Wandering Spark - Part 29
"I'm going to call for our hangman," the official rubbed his hands, "and then you'll speak differently, boy! Who gave you the money?"
"I found them in the sea," Varan repeated, looking straight ahead. "I was on a walk with visitors... on serpanters..."
"We know what you do on your work! Who gave you the money? You have the last chance to escape the rack. Who?!"
"I have a witness," Varan said, pushing hard through the dry throat. "Young... lady, yesterday she was riding on... she threw a coin and I dived..."
"A coin with еру worth of one hundred krowns?"
"No... a one third krown coin... I dived and saw that the money was floating..."
The official laughed bitterly:
"Money was swimming? Well, look at him! Enough, I'm tired of hearing this, Vasco run after Shkuroder..."
"Yeah, someone else's hiding place! And you did not show it to anyone, asked no one about anything, you just ran to buy a trinket?"
"Yes," Varan felt that he was drowning, that the surface of the water was moving away, and his chest was already tearing from the inside. "I've long wanted... a necklace. I wanted to give it to my bride. I have a fiancee..."
"What's the name of the young lady?" Asked the man sitting in the corner behind a simple stone table. "The one who saw you find the money?"
Varan wrinkled his forehead:
"I don’t know. Master, ask the master, he knows... he will help to find her..."
"We're wasting our time, Slug," the official muttered, covering his inflamed, feverishly shining eyes.
The one with Slug, shrugged. He rose heavily, retired to the dark vaulted corridor; in the depths of the corridor flickered pale blue lights. Varan remembered stones on velvet - five white, five blue...
The door creaked behind her. Varan turned round; behind, very close, stood an old man with hair so long that they reached his shoulders. Varan had never seen men wearing such endless hair. The shark, Varan shuddered. At the same moment, the guards stretched out on the counter "quietly," and the official hastily rose from behind the wooden table:
The door creaked behind him. Varan turned round; behind, very close, stood an old man with hair so long that they reached his shoulders. Varan had never seen men wearing such endless hair. The hangman, Varan shuddered. At the same moment, the guards stretched out on the counter "quietly," and the official hastily rose from behind the wooden table:
"Your Excellency..."
The long-haired man waved his hand. He walked a wide circle around the hall, stopped and waved with a familiar money note under official’s nose:
"For half-crown! For half-crown craftsmen were beheaded. They draw a rainbow on a piece of paper, flaunt it with wax... During the night they give it to the simpletons in the market... And in the daytime, it's obvious that it's fake... And I would not distinguish this note! And now what I'm holding it in my hands - I cannot believe it. Sit down, Gopher...
And, as if unable to stand still, his Excellency Lord of Round Fang walked two more rapid circles around the hall.
Varan saw the lord once or twice, and only from afar; then on the lord was a headdress and a tall, gold-embroidered collar. And certainly, Varan didn’t expect and never wanted to see the highborn lord so closely.
A hundred krowns were lying on the table, exuding the rainbow glow. Varan was sitting, afraid to move. The prince didn’t seem to notice him at all:
"Tomorrow the rumors will spread... Merchants will refuse to accept banknotes in one hundred-crown. There will be anxiety, panic. The scammers who came to us from all sides of the world will not stop to gain the advantage of this. Today, there is not a single counterfeit note in the treasury - and what will happen tomorrow? Tomorrow the Money House will collapse, my darlings, it will be demolished by crowds of clients..."
Suddenly he turned to Varan and stared at him point-blank, and it became clear that the lord's indifference to Varan was nothing more than a game. His Excellency knew perfectly well who was to blame for all the troubles in Round Fang. Long gray hair, it seemed, was ready to stand on end.
"Who gave you the banknote?"
"I found it in the sea!"
"Here again," the lord turned away again as if losing interest to Varan. "But our master, the mage, has already let his people know, in the capital... The imperial treasury soon will be aware of this case," he waved his hand towards Varan, "his head mat not be enough. He Empire will want your head, inquirer Gopher. And the head of chief judge Belomity... By the way, where is Slug?"
Varan finally lost interest in what was happening.
He was judged to death. He will never see the beautiful clouds, illuminated by the sun from above, he will never see Nila... Never dive into the warm sea. He will never count the stars. He became indifferent to his fate.
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
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
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