Necklace (Ashurran #2)

Amber, part 1

Irezumi was born with golden eyes, and that eye color had always been the sure sign of good luck. But he was a seventh son in a poor family, and his parents saw nothing lucky about his birth. Their family used to be noble and wealthy, but in the course of years it grew poor and unimportant. The descendants of metropolitan noblemen had been reduced to mere peasants who had to toil and sweat. There was nothing left of gold-embroidered clothes, silver-encrusted cups, jewelry or any other remainders of former wealth. They had now only an oval piece of amber with a drilled hole, which had been passed down from mother to daughter for generations. Once that amber pendant must have been hung on a golden chain, but the chain was long gone now, probably sold for bread or vegetable seeds. Only a common leather string remained, on which the feeble ancient grandmother wore the amber around her wrinkled neck. They never dared to sell the amber itself, even when the times were really tough. Anyway, the stone was pretty common and cheap, although very beautiful – the color of gold and honey, shining like the sun, and that was exactly the color of Irezumi's eyes.

Time passed, Irezumi grew. Soon he was old enough to help on the farm, yet again, he couldn't bring his parents any joy. Irezumi seemed like a stranger in their poor house, and he felt like a stranger too, having no interest in the everyday life of a farmer. He liked neither birds' chirping nor peasants' singing nor cows' mooing and horses' neighing. He took joy only in the stories his grandmother told him. She couldn't read but remembered how her own grandmother had been reading to her fairy tales from old books with pretty pictures and telling stories about the capital of Yunan. Irezumi himself had been dying to learn how to read, but there was none to teach him in his poor neighborhood. So Irezumi drew lines and circles in the loose earth or in the sand on a riverbank imagining he was writing real letters.

After Irezumi had turned thirteen, it became clear he was of no use on the farm. He couldn't stop daydreaming, even after his mother cried and begged him to straighten up, or his father threatened to whip him. The eldest brother talked about selling Irezumi to a brothel. That way the family could get some money, and Irezumi himself could be better off, because working on one's back was much easier than plowing a field. The mother cried but said nothing against that plan, and the father started to think about it. Then suddenly the old grandmother opposed resolutely to it, despite hardly being able to walk and talk for the last few years.

"Fanneshtou," she mumbled with her toothless mouth.

Her son-in-law tried to reason with her. "What are you talking about, old woman!" he said. "Fanneshtou is the Temple of All Gods, everyone there lives on the fat of the land, they have countless riches and food supplies. Only lords and princes can enter Fanneshtou, or mighty wizards and learned men. No one is ever admitted for schooling there without a rich fee, and that fee is more than our whole village is worth, and ours harvest for ten full years! Even for being admitted as a servant one has to pay in silver!"

"The amber!" the old lady said and touched her amber pendant.

Irezumi's father was surprised, because amber was not deemed very rare and precious in Yunan, even such a beautiful and clear stone. However, it was considered a sin in Yunan to disobey your elders, and the mother started crying and begging again, so the father agreed to take Irezumi to Fanneshtou.

The road to Fanneshtou was long and difficult, but those who'd managed to deliver their goods all the way there, could sell them with great profit. Irezumi's father decided to bring a load of grain and wool along. Luckily, a merchants' train happened to be coming through the village, and it was bound exactly for Fanneshtou, so it was like a finger of fate.

It seemed the Younger Gods had been keeping the travelers safe, because they reached Fanneshtou in due time, without any hardships along the way. The father took Irezumi to the Temple's gates and showed the amber pendant to the gatekeeper. He was expecting to be laughed at and driven away, but to his great astonishment the gatekeeper promptly ushered the boy in, without asking for payment or a bribe. He didn't even take the amber, but gently hung it on the boy's neck. Then the gatekeeper went and came back with a purse full of gold coins and gave it to Irezumi's father.