"Stop! Who are you? — what is it? " he asked aloud, and the black steed that bore his weary rider snorted in fright.
The rider, who had been dozing in the saddle, his head hanging over his chest, woke abruptly from his slumber and shook his head from side to side, looking about him in bewilderment. The hilt of a long, thin sword glinted in the moonlight from beneath the hem of his Fox-fur-trimmed cloak. He pulled the hood back from his head and Ahani saw a black-haired girl.
Her face was beautiful and pale like the moon, and her eyes were large and black, and her lips were plump and blood-red, and well defined. Girl couple of moments peered in face young men, that so inopportunely interrupted its dream, and from this glance on back akhani ran an unpleasant the chill. Her lips curved into a charming smile.
"Greetings, warrior!" "I'm sorry," she said. "I know your voice, are you Ahani, son of Daksha?"
She sat up in surprise on the dark animal skin covering her horse's back. And Ahani was also taken aback and lowered his bow.
"So it is, noble one," he said excitedly. — But how do you know me and my father?"
— It's a long story, " the black-haired rider had said. "My name is Anhra. Let me dismount and we'll sit and I'll tell you all about it."
With these words, the girl gracefully jumped from his horse to the ground and did not have time Ahani to recover, as she has been raised to it on the top of the hill, taking with him a traveling bag. When she reached the top, she untied the strings of the bag and took out a couple of pieces of dried meat, a large bunch of juicy greens and a small wineskin.
With that, and a pleasant, open smile, she spread the food on her bag, set it down on the ground beside the boulder where Ahani had been sitting in the guard, and motioned for him to join her.
Only now did Ahani see that the girl was a little older than he, but how much he could not tell — she looked very young, but her sword, confidence and manner of communication spoke of some life experience.
"Why are you frozen?" she laughed aloud. "Put down your bow — you won't need it!" Sit down and help yourself!" And even better taste my herbal infusion!
With that, Anhra took a SIP from her wineskin, closed her eyes blissfully, and after a moment or two handed it to Ahani. Then the youth relaxed, shook off his astonished stupor, and followed the advice of his dear guest.
He sat down carefully on the grass beside the bag, took the leather skin from the girl's hand, and sniffed cautiously at it. The smell was pleasant and intoxicating. Then he took a neat SIP.
The infusion was warming, tart and very tasty. A sweet warmth spread over his tongue, and then over his throat and stomach. And he was so warm under the wolf cloak that he wanted to unbutton it.
— I see you liked it? happily inquired of Angra. — Now you can eat!"
Ahani had never tasted anything like it before in his life, and he felt a little dizzy. It was only then that he remembered the homemade cakes his mother had given him before leaving. Then he took them out of his bag and put them on the girl's.
"Help yourself, good guest." Ahani said timidly.
"My name is Anhra," she said again, smiling, as she nibbled a piece of meat and chewed it carefully. — Two summers ago I came to your village with my brother Martin. But a lot has happened in two summers, and I've changed a lot in those summers. And I didn't get out of my brother's wagon that time, so you probably didn't see me.
Ahani remembered, indeed, how a troop of horsemen, led by a pale and tall man, had come to their village. He was very interested in beautiful arms, which was hung with all these guests. And the strange harness of their vicious steeds, sparkling in the sun with the many beautiful stones with which it was adorned.
The guests talked for a long time in elder Vyasa's Yurt, and Ahani's father and all the older men were there. And when the conversation was over, the guests left without smiles or goodbyes, and the men themselves were serious. Ahani caught glimpses of his father's conversations with others, heard the words " Arias, unity, power, king,” but could not quite make out what was being said.
Time passed and the talk of strange visitors ceased. The village took up its usual life-cultivated fields, grazed cows and horses, prayed to the gods.
"What are you thinking, Ahani?" Anhra asked with a sweet smile. "Do you remember my brother?"
Then she laughed suddenly, loud and melodious, her head thrown back.
"I understand." she said through a laugh. — You haven't tasted soma, the stuff men drink!"
Ahani shook his head, and the ground shook with his movement.
That sacred drink of soma, which elder Vyasa prepared from herbs for all the elder men of the clan, was not yet available to the young man. It was prepared only on nights when the moon God Soma, after whom the drink was named, was not in the sky.
- A that, soma look like on this your infusion? Have you tried it? Ahani could hardly remember the words, and his tongue seemed to refuse to obey him.
"My infusion is a little similar," Anhra said.
— Why did you come alone?" Without a brother? Without men? Ahani asked, leaning his right hand on the cold ground in a futile attempt to at least stop its frantic rotation.
His beautiful black-eyed companion stared at the swaying young man sitting opposite and hesitated, apparently choosing her words.
— My brother Martin, he is a strong man — " she said at last, and with trembling fingers she brushed away a long black lock of hair which a gust of wind had flung across her face, and hid it behind her ear. — He doesn't take no for an answer."
Ahani leaned his other hand on the swaying ground, trying to make sense of her words. Her words seemed to have come out of the mist and were echoing in the back of her head. Nausea began to rise in waves from his stomach to his throat.
His heart thumped in his temples, and the grass before his eyes began to sway from side to side. The strength left Ahani and no matter how much he tried, grinding his teeth, to keep at once weakened hands, but still could not do it, his hands buckled.
He fell to the grass, gasping for air like a fish stranded on a beach, his pupils spinning aimlessly and without stopping, oblivious to anything around him. Except for the far North hill, on top of which, one by one, numerous black shadows began to appear.
Ahani's mind was seized by strange and frightening, multicolored visions-dreams. He plunged into their riot of colors and little understood signs and symbols, it seemed that his dreams were mixed with reality, and it was impossible to separate one from the other. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't put his thoughts together.
All that remained was to try to keep his attention on those pictures that seemed real, although the young man could not even remember who he was and where he was. It seemed that he was not a man, but merely a thought that rested on the cosmic waves, surrounded by countless cold and prickly, sparkling stars.
At one point, Ahani had a vision of a large number of dark riders passing by him, black horses snorting terribly and ice-cold steam billowing from their nostrils.
At other times he saw a large flock of ravens circling overhead in the endless black firmament, some higher, some lower, and nearer to him. They flew close to his face, cawing loudly and gutturally in a long, rolling echo right into his face, their beaks gaping wide and revealing to the glassy eyes of the youth the insides of their throats with throbbing red tongues.
Cold soulless stars sparkled in the pupils of the ravens, and some of them flew so close to Ahani's face that with a slight rustle they brushed his skin with coal-black plumage, and fluttered his eyelashes with the cold wind of their flight.
At other times he dreamed of strange animals he had never seen and strange places he had never visited. It was a dense forest, with strange thin trees, tall and flexible, with trunks of various shades of green, twisted with strange brown ropes. The forest was full of sounds and movements, rustles and incomprehensible cries.
Ahani saw a big snake, bigger than any he had ever seen. Her head was the size of the boy's. She stared into his eyes with small black pupils, hissing and twisting her thick, long body, and sticking out a sharp and thin tongue.
Then he had a vision of a great black cat, as big as a horse, with wild fury and grace. Snarling, it came slowly toward Ahani, its great mouth full of dagger-sharp teeth. Her eyes were arched to her temples and her pupils were bright green.
Then the black riders again. Only now they were sauntering right through Ahani's body, which felt as if it were floating in the air, feeling neither arms nor legs. Evil horses grinned white jaws, squinting at the young man with dark eyes and whipped their sides with long tails.
The riders were all sullen and intent. A few of them glanced at him, then looked away and drifted past. They were all tall and broad-shouldered, all with long hair and beards. They were dressed in uniform — many in dark, thin mail, but most simply in leather jackets with metal plates sewn on, headbands and light helmets, almost all with swords and bows, and some with spears.
And then half the sky was flooded with yellow-red light, and on this light crawled black writhing snakes. Ahani became aware of the sound of a woman crying as it became very loud. And then he realized that he had heard it for a long time, even when the sound was subtly born somewhere in the depths of his skull. But then he did not attach importance to it, like a mosquito squeak. But the sound grew and slowly grew in my head, until it became a deafening roar.