NIGHT - I. Rin (best large ereader txt) 📗

up into the saddle. “Goodbye, Isa!” Lica turned to the young man. “Thank you

so much for everything!”

 

She leaned over and hugged him.

 

“Don’t forget me,” Isa whispered in her ear.

 

The sorcerer pulled the reins and first went ahead on the path. The girl followed him. She waved Leila, who was staying at the entrance of the cave...

 

About an hour the riders were riding in silence, beating their way through the mountains. Suddenly the mountains opened out and a wide valley appeared in front of our heroes.

 

“Now it will be much easier,” said the sorcerer. “We’ll have to get the harbor in two hours if everything goes well.”

 

And he spurred his horse. Lica also put her horse into a gallop. In a few minutes she rode down the sorcerer and asked him:

 

“What is your name? Margo didn’t tell me!” The man grinned

 

“If you need to know, my name is Huron!”

 

“Thank you! It is strange to travel together without knowing each other’s names.”

 

The sorcerer said nothing and they continued their way in silence. Soon the sky lightened and the sun rose. In the rays of the sun Angelica saw something looked like a village far away.

 

“What is it?” she pointed to the houses.

 

“It’s the starting point of our trip!” Huron said. “The harbor is there.”

 

The riders pretty quickly got to the village and went to the harbor. There were a lot of large and small boats, but the ship was only one.

 

“Follow me!” the sorcerer turned to the girl, jumping down. Lica obeyed. The gray-haired man walked toward the ship, leading the horse behind him.

 

“Hey!” he shouted to the seaman, who was standing on the desk. “Call your captain, immediately!”

 

“The captain is in the cabin! If you need him, board the ship!” answered the sailor.

 

“Hold my horse,” Huron said to Angelica.

 

The girl took the reins, and the sorcerer quickly boarded the ship. Ten minutes later he appeared on the deck with a young man. They were talking about something lively. Then Huron went to Lica took his horse, and said:

 

“They take us! Hurry up; they are going to put off right now!” “But what about our horses?” asked Angelica.

“The saloon-keeper will look after them until we come back!” Our heroes quickly took animals and tied them in a shed near saloon. Huron gave the owner a few coins. Then Lica and the

sorcerer boarded the ship. At the same moment seamen heaved the anchor, the sails swelled out, and the ship moved out of the harbor into the sea.

“Let me introduce myself,” suddenly Angelica heard a voice. She looked around and saw a tall, handsome young man. He had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, and cheerful blue eyes.

“I am the captain - Julien!” the man said.

 

“Of course, how could I forget to introduce you?” exclaimed Huron. “Julien, this is Angelica!”

The Captain kissed Lica’s hand and said:

 

“I have not seen such a beautiful girl for a long time!”

 

“This is not surprising,” she smiled, “you are always sailing!” Julien rated Angelica’s joke and laughed. “And you’re a witty young lady!” he said.

“Yes, sometimes,” Lica retorted.

 

“Well,” continued the captain, “let me invite you to dinner, it is going to be fun! And now excuse me, but I have to commence my duties.”

He walked away from the sorcerer and Lica to his sailors. “Tell me, Huron,” said Angelica, “how long we need to sail

to the island?”

 

“Not long. Tomorrow at dawn we’ll be there!”

“Great. I do not like dusting!”

 

The Holy Grail

 In the evening, our heroes were in the captain’s cabin. He raised his glass of wine and said:

“I have a toast to our meeting!”

 

Lica took a gulp and asked:

 

“Where are you going, Captain?”

 

“I am in trade,” said Julien. “We bought crabs from the vil-lagers and deliver them to the customers. But the purpose of your visit to the island is a mystery to me!”

 

“There is no mystery,” mumbled Huron. “I and Angelica want to visit this island as tourists. Is it strange?”

 

“But there are lots of other islands, which are safer and more picturesque places than this island,” said the captain.

 

“No we are interested in this island!” said the sorcerer cagily. “But I must warn you,” said Julien, “the ship will wait for you

 

no more than one day. You know, we are very busy!”

“Good!” Huron nodded.

 

“Captain,” Lica tried to shunt the conversation on another topic, “your dinner is perfect!”

 

“Oh, yes!” Julien agreed. “I have an excellent cook!”

 

The second half of the dinner was pretty monotonous. The Captain was profuse in compliments and she tried to keep the conversation going. Huron with glum face was silent.

 

The next morning, as soon as the sun rose, the sorcerer woke Lica:

 

“Get up; we are coming to the island!”

 

The girl dressed up and went to the deck. Julien was there too looking through a telescope.

 

“Good morning!” Angelica said.

 

“Oh, Angelica!” said the captain slowly, putting his telescope away. “Good morning! You are so charming!”

 

He kissed her hand.

 

“Tell me,” continued Julien, “what are you going to do on this godforsaken piece of land? This place is very dangerous!”

 

“We have to go through a magic ceremony,” Lica got off the hook. “And it can be done only on this island.”

 

“But do you know about the wild men there, and if they catch you, they’ll kill you! And even worse, they’ll eat you!”

 

“I hope everything will be alright!” stuttered the girl.

 

“You know that…” the captain said “…magic is my weakness! I suppose I will go with you.”

 

“Thank you!” Angelica was delighted.

 

Actually, she was relieved to know that she was going there with somebody else, but not with only the old sorcerer.

 

“The Earth!” shouted the sailor on the pylon. “The island!” “Go to the lagoon!” the captain gave orders. “Drop the anchor! Prepare boats!”

 

The sorcerer appeared on the deck. His eyes were flaring.

 

“At last,” he whispered.

 

“Huron,” the girl called him. “The captain wishes to go to the island with us!”

 

“What? Are you crazy?” the sorcerer unexpectedly lost control of his senses. “We’re not going for a walk!”

 

“That’s why I want Julien to go with us. It will be safer with him!” Lica retorted.

 

Huron looked at her, but then said:

 

“Okay, he will go, but do not let him poke his nose into my business!”

 

“You’ll tell him!” Angelica dogmatized.

 

Meanwhile, the ship rounded the island and dropped the anchor in the beautiful blue lagoon. Standing on the desk Lica was staring at the marvelous scenery.

 

“How beautiful!” she murmured.

 

“Beauty is but skin deep!” the captain said unexpectedly behind the girl and grinned. “In the nice, green jungle bloodthirsty savage tribes are hiding. God preserve us of meeting with them! I hope your sword is not only a pretty thing for you?”

 

“I have already used it,” embarrassed the girl.

 

“Already? Do you think you are ready for this dangerous walk?” Julien chuckled again. “Come on, the boat is waiting for us!” He offered Angelica his hand and helped her down into the boat. Huron was already there.

 

“If we don’t come back until the sunset, sail to the customer! In this case the second officer will mind the store,” Julien gave the order. “Row to the island!”

 

Two sailors were sitting in a boat with oars. They imme-diately began to row, and pretty soon the boat nuzzled into the sandy shore.

 

“You will stay here!” the captain turned to the sailors. “And we are walking around the island!”

 

Huron ran ashore and pointed ahead to the mountain. “I think we must go there!”

 

“But there are only bare rocks!” Angelica exclaimed.

 

“They are just what we need!” said the sorcerer.

 

And he first went into the shade of the thick trees. The girl and the captain followed him. Julien was armed with a pair of pistols and had a flask of water. Our heroes went into the jungle, and soon trees surrounded them everywhere.

 

“Huron, we’d better use a compass?” the captain suggested him.

 

“My nose is better than any of the compasses,” retorted the sorcerer. “I can smell where to go!”

 

Through thick and thin he was going forward confidently. Suddenly our travelers heard a crack aside. As if someone accidentally stepped on a dry branch. The sorcerer immediately tensed up and raised his hand.

 

“Be quiet!” he whispered. “It looks like we’re not alone here!” Before he could even pronounce it, a few centimeters from Lica’s head an arrow swept and stuck in a tree.

 

“Run!” Julien shouted and pushed the girl to the bush.

 

They ran as fast as they could. Branches lashed their faces, lops scrambled clothes. Suddenly Lica’s foot slid down, and she went heels over head into a ravine, the captain slid down topsy-turvy next.

 

“Shhh,” he tried to be as quite as he could. “I think we have shaken off them!”

 

“Yes, but where is Huron?” the frightened girl said. “Without him our mission is ill-omened!”

 

“Do not worry about him!” Julien said. “He has worked with worse.”

 

As if to prove his words the sorcerer’s voice came from above: “My friends, I’m not so young, to chase at you as a deer!”

“Huron!” Angelica exclaimed.

“I’m so glad that you’re alive!” “I am gladder!” the sorcerer smiled. He went down into the ravine and said:

 

“I have news: bad and very bad!”

 

“What happened?” asked Lica.

 

“The first is - in the jungle, we have run into ambush of one of the wild men tribes and now they know that we are on the island! The second one is - running away I have lost the tube with blood of my adopted daughter - Leila, and now without it I cannot perform the ceremony.”

 

“Why is Leila’s blood?” asked the girl.

 

“Do you remember I said that the only pure and sinless soul could see in the Subtle World? My daughter is a virgin; I could perform the ceremony with her blood and call you by her name. Then you would have been able to see invisible things!”

 

“But I’m a virgin, too,” said Lica a little embarrassed.

“Really?!” Huron exclaimed happily. “Then we have chance!

 

We have to hurry! Maybe we can get there before the wild men tribes.” He grabbed her hand trying to climb up the ravine. Julien barely kept up with them. After a while, our heroes came to the foot of the mountains.

 

“We are going there!” the sorcerer pointed up.

 

The travelers immediately began to climb the steep slope. As soon as they disappeared over the stones, they heard peoples’ cries below. Apparently, the wild men were looking for them.

 

“Don’t stop!” Huron warned them. “They won’t follow us in the mountains. This is forbidden territory for them, something like a “taboo”!”

 

“Why?” asked Angelica.

 

“It is believed that the Land of the Dead is in the mountains. So they all are terrified to go there.”

 

Huron took Julien and Lica on a broad plateau.

 

“Great place!” he said. “Here, I will do a little magic ritual. Julien, I ask you to take a defensive position behind the stones to make sure that none of the savages had come through here!”

 

“But you have said that they were terrified this place and wouldn’t follow us...” the captain started to speak.

 

“Yes, but you can’t be too careful!” said the sorcerer firmly.

 

Julien agreed and went over the cliff.