The Stone Idols

“Oh, all familiar faces! Take them! ” Plague-del-Cake hissed hoarsely.

She made an imperceptible movement. Leopold Grotter’s ring slid down from Tanya’s finger. Bab-Yagun was already helplessly fluttering in the hands of one of the stone idols. His ring was also transferred to Plague.

Tanya jerked, but understood that she could not even stir. The light beating from the empty eye sockets riveted her to the floor. Plague-del-Cake appeared more disgusting than ever. Her skin had shrunk and cracked, in places baring the bones. The chopped off hands moved in the air. Each finger was studded with magic rings taken from the strongest magicians. Around her neck hung a gold chain with a crystal sphere. Inside the sphere Tanya made out the talisman already familiar to her.

“Worthless girl! I already suspected something was wrong then when you broke your double bass. And when you threw the blanket over my portrait, I finally understood the truth! The Snake of Time is restoring the fabric of events, isn’t it so? Regrettable it won’t have time to do this! ” Plague smirked.

“You won’t be able to prevent it! I won’t allow it! ” The academician shouted.

Plague-del-Cake burst out laughing. The laughter of the dead old woman resembled rustling sandpaper.

The beard of Sardanapal rushed forward, attempting to wind around Plague, but it did not have time. The nearest of the stone idols caught the beard, clutched and pulled it to itself. Sardanapal was hit hard in the face against the bars of the cage and fell to the bottom next to the bowl with leftovers.

Starting to moan, the academician attempted to get up, but the idol, not releasing the beard, pulled again, and Sardanapal buried his face in the bowl.

“Br-r! How it stinks! And only how can you eat this filth! However, there’s no account for taste! If you want, I’ll give order to bring you something indeed quite malodorous in the evening! ” With a sneer, Plague was horrified.

The idol let go of the beard and took a step to the side.

Suddenly something flared up in Tanya’s memory. Two pictures were superimposed with surprising accuracy. So here is what she saw in the seething liquid, when Stinktopp forced them to cook the elixir of foresight! What a pity that she cannot return to that day! And is it possible to turn time backwards at all? To change something?

Suddenly Tanya yelled. For a moment it seemed to her that someone’s icy hand broke into her consciousness and roughly snatched the beam of thoughts out from it.

“Change? ” Plague-del-Cake asked again. “Only the one who sets the rules of the game can change everything! Now it’s me. The period of validity has long flown out of your good, and it has fallen who knows where. It’s in the world no more. And soon even the world itself will be no more... However, it’s time to begin! Let everything take place before your eyes! ”

Plague-del-Cake tossed up the hand with a ring, shooting out three red sparks. Hovering in the air, the sparks were connected up in a scorching hoop. It seemed to Tanya that she had been blinded. Only Plague did not shield the empty eye sockets with her hands. The hoop slowly descended to the stone floor and began to spin. Bluish tongues of flames crackled.

“Don’t do this! It’s folly! ” Sardanapal shouted.

“Ah, you understand what it’s for, right? And how do you intend to stop me? ” Plague spoke noncommittally.

She clicked with the bare bones of her fingers and uttered a spell.

In the circle appeared a depression similar to a bottomless well. She-Who-Is-No-More impatiently turned to the knocked out door, behind which stone idols were already crowding. Their granite heads passed onto massive bodies with many slipshod chippings. The roughly hewn faces expressed nothing. The eyes deprived of pupils did not blink. The narrow lips were tightly closed.

“Forward, boys! Do anything with the tortoise, but you will move it! The Sinister Gates remained closed for too long. My malicious little spirits were yearning for a mommy, who, for a start, will present to them the set of bodies of useless moronoids and magicians! ” Plague ordered.

The floor shuddered. The first stone idol took a step into the well. Silvery dust covered it. The outline of the idol became vague. It disappeared. A second — and the next one, without thinking, stepped over the line. On the stairs crowded many hundreds of new ones waiting for their turn.

“Well, how do you like it, Sardanapal? ” Jeering, Plague asked. “The first are already by the tortoise, and soon there’ll be thousands of them... If the tortoise doesn’t move, I’ll be very surprised.”

Talking with the academician, she removed her gaze from Tanya. The magic riveting the girl to one place slackened. All the time still feeling a weakness like cotton wool in her whole body, Tanya could turn to Sardanapal. She expected to see him in complete despair, but Sardanapal did not appear depressed at all. On the contrary, he had already been giving some signs for a long while and was terribly vexed that Tanya did not see them.

Hardly had the girl looked at him when the academician immediately stared round-eyed. At the same time his right moustache quickly pointed to Plague with its tip.

Tanya understood that the academician was asking her to attract the attention of the old woman. Moreover, to do this without delay. Without considering whether this would help, Tanya threw Slander’s raincoat at Plague’s head. Good that Yagun had time to return it.

The old woman yelled. Scorching rays struck from her empty eye sockets. The scorched fabric smelled stuffy. Simultaneously the dry hand of Plague-del-Cake slapped Tanya on the face. The girl fell. But, falling, she had time to see that Sardanapal released several green sparks, which slid into the well after the idols.

Attempting to get up, Tanya looked at the well. Outwardly as if nothing had changed. The idols continued to step over the fiery boundary and to disappear with the same dull immobility on the stone faces. Did it really not work for Sardanapal?

Plague-del-Cake threw off the blazing raincoat and trampled it.

“Delinquent! ” She began to roar at Tanya. “Wanted to trick me? Your death will be very unpleasant. For example, burning you alive some time? I’ll arrange this for you! I’m sure it’ll be instructive for the rest! ”

The decaying hand, studded with rings, slowly rose.

“ Panidis scorchus. ”

A red spark slid from the ring of Plague. Tanya sensed how her clothing flared up. But, before she experienced pain, Sardanapal shouted:

“Don’t you dare! Trigus sputterus! ”

Hugo the Sly’s ring flared up with a green spark. The fire died out. Without delay, the academician straightened up to his whole height in the cage. Another spark — and the rusty bars melted. Sardanapal stepped out and sprinkled Plague-del-Cake thick and fast with crackling sparks.

“White magic! ” Plague howled. “Ah you, pitiful follower of The Ancient One! From where did you get the ring? Ah, I understand: the girl! Pity, I preserved her life during the new setting-up of the well! Well, seize him! ”

Having let go of Bab-Yagun, the idol holding him took a step forward. And with granite shoulders colliding, the rest broke into the narrow door. Crowding Sardanapal in a stone formation, the idols drove him into the corner. Their huge paws were stretched out to break the academician’s neck.

Sardanapal let out two sparks, muttered something, and became invisible. The mighty fingers scooped the void. And yet after that instant a fight spark emerging from who knows where struck the nearest idol in the chest. That one shook and, cracking, crumbled heavily onto the floor into a heap of stones.

“Blockheads! Find him! ” Plague bellowed. The idols rushed about confusedly around the jail, fumbling with their hands in front. But the clumsy louts only hindered each other. Sardanapal let out three more sparks and never missed. Stones were rolling under foot.

At the same time several idols nearly crushed She-Who-Is-No-More herself, carelessly colliding some half a metre from her. The enraged lady of chaos with one stroke of her hand cleared a space next to herself. An unknown force caught the idols and flung them into the well.

“Get out! You’re of no use! ” Plague-del-Cake shouted in rage. “Go fight with the tortoise! I’ll deal with Sardanapal myself! Don’t hide, student of The Ancient One! You know very well that I see you all the same! ”

But the academician was also not thinking of hiding. He arose directly from the void a step from Plague-del-Cake and shot a spark, striking her in the shoulder. She staggered but kept her balance. The Talisman of Four Elements weakened the effects of magic.

“Try something new, fool! I was never afraid of fight sparks! Do you really think that the white magicians whom I killed didn’t defend themselves? Take that Leo Grotter! He and his wife showered me with a full rain of sparks, but I nevertheless killed them! ” She-Who-Is-No-More started to cackle.

Bab-Yagun gripped Tanya by the hand.

“Did you hear that? So, it’s she who killed your parents! But I thought...” he whispered.

“I told you that it wasn’t Sardanapal! It was Plague! Cursed murderer! ” Tanya shouted. The dead old woman grinned.

“Oh, already flattering me? Yes, it’s me! But now it’s time to end our dragged on dispute! ”

Plague-del-Cake immediately threw up the two chopped off hands and showered Sardanapal with a hail of sparks from the many rings she had on her fingers.

Hiding in a corner, Tanya and Bab-Yagun watched as Plague and Sardanapal competed in magic. This was currently the highest magic — magic hundreds of times more skilful than that which they desperately and frequently uselessly crammed for class.

Green and red sparks collided in the air. They hissed, they emitted pungent, malodorous smoke, they exploded... In the tight prison cell appeared first spectral beasts with terrible canine teeth, then an entire army of fiery soldiers battling. And then turbulent oceanic waters filled everywhere.

It seemed to Tanya and Bab-Yagun that they were choking, but the water suddenly fell, and the children understood that their clothing remained dry. It meant that everything only took place in their consciousness. And where recently water was seething, a hurricane was already raging, astounding the basement of Tibidox that had seen much during its century.

Plague-del-Cake laughed aloud, screaming out spells. Sardanapal concentrated. Only his long moustaches were dancing and the beard was seething, becoming a stream of water in which hostile sparks died out.

Soon Tanya began to notice that the academician was getting sluggish. The greatest of the now living magicians was originally on unequal terms. The magic of the many rings of Plague was much stronger. She-Who-Is-No-More managed to flare up ten times of sparks while he released one. Moreover, Plague had the Talisman of Four Elements, making her immune.

Suddenly Bab-Yagun jumped.

“Sardanapal, careful! ” He shouted. “She intends to...”

“Ah well, don’t you dare mirror my mind, puppy! ” Plague bellowed.

A casually released red spark flung Yagun like a rag doll towards the wall. Tanya, whose gaze was riveted to the bony hands of Plague, suddenly noticed how one more ring slowly ignited on the little finger of the old killer. It was a thin and unprepossessing black rim.

Was this what Yagun was warning about?

And then the rim suddenly flared up with a spark so crimson that the girl was almost blinded. On its way extinguishing all the shielding barriers of Sardanapal, the spark, hissing, seeped through his beard and struck the academician in the chest. The academician shook and fell on one knee. He tried to get up, but the black rim on the little finger of Plague-del-Cake again flared up with a crimson point.

The hands of Sardanapal hung powerlessly. Hugo the Sly’s ring disappeared from his finger. And a second later Plague-del-Cake with interest examined the new ring that appeared on her.

“Oh, I recognize the ringlet of the useless scribbler dwelling in his little book! Agreed, it’s not a bad example, Sardanapal! But can it really compete with your former ring of the Soverign of Spirits? Or at least here with this black ringlet? ”

Plague looked tenderly at the unprepossessing rim on her little finger and let out yet another spark. Writhing with pain, Sardanapal collapsed to the floor.

“Amusing what the black ring of Hades is capable of. They say the tsar of the underworld loaned it to Death himself, when that one handed over his scythe for sharpening. What won’t be blunted from the work, especially when it’s necessary to deal with these stale moronoids! Well, and then — I won’t tell how — this ringlet fell to my lot, ” bragged Plague-del-Cake.

“If you don’t want to, I’ll tell how it fell to your lot...” Sardanapal spoke hoarsely. “You treacherously killed your only friend. The only one who once trusted you. You were no one till him. They called him...”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare utter his name! ” She-Who-Is-No-More shouted. The veins on her yellow forehead swelled up. The skin cracked.

She hurriedly waved a hand. Sardanapal began to mumble feebly. A steel hoop now bound his hands, and his mouth was gagged.

Plague-del-Cake looked at the hoop cautiously and turned to Tanya and Yagun.

“Now it’s your turn. I must decide how to deal with you, ” she said pensively. “By the way, you acted very wisely, didn’t try to rip the talisman away from me while I battled with this moustached dabbler. Want to try now? ”

The old woman touched the chain, on which hung the sphere with the talisman. The chain flared up and, winding around her finger, attempted to prick it with a hundred poisoned needles. The witch calmed it with a brief nod.

“Burn you? Ten minutes ago I would deal with you this way, but now I’ve reconsidered. Indeed better I turn you into zombies again. Only now it’ll be special, irreversible. Trust my experience, it’s a thousand times worse than death! True, Yagunchik, dearie? Why did you not report to me immediately that something was amiss here but instead dragged this girl along to Sardanapal? Ashamed to be an informer? No matter, soon it’ll be the normal state for you. After new zombification you’ll report everything to me: even that your grandmother kisses you on the forehead before bed and cries because you also don’t have a mommy. Interesting, does Yagge even guess who helped your mother to die? ”

“No! NO! ” Yagun shouted. “I’ll kill you! ”

He rushed to Plague, but the old woman stared straight at him and Yagun froze. He could not move even a finger. Tanya saw only that he was blinking, and tears of powerless fury sparkled in his eyes.

“Really, always! And why do they hate me? You’d think I left the poor wretch without a mommy, what nonsense! ” Plague smirked. “And you, Baby Grotter? How to deal with you? Perhaps I’ll erase your present personality and you’ll again become an excellent student of the very dark department, playing rottenball excellently. And now there will be no more indulgence on worm studies. Dark magicians mustn’t shun anything! But this will be a little bit later. For the time being I’ll leave you! It’s interesting for me to see what’s with the tortoise there? ”

Plague-del-Cake looked around at the fiery well, into which the heathen idols continued to disappear one after another. However, their flow had already thinned. Likely, the corridors of Tibidox had gradually become empty. Only about a dozen more stone freaks crowded the lower part of the staircase.

Remaining on the outer side of the ring, Plague leaned over it. A bluish flame was dancing all around. For a while She-Who-Is-No-More looked into the void, puzzled. Suddenly she roared with fury, stopping the next idol trying to step into the circle.

“Ah, go back! You’ll perish! The scoundrel Sardanapal! ” She shouted, hanging over the bound magician. “And I was even wondering why my giants have been unable to move the tortoise for so long? You know what he did? Changed the route of my idols and sent them straight to Hades! He knows that I can no longer drag them out from there! No matter, it’s enough for me that those, the first ones, have already reached the tortoise! They’re already on its snout and tickling its nostrils! ”

Suddenly Tibidox trembled barely noticeably. Small stones fell from the ceiling. Plague-del-Cake straightened up in triumph.

“Do you feel it, Sardanapal? The bug already begins to show impatience! Must be, one of my little ones surmised to get into its nostril or the ear! Soon! Several hours won’t pass before the tortoise will stir and throw from its armour the lazy elephants on which this crazy world is held! Idols, don’t let them out of your sight, I’ll soon return! I want to drop by the Sinister Gates! ”

Plague-del-Cake let out several sparks, turned on the spot and — disappeared, after using the spell of instantaneous displacement. Around the prisoners clustered the remaining idols, between whose legs darted in and out the swamp bogey Agukh, appearing from heaven knows where.

“H-ho! Blood! S-soon blood will be s-spilled! H-ho! Everything will collapse and bury you alive! It’ll s-smear! ” He squealed, splashing stinky mucus.

“And it’ll s-smear you! ” Tanya mimicked. The swamp bogey fell perplexedly silent and touched his horns in turn. When he spoke or laughed, his bald head was thrown back as if on hinges.

“I’m an evil s-spirit! It’ll not s-smear me! ” He said not particularly confidently.

“You know this for a fact? ” Tanya asked.

“For a fact, ” Agukh said and climbed to hide near the legs of the idols.

Tanya exchanged glances with Yagun. It was possible to try to run away, but at the door, blocking it with its wide back, towered one of the heathen idols, carved, it seemed, from an entire cliff.

The walls of Tibidox continued to shake. Sand trickled into the smallest cracks in the ceiling.

The stone idols remained motionless, but then Agukh with heart-rending howls rushed around the jail. Somewhere below, in the inconceivable distance, in the very centre of magic world, stone figures darted about on the snout of the gigantic tortoise, and it, likely, was beginning to lose patience.

The bound Sardanapal moved slightly. He succeeded in winding the gag with his beard and pulling it out from his mouth. Noticing this, the swamp bogey immediately rushed to put the gag back. The academician bent over from the pungent stink. His moustaches, resisting, wound around Agukh by the horns and pulled strongly. The thin legs of the swamp bogey failed. He, like a fatty toad, flopped to the floor, and then ran away, wriggling, baring his teeth, but not daring to butt in anymore. Sitting up with difficulty, the academician stared at Bab-Yagun.

“I hear his thoughts! He specially allows himself to be mirrored! Only quietly! If you answer, simply think: I hear, ” the grandson of Yagge whispered.

Although no, he did not whispered. He thought. His lips did not even move.

“What is Sardanapal thinking of? What? ” Tanya impatiently thought.

“Wait... Now... Aha, here! ” Yagun concentrated: “Sardanapal is transferring the last part of the prophecy:

“ Only he who will forget the pain will conquer —

Will dare to step into the blistering fire. ”

Tanya shuddered. The well, surrounded by bluish flame, gave out an icy cold draught.

“What does it mean? Does Sardanapal really want us to jump into the well? ” Tanya thought.

Immediately she felt like her head was being tickled, and the hair on her head stirred as if someone carefully blew on them. Yagun was reading her thought unceremoniously.

“No, not into the well! ” He transmitted the answer. “The academician had in mind something else. We must crush the Golden Leech... Then everything will resume its normal course: the raging spirit will be pacified and will find a new jug for itself, and even the curse of the broken Rope will be able to change nothing. Sardanapal says that you must step into the fire, but where exactly is this fire? Where? ”

Someone’s footsteps were heard from outside.

“It’s the mis-stress! Well, s-step as-side, you! What’s up? Now the mis-stress will bring order here! ” Agukh began to yell at the idol.

The stone figure moved aside. The swamp bogey rushed to the door. Tanya felt that everything froze inside her. They were too late.

But here the bogey, squeaking, rolled away into the corner. A large piece of damp meat with a bone hit him directly in the face.

“It’s not the mis-stress! Kill! Kill him! ” Agukh yelled to the idols.