Wandering Spark - Part 22
Varan saw his parents rarely. And every time he did not find time to talk to his father. How should he to approach? "Hello, Dad, I'm getting married."?
He and Nila never talked about love, about the wedding, about the future life. They talked about serpanterss, mines, magicians, stars, visible only during the season, about secret letters, about the Emperor, underwater caves, and precious stones.
On the main square a day later someone was executed. Most often for robbery or suspicion of robbery; nevertheless, new hunters for purses arrived on the Round Fang every day - in crowds of servants. Therefore, the robbers in the dark streets did not become neither more nor less.
Sometimes they executed for spreading counterfeit money. Varan's father was once stolen by a fake paper with a painted rainbow; Father immediately called guard, but the swindler was never caught.
"Curse Shuu!" His father boiled. "What if I didn’t notice and bought something from her? I would be tied up!"
"Half a mind," his mother reassured him. "It's a shame, but not the end of the season!"
On those rare days when the hunters did not go to horseback riding without a continuous stream, Varan and Nila went out to the bazaar. Nila, like a real Gorni, was always drawn to jewelry shops. Its owners, as a rule, knew, allowed to enter, to consider the goods, sometimes to try on; Varan at first was shy, stood on the threshold, not daring to approach the jewels laid out on velvet. Then he grew bolder.
And there was something to see. On the high tables were faceted, framed in gold and silver stones - but not colored pebbles, which are full on the mines and which decorated Nila's trousers. No - these were real, almost alive, from those that come across a miner once in a lifetime.
Such stones store the owner, treat him for headaches, give strength and prolong life. Each such stone has its own name. They say that they are able to mate and produce their own kind, but in this neither Varan nor Nila believed. But it was easy to make sure that inside each stone there lives its own light - white, blue or yellow. Varan and Nila could stand for hours at the layout, watching the beating hearts of the stones squeeze and expand.
They bought jewelry worth fifty, one hundred, one thousand real; Varan saw, with what eyes Neil looked at the young and old aristocrats, who became the owners of treasures.
"You're still prettier," he said with conviction.
"Of course," she answered without a trace of embarrassment. "And then, where would I wear it? In the mines?"
They left, and Varan decided to himself that more in jewelry rows - not a foot; nevertheless, several days passed, they went to the market with the Nile, and from the rows with silks, fruits, trinkets for memory, iron and wooden things were again nailed to the jewelers - almost against their own will.
Nila had a favorite toy - a necklace with white and blue stones. Varan knew that every walk to the bazaar would certainly end near this necklace; the owner of the shop, of the local ones, knew Nila's mother and allowed the girl to take the jewelry in her hand. Nila stood looking at the flickering of pebbles with fascination; their pale light reflected on her concentrated face.
The necklace cost relatively inexpensive - one hundred reals. For Varan, it was a salary for the entire season - and then if you do not buy sweets and do only the most necessary. In his heart he, Varan, has long agreed to give all his money for the necklace - but what will his father say? An improper beginning for a conversation about marriage; father, what's good, will get angry and refuse, even without listening. On the contrary, if Varan brings honestly earned money to the family, the father will believe that he is already an adult, independent man and can easily bring his wife into the house...
The damned necklace dreamed Varana at night. He dreamed of how he brings it to the Nile. And what are her eyes, Nila's eyes?
On happy days, when they, having eluded everyone, climbed onto the "attic" and hugged each other on a heap of dry algae, Varan, forgetting with happiness, vowed to get the necklace. In extreme cases, steal; Nila clamped his hand over his mouth:
"Fool... Just try to do this!"
He fell silent, but he did not refuse his idea.
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
Part 20
Part 21
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