, one might say emergency, lighting in the corridors. But in the foyer of the infirmary itself, it turned out to be uncommonly brighter. And there the guide rushed to the old men of advanced age walking towards:

"Master Healer!" These guys want to see the Zouave immediately. The second one looks really weird though.

While both old men were staring at the tsarevich and examining him with surprise, Naidenov partially introduced himself:

“We arrived late last night, at the secret invitation of Zouave Diyall. We did not have time to talk to him, he was very busy. And now… all that remains is to introduce himself to his venerable wife.

- No! - the master shook his head, apparently the main one in this monastery of healing. “She must not be disturbed. Absolutely impossible! She seems to be conscious, but while she is fast asleep, it is contraindicated to wake her up.

- Fine. We are ready to wait. Arrange to be taken back to the apartments assigned to us and provided with breakfast.

– And who are you, exactly? - finally thought to ask the doctor.

“Only her ladyship Malanya Diyallo will be able to tell you about this secret.

Judging by the way both old men grimaced, they were in complete misunderstanding of the situation. If only they knew how much more difficult Naydenov felt! The only thing that consoled him was the common saying:

“To lie is not to carry bags!”

I ate my breakfast in about six minutes. Unless he left the tea for the last, and just stood still with a bowl near the door, sometimes drinking a cooling, rather decent-tasting drink and carefully listening. What's going on out there? And in honor of what is there someone deafly shouting to each other?

It turned out that they were screaming not in freedom, but from the same prisons as mine. It would be more correct to say that they do not shout, but scold my new acquaintance, if I may say so about the food peddler. And both sides of the conversation were in even-numbered cells, on the other side of the corridor, at numbers eight and four.

As I managed to figure out, a man was torn from the fourth:

- And what, this ugly crab didn’t even give you breakfast?

- Exactly! - the woman from the eighth answered him, which is opposite. - I talked to some stub from the seventh and sped off somewhere! Here's the bastard! I will complain again!