Nino held the iron close to the firelight. Her lips moved as she deciphered the faded Georgian:
“You love your language so much?” he sneered. “Then let this be its crown. A crown of rust and silence. Speak one more word of it, and I will nail this to your skull.” the crown qartulad
Mamuka nodded slowly. “This crown was never for a king. It was for a child.” Nino held the iron close to the firelight
She looked up, confused. “That’s not a king’s motto. That’s a proverb.” the crown qartulad
That night, she wrote in her journal: Found no gold. Found something better. Found a language that would not die.