Read Online Valerie and Her Week of Wonders by Vitezslav Nezval - Free Book Online Page A

intended to leave you to die.”
    “Never before has his cruelty to me gone as far as this. He said expressly that he would come to free me after I’d served my punishment. I don’t understand why he didn’t come.”
    Valerie and Orlík were now approaching her grandmother’s house.
    “Shh,” she said. “I don’t want them to see us together.”
    A cock crowed. But its voice quivered with despair. On the solemn high note, which should have embraced the dawning day, it broke. No response came.
    “Have you heard what has beset the town?” Valerie asked.
    “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Fowl pest has broken out all over the region.”
    “Fowl pest?” he asked, bursting into laughter.
    “Why are you laughing?”
    “If there is an outbreak of fowl pest, then I’ll finally be rid of my tyrant.”
    “How so?” asked Valerie.
    “If my uncle can’t get enough chicken blood, he’ll drop dead like carrion.”
    “You’re being cruel.”
    “With reason. You still don’t know him. Yet none of us is in such danger from him as you. If fowl pest has broken out, you can soon consider yourself safe.”
    “Despite all the atrocities he has committed, he’s still a human being.”
    “His brutality is inhuman.”
    “Will he really have to die?” the girl asked.
    “He’s been ripe for dying for over a quarter of a century.”
    “No one likes dying.”
    “I had a foreboding he would gain power over you very quickly.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “That you’d fall in love with him.”
    “I’m surprised you think so.”
    “It’s high time he disappeared from the face of the earth.”
    Valerie dropped into thought. An inexpressible melancholy took hold of her. But she did not rebut Orlík’s words since she was afraid it might anger him.
    “We’re here. I’ll take you to the guest room.”
    The girl suddenly snatched the blindfold from Orlík’s eyes and directed his gaze to the stairs. There on the landing was the missionary, hanging by the neck.
     
     
    Chapter XVIII
THE RUIN
     
    Two figures moved in the direction of the cellar, dragging a load. Valerie was dressed now. Her eyes narrowed in terror as, with all the strength at her command, she helped Orlík bear the hanged man’s body away.
    “We can’t bury him down below just like that.”
    “There’s an actual tomb there. You’ll see,” the boy replied.
    “How will we get from the cellar into the vault?”
    “It’s very easy.”
    Orlík laid the body in a corner of the cellar and started tapping at the wall.
    “The way through is here somewhere,” he said, trying to lever out a brick. As soon as it yielded, it was child’s play to shift part of the wall and gain access to the vault.
    “You’re worn out, I’ll take him myself.”
    “I think I’m going to faint.”
    “Come down with me,” said Orlík, once he had managed to drag the body down below.
    “I believe we’re quite near the vaulted room I was lured into yesterday evening.”
    “Yes, but we’re on the other side of the vault.”
    “I’m afraid,” said the girl.
    “It is rather scary. Light the candle.”
    “That’s the candle he stole into my room with. My hands are shaking and I can’t get it to light.”
    Orlík picked up the candlestick. Shortly, the little flame revealed to the frightened girl a gruesome vision: coffins ranged along the wall of the vault. Many coffins. She closed her eyes.
    “Be brave.”
    “Where are we?”
    “Still close to your home.”
    “It’s a cemetery.”
    “A very old cemetery. More a burial ground, if we were to choose our words.”
    “Who’s buried here?”
    “You’ll see in a moment.”
    Effortlessly, Orlík opened one of the coffins. Valerie found herself gazing on hundreds and thousands of tiny white bones.
    “Spare me the horror,” she sobbed.
    “I hope you’re no longer in any doubt as to what this is.”
    “No, I don’t have the courage to think anything.”
    “These are the bones of all the