"Madeline L' Engle - Time Quartet 04 - Many Waters" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Engle Madeleine)

The old man pulled himself out of the corner where he
had been flung. "Ridiculous manticore," he grumbled,
"wanting to eat my mammoth."

Higgaion got unsteadily to his feet, raised his trunk, and
trumpeted, but it was more of a whiffle than a call of tri-
umph. He rubbed up against Sandy.

The old man retrieved his staff. "Thank you. You saved
my mammoth from being eaten."

"I didn't do anything." Sandy's legs crumpled under
-him as he fell back onto the skins. "It's the first time I've


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ever scared anybody, just by being tall and sunburned.".

"A gentle giant," the old man said.

Sandy felt too weak to contradict him. "Anyhow, the
manticore is a mythical beast."

Grandfather Lamech shook his head. "I don't know
what you mean."

36 -fc^ MANY WATERS

"Things like rnamicores are mythical," Sandy stated.
"They aren't supposed to be real."

Grandfather Lamech's smile crinkled. "You will have
to ask the seraphim to explain. In this time many things
are real, you see." He looked around. "Where's the scarab
beetle?"

The mammoth, too, looked around, but they both
stopped, and the old man's face lit up as a soft scratching
was heard on the outside of the tern Hap. It was obviously
some kind of signal, because he called out gladly, "Come
in, Granddaughter-" Then he turned courteously to Sandy.
"Yalith, my youngest granddaughter."

The lent Hap opened enough to let a girl through, a
girl about the size of the old man. barely four feet tali. She
carried a shallow stone bowl which contained oil and a
softly burning wick. By its light, which was brighter than
the moonlight, which had moved beyond the roof hole,