Читать книгу Cat Marquis De Richelieu - Vyacheslav Miroshnikov - Страница 6

“Here it is, my salvation!” a thought flickered in the head of the cat, and he immediately felt how tired he was. But it was too early to relax. And who knows what new dangers may await him here. Marquis jumped up to the tree, then carefully ran along the swaying branch, finally reached the roof and immediately climbed under the reeds into the attic. Marquis felt how warm it was here. Rain pounded the reeds and drops immediately flowed down. I was very hungry, and Marquis crawled cautiously to the stairs, which went down into the room. He carefully moved his paw to the upper stair and slowly descended on it. Instead of at least some smell of food, a sharp smell of bitterness, heat and steam hit his nose. Fortunately, the stair right under the very roof was very broad, and he could freely sit on it and watch what was happening, without any fear of being noticed.

The things happening downstairs struck him so much that he froze as if rooted to the spot with his mouth slightly open in amazement. Marquis saw an elderly woman, dressed in some kind of rags, repeatedly pounding something in a small bowl, while at the same time constantly pronouncing some words. After a short while, she took a yellow maple leaf from the table and dipped it in boiling liquid. After holding the leaf in a bowl for several seconds, she took it out and threw it onto a chair, where a large yellow-brown spider was sitting.

“Tarmiz!” she cried out loudly, and at that very second the spider turned into a beautiful peacock. To Marquis’s surprise, the creature remained in place, allowing the woman to do her magic over it.

“Meow,” heard De Richelieu. Peacock slightly pecked the woman’s hand, and again Marquis heard, “Meow…”

“I see, you talk too much today!” the hostess said in exasperation and, then dipped another maple leaf into the boiling liquid and threw it at the bird. “Tarmiz Al!” she screamed as the leaf fell onto the peacock. Now a black cat was sitting in place of the bird.

“Meow!” the converted creature cried out loudly. He hissed loudly and then he waved his paw and scratched the woman’s hand hard. He jumped off the chair and immediately ran under the table and hid there.

“Oh you, ungrateful animal!” the woman shouted out and quickly dipped another maple leaf into boiling liquid. Then she pulled it out and whispered something quickly to herself while laying the leaf over the wounded hand.

De Richelieu saw that when she removed the leaf from her hand, her skin was clean without even a hint of any deep scratch. The woman grabbed a poker and immediately began to do something with it under the table. A cat jumped out and, after making a circle around the room, ran to the stairs where Marquis was sitting. The cat’s eyes were terribly frightened and angry. De Richelieu felt a little tension, because he understood that the woman could find him at any moment and he did not want to become a peacock, or a donkey, or a horse…

9

Having felt the right moment when a woman was putting another leaf into the water to throw it at a runaway cat, Marquis quickly jumped back into the attic and lurked in its very far corner, behind an old rotten rag.

“Wait! Don’t you run away! Wait!” he heard the woman screaming. “You will be back anyway! You have nowhere to go!”

But the black cat did not succumb to persuasion. He jumped into the attic, found a passage under the roof, and ran out of the house.

And De Richelieu heard the staircase creak, and immediately realized that he could at any moment become a substitute for his distant, but nevertheless relative. He wanted this least of all, and he, without hesitation, rushed after the one whom the mistress of the house was trying to catch.

After jumping out into the street the marquis felt how quickly his fur got soaked under heavy rain. He jumped onto a branch, ran along the trunk of a tree, then jumped to the ground and ran towards another building. The rain kept on lashing, but, as they say, every dark cloud has a silver lining. It seemed that the owners of this house never took away the ladder from the entrance to the attic, and as it was left outside, it was not difficult for Marquise to get under the roof. It was dry, clean, warm and comfortable there. Only a few things were lying in the corner. Marquis was already heading for the wooden wheel to have some rest on it, when he heard some sounds that immediately alerted him. Right next to this wheel lay a black cat and cried quietly. De Richelieu immediately recognized him as a victim of the recent manipulations of the magic lady, slowly walked up to him and lay down beside him, wanting to talk to him. After waiting a while, Marquis raised his head and looked into the eyes of the cat who happened to become his neighbor.

“You can’t live like that!” said De Richelieu quietly. “I know what loneliness is, but you cannot humiliate yourself by loyalty either. That is why there are many among us who have to choose between those two things…”

“What do you know about my life?” a black cat quietly interrupted him without raising his head or wiping his tears.

“I saw what the witch woman did to you. At that time I was sitting on the stairs and watching everything. I was so scared that I was even afraid to move.”

“Do not remind me of this, it was so scary and unpleasant!” said a black cat. “No one ever comes close to her house. No one knows what exactly is going on there, but all the people in this village surmise that she is doing something bad.”

“Are you afraid of leaving her?”

“Yes. I have no one but her. Everybody keeps away from me, they are all afraid, because I live with Maga.”

10

“I’m not afraid of you!”

“Well, that’s because you don’t know much. You do not know my mistress and do not know what she is capable of doing!”

“In my opinion, now you have the only possible chance to find a friend who is willing to try and change your life for the better. You can come with me and try your luck on the road. And of course you can always come back if you want to become a donkey or a peacock.”

“Angie! Angie!” they heard a familiar voice very close to them.

“This is Maga! Follow me! We have to run!” a black cat spoke fearfully and immediately jumped towards the stairs to get as far away from the witch as possible. De Richelieu had no choice but to follow him, and after a moment he jumped from the stairs, as if diving into a seething stream. His slightly dried fur got wet again. The rain became much stronger, and the sky was covered in darkness as if night was about to fall. Marquis ran after his new acquaintance, not understanding where. The voice of the mistress was becoming quieter and the house – further away from them. Was it reasonable enough to leave the village in such weather? Wasn’t it better to move to another house and have some rest there, or maybe find food? De Richelieu wished he could ask all of these questions, but the black cat ran so fast that it was impossible to catch up with him to say anything.”