Another Border Tower and a solitary house in the forest.
"This house is a trap," said the Ice Queen.
"I know," replied the Cursed.
They entered the house and sat down at the table. There was also a stove, a wardrobe, chairs, and even two beds in the room. Everything was arranged so that weary travelers would stay here to rest. There was undoubtedly food in the wardrobe, which was most likely poisoned or laced with a powerful sleeping drug.
Unfamiliar writing had been carved into the walls with a knife.
"These are protective spells," said the Ice Queen. "And I know how to activate them. But this also means one more bad thing."
"What?"
"Someone very bad must come here."
There was a demanding knock at the front door. As if someone had come for what unquestionably belonged to them.
The Cursed approached and opened the door.
A strange woman stood on the threshold. She was darkly beautiful. A white face, black shadows beneath her eyes and on her cheeks, black shoulder-length hair. She was dressed in a black robe that wafted terrifying magic from a mile away.
Her smile revealed long, sharp teeth.
"Ah, here comes the food," she said with wild delight.
"Where?"
"You and your friend."
"You'll choke."
The Cursed drove his sword straight into her stomach.
The witch doubled over and fell. The Cursed returned to the room and closed the door.
Wild female screams rose in the forest. Numerous female figures with black hair, dressed in white and black clothes, rose above the ground. They were flying between the tree trunks and spewing curses and spells.
The furniture in the house began to shake. Black smoke poured out of the gaps between the chest lid and the wardrobe doors.
The Ice Queen threw open the chest lid and saw a black shaft inside the chest, descending downward. She jumped into it, flew for some time, and landed with a roll in an unknown room with black stone walls. A light was burning ahead. There was a room there, where two long candles were burning in an alcove in the far wall, and a black crossbow lay. The weapon turned out to be loaded with a black bolt.
The Queen grabbed the crossbow and rushed back. The black smoke, rising upward through the shaft, returned her to the room of the house. She approached the window and fired the black crossbow at one of the witches flying in the forest. The black bolt pierced her body with a wild howl, and the witch screamed furiously as she breathed her last. Her body fell to the ground.
A new bolt appeared in the crossbow. The Queen cocked it and fired again at a new target. Another witch screamed and fell dead.
The flying witches were taking clumps of darkness, swirling in their black hair, and throwing them at the windows of the house, trying to hit the Queen. But she skillfully dodged them. The black clumps fell to the floor and continued crawling there. The Cursed tried to crush them with his foot, but the clumps continued crawling anyway; they were unkillable.
They gathered together and suddenly grew upward into the black figure of an unnaturally tall witch whose head touched the ceiling. A black silhouette formed in the center of the room, and two red lights flared on its head. The witch began striking the Queen and the Cursed with her long black limbs. The Cursed was striking at her with his sword, but she was dissolving into the air, and the sword was passing by. The witch was appearing in another place and attacking them again. The Cursed summoned large, wrinkled hands, but the witch's magic dissolved them. He tried to use other abilities, but the result was the same.
The Queen wrote several signs with her finger on the wall beneath the enchanted inscriptions, and the inscriptions flared with bright light. The black witch in the room let out a terrible scream. The inscriptions on the walls were flickering steadily and were striking her with magic. But she was still striking them with her paws with long black nails.
When the Queen had shot all the witches in the forest, the tall black figure dissolved with a scream.
White light lit up on the Border Tower, and they found themselves in a new place.