Wandering Spark - Part 42
Zhurbina looked at him with mocking surprise.
"Rest," Varan said her. Serpanter wearily put her head on the water, so that only nostrils, eyes, and horns remained above the surface.
He dived again and again. It was ringing in his ears and pricking in the chest. The stones he took with him were heavier, and once Varan dived so deep that he barely managed to get to the surface...
The evening was approaching. The light coming from under the water became very warm, cloudy-opal.
"For the last time," Varan said to Zhurbina glumly. "Wait for me, don’t be angry." And he dived.
And almost immediately he saw the rainbow glow.
Dropping the stone, he hovered in the water column, spreading his arms and legs like a serpanter. In ten steps - if the distance under the water can be measured in steps - a little banlnote vaguely poured.
No, no, thought Varan. From his nostrils burst bubbles and went upstairs, where was no one, except Zhurbina.
And if it is real? Suddenly it fell out of the pocket of an arrogant servant?
He grabbed a bill. He looked around feverishly, but there was nothing around except water, dark below, light with glare - over his head. Then, clutching money in his fist, he swam upwards.
On the surface, very inopportune, his nose started bleeding. Wiping his lips with the back of his hand, he ordered Zhurbina to swim home.
Nila, fortunately, wasn’t in the grotto. Perhaps she hasn’t returned from the bazaar, and maybe just came out for some reason and was about to return. Finding the brightest place in the cave, Varan took a closer look at the bill. This banknote was an exact copy of the first one.
Varan decided that it was time to sit down and think.
Maybe the note is real, a thin inner voice was saying. And what if he can buy a boat and sail away from the Round Fang just today? Sail away in a large ship - to those lands where the woods grow to the sky...
This young pod, said the prince, found a hiding place with false money, and so he took the threat of quarantine from our island. He deserves a reward. Let him now be a Gorni and live under the sun with his wife...
Varan got up and sat down again.
Yes, put this bill somewhere under the stone, so no one will find it. Forget it, as if it never happened... What, you miss the Prison Gut?
Where are the two banknotes – there are more. And when will they arrive on surface? And who will catch them?
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