Читать книгу Element. Flame of Elisar онлайн

“You mean there are some secrets that concern us, yet we are the ones who won’t learn them, right?”

Yoos nodded.

“That’s the paradox,” Elcha frowned.

“Yes, that’s the side effect we couldn’t have predicted. And there was no need to do so, actually,” Truvle said while stroking the scrub on his chin.

“But there is at least something you can tell, right?” even though the things took quite an unexpected turn Elcha was still not going to give up meekly and unconditionally.

“I can tell you everything in a year, no earlier. But I think I’ll try to explain something…” Mammy said after some thinking, still featuring her typical confidence in the voice. And then slowly, as if tasting every word first, she began it.

“Those creatures… They are called Goortans. They are very dangerous. They’re bloodhounds, and they feel magic with their manes, much like dogs smell with the nose. But they do not act on their own, there serve forces much stronger, and they…” her voice fell silent for a moment.

“I can’t,” she stammered, and a painful expression covered her face.

Truvle came up to her chair, sat down on the floor and took her hand silently thus offering her support.

“Goortans don’t hunt you both, just Ricka. They need the older one.”

“As long as the first is alive, they don’t need the other one…” my sister said, and everyone looked at her in surprise. She smiled shyly and spread her arms.

“There, on the northern slope, it was me, and I want to know now what exactly you could hear from that conversation,” Nargara gave her a look of reprimand.

That made Elcha blush a little, yet she still could give quite a smooth account of what she had managed to eavesdrop.

“Yeah, that’s definitely not that little,” Truvle hemmed.

“Well, it may even be all for the better,” Yoos added.

“The man you spoke to, who was he?” Elcha asked showing the same inquisitiveness as earlier.

“He plays on our side,” Mammy replied evasively and, waiting a little, she added, “A friend, a good’n old friend.”

But there was so much sadness and pain in her voice it was clear immediately that the man was anyone but a friend… They usually talk like that about someone so dear yet lost forever.