Andrey Prudkovskii - Trilogy of Dhana and the Earth. Book one. End of the world

Alexandra does not look at me.

“Now,” he says, “I will do everything.”

She laid her son on the seat, grabbed the ribbon, turned away from me. I saw that was hard for her to perceive me as a chair, no matter how I pretended, she restored my image from memory.

So our dangerous meeting with the road demon ended safely, and we drove on. And we arrived at the place where her sister Masha lived, but this sister was not her sister, but was herself. I looked outside —it was her, looked into her thoughts —everything was also similar, the same melody, the same color (apparently, there are no identical twins on Dhana). I asked who did this to them. Masha answered that their mother. I realized that their mother was a great sorceress, she wanted to have two daughters instead of one, so with witchcraft she divided her child into two, not knowing that she had done an involuntary evil by number two. Since then, no man could become the husband of any of her daughters. And only thanks to my commitment to the four truths I managed to remove the curse from one of them – from Alexandra, and to give her a son. And Masha remained childless.

I’m used to the fact that demons don’t know how to speak mentally, and then Masha’s neighbor, Valya, came with her five-year-old daughter and immediately began to mentally speak to my son right from the doorway, and he answered her. But when she realized that I could do it too, she was so surprised! I even mentally reassured her, apparently, mentally speaking rarely happen between demons! But not for long she stayed with us and left for her demonic affairs. But her daughter stayed. So we lived… We sawed and chopped wood for a demon hearth called a stove; everyone went to the forest for mushrooms, but non-volatile, and small and edible, and for berries.

I told Lyubochka about our country, as well as about our huge ants, and when she did not believe, I turned into an ant for a short while before her eyes. I thought she was scared, but she liked it. She knew about the transformations! Her mother told tales of people who know how to do it! And she dreamed of turning into a bird so that to fly in the sky and see everything. I did not know how to turn into a bird, but I showed her how I turn into a dog. My son was lying next to us in the grass, looked at us, smiled and, it seemed, even understood something. Now Lyubochka didn’t leave me and kept asking to teach her. I began to teach her the wisdom of the four TRUTHS, but I did not succeed – yet she was a child of demons, and therefore did not want to know about the four TRUTHS, but only wanted to transform…

“Okay, just don’t tell anyone about this,” I warned.

“Even mom? She asked.”

I thought it would be better if she told everything to her mother than she would be tormented by mystery.

“You can tell mom, but not anyone else!”

She read my mind and saw how I was transforming, now she herself tried to do the same. What was I supposed to do? I began to teach her transformations. After all, having turned in a wrong way, she could become a cripple, for example, a man with wings instead of arms. As a result, a month later Lyubochka walked with us through the forest in the form of a huge hen – the only bird she knew well enough to turn into. Lyubochka behaved in the forest like a real hen, as a result she dabbered a lot and had trouble with a stomach. I had to introduce her, as I did for my son, to the four truths of nutrition. It’s good that my Alexandra and her sister were so busy with each other that they didn’t notice anything: neither what do we do when we walk in the forest, nor what do we eat. For the sake of sight, I took for a walk a bottle of diluted goat milk for a little one and a piece of bread for me and Lyubochka. In the forest, we ate everything that caught our eye, however, Lyubochka forbade us to eat some mushrooms and berries. I once ate a beautiful red mushroom, and I felt bad. Since then, he has not violated the advice of our little fellow traveler.

So thirty happy days of complete freedom passed – and here we are again in the city. Again my demoness goes to “work.”

From the notes of Radek Reksovich about his childhood

Today I received a passport; I had to come up with a middle name. I couldn’t say the true name of my father! I told them to write Reksovich, because really the dog Rex was in my childhood instead of my father… This can be said to everyone. But the fact that it was my father – no one is supposed to know.

I decided to write down everything that happened to me in those years, especially since the fabulous events of my childhood are more and more covered with a veil of unreality, so soon I myself will stop believing in them… And one more thing: Valya’s mother gave me a present for my maturity – a crumpled student’s notebook where my father’s story is written in the clumsy handwriting. For many years this notebook was kept secretly from everyone… So, it’s time to put these notes in order!

Readers have already read Raa’s notes in previous chapters of the novel. Next are the diary entries of his son.

Our life in the city went according in the usual track: my mother left for work in the morning, my father was concerned with me. He told me about his homeland Dhana, and not with words, but directly with pictures through the mental channel. In addition, he read me fairy tales, which my mother bought for us. But he did not like to do this, because he did not understand how the plot of fairy tales is connected with his system of four TRUTHS. And we were happy, but our mother wasn’t…

Father thought that she would be pleased with his zeal in studying all, as he said, demonic secrets. He even found the technology for making pencils and paper in the encyclopedia, but he did not please my mom with it. Often she scolded him, as it seemed to me, for no reason. Father began to go on night walks so that mom could get enough sleep and rest from abuse.

Ra fell in love with the city at night, its deserted dark streets, bridges over a dirty black river, mysterious dead ends and stone stairs, still keeping the warmth of the day… He got acquainted with vagabonds, spending the night in the street, beggars – so he knew the life of the city.

Mom cried at night, hugged me tightly and it disturbed my sleep. The reasons for my mother’s insults were different, but, in my opinion, they were not worth her worries. One such case remained in my memory, as it led to tragic consequences.

Once, my mother reproached my father that he did not make money, like other husbands do. She said that he could have gotten the documents and some job, and that I could already be sent to the nursery. My father was very afraid that they would give me to a day nursery and make me a real demon there, so he decided to get money in the evenings when my mother came home from work. Once he even brought the money, and his mother was very pleased, kissed him and slept calmly that night. She would not be so calm if she knew how he got this money. The next night, my father returned home wounded…

For many days he laid sick, his mother looked after him and felt sorry for him. Then he told me what happened to him:

“I already knew what money looked like and why demons use it; from beggars and vagabonds I knew where to find it.” It was not difficult to get it with my abilities to transform my body! The source of the money was not far away, in a public building called a “store.” It is enough to stand on the side of the house where the young demoness was sitting and where the money was stored in a wooden box, and then, imperceptibly extending the hand, put it into the slot… and… you can safely take money when the demoness turns away to talk with the demons who approached her. I was sure that I did not offend the young demoness with my act, since I noticed that she did not need the money at all, she gave them to other demons before leaving her “work”. I was proud and hurried home to once again demonstrate to Alexandra my money, – my father told me.”