Dorana woke up from the fact that someone knocked on her window.The girl lay down a little, hoping that it seemed or that the sound was a dream. But the knock was repeated. Persistent such knock, rhythmic.Dorana sat down and listened.There was another knock on the window.“All right,” said the girl. - Persuaded, I get up.She armed herself with a slipper, made sure that the amulet ring was in place and went to kill the crazy one who knocks on other people's windows at night.The moon shone outside the window. It was big and yellow, like a head of cheese. And against its background, a human head and a hand raised for the next knock were blackened like a stencil.— Eek! Dorana said in surprise.She still hoped it was a tree knocking on the window. Branch. True, the girl did not remember any trees growing close to the window, but you never know, suddenly they are there, and the fact that they are not there was just a dream. There are dreams that seem more real than real reality itself
I wonder what he can be thanked for in such a situation? For doing a favor and surviving?- Why? - Khiyat asked in a strange way. Because I have to.- Must? The girl couldn't believe her ears. What and to whom do you owe? After all, you are not the one who keeps!Khiyat hatched on her like a talking dog.- Not keeping? Dorana asked, slowly realizing that no one but those who keep guards can do anything with the defense of the city. Even their relatives can't without special permission. And all sorts of strangers… — Khiyat?- It happened. Let's go from here.That's the whole answer. A real man.“But you will explain everything to me when we leave!” Doran set the condition.“Good,” Khiyat did not resist.The hardest part was getting Hiyat out of the bush. At first, the girl tried to lead him, then she spat, grabbed her armpits and dragged him, not listening to his comments. Then things got easier. The guy knew exactly where he needed to go, said where to turn and promised that at the en
Khiyat was lying on the floor. Eyes closed, arms outstretched, bliss on face.Liiran and Dorana sat in chairs. They sat with their feet without even taking off their shoes. Instinct kicked in as the floor lit up and strange patterns crawled across it. Neither he nor she wanted to accidentally step on something like that. You never know how it will react. This is Hiyata, it heals, but it can do with them exactly the opposite.They were frankly afraid to talk, it seemed that they would violate some kind of sacrament, or attract some kind of dirty trick with a loud sound. And what is there to talk about? It is better to wait until Khiyat gets up and finally tells what kind of nonsense is going on in the city, and why the candidates for the guardians have come to the fore. With these candidates, nothing is clear at all. Liiran, for example, studied well enough to know that any more or less close blood relative of a carnivore feels the presence of someone who has a similar gift nearby. Eve
In the morning, Liiran began to feel as if he had dreamed everything. Well, he woke up in his bed. Under the door of the handle, the back of the chair is thrust, a kind of protection from drunken brides. Birds are chirping outside the window, the sun is shining. The time is closer to noon.Everything was ruined by a messenger who brought an indication that Liiran should find Khiyat and drag him to Darine Atana. Moreover, this should be done as quickly as possible.I had to say goodbye to the pale and unhappy brides, who were no longer happy that they got involved in grandfather's adventure, and did not really understand how and why they got involved. Promise mom to eat well and get plenty of rest again. Listen to grandfather's instructions. And finally, go in search of a subordinate.However, it didn't take long to find him. He was in his father's house. As pale as the hungover brides, but suspiciously cheerful.Dorana was found there. She busily mixed some medicines and thought aloud
The next three days were very fun. The brothers no longer pestered Dorana, they were not up to it. Nich did not appear at home at all, doing something mysterious and important. Kairan, along with his older brothers, came only to eat and show his mother, they say, they are all alive and well. Mom was happy, grumbled that at least one should get married, because she was tired of feeding all this crowd, and listened to the news.And the news was, though expected, but not very joyful.At night, spirits began to roam the city, frightening various overly impressionable passers-by. Someone there even had a heart attack, he did not expect that a long-dead great-grandmother would come out of the wall and begin to shake her fist. It was not possible to find out how he saw his great-grandmother in the formless ghost, for everyone else these spirits were on the same face, also an absent face, and they were frightened of them, rather, from surprise. It is unpleasant to fly into a ghost that has cr
“Here you have to dive,” said Hiyat, and Dorana sighed heavily.At the moment, it was no longer clear to her what exactly she was counting on by escaping from the library. But no matter what she counted on, Khiyat behaved unpredictably anyway. And he himself led her to the very green turtles with which he swears.No, at first they walked quietly and peacefully through the city. Then for some reason they crawled along some kind of hole, ignoring the hysterically barking dog. Before the girl had time to stand up and dust off her knees, Hiyata was carried into someone's overgrown garden. Behind the garden, stone fragments and rocks that looked like the ruins of a giant structure were found.The guy quite confidently passed between the stone fragments, helped Dorana to squeeze into a rather narrow gap, either between the rocks, or in the rock. He confirmed that it was the sound of the surf that was heard and turned right. So they got to the point that the girl took for a big puddle and wh
“Not at all,” Ladai confirmed. “They didn't listen to her. They were more interested in throwing books. One hit me in the face.He touched the black eye and chuckled again.- Why are you giggling? – Khiyat asked and poured the powder into a cup.“Fun,” Ladai blurted into a smile. - Snowball game. Books.“One of them hit him over the head,” Liiran said. - We went to that drinking house to ask for ice to apply to the bump.“Yeah,” Khiyat said seriously and scratched the back of his head. “Did you get hit in the eye with a book too?”“No,” Liiran smiled sadly. “I got hit by the librarian's fist when I tried to explain why no one stopped Velda. Rough uncle.“Very severe,” Ladai confirmed.Dorana went up to him, looked into his eyes, grunted and demanded to show the bump. The boy bowed his head willingly, swaying forward and almost burying himself in her knees. The girl ran her hand along the back of his head, found a bump, gently felt it and, nodding to her thoughts, decided to treat him.
“Everything will be fine,” Khiyat said.Dorana smiled and nodded, although at the moment she didn't care. Even if the summoners came in droves and summoned the ancient evil, she wouldn't care one bit. She thought so.Now they were walking through the city. The guy held her hand, escorted her home and told her what he was doing in the library, while she sat alone with sandwiches and looked at portraits. It turns out that he was there, with the help of some mysterious guardian, slightly changing the protection of the city. Now he could influence her from afar, though not yet from anywhere, but only from that very library.Summoners will no longer be able to enter the city until they catch all the ghosts, this was the condition of the change. And after that, they will not be able to call anything dangerous in the city. They can try to turn safe into dangerous, but they are unlikely to succeed.Dorana nodded and smiled at Khiyat, the city, the sun, a puddle of unknown origin in the middle
Toen boredly looked at the ceiling. A white and smooth ceiling, for some reason similar to a frozen and snow-covered lake.In general, Toen liked to lie there and do nothing. Always liked it. He just didn't want to admit it to himself for a long time. There were a lot of people around who aspired to something, wanted to achieve something, were going to grow above themselves and make great discoveries. And here he is - wanting to wallow on the beach and watch the surf lick the shore. It's stupid. And unworthy of a man.Therefore, Toen gritted his teeth and began to achieve everything in a row and in spite of everything. For a while it was even interesting. Then it stopped being interesting, but pride in oneself appeared. By that time, he had left almost all his acquaintances far behind. Then he rolled by inertia for some time, until one day he thought: why is it needed? Toen never found an answer to this question. Therefore, he quit his job and, without saying goodbye to anyone, went t
Dorana managed to relax and get bored again when the guy sitting next to her naturally jumped up, froze in a strange position with bulging eyes, and then collapsed into her seat and began to think about something diligently, judging by the expression on her face. The girl was even afraid to ask why all these gestures. Suddenly it dawned on him, and right now he is inventing a recipe for eternal youth. And she will kill, and he will forget everything.Ladai's expression became at first gloomy, and then frankly gloomy. He stood up, leaned against the railing, and stared at something for a long time. Then he again returned to his place and froze in a relaxed pose, putting his hands on his knees.“Yes,” he said at last. - Do you have a shield?Dorana nodded and showed Ladai the bracelets. He scowled at them, touched them with his fingertip, and nodded.- Do you know how to sculpt birds?The girl shook her head negatively.- Badly. Liiran must be warned, they are two balconies from us, als
A huge white snake and a man sitting on its head watched what was happening in the city that was dear to them. At night, they observed when most of the townspeople were asleep, and a minority was engaged in those things that are not customary to do in the light of day. Or for which they did not have enough time during the day.What was interesting to the snake and man began quite recently. In one of the oldest houses in the city, the light came on in almost all the windows. Shadows darted across the rooms. Weapons began to jingle, then human voices began to rustle. Quietly, but both the man and the snake, if desired, could hear what these people are saying. They just didn't want to.Noise in this house for a long time. Then the armed people began to disperse in small groups in order to gather around the House of Soviets and hide.The man smiled and whispered:- She was always reinsured and knew how to convince. Note that there are very few guards there, mostly people from older famili
The retelling of the conversation with the red-haired Wayne did not take much time. Then Atana told Toen in person how Khiyat confessed that he was the guardian of the cities and how those present reacted to this. I did not forget to mention that Teika, apparently from a great mind, did not come up with anything better than trying to enter the house of the keepers. For some reason, he decided that since the house has an owner, then the door there will be open. As a result, having tried to use force and influence the elements, he got back and now lay in the hospital near that very house. With a complex fracture of the leg, he was lying around, a dislocated shoulder and a blue bruise, in some places peeled off his back. Yeah, lying around was uncomfortable for him, and painkillers didn’t help much in this matter.But the brave adviser managed to share the news about Hiyata with everyone who was not lucky enough to get close enough to him. And now various rumors were circulating around t
“A strong bastard,” Toen repeated, when the assistants finally left the head of the council alone, and various sympathizers stopped breaking into the house, wanting to personally make sure that she was not hurt.Atana saw everyone off with the words that she needed to rest and think that the trackers were dealing with the incident at the training ground, that everyone could offer their help and be sent to distant places by the already dissatisfied Koyan. Nobody wanted to be sent, so those who wanted to understand and help quickly ended.Atana, with a sense of accomplishment, locked the door and went into the kitchen to prepare soothing tea. And there was Toen sitting at the table, who wanted to talk.“You see,” he said, “we didn’t even notice him right away. His rustling of pebbles underfoot gave away. Almost perfect invisibility. If you don’t know where to look, you won’t even notice a slight tremor in the air. But we noticed. They waited for him to stop, and behaved very stupidly. W
On an island surrounded by rocks sticking out of the water, like those very dragon fangs, Taladat got with the help of a portal stone. To be honest, he was afraid to the last that Toen, who was gnawing his pipe, had calculated something incorrectly, made a mistake somewhere, and the portal would not open to an island at all. At best, in the open sea. At worst, in a cluster of rocks, from which, according to rumors, it is generally impossible to get out. But I had to take the risk. And, oddly enough, it was worth it. Some bad person set up a whole warehouse on the island, building a wooden hut and protecting it from all possible and impossible dangers, including time. And another bad, but obviously talented person managed to crack the protection against penetration and not bring down all the others. He also hung a signal above the door, which Taladat fiddled with for a very long time before he forced her to ignore him.“Deeds,” Taladath said, once inside the building.No, these were no
Neti Larka was pretty, considered talented and was sure that she was smart and charming. And everything would have been just fine, but, unfortunately, she was unlucky too often. And now, instead of being in the same trio with someone worthy of her person, she discovered the fool Aika Vila and some strange guy. Aika generally seemed to be chasing her. Last time they were also in the same trio and Neti did not receive the chain due to the fact that she spent most of her time arguing with this fool. And how not to argue with her if she does not understand elementary things? For example, the fact that someone smart should be in command, and not a loud-mouthed girl who skipped half the lessons at school. To be honest, Neti did not understand at all how Aika could be allowed to take the exam. What if she gets a chain? Because of some stupid accident. Then there will be no trouble with her at all.“The main thing is not to waste time arguing again,” Neti muttered and looked at the guy.He st
Atana listened to Darine's report very attentively. So attentively, without interrupting or even asking again, that Taladat very soon suspected some kind of trick.“Why didn’t you tell me about fortune-telling right away?” she finally asked the question when Toen finished his story.“They wanted to check, search,” he said, somehow not very confidently, and smiled sadly. Looks like I know what you're going to say now.— Goonies! she said eagerly. "Why are you even looking for someone?" More precisely, why do you need such a complicated and dangerous way to look for someone whom I can point a finger at without spending a moment on reflection ?!- Can? Taladat was genuinely surprised.- Do you seriously think that in our city there are many relatives of your ward, whose mother died, father is unknown, uncle sits on the council, and they themselves run away from responsibility? Or do you think these relatives have many children who have thrown themselves under the wing of their grandmothe
Failed to get drunk.Kalar was just finishing his second beer, and Khiyat was dozing over the remnants of the first, as if some unfamiliar uncle appeared in the pub where the company was sitting, cursed the owner for no reason and ordered the applicants for silver chains to get out. Dean, already angry for no reason at all, answered the uncle's claims, and they quarreled merrily until the guards came and kicked everyone out of the establishment, including the owner. On the street it turned out that the owner of the piteyny was an idiot and was breaking someone's plans. The guards are still big idiots, because they did not recognize their native authorities, who the guests of the city generally considered to be some kind of extraneous uncle, climbing into their own affairs.On the other hand, the commanders of the guards called the group of Liiran Vue almost geniuses and began to assure that they would definitely receive the chains. These assurances shocked even Kalar, and Dean looked