wagon, saw how it was decorated with carvings, how the deer were galloping away from the lions on the board, and the warriors were collecting weapons next to the wheels of the wagon. The horses were already hot, hooves on the ground impatiently, and pulled the harness, but the skillful driver held the harness with a firm hand.
“Sit down, boy,” said Pal, smiling at him, slightly pulling on the reins.
Ull straightened his leather helmet, and first with his left foot, then with his right he stepped on the taut straps of the chariot, and slightly bent his knees, as he was taught. The driver clapped the straps, sending the horses forward. The chariot started off with a jerk, but Ull was holding tight, balancing his legs, not even leaning on the side of the wagon, Pal turned his head to him, grinning with a smile with all his teeth, and immediately turned his gaze forward without leaving horses and the way without attention.The boy saw how difficult and responsible the work of the driver, similar to the work of the man in the stormy sea, guesses the uneven ground, like the waves of the sea, measures the size of the boat, and here the turning radius of the wagon and its stability, the force of the wind is similar to to gallop endlessly. Ull was accustomed to, and quietly changing his balance, helping Pal get out of his complicated turns. Finally, they stopped, foam covered the muzzle of horses, Ull jumped off the chariot and went to Guna, to sit next to a friend. The next one got up in the chariot of Tal, dressed in a protective helmet, and repeating the lesson of Pala, and after him drove in the wagon Sirac and Pret and then Knut.
The driver, having finished with all the boys, went to the stable, handing over the cart to the servants, and soon returned.
“Ull, didn’t you just sit in the chariot before?” Pal asked, waving his hands in the manner of a seagull with disbelief.
“No, mentor, and I didn’t see horses, I swear by Ilios,” the boy answered, taking off his helmet and putting a hat on his curls, “they would have liked Elisia,” he smiled wistfully, and felt that there, far away, she was fine too.
“Who is this?” Asked Pal.
Twin sister, stayed on Alatyr.
– Among Harith – veduny is studying, – the driver smiled, – after five years you will meet.
“She is with Pryakh, Pal,” said Ull sadly, and looked at the driver and friend, and to be honest, did not expect what he saw. “The gun fell from a boulder, and the driver, in excitement, took off his helmet, went to the boy, and patted him on the shoulder.
“That’s why they sent you off the island, man.” She is a very difficult girl to know, and you, too, you see, and he looked at him carefully.
– Tomorrow we will train through the bull to jump, first through the wooden one. For now, rest.
“I love a bull,” Pret grinned.
“I, too,” Knut sighed.
– You? – Sirac laughed, – three times before the end of the body did not reach and hit, you know what, – Tal smiled.
“You will like it, Ull,” Sirak confirmed his opinion, “your reaction is excellent, I watched you hold on.” You will not need a drink in battle.
– What did you say about the drink? – asked Ull Pala, their mentor.
– It is only after initiation, Ulle. Do not hurry to live, – and he grinned and went to the retinue house, leaving the boys alone.
“Ull,” Tugging at his sleeve, Gong was already looking at him, frightened, “won’t you tell my sister that I climbed my fists at you?”
“I do not understand, you didn’t hit me,” Ull laughed.
“If she is spinning, it means she is chosen,” his friend said with a positive shake of her head, “Here, Ion, whom Kit swallowed, and after a week he was released from the womb, he now studies at the Seven and does not come out of the Mountain.
“I didn’t know,” the boy was incredibly surprised, “about Jonah. Tell me, Gun.
The boy, satisfied with the attention, sat down on a boulder, made a mysterious face, knitted his brows as an adult, he only lacked kithara, and began to tell:
– Seven desperate warriors went hunting for whales on the boat, and the waves did not frighten them, and the blue sea pleased them, and Jonah was among them. They sailed, they sailed, and finally, they saw a huge whale. It was all whales whale – thirty cubits in length, – and he lifted his face to the gray, overcast northern sky.
Sirac and Pret could not stand it, they laughed so much that they even coughed and Tal soothed them, banging his palm on their backs.
“Jonah threw an oak jail, but he didn’t hit,” Gun went on after a pause, “and struck Keith with his merciless tail on the boat, and a strong blue warrior fell into the sea and swallowed his awful Fish Kit. For a long time, brave warriors chased Keith and overtook the monster, and they killed Keith with an enormous spear, dragged the carcass to the shore, cut the belly with a knife in the length of the elbow, and rescued the brave warrior. Then the skin came off him, but a new one grew up, and he is alive and well.
“Yes, a glorious feat,” agreed Ull. But you and I will be glorious warriors, Gun.
– Exactly, Ull. The most glorious.
Soon it was lunch time, then they were instructed in the struggle and reading the runes, then there was dinner, and went to sleep in their cell, opened a tightly worked door, so that the animals would not climb until they were there. The youths entered their cave, passing the corridor closed by fur curtains, inflated the hearth and flooded the stove, trying to keep warm, after a long time the cell was warm, and the students were able to take off their fur clothes. Ull looked at how his new friends looked – and they were dressed like him – the same linen coarse pants and trousers, fur or knitted sleeveless jackets for warmth, and soft boots on his feet.
“You Ull, you hold on a chariot perfectly, and you fight a fist fight, and you understand the letter, all three kinds. And here we are, “Tal added,” for two years here, “Tal was tall and blond, like everyone here, and the head was childishly trimmed, so that only a curl of hair remained, and he had a razor after another.
“And you won’t cut your hair,” added Sirac, playing with a bronze razor.
“Mara does not tell me,” found Ull, smiling broadly.
“Do not meddle with him,” said Gun, “he has a sister in front.
The guys’ faces immediately stretched out, Sirac hurriedly put the razor under the fur blanket.
“You don’t know here,” scratching his shaven head, said Pret, to envy you or to feel sorry for your sister, and he came up and patted Ulla on the shoulder. -Maybe you will see who knows. But on the chariot you are great.It seems the cell was warm, you can go to bed.
– And you’re the twin Ull, everyone is afraid of the twins. They used to say, they even killed, everyone is afraid of prophecies.
“Why are they afraid of me?” Said the boy, shrugging his shoulders.
– The prophecy says that: “The twins will be born from a dead mother, they will take the chosen people into
