Wandering Spark - Part 20
This was a dry pocket, the ceiling was low so that Varan could not rise to his full height. The stones were unexpectedly smooth, obviously somebody once hewn. Strange smell - not damp, not algae, but like wood tar. Pleasant.
On the ceiling, also smooth, were made soot drawings. It is not clear whether children’ drawings or secret signs.
"Hey, maybe this is a map? To where the treasures are hidden?"
"I was searching." Nila smiled, somewhat pleased. "Nothing comes out... If it’s really a map, it's not for us."
"And what was here?"
"Shelter. Warehouse of smugglers. Pit of some secret magician... I do not know. All this was a long time ago. Since I found this place three years ago, here no one except me comes."
In another corner, in a stone niche, there was a book with stuck together pages. A real paper book, or rather, a former paper, because the yellow-and-gray moss quill, into which the pages turned, would not have been accepted for paper by any junkman.
"Maybe there were spells," Nila said dreamily. "We would read them - and become magicians. Or maybe it's just a money-book of a merchant."
"Or the captain's diary of a distant voyage."
"Or a list of recipes."
"Hey!" Varan laughed loudly. "By the way, if we read the spells, we would not become mages. Most likely, we would simply have our tongues spitted, or a blind eye popped out of the back of the head, or something else. Mages are born."
"I know."
Nila put the candle on a hard wrinkled cover. Varan saw that the thin rod had already burned to half.
"Hey... it will be enough light for us?"
"I still have more candles. And then... Why do we need light?"
Varan looked up. Neela was looking at him without a smile.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
@originalworks