Читать книгу The Ghosts of Mandrake. Fantasy - Svetlana Mirrai - Страница 4

The next day, Philip came home from school sullen and tortured. Today the math teacher called him to the blackboard. Since Philip was well versed in this science, he knew how to solve all these examples that the teacher wrote with chalk on the blackboard.

But he was unlucky, the teacher was called by the head teacher and he immediately disappeared, leaving the guy standing alone in the middle of the class.

Egor, the main enemy of Philip, saw a good situation and did not waste time to show his superiority again and was the first to start a war. He took a dirty rag from the board and threw it at Philip, who managed to dodge, but got a dirty rag again. When the teacher came in, the whole class was already laughing at the chalk-white boy.

The teacher was a young guy after the institute, he thought that Philip really had dirty himself and wanted to dirty all his classmates and decided not to sort it out, put two for his behavior.

– Quasimodo, and you know, the white uniform suits you, you don’t erase it, – Egor mocked.

Philip went into the room trying to forget about all the bad things, because now he had to turn all his attention to his sick grandmother.

– Filippok, my boy, how are you doing at school? «What is it?» she asked gently and quietly.

«I’m fine, Grandma,» he said, turning away to wipe away a few tears.

Grandma croaked something else and closed her eyes.

– I feel bad for my granddaughters. I probably won’t keep my promise to live long Filippok. I’m sorry, bunny.

– Grandma hold on, I’ll put you on your feet, you’ll see, – the boy said firmly and left the room.

Philip took out of his briefcase a piece of paper with a phone number that Natasha had written to him yesterday.

«It’s time to call everything,» he thought decisively and took the home phone in the hallway, then went to his room and closed the door so that grandma wouldn’t hear anything.

Philip dialed the number.

No one answered the phone for a long time, but they still picked up the phone.

«Hello,» a man’s voice said into the phone and fell silent.

– Hello, are you a sorcerer?

There was a slight silence on that wire, then it was interrupted by a deep sigh and the voice continued.

– I have a name, young man, just like you.

– I’m sorry, I was probably tactless just now. My name is Philip, my grandmother is seriously ill. They called an ambulance yesterday, but I didn’t give my grandmother to them. And your neighbor Natasha gave me your phone number last night.

«My name is Celestine. I’m a witcher, I did the right thing by calling me. Describe everything in detail now?

Philip, in a low voice, sometimes even turning to a whisper, began to describe the condition of his grandmother.

Soon Celestine interrupted him:

– I’ll make a decoction for Grandma now and I’ll be there in three hours.

Exactly three hours later, the doorbell rang.

On the threshold, as it seemed to Philip, there was a beautiful woman with long hair.

The boy froze in surprise, silently examining his guest. But the witcher broke the silence first.

– So I came, Philip, in three hours as promised.

The witcher’s voice was male, exactly the same as on the phone.

– Come in, – said Philip and let the guest into the apartment.

The boy looked at Celestin in surprise and somehow incredulously, so the witcher understood the situation, and in order to destroy the young man’s doubts, he said:

– There is one rule that will definitely be useful to you and not once. Looks are very deceptive. And as for me, my appearance is always different. Sometimes I’m even… um… an insect.

– Are you kidding? Philip asked incredulously.

– I’m not a simple person, I have huge magical abilities, you can’t even imagine how strong a sorcerer I am, – answered mysteriously Celestine.

«I wish I had that kind of strength,» the boy said dreamily.

Celestin’s smile appeared briefly on his face and soon disappeared.

– Well, my friend, shall we proceed to the magic ritual? «What’s the matter?» the witcher asked.

Philip wanted to answer that he should start, but a quiet grandmother’s voice was heard from the room.

– Philip, my boy, are you at home?

– Y-s-s grandmother, you must not know anything, – Philip took Celestine by the hand and led him to his room. – Stay here for now.

The boy left the witcher alone for a while and went to his grandmother.

«Granddaughters, you’ve done your homework, because you have to go to school tomorrow,» she said softly

– Don’t worry, Grandma, everything is fine. Can I go to my room now?

– Go, honey, go, and I’ll take a nap for now.

Philip found the witcher in his room, looking at a painting that depicted a castle and a girl with a candelabra in her hands and burning candles.

– You draw beautifully, you are a very talented young man, I want to tell you, – Celestin said without even turning his head in his direction.

– And how did you know that I drew it?

– Who did you invite to your place? The Witcher! But you doubt his abilities yourself. Why is that? I know for a fact that this is your job,“ he said. „Now let’s get down to business. Since your grandmother is not sleeping right now, I will not be able to perform this magic ritual at the moment. Therefore, I give you this vessel, in which there is a decoction.

«What am I supposed to do with him?» Philip asked, confused.

– You have to do everything yourself.

– I’m not a witcher. «That’s why I won’t be able to do magic,» Philip said softly so that his grandmother wouldn’t hear him.

«You don’t have to do magic. I brought a decoction, you will lightly apply it on your wrists, forehead, smear your temples and add two drops of tea, compote, jelly to the drink. But I crushed this bag of herbs and roots, and you put a pinch in a metal saucer, hold it over a burning candle and walk around the apartment, but not for more than a minute.

– What if it’s longer?

– Don’t do that, there is a mandrake root added.

Philip did not understand what kind of root it was, he was not interested in it at all and he did not ask anything else.

– Well, how much will I owe for your work?

– And in return, I will only ask for a picture, I need it, which is hanging on the wall in your room.

«Take whatever you want, but not her,» the boy said.

– Since she is so dear to you, then draw me a similar one.

«I’ll try, – Philip said.

At that moment their eyes met, and Philip realized how strong and domineering the witcher’s character was.

– I’ll go, if you need my help, call. «And don’t forget I’ll be waiting for the painting,» Celestine said, hiding behind the front door.

Her voice came from Grandma’s room again:

– Philip… Philip…

– I’m coming Grandma.

Philip quickly put away everything that the witcher had given him and went to his grandmother.

– I just now saw in my granddaughters’ dream a huge, beautiful palace, and in the circle of this palace, right on its walls, huge scary birds were sitting, they looked like gargoyles. Another black crow circled in the sky. And the palace, despite all its splendor, for some reason seemed alarming and dangerous.

«Whatever Grandma dreams about, they’re all dreams and don’t pay attention to them,» Philip tried to calm her down.

«That’s right. Yes, that’s just not the first time I have this dream.

– Grandma, well, where in our city is such a palace, and even with gargoyles? «Well, tell me from where?» asked Philip with a smile on his face.

– Yes, what are you? I didn’t say he was from our city. Our houses are crookedly built, what magnificent castles there can be. The one that I dreamed about, it’s like a fairy tale. And I’m not ready to tell you anything reasonable about it yet. But one thing I can say is that he is fraught with some kind of danger.

«You’re my grandmother’s storyteller,» Philip laughed.

– Go, granddaughter, it’s already late. And you need to get some sleep, get up early tomorrow and go to school again.

– Good night, Grandma.

– Good night, granddaughter.

The next day Philip came home from school, Grandma was lying quietly on the bed, apparently asleep.

He took out the hidden vessel in his room in the table and quietly approached his grandmother. I dripped liquid on cotton wool and anointed it everywhere.

Then he took a pinch of the mixture out of the bag and put it on a metal saucer, lit a candle and walked quietly around the apartment. Philip walked around his grandmother’s room, then he slowly wandered into his own and stood by his favorite painting.

Suddenly, a purple mist appeared in the room, it completely covered the floor from below, and then began to rise even higher and soon it just covered Philip.

The smoke penetrated his lungs, he felt a burning pain at first, and then it became easier for him and the fog dissipated.

Before Philip appeared a huge forest, with its tall, sturdy trees and mighty branches.

– Where am I? Philip said unexpectedly to himself, he was so confused that he even began to talk to himself.

«You’re a young man in Elbrus,» someone from the forest immediately answered him.

– Who’s here? The young man croaked in fright.

– Turn around,» a voice answered him.

Philip turned around, but there was no one around.

– What kind of jokes are you having,» Philip said sternly and took the stick that was next to him.

– Yes, what kind of jokes can there be, look in front of you and you will see me.

The young man was taken aback when he saw a huge living eye in front of him. He was looking right out from under a large root of a tree that looked like an oak.

«Wow, how did you get in there, – Philip said.

– And you, young man, think less, eat more. In our country, it’s only like that. And this place is called the Kingdom of Shadows, which is located in the city of Elbrus.

– That’s how it is. Even the castle. It turns out that my grandmother predicted me correctly.

«Is Grandma here too?» – the eye was surprised.

– No, I’m alone. And you’re generally who and how you talk to me, you only have one eye sticking out from under a tree.

– My name is Wise Zri and I am already two hundred and ten years old.

Philip laughed.

– And don’t be afraid of the inhabitants of the castle. Go straight down the path, you’ll see a small bridge, cross the road, and you’re already there.

– Thank you, – Philip said.

But the Wise Man did not answer him, he lowered his eyelid and became completely invisible.

Philip confidently went on and then he felt lightness in his body, the old stooping posture was gone, his body obeyed and it was easy to breathe.

I’m not a hunchback anymore! – it was spinning in his head. I’m not a hunchback!