Leodan the Son of Lion Chapters 1-7

— "Of course. Or you think the owner will wait for until you deign to raise the well-cared Dorian bum and execute his order?"

— "Choose words, Shebtar!" — the girl frowned. -" Leodan belongs to me, and only I can give him orders".

— "Forgive, my lady, but it`s the urgent case, and nobody will perform a task of the owner better than your slave. If only you are ..."

— "Certainly not!" — Shemmer-Ta-Nat looked at Leodan. — "Will it be easy to you to execute an order of the father?"

— "Of course, yes. I also would like to do a little shopping and look at novelties'.

— "Very well", — the girl approached a low dresser from a carved tree, opened the chest standing on a dresser and got several gold coins from it. — "Take, buy a gift. Please yourself. And then we will look at your purchases together".

— "Excellent thought!' — The face of the young man brightened up. — "You are very kind to me, dear Shemmer".

— "Because you are the best', — the girl kissed Leodan. — "Go and come back quicker. It will be missing you".

* * *

Day was hot and dusty, the market was full of people, and Leodan, making the way between counters of dealers, thought wistfully of a pleasant cool in the rooms of Shemmer-Ta-Nat. His embroidered linen clothes got wet from sweat, sand crunched on the teeth. It seemed to Leodan that the make-up began to stream down at the face. Fanning, he went through the market, quietly damning heat, Uzmay and his task and the smelly plebeians surrounding him. Dealers took him for notable master and looked at him with curiosity. Leodan darted indifferent glances at hills of multi-colored fragrant fruits, greengrocery and spices, on clay, copper and glasswares, stopping only at trays with fabrics, footwear and clothes, but did not see anything worth. Moving ahead to the market, he appeared in its east part where were most expensive stores trading in imported goods.

He bought fabric for draperies at once: first, he wanted to quit with the Uzmay task quicker, and secondly, fabric really was nice. The slave accompanying him readily accepted the bought pieces of fabric, and Leodan ordered him with the gesture to come back home . Now he was free, and it was worth choosing a gift for himself.

There were many jewelry stores in the market, and Leodan bypassed them all. Looked gold and silver knickknacks, tried on, spinning in front of mirrors. Dealers hid smiles, watching him. At speckled Tuma`s shop Leodan bought a silver necklace with large nephrites — the thing was found and surprisingly inexpensive. Paying for purchase, he did not even pay attention to the thin person dressed in tatters who entered the store and stopped to the right of Leodan at a counter, pretending that he considered the bronze and copper jewelry which laid out before him. In practice the ragamuffin looked at the young slave all the time. He jumped up to Leodan when the young man was going to leave little shop.

— "Ayvan *!" — he whispered, looking in eyes of the Dorian with dog devotion. — Kind ayvan, fine, as radiant Ying-Nubas! Be mercy to the poor sufferer, endow him with the favor!

— "What do you want?" — Leodan was fastidiously removed from the ragamuffin: the thin strongly smelled of hardened sweat and dog.

— "Ayvan, I suffer from hunger and deprivations. My wife and children are sick. Only one coin ..."

— "Take", — Leodan threw to the beggar one of copper kavashes, received from Tuma as change. — "And let me go'.

— "Oh, ayvan!" — the beggar howled. — "May Ygerabal bless you. I see that you are a true father of virtue and the judge of fine. Your soul is also nice, as well as your moonlike face. I have nothing to thank you, but one of my companions is going to sell a fine uncomparable bagatelle".

— "What a bagatelle?" — Leodan looked at the beggar with curiosity: a real percher in appearance, but flatters and spins words not worse than court poets do.

— "A ring with sapphire, ayvan. Fine, as the moon and the sun. You won`t find similar ring in all Darnat, swear by head! And to the kind ayvan my friend will concede a ring for low price — if I ask ..."

— "You lie!" — Leodan mistrustfully frowned eyebrows. — "Where did such beggars as you get a precious ring? Only if it is stolen, but stolen thing is not necessary to me".

— "Ayvan is unfair!" — The beggar punched himself in breast. — "Gods see that I have not stolen even a crust from a table in tavern for my life. My friend won this ring in dice game against one notable young man. To such poor people, as we, this ring is useless, but money for it ... Do you have money?"

— "Yes I do. Three sakkars".

— "I swear by Ygerabal, my friend will sell you the ring for two pieces of gold. Let's go, ayvan".

Leodan suspiciously looked at the beggar. The thin did not resemble the bandit, but nevertheless ... And maybe it is some sort of cunning trap? It is worth being more careful.

— "Two sakkars for a precious ring? — he asked, having skillfully represented mistrust. — Your ring is just a fake".

— "No, ayvan!" — the beggar whispered. -" Once, many years ago, I was a journeyman at the goldsmith, but got sick yet and lost forces and job. I swear that sapphire in a ring is the most real".

— "So why is your friend going to sell it so cheap?"

— "Sapphire cannot be eaten as a piece of bread, ayvan".

Leodan thought of sapphire earrings that governor presented Shemmer— Ta-Nat. If the beggar does not lie, and sapphire in a ring is really good ... Eventually, it`s a daytime now, it is full of people around and unlikely he will be tried to be robbed there. It would be much simpler to creep to him in a market crowd and quietly cut off a purse from a belt. He left the shop and, following the beggar, appeared at east gate of the market — there was a brisk petty trade.

The friend of the thin squated under a big plane tree — same dirty, emaciated, smelly, torn off and squint moreover . He resembled the successful dice gambler as a donkey resembles a fighting stallion, and Leodan again suspected a dirty trick. However the cross-eyed saw them and cried a shrill voice:

— "Who is this guy, Mushkee? Whom do you drag, Mushkee? Are you absolutely fool, Mushkee?"

— "Shut up!" — whispered the thin hotly. -" It is kind ayvan. He gave me money and wants to buy a ring".

— "To buy a ring? Who told you, the son of dust that I want to sell it?"

— "You spoke ..."

— "Fie on you!"— Leodan corrected the lilac chlamys on a breast with finger-tips and went to gate. However the squint punk suddenly rushed behind him afterwards, grabbed for a floor of a chlamys and shouted:

— "Kind ayvan, do not become angry with the fool who is not knowing what does and do not avert from unusable, offended you in the silly ignorance ... Do you really want to buy a ring Mushkee told you about?"

— "Release me", — Leodan answered without hiding fastidiousness. — "Your friend told something about a ring with sapphire. But I see, you do not want to sell it. And it is not believeable that such dirty rat can have real sapphire. So hell you go".

— "Oh-oh-oh, ayvan, wait a moment, stay! I really did not want to sell this ring, but now I see that I can trust you. You know, we are the poor people, we are not aquainted with thieves and swindlers, because there is nobody to protect us. We have no trust to anybody, but ... But you are good ayvan, a flame of great Kua is flickering in your eyes. Tell me how much you give for this precious ring?"

— "At first I should look at ring".

— "Gold words!" — The cross-eyed momentally unwound a dirty rag in which his left palm was rolled up, and Leodan could not hold an admiration sigh. The ring was magnificent — of light gold, with the big square sapphire surrounded with small diamonds. And still, sapphire in a ring was the same shade, as stones in earrings of Shemmer-Ta-Nat were. His lovely hostess will be delighted with his gift. Gods give him the chance to thank Shemmer-Ta-Nat for her kindness.

— "Fake", — Leodan told, perfectly understanding that the gemstone is real. — "One sakkar".

— "Ayvan just wants to rob me!" — sobbed the cross-eyed. — "This ring was put in a game against one hundred sakkars. The gem is true, I swear by loins of my father and mother's belly!"

-"How much do you want?"

— "Two sakkars. Only two sakkars for this miracle of jewelry craft".

— "I should think". — Leodan hardly overcame desire to untie a purse at once. — "Do you speak the ring isn`t stolen?"

— "How could you think it, ayvan! I am not a thief, I am an honest gambler".

— "Well, I buy it".

The ragamuffin dexterously pulled a ring from a finger and handed with bow to the young man. Thrust two gold coins received from Leodan in a mouth and right there disappeared in the crowd which is pounded at gate. Leodan sighed, looked at a ring once again. The sapphire was stunning. Of course, the damned cross-eyed cheat lay, and for certain this ring had been stolen. But who will know about it? He imagined eyes of Shemmer-Ta-Nat when she would see his gift, and became light and good at heart. Not for nothing he suffered from stench, dust and a heat in the market today. It is possible to come back home with peace of mind.

He almost reached gate when two soldiers from city guards and well dressed young man with derisive eyes approached him.

— "You are Leodan, the slave to respectable Uzmay?" — the young man inquired though Leodan understood at once. The question was formal because the unknown perfectly knew who stood before him.

— "Yes, I am Leodan. What do you want, sir?"

— "Show us what you carry on fingers of the left hand".

— "I ...." — Leodan choked as if a bucket of ice water was overturned on him. Everything floated before eyes, legs became weakened. He as in a dream watched how the unknown seized him by hand and with the triumphing exclamation pulled damned sapphire from a finger.

— "That`s it!" — he exclaimed, addressing policemen. — "This is sapphire respectable Uzmay told us about".

— "Nasty dog!" — one of soldiers told Leodan. — "How did you dare to rob the master? Do you know what will be to you for it?"

— "I ... I did not steal!" — Leodan imploringly looked at the young man, at detectives. -" I bought it from the beggar here, in the market ..." — and here Leodan broke off because he understood how ridiculously and unconvincingly his words sounded.

— "You will go with us, the rascal", — the policeman said. — "You will explain to our wise judge how the precious ring appeared on your dirty paw. The ring gets as a material evidence".

— "We go, dreamboat!" — the second policeman said, pushed Leodan sideways with a lash handle.

The Dorian, hardly rearranging legs, trudged for officers. The young man who took away a ring from Leodan watched leaving policemen and their production, then went to a small toucan where under a canopy sat with a wine bowl in a hand a man , who thought up and paid all this representation.

— "Policemen took away a ring, honorable Samedyar", — the young man told, having approached sitting man closer.

— "It is not your care". — Samedyar handed to the young man ten sakkars of an agreed payment. — "Also thank your friends actors. Irreplaceable people, I swear by Kua".

— "Master could add couple of coins for them".

— "You`ve got enough. And now go. Also remember — if you talk much, you will ride out the highest stake near Plague Ditches".

— "Understood everything, master. I am mute as rocks of the harbor".

— "Go".

The mercenary bowed and got lost in the crowd which gathered near a toucan. Samedyar drank up wine with small sips, threw copper kavash on a table and came to the sun. The heat fell down, day drooped. Business was made. Everything that it is necessary now to come before dark into the Tower of Silence and return the Uzmay's wife ring until someone among the judicials imposed the paw on it.

CHAPTER 5

The Silence Tower, the highest construction in Darnat, was a ziggurat of Shesh the god of the Sun. It was constructed during the government of king Ashebgardan, and for long time Shesh's Tower had been considered as one of Darnat's miracles. However after an era of the Midday Empire Shesh's cult was cancelled, and the authorities found another application for the tower— it was made into a city prison. Marble and granite slabs of facing of a tower were taken away for other constructions, a sacred garden was cut down at the bottom, the freed platform was turned into the parade-ground for the guard formations and flogging of the convicts, and internal furniture of a ziggurat was distributed to the temples devoted to other gods. The tower lost former magnificence and got the new name among the people — the Tower of Thieves, — and it was unclear who was meant by the people rumor: either those who were inprisoned in the tower, or those who took everything valuable from the place which had been sacred once.

Casta was brought to the tower not at once: in the beginning the legionaries who arrested her brought the girl into the House of the Law — the low stone building to the right of an entrance to prison where prison officials were engaged in the girl. They described things of Casta and put them in a big chest, then one of jailers, the elderly person with a yellow face and dim eyes, ordered girl to strip to the skin. Casta, having spat under legs, pulled down the tunic and threw it to feets of yellow-face jailer. During the next moment another jailer standing behind the girl's back hit her with a lash on a back. Casta turned to the offender with a furious cry, threatened a fist on him — and right there received new blow from the second guardian with a blunt end of a spear this time in a stomach. Her breath intercepted, pain forced to bow. The third blow, with a staff on a back, brought down Casta from feet, and the girl fell on a cold earth floor face down.

— "No tricks, whore", — quietly told yellow-faced jailer, — "here is not the arena. We will teach you to respect the law and its attendants".

She was examined as if the animal intended for sale, they looked between legs moved apart and broke a gold amulet with a lock of Elea`s hair and Tulkan's stone from a neck . The yellow-faced opened an amulet, fastidiously pulled out soft light curl from it with finger-tips.

— |"Oh you are also a witch!" — he exclaimed.

— "It ...is hair of my ... daughter", — croaked Casta. — "Give ..."

The yellow-faced threw a curl, put the amulet in his satchel. Then turned the stone received by Casta from Tulkan in fingers and also threw it to the girl. The second official stretched to Casta a tunic from rigid burlap and pair of rough rope sandals.

— "Put on", — he ordered.

In a tower she was led by the yellow-faced jailer and two Aglamits, thickset, long-armed and overgrown with red hair like monkeys. After bright sunlight on the street the gloom of a tower blinded Casta. The stomach got to a throat from the stench reigning in a tower. Casta stopped, trying to cope with the rolled nausea.