All Chapters of NEW WORLD: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30
77 chapters
19
Every year the river of time speeds up. It seems that only yesterday you were fifteen, you ran fast and believed that you were able to conquer the world, and now you wake up in the morning, creak your bones and you cannot recognize your own face in a barrel of water. Lying on the bed, Tant looked at the ceiling of the cave and listened to his wife's voice. Time really passed through him without mercy. In early spring he was forty-nine years old.As summer approached, Tant always remembered the day he left Kenovia and set off north in the footsteps of Rainier's expedition. Twenty years have passed since then. He became a servant of the eyeless goddess, founded a new faith temple, and tried to save the world. The whole island spoke about the fact that he was a bandit, a madman and a heretic. Nobody knew about his true motives.Having heard enough of the feigned solemnity with which Marletta saw off the next "sentry", Tant got up. Throwing a cotton cloak around his thin shoulders, he lef
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Everyone looked at him. The mill in the dell next door did draw attention, but Tant said nothing. The everyday problems of the community did not concern him. Marletta knew this and immediately seized the initiative, obliging Limburg to start buying hand mills.– When did Gerd promise to return? Kord asked, putting more porridge on the plate. - How long was he gone?- A week.“ Forgive me, Lady Eternal, but I don’t think he will come back one day,” Gotfrey lamented. - Painfully brazenly this worm behaves. Previously, he traded in fake relics, but now he almost breaks into houses.- You yourself are a worm! He gave us a dozen followers,” Marletta reminded, shaking her head. “This bloodhound is more useful than you and your windmill!”The woman threw her hair behind her back and made a face at him. Tanta looked at his wife with a smile. Marletta was right. Trickster Gerd had really helped since they found him battered a year ago on the Old Road. In the community he was called "The Bloodh
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Until evening, everything went on as usual. Gottfrey and his assistants descended into the hollow, busy with dismantling the mill. Marletta and Niama were busy in the garden, expanding the beds of medicinal herbs. The place where the inhabitants of the cave grew greens was a mountain terrace. From below it was covered with crowns of trees, on the side by a steep slope merging with the hill. Thanks to this hill and the dense forest at the foot of Teres, it was difficult to find a back door to the cave. Half a mile away lay the waters of Rat Lake, where the youngest members of the community fished for salmon. Edrig, Liada and Patrick took the tackle there in the late afternoon.Their first warrior and eternal guard, Tarkus, helped the guards to lift buckets of spring water upstairs. Having become a bivouac knight, the native of Rengolm was accustomed to a hard life and looked at any problems like a miner at a piece of stone. Kendrick understood this like no one else. The hunt fell to hi
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At the end of spring, two troubles happened at once on the lands of Baron Orwald. The first - trifling, according to Landlord himself, concerned the death of six peasants. The drunken plowmen could not drag their feet to Nomar's farm and decided to spend the night in the wheat; they drank diluted wine, enjoyed the light of the stars, after which they were cowardly eaten by earth-biters. Giant insects resembling beetles, in dry weather, multiplied on arable land like cockroaches. Six sucked skeletons, which the peasants found in the morning, immediately pointed to the perpetrators of the crime. Orvald himself met this news with no less cowardice, ordering a detachment of mercenaries to deal with the voracious monsters.The second trouble was connected with the good, but not with that which people do to each other, but with that which they earn. Orwald, like no one else, knew a lot about this. He took a place at the table in the master's office sixteen years ago, after his father, Baron
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He did the same, pulling the buckles apart one by one. The tall mercenary finished with his unpretentious ammunition much faster, and then helped the head of the domain guard to remove the cuirass.“ Good work,” the warrior said with satisfaction. “Now I’ll go to sleep all week with a clear conscience.“ I didn’t know you had it,” Grog breathed, laying the heavy shell on the ground.- Do you remember, yesterday the peasants worked at the logging site. We walked by. As soon as they noticed us, they immediately threw down their axes and began to bury their wallets. Do you remember?- I remember. So what?- I didn’t look for those wallets, but these ones would. Especially Baldur with his friend.- Yes, you are a real hero.We are all heroes! - picked up one of the mercenaries, who arrived in time for the end of the dialogue. “The Baron owes us a raise for this.The warriors gathered around them cheered, brandishing their weapons. Once in the center of the triumphal circle, Grog smiled in
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Even on the approach to the domain, he saw a figure running towards him. A bearded man in a green jerkin rushed between the fields along the road, leaving behind him a dusty train. Grog and Bod immediately recognized Orwald's right hand. Jagins was considered the most literate peasant in the valley. It was said that his father was an alchemist in the island of Kenovia and taught his son everything he knew, except for sacred formulas, because he was too careless and burned his own mother during experiments with fire. Grog didn't believe it. Jagins was too stupid to conduct any experiments, and the ability to read and write still did not make anyone wise.From the captains of the ships, he heard that in the jungles on the mainland there were strange birds that could imitate the human voice. The Almers and the Welyncrones called them "sulats". Jagins was no different from them. An ordinary performer, a pretender and just a pathetic little man who repeated word for word the orders of his
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A real lady, after such a compliment, would have slapped him in the face, but Elena in response only burst into ringing laughter. True, sometimes her mood changed faster than the weather in the mountains, and he could get a slap in the face for nothing at all.- What about your friends? asked Orvald's daughter unexpectedly. “But what about the one that the wolves ate?”Her gaze touched the rope on which the talisman hung.“ Friends are safe, and the wolves are full,” Grog said at length, and before she had time to answer, he darted around the corner of the barn.So that he would not be detained again, Grog made the rest of the way to the estate at a run, climbing up the removable wooden flooring at the entrance. The fortified door was open, and he entered unhindered.Finding himself in a hall dimly lit by oil lamps, Grog proceeded to the left wing. From the inside, Landlord's manor resembled a fortress. From the outside, it was an ordinary half-timbered house, only very large and with
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Skif and Brick were not thrilled with the idea. Distenza rightly pointed out that whores and the dead are incompatible. Both long denied, coming up with different excuses. Even the phrase "order of the baron" did not immediately affect them. After giving them time to get ready, Grog returned to "Leaky purse", which by that time was just right to be called the "Bubbling Cauldron". He noticed a third companion in the kitchen. They became a former inhabitant of the desert, a dark-skinned nomad named Renan. On the farms, he was considered a savage, as, indeed, all Almers. At six and a half feet tall, Renan despised bladed weapons. Swords and axes were too heavy for him, so the warrior got the hang of handling a long spear, which in his hands resembled a mast. In the morning, the lanky Almer managed to plant three earthbiters on such a pole at once. It was one of the baron's best warriors. Today, as usual, he received a double salary and was going to wave to the city. Grog gladly took him
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The night on the cliff passed quietly. Except for a young vulture, who came to the smell of meat in the morning, no one disturbed their sleep. The suspicious Scythian spent half the night at the clock with a bow in his hands, wearing his favorite helmet, which he never parted with. Wrapped in a cloak, pulling his hood up to his chin, he sat leaning against a pine tree until the morning, but he did not wait for the attack. Forest beasts like the Mirkwicht or the grimlak seldom ventured out into the open, while swift-footed snorlings were more common on the plains.After breakfast, the mercenaries broke camp and descended the cliff. The next day was clear and hot. The dampness of the night underfoot melted away with the twilight. Far ahead lay a dense forest, ending in a vast rocky slope with ribbed outgrowths. Behind a triangular steep, stretching for dozens of miles to the east, began the very places they were looking for. It was not far to go, and Grog began to involuntarily feel gro
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The basement was dark. The only source of light was a flame that flickered at the end of a thick candle. Orvald stood in the center of a vast room, lined from top to bottom with goods. The surrounding walls were made of massive granite blocks, so powerful that it was impossible to break through them from the outside. The floor was covered with cracked patterned tiles. There were chests with padlocks everywhere. On top of the lids lay bags and boxes. Each of them held something of value. In addition, there were six special chests that Orwald treasured above all others.These chests stood in a semicircle at the far end of the basement, on a special stone pedestal. There was also a bench carved from a single piece of marble with an elegant back, where he could sit. On the right hand rose a round rosewood table on one leg, on which he could place a candle or food. Everything was thought out to the smallest detail and subordinated to a single goal.Orwald stood motionless, delaying pleasur
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