Helpless, hopeless despair defeats him, and Terrant can only watch how Alice meets a blow, blocks a lunge, performs several of her own achievements, and then, as if by mutual agreement, she and her rivals slightly lower their swords and begin to circle each other again.
Twenty minutes. Terrant counts them. Twenty minutes of pointless posing until Alice is allowed to knock this hated blade out of her opponent’s hands and demand victory.
He never hated time more than now.
Alice meets the enemy’s sword again, more violently than before. The sound of metal sounds too fast and Terrant does not have time to start in time. He makes his eyes not blink, makes himself look. While he was watching, nothing bad had happened - nothing really bad - would not be with his Alice. He kept his eyes open during the Battle of Brave Day, which is good too! or she could have been seriously injured by this terrible Barmaglot! He kept his eyes open when this pathetic, disgusting man touched his Alice in those places to which only Terrant was allowed access! But he kept his eyes open and was able to direct her toward the lost weapon when she escaped from his grip. In fact, the only time Terrant did not keep his eyes open was when Alice killed Stein. Alice killed Ilosovich Stein and, as a result, a sense of guilt, which, according to Terrant, she should not have felt at all! it almost destroyed her, almost pushed her back into the mirror and into life far and away from him!
Yes, Terrant must keep an eye on her!
Her adversary is taller than her, stronger than her, and wields her sword with frightening skill. Again and again, Alice must raise her weapon to counter his crushing attacks. Terrant is afraid that her hands will tremble with fatigue.
“Hasn't twenty minutes passed yet?”
He dares to look at McTwisp, but he is not. There is no silver bell. There is no soft green grass and the field in Mramoria is also not visible anywhere! The checkered battlefield, with its cracked and weathered stones and disheveled weeds, growing disgusting bunches, meets his increasingly panicky look.
Terrant turns left and right, looking for the courtiers, Alice’s mentors, the necessary Royal Guard ... but only the wind makes Terrant company on this desert plain.
Hit!
He returns his gaze in horror at the fact that his Alice is still fighting!
Terrant is looking for a silver bell or whatever, for that matter! Maybe he has something in his pockets! Perhaps he can make it out of a thimble and a metal button! He desperately struggles with his pockets, which suddenly seem too small for his fingers, he swears under his breath at the outlandish. He uses words that he never spoke in the presence of Alice, but he does not care!
“Without a bell, the battle will not end until someone dies!”
Terrant is afraid. He fears for Alice. For, even if she does not die, she will kill again, she will leave him again, will leave the Underdark with her unpleasant memories through the mirror! Terrant is not sure if he can stop her this time ...
And there! His fingers manage to penetrate the pocket of his vest, pocket for a pocket watch and Terrant pulls out a small, silver bell. He waves them in the air and: “Thanks to the fate of the Underdark!” - his clear, clean ringing echoes throughout the wasteland.
Relief!
Pure, blessed relief fills him. Alice will finish the battle soon. Soon she will turn to him, and he will put his bandaged and wounded hands on her cheeks and lay his forehead on hers, and she will smile and pronounce his name when he holds on to him, and he will know that she is safe and that she kept her promise!
And so, the silver bell rings.
And Alice drops her hand.
“No, no, no!” Terrant rushes to her. He will save her, as before! This time there is no mirror between them! Nothing to slow it down!
And yet, he is not fast enough.
In the next instant, the enemy’s wide sword pierces the air and finds its mark: Alice.
Terrant does not understand what he sees: Alice is falling, her crimson blood is being whipped in huge streams from the tip of the blade coming out of her back, with her mouth open and blood dripping from her lips.
"NO!"
He reaches her, takes her in his arms, shouts her name, forbids her to leave him! But she does not look at him. She does not smile at him. She does not press a palm to his cheek to calm him. She does nothing at all.
She ... His Alice ...
He feels it then: madness. It comes to him, as it was on that Horrible day, when he stood in the center of the village of his clan and examined the sheer ... destruction.
Madness comes and he greets him!
“May this rage be the last emotion that this vile, disgusting Underdark sees, knows, fears!”
Still holding Alice in her arms, Terrant looks up and looks at Alice’s opponent, her killer. He is looking and .....
... and ...
... and madness about