Faster!” cried Jumanna, no longer strictly, but joyfully. “We made it!”
Even from afar Calif accurately grasped the change in her mood and quickened his pace.
Everyone literally rolled head over heels down the slope, dipped their heads into the river and drank like animals.
In the last rays of the sunset, they crossed the river and fell into the canopy of green trees, rare, but with thick buxom crowns.
Jumanna leaned her elbows on the tree trunk. Lamis sat down beside her.
“Thank you,” she said in a weak voice. “You’ve saved us all! You brought us to the Valley!”
“It’s all thanks to the lion,” Jumanna sighed.
“What lion?” Lamis asked in an amazed tone, but immediately drifted off.
10
Jumanna opened her eyes and looked at the sun. Noon had long since been and gone. Yesterday she used up too much of her strength. When she got up, she realized that the students had long since woken. The caretaker had no time to wipe her eyes when twenty-two students, led by Calif, approached her, each one dropping to one knee. Lamis joined in.
“Thank you, our caretaker and teacher, Jumanna Inaiya Khaniya Amatt!” the eldest boy began. “Yesterday we were too tired and couldn’t tell you this! Forgive us! We must thank you endlessly! You saved us many times! And now you have brought us to the Valley.”
“Thank you!”
Sincerely and fervently, the phrase “Thank you” was repeated by the childish voices.
Jumanna only smiled in return.
She bathed her face in the water, and then realized that it was worth swimming. Stepping aside, she got undressed, and with obvious pleasure entered the cool waters of the river. After spending almost half an hour there, she went back to the camp and began to collect fruit from the trees. The juicy peaches and oranges became a wonderful breakfast.
Jumanna announced that they would spend the day in the fruit grove to restore their strength.
In his ear, Calif was instructed to take all the boys to the river and properly wash them. Lamis was already going to the other side to bathe the girls. Jumanna halted her friend.
“Did you really not see the lion?” she asked, looking into Lamis’s eyes.
“What lion? Please explain!” She was obviously surprised.
“Who killed the dragon?”
“You!” Lamis said, even more surprised.
“And no one helped me?”
“Calif and Makacash,” The tone of her younger friend filled with bewilderment. “But the dragon quickly scattered them in different directions. And you rushed straight at him and blew his head, and then rushed forward and led us, running like an antelope! I was afraid we would collapse, but you… you instilled confidence in us! And we reached the Valley! Do you not remember?
“I remember,” said Jumanna, “It just seemed to me that I saw a lion… do not pay attention to me! It’s the emotions.”
“Thanks again!” Lamis enveloped Jumanna in her arms.
11
The day was calm. Evening came, then the night. Jumanna did not want to sleep. She sat and thought. There were so many questions…
Was the lion a phantom? Or not?
And how did we come to the Valley in just a few treks? We should have walked for at least fifteen days. Did the astronomer Al-Dassay lead the caravan so far to the northeast? Or was it that after the caravan’s death I lost count?
She decided she didn’t want to think on it further, instead allowing joyous emotions to overwhelm her. After all, the students had survived the ruthless desert! She, Jumanna Amatt, had succeeded in leading them to the borders of the Valley!
Everyone would’ve been proud of me! Father… Brother. I must write to him! He will be bug-eyed with surprise! And my mother will be proud… but my mother shouldn’t know about our adventures!
And then Jumanna felt a hunch.
The diary!
Of course, it was necessary to add new records to it. In the desert, there had been no time for it, and now it was worth making a few notes while their recent experiences were still ripe. But the impulse quickly dried up. Jumanna remembered she had no ink.
She dug into her hiking bag to make sure of this, and along with the diary, she took out the “Journey to Sky.”
Volume One – The Ito Empire…
Once again, her memory filled with images – Father, the Universe, a starry sky, the Lion constellation and the ghost of a lion in the desert, the Star of the Marawie, the scorpio-angler, the dragon, the experienced astronomer who had lost his way, as well as those strange voices, forebodings, visions and dreams and… this book.
All the incredible events that had taken place in the last few days in no way looked like a series of accidents. On the contrary, they were more like parts of one chain.
Strange, very strange…” Be afraid of your desires,” the wise say. I wanted my journey to be Great, and the stars, as if they had heard me, had reshaped themselves, plotting my route.
Jumanna took the book and opened it. In the bright light, all the symbols and sentences were perfectly readable. And now, it seemed a sort of magic arose from the moonlit glow of the ink-filled pages! Again, Jumanna felt something. Yes, yes, something related to that special energy. Nothing like this had happened before.
Maybe this is really due to emotions?
Jumanna began to slowly turn over the pages, briefly re-reading the paragraphs that she knew almost by heart:
THE TRAVEL TO THE SKIES
Volume One – The Ito Empire
Sixth edition. A summary of the Grand Book
Author: Azir Amunjadee
Azir Amunjadee, also known as Azir the Wanderer, is a member of the Old Pages Clan and descendant of Demar Amunjadee, creator of the famous Adventure Book. Azir is the author of a number of works in which he describes in detail the history of the northern people. He is the only stranger who managed to see the closed lands of the Ulutau and visit the mysterious Tau schools. The manuscripts of Azir help to form a notion of the amazing northern philosophy. They have been translated into various languages and are part of a series of books describing all the people of Elinor.
The Ito Empire – General Information
In the north, is the Dead Land. Here everything is shrouded in a dense veil of fog. Not a single ray of sun penetrates it. From the fog emerge demons, the most dreadful creatures, and only one nation can resist them – the Itoshins. The main settlements of these amazing people are located on a plateau called the Life Border Plateau. It is a ridge of stony hills, covered with eternal mist and fog. Nothing grows here, except for dry thorns of different forms, and only yauls can eat them – these animals truly have iron stomachs. The cities of the Itoshins are united into an empire ruled by the immortal emperor Tosho and his eternally young daughter Tsvetsho. All the people of Elinor are surprised at how the Itoshins can live in such inhuman conditions. I, Azir Aniluir Anevandi Anademar Amunjadee, travelled from the city of Eavette up the Huma River until Kawa, then continued further along the misty hills to Moon Lake, saw the emperor Tosho and the portraits of his beautiful daughter, and fought with the demons of the Dead Lands. I’m the only Djunit who walked the Path of Horror to the Celestial Plateau and survived. I have traveled this