Beyond the third Border Tower stood a gothic manor. Large stone bats sat on the high fence and glared angrily at the guests. The gate turned out to be unlocked. They seemed to invite anyone who wished to enter. The Cursed pushed one gate leaf slightly open and stepped further. Beyond the gate, thick white mists drifted, obscuring the massive dark house. Without a doubt, the manor bore the seal of terrifying and powerful sorcery.
They walked along the deserted garden avenue. Many glowing eyes watched them from behind the trees. Unknown creatures were following them, but they were not attacking.
"In the window," said the Cursed.
"I see," replied the Ice Queen.
On the second floor, a pale girl's face watched them from behind a curtain for a while. Then it abruptly disappeared into the darkness.
Why into the darkness? Because there was no light burning in any of the manor's windows.
Despite the fact that someone was inside the house, they did not knock on the door. The Cursed simply pushed it, and it opened slightly. Beyond it lay darkness and something else. They were able to make it out clearly when they entered the corridor. Large stains of dried blood lay motionless on its walls. Perhaps someone had been tortured or killed here. A normal person would not have set foot in this manor.
But the Cursed and the Ice Queen moved farther down the corridor.
Dried blood was still found on the walls. And then portraits appeared as well. They depicted a forest. Terrible, alien. Its black trees were completely covered with long thorns. Beyond the trees, the outlines of what might have been a castle or a palace were inexorably slipping away.
"Once, I heard a legend about the Black Kingdom," said the Cursed, looking at the portraits. "And about its Queen, who dreamed of conquering the entire world."
"Yes, I have heard about it too. They say that somewhere there lies a Black Book from which a strange magical power emanates. With its help, the Black Queen of the vampires intends to conquer the world."
In other halls, there were large wardrobes. Their doors were opening with a nerve-racking creak, and behind them there was emptiness. The Cursed and the Ice Queen were peering into the wardrobes and making sure that they were empty inside. There was only dried blood on the walls and at the bottom.
And there was also dried blood on the windows. On their sills and frames.
The Cursed and the Ice Queen went up to the second floor.
Somewhere in the darkness, a muffled noise sounded. The Cursed and the Ice Queen went toward it. They stopped in one of the rooms.
"Come out," said the Cursed, looming over the bed.
A rustling sound and quiet sobbing came from underneath it.
"Crawl out," said the Ice Queen. "We won't eat you. I give you my word."
It was unknown whether her promise had reassured the one it was addressed to, but a girl emerged from under the bed. Tears welled up in her eyes. She was holding a white handkerchief in her hands and pressing it to her mouth, muffling her sobs.
"What happened? Why are you crying, poor thing?"
The Ice Queen's cold voice radiated care and concern, but with her supernatural sense, she felt that a new nightmare was beginning, one that did not yet have a name. But it was planning to acquire one when it got hold of their lives.
"I'm afraid..." the girl whispered. She was the very same girl who had been watching them from the window. Light hair and a short black dress. "Terribly afraid..."
"Of what?"
"Of a new nightmare."
"And what does it consist of?"
"They will be back soon."
A loud hissing sounded in the night street.
"They're already here! They'll kill you! And they'll be raping me all night again, so that afterward everything between my legs will hurt terribly."
The girl began sobbing again. Yet she did not crawl under the bed or hide. For a second, the Ice Queen thought she saw a grim, triumphant smile flicker across the prisoner's lips. But even if that was so, what was it — madness that had taken hold of her, or something else, darker and more terrible?
The Cursed and the Ice Queen looked out through one of the bloodstained windows and saw three tall, thin figures approaching the house along the garden avenue. The strangers were bald, extremely pale, and dressed from head to toe in black jumpsuits. They disappeared from view below, near the entrance.
But the Cursed and the Ice Queen did not hear their footsteps, either on the stairs or in the corridor. A deathly silence reigned throughout the building.
Something was happening to the wall on the right. The Cursed looked over and saw the face of a bald, terribly pale stranger on its surface. It stretched into a wide baring of teeth as sharp as sharpened saws, and a suddenly appearing force seized the warrior. His boots slid several feet across the floor. And the magical influence kept growing stronger. He was being dragged with terrible force into the wall, toward the place where the image of the hideous creature was located.
When he found himself in front of the enemy, he struck with his sword. A bright flash followed. The force acting upon the Cursed disappeared. So did the hideous creature. A long gouge from the sword strike remained in the wall.
A heavy groan came from the other side of the room, and the hideous creature appeared in another wall. It began pulling the Queen toward itself. She was striking the wall with her sword, but only showers of numerous sparks flew from it. Her weapon could not harm the enemy at all. It struck her unprotected arm with a hand bearing long black nails, and blood spurted from the resulting wound onto the wall. It began spreading across the surface. So that was where the stains on the walls had come from!..
His long fangs reached toward her neck, and at that moment the Cursed's blade struck. Another flash occurred, and the enemy disappeared.
The Ice Queen dropped to one knee and lowered her head. Her wound was healing right before her eyes. After some time, not a trace of it remained. Only the black disease that had spread over her arm did not disappear.
The girl in the black dress was not in the room. She had disappeared somewhere.
They went to look for her.
They entered a large hall. It was deserted. A creaking sound came from the side. One of the large wardrobes had opened. Inside was another pale stranger in a black jumpsuit. His hand, with long black nails, reached out and, with a slight push, threw out a rounded object. It fell to the floor and rolled toward the Cursed and the Queen.
She looked at the object and screamed:
"Run!"
They moved into the darkness of the hall, after which an explosion sounded at the spot where they had been before and where the stranger's object had stopped, and a bright flash of fire shot up above the floor.
The stranger was appearing in other wardrobes as well.
Meanwhile, the portraits on the walls came to life. There, among the dark thickets of the black forest with thorns, the figure of the third stranger was appearing. He was watching them with his red, glowing eyes, and they felt their vision beginning to darken.
"Don't look him in the eyes!" shouted the Ice Queen.
Somewhere here, the source of this black power had to be located.
There was still the third floor.
They were making their way toward it through a succession of terrifying magic and numerous traps set by hideous nocturnal creatures.
Upstairs, in a large room, an open book lay on a table. It had black pages, and the sinister text and drawings in it were rendered in white ink.
Terrible power emanated from the book. The book had to be closed.
A light-haired girl in black was standing in the room.
"Girl, step away! It's time to stop reading this book!" said the Cursed, approaching her.
He had almost reached the book. And at that moment, he felt an unknown, terrible force beginning to act upon him and forcing him to freeze in place. He could move, but he could not reach the book.
Loud female laughter rang out in the room. Madness and grim triumph dwelled within it.
The Ice Queen and the Cursed looked at the girl.
Her height doubled. Her limbs stretched out. Her face transformed. It became elongated, and a mask of madness froze on it. Eyes in which black darkness swirled, and a baring of long, sharp teeth. A formidable lady stood before them, a traveler from a distant and long-forgotten land of nightmares.
"I am the Black Queen!" Her voice lashed across all the walls of the room, and plaster crumbled from them. "And you, creatures, are nothing but fuel for my satisfaction!"
All the windows in the room flew open simultaneously. A strong wind rose, lifting the Ice Queen and the Cursed into the air and slowly beginning to suck them outside. Toward the place where the Black Kingdom could be seen beyond the bloodstained windows.
The Cursed raised his blade and hurled it at the Black Queen. It pierced her body, and a wild scream rang out, piercing the enchanted manor and echoing repeatedly through its rooms.
The wind disappeared, and the starry night reappeared beyond the windows.
A sword lay on the floor of the room. The Black Queen was gone. Only her groans could be heard somewhere deep inside the building.
The Cursed picked up the sword, approached the table, and closed the Black Book.
Silence fell over the manor. Beyond the window, a white light lit up on the Border Tower.