The Ghosts of Mandrake. Fantasy
Svetlana Mirrai
– There are ghosts roaming around the castle. Shadows on the walls everywhere. God, it’s so creepy to look at all this.– I’ll save you! I’ll come for you!– Careful. The castle is not safe!– I can’t leave you there to die…
The Ghosts of Mandrake
Fantasy
Svetlana Mirrai
© Svetlana Mirrai, 2022
ISBN 978-5-0056-4380-3
Создано в интеллектуальной издательской системе Ridero
CHAPTER 1
PROLOGUE
Bright, sunny light filled a small room in which, as usual, I was sitting at my desk and drinking a cappuccino recently brewed in a coffee machine.
A routine for today was slowly emerging in my head. The main point was my negotiations with the book publishing house «Eksmo» and for this I prepared questions, of course, in advance.
My son ran into the room out of breath, he was already ten years old this year, he was becoming an adult faster than I thought and was no longer a toddler with a child’s toy in his hands.
– Mom, are you a good writer?
– I write my son correctly, – I replied, not understanding at all what our conversation was tending to.
– And write some very interesting and unusual story about a palace with servants and some fairy-tale characters.
– You don’t like fairy tales, and you once told me that you grew out of them.
– That’s how I grew up. But I just wanted something unusual. So that the characters are fabulous. Such as no one has yet come up with. And you, Mom, take it and come up with it! And yet! Let there be evil and good in the fairy tale. Some evil forces. Maybe even a sorcerer. Ok?
– All right, son.
– And also love and kindness, so that at the very end of the book it wins.
– You’ve given me a difficult task. So that the characters are new and unknown to anyone…
– Promise, Mommy? Volodya asked hopefully.
«Okay, son, I’ll try,» I said, puzzled.
– Well, then I’m waiting for your new book, Mommy, – said the son with a satisfied smile on his face.
– Agreed. You will be the first to read it!
SCHOOL YEARS
Perhaps I will begin my story with one very cold and fatal winter, it completely changed Philip’s whole life. This happened in 1991, at a time of troubles for Russia, it was the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The sixteen-year-old boy hardly realized then how historically important this year was for the country, but apparently it was the same decisive and important year for himself and for the city of Elbrus, where a girl with a beautiful and unusual name Myrrh Isobel lived.
But more on that later, because everything should go on as usual.
Since early childhood, Philip suffered from osteoporosis. And he was distinguished from his peers by a crooked posture, he even had a small hump. But alas, there was no one to do physical exercises with the boy, because Philip had no parents since birth.
Mom died after giving birth. And he never knew his father.
Because the guy who was making love with his mother Elena was from a rich and intelligent family, his parents found out about everything and strictly forbade his son to marry a girl from a commoner family.
From birth to this day, Philip was brought up by his grandmother Nina Anatolyevna. But now she is chained to the bed by a terrible illness, and Philip spends all his free time with her instead of entertainment and friends.
One day he was coming home from school and he was surrounded by the guys from the class.
– Well, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. Am I right, friends?
A circle of five boys formed next to Philip.
«You’re right,» they echoed the most important of the company.
– Such a freak should not go to school and on the streets! Am I right?
«That’s right, that’s right,» they shouted.
The main bully was called Egor, he recently moved from another city and came to study at their 9th Grade, it so happened that from the first days he won authority from classmates.
Why do you ask?
Well, first of all, his dad worked in the city administration, and secondly, his older twenty-three-year-old brother had a black belt in karate and, if something happened, he could pile on anyone for a minor, this was announced in the first days of his studies at Yegor’s school.
Perhaps even Egor was not loved in class, but rather simply feared. But fear often guides people, which did not bypass almost all the guys from the 9th century.
Egor did not love Philip not only for his ugly appearance, but also for his inflexible, wayward character.
«Let’s punish this Quasimodo from Notre Dame now,» he shouted, running up to Philip.
– Hit him! – shouted all around the boys.
Philip fell on the snow and covered his head with his hands, saying the words aloud in a half-whisper.
– Don’t. Please don’t!
The boys started beating him up. They were experiencing excitement, and Egor felt the greatest pleasure and triumph.
All the actions took place in the courtyard not so far from Philip’s house. But he knew that no one would come to his aid now.
