The lion landed near a rock-cut building, covered with planks in the shape of a pointed hat with large brims, from which a thick tree trunk rose up toward the plateau. A warm, oil light burned in the windows, and it appeared even larger inside than it was outside. Tables were densely arranged in two floors, and our companions made their way between them, seated in a corner by a small stage. There weren't many customers, and an octopus immediately floated up through the air to take their order.
"Raud, my friend!" Leo exclaimed.
"My respects to you, thundering Leo," the octopus grinned and winked at the dolls, "I see you have interesting company. Lila, how are you? I didn't think Father would ever fix you... Except for that scar. You'll be easy to distinguish from the others, though."
"Oh, what a flatterer, don't listen to him, the scar even suits you," laughed the lion, rubbing Lila's curls.
She looked at the one and the other in turn with embarrassment.
"You're also here, Pinocchio?" Raud smiled, "Have you got a name for yourself, stupid doll?"
"Goody," he nodded, looking at the octopus expectantly.
"Hmm... I liked Eftebeneug better," the octopus gurgled and scratched the top of his head with his tentacle, "Well, how remiss of me, what will you order, Leo? By the way, are you fighting tonight?"
"Oh no," the lion waved his paw, "I still have to finish my mirror tent for the carnival. And who's there to fight, your friend? That would be the slaughter of an innocent," he laughed.
"As you wish, I think I heard Lumberjack shout all over the place that he was going to make it hot for you today, and if you didn't come... well, you know what he usually says."
Leo's fur stood up, and he clenched his furry fists, accidentally releasing his claws.
"Ow!" he cried out, "You know how to be a killjoy, Raud. Give me better some oblivion-water."
If the octopus had had eyebrows, he would have raised them now, but he only smirked and floated toward the bar, where a tree grew that deftly handled orders with its green-covered branches. And one could have sworn that it was now studying Goody.
"That's Sid," Leo noticed the doll's gaze, "He's been like that since before the first 'fugitives' were here. And they say he remembers everything, since the beginning of time."
"How does he speak?" Goody wondered. "I don't see his mouth or eyes or anything."
"You don't have a mouth either, but you do speak somehow," grinned Leo.
"Yea-ah," Goody said, "But I have a speech mechanism, a tongue behind my visor, that makes these speech-like sounds."
"And Sid can write," the lion smiled, rubbing the damaged place on his palms with his claws, "Except he has his own, very specific concepts of time and space, so his answers can be very difficult to interpret for those who live, so to speak, on our frequency."
"Frequency?" Goody asked.
"Oh, it's hard for me, it's been explained to me many times, but I don't really understand it myself. In a nutshell, everything fluctuates. Like your tongue. You, me, Lila, Raud, Sid, these tables, the rocks. But you and I fluctuate faster, and the rocks and Sid slower. We're like mosquito wings to him."
"Like butterflies?" Goody asked.
"Well, yes, but nastier, it squeaks, flies, stings, drinks blood."
Goody shook his head.
"Okay," Leo growled, stretched out his shirt and blew hard on it. It trembled quickly.
"That's what we are, for example," he said, and then he blew on the shirt faintly, and it shook easily in his hands.
"And that's Sid," said the lion, pleased with himself.
"Time flows differently for us, though we fluctuate side by side," he continued his thought, smoothing his shirt with red dots from self-inflicted wounds on his paws, "For him my life is a moment, and for me, it's a whole life."
He looked at Lila and Goody.
"Your kind has a chance to experience what Sid feels, if you live at least a tenth of his life. You won't last as long as he does, you'll fall apart."
"Our kind?" Goody asked.
"Well, the animated ones. Golems, dolls, toys, and enchanted objects," the lion clarified, "We, the living ones, didn't die before, either. But, they say, it happened after the 'first wound'. All creatures recognized death. The integrity of the Heart was lost. And the smaller it became, the shorter our lives became."
Feeling every mechanism in him shrink with shame, Goody asked:
"What kind of Heart is that?"
Leo looked at him suspiciously, then turned to Lila:
"Is he all right?"
But it was Raud who answered for her, placing a large mug of bubbling liquid on the table in front of Leo:
"The fact that he speaks coherently is already a great success. Father worked on him. He's only recently become alive. We got them out of the City with Lila. He couldn't even speak a few days ago."
"My goodness," grinned the lion, "For a moment there I thought you were the 'eye'. Sorry, we're all so worked up about the coming war that any sabotage, you know..."
Goody blinked incomprehensibly.
"Oh, buddy," Leo laughed, "I'm sure you'll figure it out, don't worry. As you may have noticed by now, I'm not the best storyteller."
Goody wanted to disagree, but the octopus interrupted him.
"No, he's not," laughed Raud, "And he must be hurrying into the 'circle,' and I advise you to follow him. It will be a sight to behold!"
Goody felt a slight dizziness and a headache from the images overwhelming him, but he pulled himself together and looked at Lila. She caught his gaze and nodded indifferently. Leo stunned the mug offered by the octopus with a gulp, let out a victorious growl, got up from the table and headed for the exit.
"Go on, follow him, you shouldn't miss this example of social degradation," the octopus gurgled and flew toward the bar, "I'll catch up with you."
Goody and Lila stepped outside and followed the broad back of the lion down the steps, moving, stretching his muscles, to the bottom, where, deep in the canyon, beyond the ship, a wide cave flickered, where the public flocked in great numbers.
"What's his hurry?" Goody wondered.
The monkey did not answer, but instead quickened her pace, tapping loudly with her wooden paws on the stone.
The cave was crowded and there was incredible noise. The animated one lost sight of Lila and quickly got lost in the crowd of people, animals, and other animated ones. In this chaos, he was squeezed into the far corner of the cave, illuminated by a few hovering electric lights. The crowd parted. A python with a crown on its head drew a large circle on the ground with its body and curled up next to the wooden box under which the microphone was located. Goody remembered almost stepping on the animal on his first day in the canyon. The bright light of the spotlight flashed with a crackle and illuminated the circle to the sigh of the assembled crowd.
From the hoarse speakers came the voice of the python:
"By the right given to me by the Heart, the moon, and time itself," he began, and the crowd laughed, "I now proclaim the beginning of the final series of 'challenges.' Let me remind you that the first-born leads by a score of four to three to one."
With these words, he tossed up the crown with his tail, and the crowd roared merrily in his wake. And it was only now that Goody noticed that everyone in the cave was divided into three groups. Behind the python were various anthropomorphic and not-so-anthropomorphic animals; behind Goody was the largest, but also the quietest group of all kinds of dolls and toys; and opposite was the smallest and most militant group of humans.
"In second place are the second-born, three to four to one," the python said sarcastically, changing his tone to condescending. - And in third place are our eternal outsiders, but no less fierce and hungry, the called ones!"
The toys and dolls squealed inertly and discordantly.
From the back rows came an angry voice:
"How long? How long, brothers and sisters, shall we endure the oppression of these livebearers?"
And the crowd erupted a large wooden rabbit – the same or similar ones Goody vaguely remembered as lectik porters in the City. With the carved muscles of an athlete, covered all over its gray body with pointed symbols rising to its muzzle to form an intimidating mouth and frowning eyes filled to the brim with indignation. Crowned with two protruding rounded ears, it produced a feeling on the borderline of horror and absurdity and served, as Goody suddenly realized, as an instigator.
"Just for the record," said the rabbit, "No one accepted my challenge last time. And things might have turned out differently. I accuse the Thunder of cowardice! He chose a weak opponent! No offense, Gunt," he nodded towards a big boulder with the two sad eyes, "And took the point only by cunning, not by the right of the strongest!"
The crowd roared on all sides, some approvingly, some indignantly.
"Are you accusing me?" Leo growled, appearing, as if at the command of an invisible director, from the crowd of animals.
The word 'performance' sprang up in Goody's head on its own as he watched the rabbit smile wryly and turn to the lion, who had raised his head proudly.
"Yes, I am," chuckled the rabbit, "You choose the weaklings and bypass the strong ones."
"So, I take it you are the strong one, Lumberjack?" Leo grinned, and his braided mane shook and vibrated.
"I may not be the strongest," grinned the rabbit, "But I don't want to get my hands dirty with you. I know someone who's ready to put you in your place, kitten!"
The crowd of toys burst into laughter, and there were occasional chuckles among the people. Leo frowned.
"And you thought it would be easy again. Oh-ho-ho-ho. But no, why should I fight for third place when I have a chance to take the win from you!" the rabbit laughed, and the crowd started humming and then clapping rhythmically.
Leo's emerald eyes flickered. The group of people parted, and a large figure moved from the outside into the circle. It was Snorri. Goody knew it was his gait before the big man had even entered the light. He was naked waist-high and looked more like a block of stones, roughly pieced together, than a man.
"Now, the final 'challenge' of the season!" Lumberjack squealed as he snatched the python's microphone. "The first-born versus the second-born. Lion versus man!"
Goody spotted Lila, perched on one of the flags that hung around the perimeter of the cave. She noticed him, too, and nodded.
Leo and Snorri stood opposite each other. They were the same height, and only the mane made the first-born visually larger. The crowd roared in such a way that the ringing in the animated one's head made him jump. The lion became extremely serious. The big guy, on the other hand, remained stony calm.
"Fonn's in for it," whispered a hammer on little legs, which distracted Goody from the pending duel and raised his eyes to the box where the spotlights were shining. There was some movement in it. But then a flying kite soared to the hovering lights and blew into the tube, exploding into confetti and making a loud rattling siren sound.
The lion attacked the man with its teeth gritted, and with a run it encircled the man's chest, and they backed away. But Leo fell sideways, and Goody saw blood oozing from his eye. Everyone groaned. But the lion instantly jumped up and lunged at the big guy, swinging his right arm. Goody was at last able to see that Snorri, with his incredible speed, had managed to get the lion a series of blows to the body and muzzle, and finished it off with a knee strike in the stomach. Leo lost his bearings, and Snorri lunged at the lion, knocking it into the dust that had risen in the air around them. When Goody could see them again, the big guy pinned the lion to the ground with a painful hold, settling on him and breaking his leg. Leo screamed and raised his paw to strike the ground, but Snorri released him from his grasp, letting him bounce away, though the next flying serpent had already brought the horn to its paper lips.
"Playing with him," laughed the hammer, bouncing on the spot.
The lion, meanwhile, was standing on four legs, breathing heavily, while the big guy paced back and forth in the rising dust.
Leo got up on his hind legs and pulled his shirt off, exposing his fur-covered muscles. He wiped his forehead and eyebrows with the shirt, then threw it to the floor. Snorri was on the move, pummeling the lion's face with blow after blow, but he missed two of the first-born's retaliatory lunges. He kicked Leo with his foot to make room, but the lion jumped on him with his whole body and dropped him to the floor. The animals roared victoriously. The lion, however, could not hold his opponent for long. Snorri wrenched himself out from under his body and, making a painful paw grab, seemed to wrest the initiative. However, the lion did not let himself be caught a second time. He pushed off with his hindquarters, twisted out of the grasp, struck the man several times, and kicked him in the head and shoulders. The dust made it hard to see again, Leo fell, and Snorri pounced on him from above, pinning him down with his body and striking him in the muzzle.
"What a fight, what a fight!" the hammer was bouncing and yelling.
Goody looked at the excited crowd with amazement. Everyone seemed ready to jump out of themselves, even the sad rock was wobbling and humming with its whole body. Leo and Snorri separated again, preparing for another round. Time slowed noticeably. The heroes of the battle were breathing heavily, and the lion was also limping, scowling more than ever. Snorri, wet and muddy from head to toe, kept an expression of calm concentration on his face. Goody looked at the flag, but Lila wasn't there; he looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. A girl in the red dress ran into the ring and gave the big guy a rag to wipe his face with. The audience roared, the flying kite's trumpet blasted through the air, and Leo lunged at the man who had immediately thrown the rag away. Snorri took a step toward him, but his fist whistled through the air, because the lion darted sideways at the last moment and struck his opponent in the jaw. The man lost his balance, ran a few paces, and then crouched down on his arm. The lion wasted no time in attacking the man from behind, but Snorri had time to turn around and, putting all his weight into Leo's face, gave him a crushing blow that knocked the lion back a few meters. Everyone froze. Even in the box, as Goody noticed from the corner of his eye, there was movement again.
Snorri shook his head and moved toward his defeated foe. He bent down and put his hand out for the final blow, but the lion let out a long groan:
"Don't..."
Something happened to the man, he froze, his concentration vanished, and Goody felt as if tears were about to flow from his eyes. Leo, who had recovered by that moment, took some sand in his paw and threw it at Snorri, who lost his balance – and the lion struck him in the jaw. The man fell on his back. The lion jumped on him, but Snorri didn't fight back and never got up again.
The flying kite, exploding with another burst of fireworks, trumpeted the end of the battle, and the animals jumped around the lion, cheering and hooting, tossing him up and congratulating each other. The floodlights went out with a loud click. Goody turned his head toward them, but there was no one in the box. The crowd was dispersing, heartily discussing what had happened. The hammer ran from one group to the next, shouting excitedly:
"I told you! I told you!"
Goody waited until everyone was gone and walked over to the big guy. He was lying there with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
"Why did you let him win?" he asked and crouched down next to the man's head.
Snorri looked at him, then lifted his head and stood up abruptly.
"I bet two watches on the Battleship on you," said Raud angrily, who just floated up to them, "What's got into you? Getting old? Misfire after misfire. If you continue at this pace, the Baron will throw you in the trash."
But Snorri said nothing, shook off his knees, and walked away from the cave. Raud floated up to Goody and waved his tentacles sadly:
"That's life. Everything says 'for,' but comes out 'against.' Let's go congratulate Leo while he's still able to distinguish between enemies and friends."
Goody shrugged back and followed the octopus as it levitated through the cave back to Sid's place, where the noisy crowd had already carried the lion in their arms.
As they entered, a loud song in a language Goody didn't understand rang out so loud it sounded like the glass was going to burst all at once. Leo, all red, which was visible even under his thick fur, sat on a makeshift throne of chairs and tables, surrounded by all kinds of creatures, led by a half-tigress half-human. She sat on Leo's lap, stroking his shoulder with her hand and whispering softly something in his ear.
"What a dude," Raud shook his head. "Oh, Lila, you're here," he turned to the monkey sitting at the table, holding a massive book, which she promptly slammed shut.
"Interested in the 'Ship's Log'?" asked the octopus, floating over to the table and taking one of the chairs.
"What business is it of yours?" the monkey asked irritably.
"Hey, hey, easy there," the octopus was surprised, raising his tentacles upward.
"Friends! I'm so glad!" Leo roared, rising from his throne, but immediately fell back under the weight of his companion.
"Sorry," Lila sighed heavily, "It's just that all this noise annoys me."
"I forgive you this time," Raud looked back at the celebrants, and then turned to the animated one, "Hey, Goody, or whatever the heck your name is, sit down."
But Goody looked at the celebrants as if mesmerized.
"Ha-a-appiness!" he said. "So that's how it is..."
"No, my friend, it's not happiness, it's oblivion," the octopus turned again to the celebrants and squinted his eyes, peering into the smiling faces.
Just at that moment a hippo, knocking back another portion of oblivion-water, did not see the way, hit the table, followed by a chair, and the whole caboodle, covering the lion and the half-tigress, fell to the floor with a roar and laughter.
"You're lucky in a way," Raud smiled, "Oblivion-water doesn't work on you, you're an animated guy. That's why you can't have that kind of 'happiness.' But I wouldn't regret it. They're certainly having a good time now, though."
"It's go-o-od to be alive," Goody said thoughtfully, and sat down at the table.
- "Well, tomorrow they will bitterly regret that they are alive, and many will give their word that they will never repeat such 'happiness' again, but the evening will come, and these promises will be forgotten," grinned the octopus, "It is the nature of oblivion-water."
"Do you know much about nature?" Goody asked, moving closer to the octopus.
"No," Raud grinned, "I know a lot about oblivion-water."
Goody looked at him in surprise:
"Why don't you drink it yourself?"
"I like to be a witness more. I've been sailing the seas for a long time, on different ships, and I've seen a lot of things in seaside pubs. Although," the octopus hesitated and looked at Goody, "You don't know what the sea is, do you?"
"I know the word 'sea' now, it's a lot of drops of water pieced together," he began to rummage through his new memory, "But I have no sense or image of the sea. Can you describe it to me? Oh, and a pub, too?"
"Well, you could say we're in a pub right now. It's a place where they drink oblivion-water or something worse. But the feeling of the sea," the octopus thought, "It's like flying, but with someone holding you in the palms. And the air. The air is fresh, humid, like after the rain. Salty, so that your skin all shrinks. Like the opposite of desert. It's just as endless, but in the desert the waves of sand are almost frozen, but in the sea they're constantly moving, rocking you like a mother singing a lullaby."
The octopus fell silent and closed his eyes.
"And the other second it's deadly, like when we got hit by that fuzz on the scooter, we hit the rock – and the whole world spun like crazy, remember?"
The octopus opened his eyes and looked at Goody.
"It's just as dangerous, ready to crush, devour, consume. Its mood changes frequently."
The animated one nodded dreamily and touched the octopus, then pinched him.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Yes, I mean, no," Goody embarrassed, "And what is it? You know, the thing that covers you."
"Skin," the octopus muttered, rubbing his tentacle over the purple spot on his head where the doll had pinched him.
"Skin..." Goody repeated from the images that came back to him, "I wish I had skin."
"Well, I don't think so," the octopus gurgled.
At these words, Lila stood up, dragged the book over the counter to Sid, and walked out without saying goodbye.
"Red moon, what's the matter with them all today?" the octopus was indignant. "I have feelings, too, for that matter. We didn't get the damn rune, all right, so what are we supposed to do, act like plucked peacocks?"
"Rune?" Goody asked, feeling an unfamiliar sensation of chill creeping up his shell. And, without expecting it, he said, "I must be boring you with my questions, huh? I'm sorry, I feel so strangely... uncomfortable having to ask all the time."
"That's right, that's right, feel it. It's called shame," the octopus said, and leaned his head on his tentacle. "It's perfectly legal to ask in your position, though."
Goody nodded and looked at Raud expectantly.
"Oh yes. The rune... You see... You've probably heard about the current state of affairs, haven't you?"
Goody was beginning to nod, but then shook his head.
The noisy group fell silent, and the octopus moved closer to the doll and spoke in a low voice:
"The Heart is dying. It's a fact. And it's been going on for a long time, ever since the construction of the City that was supposed to protect it began," he said, looking Goody straight in the eye.
But Goody lowered his head and said in an apologetic tone:
"The Heart?"
"The Heart of the World, a particle of it is in your chest and in the chest of every animated thing, or nearly every of them," Raud patted the animated one's shell. "It's in the center of the City, in the Palace. All life depends on it. All life arose out of its love. The first-born like me and Leo and others, and a host of other beings, ahem, who have become unwanted by humans that were second-born. Legends say different things, but all agree that people were the first to recognize fear and decide that the Heart was in danger. It was a pivotal moment. Before the appearance of the City, the Heart was beating on the surface of a beautiful valley, and one day a rock rolled down from one of the mountains and left a scar on it. The 'second' ones have a legend about a woman who got lost in the mountains, but the point is the same: they decided to protect the Heart and began to build a wall, and the City along with the wall. And this City grew and rose, and the people grew stronger. And their fear grew stronger as the wall became thicker and the towers in the City grew taller. And the higher the wall was, the more the Heart suffocated.
The first-born were against it, but do humans care what anyone else thinks? They simply subjugated us, convincing themselves that only under their rule would peace come. But within the City, the great houses have done nothing but fight for the right to be called the chief defenders of the Heart, shedding blood and multiplying their own fears. And their fight, their narcissism, went so far that they began to worship the cult of themselves, the Cult of the Defenders of the Heart. And man has adapted the Heart itself as a mechanism, as an instrument that gives them unlimited abilities. They built you to help them. And if at first you simply came to life, like everything that was created, then in time the Heart, no longer able to breathe freely, closed by the walls of the Temple, stopped creating, and more was needed. To activate giant golems, steam robots, and flying ship engines, men began to chop off pieces of the Heart and insert them into the machines they created.
It's been a long time since then. The Heart is exhausted, barely beating, just enough to charge the black smoke that powers the current monstrous mechanisms. And there are only five runes, large shards, left. You see, five. The rest have become dust flying around us, even here in the mountains. One of them crowns the hilt of the sword the Usurper wears. He is the current chief 'defender' of the Heart, and that makes him practically invulnerable. And our event is as pointless and ruinous as life itself."
The octopus took a breath, looked intently into Goody's eyes, and continued:
"So, to even up our chances of winning, we need to get a rune like that."
"Winning?" asked the astonished Goody.
"Yes. We are preparing for war. We are going to destroy the City and return the runes to the Heart."