Elinor. The Deserted Valley. Book 1. Mikhail Shelkov

not worth it! We’ll stop at the guest house. What’s it called?”

      “The inn? What are you talking about?” the Mechanic spoke heatedly before the Master. “It is extremely uncomfortable in there! Hard loungers, meager food.”

      “On the journey, we slept on rocks and ate what we had,” the Master interrupted. “Thank you, but we will choose an inn.”

      “And you will not visit the governor of Kawa?”

      “Does he relate to the Valley?”

      “He fulfills the will of the Burgomasters of the Great Cities.”

      “Does he know why the Valley was deserted?”

      “Not at all, just like everyone else. Neither I nor the Burgomasters.”

      “In that case, we’ll go to the inn if you have nothing more to say.”

      “Then until tomorrow… come to the pier! The river ship will take you to Eavette in a couple of days!” Asmalou held out a heavy bag, “A gift from the Burgomasters! This is money! We are aware that it is not being used in the Ulutau country, but here you will have hard times without it. By the way, they simply don’t allow you to go into the inn.”

      The Mechanic quickly disappeared from sight, and the Master remained standing, holding the gift in his hand, which he either did not have time to, or just could not, refuse.

      This Eoamit Asmalou is insistent indeed, you can say nothing else. What will be next?

      The wooden city struck the Ulutau. And the inn, scolded so much by the Mechanic, seemed to be an abode of ancient fairytales. It was so unusual inside! In a separate outbuilding stood tall beautiful animals that looked like mountain deer. They were called horses and people rode them.

      Inside the tavern, there was a delicious smell of roasted meat and fragrant vapors from drinks that sharply warped the mind. Master Nao said that people in the Valley drank such drinks which turned them into fools. Why they drank them, he did not know.

      The dinner was just amazing. Ulari and the other Ulutau never ate such delicious and unusual food but praised it. However, at night almost all their stomachs twisted. Some spent the morning in the special rooms, and when there was no more space there, others were right behind the inn.

      8

      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.