Road on the outskirts of the Lost Forest

Four scouts silently walked along the barely visible animal path among the snow-covered forest. In some places somehow trodden, and in places even generally imperceptible, nevertheless the path was. And it was nevertheless more convenient to move on it than on a windbreak. Therefore, the scouts, constantly referring to the compass, gently moving forward. Suddenly, Lara bent her left arm in her elbow, pressing the Vintorez to her right shoulder, and sat down. The rest also synchronously, smoothly and quickly sank into snowdrifts, distributing control sectors on the machine. Several medium-sized creatures, also subordinate to Lara's Spouse, gave signals - someone was ahead.

A few minutes later, with their eyes Lara saw people. There were about four dozen of them, and this was an organized armed group. Archers in the trees, spearmen with long peaks behind stumps and tree trunks, two with axes near the sawed trees. In a snowdrift there are two crossbowmen with heavy huge machines. They obviously could not lift them - the bolts of crossbows the size of small logs were lined up to the side of the road almost parallel to it, and the forearm was fixed on small bipods.

Obviously, this group was setting up an ambush for someone. Lara distributed the goals among the group members. Ed with a machine gun lay on a small hill. The whole picture of the battle was visible to him, and he had to come to the aid of anyone who needed this help. Tom and Jacob distributed targets among those who should, judging by the armament, cut in the melee, and Lara herself aimed at the "operators" of crossbows. Monsters scouts with poisonous stings got to the archers at a safe distance. And all this time the members of the group did not leave the feeling of some unreality of what was happening. What are swords, crossbows, bows? What does all this mean? Somewhere on the verge of perception, Lara felt rather than heard the snoring of heavily loaded animals and human speech.

Entrance to the Lost Forest

Bealu al Bertu was unlucky - he was born a dwarf. If his father were a commoner - Beala would simply have been strangled in infancy, but he was not lucky twice - his father was the ruler of the surrounding lands, the ruler of the Cold cliff. And, though, Beal al Bert was born a freak, but his father spared him and did not kill, and even gave his name. But Berkord al Bert burned Beal's mother on the fire - dwarfs are not born just like that. So, his young wife was a sinner, and who, if not her husband and lord, should decide her fate.

Of course, Beal’s mother’s family was against such punishment for the improper outcome of the birth, but the Law is the Law. If a freak is born in a family, it means that something is wrong in a woman. And if another husband could forgive such a thing, then Berkord was happy to find a reason to get rid of the marriage imposed on him by the Southerners who had won the civil war. In general, marriage to a southerner was a shame for the northern ruler. He was mocked by everything around him, and Beal could understand his father’s deed.

Bercord married again when Beal was five years old - this time in a northerner, the eldest daughter of sovereign al Zwikerd, still a young sixteen-year-old pigalitse. She bore him a daughter, a son, and again a daughter. By right, Bealu after the death of Berkord should have got both the castle and the title of ruler, but Berkord did not want this. He repeatedly said that his son would be inherited by his second son, Glian al Burt. And Beala's stepmother, Quinlia al Zwikerd, of course, was behind such a development of events.

Brothers and sisters treated Beal differently. Glian openly disliked his elder brother, felt a rival in him, in every way he cheated and mocked.The older sister, Zvinora, practically did not lag behind Gial in moaning and attacking Beal. Only the youngest, Listeyna, experienced a cross between pity and disgust towards Beal. She even tried several times to protect the dwarf from the bullying of her brother and sister, but for the most part without success.

In order to avoid family squabbles, and just to remove the freak from his eyes, Berkord sent his eldest son to study at the Academy of Mages. Everybody was taken there, only a few lived to the end of their studies. However, Beal has already studied for ten years and even managed to master the art of viewing and recording magic stones. However, on this his skills were limited so far - yet at the Academy it was necessary to study for about fifty years at best.

Every summer Beal came home for a month. So it was this time, but his arrival was now somehow strange. First, his old nurse, the only one who loved him in the whole castle, was dying. And before giving up the spirit, she whispered in his ear that, they say, his father had learned about some misconduct of the second son (by the way, the commander of one of the units of the Emperor's Guard). Moreover, such a heavy misconduct that threatened, they say, to transfer the rights to the inheritance to Bealu. A few days after this threat, they say, Berkord al Bert became seriously ill and now he still does not leave his room.

Secondly, the eldest of the sisters, who was six years younger than Beala, for some reason, was suddenly stressed with him all this time. Gial, Zvynora's weather, was in the service, somewhere near the Emperor's palace, and Listeyn, who had just come of age, seemed to be hiding from Beal, avoided conversations and left the embarrassment all the time. Only Quinlia was ordinary - a vicious bitchy bitch who, at every opportunity, tried to show Beal his place. During this time, Beal saw his father only once - in a frankly lousy state, he was lying on his soaring bed.

So it was now. When Beal, 30, was about to return to the Academy, instead of an escort from the Khladny cliff guards (who the whole surrounding rabble was afraid of as fire), Quinlia, taking advantage of her husband's illness, singled out her stepson a dozen mercenaries — ordinary thugs who kill for money on an official basis. They were dressed and armed at random, and only their leader, a huge fellow with a two-handed sword, made at least some impression of a warrior. They go by themselves somehow, they are chain-clad in packs, no helmets are worn, shields are attached to the saddles. Only the leader is fully dressed, and the rest - go, joke.

This place has never been dangerous. The edge of the Lost Forest could scare only a pack of wolves, it was impossible to go further. But, all the same - such carelessness! This is no accident. It should not be. Guardians of the Cold Cliff would never allow themselves such laxity. With each step of the bulls drawn into his soaring cart, with each word of his so-called guards heard, the feeling of anxiety in Beal's brain grew.

The dwarf hurriedly closed the curtains in the wagon and opened the travel bag. Rummaging through it, he pulled out a skillfully made short crossbow. The technique was outlawed, and therefore, before entering the Academy, he hid it, like all the students of his illegal goods, in a pawnshop. They did not go into details, but simply took a wrapped bag and put them in a cell. Nothing threatened Bealu at the Academy, but anybody was ready to offend a dwarf outside her walls. And the crossbow has repeatedly rescued him from difficult situations. He relied on him Beal and now.

Road on the outskirts of the Lost Forest

The crackling of falling trees, the howling of riding bulls, the screams and the whistle of feathered arrows - all this merged into one long drawn-out sound that coincided with the imposition of a bolt on the crossbow string. Beal's heart pounded like crazy, he pushed the curtain back slightly. On the road, the battle began to boil. Three of his guards were already lying in the snow with protruding arrows from the chest. Those left without helmets and somehow armed tried to pile up around the wagon, hiding behind the riding bulls and fought off the attacks of the stalking robbers. The latter were several times more, and they attacked fiercely, furiously.Only the detachment commander, his guards, being dressed in heavy armor, wielded the bull with his huge sword from his back, cutting in half everything that had been carelessly approached.

A small log flew out of a snowdrift near the road and knocked the heavyman out of the saddle. The second log pierced through both of the bulls harnessed to a wagon. Everything. We arrived. There is no further move. Arrows ...