"It's getting fucking cold." Rahul muttered under his breath, but a stick was pressed into his side. "I'll shut up!" He growled and continued to walk behind Citar. The three-person team was now walking nicely behind each other with linked hands, among a group of adults who were all dressed in gray clothes.
After the snow rose on the plateau, the three boys walking at the back were caught out of nowhere. All of them were gagged, and when they reached a place with less blowing snow, they were all tied up and now headed towards some unknown place. Suk, who was walking at the front of the three of them, walked with his back straight and just looked ahead, as if he wasn't upset that the man standing next to him kept his sword at his neck. In fact, sometimes he even started humming, and when the man responded by pressing the blade closer to his throat, he just laughed.
"Go to the Fene!" Citar grumbled, although he didn't look like he was very moved by the situation either. He was more of the quiet and observant type of prisoner. For the most part, he moved silently and although he did not turn his head, his eyes constantly scanned the vast whiteness around them. He moved his fingers behind his back as if he was counting something, but no matter how many times Rahul thought he had finally figured out what he was counting, the westerner noticed that he was wrong. Rahul had no idea what his friend was doing, but it was certain that he was neither counting trees, nor stones, nor mountain peaks, since there were too few of them compared to the numbers, but in order to count their steps, the calculation was too slow.
Then finally there was Rahul, at the very back and shivering. Yes, the chüvigh boy had gotten to the point where his sleeves, soaked from their earlier snowball fight, were starting to cool, making his hands cold. Not to mention that his boots weren't designed for this kind of terrain either, so he could have gone barefoot by now, he wouldn't have even noticed. Maybe the hegins were more used to this kind of cold, but Rahul, for example, had never been so cold in his life. That is, except for when Etele possessed his body, but that was a different kind of cold. This cold fed into his bones from the outside, as opposed to the cold caused by Etele, which flooded his body from the inside, around his lungs.
"What happened to you?" Rahul suddenly picked up his head, which had been tucked into the neck of his clothes until now. Next to him, or rather on his left hand side, about halfway between him and Citar, Etele was walking with his back to the direction of travel, and with his hands clasped behind his neck. "Congratulations, you managed to get yourself kidnapped!" The ghost chuckled, and Rahul looked at him with narrowed eyes and literally had to bite his lower lip to not speak and send the idiotic táltos to hell.
"Come on!" One of their captors shouted, and then the group of people entered a clearing that looked empty, but when Rahul stepped over the edge of the clearing, the cold literally disappeared around him.
"Oh, that's interesting.* Etele spoke, turning around and looking around at the yurt camp that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Rahul looked curiously at his relative, who fortunately, as usual, could not keep his mouth shut. "This is a shaman's circle." The ghost grabbed his chin. "Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but..." Etele's features suddenly became worried. "By default, the shaman's circle is only capable of diverting enemy troops and wild animals from the camp. The more powerful the maker, the harder it is to spot the location of the shaman's circle. But this..." Here he pointed around them. "Whoever did this is a táltos." He stated. Rahul wanted to ask how he knew this, but since he was being watched, he didn't speak, but he didn't have to be afraid, Etele immediately continued his explanation.
"In order to exclude natural influences from the camp, the producer must be competent." Etele nodded. "Given that you are not shaking anymore, it can also raise the temperature. It tried pretty hard to keep me out too." The ghost thought. "If I had to guess, I would say that the caster is at táltos five stars or more." He furrowed his brows. For some reason, Rahul felt that this was not a good thing. "In other words, you are in fucking big trouble! Even the first star of the táltos is achieved only by one in a hundred. Whoever did this is stronger than the Chán child." With this statement, Etele managed to make Rahul swallow so much that the guard looked at him suspiciously.
The team was then led by their guards to the center of the yurt camp, where a large campfire was burning. People dressed in various shades of gray and animal fur sat around the campfire. Farther away, someone was sharpening a sword, others were bowing, and on the far side of the fire sat a thirty-year-old man with a mustache almost as long as Master Chá's, but he looked completely different. Then when he looled up the three boys inhaled the air at the same time. The man was missing half of his eye, his left eye was literally missing, there was only a black hole in its place .
"Inepta?" At Etele's surprised voice, Rahul turned his head away from the strange man only to see the ghost standing next to him with his mouth open. "How in the name of all things are you still alive?" The ghost relative said. Rahul looked puzzled once at the ghost, once at the scary man, who seemed to have looked past the three boys and a mixture of surprise and incomprehension shone in his healthy eyes.
"Those two." The one-eyed man finally spoke in a surprisingly pleasant and melodious voice, as if he were singing and not speaking, which surprised Rahul, who imagined a much hoarse and deep voice for his face. The one-eyed man pointed at Suk and Citar, then looked at his two men. "Take them to the tent for the prisoners. Always have a guard next to them, don't let them escape. The third one..." Here he looked directly at Rahul, causing the boy to swallow another huge one. "He's coming to my tent. I'll keep an eye on him." He stated, but at his statement, Citar and Suk moved at the same time, as if they wanted to attack him.
"Enough!" Two men grabbed the two boys, and the one-eyed one laughed, then put his right elbow on his knee and rested his head on the palm of his hand. An evil smile appeared on his lips, but he wasn't looking at the three boys.
"Are you sure we shouldn't just tie them all up and throw them in a tent?" A question came, and the one-eyed man laughed again.
"Can you handle a táltos?" The sudden question came, and the gray-clothed people all became pale, Citar and Suk just snarled. Rahul started scowling.
"Yes, he's talking about you." Etele put his hand on Rahul's shoulder, but when Rahul looked at him, he could almost have sworn that his strange eyes without irises, in which something white and the carved wooden chest could be seen, were now looking at the calmly sitting one-eyed man with a piercing look.
"But I..." Rahul muttered to himself.
"Táltos?" The man who held the rope connecting Rahul's hands snorted.
"You see his eyes. Have you ever seen eyes like that? The boy is a born táltos. I'm the only one who can take care of him." The one-eyed man stated, before the man who was grumbling behind Rahul became silent. "Take the other two, I'll take care of that." Finally, he stood up and approached Rahul with calm steps, then took the rope from his man and put his hand on Rahul's shoulder with a faint smile on his lips. "Young man, that way." He began to lead Rahul towards the nearest tent. And Rahul kept looking worriedly at his friends who were lead in the other direction.
"I'll take care of them." The chüvigh boy shuddered when he heard Etele's voice not next to him, but directly in his ear, he had never felt this before, but he was almost sure that he was the only one who heard the ghost's voice. Although he had no idea what was going on around him and what would happen to them, he calmed down a little. At least grandpa can walk freely in the camp. And Razvan and the others certainly won't leave them in trouble, now they can do nothing but wait and try to figure out how to escape if there is no other option.