Читать книгу Element. Flame of Elisar онлайн

“Is it that hopeless?” I asked trying to get up.

“Stay there,” Nargara’s said in a voice that left me no choice but obey. Then she came up to me smiled sadly, and only that moment I could see how exhausted she looked. She had to try beyond her best, I guess, to get me back at least, let alone talking… Much beyond her best…

Nargara was a beautiful woman – black braided hair down to her waist, large light-brown eyes, high cheek bones and a perfectly straight nose – the features typical of nobility rather than of a local witch. She never looked her age and for someone from outside she might look like a woman around thirty. The only part that would give away her age was the eyes. They radiated with so much wisdom and sound judgment that you would see immediately she was someone who had seen a lot of what the World could offer. And not that World alone, maybe…

And now the eyes were full of tears.

“What was that, Ricka? Do you remember?” she asked taking a sit on my bed.

“What beast was that?” Elcha jumped in rubbing her running nose.

“How do you know it was a beast?” I was surprised.

“Oh, you should see your own back. The wounds are worse than awful! Mammy could see right away those were from some huge claws! Did that ambush you? I think you would have escaped otherwise, wouldn’t you? I know you can be real fast,” my sister was rattling away as she sat next to Mammy.

“Elcha!” Nargara warned her in a menacing pitch. “Don’t be running ahead of the hounds! You are getting her exhausted with your chit-chat!”

Elcha had to shut her mouth and put on some injured look pursing her lips, and only her eyes revealed how impatient she was to hear my story.

The Witch’s eyes were equally inquisitive, by the way, so I started.

“I don’t even know what creature was it! Had never met before! I just stopped at the River Hill to have a quick bite, and here it was. Looking at me first, with its swelling nostrils, and then rushed… All I could do was run through the bushes… And my back, yes, it hit quite badly just when it was catching up. Fast beast, indeed! I would never believe an animal could move so fast! You told me it is so rare, and I have never met anyone like that in our area… And the strange tentacles, you know, like a lion’s mane, and moving like snakes, as if…”