Chapter 27
The warlock's eyes widened wildly. Loxley pulled his hands away, and Simon saw the hilt of a ritual dagger sticking out of his body. The Baron felt that he was short of air. He wanted to scream, but instead of screaming, only a pitiful wheeze escaped his throat. In panic and confusion, he looked down and saw a dark stain spreading on his clothes in his chest and stomach area.
At the same instant he felt an unbearable heat deep in his chest. The Baron stared and could not believe his eyes. Had Loxley really done it? Had he inflicted a mortal wound on himself only to drag his nemesis to hell with him? But how? For what reason would someone voluntarily want to go to hell? For what? Was it to save those three unfortunate people? How is that possible?
Robin pulled the bloody knife out of his wound with a groan and tossed it aside. Blood trickled down his clothes and dripped onto the floor. Taking a few uncertain steps to the side, he collapsed to his knees, losing strength. He tried to get up again, but couldn't.
- What have you done, you brainless fool! - The Baron growled hoarsely. The heat in his body was increasing, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and his legs shook. He had to grab the edge of the altar to keep from falling.
The fire vortex created by the sorcerer was gradually fading away as the sorcerer lost his life force. Soon the flames disappeared altogether, leaving only a charred trail on the stone floor. Marion slowly raised her head and her gaze met Robin's immediately. It was as if time had stopped for them. There was so much warmth, love and tenderness in his brown eyes with green sparks, so dear and beloved!
"How good it is to see you again," Marion read clearly in them. But at the same time she felt in them an unbearable pain and a pinching longing, like a foreboding of imminent parting. He smiled guiltily at her, as if apologising for what he'd done, but at the same time, quietly glad he hadn't done it in vain, and closed his eyes with a sigh.
Marion felt as if struck by lightning. She jumped to her feet and rushed towards him, slipping and stumbling, forgetting everything in the world, ignoring the baron's soldiers who still posed a danger to her.
Running up to him, she fell to her knees beside him, lifted him by the shoulders and hugged him, trying to protect him, to cover him with her body and not let anyone, not even death itself, take him away again.
-Robin, Robin," she called to him, "Open your eyes, look at me, open your eyes! Robin!
With trembling fingers she brushed a strand of dark hair away from his forehead, he was still breathing. When she opened the shirt on his chest, she saw a deep wound with scarlet blood gushing from it. Quickly ripping the hem of her dress into several flaps, she applied a bandage to the wound to stop the bleeding.
She covered his face with hot kisses, as if she were trying to take away the pain and ease his suffering, to wrest him from the clutches of death. She didn't believe, didn't want to believe that she was losing him irrevocably again. Like a prayer repeating his name, she stroked his hair. He seemed to hear her, his eyelids fluttered slightly, he lifted his hand and finding her palm, squeezed it tightly, whispering faintly: "Marion..."
She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed with hopelessness and helplessness. Fear, despair, and the pain of loss overwhelmed her. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her whole body jerked, and Marion turned round sharply. It was Annabelle, but in human form. Marion was unspeakably glad to see a good friend, of whose fate she had known nothing since the Baron's soldiers had taken Marion prisoner. Taking a seat beside her, she held out a vial of some kind of potion to Marion. Marion looked into her eyes incredulously.
-Don't be afraid," said Annabel, "it will take away the pain and gradually stop the bleeding.
Marion took the glass vial from her hands and opened it, catching a whiff of herbs and roots. Bringing the vial to Robin's lips, Marion poured a small amount of the elixir into his mouth.
At the edge of her eye, Annabelle jumped to her feet, and just in time. The wily Lilith, picking up the dagger Loxley had thrown from the floor, silently crept up behind them to massacre Marion.
Annabelle slapped the black mage's servant across the face with all her might, so hard that she fell backwards, dropping her weapon.
-Don't even think about it," Annabelle said harshly, kicking the bastard's chest and pinning her to the floor. Lilith wriggled and muttered curses.
Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound, as if the mystical giants living in the castle dungeons had decided to come out. A black whirlwind burst from the bowels of the sorcerer's lair and, howling, swirled round the gloomy sanctuary, blowing out the lights of candles and torches. The baron's servants rolled groaning on the stone slabs and mumbled incantations, covering their ears and eyes with their hands, writhing in pain.
The baron's soldiers, looking around, retreated and finally left Nazir and John alone, feeling it was time to save themselves. An unbearable rumble filled the hall. It seemed as if the castle walls would collapse and bury everyone in it.
Nazir and John, ducking from the gusts of wind, hurried towards Marion and Robin.
The icy breath of darkness hung in the air, a ghostly mist creeping out from everywhere, filled the space of the hall, and a thick cloud rose over the sacrificial altar. A low, growling and vibrating voice rang out, instilling animal fear and terror in those who heard it. It seemed to penetrate the soul, freezing out feelings and thoughts, making you gutless, empty and ringing.
It came from a shimmering violet-black misty cloud in the centre of the hall, on which the features of some ghostly otherworldly spirit or deity appeared and disappeared.
- Saimo-o-o-o-o-on! - said the spirit.
The blood froze in the black sorcerer's veins with horror and he, still clinging desperately to the altar with cold fingers, whispered hoarsely:
- Oh, my Lord, almighty. Prince of Darkness, lord of eternal Night, thrice great Asriel, I pray thee, have mercy!
- You didn't keep your promise, Simon. Your powers of persuasion are weak, your strength is negligible. You could not break the will of the Warrior of Light and make him swear allegiance to the Forces of Darkness. Do you have anything to say for yourself? -The demon's voice rumbled like the distant thunderclaps of a storm.