A thin red beam fell off Darschela's finger and ran along the magic map, telling us where to look.
- But the country of Cordillo, south of us. These are arid lands: prairies and deserts, locked up by mountains...
- Does your Order of Randu belong to this country? Does it obey its king?
- No, Miri. We simply speak in her dialect. We are all from different parts of Mercana, with different native languages. Cordillia was chosen to help us understand each other, not to waste our strength on mental speech. And the magical orders of Mercanes do not obey the states and rulers. Only their Grandmasters.
Wow, thought Miriel. Arelato is almost king? He who does not obey other kings, but rules himself - and is the king.
She looked at Darschela, expecting the girl to read her thoughts and answer them. Like Arelato and Orshava did. But Shel didn't say a word, and her eyes stayed focused on the map.
Miri giggled.
- You don't know what I was thinking?
She turned her back on the map and looked at the prisoner.
- No... (Laughs) Should I?
- Arelato and Orshava saw through my every thought. I have already accepted that in this place everyone who is not lazy gets into my head. You don't want to? Or can't you?
Darschela laughed.
- Both! Mental scanning is a fine and complex magic. It is not available to all Senior Masters. Monsieur, of course, can read anyone in the Order. And I am just a novice. I'm far away from scanning, and I'm not too keen on scanning. There's so much to see around. So many complex spells to master. Spending time reading other people's thoughts is boring, as far as I'm concerned!
Mirielle felt a wave of warm sympathy for Darschelle in it. Stay out of her head, leave her innermost thoughts and feelings with her - a gift that the fairy no longer counted on as a prisoner of Randu!
- And so do I! And your Grand Master, apparently, has nothing to do but this... of benching.
Darschela laughed - loud and wide.
- Scanning. Monsieur Arelato is also the Grand Master to know the thoughts of every member of the Order. He is responsible for Randu's safety. His awareness is the key to our survival. - The girl's face has become serious. - We are surrounded by cunning and cruel enemies. They can get inside the Order. Monsieur must recognize the threat in time.
- It is true that the king," Mirielle muttered.
Darschela nodded.
- In fact, that's how it works. Of course, there are only a few hundred magicians in his subordination, not the whole nation. And he did not inherit the post of Grand Master, and was elected the Order.
- Except I'm an enemy, aren't I, Shel? He kidnapped me himself, your Grand Master! There is no cunning or cruelty in fairies. What trick does he expect from me? Why doesn't he get out of my head? Answer me, Shel, what kind of threat does he expect from a fairy who was kidnapped from his own home?
In response to Miri's bitterness and indignation, compassion flashed in Darschel's eyes. But only for a moment. As soon as the fairy finished talking, the merkanka spoke, and her warm and flickering voice at the beginning, became completely flat and cool at the end of the speech:
- Miri... I understand that it is not easy for you to get used to... It's not easy to understand. It's hard for ordinary people, not magicians, to understand the purpose of magic orders. We live by-laws and rules that are very different from the rules of human society. Many actions of magicians, especially - the Great Masters! - can seem incomprehensible, inhumane. Their thinking has really gone too far from the thinking of ordinary people. But do not judge them superficially. Behind their decisions and actions lies such a complex plexus of reasons and motives that even other Masters can not comprehend them. What to say about ordinary people
What kind of nonsense are you talking about? - I almost cried out to Mirielle. But with all her strength she held back. She needs someone here who is sympathetic to her. Darschel seemed like a girl who was straight, sincere, without tricks and rocks behind her sinus.
Codorro also looked cute and ingenuous. But what are the nice straightforward people doing in the same company with such as Arelato and Orshava? Or they pass by... or they are being brainwashed.
Judging by what Darschel said, she was brainwashed. Accustomed to justify any abomination of the Grand Master of the incomprehensible plexus of motives.
Well, what motives does Arelato have to keep Miri locked up and dress up in dresses in which only corrupt women are not ashamed to appear in public? All his "incomprehensible" motives were read in his views, his touching of her. What could have been behind them, apart from the primitive male desire to possess a woman?
But what was the point of saying all that to Shel? She probably prays at night for a portrait of his idol, the Grand Master Arelato, the sole ruler of all Randu, that he devils a spleen chewed through his spleen!
No, Miri will not quarrel with her and prove that the Grand Master can also be wrong. Or behave like a lustful goat. Darschela had already looked at her with regret and was probably broken that the stupid fairy could not understand the deep plan of the unsightly monsignor.