Читать книгу Elinor. The Deserted Valley. Book 1 - Mikhail Shelkov - Страница 46

The Master openly confessed to his disciples that he did not want to go to the pier or travel with the ingratiating Mechanic. However, the route that ran along the river was the fastest indeed, and the offer had to be taken advantage of.

Eoamit Asmalou outwardly was unimaginably glad to see the Ulutau.

Maybe he did not expect us to actually come?

The School of the North Slope experienced more and more miracles, and on this day was excited to sail on a ship for the first time. However, they quickly learned from Captain Torros, a mighty bearded Guawar, this was not a real ship, but a river boat.

Captain Torros, wearing the traditional Guawarian caftan girded with a red sash to which a sharp curve of a saber was attached, shared a lot of interesting things about this seaworthy craft. He told them that the ships in the sea had much higher sides which allowed them to stay on the waves better. They also had wide sails and a device called a keel.

Ulari missed or did not understand some things, but ships sounded quite different than the craft they were on. With no language to call their own, they spoke the Common Language using a Guawarian dialect and some Ulutau words went misinterpreted.

The team of strong muscular men sang songs as they leaned on the oars, and the boat seemed to literally fly across the river’s surface. Given there were women and children on board Ulari felt the oarsmen’s songs too obscene, but convinced himself that he probably misunderstood unfamiliar words.

Ulari and Master Nao were standing at the stern when Asmalou approached them with his fake smile. He wanted to say something, but Nao was ahead of him.

“I don’t understand,” the Master began. “I thought that the Valley was completely deserted, that there were no people left!”

“Quite right.”

“But in tiny Kawa, I counted more people than in huge Tokana!”

“Quite right, again!” repeated the Mechanic, “Having learned about the mountain in the Valley, the people immediately rushed to bring life to it!”

Nao said nothing. And when Asmalou left, he turned to Ulari and said:

“They hurried here to quickly get rich! This is the Valley, my dear disciple, and the customs are like that!”

At night, they slept in the open air and the next day arrived at the Lake of the Ancestors in the evening. Such large lakes could not be found in the Celestial Plateau, and the beautifully deep waters hinted of violet in the twilight. Sailboats, similar to Captain Torros’s ship roamed the lake; slowly moving the barges and longboats loaded with goods, some so heavy that people from the shore dragged them with cables. And there was no number to the fishing boats on the lake.