Бесплатный фрагмент - Wizards of Distant Worlds: Salvation of the Cosmos

Foreword

In the magical world of Kerdivena, where magic and enchantment reign, a family of bears has recently made their home. The head of the family is Yuman, a mighty warrior-mage. His wife Veseya, a skilled practitioner of magic, graduated alongside Yuman from the school of wizards. These days, however, Veseya tends to the hearth and raises their two charming twin sons — Blagomír and Vidomír.

The Council of Elder Wizards of Kerdivena has asked Yuman to temporarily leave the bears’ home world of Narspi to help defend their realm.

Kerdivena, situated on the edge of the universe, is currently passing dangerously close to the hostile world of Antiano.

Antiano is home to evil entities called the Chernyaki, who possess tremendous magical power. They conquer worlds by draining them of all magical energy. The wizards of Kerdivena have erected a magical shield to protect their world from Chernyaki invasion, but it constantly needs to be replenished with energy.

The people of Kerdivena have reached out to wizards from neighboring worlds for help — including Yuman.

Yuman did not want to put his family in danger and had planned to travel to Kerdivena alone, but his family insisted on coming with him, not fully grasping the seriousness of the threat.

Chapter 1: In the World of Kerdivena

It was the very beginning of summer. The air was not yet hot, and a fresh breeze rustled softly through the leaves. The forest seemed to hold its breath in anticipation of rain, while birdsong carried far and wide.

Then everything went still. The bear brothers had sent every creature scrambling with their laughter and thundering footsteps. Veseya the she-bear had come outside with her sons, Blagomír and Vidomír, for a walk.

Of course, the joy of children is never quiet. The brothers ran and leaped, bursting with energy. Their mother’s heart bloomed with happiness as she watched them.

We have three suns in our world of Narspi, and it’s summer all year round, Veseya thought, but here in Kerdivena there are only two. One sun is yellow, about the size of a peach. The other is larger, blue, about the size of an apple. And it gets cold here — autumn actually comes to Kerdivena. I hope we’ll be back home in Narspi before then.

Veseya had grown up in the warm climate of Narspi and had never quite gotten used to anything less.

Keeping an eye on her sons, she reached into the pocket of her dark green robe and pulled out a verbena crystal — perfectly faceted, round, transparent, set in gold, and hanging from a gold chain.

Veseya placed the verbena crystal in her palm, spoke her husband Yuman’s name, and recited a spell. A beam of light poured upward from the crystal in the shape of an inverted pyramid. It rose to the level of her face and formed a glowing circle about half a foot across. Within the circle, Yuman’s face appeared.

“Hello, Veseya! How are things there — what are you up to?” Yuman’s voice came from the glowing circle.

“Hello, Yuman! We took the children out for a walk. The weather’s lovely today. How are things with you?” Veseya replied.

“All’s quiet at the edge of the magical shield, though the elder wizards are uneasy,” said Yuman. “They’ve sensed something is wrong.”

“Oh, it’s probably nothing — they’re most likely worried over some trifle again,” said Veseya.

“You’re probably right, but — » Yuman began.

The verbena crystal connection cut off abruptly.

The moment it did, a grim figure emerged from beneath an old tree stump — an evil Chernyak. It was a menacing sight: a dark, hooded cloak concealed its entire form, its face invisible within the shadow. Sunlight is lethal to the Chernyaki.

The Chernyak transformed the bear cubs into human children and let out a gloating cackle. Veseya froze, her heart hammering in her chest. She moved to use her magic against the creature, but the Chernyak was faster.

A black magical energy ball — about the size of an apple — materialized in the Chernyak’s palm. It hurled the ball at Veseya, and upon striking her, it spread across her body like a dark cloak. Veseya was transformed into a shapeless stone, her form no longer recognizable. Then the Chernyak vanished without a trace, dissolving into thin air.

Gripped by terror, Veseya’s children rushed to their mother’s petrified side. Overwhelmed with grief, Blagomír and Vidomír wept beside the stone that had been their mother.

Into this desperate moment flew a kind fairy named Ain. She arrived as a small butterfly, then transformed into a fairy of human height.

Fairy Ain wore a beautiful blue dress with matching blue slippers, and a wreath of flowers crowned her head. Apart from the translucent wings on her back, she looked nearly identical to a human.

Fairy Ain, a long-time acquaintance of Veseya’s, began to calm Blagomír and Vidomír, and spoke to them gently:

“The spell is too powerful — I cannot lift it, and no one in our world can. You must travel to the distant world of Grozdana, to the good wizard Vestislav. It’s not safe to stay here. The Chernyaki may have found a way into our world of Kerdivena. The verbena crystals have stopped working — I can’t reach anyone. The evil Chernyak must have cast some kind of magic to block all crystal communication across our world. I’m nearly out of flying dust, and I don’t know how I’ll reach the elder wizards in time. As a butterfly, the journey would take far too long. I’ll do my best to warn the Council of Elder Wizards somehow, but first — I’ll give you the magical ability to hear the spirits of nature and speak with them. And I’ll teach you how to use the World Gates.”

Fairy Ain spoke a spell, then touched Blagomír and Vidomír each on the head. The gift of hearing and speaking with the spirits of nature was bestowed upon them. Then Ain continued:

“You must find a mountain called Mount Elban. At its summit are the World Gates. You’ll need to open them to the world of Grozdana and pass through.”

Fairy Ain pointed Blagomír and Vidomír in the right direction and taught them the spell needed to open the World Gates.

With the fairy’s gift now awakened within them, Blagomír and Vidomír could hear their mother Veseya’s voice — speaking from within the stone. They told her they were setting off to find the wizard Vestislav in the world of Grozdana.

“There’s no other choice — you must go. Grozdana is safer than here. It’s become too dangerous to remain in Kerdivena. I can feel my magical strength fading,” said Veseya-the-stone.

“When the Chernyaki turn wizards to stone, they drain the magical energy back to their world of Antiano,” said Vidomír.

“Exactly — which is why the Chernyak didn’t turn you to stone,” said Veseya-the-stone. “But with Fairy Ain’s gift, you may now be of interest to the Chernyaki as well. So be careful.”

Veseya-the-stone released her sons Blagomír and Vidomír with her blessing. They said their goodbyes to their mother, thanked kind Fairy Ain, and set off in search of Mount Elban.

Whether they walked for a long while or a short while, the brothers eventually came to a stream. The place had a somber feel to it. The grass was patchy and withered. Several trees had been knocked over and scorched. And it was silent — no birds, just a soft breeze stirring the leaves and the grass.

“Could the Chernyaki really have reached this far?” Blagomír murmured thoughtfully.

“It’s possible,” Vidomír replied.

As they drew closer to the stream, Blagomír and Vidomír heard the sound of crying. They looked around, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. The crying continued.

Vidomír sighed and said, “I don’t understand — who’s crying?”

“It’s me — the little stream,” came the answer. “But how can you hear me? Are you wizards?”

“Not yet,” Vidomír answered. “Our parents are wizards. We can hear you because Fairy Ain gave us the gift of hearing the spirits of nature.”

“Why are you crying?” Blagomír asked.

And the spirit of the stream answered them:

“A Chernyak from the world of Antiano flew through here, searching for something. While hurling its black magical balls at the ground, it blocked my path. An explosion sent a rock crashing down on me, damming my flow. It hurts to push against the stone, and it hurts the stone too. My water wears away at it.”

“That’s true,” confirmed the spirit of the stone. “Though I imagine the stream feels it more?”

“We’ll help you,” said Vidomír.

The stone was small and rounded, roughly a foot across and roughly the same on all sides. Blagomír and Vidomír lifted it together and moved it out of the way.

“Thank you, kind ones!” said the spirit of the stream. “My name is Ele.”

“And thank you from me as well — my name is Gvaul,” said the spirit of the stone.

And Blagomír replied:

“I’m Blagomír, and this is my brother Vidomír. And we’re not people — we’re bears. An evil Chernyak put a spell on us and turned us into humans, and it turned our mother Veseya into stone. We’re on our way to Mount Elban so we can pass through the World Gates to the world of Grozdana. A good wizard named Vestislav lives there — he’s the only one who can help us.”

“That’s quite a journey,” said Ele, the stream spirit. “A sister of mine lives on Mount Elban — a mountain stream named Nihassa. I’ll let her know you’re coming.”

“And my older brother is Mount Elban himself,” said Gvaul, the stone spirit. “I’ll let him know too, so he and the stream Nihassa can help you.”

“But how do you communicate with family across such distances?” Blagomír wondered.

And the spirit of the stone, Gvaul, explained:

“We spirits of nature exist in multiple dimensions at once. In one of those dimensions, we travel in our subtle spirit forms — as figures that look like people. That dimension is called the Sreidim. In the Sreidim, distance is no barrier: think of a place, wish to be there, and you already are. That’s where we gather and speak with our kin.”

“What is a dimension exactly? Is it like another world?” Vidomír asked.

“Yes — another world, but within this same world, just on a different subtle plane,” said Ele, the stream spirit.

Ele and Gvaul pointed Blagomír and Vidomír in the right direction. The brothers said their goodbyes, offered their thanks, and continued on their way.

Whether they walked for a long while or a short while, Blagomír and Vidomír eventually arrived at a dense, ancient forest.

The forest looked dark and forbidding. The trees were bare, the ground stripped of all grass. There were no birds, no insects — nothing to see or hear. A creeping unease settled over the two brothers.

“This forest feels dead,” said Vidomír.

Immediately, a voice groaned from the forest:

“Not dead yet.”

The brothers both startled. They looked around but saw no one. Vidomír spoke up:

“Who’s there? Show yourself.”

“You can hear me, kind ones? I am the spirit of the forest — my name is Bran,” said the voice, with clear surprise.

“I’m Blagomír, and my brother is Vidomír — and we’re not people, we’re bears,” Blagomír replied.

They told the forest spirit Bran what had happened to them.

Bran listened with sympathy, then began to share his own sorrowful story:

“An evil Chernyak from the world of Antiano entered the Magayin dimension and cast some kind of dark magic over my source of power. All the energy is draining from my source into that alien world, Antiano.”

“We might be able to help you!” Blagomír exclaimed.

“We just don’t know how to enter the Magayin dimension,” said Vidomír.

“I can tell you,” said Bran. “You must touch my source and recite a spell. In the heart of the forest stands a stone tree — it is the source and conduit of all the forest’s energies.”

Bran spoke the spell aloud, and Blagomír and Vidomír committed it to memory. Then Bran added:

“I suddenly feel a deep certainty — a kind of faith — that you can save me and this forest. I am profoundly grateful to you.”

Blagomír and Vidomír decided to act.

“We’ll go to the source,” Blagomír told the forest spirit.

“Go, then,” Bran replied.

They made their way to the heart of the forest and found the stone tree. It was far wider than any other tree around it, though about the same height as the others. It was the only tree that still bore leaves — but those leaves had lost their green and turned a deep violet.

“This tree must be ancient,” said Blagomír.

“I think so too,” Vidomír agreed. “And strange-looking. The trunk must be wider than three yards around.”

Blagomír and Vidomír steeled themselves. They approached the source — the stone tree — sat down in lotus position, pressed their palms against its rough bark, and Vidomír began to recite the spell while Blagomír repeated after him:

“Londaltas’h uslah pochyltas’h magayn visymas’h.”

The moment the spell was spoken, the spirits of Blagomír and Vidomír rose from their bodies in ethereal form and found themselves in the Magayin dimension, while their physical bodies remained in the material world, resting against the stone tree.

Chapter 2. The Maygain Dimension

In the Maygain Dimension, the forest looked even more frightening and foreboding. Darkness and black fog enveloped everything, concealing both suns. From the stone tree came a low, mournful groan.

On a thick branch of the source-tree, about twenty-four feet above the ground, Blagomir and Vidomir spotted an enormous mushroom. It resembled a toadstool, but was roughly ten times the size of an ordinary fungus.

“That’s something new,” said Blagomir. “Father never told us about this method of stealing magical energy.”

“The tree is made of stone and probably has some kind of protective structure,” said Vidomir. He continued: “The chernaks most likely use exactly this method to drain magical energy from sources like this one.”

“So what do we do?” asked Blagomir.

“I think we need to tear that mushroom off the tree,” Vidomir replied.

Blagomir touched the tree, then the stone, and said with certainty:

“It feels the same in the Maygain Dimension as it does in our material world.”

Vidomir grabbed a long switch and answered:

“Yes, exactly — though it’s most likely that only our etheric bodies can feel objects here the way physical bodies do in the material world.”

Vidomir began striking the parasitic mushroom with the switch.

“It’s really grown in tight — and it’s tough too. The switch just snapped,” Vidomir said, crestfallen.

Blagomir began searching for something sturdier.

“Here — let’s take this thicker branch and try to knock that parasitic mushroom off together,” Blagomir said hopefully.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Vidomir replied.

The brothers grabbed the heavy branch together and began beating at the mushroom. On the third blow, they managed to break it free from the tree. The mushroom flew some thirty to thirty-six feet through the air and crashed to the ground.

Within a minute, the fog and darkness dissolved. Two little suns appeared and began to shine brilliantly. The ominous place transformed into something beautiful and vivid — awakening from its enchanted sleep, it burst into bloom and radiance. Everything around them began to stir back to life, flowering and turning green.

Beneath the suns’ rays, the parasitic mushroom began to crumble into dust, then scattered away and vanished.

“That mushroom was the one creating the dark fog,” Blagomir said with conviction.

“Most likely it was afraid of sunlight,” Vidomir answered with confidence.

“Yes, that is exactly so,” said the large blue sun, joining the conversation. “That creature does not belong to this world — it comes from Antiano.”

“And in the world of Antiano, there are no suns,” said the smaller yellow sun.

Blagomir and Vidomir were not especially surprised that both suns had spoken to them. They had long grown accustomed to conversing with the spirits of nature. The brothers greeted the suns warmly. They were about to share their story, but the blue sun interrupted:

“Word of you has spread throughout the Sreidim Dimension. We know who you are. My name is Siun.”

“And I am Koyash,” said the yellow sun. “And you are Blagomir and Vidomir.”

“Will the source now be replenished and the forest restored?” Blagomir asked the suns.

“Yes, across all dimensions — though in the material world, the forest will take longer to recover,” answered Siun.

“Are our worlds deeply vulnerable across all the dimensions?” Vidomir asked the suns curiously. He quickly added: “Judging by how the chernak managed to curse the magical source of Bran the forest spirit right here in the Maygain Dimension, could a chernak cause harm to our worlds in other dimensions as well?”

“In the Maygain Dimension, yes — they are vulnerable, and the chernaks have even reached the Bakhor Dimension,” Koyash answered. He then added: “The Sreidim Dimension is still beyond their power for now. The Keepers had been patrolling the Maygain Dimension of this world, Kerdiven. But at the moment, they are fighting alongside the wizards and fairies to defend Kerdiven’s borders.”

“And where does the magical energy actually come from?” Blagomir asked curiously.

“The energy flows from the Aluy Dimension, passing through all dimensions in order,” Siun replied. He added: “It reaches every source — and us as well, the stars. We are sources too. In the Aluy Dimension stands a source: the fire-stone Ulatar, and from it the energy flows. As for where the energy within Ulatar originates — only the eldest High Keepers know that.”

Blagomir and Vidomir thanked Siun and Koyash and said their farewells. They then approached the source, placed their hands on the stone tree, spoke the incantation, and returned to their physical bodies in the material world.

Blagomir and Vidomir told Bran the forest spirit everything that had happened in the Maygain Dimension. Bran thanked his rescuers.

Bran felt well — as though he had awakened after a long, grave illness. The forest began slowly stirring back to life, blooming and turning green. Wishing to repay his saviors, Bran offered them his miraculous waters and said:

“An evil chernak came to me and demanded I give him the Waters of Life and Death. I refused. But to you, I will gladly give them. Take the empty ripened simes fruits from the saska tree and fill them with the living water and the dead water from my source.”

Blagomir and Vidomir looked around and spotted the saska tree. They walked over to it and each picked one simes fruit. The simes fruits, roughly the size of a palm, resembled yellowish pears. Inside, the ripened fruits were hollow — only tiny seeds rattled within. Blagomir shook his fruit and listened to the seeds’ soft sound. He pinched off the tip and scattered the seeds onto the ground. Vidomir did the same.

Then Blagomir and Vidomir approached the source — the stone tree. Two streams began to flow from it.

“The stream on the left is the Dead Water, and the one on the right is the Living Water,” said Bran the forest spirit.

Blagomir filled his fruit with the Dead Water, and Vidomir filled his with the Living Water. They then tied the tips of their simes fruits shut and tucked them into their belts.

“You never know when water might come in handy,” said Bran the forest spirit warmly.

Blagomir and Vidomir thanked Bran, and he in turn thanked them and pointed them toward Mount Elban.

The heroes bid farewell to Bran and continued on their way.

Whether it took long or short, Blagomir and Vidomir eventually reached Mount Elban.

Mount Elban was not especially tall — it fell just short of the clouds. But what it lacked in height it more than made up for in breadth, stretching three times as wide as it was high. The river Nikhasa tumbled in a rushing torrent down the steep slope of Mount Elban. On the far bank, at the mountain’s foot, the slope was gentle enough to climb without difficulty. But on the side where Blagomir and Vidomir stood, the terrain was steep and broken by sheer drops. The river Nikhasa, nearly one hundred and forty feet wide, seemed utterly impassable. Swimming across was out of the question.

“The only climbable slope is on the far bank, and on this side there’s nothing but sheer, impassable cliffs,” Blagomir said, disheartened.

“We should consult with Mount Elban and the river Nikhasa,” said Vidomir.

The travelers greeted Mount Elban and the river Nikhasa and listened as a voice answered from the summit.

“Greetings, greetings — we already know who you are and where you’re headed. Our kin have told us everything,” said Mount Elban.

The river Nikhasa also greeted Blagomir and Vidomir.

“How are we to cross to the far bank of the river Nikhasa?” Blagomir asked.

“I believe Mount Elban could raise its rocks and temporarily hold back the water, creating a passage for you,” suggested the river Nikhasa.

“Yes, I’ll try — but you’ll need to cross quickly,” Mount Elban agreed.

From beneath the river Nikhasa, rocks began to rise. They lifted roughly nine feet into the air, blocking the river’s flow across its entire width. The riverbed was carpeted with smooth, rounded stones ranging from palm-sized to forearm-length.

“Alright, hurry — cross to the far bank now!” Mount Elban urged.

Blagomir and Vidomir hurried across to the far bank of the river Nikhasa.

“We’ve made it across,” Blagomir called to Mount Elban.

“I’ll start lowering the rocks back into place now. Step back from the bank a bit, just to be safe,” Mount Elban told them.

Blagomir and Vidomir moved to a safe distance.

The rocks began to descend. Water started flowing again, the current growing stronger and stronger. The river spilled briefly over its banks. The rocks settled fully back into place, and the water surged out further — then gradually, the river Nikhasa returned to its original course.

Blagomir and Vidomir thanked Mount Elban and the river Nikhasa.

“Make haste, friends,” said the river Nikhasa. “The elder wizards of our world, Kerdiven, are troubled — the protective magical shield is slowly weakening.”

“Yes, such rumors are circulating throughout the Sreidim Dimension,” Mount Elban confirmed.

After bidding farewell to Mount Elban and the river Nikhasa, Blagomir and Vidomir began climbing up the mountain.

Whether the climb was long or short, our heroes — Blagomir and Vidomir — at last reached the summit.

There they saw two stone pillars with runes carved into them. The pillars were square, topped with sharp pyramidal peaks. Each stood roughly seven feet tall, with the same distance between them.

“These must be the World Gates,” said Blagomir.