"I don't. I'm afraid you'll both get caught if you go looking for her," the man grumbled and kicked another piece of brick. It flew down from the town hall, raising a cloud of heart dust that reached for his face.
"You're right," the octopus gurgled.
"Don't piss me off, Raud, don't stand for this scoundrel," Snorri grumbled angrily.
"I stand for common sense. We're wasting our time instead of searching for the rune," the octopus gurgled back nonchalantly.
"That's what I mean!" the big guy roared. "We've got to find Lila, or the whole thing will be for owlies' food, moon damn and blast them."
The man in the robe sighed and said:
"I think she can only be in the Central Prison, nowhere else."
"What if they took her straight to the Cult?" Snorri rumbled in a bass.
"They don't have heart furnaces. So it's useless to, ahem, torture. And they need to loosen her wooden tongue. Only the Central Prison has heart furnaces left."
"How savage. Heart furnaces," the octopus gurgled.
"And what did you expect?" the man in the robe seemed surprised.
"I'd like to burn the whole damned City in these very furnaces," the big guy growled.
"Then how will you be any different?" the octopus sniffed.
"Screw your philosophy, Raud, how do we find Lila?" Snorri roared again.
Their quarrel was interrupted by an unexpected rattling voice:
"Glug-glug-glug-glug-glug! Help me! Hark? We're familiar with the monkey... Baron would have had it by now! Bloody soulless doll!"
Everyone turned around at the voice. The doll was sitting on the stool, raising its head and looking around at the audience.
"Help! Hark! We're familiar with the monkey! Already has it! Soulless doll!" it repeated and stood up from the stool, walked over to the man in the robe, raised its head at him and repeated, "Help! Monkey! Doll!"
Snorri got next to the doll in two leaps, turned it toward him with a sudden movement, sat down to face it, and almost shouted:
"Where is Lila?"
The doll slightly opened its painted eyes slammed by themselves, slowly wiped the saliva from the visor with its hand, and quietly repeated in its rattling voice, "Glug... glug... glug... Help... Hark... We're familiar with the monkey... Baron would have had it by now... Bloody soulless doll! Winter is approaching."
Snorri lowered his head.
"What does it mean? Glug... glug..." asked the man in the robe.
"Winter is approaching," the octopus gurgled.
"I didn't know that numbskulls could talk," the young man said in surprise.
"You don't seem to know anything at all," Snorri snapped.
"Hey! Take it easy, would you?"
Snorri, pleased that he'd finally managed to put the man out of temper, turned to the octopus and winked. The octopus gave Snorri a long look and let out a contemptuous bubble that rose and burst right in front of the big guy's face.
"Those are the words from the Last Poet's lullaby," said the man in the Cult's robe after a long pause. "Glug by glug, the prison's draining, Chug by chug, cold winter's reigning, Glug by glug, all dreams and wishes, fade with it away."
YOU ARE READING
Heart's tale
FantasyA long time ago, there was a planet on the surface of which a real living Heart was beating. Each of its beat gave life to many wonderful creatures, and humans were no exception. Once, during a mountain collapse, they became afraid that something m...
Chapter 4 part 1
Start from the beginning
