LITMIR.BIZ

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had been here. On three sides, surrounding the space of the buried, it served as a solid defense that had stood there for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. On the last, fourth side, there in front, stood the crypt, a gaping passageway leading down into the depths of darkness. Two rows of massive columns, right and left, gradually protruded from the golden haze of mist. They stood on a level elevation of slabs. And behind the immense columns rose equally smooth high walls that closed off the back side of the cemetery from the forest. They shaped the burial ground into a regular rectangle. And even the trees of the Dark Forest were afraid to enter it and preferred to avoid it.

      One of the men looked carefully into the center of the ancient cemetery. There, among the shriveled tombstones, two open marble sarcophagi floated in the mist in the middle of the burials. One carved lid, with a knight depicted on it, had fallen apart and was in three pieces. The other was too sturdy and lay there, beneath the marble bed. Two sarcophagi, two hollow coffins for the number of guests.

      …

      Taking another step, I brushed the dewdrops off the last blades of grass and stepped onto the white steps. As I walked up the rough surface of the steps, I touched the wet marble of the side wall of the crypt with my hand. It was as smooth as if it had been polished yesterday, the damp drizzle gathering right on it and flowing down a small stream in a chute. My companion took his time, looking around, he picked his way among the ruined tombstones. "I think it's the right decision to go around along this whole long white wall. The marble seems to have flecks of jade," I looked closely at the stone. Ahead, two rows of columns again emerged from the fog. Finally, my companion caught up with me, and we moved forward without making any noise.

      Titan Jodcheim was nearing sunset. Even though I'd ordered a wake-up call in the morning, none of the locals dared to get me up at the crack of dawn. Especially after my "greeting the guards," they didn't want to get a crossbow bolt or worse in their foreheads. Having slept well among the lettuce leaves, I gladly sent one of the leaves wilted on my sweat into my mouth, "Mmmm..... That's a flavor I'll never forget." Afterward was a conversation with the deputy Elder, the young man who had balked in front of me yesterday. He clenched and unclenched his hands, feeling a kind of insecurity while talking to me. I looked at his shattered fists, "Did he really fight with his twin over gold in the middle of nowhere like this?" The deputy told me that the head of the settlement was sick from all yesterday's worries and asked him to choose a guide for me.

      Borna, my guide, followed suit as I froze near the crypt. The woodcutter's ragged and anxious breathing turned to vapor with each exhalation. His stick was slipping from his sweaty hands, and he gripped it tighter. Borna fumbled himself so hard, that when I turned to him, I made him flinch.

      "Why don't you go back, there's not much going on inside?" I glanced at him obliquely, leaving the first pair of columns behind and keeping my eyes on the passageway. He looked as if I'd invented speech for him again. And it poured out of him like a full-blown river.

      "No, no, my lord! Have mercy! I don't walk in the woods alone! I'll be eaten, I'll be calmer with you at least," the man wailed, taking away the trembling in his knees. "If he continues to tense himself up like this, then our business will definitely not end well," I thought. "We've got to distract him somehow."

      "Do you have the relic?" I tossed the question casually over my shoulder, treading carefully on the marble slabs, which were surprisingly tightly fitted together.

      "Yes, yes, she's here." Borna dropped his hand to the bundle lying on top of his shoulder bag.

      "Try to keep up," I whispered to him as I ducked closer and closer. "One more thing. Light a fire. You have a torch with you, I hope?"

      "Yes, yes, here, wait, wait, I'll light it," Borna paused to get what he needed from his bag, and I stood waiting. With two flicks of a flint, my guide lit some caustic cloth with shaking hands. Then he stood up and grasped his club with his other hand, and then he smiled.

      "It's a bit of a thrill," he exhaled with a sigh of relief.

      I knew the feeling. Fire always adds confidence and determination when nothing else does. "Fire is plain and simple, it's always at hand. And if a hunter enlists its help, then maybe I can do something too," such a person will cheer himself up. How many times I had to use this trick with the novices of the Order during the trials. Well, and if there was no fire at hand, then I gave them a knife in their hands, and they were immediately encouraged, even if they did not know how to use it at all.

      "All right." I pulled from my bag a green glowing crystal in a small cage and with a hanging handle. They say that back then, when the first settlers arrived on the island of Amberesvet the Great, the prisoners went under the Canopy of the Unknown with such emerald crystals. Then, long ago, at the dawn of the first age, as I said, they were worn by the prisoners to dispel the darkness of the Canopy. And now we hunters wear them to ward off the infected creatures of the ancient night. These crystals are like a short leash, made only to keep the convicts from straying too far from the expedition. The crystal sucks the life force of its wearer. And now I felt a kind of wind blowing through me and taking my vital juices inside the crystal, which was burning with new vigor. The skin on my fingers would gradually become flabby, like a bath, then begin to cool, and if I delayed, it would suck everything out. Belatedly, familiar otherworldly disordered voices sounded. They wailed, whispered, sighed. They say they are the moans of the souls of those whose lives this crystal has already consumed.

      And everything was stained with the red blood of Titan Jodecheim. The columns were lost in the gloom, the thick fog coming up on the right and left in a scarlet glow. Behind was the graveyard, huge stone tombstones. To the right and left towered columns of reddened white marble, they reflected the light, casting a scarlet veil over everything. The haze ahead shrouded the blue shadowed passage into the darkness of the unknown past with a bloody shawl. Footsteps whispered between the columns with a resounding echo, disappearing into the tomb. And then there was the pounding of his heart, unexpectedly loud for such a late hour.

      Borna behind me stepped on a branch. It crunched, shattering into ashes. I turned my head slightly in his direction, and he spread his arms. Ahead came a hoarse and harsh growl and a series of wheezes from a predator sniffing for prey. He roared, already more clearly guarding his territory. I had a few guesses as to who might be inside. All that remained was to confirm or deny them.

      I crouched down carefully and looked at the floor. There were claw marks on it. "The predator was huge, and not so long ago it had dragged some large prey into its lair…" I put a drop of blood on my tongue that was clearly visible on the stone, "a young deer, by the looks of it." I ran my hand over it and examined it, "Hmm. The layer of dust has been wiped away, as if it had been swept with a broom." No creature matched the description.

      The cage with the crystal dropped to the floor, and it went out almost immediately. If rumors are to be believed, there is another crystal, a light crystal that can dispel darkness without taking payment in the form of life force. Thunderbirds, the Rukhs, decorate their nests with it. It also stands on the ancient lighthouses in every big city. The capital city is named after him – Amberlight the Great. He is the light of Titan Jodcheim enough to dispel the darkness. It's also known as the blood of the Son of Light. You ask why I don't use it? We are forbidden to possess it. The crystal is inaccessible to hunters because they have fought the peculiar contagion that reigns on the other side of the mountains, and in five years have absorbed dangerous concentrations of it. Therefore, it is forbidden for the killers of the cold to possess it. After their service, each hunter is released into the lands of the living to use their experience to fight the weaker spawn of the blight. In all my time here among the living, I have never seen such a jewel.

      All my assumptions fell apart. And I was wondering what kind of people were here, when the unexpected answer came to me: "What unusual footprints. Madness! They're not extinct after all, are they? Yes, that would answer all questions! It can't be! And is it really an owl bear? It makes sense. The male carries food to the egg-laying female. He hunts in the forest, and the crypt is a very good and protected place to nest. It's late evening. The male owl bear has just gone hunting. We seem to have missed him."

      Taking a couple flasks of paralyzing smoke from my bag, I tossed them inside, "In a closed room, the smoke should put everyone inside to sleep. The female owl bear, if it's really her, can't

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