Wandering Spark - Part 25
"Why didn’t you jump?"
"It's sinking too fast," Varan told.
"And where it is now? Is it true that there is an abyss below us?"
"No. Beneath us are the bottom lands, only very, very deep. The coin will fall to the bottom, and in the autumn someone will find it."
"Listen, servant," the aristocrat girl looked at him more attentively than before. "You and your rabble provided me a stupid boring walk... I agree to forgive you if you entertain me a little."
"How?"
"I really like to watch how people dive for different things. For coins. Look, here I have a new one-third silver krown... Catch!"
She threw a coin, and Varan jumped before he had time to think.
A one-third krown is a silver coin and quite large. Varan saw how it sinks, bouncing around with its round sides. He ducked his head down and reached the coin soon. But he missed, and it slipped out of the palm of his hand. He jerked deeper and then finally caught it; Having squeezed a coin in his hand, he realized how small it was. A one-third of krown… in order to buy the necklace for Nila, he had to dive three hundred times!
He wanted to release his hand, but he resisted.
Under the water, it was lighter than in the grotto. Varan saw the surface burning outside under the sun, saw the belly of the rocks in the green spots of the algae, saw the dull surface of the grotto inside, like a taut fish bubble. He didn’t want to return to the crappy noble girl, in whose power he had to stay at least another hour. Now if he was a fish...
He turned his head and saw…
A small rainbow in the water. A light rectangular piece of paper. Or rather, not a piece of paper, but...
They don’t sink into the water and do not float. If they are drowned, they will drift, following the currents. And in standing water, it will be lying motionless, like a leaf of greenery in fish jelly.
Treasures said Nila's voice in his head. There are plenty of treasures, secret places... Princely treasury... Smugglers' brawls...
Varan rushed forward, afraid that the obsession would dissipate and the money floating in the water would be just a sunlight beam. He rushed, threw forward his hand and grabbed it...
The fingers felt a dense, soft, pleasant to the touch fabric of money. Varan unfolded the bill and looked closely.
One hundred krowns! One hundred krowns! Hundred!
He realized that he didn’t have enough air. It was a huge way to the water surface that he had to swim and swim, with no air left in his chest. For a second he thought that he would die here with money in his hand...
He broke his head to the surface, and coughed for a long time, gasping, feeling the blood pouring into his cheeks.
"Have you got it?" The aristocrat girl asked impatiently. "I thought you’ve drowned... Did you get it or not?"
Varan, unable to utter a word, waved his head.
"And these are the great local divers!" stretched aristocrat, not hiding his disappointment. "You almost drowned, but still didn’t get it..."
Varan coughed. A hundred crowns burned convulsively compressed palm. Maybe she will notice and then ask: "What have you got?"
Grabbing his hand for the bridle of Kruchina, he quietly shifted the money into his pocket of pants.
The rest of the journey passed, as if in muddy water. The aristocrat girl constantly demanded something, complained to something, beat the poor Zhurbina with her heels; serpenters were nervous more and more. And Varan, freeze in the saddle saw only one thing: how he gives the jeweler a hundred crown. Not the eyes of Nila, when she saw the gift, but a jeweler’s look at a hundred crowns in Varan's hand. A gray tanned Gorni with faded eyebrows and bald patches on his forehead.
The painful walk finally ended. Aristocrat girl started a dispute with the owner, refusing to pay the agreed amount; Varan slowly slipped into the grotto with a hammock.
He wanted to take off and unscrew the wet clothes - but at the last moment, he was afraid to lose or spoil the money. He was choked with a chill; he climbed up a narrow staircase and, without telling anyone, rushed to the market.
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
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
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