Joke of the Doers

Chapter five. Decision.

I didn't go to work in the morning because I felt overwhelmed. I thought that whoever needs it, they will find it anyway. My father woke up with red eyes and a bleary look. His temperature did not fall off during the night.

- Dad, you need to be treated, preferably in your own bed!

- Wow, - my mother supported me, - you can get sick and very seriously!

- Nothing, my girls, we'll break through! The first time, or what? Let's go to a meeting with the priests, and then I'll lie down and rest, right, daughter? - my father was brave, smiled at me and my mother, kissed the awakened grandchildren. But all this was somehow wrong, abnormal, unnatural.

Somehow having endured until lunch, exactly at the appointed time we were standing next to the head's office. Dad unbuttoned his sheepskin coat and took off his hat, and although it was not hot in the room, I saw sweat rolling off his face.

- How are you? - I asked him.

- It's okay, don't be afraid...

When Aryana called me to her, it seemed to me that Dad was staggering. I wanted to grab his arm so that he wouldn't fall, but immediately straightened up and calmly walked to the offered chair.

- Get acquainted, this is our honorary resident Vauhan Nievo, a blacksmith and gunsmith, and his eldest daughter Rokayo Gunn, a village doctor, a widow, - Aryana heard the voice and stood immediately behind her father. And now I examined those who were present right there in the head's office. There were three people sitting at her table.

They were men of different ages with shaved heads and in the same strict black suits. One, tall and thin, middle-aged, looked at my father and me with the light blue eyes of representatives of the old aristocracy. The other two- a young man with a strong build with a strange pattern on his head and an elderly man with brown eyes and a wrinkled face, barely looked at us. They continued to look at the cups of tea that Aryana offered them.

- Was it your daughter and sister who helped the stranger escape and escaped with him into the Gate? The blue-eyed man asked very quietly, looking at both me and my father at the same time. I didn't understand how he did it. Then my father coughed, and I just clasped my hands into fists and straightened my back: I will have to answer the questions of the priests.

All the people of Adania felt fear and awe of the Supreme. These people devoted their lives to the service of Adania. And for this she rewarded them. She gave the gift of foresight to someone for faithful service, invulnerability in battles to someone, knowledge to someone.

What gifts these priests possessed, I did not know. The thought made my skin crawl.

- Head, excuse me, can I tell you?

Aryana looked at the blue-eyed one, who nodded slightly to her.

- Speak up, Rocayo, and don't hide anything!

I was surprised by such a phrase and thought for a second: is it necessary to tell exactly everything? And that Aryana was going to let the stranger go if he left Milada alone?

But it was impossible to retreat: the priests were the only people who could now help us in finding our sister.

I started my story, which, for some reason, turned out to be very short. The young and the old never looked in our direction, and the blue-eyed one did not take his eyes off me. When I stopped talking, he asked:

- Viter, what is false, and what is true?

The old one looked up at me from under his bushy eyebrows and smiled out of the corner of his lips.

- It's true, the girl wasn't lying when she told me, - I already relaxed my fists with relief, it seems that the test was passed, - but... There's something she's not telling

me... - What? Gorent, help us!

And then the young man got up from the table. He was very short, almost as tall as me, and I was small even for a woman. He took a step towards me and held out his hand.

I, as if fascinated, looked at this hand reaching out to me like a snake. It seemed to be getting longer and longer, and now his fingers touch my face. I started to feel sick, and then a strange voice cut into my brain:

"Tell me what the stranger told you, tell me!"

I could not resist this voice and opened my mouth to tell everything about my dreams and prediction, but an alien force suddenly invaded my consciousness and did not let me utter a word.

The hand reaching for me disappeared, and I heard a cry and my father's voice:

- What's going on here?

- It's not Great, it's not her power, - suddenly the young man said in a squeaky voice, - the power is not from our world ...

- Could a sorcerer put such a block? - the blue-eyed one said while I was trying to catch my breath. My father got up from his chair and put his arm around my shoulders. Aryana also came up to me and began to look at my face strangely.

- No, a person can't do that. The block on memories is at the deepest level, which is accessible only to the Creators...

I didn't listen any further, burying my face in my father's hot chest, smelling of a house and a forge.

- Head, can we go?

- Father, what about Milada? - I had just started to speak when my father whispered in my ear:

- Here, as if not to lose you yet, Rocayo, let's go home while the priests are busy.

When we left, they were really arguing quietly about something, and we nodded to Aryana and hurried away.

"Will she at least remember to ask them?" - I started talking on the way.

- We'll find out when they leave... There's nothing to pull the redhead by the tail...

we reached the house, and there the father fainted.

For three days, my mother and I fought for his life. After all, that walk to the Gate and the nervous tension due to my daughter's escape had a strong effect on my father. The disease clung to a strong man like a blacksmith's pincers, and it was not easy to eradicate it from his body. My mother and I took turns caring for my father. I was secretly watching my parent: I didn't like her calmness, something strange, too unnatural.

In my opinion, Mom shouldn't have behaved like this after Milada disappeared. Some feverish gleam in her eyes confused me.

Aryana visited us, but when she learned that her father was seriously ill, she postponed the conversation about the priests, the Gate and the stranger. Atron came, asked when the forge would open, sat in the kitchen, sighed. My father didn't get any better or worse.

But on the fourth day he came to himself for a while and said to me, who was sitting by his bed at that time:

- Where... Ramina? Where... is she...

- I'll call you now, Father, now, just have a drink!

Mom came running, hearing my voice.

- Rocayo, leave us... for a minute..." my father asked, and I went out. I wanted to hear what he would say to my mother, but Bertin and Avidea were hanging around in the corridor, and it was not right to eavesdrop with them, and the children and I sat down in the kitchen, waiting for grandma to come.

When she came in, I realized that something had happened between my father and her.

- Mom?

Tears glistened in the mother's eyes, and there was also a terrible expression of emptiness and pain.

- Mommy, what's going on? Avidea, put Bertin on and take a walk in the yard!

Avidea was more obedient than ever. Had recent events forced her to change her behavior?

- Ayo, it's okay, baby, it's okay, - mom tried to talk me out of it, but I didn't let her do it.

- Mommy, the truth, - I went up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, - enough secrets! They don't lead to anything good!

- Your father... he...

- Speak, Mother, be bold...

- He forbade me to go to look for Milada... Forbade...

- And where would you go, Mom?

- To the Gate... My daughter left me a hint... I found this under her mattress...

Mom took a rolled-up piece of paper from behind her bodice and gave it to me. I opened it and was amazed: there was a sequence of symbols drawn there, which the stranger pressed one by one. And there was a small postscript: "the second voice is Vienna, the third - it is impossible to wait for the beginning."

- So, Milada was preparing, and you knew about it?

- Ayo, I'm sorry... sorry...

"Are you going after her?" - mom just nodded in response. - You're crazy! What about the father? your grandchildren, after all! And me? Or have I stopped being your daughter?

Tears flowed from my mother's eyes.

- You... already... an adult, Ayo... You'll manage...

- And your Milada, Mommy, is already an adult too! I shouted. - And it's time for her to learn how to deal with the consequences of stupid actions! At her age, I was already pregnant with my second child, Mom! And you and your father are still wiping her snot under her nose!

From my rude words, my mother's face twisted and she began to cry.

"Father," she said later, "he promised me that he would recover as soon as he got well... so to go after Milada...

and in her eyes was all the hope of Adania.

- Well, no! She chose her own destiny and path! And I will not allow either you or your father, at such an advanced age, to give up everything and rush off into the unknown! Over my dead body!

Then my father groaned in the bedroom, and I rushed to him, taking a bottle of infusion and a cloth for wiping.

Mom rushed after me. My parents loved each other very much, and this always gave me a sense of confidence in my own home. Dad's in a crisis.

A week later, the pass became completely passable and passable, and we were waiting for the arrival of a doctor from Strevin, the center of our Northern lands. Father was already getting up slowly, but he was still very weak. Mom became even more quiet and inconspicuous. I almost moved in with them, which the children were very happy about. Milada's room was never opened. Once Avidea asked me:

- Mom, won't Aunt Milada come back?

- I do not know, daughter, I cannot tell you... And what?

- I liked her brooch. She didn't wear it anyway, in the form of an eldweiss...

- Why do you need it? Do you want me to buy you the same one at the fair in the summer...

- No, I need this one... As a souvenir...

my chest ached. My sister, having sent for her feelings, completely forgot about those who love her at home... Avidea was very fond of my flighty and unlucky sister for men.

The next day, A brooch sparkled on Avidea's chest, and my mother hid the key to Milada's room with such an expression on her face that my hands shook. I decided to check Mom with the doctor. I didn't like her as a doctor.

Three days later, the doctor arrived. He was put up in the guest rooms of the Community House, and I hurried to him there, I couldn't wait for the next working day, when he would have come to me in the medicine room to take serious patients.

- Rocayo Gunn? - the doctor asked me when I introduced myself to him at the door. A youngish, slightly overweight man in a long robe on a naked body looked at me with surprise.

- I need to talk to you...

- Eyterss Wynn, at your service, Rocayo Gunn...

- Excuse me, but tomorrow, perhaps, you and I will not have time... And this conversation is very important to me...

- Come in! He took a step back, inviting me into the living room. - So, what happened to you? It's personal, I take it?

I knew what I would ask the city doctor, who only comes to us once a year for twenty days to consult local residents and teach me new methods of treatment. Within reason, of course. My education was average, and the gift of a doctor was weak, I would never reach the heights in this science, but in my place I had to bring maximum benefit to our village, which has been isolated all winter.

After listening to my confused story about my mother's weak heart, so upset because of her sister's "departure" with her fiance, about the fear of her madness, the doctor grinned.

"All right, Rocayo. I myself am weak in mental illnesses, I am treating bodily ailments more and more somehow, but I will be able to diagnose. Tomorrow night, after work, invite me to my parents' house for dinner. For one thing, I'll check your father's lungs. No matter how consumption developed...

overjoyed, I ran to my parents to tell them about the arrival of the doctor. Of course, I wasn't going to tell Mom anything. Everything had to be served with sauce: helping a sick father.

There I found Avidea's tears and her grandfather's frowning forehead.

- What happened?

- Grandma, she's not well... Avidea looked towards the stairs to the second floor. There was a noise coming from there.

I hurried upstairs and found my mother there, nailing two boards crosswise to Milada's door.

- Ah, Ayo... Have you come yet? My father didn't want to... I had to do it myself... All by myself! Mom finished with a smile, driving the last nail into the board, nailing the door.

- Why?

"I don't want anything missing from the room, Ayo... Here, Avi needed a brooch... Miladochka didn't like her, and tomorrow? What will she want tomorrow? No, you can't do that... When your sister comes back and decides what and to whom to give or not ...

sobs were heard behind my back: my daughter, standing on the ladder, heard the whole monologue of my mother, and was very upset. I turned to her.

- Avidea, baby, where is your brother?

- In the yard with the boys...

- Take him and go home...

- And you?

- I'll be there soon.

When the door slammed behind my daughter, and my mother rattled something in the kitchen, and with a glance showed my father the door to their bedroom.

- You forgive her, daughter... Milada's flight had completely crippled her... Ramina's mind can't handle it.

- I understand, Dad... And I'm not angry..." and I continued in a whisper. - Tomorrow I will invite a doctor from Strevin, ostensibly to examine you. Let him watch Mommy, too.

- Maybe I should ask him to examine her because of her heart?

That's what my father and I decided.

The next day was hectic and difficult, but the doctor and I, tired and hungry, still gathered for dinner at my parents' house, although I could see that the doctor already wanted to go on vacation. But he didn't change his word.

Dad opened the door for us.

- Come in, hello! I am Vauhan Nievo, the father of this important healer.

- Nice to meet you, Dr. Eyterss Wynn, your daughter's colleague.

The four of us were sitting at the table, the children had already had dinner and went to their room to play and learn lessons.

Dad joked a lot, Mom laughed. For the first time, after my sister left, there was such a warm atmosphere in our house.

Then the doctor examined the father and gave his verdict:

- The lungs are clean, you don't have to worry. Serious difficulties have bypassed you, Vauhan, by the side. And while I'm here, is there anything else I can do to help your family?

He looked questioningly at his mother and father.

- Ramina... Your heart... Don't you want the doctor to listen to him? - daddy was soft and correct to the point of implausibility.

"I've been living with my heart for fifty-eight years, Vauh. And I know all his weaknesses! Mom chuckled. - Don't tell me that your examination by the doctor was just an excuse to examine me and listen to my heart! Milada wouldn't deceive me, Ayo, think about it! and she lifted her chin expressively.

My mom has always been very smart, but if she had known that the doctor came here not only for her heart, then maybe my father and I would have been in trouble.

- Well, no, Ramina, - the doctor answered her, - yes, your daughter told me about your weak heart, but if you have lived with him for so long... What can I say?

The Doctor looked at me expressively, and I realized that he had already understood something.

When he was saying goodbye to his mother, he took her by the hand and talked for a long time about how wonderful she cooks, how wonderful she looks for her age, what a clever daughter she has and a well-done husband. My father and I stood in silence and waited for the end of this scene, as if understanding: it's necessary.

And on the street, saying goodbye near the gate, the doctor said to me:

- To be honest, Rocayo, I have nothing to console you with: your mother does not have so long to live. How much, I won't tell you. It may be two days or ten, but she will not survive the melting of snow here in your mountains. Good night, be strong...

With these words, he turned around and left, and I stayed and watched him until his dark silhouette disappeared around the corner. I couldn't remember afterwards how I got into the house, what I said to my father, how I went to sleep in the same bed with Bertin. We had to spend the night together at Mom and Dad's. I woke up in the middle of the night, realizing the truth that had been revealed: my mother's heart could not stand her sister's flight into the unknown, and she would soon die!

The next day, my father and I had a difficult conversation.

- And what, nothing can be done? - for the fifth time he asked me, driving an iron clip into the block with a sledgehammer. So he regained his physical form. And we would hardly have been able to talk to him at home.

- You can't. Eyterss says that Ada has already measured her many years with her illness.

And I remembered exactly the same words spoken by my mother before all these events that broke into our family like a hurricane or an earthquake.

- Of course, I didn't think that my youngest daughter would do such a thing: go with a stranger to another world... Is she alive, eh, Rocayo? How is she there if she's alive?

- I pray for her Great every night, Dad... But you and I are strong, we will do everything, but Mom... Mom loved her so much!

Seven days later, my mother fell ill. The doctor examined her, and then shook his head.

- I'm leaving for Strevin soon, I could take her with me, consult with another doctor, more experienced than me, but I'm afraid we won't take her... - he said later to me and my father in the kitchen.

The next day I left everything to the doctor and stayed to take care of my mother. She fell into unconsciousness and was constantly delirious. Her hands became cold as ice, then burned with their fervor.

And early in the morning she woke up and looked right at me sitting next to her on a chair.

- Ayo?

- Yes, Mommy...

"How long have I been asleep?"

- A day...

- Where is Vauh?

- Still sleeping, very early...

- Let him sleep... Listening to me, Rocayo Nievo," her eyes suddenly glittered feverishly, "promise me that you will do everything possible to find your sister. She should know that her family has not abandoned her, that we all love her!

- I promise, Mom, just calm down! - I was suddenly afraid that her nervousness, this feverish shine, would drive her to the grave right now, grabbed a soothing decoction and gave her a few sips to drink.

- That's it... Enough," she pushed the mug away, "swear, Rocayo! Swear it!

- I swear, Mom, I swear... I'll find this one... my sister and I'll tell her everything!

- I have already taken such an oath from my father, so remember this!

No, my mother, Ramina Nievo, did not die either that day or the next. Mara picked her up exactly on the thirtieth day of her sister's flight. Having buried her thin, yellow body, my father and I were silent among ourselves for two days, communicating only with Avidea and Bertin. And on the third day, I was cleaning my parents' house, where I had already moved during my father's illness, and a piece of paper with the Gate symbols caught my eye.

I had already made my decision when I had a strange dream. I saw an outsider in him again. He stood on a rock in the middle of the desert, and then turned into a liar and cawed loudly over my head. And I could hear laughter in his croaking.