Chapter XIX

"Do you think he will wake up soon?" - Michael heard the whispers of two guards standing at the door.

"I hope he will, otherwise no good is waiting for us" replied the other, and looked at the children standing near the door.

They had already gone several times to the chamber where the wizard was asleep and stood at the door. No one but the commander could enter the room. Michael did not know why they were going so often to that room. This was not helping him, but some unknown force was drawing them near the wizard and they spend most of the days waiting there. At first, the guards forbade it, but then they gave in. They stood and waited silently. After hearing that strange voice, they had little to say to each other. That night, the four of them felt something they could not explain. That was the reason they became so speechless and maybe that's why they went there so often.

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed in a hall as they saw bandaged commander walking towards the door. He stopped for a moment, gave a disapproval look to the youngsters, and disappeared behind the door without a word.

The janitors called the youngsters to leave, but none of them moved.

"Are you not going to leave?" - One of them sighed, the second one went towards them. But the door opened, and the commander appeared, frowned, walked towards the children. "Go inside, he wants to see you..." - he said eagerly.

They looked at each other and entered the room one by one, lord Felix slammed the door and stayed outside. It was a large, bright room with rhombic windows. Lord Marcus, lying on a white sheet in the middle of the room, stared at the visitors with half-opened eyes. As they approached the bed, the wizard stood up slightly. He stared at them insistently for a while, then touched them with two fingers on the forehead one by one. They felt a burning sensation where Marcus touched them. When he had finished, he put his head in his hands and sat like that for a while, then suddenly laugh hysterically.

"That bastard was right," - he repeated several times and then continued laughing loudly. The commander opened the door - "What is happening?!" He asked in confusion. Youngsters stood dumbfounded. The commander glared at the wizard, while he laughed like a madman and ignored his surroundings.

A few minutes passed like this until the wizard calmed down. Finally, he apologized, blamed everything on the high fever, and went back to bed. Then Lord Felix ordered the children to leave the room. As they crossed the yard and found out that streets were almost empty after last night's bloodshed. The wounded were taken to the palaces. After the first combat encounter, the commander changed the defensive strategy. He gave officers favorable positions on the wall to the good use of long-range weapons. Their main hope was the recovery of Lord Marcus, and since he had already awakened, they were relieved.

"Why did he laugh so strangely?" - Angela asked, though everyone was worried about the same question, none of them had the answer.

"Who was he talking about being right? Or what was he right about?" - Angela continued.

"Did you feel the heat on your forehead where Lord Marcus touched you?"

"He has done the same before, hasn't he?"

They were lost in the sea of questions and too little was known. Last time the wizard explained that by touching the forehead he was examining someone's health. But now they seemed rather healthy. Then why did he touch them? What check was needed? The fact that he started shouting about some bastard being right, at the moment he touched the forehead, further intensified everything.

"No, there is something more in this story."

"Did Lily wake up?" - Michael asked.

"Don't think so, but if he wakes up, Livia will watch over him," Lucius replied thoughtfully. After the horrible night, they were taken to the hall of one of the luxurious houses and given to caregivers. Livia was one of them, fifteen years old girl from a noble family, her parents had died earlier and her only sister was lying with injured people in the hall that was owned by her family.

The voice heard that night had a profound effect on youngsters. They could hardly sleep at night, expecting the voice to be heard again, and only feel a bit relieved when they were together.

"What should we do now?" - Michael asked.

"We can practice." - Blondy replied.

"What is the point?" Lucius said callously. Training in the city was no longer intense. There were not enough people to stand on guard positions, not to mention the fact that most of them lost hope and didn't see any point in fighting anymore. When only thirty marked ones with children's bodies caused so many casualties, what chance should an extra few days of training add against such force?

However, such an attitude was not shared by everyone, including Uriel, who trained with double strength. Michael and Lucius had a different view on the matter, with Lucius no longer seeing any point in exercising. He thought it made little sense for the trainees whether they die prepared. But out of respect for Uriel, he still swung the wooden sword flabbily. In contrast, Michael was grateful for every lesson the blonde had given him, for every bump or bruise that had taught him anything. It was to Uriels' credit that they were alive today, so he was always happy to spar.

Eventually, Lucius was persuaded. They found a quiet place and resumed sparring there. After training, they hurried through the streets of the rich quarter and reached the house, which was one of the most beautiful of the surrounding buildings. Somewhere here was the building from which they kidnapped Lily on the day of her escape from the shelter, though now Michael may not even have found the building.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

They passed a yard covered with spring grass and flowers, which was sinfully cluttered with heavy shoes. No one cared about the decorations at such times, but it was still heartbreaking for Michael to see the flowers trampled like this.

Livia lived in a large, white house with large balconies and a marble staircase. When Michael first saw this house, he wondered why a couple who had only two children needed a house of this size. But rich ones think differently... The inside of the house was even more beautiful than the outside. The place was full of children. Some were still asleep, the awake ones playing with each other.

"Is Lily still asleep?" Angela asked.

"Will find out soon," said Lucius and stopped one caregiver - "Do you know where Livia is?" - But Livia herself found them before the caregiver could answer back.

Seeing her evoked a sense of spiritual peace. She smiled warmly as approached. "You returned earlier," - said in a quiet voice.

"The wizard woke up!" Angela announced immediately.

"Oh really?" - exclaimed Livia and the caretaker simultaneously.

"We are saved then," she said with a sigh.

"It is too early to talk about survival, red-eyes are rambling outside and lord Marcus is still weak," Uriel muttered.

"How could you be always so pessimistic!?" Michael said to the blonde, then turned to Livia. "Is Lily still asleep?"

"Don't know, let's see," she replied, happy with the news, and led them to the room where Lilia and her sister were with other children.

Lily was sitting on the bed with eyes wide open. She was a child with rare beauty, that instantly caught your eyes. She stood out from everyone in the room.

"You woke up, girl?" - Angela hugged the baby. Lucius also ran to his sister, took her by the hand, and turned her over. The baby cheered happily and this pure cheerful sound made the mood of everyone lighten up.

"Lizzie, how are you, darling?" - Livia kneeled in front of her sister's bed. The six-year-old girl was thin and pale.

"I dreamed of a spinning man again" ... - the girl started crying. Almost every child dreamed of the spinning man. No one could explain what was happening. Some children were afraid to see him in their sleep, but some were happy to sleep just because to saw him.

"Calm down, dear. This was just a dream and nothing else. The spinning man will not hurt you," Livia tried to calm her sister in a way that was so familiar to everyone. So did Michael and Lucius soothe Laila, who wept and recounted terrible dreams; This is how parents calmed their little ones when they remembered the epilates. With their calmness and alertness, some parents achieved the goal, calming the child as much as possible. Some were in vain, some children soon calmed down, some were long troubled by the emotions evoked by nightmares.

The wizard spent the entire week in bed. He got up on the eighth day, though he still had difficulty walking, walked the whole quarter of the rich on foot. Lord Marcus visited the wounded, encouraged them, gave advice to the doctors, even helped them, but with a weakened body, got tired in a few hours, so he had to return. He talked to several passers-by on the streets and encouraged them, but when asked about the strange dreams of children, he politely avoided answering. Once or twice they asked for help, to save the children from these nightmares, but refused again, instead assured them that the children were healthy and his intervention was unnecessary at all. The wizard's recovery also made people noticeably happier, hoping that the red-eyes would no longer dare to attack and they would survive.

By the time the day ended, not a single red-eye could be seen by the guards on the wall. In the streets, townsfolk were already openly talking about the ending of attacks and congratulating each other. Of course, not everyone thought so, especially the Commander, who was expecting attacks every minute and often changed guards on the wall so that those who were tired of long shifts would miss nothing suspicious.

The four of them would wander the streets, sometimes visiting Laila. From time to time, Uriel used to exercise and teach the two to fight for hours. The result of the practicing was noticeable for Michael on each sparring with newly acquainted opponents.

This evening, when the eighth day was ending, Michael was standing in front of the next opponent and was waiting for the sign of Uriel to start the attack. The boy was taller than him with a strongly built body, but Uriel had already explained and even shown how to fight with the bigger opponents and now was the chance for him to try it. Waiting for the clash, impatient excitement spread like wildfire all over his chest.

They often fought duels in the streets, and most often Michael took part in it. He enjoyed fighting and also was pleased to hear the applause of spectators after victories, the number of which grew more and more from battle to battle.

Blondy gave the start signal, and Michael dashed towards the opponent. Hurriedly swung the wooden sword aiming his forehead, but knowing that the opponent would escape the blow, changed its direction midway and struck it on the shoulder. Without turning back kept attacking and with the false maneuver learned by Uriel, his cudgel found the opponent's ribs. If it was the actual sword, the duel would already be over, but with only a cudgel in his hands he ended up with an infuriated opponent twice his size, realizing that he instantly jumped backward. Did the right thing, because the massive opponent, embittered by the pain, swung his sword violently. Not able to end the fight quickly, his only strategy was to dance around the boy and evade his attacks, to get him tired with time and then beat him. That did not seem too difficult, because of the clumsiness of his adversary. He easily struck the panting opponent several times in the abdomen, chest, and even in the forehead and when the enraged youngster swung his cudgel with all the remaining forces, Michael jumped aside, struck the sword on the wrist, and disarmed him. Then he kicked him with a circular downward blow, knocked him down, put a sword to the throat, and forced him to surrender.

Shouts of applause followed from the audience, praising his sword mastery. Uriel also came to him was going to say something, but stopped because of sudden silence, looked around to understand the reason for this and saw a wizard approaching them. People looked at Lord Marcus with great admiration. The crowd silently split in half to allow him to meet the boys. The wizard greeted the people with a warm smile, shook hands with some of them, greeted them as if they were old acquaintances, and only after speaking to boys. "Fought well," he told Michael. Praised Uriel too - being an excellent teacher, to teach fencing so well in such a short time. And then asked to follow him.

They immediately left the crowded place and stopped in one of the empty streets.

"How do you feel?" asked Marcus suddenly.

"We feel normal," Angela replied instead of everyone, though almost everyone felt Marcus didn't ask it in vain.

"Do you notice anything strange about yourself?"

After a bit of silence, Angela waved her head as a sign of refusal on behalf of everyone. As Marcus opened his mouth to ask another question again, Lucius murmured he wanted to say something.

Marcus paused, turned slowly, and slapped looked Lucius in the face.

"What did you have to say?" He asked softly.

"Ermm... for the last few days ... I have some strange sensations," Lucius said.

"What do you think from where it comes from outside or from the inside?" Asked the wizard.

"No idea, I can not even understand it, have never felt in such way before..." I do not even know how to describe it ...

Lord Marcus was silent for a while, then continued with a strict voice - "Soon the same thing will happen to you. At first, it will confuse you, not understanding what is happening or why is it happening, then you will be scared, but you will change nothing by being frightened and gradually despair will grow in you but don't lose hope, do not fall spiritually!"

Said the wizard, turned back and hurried away. Nobody has seen him in the city since.