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1 " ...glass words for you, Beloved—rain beads from an abacus of pain... "
2 " Yakov spent the whole day playing his fiddle; when it got completely dark, he took the notebook in which he recorded his losses daily, and out of boredom began adding up the yearly total. It came to over a thousand roubles. This astounded him so much that he flung the abacus to the floor and stamped his feet. Then he picked up the abacus, again clicked away for a long time, and sighed deeply and tensely. His face was purple and wet with sweat. He thought that if he could have put that lost thousand roubles in the bank, he would have earned at least forty roubles a year in interest. And therefore those forty roubles were a loss. In short, wherever you turned, there was nothing but losses every "
3 " We should do this on computer," she said, chalking it carefully for the eighty-ninth time. " With a drawing pad." " Nonsense. You're lucky I don't make you inscribe it with a stylus on a wax tablet, like the old days," Myrnin snorted. " Children. Spoiled children, always playing with the shinest toy." " Computers are more efficient!" " I can perform calculations on that abacus faster than you can solve them on your computer," Myrnin sneered.Okay, now he was pissing her off. " Prove it!" " What?" " Prove it." She backed off on her tone, but Myrnin wasn't looking angry; he was looking strangely interested. He stared at her for a second in silence, and then he got the biggest, oddest smile she'd ever seen on the face of a vampire." All right," he said. " A contest. Computer versus abacus." She wasn't at all sure now that was a good idea, even if it had been her idea, essentially. " Um -- what do I win?" More importantly, what do I lose? Making bargains was a way of life in Morganville, and it was a lot like making deals with man-eating fairies. Better be careful what you ask for." Your freedom," he said solemnly. His eyes were wide and guileless, his too-young face shining with honesty. " I will tell Amelie you were not suited to the work. She'll let you go about your life, such as it is." Good prize. Too good. Claire swallowed hard. " And if I lose?" " Then I eat you," Myrnin said. "
4 " ...dark furrow lines grid the snow, punctuated by orange abacus beads of pumpkins - now the crows own the field... "
― , A Familiar Rain
