The demon version: Izvestia publishes the first fragment of the Nevyanskaya Tower
After last year's dystopian sci-fi hit "Vegetation," Alexey Ivanov returned to Ural antiquity, the novels about which brought him genuine national fame. The action of the Nevyanskaya Tower takes place in the first half of the XVIII century, and this is a historical fantasy where real figures like Biron calmly get along with the mystical inhabitants of the local places. The paper version of the novel is published by Alpina publishing house. Prose, electronic and audio formats will be available on Yandex Books. Izvestia chose a fragment that perfectly conveys the spirit of the work.
Alexey Ivanov. "Nevyanskaya Tower" (fragment)
The building of the blast furnace factory stood close to the dam, connected to it by a water duct and a lifting bridge. The demon jumped out into a narrow gorge between the rear wall of the factory and the steep slope of the dam, which was covered with wild flagstone. The gorge was covered with snow, and the moonlight did not penetrate here. Without choosing a path, the demon immediately climbed up the slope. He gripped the rough edges of the rough slabs, slippery with frost, and leaned on the ledges of the masonry with his bare feet. Small icicles fell down with a slight noise. The demon climbed with the speed and agility of a squirrel.
He climbed out onto the dam and looked back. The master he possessed knew that the nearest large fire was in the blast furnace and the way to it was over the lifting bridge and into the mouth of the firebox. The grate was the upper part of the blast furnace, a brick well into which the charge was poured. A tent-roofed tower made of iron beams and strips was built above the well; a tall pipe crowned it; a wooden bridge stretched from the dam to the tower. The red flame of the well brightly illuminated the iron house from the inside.
Down there, the blast furnace had emptied the womb of liquid cast iron; the burning and melting charge in the furnace shaft had sunk deep below the neck of the shoulder pads, and it was necessary to compensate for the loss. A blast furnace apprentice was in charge of filling the furnace. Workmen were bustling on the bridge and in the koloshnikov teremok: they were rolling carts with crates filled with grain from the dam and tipping them over, dumping their cargo into the well. Columns of sparks were thrown up, and they were sucked into the pipe with a hum. The apprentice, sweating from the heat, counted the ears. A trained blast furnace master, he, of course, would never have allowed Katyrin to jump into a flaming firebox.
And the demon rushed from the dam to the Demidov estate.
When Savvati jumped out onto the dam, the demon had already covered half the distance. He ferociously broke through the snowy wasteland along the fence of the Manor yard — here Akinfiy Nikitich intended to grow a garden later. The demon whipped up white clouds above him like a winter tornado; plowing a loose furrow, he flew under the moon from the dam towards the silent tower and the log wall of the prison.
Together with Savvati, the blast furnace factory's workmen, no more than ten people, ran up the stairs to the wide ridge of the dam. It was impossible to leave the blast furnace unattended, and Grisha Makhotin did not leave the factory: now that the master was mad, Grisha himself controlled the giant furnace. Savvaty looked around the entire area in front of the dam and realized where the demon was heading. Not to visit Demidov. Not to the prison gates. He's aiming at the tower!
"To the tower!" Savvaty shouted to the workers.
We need to catch up and pin Katyrin down… What for? Savvaty did not know why. It is necessary, and that's it!.. A man is dying!..
Writer Alexey Ivanov
The workmen and Savvati rolled down from the dam by another staircase, wider and more gentle — it was the exit to the Manor Yard, and they ran along the trampled path to the tower. The tower stood at the edge of the courtyard like a tall sailing ship. The moon shone on it from one side: the double arches of the cemetery, the slopes of the steep roof above the tent, the blank back wall of the pillar, the sides of the squares and the tent; the two-fingered anemone and the lightning power glittered prickly in the black sky. A thick shadow fell from the tower to the prison wall. The tower cut through the night like a blade.
The sentry's campfire was burning by the porch: it wasn't big enough to attract a demon, and the demon wasn't rushing toward it. But the guards began to fuss at the sight of a whirlwind that was swirling along the shore of the pond, and people running from the dam.
— Catch the devil!.. Savvaty shouted breathlessly.
Of course, the guards didn't figure anything out, although Artamon himself, the commander of Demidov's "henchmen", was among them.
The demon knew that the tower was locked at night and the arches of the cemetery were tightly boarded up with thick boards, and the guards were always warming themselves by the fire in front of the porch: there was no way to enter the tower in the usual way. And the demon jumped right on the wall. He quickly crawled up, clinging with his fingers and bare feet to the uneven brickwork, covered with frost; he deftly grabbed the cast-iron washers of the screeds and, turning his knees, leaned on the narrow ledges of the cast-iron windows. He would not have been able to squeeze through the windows — their openings inside were solidly blocked by lattices made of beams. Therefore, the demon rushed up to the galdarea balcony, from which it is possible to break through the glazed door into the clock chamber on the chimes tier.
And from below, from the Manor yard, Savvaty, the workmen and the guards, looking up, watched the eerie, impossible movement of the demon on the plane of the foursome. The demon emerged from the corner above the sharp ridge of the roof and began to climb even higher, to the ledge and the gallery. He was standing on a sheer wall, like a huge black mizgi spider. He had already lost the appearance of a man — some kind of undead, devilish creature was climbing the wall of the tower.
A shot from the movie "The Geographer drank the globe". The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alexei Ivanov
The creature reached the ledge and jumped over the balcony fence. There was a crash of broken glass — the door to the sentry ward seemed to have disappeared: the stubborn demon had finally reached his goal. And then the hands on the blancifer board trembled, twitched, and the chimes came to life, playing the first chime. He floated softly and weightlessly over the Manor Yard and over the people, over the pond and over the factory, clearing both the darkness of the night and the starlight at once. And outside the windows of the sentry room, something suddenly flared up, flared up, and went out.
Savvaty and the workmen had already approached the guards on foot.
"What the fuck was that?" Artamon asked, dumbfounded and angry.
Savvaty took off his cap and crossed himself.
"We're chasing a demon," he explained. — I don't know why he needs to go to the tower.
Holding the saber dangling from his belt, Artamon looked at the tower again and, having made a decision, ordered one of his henchmen:
— Mitka! Fly to Onfim for the key!
A guy in a Tatar malakhai rushed to the Demidovs' house.
"And where the hell did this one come from?" Artamon asked suspiciously.
— Have you heard that a demon is prowling around Nevyansk? He jumped out of the blast furnace.
The guards were talking excitedly to the workmen.
"Who did you hit?" Artamon continued to interrogate.
— The master of Katyrin.
Artamon whistled:
— Filsha married his granddaughter.…
Mitka returned, out of breath, and handed Artamon the key.
— So, Filsha and Proshka are guarding the entrance! Artamon ordered. "The rest of you, follow me to the tower!" We are looking for Katyrin! Light the fires.
The workmen and Savvaty also followed the "henchmen."
— No, you can't! Artamon stopped them. — There is silver in the tower, the owner forbade anyone to wander around.
"The demon got in by the clock,— Savvaty objected. "I need to check it out."
Of course, the chimes were not the reason for his desire to get into the tower. Savvaty wanted to know about the demon. Well, about Master Katyrin too.
—Okay, I'll let you, Lychagin," Artamon agreed reluctantly.
A shot from the movie "The Heart of Parma". The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alexei Ivanov
The lock on the sturdy door seemed to disintegrate from the turn of a forged key. In the darkness of the boarded-up cemetery, the "henchmen" with torches cautiously dispersed in different directions: someone poked into the upper room, someone climbed the spiral staircase. The tower was small inside, there was nowhere to wander for a long time.
— It's empty here, Artamon Palych! — it came booming from the depths of the room.
From the roof of the ward, Artamon and Mitka immediately went to the very top, Savvaty following them. On each tier of the tower, Mitka carefully highlighted all the corners. Shadows darted, as if darkness were picking up the skirts of his cloak, and the glass in the windows shone dimly. Walking up the wooden steps, Savvaty thought about Katyrin: how would they find the old master? Is he alive? Are you out of your mind?.. The nimble Mitka was the first to climb into the quadrangle with the chimes.
— And there's no one here! — He announced. — They just dropped the door!
Savvaty got up after Artamon.
The mechanism of the chimes is a frame, gears and gears; a long copper shaft with pegs and levers; a rare rain of shiny wire threads; an axis to a blanking board… The trampled floor. There's a lot of frost in the frosted windows. The door is broken, the glass is split, the moon is burning in the opening.
Savvaty looked around, puzzled. Artamon leaned out onto the balcony: the snow had been thrown off the fence, and there was a furrow in the snowdrift on galdarea… And where is Katyrin? Or a demon? Or who is he?.. Everyone saw how the creature broke into the tent.…
"The taller demon probably got away,— Mitka suggested innocently.
"Without a ladder?" Artamon asked doubtfully.
The ladder was lying to one side, as usual. She wasn't touched.
"It's a demon,— Mitka said confidently. — He flew up on his wings.
—Okay, we'll check it out there, too," Artamon grumbled.
A shot from the movie "The Food Hall". The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alexei Ivanov
He lifted the ladder and attached it to a manhole in the plank ceiling, overgrown with shaggy white kurzhak. The trapdoor led to the eighth tier of the tower, the ringing tier, into the middle octagon with bells. Mitka was the first to climb with a torch, and Artamon followed him. Savvaty thought that there was also a small figure of eight above the bell tier. Artamon and Mitka will have to look there too. And that's a good thing.
Savvaty noticed something that Artamon did not pay attention to. The floor in the middle of the sentry tent was covered with mud. Not even dirt, but greasy flakes of soot and ash, dust of ashes. Soot stained the mechanism of the chimes. There was nothing like that this afternoon. Someone couldn't have lit a bonfire here in the evening, what nonsense!.. And then why didn't the frost melt on the ceiling boards?..
Savvaty bent down and picked up a small object from the floor… Copper cross — schismatic, with eight ends… The two ends are fused… Only recently, Savvaty had seen this cross on Katyrin's chest.… So the cross and the soot are all that the fire demon from the blast furnace left behind from the old master?.. Savvaty felt a chill.
He suddenly understood: but he had seen something like this before. A few days ago, when I went with Demidov to the basement of the tower… There was also soot on the floor and a melted cross.… If Katyrin, the blast furnace master, burned down here in the clock tent, then who burned down in the basement?.. Is it really Taraska Epifanov, the missing watchman of the runaway Mishka Tsepnya?..
And it became clear to Savvati: everything is connected! The Chain's escape is connected to the fire demon, and the only connection is the tower. It contains a secret that flies out of the dungeon at night, disembodied and quietly rushes around Nevyansk, diving from fire to fire, and kills people. It is necessary to solve the riddle of the Demidovskaya tower. We need to get into the basement. Otherwise, the demon will continue to devour living souls.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
