Candia, before the arrival of the Portuguese, those daring conquerors who first brought European weapons to the Indian Ocean, also competing in cruelty with the Spanish conquistadors who overthrew the ancient American empires, was the holy city and every year pilgrims flocked there in masses huge.
It had superb pagodas, adorned with precious stones, huge monasteries, immense palaces, colossal statues. But when in the sixteenth century everything fell under the anger of those greedy Spanish marauders, those beauties disappeared and only ruins remained in the kingdom, superb yes, but always ruins.
Some of Candy's kings are buried in the monastery, who deserved to be admitted to the sojourn of happiness for having erected temples to guard that sacred place.
Pervaded by a profound emotion, which made his tears fall, the pearl fisherman greeted from the top of a hill the monastery where lived the girl who had cried so much, the daughter of old Chital.
«Your heart is beating fast, is it true, my poor friend?» Blake told him as he watched him.
«True, it seems to me that he is about to burst inside his chest. This is a dream, to find myself here, after such a long absence and so much suffering. It seems to me that happiness is too much and that some misfortune must strike me before I see my beloved again.»
«What must we fear now? The pearl is always in our hands.»
«True, yet I'm afraid, Mr. Blake.»
«It's happiness that makes you see everything black.» Jody specified «Up, Kaj, let's go down into the valley and then forward towards those ruins. Before evening we will be at the monastery.»
They were about to leave the hill when a deafening crash, which seemed to be produced by a great number of heavily beaten trumpets, flutes and gongs, boomed in the valley below.
«Does the regiment pass?» Blake said jokingly.
«Some important pilgrimages.» answered Kaj who listened carefully «This is the period in which the great ones of the kingdom go to visit the monastery.��
The din was approaching, there were drum rolls and strange sounds that seemed to be produced by iron triangles.
«What is left over must be someone very important. Could he be Candy's king?» Kaj asked aloud.
«Does he also go to the monastery sometimes?» Blake asked.
«He has some of his ancestors buried up there.»
«Open your eyes!» shouted at that moment Jody, who had hoisted himself on a rock to better dominate the valley «What is coming is a magnificent procession.»
A squad of Candians, splendidly dressed and adorned with a prodigious number of bells, advanced waving white weathervanes and holding large banners, on which some figures representing the sun, the elephant, the tiger could be seen painted in red.
The squad was followed by a large group of soldiers armed only with whips without handles, which they whistled in the air without rest in an act of threat. Two or three dozen musicians later appeared, armed with long trumpets, tam-tams and gongs, drums and triangles of iron that struck, making the whole valley thunder.
«It's a royal procession.» Kaj confirmed «Soon you will see the ruler of Candy.»
«Let's go down, friends, to get a closer look at it.»
Blake started walking.As they descended into the valley, the procession continued to advance in the midst of a deafening din. Squads of proud knights paraded in multicolored uniforms with plumed turbans, then colossal elephants with large red drapes and silver pendants on their ears, mounted by the two prime ministers or district governors and by commanders of troops, then new in charge of the king's personal surveillance .
The three men had already descended into the valley, stopping at the top of a cliff overlooking the road traveled by the procession, when the royal elephant appeared. It was a gigantic animal, lavishly adorned, with red velvet blankets and gold fringes.
Precious pendants were around the massive forehead, and silver rings on the paws. Under a small dome supported by four columns with silk curtains, the king sat. He was a handsome old man, with a long white beard that gave him a stately appearance, and in the grand gala costume.
Seeing that Blake had taken off his hat to greet him, the monarch, very sensitive to the homage given by a white man, bowed his head smiling and looked at him for a long time with some curiosity.
The three friends let two squads of knights and a company of servants pass by, escorting the royal elephant and took up behind the procession, to reach the plateau together.
«Will you go to the monastery immediately?» Blake asked Kaj as they were about to touch the top of the mountain.
«Yes, sir. I will go and warn the high priest that I have managed to fish out the famous pearl and that I am ready to return it, on condition that old Chital's daughter is delivered to me. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I couldn't get some news about that girl first.»
«I understand your impatience, friend. But you would do well to leave the pearl in our hand. You never know what can happen.» Blake warned that he still feared some surprises.
«I admire your prudence, Mr. Blake, you are right.»
Only towards evening could they reach the plateau. All the surroundings of the ruined city and the monastery were already swarming with pilgrims, this being the season of great religious ceremonies.
There were men and women belonging to all races and coming from the most distant countries. Many sported their quaint and extravagant costumes. It was not easy for the three friends to find a place to sleep, or rather a kennel, under a hut of branches and leaves that was crowded with pilgrims.
They dined as best they could, with some rice topped with fish, then Kaj got up, saying:
«I have barely time to go to the monastery. After sunset, the sanctuary closes and does not reopen before dawn.»
He handed Blake the red pearl, which was always locked in his steel mesh purse, hid his knife as a precaution under the wide band that encircled his hips, and went out promising to return very soon.
Near the monastery there were still some groups of pilgrims, but most of the others had retired to the huts, huts or ruins of the ancient city, to prepare dinner and rest from the long marches made.
Kaj crossed the square and went to stop at the entrance of the monastery, on the threshold of which some priests were praying, covered in large yellow tunics, with shorn heads, arms and bare feet, who were kneeling on a piece of white cloth, with beside the inseparable fan made of palm leaves, which they use as an umbrella when they travel.
The building was very large and housed several hundred monks, but it had nothing extraordinary, both in architecture and in luxury. It was quite low, with a flat roof like Buddhist temples, with wooden columns painted red around it and without any gilding.
The only thing that could attract attention was a huge statue of the divinity, which supported his head with his left hand. The priests had their faces painted all in red, marked by an expression of great sweetness and serenity.
Seeing Kaj advance with a quick step, one of the priests stood up, eyeing him with a frown.
«Who are you coming to disturb the monks' prayers?» she asked him reproachfully.
«A fisherman who will make the high priest happy. I have to talk to him instantly»
«Are you a messenger of the king?»
«I am an Indian first of all and therefore I am not a subject, nor a servant of the ruler of Candy.»
«Then you will come back tomorrow.»
«What I have to communicate to the high priest is too urgent for me to wait so long.» Kaj answered firmly.
«It doesn't matter: he'll be back tomorrow.»
«Then go tell the high priest that a fisherman from Manaar found the famous red pearl that was stolen from this monastery at the bottom of the sea, and came to bring it to him.»
Hearing those words, all the monks jumped to their feet, looking in amazement at the young man.
«You found the pearl!» they all exclaimed in one voice.
«Yes, me» Kaj replied.
There was a brief silence among the monks. Everyone looked at him, as if to ask themselves if the man was crazy or wanted to joke, but seeing him so calm and sure of himself, they were persuaded that something must be true in his words.
«Follow me now!» finally said the one who had first questioned him. «But be aware that if you have made fun of us, we will hand you over to the king's judges.»
«I did not come to deceive you, I repeat to you that the pearl is in my hand.»
They went through the door and found themselves in a vast corridor lit by small lamps, whose bright walls were covered with inscriptions. The monk made him go up a flight of steps and introduced him into a large room in the middle of which stood another statue of the god, also lying down.
On a magnificent carpet, an old priest was kneeling, wearing a golden ribbon around his head and slowly winding up.
«What do you want?» the old man asked, interrupting his prayers «Are you bringing some envoys of the king?»
«No, high priest» replied the monk «This man claims to have found the big pearl that adorned the forehead of our god and which, as you know, was stolen by that sacrilegious foreigner.»
The old man, despite his very advanced age, gave a start.
«It is not possible! It doesn't have to be that.»
«You, high priest, will check the weight and you will see that it will be exact. Only her color has changed, having become, from rosy that she was, perfectly red, and thus giving her a greater value.» Kaj explained.
«How could it have changed color?» asked the old man.
«Because she soaked in the blood of the man who stole her. You know better than I, high priest, that it was closed within an open wound specifically to better steal it.»
«It's true! Where do you have that pearl?» he got up and went to meet him with outstretched hands.
«What if they take advantage of your absence to escape?» asked the high priest, with an accent of fear.
«They are too faithful to rob me.»
«Where do you find it?»
«At the far end of the Manaar reef. I got to know the spot where the thief drowned, from an old pearl fisherman who had been assigned to chase him.»
«And what will you ask for as a reward?»
«The liberation of old Chital's daughter who is among the priestesses of this monastery and nothing else. She was my future bride and was kidnapped during a religious festival.»
«I know.»
«If you, priest, consent, the pearl will adorn again in your hands. If you refuse, my friends will break it, so no one will ever have it again.»