"I do not like all this. "
It does not matter! Now the main thing is to act quickly. Oh, yes, I'll take some food, because you'll have to sit here for two days. Do you understand everything?
- Yes, I understood everything clearly.
"Fine, now drive, do not waste precious time. "
The girl reluctantly finished assembling, mounted, he hooked her to her and the horses, and then she turned around and began to slowly retire, descending the mountain road. And the baron himself, collecting a little brushwood and taking the provisions, went back to the cave - it had to be inspected.
First you had to solve the problem with lighting, it's completely inconvenient to walk in the shadows, when you see only silhouettes. The fact is that the inner main hall was with a huge vault, which at the very top cut through cracks, in places through. Through them, and then came the crumbs of light, and there was little ventilation. The airing of the room, he realized, was organized so that through a slightly cracked arch the air went out, and through the entrance to the cave - came in. That is, if you build a fire inside the hall, it will speed up the passage of airflow, due to the accelerated rise of heated air and improve the ventilation of the room. After figuring out what was happening in that room, he collected some brushwood in the vicinity of the cave and prepared a bonfire, which he could only light. Nearby, he neatly folded more fuel, which should be enough for a couple of days of maintaining the fire. After that, I borrowed a couple of torches in the aisle and began to inspect the whole complex. It turned out that in addition to the hall, in the center of which stood a large marble statue of Artemis about 4 meters high, there are about ten more carved in the rock rooms, in which various property was stored. Basically, of course, household items and food stocks in the form of grain, olive oil and wine. Of the valuable things - only antique handicrafts, mostly marble and bronze. Now they are not at all in price, but then - they will be completely. The most interesting place was the last room, which was located just behind the grandiose statue. It was much more spacious than the others. In this small hall a kind of non-static pantry of a completely unique kind was made-the marble and bronze statues of the various gods of the ancient Olympus stood mixed with various household things and military gear of different eras. A lot of equipment lay in bulk and badly deteriorated from time to time, coming to a completely unconditioned state, but part was in deep oil preservation. For example, perfectly preserved Lorica segmentals from the heyday of the Roman Empire were exactly the same and preserved. The most wounded were chain mail. Especially it should be mentioned about a certain amount of bronze armor in a completely tolerable condition. For him, as an experienced historian, all these things were like balm to the soul, and indeed the whole of this era: he studied for so many years, and then everything can be touched alive. So he wandered, examined and evaluated everything that is valuable and where it can be applied. The day passed imperceptibly, and it began to get dark. He had to light a fire and begin to prepare for bed. There was only one question - the question of unexpected guests, since here, obviously, one of the people regularly put his hand, watching as the preservation of the armor, and for everything else. We needed an alarm system. There were no other entrances to the underground temple, so at some distance from each other he made stretches of woolen thread, on which hung a small bundle of pieces of iron. It was not very strong, but if you sleep sensitively, you can notice.
He lay down to sleep, not taking off his armor, as one could expect anything. In a strong and deep sleep, he was prevented from falling through the feeling of tension that had seized him since the moment Morrigan left. And so, closer to the morning, one of the long stretch marks worked. He woke up instantly, but did not flinch and listened. A couple of minutes later the next stretch worked and a hushed whisper was heard, apparently uninvited guests remembered not the most courtly words in their language. He rose as quietly and neatly as possible, took the sciavon out of its scabbard and walked away from the burning fire to the nearest room so as to be out of sight and have, in case of anything, the opportunity to rush to the aisle and break out at the shortest distance. Five entered the room. Ahead was a slender but strong girl, behind her four men, a column in twos. All are armed with short spears. Behind the men are some stuffed bags. The body of the whole company covers only simple woolen clothes. Eric almost howled because he forgot to hurry in a hurry with a crossbow, which now lay in the bag next to the fire. Well at least it was not loaded, and the bolts lay separately in the bag. He terribly spoiled the situation, as he was the only weapon for the next few kilometers, which could easily finish him off. The guests stopped near the fire. The men immediately turned their backs on her and, with their spears in front of him, became an improvised semicircle, protecting her back and sides. The girl slowly slowed the tip of the spear and began to look around and listen. For some reason, she did not pay attention to the crossbow. Minutes of silence stretched slowly, so slowly and tensely that the men accompanying her all over the body sweated profusely, and her fingers a little whitened from the strength with which they squeezed the shaft. But in the eighth minute the girl could not stand it and loudly cried in Byzantine:
- Who are you? - And silence. The Baron was not going to be so easy on her trick. He, of course, is in fine armor and in good shape, but there are five of them and it is still unknown how many of them are outside.
" I know that you are here! "Come out and introduce yourself. If you are not our enemy, I promise - we will not attack. - And again there is silence. After all, who knows who they consider an enemy?
Ok. I understand what you think. So I will introduce myself.
- Light! Do not risk so, suddenly this is one of those who forced us to hide here.
" Then he will die. "But before he dies he finds out from whose hand. I am Demeter - the priestess of this ancient temple. - And again there is silence. Our hero only smiled a little. He began to like this game.
" You show disrespect in our land! "Teleph - start looking for our guest. - After these words, the men accompanying her began to disperse and look around. Like herself. Fortunately, she completely alone went to the right baron's room. Her eyes a little povyvikli from the darkness because of being at the fire, but because she saw it very badly. Entering the room, she did not see the dark mass of his armor from two paces. True, he himself successfully stood up - in the darkest corner of the room, but notice, if the eye is accustomed to the dark, you can. She took another step forward and heard a slight noise on the right. Of course, she turned to the irritant and immediately fell into the embrace of our hero, who took her left hand with her waist, and the right one clamped her mouth, and then pressed her to him. Poor girl, from the surprise and completely strange sensations, she was so scared that she could not hold her bladder out. And what do you want? You go into a dark room, and then you, absolutely noiselessly, have something very hard and cold. So our poor fellow not only dropped his spear and lost the gift of speech, but also, with a slight twitching of his whole body, made a byaku. And after it has softened and has lost consciousness. The sounds that accompanied all this action did not cause any reaction from the accompanying men. Therefore, Eric was carte blanche for action. Going out to fight with them is unreasonable, even if he kills them all, he will be of no use to this. They need him as subordinates, and not as corpses. And to kill, judging by our ward, he always can. Therefore, after waiting for the guys to move away, he clamped the fingers of his nose, which was limp on his hands, that caused a rather quick reaction to the sharp inhalation of the mouth and the coming to consciousness. He did not give a shout to her, clutching his mouth with his hand, whispered in his ear: