Secret Of the Sighing Mountains (The Quest Trilogy) Read Online Free Page B

crumble to dust in their hands. Deciding to leave them to peruse the words written by their mother in peace and privacy, Stal stretched and straightened out the cricks in his bones and then headed out the front door.
    “I’m going out for a puff of the ol’ pipe, you boys help yourselves to the cake. Make sure you leave me some.” he called over his shoulder.
     
    Diego and Sierra sat in silence for a while, each immersed in his own thoughts. Diego was the first to open his letter and read it.
     
    My dearest son,
     
    I have decided to name you, my elder son, Diego. I haven’t yet told your father. He is fussing over me tremendously and I am selfishly enjoying the love and attention for now. But I intend to tell him soon.
    If all goes well, you will be eighteen when you open this letter. Even as I write these words, I hope that I will be able to tear this letter and throw it away, that I won't need it to convey all that I want to. Because I sincerely hope to get well soon. But my condition is deteriorating with every passing day and I fear that  this letter will be the only opportunity I will ever have. But how can one letter bear all that a mother would tell her sons in a lifetime? A thousand letters and more would be less. But it’s just as well, because I don’t really have the strength to write that much!

Diego, I wish I could be there to see you take your first steps, to hear you speak your first word, to watch your teeth grow, then comfort you when they fall and new, stronger ones take their place.
I wish I could be there to comfort you every time you have a nightmare. I wish I could clean your soiled nappies, or wipe your tender, runny nose. I wish I could tend to your injuries, see you through sicknesses and bad days. I would teach you how to fight bullies and stand up for what you believe, and in case you were unable to do that, I would sock it right to the nasty boys who would dare to touch my boy. I also want to be there to worry when you go on your first date, and then to wonder if you've had your first kiss yet. Oh, how many memories and moments I wish for!
There are so many things I probably won’t be able to do for you … with you. But I can do one thing ... I can tell you now, how much I love you. How you will never be bad in my eyes. Yes, I know that is a broad statement and you are thinking; that I wouldn't be saying that if I knew what all you'd done but, my dear son, doubt not a mother’s heart, for it knows. If you understand that there are some things that you have done wrong, then it means that you are repenting. So forgive yourself, because I always would. And because there is nothing you could do in this world to make me not love you. Absolutely nothing.
Remember that always.
     
    Signing off with a million, zillion hugs and kisses,
Your loving mother,
Rayva.

P.s. I want you to go on your Quest. Know that it would make me very happy if you agreed to go.
     
     
    Diego looked up from the letter after reading it for the third time because the moisture in his eyes made it impossible to make out the words anymore. This was real. His own mother’s words to him, written in her shy, not-so-neat hand. He tried to search for similarities between her small, quiet script and his own handwriting. The more he stared at the words, It seemed that practically everything about her handwriting matched his. Yes, surely they crossed their t’s and dotted their ‘I’s the same way. He had his mother’s style of writing. This made him feel very happy and helped him to get control over his roiling emotions.
    How in the world had Stal kept this a secret for so long? He would never have been able to resist and would probably have read the letters almost every day of his life.
    Diego glanced at Sierra and saw him putting down his own letter. Sierra was not so inhibited about expressing his feelings and right now, his nose was bright red and tear tracks were glistening on his cheeks. A wild curiosity to