Dragon’s Empire – 4
Rose for dragon
Natalie Yacobson

Natalie Lilienthal Translator

© Natalie Yacobson, 2022

© Natalie Lilienthal, translation, 2022

ISBN 978-5-0056-0301-2 (т. 4)

ISBN 978-5-0055-4050-8

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Night visits

Sacrifice everything for the sake of moment. Only a fool can dare for it, but I have always been distinguished by an amazing recklessness. Poets also sacrifice their lives, waiting for the moment of inspiration. Unlike them, I still loved risking. By throwing in the most dangerous adventures, I usually wanted to prove my courage, but this time I was attracted to annoy Odil. To visit her on a visit to the ghost position and get out of this wasp’s nest, which she calls the castle, unharmed.

Perhaps her royal residence was the only one in the world in which the invisible guests cannot penetrate without permission. My subjects could penetrate without permission anywhere, but not here. All other windows and doors were available for them, despite the vigilant watch and gatekeepers. My elves could pass invisible past any guards, fly through an attic window, squeeze as the easiest smoke into the narrow slits or even pass through the walls, but in the case of Odil, none of these tricks has been triggered. Her spinners were better than any guards, and controlled everything. Neither the robber nor a conspirator nor an evil spirit had a progress in the queen’s castle.

I managed to put the vigilance of spinners. I was able to overcome the spells which enclosed the castle and flew up to the window of the throne hall. I indifferently slid with a look on elegant guests dressed for ball. The magnificent throne, what was standing on an elevation under the purple canopy seemed poor to me in comparison with the one that was waiting for me in my castle. The candelabrums of a skillful forging also looked too rough in comparison with those which gnomes have long made specifically for my ballroom halls. I remained cool until a slim girl released from the circle of the cavaliers. For the backs of the fans it was difficult even for me to consider her, but as soon as she separated from the crowd, the light of all candles focused on her figure. A dress made of pink silk with an overwhelmed waist fit her. The satin ribbon covered the chest and was gathered in a bow on her back. The queen forced Rose to be content with the simple gems, but even Rose was not a princess, who would be able to take a look from her.

Freely she was for a short time, until the ranks of the guests were kept. Then on the one hand, the elderly music teacher began to read her lectures, on the other hand went the governess of the harsh appearance. It even seemed to me that now the evil couple will bring a beautiful child to tears, but Rose showed a good sense. In response to pretty unceremonious notations, she smiled very cute, said something biting and moved away, leaving her mentors to fade from indignation.

Probably, besides me, no one noticed that tears appeared in her eyes. I almost felt her despair when she quickly went, almost ran through the dark gallery, heading into her apartments. Even without being a sorcerer, it was possible to understand that even the gloomy clouds hung over Roshen would be more preferable to her than the society of envious persons.

I wanted to console the girl just how to do it. Awakening the dragon, the prince expected that he would scare people, and not sympathize with them. I was invisible to the eyes and inviolable for the charms. In one moment I found the room of princess.

Even the rays of the lamp in the bedroom could not exit my silhouette from darkness. As I guessed, Rose sat on the bed and cried. I came silently to her and stroked her slightly on the hair. She did not see me, but she felt the touch and recalled, like from the fire. I accidentally hit the ribbon and that fell out of her hair, the same thin like a walkway from the tears on the cheek of the princess.

«Do not cry, child!» I said, trying to give my voice a pleasant sound and sounds rolled on the bedroom, like magic music. Rose was fixed, for a moment it even seemed to me that she saw me.

«Who are you?» She asked persistently, it was clearly she felt next to her my presence.

«I am your friend, although other people consider me as their sworn enemy.»

«Where are you?» Rose, squinting, looked in the right direction, but did not see anyone. «Show me, I ask you,» she whispered, and it was unlikely that someone who turned out to be in my place could refuse to such charming creation.

«Not yet time,» For the sake of it, I retreated away from the light of the lamp, at least I managed to interest the girl with my unusual invasion and she no longer cried. «Do you want, I will bring you a few jewels or any thing you dream about,» I suggested without much hope, it was unlikely that she wanted to take gifts from the ghost. «During the night, I could fly through the whole earth and bring wonderful things from the farthest countries for you.»

«Are you an angel?» Her question put me in a dead end.

«Otherwise, how can you fly through all the earth in one night?» continued Rose.

«I flew here. I live in the far country, in that state that you can not find in any map.»

«So beautiful?» she asked in more joyful tone. Rose led her interrogation with a truly childish excitement.

«Yes,» I agreed. «And there is still very dangerous.»

«And you are not afraid of living there?»

«No,» I answered at such a naive question quite seriously, without even smiling. «For me, the local ruler does not offer any threat.»

«Why?»

«It is me!»

On the moment, Rose kept even silent from amazement. It seemed to me that she was now afraid and would begin to call for help, but she was still interested in looking into the emptiness, just at the place where I stood.

Making sure that she does not distinguish my silhouette, and only looked in the direction where the voice came from, I approached her and touched her hair again.

«You are even more beautiful than on the stage!» I noticed delightedly, and felt her thin shoulders shuddered from amazement.

«Yes, I was there to watch you,» I replied to an unspoken question. «By the way, it was stupid to say that you saw an angel in the theater’s box.»

«But I really saw,» Rosa reached for a candle, but even without touching the candelabrum standing on the table with one mental strengthening I pushed it aside, so that her fingers almost didn’t reach a copper handle. The icon-lamp also began to shine a little weaker, I did not extinguish it completely, because, unlike me, Rose could not distinguish colors in the darkness.

«Have you told about the angel to the whole court?»

«Only to a few people, but they did not believe me,» Rose explained with contempt. The development of insights in her was ahead of years. Living at the court, in the circle of gossips and intriguers she exposed the lies in her surrounding.

«Maybe you’ll show me?» Rose got out of the bed, made some incorrect steps on the carpet. She pulled her hands forward like a sleep-walker, trying to touch someone in an empty space.

«My appearance will mislead you,» I patiently explained. «Remember, princess, a stranger can take you the most direct road to the gates of hell.»

I gave her a subtle hint, rephrased something a little that I said once. Did she recognize my voice? Or did she just guess? Usually she had enough a word to understand the truth.

«So your appearance is deceptive if invisible can have some kind of appearance in general,» Rose dropped to the couch and laughed quietly. «Not all that is gold that glitters. Is it right?»

«Yes,» no one could say more accurately. I got on one knee in front of the couch where Rose was sitting and stroked her on the shoulder. «In your life and in the vulnerable world, I am just… a shadow. You agree to call me your friend.»

«Yes,» she answered without thinking. «In addition to you, I have no one.»

Such sincere recognition would not leave even Vincent indifferent. Rose made it clear that only I had spoken sincerely to her. Or maybe she meant that no one in this huge castle wanted to understand her, look into her soul and discover surprising gifts there. I could not read her thoughts, they were not available to me. To read the thoughts of other people, I could, as the revealed book, but in the case of Rose, this book was closed.

In any case, now I felt obliged to stand up on the protection of an offended child. Sometimes Rose reminded me of a very beautiful doll, which by chance fell in bad hands. I could not leave her without comfort and therefore, despite the risk, I returned every night to her, flew through the window, and only if she slept accepted the visible human appearance. It looked like in the early youth, it was familiar to me how to hide in emptiness or fly over the world on gold wings. It remained only to hope that no one would look into the bedroom of Rose and would not see the angel to pray at her bed. In fact, I did not pray, I simply did not remember any prayers. I also believed that for the magician it was sinful to pronounce them. I kneel on the bed of Rose only to read my spells over her. My black magic gradually tied us to a solid thread.

Most often I brought to Rose some gifts – small, but graceful little things. There were many in my treasury. I had no opportunity to catch her thoughts and thus find out what she would prefer, I chose, relying on my own taste. I remembered that Florian taught me if you wanted to like the girl, more often would make her gifts and be as polite as possible. The beauty would not endure the rude pass even from the prince. Following this advice, I brought to Rose some gifts: a necklace, a diadem or just a thread of a large pearls, but Rose was not one of those whom you could make only gifts. She wanted to see me. It was immediately clear that Rose was not going to endure it for a long time.

For me, the very presence in the castle was rather uncomfortable. I had the pressure on the skin of someone else’s and very strong magic. Sometimes it even seemed to me that it was time to leave on the pillow of Rose the last gift, a black velvet mask, and fly forever, but nevertheless I returned every time, getting ready for a feeling of discomfort, which would certainly pursue me in the castle of Odil.

It’s time to end with night visits and all this gloomy romance. If I continue such a pastime, the affairs of the Empire will be neglected as the control over Lara and the decoding of the scrolls. Another would be satisfied on my place that he picked up a rip out of a ribbon, but it was not enough for me. I was increasingly convinced that it was not for Rose a place among people. The otherworldly world attracted her, as it long ago attracted me.

Once I had urgently to fly away, because the maid knocked up to Rose. I accidentally took with me some subject. It was a book in soft leather binding. My first thought was that it should be returned back, but gradually good intentions were destroyed and I revealed the book, probably because I knew in advance – this was a diary of princess.

What did she write?

«The sixth of July: A new minstrel appeared in the castle. It was useless to ask seneschal about who accepted him to work, let him in the castle’s gate, a young man, as if arose from emptiness and now played on every feast. He is ugly, possibly because of too much tan, but the sounds of his viola enchant animals. When he plays the canaries in the cage behave as if they are ready to fulfill any of his order, and hunting dogs fearfully pumped to the walls when the minstrel passes by them. Often I catch his look on me. He looks as if he knows what I think. Only magicians looked at those who were stamped with evil. I begin to think about it, and suddenly this minstrel knows that at night he visits me… Someone, unnamed, invisible and mysterious.»

Then it became more interesting. I knew that I had no right to read it, but I could not keep from reading it.

«The seventh of July: I again heard his voice coming from emptiness. I almost feel his touch. I no longer ask him «Who are you,» because I know in advance the answer. Are you a dream, an illusion, a self-deception? I am not a sacrifice for any of these three assumptions. Now I know for sure, I have an invisible friend.

The eighth of July: Shantel caught my hand in a dark corridor, where there was no one except for us two, and I was afraid. Of all the royal spinners, Shantel is the strangest. Her cat’s eyes seem to look into the soul and laugh at what they see there. She did not threaten me, did not try to scratch with her sharp nails, but it was still scary to me. Shantel resembles a predator, a well-groomed, spoiled panther, which does not hunt because the hungry, but simply from the whim. She looked at me for a long time, and then called the poor thing, shook her head sympathetically and added that I probably didn’t even suspect that the demon visited me. In her, everything is a false pretence. You can not believe her words, but this time it was difficult not to believe. Well, if she is right, then it means that I am… in love with the demon.

The ninth of July: I’m waiting again that he will appear to me. Shantel advised me to lock all the windows overnight. I’m afraid, no matter how she tried to prevent his arrival, because then she will make me doubly unhappy. If only annoying courtiers did not insistently climbed into someone else’s case, then it would be much easier to live.

Tenth of July: Last night an incredible happened. I saw him and found out. I woke up somewhere at midnight, looked at the night starry sky and the silhouette of an excellent gold-haired young man appeared in the opening of the arched window. There are no such as he in the capital or at the court. He seemed to come from another world – that world where there are elves with pale flickering skin and other creatures unknown to us. My first thought was that the window is located on the very top floor of the castle, it is impossible to get it just like that, and even if my bedroom was located at the very bottom it is necessary to overcome the moat. The night guest flew over the ground, and his cloak waved in the wind, like a live flap of fire, red against a dark sky. I do not remember I climbed the windowsill before he stretched me a hand or after, I remember only a mad flying over the sleeping capital, the cycle of colors, sounds, night lights. The whole city was lying down under us, as in some fabulous dream, the attic pipes, the spire of the town hall, the dome of the cathedral, the road, twisted past the houses, and even covered with skin a roof of some crew.

I clung to camisole of one who carried me over the earth, without even immediately realizing that it was not natural for a person, but unnatural. He easily descended down, in the city, we fell on the roof of the crew and the fast wind, having fun, hit our faces. Laughter of my satellite resembled a silver chime. We both laughed, because we had fun to rush along the sleeping city on a flat roof of the carriage. Horses anxiously rusted, having honed the presence of strangers. In order not to fall, I tried to hold on to my mysterious acquaintance all the time, and when the next morning I woke up, it would be that all this was a dream, if there was not a polished gold button, pulled with a piece of pale blue brocade in my hand.

Now I have a proof that all this was not a dream. So, the voice sounding from emptiness was not a self-deception and not in a dream I saw how the bone comb flew into the air to comb my hair. It was in the hand of an invisible guest. I hope this guest will come…»

I put her diary in my pocket and decided that by all means I should return it. Probably, I made a miscalculation, taking Rose with me into the flight, but it was not possible to resist. In the wardrobe I found that camisole, in which I was dressed yesterday and was convinced that a single button was missing. There is a proof for Rose that her visitor was a creation from another world, but she is smart enough to be secretive and not tell anyone about her secrets. If she told, a trap would wait for me in the castle next night. Since I managed freely to penetrate inside, without a trap, nor placed networks, it was possible to believe that Rose was silent. Staying invisible, I walked around most of the castle, and accidentally looked into the room where the town’s tailor worked. She pushed the train of the wedding dress with the pins, and there was a queen herself and gave instructions. I did not want Odil to feel my presence, and I also did not want to leave without learning, why the wedding dress was here. I heard the words «Tomorrow will try it on the princess.» I became angry at the end. So Odil decided to acquire an ally in the war, and now this aspirant to the hand of the princess entered the capital, secretly, under the cover of the night, so that the plans were not broken.

I waited until there would be no one in the room, and then hacked the door, went to the mannequin and ripped out the outfit in a moment by a hand with golden claws. They appeared only when the dragon acutely needed a victim. The shreds of the spoiled scarf and sparkling rags could not satisfy the need of blood. Small pearls from the dress, crunched under my feet when I left away. On this night I did not visit Rose, I had a case more important. I hurried to another no less important meeting.

I was angry like never. Even Percy, kindly having met me at the gate of the capital and who offered me a horse, so as not to search the city on feet, just in case he went aside, barely had time to transfer reins to me. It’s good that he accounted for my desire, before I hacked the first stable. In such a mood, as now, I was capable of everything. I hid a clawed hand in the folds of the raincoat, but the horse, even though it was a punished elf, frightened snapped under me. Such rider did not please everyone, because if I did not find my rival, then I could tear the throat of any animal which would be near me.

I caught up I was looking for in a deserted and dark street. A black cloak was waving behind me, claws on my hand were hot and burned. Light moon. My opponent left the horse in a paid stable and now he was looking for an opened tavern. From the tavern, where he had time to look before, he was lured out by one of my fairies – a beautiful, winged, deft intriguer, she was ready in everything to help the emperor. In the castle, he was going to go during the day. Interestingly, he thought, having seen a rider with a dazzling and white skin that it was the personification of the angel of death. I didn’t have time to read his thoughts. The rage took a lot of strength, including the magical.

«Who you are?» he whispered and barely backed out of the road. In the voice, it was clearly distinguished the fright, a relatively reverent thrill in front of the highest sign.

«You know the old proverb «At midnight on the city streets rides death?» I asked in an inspected tone and took out a hand with the golden claws from the cloak. He did not even have time to scream. The sharp claws dug in an unprotected throat. Blood was applied along the embroidered collar, and my rage began to cool. I left the corpse right on the pavement. In the same way, I once left my bloody messages to Odil on the tracks of the royal forest. Only this time the message was intended not only to her. I tore to pieces the shirt on a dead body and wrote with sharp claws on his chest my note. Unlike paper, the skin was torn and bled, but the scratched letters turned out to be more or less smooth. The famous stamp, just a few words «the one you remember,» should have said a lot not only to Odil, but also to Rose.

Somewhere in the distance there was a fight of tower chimes. This sound was supposed to be the last thing that the victim heard before his death, but the clock was late or simply, I had too hurried. Remembering that the horse of the murdered remained in the stable, I headed there. Percy, hidden around the corner with the charming winged patriot, did not even try to delay me. I remembered how Chimera killed the horse of Francesca, just also, I scratched the throat on someone else’s horse and those who were stupid enough to regret it. Calmly stand in the stalls were only those who recognized in me the strongest than everyone who still gave orders.

I left, leaving a bloody trail. A hand who took a normal look was much more pleasant without the heavy claws, but even on smooth skin remained blood. There was a big noise in the city. Percy, who remained to post the events, then reported to me. He was always interested in the scandalous news, especially when he himself knew who had caused an alarm. There was much gossip and people built assumptions. Odil also knew who was to blame of the alarm, or rather guessed, reading the bloody letter. And Rose even if she was not allowed to approach the crime scene, for sure, heard news from the courtiers. I was sure that she had enough intelligence to connect the details of the puzzle. She compared the facts and guessed that this was her mysterious friend who did her a next service.

I doubt that Rose wanted to drop a curtsy before her parents chosen one. With such a very self-will, it would be preferable to make a choice unassisted, and she did it. She chose the worst of all evils.

Neglecting the arguments of the reason, as soon as it was dark, I went again to a familiar window. It was very high necessary by the moat, and was not available for the one who could not fly, as Rose herself had already noticed in her diary. Usually, the windows were hospitably open, but this time someone closed them, and before the glass put the lead binding. Shantel guessed too quickly, even Vincent did not suspect me and she already has suspected something. I decided to turn into a golden winged snake.

As soon as Rose entered the bedroom, she immediately opened the window and pushed the binding. She waited for me, but saw on the windowsill only the thing that it was promised to her for a long time – my theater’s mask. I managed to drop easily it up the edge of the wing, so that Rose probably thought it seemed that the subject was materialized from the air. I knew that now Rose spins a mask in her hands and wants to ask some questions. I really wanted to look at her, because this visit could be the last. I broke off from the wall to which I was pressed and flew up the window’s level. Rose was amazed. She opened her mouth from surprise, but the words were frozen on her lips. She saw in front of her a very beautiful golden creature. Only here the dragon was not so harmless as a sea skate. Another girl at the place of Rose awarded such a spectacle only if she was chosen as my next victim. But Rose, as I have already noticed, was special. Too bold to call for help, she firmly pressed the mask and silently, but with interest looked at such an unusual phenomenon.

The creature from another world waved the wings and disappeared, and Rose did not move away from the window.

I went down to the inner courtyard with a certain goal. The sentries that looked down from the bastions would see in front of them just a nobleman, which could visit the castle or consist in the king’s retinue. A deep well, filled with water, would help the winged snake in a moment to disappear, diving deep into and emerging already in the nearest river. In the courtyard there was only one thin and rather strange boy. The one I was looking for. It was a boy with burnt skin. He deftly attributed his misfortune to what he tanned while he traveled around the desert, but even with such cunning, like his, he could not cope with envious competitors. Musicians who were long at the court did not want to endure a novice. Now that the case took the most serious turnover, Harry ran away from the feast room and thought over his failures alone. More precisely, he thought about where he was going to go now.

He even put out the lantern so that no one could prevent him. It was inconvenient to go to a person if he would be alone, but maybe I was exactly that whom Harry had long expected.

He felt someone touched his shoulder, but when he turned around, I was already far from him. By joyfully burning of his eyes, it was immediately possible to understand that a meeting with an unearthly creature was a miracle that he dreamed of many years.

«Monseigneur… Your Majesty..,» Harry was confused, obviously not knowing how to contact me.

«Only monseigneur is enough,» I allowed graciously. «Your Majesty» sounds in my opinion too pompously, besides in the country where there is already one king.»

«Besides, there are too many kings, but they have no of your power to be completely taken,» Harry picked up. He obviously knew a lot or managed to ask.

«Who told you about me?» I asked, although I already knew the answer in advance.

«They,» Harry glanced at the illuminated window. There was a workshop of six spinners.

«You are in a difficult situation, Harry. In general, like any minstrel. It seems not the servant, and not the courtier. So there is something between an artist and a temporary job seeker.

«If I found Mr. like you, to whom I could serve constantly,» Harry said deftly. He himself rushed to service, so why I did not invite him.

«That’s just what are you suitable for? Do you have any special talent, which is not useless for the owner like I.»

«For example?»

I clicked my fingers, carving a spark of fire, of which there was a tiny silhouette of a soaring bird in the air. The demonstration of magic produced a strong impression on Harry.

«For example, a magic talent,» I explained.

«Any bird,» Harry pointed with his finger to the silhouette melting in the air, «and any animal will not be able to resist the sounds of my viola.»

«Do you charm only animals?»

«People, unfortunately, I can not. Otherwise, my current situation would not be so bad,» he stated with sincere bitterness, obviously stuck on sympathy.

«Okay. Tomorrow closer to the night leave the castle and go towards the wasteland. You will get to the dissolution of the roads, try to get away from the cross and wait. Exactly at midnight I will send someone after you. You will immediately recognize my subjects. Don’t be afraid of anything, go for the conductor, even if it is a gnome or an elf, or a winged capricious lady. Their appearance should not confuse you, like their manner, otherwise you will not be able to take care of you among us.»

Harry’s eyes flashed with gratitude, but I made him a sign to keep silence.

«And it has been said too much, and here is someone else’s territory and other people’s spies.»

«Why don’t you want to take it all?» Harry was sincerely amazed.

«Because there is nothing here that I could envy,» I threw sharply before leaving Henry in the same loneliness. He had a hope now.

I decided that Harry would rule the living creatures in the basements of my theater. For a person, such work, of course, was not at all sugar, but if the minstrel would be able to charm of his music the rats, then it would be no harm from it. I called the main theater in my empire «Theater of Shadows», in memory of that I saw in the valley. Rats were found in the basements, not because I could not destroy them, but because I designed such a terrible army in case of any war. The army of rats could destroy any of the rather attractive cities of Henri or Odil. Then they didn’t want to fight with me. But in my absence, the future military forces did not want to behave comfortably. In addition to me, they did not obey anyone, and no one had a desire to mess with them. But Harry with his music would be able to lure them back into the basements every time they want to look for food in the wardrobe or in the hall of the theater.

In the forest I noticed a group of loggers, who were responsible for providing fuel to royal castle. A pretty attractive young page who understood well in the forest’s life, discouraged them to cut young trees, and pointed out the dried trunks, just suitable for the castle. He himself took the hatchet to help them. The clever boy was so beautiful that I was jealous of him himself. I tried to find out what his name was, but in his quite tangled thoughts I could read only one female name. In addition, the very thoughts were almost inaccessible. It seemed rather strange that he had in his memory only name of princess. I wanted to lure him into the thicket, and finish with another victim. I tried mentally to call him to me, but nothing has been achieved. Only at the third attempt, I succeeded. The page turned, obviously noticed my silhouette among the trees and obediently followed me into the forest.

«Wait!» called a woman’s voice. The page took off his beret, and a wave of long curls fell on his back.

«Rose!» this time I was, however, stunned. Of course, I knew that she had made a habit of walking around on the streets dressed as a page, but did not think that one day this masquerade will make such an impression even on me.

There was an owl behind me on the tree. The sound of its voice seemed ominous. Rose saw something over my shoulder, and her pupils were dilated from terror.

«I knew that this tree is cursed,» she said, pointing ahead.

There was just the one spreading elm tree under which I left torn carcasses of animals that have reported them to Odil, but now I did not feel the smell of blood. All shed blood for a long time absorbed in the ground here, and to the terrible memories suddenly mingled another frightening sound, the creak of dry branches and the friction of the rope, as if something heavy swinging above the ground. Hanged! I knew it even before I turned around and a dead man reminded me a rag doll. It was she. It was a woman in a red dress with a bruised skin.

«This is Janet – my maid,» Rose said. «The one that did not have a bad habit to check what makes Ms. at night.»

The owl sat on that same branch, which was attached to the rope.

«I hate that old elm,» said Rose.

«I hate it too,» I remembered that in this place I had killed a gamekeeper who served Odil. It was cruel, but then it seemed to me that in this way I would be able to remind her that the predator was near and she had to beware.

Rose raised her ax high and wanted to throw it into a bird, brazenly stared at us with its unusual perch.

«Why?» I asked.

«This owl has too a piercing look,» Rose reluctantly lowered the ax, but still tightly kept for it. «I never have seen owls with red eyes.»

«Have you seen bats?»

«The bats flew behind my carriage from Lara. They still accompany me there and everywhere, hide in the walls of niches, on dusty attics. They are vile creatures, but intelligent.»

«Don’t offend them,» I said. «They themselves are not looking pretty enough, but they appreciate beauty. Since they liked you so much, it means they will not give you offence.»

«I want to believe in it,» Rosa sighed heavily, moved away from me in a few steps and sat down on the stump. I knew that Odil was pretty cruel, but the fact that she executed the maid for such a small guilt, even for me turned out to be an unpleasant surprise.

«Tomorrow I will be sent off from the castle. I overheard one conversation,» Rose said. «I don `t like it.»

She talked to me, as with an old acquaintance or simply took everything that was happening for a dream. I leaned back to the stem of ash, crossed my hands on my chest and feverishly pondered. Could I invite her to my gloomy country. Then life there would probably become somewhat lighter.

The year I gave her on thought has not yet passed. For the year she could change her mind. I took out of the frozen hands of Rose an ax, went to an ominous oak, swung and made a small cut on a thick trunk.

«In memory of what we met here,» I explained to Rose.

I tried to smile, went to Rose and took her hand to kiss, but in this moment, a fluffy gray lump was disturbed from somewhere. The sharp claws slammed me down the cheek, and the bat rushed away. Not that bat, whom I sent.

«Everything is in order, you can go,» I pressed my palm to the cheek, so that Rose did not see how the bleeding wound heals itself.

«And you?» Rose turned on the go.

«I am a predator and I want to turn the head to this animal.»

Having waited when she left, I began to listen. Somewhere here there was a staircase leading under the ground. My gnomes would not work here, it was someone else. As if in response to my thoughts, I saw Henri. He seemed materialized from the emptiness.

«At least she could drop her scarf,» he said with a light reproach. «I never met such a cautious girl. Usually I can take from any at least an earring, but not from this.»

«What else did you start?» I just remembered that I still kept an ax in my hand.

Henry had not a helmet, although the rest of the body was covered with armor.

Do you like?» he grinned. «I decided that in this armor I would look more impressive.»

«Did you?» In my opinion, at least in the armor, at least in the cloak, at least in the costume of Harlequin Henri remained all the same restless fighter for his rights.

«Did you use even a spy?»

«The intelligence never hurts,» Henri nodded with the type of philosopher. «In addition, I decided to add to my own possessions an abandoned watchtower from the most borders and, imagine, no one tried to prevent me. The most endless members of my order work under the ground make the tunnel, and everyone does not care for it. People are accustomed to live on earth, not under it, so my idea is unlikely to represent interests for someone.»

«What is the idea?»

«The underground city,» informed Henri victoriously. «After the full moon in your empire, I began to feel much better and bright ideas appeared. Daylight is too destructive for creatures, as we, it would not be easier to have spare asylum in soil layers – a city with many tunnels and labyrinths. Personally, I like this idea.»

«A stupid idea,» instead of the expected praise, I as usual honestly expressed what I think. «If you prefer lifestyle, like a mole, then this is your personal matter. By the way, were you hurt.»

«So, I was hurt about the root of the tree,» Henri tried to pretend that the wound is nothing.

«Is there a progress on the battlefield?» I asked him with a light irony.

«No, there isn’t,» Henri snapped. «You do not help us.»

He got angry again.

«Till the meeting,» he grunted angrily. «I’ll win without you.»

«As you like,» I noticed diplomatically and shouted to him. «Why do you need a princess’ thing?»

He did not want to answer, but not without the help of my spell stumbled on the root and spread out on earth.

«Here is rubbish,» he cursed, rising and rushing a strong oak with his foot. Better from this did not become anyone, only Henri frowned from pain. He obviously forgot that he was in armor.

«It’s hard to move in this armor,» he complained. «You seem to ask about her thing? I want to try out one probing spell, which I bought from the old predictor of fate. You know, the most amazing thing that he managed to predict was the epidemic of the plague in Lara. He told about it before it began, but naturally only a few people believed. And now he says that a violinist will soon break free.»

«If you want to know your destiny, so come to Viniena. The provider returned, and he remembers you,» Henri mockingly laughed. «A young man with an angelic appearance, inside whom the beast sits, who was it besides you? And the creature who loved to play the violin? I don’t know anything about her.»

He quickly disappeared behind the thick trunk of elm. Is it possible to understand the plans of this fraudster?

In any case, he disappeared from the surface of the earth, and I remembered my desire to turn the head of a nasty animal. No bats would have decided to attack me if it would not affect other strong sorcerer. In order to find out what I needed to have only to turn the ring with the signet, return to Lara, and threatening Vincent thoroughly if he had not had time to escape from the house. Oddly enough, he was already waiting for me on the threshold and first thrown with reproaches.

«You yourself said that none of us should approach this girl?» Vincent rarely lost control over himself to pour it out, it was necessary to hurt him for living.

«Where did you get such an obedient bat?» I asked.

«On the bell tower left a dozen of these nasty creatures. They do not look better, but they have sharp claws.»

«It seems you envy the fact that my skin is not dismissed with scars, like your throat.»

«Everything heals on you, like on a dog,» Vincent snorted and looked guilty. With the time of time and the acquisition of more experience in the sorcery he himself changed. Chestnut hair has become silky. Even the smallest mimic wrinkles under the eyes and those unfolded, and the eyes themselves instead of dark-brown acquired a warm walnut shade. If he looked at least sometimes in the mirror, he would not have envied anyone. There were scars on the neck, but they could always be covered with a scarf. In any case, the transformed Vincent, who stood in front of me now, was very handsome.

Vincent did not try to fasten the opening camisole’s collar, he understood that I still knew about his largest failure.

«Do you burn me with the house or do you use your claws?» He asked tiredly.

«I would be happy, but I don’t want to make a mess in my own home,» the grim humor and this time did not let me down.

Vincent regarded it as a joke and smiled radiant.

«So I’m forgiven,» he concluded.

«It was for the last time.»

From the street came some kind of noise and Vincent fearful looked back towards the window.

«For some reason, I have such a feeling that someone flew here and he was ready to cut my throat,» he admitted. «Probably, there were a few days of bad weather and the fact that the hunch-back in the mantle and crown wandered over the square. It seems to me that he is looking for you in the same way as the dog goes along the trail.»

«Is Camille with him?|

«Camille regularly visits „the Marionette“, but after Rose has gone from the stage, the play no longer uses such success. He wants to write something new and find a capable actress, but until he did not find one suitable.»

«The theater is just a cover for his dirty plans,» I wanted to burn the prince and his bloodhound. Camille was looking for me and, probably, he already regretted that he so easily gave away the picture. Perhaps over time, the portrait would acquire the same power as the amethyst. By the way, as for the amethyst, I have not felt the fatal attraction for a rather long term.

«You would need to build plans for the future, and instead of it you run behind the girl, I myself do not know why,» Vincent’s voice sounded quiet, like a rustling of a hazel. For all the time staying in fenced spells of the house, I heard only this voice, sweet, driving, full of poison. Vincent would have to speak speeches in the Royal Council, and not to sit voluntarily locked up. If he did not lose weight from the malice, then he could convince the listeners in his rightness, just as convinced the peasants from my village that their owner was the dragon.

«Just do not tell me a long-sorting history that you want to get married,» Vincent said. «You didn’t love anyone and you can’t have anything. You seem to be made of stone.»

«Did I not love anyone? And what about my family…»

«If you experienced some kind of warm feelings to the so-called family, you’d long have already dealt with the prince.»

«It is easier to say than to do. He is still strong. Do not forget that he taught me, and not I him. And who gave you the right to speak so disrespectful about my relatives.»

«Dead relatives,» Vincent corrected sullenly. «You looked among them clearly more than one-only elf in the castle of full people. Your relatives were afraid of you, because they knew about who you would.»

«And they hid it from me,» I thought out loud.

«But from the very beginning I admitted to you honestly,» immediately said Vincent, forgetting to mention that it happened after two unsuccessful attempts to deprive me of life.

«Yes, of course, it is the jackal’s method to pass over to the side of a stronger one,» he laughed, guessing my thoughts. «But, remember, even rats run from a sinking ship, and I stayed in Lara. This means that your chances of success are still more than by anyone else. If you win all your enemies, then for me it is a loss, but the princess will get to you.»

«Is it a loss?» I asked.

«Well, of course I don’t want her to contact you,» Vincent left a direct response. «You’re not even a man, you are a werewolf, an animal, but it seems she doesn’t care about it. Each makes his choice.»

Who am I for her? I am a shadow with candlelight, a voice in emptiness, an invisible and dangerous guest. It is well even if her duenna still did not call the priests to expel me. I had her ribbon only, but turning this pink slice of satin in my hands, maybe I could find out what she thought about.

It was a failure, the ribbon was pretty, but I could not know anything. Vincent urged me to engage in politics, settle things with the father of Henri, he did not leave the hope that the king would give me the throne.

The month high in the dark sky shone brighter, and it seemed to me that a red color was added to the silver shade of halo.

I was drawn into the sky, closer to the month, because the ill-fated amethyst was on someone’s hand. I cursed the prince. As not on time. The skin burned, and the most important thing I guessed, who this time had a terrible lot. Vincent prudently picked off a couple of books and ran to hide in the attic. Upstairs clicked, closing, a junk, a candle flashed. The whole house was granted to me, like the whole city, but this time it would be not enough to burn Lara. I decided to experience the fate. The first victim was the wagon, lonely dragging around the country road. It immediately found itself in the dragon’s claws, the beer barrels rolled back from it in different directions. But the pair of mules and the driver could not replace the one that was chosen for me for this night. She became engaged to death. I have to fly through the whole world, but find her. However, it is not necessary to look for a long time, one purple thread was visible for me, it stretched straight, and the location of the ring as a magnet pulled to itself. I could always unmistakably determine the direction.

Instead of a girl, I could sacrifice the carriage near the city gate, but already knew that it would be a vain sacrifice.

I would be free only when the prince himself became the victim. It’s time to get rid of him and find a weapon against him. Weapon, which, I did not doubt, was hidden in manuscripts. Magic is against magic. Evil is against evil. Deceit will determine the strongest.

I saw a girl in a room for meetings of the council, or in a ballroom. There was no time to look. I was attracted by a golden color, a single bright spot in the dark space. I broke the glass with claws and not even feeling pain from sharp fragments, chained in a dragon skin, I penetrate inside. The overwhelming size of the hall was quite spacious even for me.

The void in the stomach filled the annoying hunger. Following it, the feeling of malice to the whole living has increased. This feeling was not mine. The bright golden point attracted me. I myself did not understand how something trembled and fragile, similar to a small animal, was found in the claws. So it froze from fear in the claws of the predator a squirrel or a marten. And after all, I did not feel the fur in my claws. Brocade! From the first attempt I defined. It was the golden brocade. There was in my memory like a sharp glass shard, a name. Francesca! I didn’t want that with a beautiful creature in my claws was going to take place a misfortune as with Francesca. It was better to sacrifice someone else. It means I need to choose a dozen, hundreds of peasants. Fortunately, there was a smell of smoke, meat, firewood. There was a village. I rushed forward, without even thinking about what I was going to harm. The village, indeed, was there, and the fire did not pass it.

What is the main thing in battle?

The branches of the fir-trees clung to the clothes, scratched the face when I went past them.

I tried to not pay attention to scratches, they still would heal soon. All forest livestock and birds and animals realized that it was better not to disturb me. Even the hungry wolves were embarrassed, because they understood: a more terrible predator appeared even hungry than they. The wolves themselves could overnight become food for him.

For me, the difficulty was familiar. The most difficult thing was to protect the girl from wounds. The golden dress has burned my fingers. It was necessary to be careful, because if some kind of dry branch scratched the skin of the girl, which I carried in my hands through the whole forest, then I myself would have to treat it. Somewhere nearby there was a hut of forester, but it was not easy to reach it. I went on feet to the very boarder of my empire, and here it always was a strong frost. The cargo, which almost nothing weighed, began to pull my hands.

That’s hut. I almost with joy rushed there, and did not immediately feel someone’s gaze. I turned around. Behind us was only the snowfall. Not a single wolf attracted by the smell of blood would risk getting closer to me than a few meters.

«If you are unable to accomplish justice, then I will do it,» said a familiar voice at my shoulder. «Give me a girl.»

«Go away,» I almost hissed. «You will not cross the border at all wishes. Your justice is deaf and blind, but even if it was different, the prey belongs only to me.»

«So it will be the war? Do you want to fight?» The powerless rage caused the prince to increase the voice.

«As soon as you want,» I explained with cold courtesy. It did not even give me a pleasure that he trampled at the most borders and was unable to cross them. I left him behind the threshold, and I myself bowed my head in order not to knock on the threshold and disappeared in the doorway. The door itself slammed with noise, as if it separated two worlds.

The hut of huntsman was long empty.

One pure bed immediately became a bed for Rose.

Some creature appeared outside the door. It creaked and opened. Someone sniffed to the air and, apparently, having revealed me, rushed away. So, the new tenant will not be disturbed. Well, it’s even good.

Rosa managed to frozen much, but I knew that I could save her. My blood can return to her vital warmth. I looked around the sides in search of a knife and not finding it, without a ceremony bit the veins at my wrist and put a bleeding brush to her mischievous lips.

«Just do not die,» I mentally asked. «Who, besides you, will be able to divide my dark addiction to ancient magic with me. Maybe if you are near, I will understand all the ancient manuscripts.»

In the hut was even colder than in the forest. It seemed to be an icy wind in all the cracks. I could tell the fire to burn, but instead of it for some reason I began to look for firewood. Empty hero did not give hopes. Nor fire, nor firewood was found. I broke down a couple of unnecessary chairs, quickly clicked my fingers, carving a few sparks, and hastily turned on Rose, hoping that she had not woke up yet. And if she woke up, it would be strange to appear in front of it – the magician made the flame from nothing and broke off the chair with such ease, as if it was a thin twist. Nails from broken furniture fell on the floor. Their chime could wake up and dead, but Rose did not wake up for a very long time.

«Who are you?» The voice of Rose brought me out of stupor.

«Do you not remember?»

She just looked at me with beautiful, empty eyes. Eyes in which there were no memoirs left.

«Where is the dragon?»

«Where is the dragon?» I almost laughed, stupid, deaf, lost, but instead of it I only shrugged and lied. «I do not know.»

And it is instead of to honestly admit: «He is in front of you.»

I listened to the inhuman whisper of my subjects in air height, to quietly cautious steps of wolves in the snow, to the spiders in the cracks and thought what from these sounds Rose could catch, and what not. Perhaps she also heard the echoes of the conversations of the elves in the snowy storm, as some spirit laughed, looking into the pipe, and this laughter echoed in chimney. Whether she looked attentively to me in search of the angel’s halo over my head or tried to consider a black double satellite, which, remembering the past, broke out of the shackles of the human body and again, like a shadow, standing behind me.

«You also became his victim?» Rose looked at me with regret.

«Yes,» at least once I answered the truth. Once upon a time, my life was brought to the sacrificial altar so that my shadow satellite – the dragon gained the highest strength. Now he is an integral, dark part of me. He is no longer a separate monster, but only a black soul in a beautiful body. He was a master, and I am a servant, until I was able to tame him. He is dark, and I am his bright reflection, his shell, his mask.

Remember that mask I left you on the windowsill and you will understand what my essence is, I tried to say it Rose with one glance, but she either did not understand or interpreted everything in her own way. And does she remember any mask? Does she remember something at all?

«Rose?» I cautiously called. It seemed to me that even she was here, but her soul was somewhere far, perhaps still in the dragon claws.

«Do you know my name?» She was alerted.

Great, she at least did not forget her name. She forgot only me and, obviously, everything connected with me.

«Do you remember the evening in the „Marionette“ and the fearful play by author named Camille?»

«I remember something,» she said. The motive was the murder of a marquise in Viniena. Now I know who ruined her, but the author from where he could know that the dragon killed her?»

«Maybe he himself saw,» I mumble uncertainly.

«Or maybe he killed her himself, and he wrote the play to make the dragon guilty,» Rose said. «If he saw it, he would not write about it.»

«Yes, yes, probably,» I hurriedly confirmed.

The fire has danced in the furnace.

For the first time I had to shoot a deer, not to take revenge on Odil, but to provide a princess a dinner. I never knew how to cook food and prepare hot drinks, so I had to rely exclusively on witchcraft. It remained to hope that Rose would not think about from where the bottle of wine and glasses suddenly appeared on the empty table.

«Tell me, can he return for his victim?» Rose did not break her eyes off the fire. She didn’t want to pronounce the word «dragon.»

«If he wants to find you, then the locks are not a barrier for him.» I struck with such a force with the fist along the wall, that it seemed the house was itself shaken. In a smooth masonry there was a dent, and I did not even feel pain. Fingers are just a little bit of numb.

«You can lock behind the steel doors, in the dungeon, in a dried well on the edge of the world and still he will find you. He will arrive on the smell of your blood, because…»

I started to nauseate from the fragrance of fried meat. I would be bad from the smell of any meal, because I was hungry. My hunger did not have anything in common with human food, he demanded victims.

«So you need quickly to run away from here,» I finished the phrase and hastily put the wallet of gold on the table. «Take the crew on the road. If things go quite badly, came into any church.»

At least, there my subjects and the prince will not be able to touch you, I almost added.

As soon as she fell asleep, I went out in a frosty night, wander around the forest. It was better to kill the deer than the princess. That night I didn’t meet any small animal to buy her life with its blood. Even the wolves were hidden from me. But if a person met me on the forest path, he would not even suspect the danger. Any oncoming offered me his company and would be careless until he noticed in my eyes an obsessed shine and did not understand that he was going next to his own death.

One deer still came upon my claws. Until then than the rage did not subside after the successful hunt, I didn’t even notice that some strange beast would steal behind me. When I left the carcass in the snow, I heard someone with claws watched with greed for each my movement. There were no footprints in the snow, but the pursuer himself was. It was possible to swear in the fact that this someone, contrary to all the laws of nature, has imagined himself as a predator, and I was a victim. For him, the game was full of sharp sensations. In addition, I was so desperate that I did not even notice him. Let him crawl or flies through the forest, anyway any predator is powerless in comparison with me.

I could not let go Rose on the will. In the morning, in an hour after she left, I realized that the danger would steal behind her along the trail just like the faceless clawed pursuer after me. In addition to the Henri’s soldiers, who noticed Rose in a small roadside tavern, other, invisible enemies chased for her. I could only be patient, prepare the sledge and wait on one of the forest’s roads. When Rose lost hope to save from the pursuers, I again kindly offered her help. She took my hand offered to her and climbed into the sledge, like many before her. How many girls have already done with me the same way in the sledge to the castle and they all stayed there in a silent marble gallery.

During the trip, I wondered for a long time, from what old-clothes dealer Rose had time to acquire a well-minded form camisole, breeches and high boots. The clothes were obviously a little bit alone and were not intended for cold weather. Every one strip of brown fur stretched around the collar, too tough for gentle skin of the neck and cheeks. Rose seemed to feel in all this quite convenient. The most amazing was that she looked even more beautiful than before. Perhaps the boyish outfit emphasized her fragility. In any case, the beauty again managed to touch me and for this she did not need to cry or complain. She did not even say anything, she only raised her beautiful, tired eyes and I immediately began to feel sorry for her. Even gave her a cloak so that she did not freeze.

«The storm is coming,» I said. «It is better to be in the castle in the bad weather.»

«What kind of the castle is it? Is there a castle in this wilderness?» In a charming voice, disdain was heard.

«What kind of empire is without a castle?» I grinned, thinking that without my own fortress, I would not make a proper impression on the subjects. Rose did not say anything, but looked at me like a madman. She still saw only forests and a wretched hut, and I suddenly spoke about the empire.

«What is your name?» After a pause, she asked.

What is it to say? I was already used to that no one asked for my name. I heard only the offensive shouts: «Dragon», «Demon». The peasants who went to me with the forks and knives didn’t care about my name. The name was given with the baptism. So where could it be by the dragon?

«Edwin,» said I, and immediately thought with a mockery, the unfortunate handsome Edwin, it would be better for him if the royal advisors cut his head before the prince came with his fire, his demands, his dark legion.

«What’s next? What is your title? What is your Family’s name?» Rose with difficulty could understand me, but I only smiled coldly and allowed generously.

«It is just Edwin.»

She would know that to call the emperor by name in any country it is a rare honor, not only in the empire of shadows, spirits and fairies, in one word, damned and unusual creatures.

«Look, we are almost at the goal,» I pointed to the patterned teeth of the towers, raised above the forest on the background of an amazing-bright blue sky. Before that, Rose enthusiastically watched the annoying birds circling about me, waiting for orders, and did not believe in the existence of the castle. See – it means to believe. And the towers, the gate and bastions were quite tangible. True, there were neither guards nor gatekeepers. Witchcraft is the most reliable watchman, the most complex lock without a key. Rose didn’t understand what kind of fortress it was.

She felt uncomfortably only when she noticed in the courtyard the semicircle of stakes stuck in the ground. That spectacle was usual, simply on the top of each of the stakes was a severed head. My enemies, traitors or unwanted guests who accidentally invaded the territory of the Empire were long beheaded, but it seemed that they still lived and the dead would tell about their torments. Human persons eventually decomposed and turned into skulls, and the faces of inhuman creatures always remained unchanged, suffering and a little surprised. As if they did not want to believe that the end was still coming. I hoped that the next stake would decorate the head of the prince.

The castle’s doors were opened, but Rose was not dare to enter. The horses in the sledge beat about the ground with hooves in such a rage, as if they wanted to stamp and the girl, and coachman and all who would meet on the path.

«What’s the matter?» I asked without words. The punished elves perfectly understood me. I had to stand between one horse and Rose.

«Your death is behind you,» in a short rye you could distinguish and bitterness, and laughter. I myself was ready to laugh, because I had only Rose behind my back.

«She will destroy you,» again a short laugh.

I turned to Rose and immediately reproved myself for it. Of course, she did not understand anything. She simply could not understand a horse’s neighing.

The apartments for Rose have long been prepared, the necessary things and the best outfits, which only managed to find. I did not hope that someday I would be able to lure her in the castle, but I still dragged all the things from all sides what I thought she could like. My heart rejoiced, Rose would remain in the castle. Why did I need her sculpture’s copy now? I wanted to laugh in the face of each statue found on the way, in the face of my own reflection in countless wall mirrors, but my laughter in an empty castle would be inappropriate.

It was necessary to disperse creatures, nesting in the dungeons, strictly ordered each harpy and chimera, so that they did not dare to get closer to my guest. And I still really wanted to visit Vincent. Not in order to boast before him, and to check: whether there was no more unusual in Lara. The city, after all, I was already used to consider as mine.

Vincent was pale and something frightened. He was waiting for the appearance of someone else, but not me. Were there the secret spirits in my house? In the rooms on the second floor everything was inverted, the furniture is overturned, the frame of the paintings were broken.

«Take it from here,» Vincent, instead of a welcome, pointed to the only non turned over round table in the room as if there was on it the source of all his troubles.

«Don’t ask me about anything,» Vincent himself looked with regret at the torn canvas, broken vases. «I’ll clean it myself as soon as I am convinced that I am safe.»

«What a danger can it be here,» I tried to calm him like a child, but Vincent was in rage.

«Do you think that I myself scratched the walls, broke paintings and my own books?»

«Well, if you went to a witches’ sabbath before it…»

«I didn’t go out of the house for a couple of days,» Vincent was justified, or blamed. «How long have you not walked. I thought that I had to watch this damned thing all my life. I swear, no one night I’ll spend alone with your violin.»

He expressively pointed to the table again. Now I also saw that there was a bundle on the table top, which I had ever kept in my hands and brought home myself. Only blood spots on the taffeta looked more fresh and thick than that night. It was not necessary to deploy the fabric to guess that the violin was wrapped in it.

From the street came some kind of sound. Vincent swore, jumped to the window and closed it.

«And what should I do with this violin?» I picked up a bundle and felt like durable strings even through the fabric rub about the skin as if they want to cut my fingers.

«Throw it out! Dig somewhere in the forest, in the cemetery, in the desert, in general, away from human settlements, where she cannot harm anyone.»

I did not understand who Vincent meant saying «she», a violin or someone living. He spoke about this cracked instrument as if it was alive. I myself remembered the bloody tears that dropped out of cracks, and I immediately felt them in my fingers. I became somehow not in my own. From the extensions of Vincent, the atmosphere around became depressing, as if fear was punctured in the room.

«Okay, I will burn it in the forest, you can not worry,» I promised and immediately forgot about my promise.

«By the way, did you not see the hunchback under the windows?»

Vincent was tired, he shook his head negatively.

«Even if he was here, I did not pay attention.»

«And Henri did not bother you?»

«He has full of his problems. They say he wants to dig a whole city underground.»

«And what do you think about this?»

The expressive, radiant eyes of Vincent flashed.

«I can say one thing for sure, he will not be a king,» he predicted and grinned, as if he was always ready to apply his hand to overthrow from the throne a not clever and sickly heir.

«Your scars are not healed,» I regretfully looked at Vincent’s throat. «If I could heal them…»

«Unlikely. She is still too strong, «Vincent raised his hand to the collar, as if he wanted to fasten it, but he had changed his mind. «Do not worry, I’m already used to the fact that I am marked.»

He was used to. And I could not get used to the deep stripes with torn edges, which cut his perfectly white, gentle skin. It seemed that some dark strength, with which he concluded a contract, waved with its claws and left its stamp on him. But it was not right, I too went into the study of dark sciences, like him, but one Vincent had a stamp on himself. I, as in life, remained impeccable to the first explosion of rage, until the first awakening of the Evil. As soon as someone managed to arouse anger in me, the dragon broke out.

«Rustle, scratch… I still think that someone scratched into the window.» Vincent tried to laugh but the laughter came out bitter and weak.

«I won it, Vincent,» I suddenly wanted to share my joy with him, a moment of my triumph. «You can not even imagine. It also seemed impossible for me, but I won, I saved a girl designed for execution.»

Vincent stumbled incredulously. From his chest broke out the quiet hysterical laugh.

«Edwin, you… Do you decide to substitute your beautiful immortal head for an ax because of some girl. I understand, for me there was no evil in jokes with death, I could climb ten times on the scaffold and escape, my life was nothing worth. And you achieved almost everything and now you play with fire.»

Vincent began to remind me of a concerned, charming Florian, who, instead of doing something of state’s importance, told me to pinch shutters. He also didn’t even dare to explain that the window I should close not from birds, enemy arrows, spies, but from Debora.

«I don’t play with fire, Vincent,» I explained strictly. «I myself create a flame and the prince should pray that one day it did not hit his head. I hesitated too long.»

«You think that becoming a deliverer of one victim, you will cross the entire black list of the prince. Be sure he will be replenished.»

«It is impossible! The ring remained with Rose and at the first opportunity I will destroy it. No ring means no shackles.»

«Rose? She is now visiting her cousin. I know for sure, I asked for reliable people.»

Vincent could not believe that for the first time, the reliable informants were not right.

«I was sure,» he shook his head and chestnut curls fell on his forehead. Over the past time, they have become a little longer and with the slightest movement climbed into the eyes, so Vincent constantly had to tidy his hair.

«You can not believe anyone, especially me,» I decided to mock at Vincent, but I said the pure truth. I was such a dangerous creation. Rose did the right thing that concerned to me with suspicion.

Vincent sighed with relief, realizing that I intend to carry a violin with me. I already hid it under the raincoat, trying not to pay attention to the scarlet drops from it.

«Edwin,» Vincent called me when I was already going to leave. He stood motionless, arms crossed on his chest, and peered at me for a long time and carefully, as if trying to determine if I would take seriously to what he would say. «You have no one refuge, but wherever you are, do not let anyone unfamiliar.»

I grinned, consider Vincent very naive. Did it really understand that unhappy was the one who would knock at my door. Whether this guest had good or evil intentions, the demon was waiting for him. If suddenly, the midnight killer would attack me, hoping to find a sacrifice, then for him it would be an unpleasant surprise to find himself unexpectedly in the dragon’s claws. So it was with everyone who attacked me. I turned my face to the attacker and, having met with me, he retreated in indescribable horror, understanding that it was too late, because all his fears were standing in front of him, embodied in one half an aristocratic, half demonic creature.

Coming out of the house, I turned around and noticed that the window frames, really, were scratched. I recently saw exactly the same traces of claws, just not in Lara, but very far from here, on the floor of the hut, lost in the forest’s dense.

Squeezing the violin under the arm, I walked around the dark city easily and naturally, as if a student of the Music faculty, just released on vacation. Inside me everything was strained as a string. I listened to every sound, every vibration of someone’s too free thoughts, but did not catch what I was afraid. No one in the city has thought about the uprising. Otherwise, I would immediately felt it, passing by any dark window, followed by conspirators in this minute, or even a couple of days ago. The dragon was harsh, but didn’t kill citizens, did not deprive the title of famous noblemen, did not take the lion’s share of urban treasures, but only a small, almost symbolic annual tribute. It was equally for residents whom they would pay taxes to the dragon or to the king. In addition, the dragon rarely appeared in the local society. So that people could whisper on whether they were in the power of the dragon, but the golden clawed paw did not knock them at the window in the middle of the night. Fear did not fade, but did not ignite. They were already were used to me, to my rapid silent steps along the night pavement, to the house disappeared from the square, to the golden scope of the wings and a musical whistle in the transcendental altitude.

The violin of Debora was not heavier than the stack of books, but suddenly it began to pull out my hand. There was a cold sweat on my forehead, as if something frightened me. But what could frightened me? The very idea was absurd. What could cause me fear? Empty streets, dark windows, echo of my own steps or a quiet annoying rustle of the wings somewhere behind, in the alley or on the next street.

I carried the violin carelessly on the bending of the elbow, as a textbook and, I honestly, wanted to throw it into the first roadside ditch, so as not to hear more of these obsessive tramping or rustling sounds. From such an act I was stopped only by precaution. And suddenly, some tramp wanted to pick up the violin and it would be awaken an evil, sleeping somewhere far away in the burned sun and the desert fire.

There was no one in the street, there was no one in front of the square.. In altitude were no spirits or fairies nor angels. I was the only supernatural creature in the whole city, not counting Vincent. Probably he was right, all evil was in the violin. For the first time I had a feeling that someone flew after me. I returned to the castle and put the violin on the table in the music room.

I used to live alone and I did not need to hide anything. It was necessary to understand that Rose would be much more curious than her sculptural copy in niche. Among the whole collection of musical instruments, the violin would not be as noticeable, but on the table, the abandoned and wrapped with a bloody cloth it looked more than defiant.

«I didn’t kill anyone,» I warned Rose, who entered the room.

In a new dress, Rose looked amazingly and somehow unnaturally. She was too beautiful to be alive, she seemed to be the original of the dark niche. It was simply the details that I did not notice: very long eyelashes, a pearl thread on the neck, and a wreath of roses in her hair.

Inaccessible Rose was here in the castle, although it seemed impossible before. I swore to myself that I would never part with her, as if fate would not be angry against us.

«Did you hurt?» She stepped closer, trying to consider the same bloody spots as on the taffeta and on my clothes.

«No,» I amazed, no one was worried about my health. «Blood is not mine.»

«And whose blood is it?»

«It’s just a find, a gift of fate, you can even say a military trophy. It is a pity to throw it out, so I take it with me.»

«Do you know how to play on it?» Rose wanted to touch the strings, but changed her mind.

«If I’ll want I can play,» this meant that magic would allow me to all that I wish. «I do not want, the passion for the music remained in the distant past.»

«In the distant past?» asked Rose with suspicion. She briefly peered into my face, trying to look for at least one wrinkle, but it was vain searches. She never dared to ask such an ordinary for people question «how old you are,» because she was afraid to hear the truth. I lost myself the count, it was too much happened since I was free from the peculiar training class of the prince. I remembered only the date of my birth and the fact that my life was cut off at twenty two years, but it was so long ago. So much has changed since then, and I remained the same. Perhaps Rose awaits the same thing, to remain like now and never change. She learns about it when she will be brave when she can understand without fear that only a full magician can go out unharmed from this fortress.

«Someone hated this thing much,» Rose pointed to scratches at the violin.

I grinned, remembering that Vincent had all the foundations for such hatred. He hated Debora, and did not hide it. He experienced hostility to all things that reminded him of her. How did these flaws appear on the instrument? Most likely Vincent wanted to destroy the subject that was so dear to Debora. Only it is easier to use claws against the violin than to heal the already applied scars on the skin. After examining Vincent, I could say that even a small revenge for him was preferable to inaction, but for some reason I wanted to check how it really was. I put my nails in the stripes of the deepest scratches and spent from the side to the side. I covered eyelids to focus. Back. In the past. What can I find there? Night. Forest. Shrill wolf’s howl. Frost. Crisp snow under the feet. I sit in a hunting house and converse with the king, whom I saved in the morning, I look at his wounded hand. The bite of the wolf turned out to be very painful, the bandages were impregnated with blood. Is it worth thinking about how many people greeted these gray predators? Then I did not think about it, and Vincent had to. At this very time, he pressed his back to the tree trunk and tried to remove a large angry wolf from himself with help of a torch.

Such a struggle resembled more flirting. Trying to defend, Vincent only teased the wolf. The torch went out, and in his hands remained only a violin, which he willingly substituted under the claws of the beast. When the crumpled instrument was already lying in the snow, Vincent of course remembered with which spell he could pacify the beast. Damage has already been not corrected. Such situations, probably, repeated more than once before that night, when Vincent, who first tested jealousy, without regret, gave me his trophy.

I have already decided that this is a funny episode, of course not for the victim, but for the observer, but suddenly I saw something blurry and unclear what looked through the turbid glass. Blurred paints merged into a bizarre combination of black with white spots. The strange picture, voiced by deaf clapping, as if a flock of the pigeons once broke off and rushed into flight. For some reason, I thought that if I tried to look deeper, I would see something scary or at least unpleasant, so I hastily removed my fingers from the smooth surface.

«You do not want to leave this castle?» I turned to Rose. «There are many oddities around, but I managed to make sure you are brave. Tell me, one bloody rag can not scare you? In addition to frightening, there must be at least something that you like. Is it truth?»

«Well… I like you,» Rosa hid her hands behind her back, as if she felt that the ring prevents us to speak on equal terms. Nobody, besides her, could be able to put me in a dead end so often. So this time I froze from amazement. Is it possible to be in the rank of the idol in her eyes? She managed to see the wonderful elevated creation there where others saw the cruel and inexorable enemy.

Perhaps I would consider the beauty as a crazy or a pretender if she said it, knowing that I was a dragon, but she did not know, and I was hoping that she would not know as long as possible. I did not care about the opinion of Rothbart, who considered me as reckless and ungrateful rake, as well as the opinions of people who have nicknamed the dragon, the worst of evils, but the contempt of Rose could burn me much more than I myself had burned my victims. How it so came out, I myself did not know. Until now, no one managed to capture me. And she managed.

Recently, I did nothing and enchantingly watched Rose, and it was not shifted with manuscripts from the dead point. Someone, for sure, would be wondering why I having a lot of power, needed new spells, since I was already able to conquer the overwhelming part of the world, but I have always sought more, even if this desire could burn me yourself.

Anyone would have stopped at the achieved. I was in the castle, where the basements were clogged with treasures, where the turbulent force performed all my orders. There were many books on the shelves. Odil would envy me. Rose called them «black books» and stayed away from them. I was sure, she had already managed to hear a seductive whisper from the books, the very whisper, that had repeatedly worried me at the first stage of my learning. I got used to disembodied interlocutors, and then learned to use them for my own purposes. Conversations with them for a beginner were informative. But it was strange, probably, to be alone in the library and suddenly hear someone’s disembodied voice. It was trying to draw you into a conversation, laughs, joking, teased with suspicious suggestions. Rose immediately should have understood that the sounds did not come from a living being. Even a person with a very good hearing was difficult to believe that the books suddenly gained voices, but Rose believed.

Personally, I without fear touched any of the books. It was not even necessary to go to the library, it was worth only to wish, and the desired book itself turned out to be in front of me on the table and revealed on the required page. So now I looked at one of the volumes without much interest. The pages turned over themselves. A sideline observer could seem that the wind turned them.

Rose gradually began to get used to the fact that the most ordinary problems here were solved in some incomprehensible way. All, ranging from cooking and ending with cleaning and heating of the rooms, happened by itself. Rose did not see if I began to burn the fireplace or I lit the candles, but, nevertheless, it was warm in the castle, and the lighting has never been excessive or too weak.

Color illustration flashed in unusually bright kaleidoscope. Fancy ominous symbols alternated with simple letters, and those and others were the same for me easily understandable. It was worth learning foreign languages, whether an ancient one or a dialect of a neighboring country and it became for me as my own. Therefore, I guessed I felt everywhere at home. It was not difficult to me to speak in foreign languages, on the contrary, the sound of foreign language words was strangely pleasant. At least some variety.

Rose, as far as I understood, hated two things: embroidery and studying other people’s languages, because she was taught against her will. It suffered her pride. I shared her belief that bad teachers could inspire hatred for the most interesting subject. Prince, bless the Lord his negligence, rarely tried to explain something to me, therefore he did not have time to distract an independent student from curiousness. I still haven’t tried to become a mentor, but I was sure that if I became, I would be able to breathe in the student a love for my dark art.

Another young lady could be imagined as a gift a basket with knitting, a set of needles, threads, or in extreme cases of a necklace. But if I tried to impose Rose as a gift an embroidery, she would at least be offended. She needed quite another.

Therefore, I picked up for her in arsenal the most elegant and light musket, a sword with hilt, snapped with small diamonds. And I also rashly promised to teach her fencing, as if I did not know that the acquired skill she would always have time to apply against me. Of course, she was able to fence, she managed to take a few lessons of fencing by the father. But she, like me, always sought more. Once I was one of the best knights, I neglected the education, but overnight everything has changed. The hand, accustomed to the sword, could not adapt to the feather, but during the captivity I was so young and reckless, that I believed the explanations of the prince about my great destination. Therefore, I hated him, he managed to deprive me of freedom of choice, but could not deprive me of my pride.

«You have a beautiful ring,» I noticed.

«It’s pretty hard,» Rose frowned painfully.

«Why don’t you take it off?»

«I can’t,» a concise answer, and after him a short scribe of thought «Surely, the scar will remain.» Did I manage to catch her thought. Having dropped to the side all the tricks, I independently turned the page and pretended to read.

«I tried to use soap, but, alas,» Rosa made a theatrical sigh. «It is necessary to resort to the extreme method, take something sharp, say, a razor, but there is no single razor.»

«It isn’t simply needed here.»

«There is no scissors here too. Don’t you never cut your nails.»

«Actually…» I almost blurted out «No», but I restrained on time and transferred a look at my even elongated, but seemingly well-kept nails. They grew only in those terrible cases, which Rose was better not to observe, and then they did not grow at all, as well as the hair. For me it was quite usually, but people would certainly have any questions: why he was not such as we, there was something wrong.

«If you need scissors, I will find somewhere,» under the «somewhere» was meant in the first house, where there were no owners or in the inexhaustible reserves of Percy, who has repeatedly managed to circumvent other housing before me.

«I didn’t say that I needed something definite, I just looked for something acute. The sword is too large, besides, no one even bother to sharpen it.»

«Indeed?» I somehow did not think very about it, I was accustomed to the fact that in the castle the steel did not rust, I could not to check the sharpness of the blade. For a long time there was no case of challenge to a duel. Recently, I mostly accounted for any other skills, but not the military.

«It will fit,» Rose extended a thin hand and with amazing ease pulled out from me a dagger of the belt.

«Do not cut yourself!»

Rose, probably, believed that it was better to lose her finger than life, but I didn’t share her opinions, so the dagger’s handle slipped out and hit at the table.

«I am quite ingenious to come up with a less painful way,» I explained, unlikely turned the next page and noticed an unfamiliar illustration. That is, I did not remember that I had met it in this book before. I saw it somewhere in the forest. I remembered everything almost immediately, I even remembered that I did a notch exactly in the very place where it is drawn in the picture. «In the memory of our meeting,» then I said, took an ax, rushed across the trunk, and the tree responded with a long deaf moan. In the picture, everything was repeated to the smallest details and even what I did not notice when I was under the tree. Then I just felt the presence of some kind of hidden strength, but I did not guessed the source. Under the roots in loose porous soil was some kind of metal. For a long time under the tree, among the same woven network roots, I managed to find a treasure, but this time nothing pointed to the treasures buried in the forest. In the ground was a sword. The sword with a long wide even slightly rusted blade was confused in the roots.

Henry was then hurt. Until now, it was unclear why he needed to turn round next to this tree and why Odil executed the guilty maid there. I would never have guessed, but as usual, the book gave answers to everything. Who else could I ask the advise? I lovingly stroked the book.

«Do you know what is happening now in your homeland?»

«I guess,» Rose said sadly. «Shooting, death, battle. A war can cause damage no less than his raid.»

She again replaced the word «dragon» by pronoun. Maybe she simply did not want to call evil by name and most likely it simply seemed to me that instead of «His» she wanted to say «yours.»

«If you could put an end to war, would you do it?»

«Yes, probably,» she uncertainly shook her thin shoulders. «But I can not.»

«But I can,» I closed the book. «At least it seems to me that I can.»

«Is it profitable for you?»

«Do you think I can only help someone from the benefit?»

«I don’t know,» Rose whispered with a sigh, and our eyes met.

Suddenly I caught the sounds of someone’s unexpected presence at the bottom floor in the spacious castle hall. There was only Vincent. He had been frightened before and began to ask me about the permission to stay in the castle at night with persistence almost an abandoned mistress.

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