The Last Victory

31. Lonely Pain

It was dark in the cellar, except a few burning torches. Maybe it was a bit coolish, but not too cold. There was nothing in this vault, just a stretcher with a figure wrapped in bandages. Again and again the burnt shape of the peacock let out a pained, soft moan.
He didn't sleep. He was constantly plagued by the pain that plagued his burned body. His throat hurt terribly. He was probably hit there by an explosive projectile.
He tried to get up, but ropes held him to the stretcher. His eyes were also blindfolded so that he could not see anything.
He raised his head. Footsteps shuffled across the hard basement floor, slowly approaching him. The peacock turned his head to one side. In vain, he tried to remove the blindfold. Then the footsteps fell silent next to him.
He paused. He couldn't talk.
Suddenly, a blanket was placed over him. A hoof touched his head. He convulsed and breathed harder. Someone pushed aside the bandages on his shoulders. For a moment it got uncomfortably cold. The stranger next to him opened a bottle and poured something over the cuts.
"This will heal your wounds better," Soothsayer said in a calm voice.
Xiang tried to avoid her, but the ropes held him tight. He turned his head away from her. When she touched his wing, he forced air out of his damaged lungs. The goat felt his dislike for her and let go of him again. At a loss, she let her gaze rest on him. She couldn't explain where the bird got its power from. It was almost impossible for him to still move. But he clung to life. At no cost did he want to die.
Sighing, she pushed the blanket higher over his body. "The doctors say you have a chance." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Your former wife is no longer angry with you either."
The former blue peacock paused for a moment, then let out an indifferent snort, followed closely by a wincing tremor that dominated his body like a helpless puppet. Xiang tried to counteract this by sinking back on the stretcher. At least lying down helped him to reduce muscle tension a little.
The goat scraped the floor with her walking stick.
"There is something else," she began carefully. "I thought it was best for you to know it."
Again, there was a tense silence.
"You should know that nothing happened to the children."
Xiang raised his head a little. You could see with the handkerchief over his eyes, too, that he didn't know what she was talking about.
"I'm talking about the clutch from which you thought you had destroyed," the goat continued. "They were found somewhere in the mountains. They are now safe with their parents. And they hatched. They have three boys and one girl."
She waited for a response. First, everything was quiet. But then the goat backed away as the peacock's breathing accelerated rapidly. Suddenly, he let out a hoarse, choked peacock cry.
Soothsayer took a few more steps backwards, her glance still on him. Despite his broken body, it looked like the peacock was about to jump up. He continued to utter loud, rattling screams and tried to break free of the bonds that were holding him.
At that moment, King Wang came running in. When he saw the peacock fidgeting like that, he turned to the old goat. "Should I tranquilize him?"
She shook her head and lifted her hoof. "No. Let him scream the pain from his soul."
With that, she turned away and left the room. Meanwhile, the screaming had turned into wailing, followed closely by angry weeping. A weeping that looked for an answer, but found no one who took attention to that.

- End of Part Three -

Well, here ends the story. I hope you liked it. Part 4 follows... See you then and thanks a lot for reading and reviewing. :-)