brought to the fortress – what a miracle, another fortress besides the governor’s castle! From here there was a view of the Sea of Erin. Tram now understood why the trees were cut down – a whole fleet of freshly built ships of unusual shape stood at anchor. He was put in a cell. He did not understand the foreign language, so for some time he did not even know why he was not killed. It would be logical if he were made a slave – but no, he sat behind a wooden lattice, they even fed him well. He didn’t even want to think about what kind of meat they were giving him, being in captivity of the cannibals. On the third day, if Tram has not lost count, the head of the Inquisition came into his cell.
– Holiness, you! You can’t imagine how glad I am to see you! Explain to me what’s going on here?
– You have no idea how glad I am to see you! The governor served me well when he sent you to me.
– Did Governor Dust know the secret of these places?
– Of course I knew.
– So what united the savages? Why do they gather an army and build ships?
– Shamon is back. He came to life right here, where the savages built a sanctuary for him. And now he is building ships to cross the Sea of Erin and destroy Dream at its roots.
– Your Holiness, you must help me escape from here! I must have time to do what is intended for me. I must get to Dream, the capital of Eldoras, before Shamon.
Once upon a time, his ancestor was unable to complete the ritual, and now Evil is on the loose again.
– Help me get out! You know I have to do this! I can stop Shamon before this plague spreads across the world again. I’m one of the Seven!
– That’s why you’re here! – The Inquisitor burst out laughing. «I didn’t lay out the nets just to let you go now, Exile!» I woke up Shamon on this godforsaken island, and I don’t want him to fall asleep again!
– But why? – exclaimed Tram. – Why do you need this? Rendell, you are the head of an organization that fights magic in all its forms! How can an anti-magician go over to the side of Darkness?
– What do you actually know about the Darkness? What did your mentors tell you? They are lying. Or they are wrong. People do evil and injustice, and the Darkness becomes stronger every day. But when the Dark Lord comes, he absorbs all this dirt, and people become cleaner. They even unite against the face of obvious evil, for a while they remember nobility. And then again – envy, murder, slander. Never mind, it’s time for a new therapeutic bleeding. And the Seven must not stop us. Morelia is already with us. When we attack from the south, they will come from the north. When Dream is finished, Shamon will no longer have to fear the power of the Seven. And then the world will fall at our feet!
Morelia has been on the side of the Dark Forces in previous times.
A few days later, Tram miraculously managed to escape. But if he doesn’t make it on time and doesn’t fulfill what was intended, what was the point in all this?
– Then it would have been better to rot behind those bars! – shouted Tram.
– You got hit! – Liton grinned. – It’s a good pipe, isn’t it?
Several days passed, and the crew of the Soul of the Corsair reached the port of Heney. Tram said goodbye to the pirates and headed towards Dream. So familiar, and so alien now.
Chapter 3. Return to Dream
During his years in exile, Tram had become accustomed to the fact that it could be cold. He is used to basking in the sun in the warm Dragha. And his native Dream greeted him with torrential rain, which seemed to have no end or edge. Clouds covered the skies with a gray blanket, and nature did not want to crawl out from under the warm shelter into the cold world, like a gentle princess on a winter morning. The wind blew and a bright yellow leaf hit Tram in the face, and with it the sand, making him sneeze. It smelled damp. Crows croaked and dragonflies, huge dragonflies, scurried back and forth. Tram pulled his hood lower, hoping that this would help against the ubiquitous sand, which even the rain could not force to lie on the ground. The familiar walls of the temple were tinged with silver. In such weather he would happily sit at home and not show his nose outside, but the local residents were not afraid of the rain. They scurried back and forth, pushing, shouting, quarreling. Someone was kissing, someone was stealing apples from under the merchant’s nose, someone was chasing her husband with a club in his hand:
– Cattle! How could you meet with that woman secretly from me!
Life was in full swing, the city was alive, and he did not yet suspect what danger awaited him.
Tram approached the white walls of the majestic castle.
– Wait, who’s coming? – at the entrance there are two: one is still quite a youth, even a mustache has not appeared on his face, thin as death itself. The other was an old man with a belly almost to the ground. But they are somewhat similar – either son and father, or the eldest – the uncle of another guard.
Tram took off his black glove, and a silver ring with a special rune appeared before the eyes of the guards. Then he took off his hood.
– Take me to the king. The matter cannot wait.
A man on a black horse rode up to the guards. He got off his horse and whispered something in the older man’s ear.
– So-so! You are welcome! His Highness has ordered that everyone associated with the Soul of the Corsair be brought to him personally, and our honorable informant claims that you sailed on that damned schooner. How much did these thugs drink our blood!
Tram was hit painfully in the stomach, and then his arms were twisted from behind and tied up. Oh, this is not how he imagined returning home! Not at all like that!
He was led through urine-smelling corridors. There was a completely different smell in the hall – a mixture of fashionable perfumes and the same urine. In the viceroy’s castle, hygiene was more carefully monitored than here.
King Leslie the Unsociable sat on the throne. To his right sat the Princess of Syria.
«She looks like me!» – Tram noted to himself.
On the right was Queen Esteri. She has become haggard and aged. Hubby is still a tyrant.
– They say they found one of the corsairs? Although, I see that everyone on your schooner doesn’t give a damn about the law. I expelled you from the lands of Eldoras forever, has anything changed since then? Why did you decide to break my will?
– This is a special time, Leslie. We must put aside our personal grievances to unite against a common enemy.
The king snorted contemptuously:
– If this common enemy is pirates, I will gladly!
– Pirates are not the worst problem that the Erin Sea conceals. To fight this, I am ready to unite with the corsairs – they are saints compared to Chamon.
Everyone present gasped. A hundred frightened eyes were directed at the guest.
– Shamon?
