Читать книгу Dragon’s Empire – 3. Countess and Dragon - Natalie Yacobson - Страница 2

The countess was not too worried after the owner of the mysterious castle tactfully and kindly in the midst of the night pointed her a door. So it seemed to me when I looked into the castle’s window and saw her in a circle of fans. Elegant and beautiful, she flirted at once with everyone and did not even suspect that the Golden Shadow is watching her from the darkness of non-existence. And maybe she suspected. In any case, for one long moment her eyes rushed to the window. She did not see anything other than a snowfall behind the illuminated glass. Did she notice a golden, winged snake that had clung with all its slippery body to the stone wall?

The countess with a crash folded the fan and hit them on the knuckles of their fingers, so the skin turned red. She could not have to pinch herself to check if her sudden imagination was true. She miraculously managed to feel that there is a golden something firmly connected with the restless soul of her dark idol behind the window. If it were not for a noisy company, and not questions that flew on her from all sides, Francesca would undoubtedly rushed to the window to test their assumptions or again to let the spirit into the house. That is how she first called me – a light touch to the picture on canvas. Now she tried to establish a mental contact with me, but inexperienced in witchcraft, she did not know how to fasten the subtle binding threads of strangers.

«Did you cut yourself?» said excitedly someone from the guests, turning towards her.

Francesca really squeezed the fan too strong, the ostrich feathers were broken, and the revealed needles scratched her on the nameless finger. She did not even feel pain, but I breathe in air even at such a distance the aroma of her blood. So you inhale the smell of expensive wine before you enjoy a thin bouquet of taste. This feeling made me look again through the glass to determine whether it was on the finger of Francesca that amethyst ring, which Rothbert tried to intimidate me. It was not an amethyst. The most attractive magnet was in the fortress – the picture. I needed only this magnificent canvas, but since Francesca felt my presence this evening, I had to fly away.

The estate met me with the usual panorama of the majestic launch. The snow was spinning over the frontons, covered the balconies. Snow flakes melted, touching marble caryatid. The rooms of the palace, intense and cold, did not welcome the owner. Only in one fireplace in the ash, dry branches were preserved, as if someone recently was here. There was neither the time nor the desire to bypass with the ward all the premises from the attic to the basements to discover the tramp who could look for the shelter from the snowfall. Even if someone snuck through the window, it will soon be afraid of the arrival of legal owners and will run away.

Having visited the mill to the next morning, I even found there two shy peasants: a miller and his assistant, who swore, that they used to worked here and asked me as a new owner, allow them to take up former duties again. I decided to allow them to grind the grain of neighboring farmers, because it’s not to stand without a mill, but put forward one prerequisite. Having finished their day work, in the evening they should leave the mill to their home and not to return to the dawn itself. Of course, such a whim could seem strange, but such a contract guaranteed security to people. With the onset of darkness, my subjects could frighten them too much. Taking advantage of the fact that two men are in the evening alone on the lands of their sovereign the evil spirits could attack them, pushed, and pester until the unfortunate drown in the nearest mill pond.

The imperative tone, which was put forward by the condition, became a guarantee of its observance. I myself examined the mill. There was nothing unusual to the room, not a single hint that this place belongs to evil. Of course, two mercenaries could dissolve rumors about the oddities of their new owner, but I didn’t care. I wanted the mill to earn again to rotate the wheel of the wind in former times. Maybe then something unusual will happen here.

I secretly watched the Countess when she ordered to collect a road chest and prepare the carriage. It seemed to me that in the capital she would not only entail the desire to acquire new books, because she could send someone from servants. The first impression could not deceive me. Francesca was too nervous when she sat down in the carriage. The entire way Francesca could not calm down. I corrected the warm raincoat with a white fox. At the entrance to the lively wide road, she put on the face a dark half mask, as if she did not want that her friends could know her by chance met in the way.

On the streets of the capital I had to abide by the double caution and slide behind the crew as an invisible shadow. On too narrow stone streets, each passerby was well noticeable. Of course, the old king invited me to go to the palace at any suitable time, but after a frank conversation in a hunting house, I did not decrease to put a visit to him again.

The crew went along the stone bridge, drove on one of the main streets and stopped in front of the facade of a well-known home. It was there, on the second floor behind a draped window, I with Vincent recently played cards. Here I first felt the hand of the countess, touching the portrait.

Francesca slipped out of the crew. Francesca reached the door hammer, made in the form of an eagle head. The door almost immediately opened. On the threshold rose an servant.

«Conduct me to the baronet and prepare the card,» said Francesca with a clear pure voice. Under the lace, the veil descended from the half mask was impossible to consider even how her lips move, pronouncing words. The forehead, cheekbones and nose were completely closed, only her eyes sparkled from the slots. The servant objected.

«The one you are looking for, does not live here anymore. The house is recently sold.»

«Where can I find the former owner? Speak, do not be shy, I’m not an enemy.»

«Sorry, milady, but I don’t know anything.»

Francesca shuddered a little when the door slammed before her.

«Unpleasant, of course, my darling, but you are not the first who paid him forward,» shouted after Francesca, a man, who appeared for a long time under the windows of the same house. «It seems that our omniscient predictor is not going to return debts to anyone.»

Francesca did not even pay attention to the insolence, and the one, tapping some melody with his cane on the pavement, also continued to look at the unlit windows of the facade. The darkness over the streets thickened. The countess returned to the carriage and order to the coachman to go through hers favorite route, that is, to the bookshops. I followed her when she moved books in leather bindings behind glass shop windows and for a long time asked the seller. She was satisfied with books standing on the shelves. Then the old merchant with wrinkled hands and face, as if he remembered something, took a lantern and went in search in a storage room, returned and handed her the book in the dark as a fragment of the night, binding. The lady eagerly grabbed it, immediately paid, while not taking off the mask nor gloves.

Approaching the showcase, I could hear the fragments of the conversation.

«Go to the tavern» Crown and Eagle», he happens every evening there,» said the merchant, wiping about the apron, the hands smeared with glue and wax. The light of a single lamp laid in orange shine on a closely pressed bookshelves and a ladder, leaning towards the highest cabinet.

«Are you sure that he is not madman?» Francesca masked with an arrogant tone her interest.

«In the days of his youth, he was a robber in Roshen. I knew him well, milady and tried to return him on the right path. But the person who set foot on the vice path can return to honest life only by surviving a real chilling blood horror.»

«Briefly speaking! Do not say as the novelist! I only need facts,» Francesca demanded, adding a coin to pay.

«Then ask him about everything, he will advise you.»

«Is it really?»

«He is ready to talk about it with everyone, but rarely who believes.»

«And what is the connection between the book and the stories of this… unhappy man?» asked Francesca.

«Many books are based on the truth,» the merchant mysteriously answered, «but sometimes only one story, moreover, written so long ago, cannot end the existence of his heroes,» he again crossed his grilling apron and added in a completely different tone. «In the „Crown and Eagle“ you will find at the same time good rooms for overnight.»

«Thanks!» Francesca nodded coldly and went out into the street. When the carriage again was on the road, I stubbornly continued my surveillance.

This time the crew stopped at the building with an elegant sign. While I stayed on the street, the countess boldly went in the institution, ordered the rooms for the night and looked around. At the table with a mug of beer was sitting an elderly man like the most ordinary appearance and physique, but in his unreleased look, something testifies of the memories who can deprive the mind of even the hardening criminal. I have never seen this person before, but, appreciating the muscles in his arms, I could say that he was not bad with a knife and often used it not for the most noble goals, he could strangle someone in the darkness. Of course, I was struck by the fact that the sophisticated Francesca fearlessly headed for such a subject and started the conversation, whose echoes were reaching me.

«What did that stranger looked like who killed your comrades? I want to know!» She demanded.

«So you believe me?» The man looked at her. His hand holding a mug of beer froze a halfway from his mouth.

«Suppose I have reasons to believe,» she nodded.

«You asked how he looked,» her companion whispered. «Yes, since then many years have passed, but I still remember. Such a beautiful arrogant face, I saw him only in the profile, but I could not forget. It was expensive clothes, a velvet raincoat, and something like silhouettes of the dragon embroidered on the camisole. I then thought that he himself was the devil, because there was no wonder that if an evil spirit tempts someone, it becomes very handsome. He so coolly killed my partners… Imagine, Madam, he revealed both the throat with such ease, as if he had to do this not for the first time. After that night I went gray. Not every time you have to see how your friends are separated, as if meat carcasses.»

«Would you be able to find out this young man if you saw him again?» In the voice of Frances, insidious notes sounded.

«God forbid,» the tavern’s frequenter slightly crossed himself, but he was afraid to show himself a coward in the eyes of such proud and undoubtedly noble lady. «His image and so still stands before your eyes. It is only worth covering eyelids, as he is here again in front of me, deadly pale, beautiful, gold-haired and the same young as many years ago. So now it seemed to me that he flashed in the window. Do you believe me?»

Francesca turned to the window but, of course, did not notice anyone.

«So he was very beautiful, pale and gold-haired. Is that all you remember?» She calmly asked. He looked at her as the drowning on his savior and continued feverishly to recall.

«It was dark. In Roshen’s slums there were no lanterns, but his skin was glowed by itself and the hair was also shone like the sun. And he also had a golden claw instead of one hand. You see, such a paw with long sharp claws. She finished off my friends. Did an erased hand not evidence that he is a devil?»

«In fact,» Francesca nodded and throwing a coin on the table offered. «Order something strong to drink. It is not necessary to talk so often about the gold-haired devil, and he really can hear you and return.»

With these words, she turned around and called the owner of the tavern, so that he spent her upstairs, in apartments. The long raincoat have retired on a narrow wooden staircase like a train.

He could also take the lady in the road raincoat and mask for the devil, if it were not for a ringing coin, after her left-handed on the table.

Now I also remembered this person. That night, when robbers attacked me, he was hiding around the corner, waiting for the injury of prey. Then, I didn’t even turn, but I felt behind the presence of a third gangster with a knife, pressed against the wall behind my back. It turns out he managed to consider me and remember. And here, even if I looked at him now I could not know him, because so many years passed. The face that was old, the forehead cut the wrinkles, and under the eyes climbed dark circles. Even if he drank less, no one would believe in such a crazy story about the gold-haired demon, who boldly walks on the backyards of Roshen and manages a bloody trial over the robber. I could enter the warm, weakly lit by the lamps tavern, and make a random witness silence forever, but did not want. After all, he was not a dangerous accusatory in front of me, but only the unfortunate, who, once saw a supernatural being, is now trying to convince unbelievers in his right and slowly, but correctly acquires a reputation of madman.

I flew up to the window. Behind a small glazed window was clearly visible, a newly recently cleaned bedroom. The book seller was right, such clean rooms are far from all the innovations. Francesca rubbed with a towel a mirror on the dressing table and combed her long bright curls. They covered her shoulders and her back, and were too naughty, to make the countess herself without the help of the maid managed to lay them into the hairstyle. She managed to change the road outfit for the long lace shirt. Mask, dress, raincoat, as well as many hairpins were scattered on the couch. Her lordship is not used to do without servants. Only the most valuable acquisition – a black binding book was neatly put on the bed over a quilted blanket.

What is such an extraordinary concluded in the printed text on the stitched sheets? Why did Francesca search, almost demand that the seller found exactly this book? Maybe in all its unhealthy hobbies of mysticism lies something more than simple interest. I watched Francesca put the ridge on the table, and the contents of a small lady’s handbag were poured nearby. Jewels, bottles with spirits and jars with lipstick scattered on the table top. Francesca took out the folded sheet of paper with torn edges. She turned it out and read. I decided that it was a page taken from some old book. Paper is already yellow, and the text itself almost faded. The countess revealed the book in the stored place and compared its content with her leaflet. So uncertain and timidly you usually collect pieces of puzzle. Francesca took a deep breath, as if she did not find what she was looking for. She reached out to blew a candle and here she saw me in the window. In her eyes expanded from horror, like two lakes, reflected a flexible gold silhouette of a winged snake.

«How is it possible?» Only she was able to whisper, but the winged something had already disappeared. Francesca ran up to the windowsill, but it was already empty there.

So simply, the countess could not retreat, she saw the whole golden guest, looked at the snake, but heard a charm, human voice, who wished only «good night, countess, because calm can not last very long.» After all the sounds dropped in a night emptiness, Francesca seemed to hear them so far. Switching out of the bedroom, she found the side narrow ladder and went into the attic, and from there rose to the roof. Tile slid under the barefoot feet, but Francesca did not want to go back to the heat and peace. She was waiting for that – that’s somewhere at the level of dark sloping roofs again flashed flexible, golden silhouette, but it did not appear. Only the gray sea of urban homes stretched around, and the wind walked over it and cleaned lonely stars on the blue sky.

Francesca wanted to call someone, say someone’s name, but never decided. She turned back, almost stumbled on the ladder, forgotten by a chimney-sweep. The low roof’s slope hung over the windows of the upper floors, and it would be easy to hide not only a flexible flying creature, but even a child. Francesca, of course, did not calculate it. She last turned on the sleeping city and went down to the room, not even worrying that someone from the waking guests could see her without a mask.

Then I opened the window of not busy room and slept there until the morning. Nobody even paid attention to the draught, escaping from the slots of the locked door. The owner never came to disturb my dream, although I honestly was going to pay, if I was forced in the tavern. Even before awakening, I realized that Francesca had long gathered to go and her carriage had already left the city. I could easily follow her. I already knew the route by which they will return, besides, on the roads, deep furrows from the wheels were well noticeable.

The weather spoiled. The wet snow alternated with raindrops, and find the tracks of the crew on the risky road was increasingly harder. Overcoming another turn of the way, I heard the snoring of horses and the orders of the coachman. Due to the subtle trunks of the trees, it was possible to see the crew, accidentally went from the road and fell into a swamp, on which the ice was melted. The wheels of the carriage were stuck in the mud. The groom and the coachman tried to force their horses to pull the crew from the mud but they didn’t manage it. Francesca stood a little bit away from the roadway. Sometimes she looked back, hoping to see another carriage. Nobody was in a hurry to help her.

Without thinking, I took my initial and most familiar appearance, and came out of the trees. Francesca almost screamed from surprise when I suddenly turned out to be right at her back, because a minute ago the road was empty. I did not even move my hand, but she felt the persistent touching io her shoulder. Too amazed to greet me, Francesca was silent.

«Maybe your ladyship will allow me to provide a help?» I asked. It sounded as if I was going to raise a scarf, and not to correct the traffic accident. Francesca just shrugged and said:

«I would only bless your efforts, but how can you manage it one… without servants?» She hinted at the fact that I would have to explain how I was here alone without a horse and the carriage. I did not satisfy her curiosity, but only strictly ordered the groom and the coachman:

«Get out!»

They exchanged glances incredulously, fearing, as if they did not hear correctly, but under a shrill, ice-looking stranger left their work. With a quiet whisper, the meaning of which no one did not understand, I calmed down the horses, and then I presented as the rims of the wheels, bypassing the dirt, climb over the mud and roll on solid soil. The crew slightly straightened. When, I was a man, my mental efforts would hardly have enough for such hard work, but now everything went out, as in a dream. Observing the order, the horses themselves pulled forward a carriage, which thanks to my invisible support became much easier, and soon the crew was already on the road.

«Witchcraft!» Quietly murmured the coachman, raised his hand to cross, but then looked at me right away, scared to make some pious gesture in my presence. After all, an extraordinary acquaintance of his hostess can be angry. And what will his anger lead?

Francesca through the power thanked me and allowed to help her climb into the carriage. In her glance flashed all the same spark of suspicion and recognition, but I did not pay attention to it.

I said goodbye, closing the door, but she looked out in the window and suggested.

«Do not want us to bring you to your estate?»

«Oh,» I extended and carelessly dismissed. «To travel, I do not need a carriage.»

She nodded, as if she understood something that we were both afraid to speak out loud, although in fact it was incomprehensible to her.

Returning to my still not renovated abandoned estate, I found the porch of uninvited visitors. Most likely, Mr. and two servants who spent all their strength to keep the excited horses on the spot. All animals almost went mad when they found themselves within my newly acquired possessions. In Mr. I immediately recognized Selvin. He was already took for the door ring, it hit at the metal door with a buzz. The door, of course, remained locked. Despite the insistence of Selvin, no one hurried to let him into the house.

«Probably the owner is not at home,» timidly suggested one of the servants. «Maybe we will return, and then send a servant with the message.»

He was already frozen under the snowfall. Selvin himself also hung up in a fur coat, but did not go away.

«Let’s wait,» he said calmly, but in the intonation of the voice, the order was felt.

«Good afternoon and welcome!» I said, suddenly appearing behind his back.

Selvin, of course, was surprised that he did not hear my steps, but from politeness did not openly show his amazement.

«Come in!» I invited, and the door, which before that did not succumb to a persistent knock, nor a strong push suddenly opened itself. We entered the hall. It was no less cold here than in the open sky and Selvin, forgetting about the manners, began to blow on the frozen palms. He looked around the staircase and the floor, littered with dry leaves and garbage and in his glance flashed disgust.

«The house, of course, is good, but would you not like to put it in order,» he said, as soon as we went upstairs, leaving his servants near the cold fireplace at the bottom.

«Why?» I responded carelessly.

«It is impossible to live in ruins,» he began to chat, only in order not to remain in the grave, frightening silence, with the hidden strength of which he already knew.

«And where did you get that I live here?»

«Well, you bought the estate, and I decided…»

«How did you know that I bought it exactly, you do not know who I am or why did I come to your country?»

«Well, such news is spread quickly,» he began to speak, as if justifying the excessive interest in my personal affairs. «In addition to the fact that His Majesty became interested in you… You have an unusual appearance, only this helped the king to find your trail. Those who meet you admire and… a little scared.»

«You said that the house needs to be put in order,» I interrupted his coming speech. «Are you trying to teach me how to live?»

«In no way,» Selvin immediately passed in front of my strictness and tried hastily to justify himself. «I just fulfill the royal order.»

«Yes, this is the duty of the courtiers, to serve the king and fulfill all his orders.»

If Selvin was embarrassed such straightforwardness, he did not manifest it.

«The messenger with the letter, was sent here and did not find you at home, so I came myself, took on such courage,» after the pause he spoke again. «I generally thought that it was useless to send messengers. But his majesty is worried about you.»

«He takes almost parental care and it is flattering,» I nodded condescendingly.

Selvin shuddered at the mention of parental concerns.

«You see, a rumor reached the king that you are experiencing some financial problems,» he admitted.

«That’s how? And I did not know?» And I thought about myself that it was a complete hypocrisy – to have the treasury full with gold and jewels and at the same time acquire a reputation of the beggar. The favorable king decided that the poor, pretty, rural nobleman needs his help. It was ridiculous, but, restraining laughter, I got a fire in the fireplace. Selvin watched the movement of my hands, but it was not possible to notice from where I took the stream of fire, when I didn’t have a steel, nor trunk, nor even candles. There were cold spilled ashes and fragments of dry branches in the old fireplace, but it began to reproduce the saving heat and the visitor did not have to rub his reddish palms. He sighed lightweight, feeling a stream of heat from the fire, and even wanted to sit down in a chair, but it turned out to be too dusty and the nobleman had to continue the conversation on the feet.

«It is a pity that you were not when the letter came, otherwise the reception would be arranged in the palace… the first one for many years. You probably already know that His Majesty has long been in the mourning, and with him, of course, the whole court. The royal will is law for everyone. If the monarch fell into melancholy, then it is imposed on the other in a natural order. So, at least, it was up to that hunt when we met with you and, honestly, I really wanted to see you again.

Selvin cut his monologue and waited with hope for an answer, but I kept silence. The fire quietly cracked, absorbing the remains of the twigs, but only flared up stronger, although food capable of supporting the burning was almost over.

«After all, I didn’t come with empty hands,» Selvin took out some scroll and handed me, as if trying to prove it that his visit was not so useless. There are documents on the village to the north of your possessions. It and several farms that can be rented will give a good income.»

And whose were these lands before me?» I didn’t even unfold a scroll, although I already realized that such document is a great mercy from the side of the monarch, only here he provided the service not to the one who was in need of it, but to a stranger.

«These lands belonged to the crown,» Selvin replied. «They are pretty fertile, such an area will not give a bad income to the host, and the repair of the estate, too, if you do not mind, write down at the expense of the treasury.»

«What a care is it,» I admired, but Selvin did not notice sarcasm in my voice.

«The king is waiting for your appearance every day and… every night,» he said, clearly remembering our collision in a hunting house. «It is inconvenient to me to talk, but he is fascinated by you, and the court is jealous, so you must be careful when you appear among them. From jealousy, they are capable of everything, even of crimes. Many have never seen you, but they already dismiss unpleasant and terrible rumors. I am also your debtor and will be alert to provide you with safety at the court.»

«Selvin!» I turned to him by name, without titles and other rules of courtesy. «You must understand that I am not going to come to the court, nor today, neither tomorrow, no in a month.»

«But the king…»

«Listen!» I took him by my arms and led closer to the fireplace, so that in the reflections of the fire he could well consider my traits. He did not take away his hot live hands, although he felt the ice cold of my skin and, probably, he realized that this was a handshake of death.

«You are far from stupid and quite capable of understanding that I am not a common man,» I continued quietly. «Take care of your suzerain. Say to him that the most terrible danger, which only can be is coming from me. Communication with me has the worst consequences. It is dangerous. You are afraid that they can kill me but how? I will not be harmed with a spear, a knife, a sword, or even with a poisoned arrow. But if I wish or in the whims of fate, I can destroy many. Your king sees the deceased son in me. So let him send his father’s guard to someone from living, and not on whose fate are darkness and loneliness. If I need your service, I myself am not ashamed to come, but it is necessary to fear in advance that someone like me is going to let me your doors.»

«You say that you are… Cursed? «Selvin could not find a word for a long time and the phrase itself flew away from his tongue. «But this is not the case?» He immediately asked me with a hope.

«Who knows,» I replied indefinitely, and immediately turned away to send my energy to fire, which had almost no food left, at the expense of which it could burn.

The awkward pause was delayed. Selvin, having exhausted the stock of his eloquence, urgently tried to reveal the reason to extend his visit. He looked around a poor living room, heavy, dusty curtains, soft furniture set with faded upholstery, vases with dried bouquets. Dry flowers with the lightest touch could crumble in small curvy. Selvin’s gaze ran through a darkened portrait and pictures, which got me together with the house, and lingered on a small old tapestry with a hunting scene.

«Still, you have shown yourself as a hero that day,» Selvin remembered the predators who arranged the hunters the trap and an unexpected salvation. «Those who you saved, now and call you – the lord of the wolves. The rest, who heard the story, gave you this nickname in absentia, without requiring any confirmation of such power.»

Selvin spoke simply and with admiration. No tricks about why wolves scared me or how I managed to keep their fierce attack with the whole pair of words. He was not going to get out someone else’s secret and took the uniqueness of his savior as proper.

Young Viscount learned to perceive my secrecy, as an integral. Therefore, he was still alive, healthy and not scared, but only a little confused. Already in his behavior, it was possible to understand that received as a present possessions and other grace is just one way to lure me to the court. Does the king lack his own concerns? Why does he call in a fragile maze of urban mansions the fire-breathing snake?

«I see, it is useless to warn,» I stated with a sad smile. «Well, perhaps, one day I will appear before your jealous courtiers, and God forbid that I come to them in such a kind, as now, and not in another.

«What do you have in mind?» Selvin was amazed.

The holy simplicity, I grinned about myself, how he is it far from the suspicious Francesca.

«Very often, the evil fate pursues those to whom I feel sympathy,» I remembered with the sadness the gnomes, especially Dominic, even more painful there was a reminder of the prudent Claude and the naive, but uniquely charming Florian. All of them were destroyed because of me.

«Do you want to extend our acquaintance?» I asked the confused Selvin. «Well, I do not mind.»

«Excellent, you will not regret,» he was delighted. «Today we will have to bring bricklayers, painters, carpenters. We must bring the house to the appropriate look.»

He wanted to add that if I would be a little bit more agreeable, and I would be waiting for the future of the royal heir. I did not fit to be the landowner in debts. He got used to the court luxury and was confident that anyone who was forced to live in the house with the flowing roof, without servants, undoubtedly is a debtor. If only he did not stand in advance with the royal treasurer pay for these non-existent debts.

Selvin has already escaped to give orders to his escort, and I choking a deaf hysterical laughter. Yes, I could enrich any of the rulers of nearby countries. From the very tiny, not even faceted stone from my treasury would not be abandoned any of the richest and powerful kings. Selwin’s ignorance excused his naivety.

I considered Selvin unobtrusive only until the work was boiled in the estate. The workers imported a new, fashionable furnishings. The walls were re-crossed by expensive wood. The dressmakers filmed the measurements for the curtains. I was tired of the incessant crash of driving around, the knocking of hammers and disputes about what will be more beautiful to stand, I moved to the mill. It was warm and nice there.

Left alone, I thought about Vincent. Where is this poor fellow now? Probably, he is in some wretched hut, because his house is sold, and the debts are not paid. Only in the evening he can get out of his shelter to go to visit those who have enough stupidity to invite him. A poor Vincent! He would dance from happiness, if any childless king suddenly thought to adopt him. Again it outdated so that all the honors got to the one who did not appreciate them at all, and not the one who was dreaming about them.

Not that I am very sorry for Vincent. He brought himself all the time in trouble and did it quite skillfully without any assistance. Clear fraud is not a mean with which you can succeed. Now I remembered Vincent, because I felt his presence nearby. I just could not understand what he was doing in the village.

From the roof of the mill, an excellent panorama opened, but someone removed a ladder. Unlike people, I did not need a ladder to climb the attic. Probably, the miller noticed it. My hearing was very sensitive, I heard the hammer strikes in the forge, snoring the horses, crying baby in the cradle and warlike screams. Everything that happens in the village was almost tangible to me. I strained and listened. What happens there? Someone takes out a weapon from the forge. The village is preparing the uprising. The rumors and suspicions have done their job. What is the honor to kill the dragon while he is in human guise. Whether I am a man, I would be offended. After all, this village belongs to me according to papers from the king, I am a friend of the king himself, and these stupid people want to kill me with pitchforks and knives. Well, if they wish to see the dragon, they will see it, although I swore not to turn without special need.

From above, it was possible to observe the crowd, which moved to the mill.

Only pride prevented me to return to the gloomy, immense world, where I will be taken as equal. Pride and suddenly broken rage. How can these people be so arrogant and believe that they will overcome the stronger magic creature. Threatening to me, they just repeated the mistake of past generations.

Vincent, obviously, has managed to be returned before the crowd moved to the mill. Undoubtedly, he already learned about the fact that the king favors me, and got angry to such an extent that he rushed headlong into another dangerous enterprise. The result of it I could now watch with a better place.

The crowd was poorly armed and poorly organized. When they approached the pond, I was sitting on the roof in the same unchanged position, as an idol frozen in front of the pagan altar and an empty not expressing look at the armed crowd. Let them know that it is easier to move a whole fortress from the spot than to make me move at least a finger. It was worth to whisper only one word, and the arrow turned back. A sharp steel tip unmistakably found the heart of a unlucky shot.

A similar witchcraft maneuver even more exited the crowd. If earlier they had nothing but their own conclusions, now they have received proof that the sorcerer next to them really exists, and is not a fruit of someone well-developed imagination. I myself provided them with this testimony of my secret power and was not long waiting for their reaction. Hostile cries have become even louder. Vincent was worth only to throw a spark near the powder cord, and it wakes himself. The main thing against me was that for the sake of such an event you can throw all the work for a couple of days and plunder the rich possession of the feudal. In addition, in the opinion of many, the murder would be easy, because it does not manage to see the dragon every day, to catch him at the moment of weakness. As soon as they set fire to the mill, I’ll fly, leaving them alone with a conscience and a wall of fire.

In a moment, I saw everything on miles around, knew how many knives were hidden under rude capes. I wonder what amazement will distort their features when the real, golden dragon appears?

I slightly covered eyelids and the face distorted by rage merged into a solid range of white spots, but suddenly in the thick of the crowd flashed a family face of Francesca. So after all, the countess came to look at the massacre, because they were rarely far from the city, or opposite she tried to stop them. Even if she tried, it is unlikely that they will stop, not often the fate itself is found the pretext to kill the owner of the village, besides, if he also turns out to be a real dragon.

The door of the mill could not even knock out with the help of a rudely homemade battering ram, because I ran a protective spell on it. The spell to stop the fire flew out of the head, and the walls of the mill were flamed too quickly. I darted with one throw from the roof, the raincoat was shot at my back, like a sail and in just a moment I managed to take the kind that would manage to scare anyone. The first moment brought an amazement. The peasants did not assume that they would see someday something similar. As it could happen, because of the moment back, they saw just a favorite of the king, a silent aristocrat, who is unlikely to be able to confront to many alone, and suddenly he disappeared, and in front of them over a burning mill, a sparkling dragon was flying. Francesca also raised her eyes to the sky, no doubt, she learned me alone. She could not be misleading the dragon, who got down the fire on the crowd.

Already flying out, I knocked Francesca down with the edge of my wing. Golden steel scratched her easily vulnerable human flesh and broke clothes. She lied on the ground for a long time in a torn dress with disheveled gold curls and repeated something in a whisper, just one word as if it was a spell.

It was worth listening to distinguish her incessant whisper, more like a desperate cry.

«Edwin! Edwin!» came to me before all the sounds were dissolved in the heavenly melody.

«How could they?» Selvin was already in renovated living room and never ceased to be outraged by such betrayal. «If I just knew before? I would manage to support discipline, set guards.

He stopped near the fireplace and helplessly lowered firmly compressed fists.

«Forgive me, Edwin. If I knew that the village was full of madmen, I would have done everything to erect the barrier between them and you.»

«I warned you that the misfortunes pursue me,» I quite reasonably noticed. «Not so long ago, a former servant was trying to arrange a plot against me, before that there were other unpleasant cases. It is better to stay away from such a friend as I.

«Yes, it looks like a conspiracy,» Selvin’s eyebrows met on the nose, he thought about something feverishly, and then he smiled lightweight and happily. «I know a great solution. Do not think that I am superstitious, but in Viniena there is a beautiful cathedral. It is worth only to go there and nothing will remain from the evil eye or evil conspiracy.»

«No,» I objected so hastily, which scared him. «In no case. Now I can not go to the capital, I risk to face there with old enemies,» I began to compose on the move, so that the lies cover the cruel truth. I could not push him that with one sound of church bells, I will have bleeding ears. A rumor enjoying the music of fairies is too susceptible to the monotonous ringing of the metal and the chorus of chants.

«What are you afraid if His Majesty will send his people with you? «Selvin decided to encourage me and if I need to settle all problems for me. How to refuse him?

«I’m not afraid of anything,» I tried to object, as mildly as possible. «I just don’t want to put in an awkward position myself and others. Let’s go back to the question of the village. You said that those of her inhabitants who wanted to attack me for some reason decided that I was on the mill while I had already managed to leave there.»

It is necessary to hide so much and not blush. Selvin, taking such an explanation for a clean coin, nodded.

«They were convinced that they saw you on the roof, so the mill was set on fire, but their own clothes were burned too. Many burned alive, others got strong burns.»

«And with them there was a woman? The countess from the neighboring estate, I do not remember exactly what her name is? – I started carefully to interrogate.

«Yes,» Selvin answered. «It seems that she tried to stop them and but suffered herself.

«You will learn about everything so quickly.»

«I used to get acquainted with all the news, but these will try to save in secret. We don’t need a noise around your estate.»

I barely kept myself from telling him «Thank you» for the foresight. I allowed him to be located like at home, in the mansion, which was returned a luxurious look in so a short time, and I myself headed to bring the next night visit my charming neighbor.

As usual I did not knock at the gate. The habit of sneaking in the window and secretly observed the events was for me unchanged. Easy to calculate, in which hall there is a countess, I discovered there and one guest. It was Vincent. Despite the cold evening, he refused a hot tea, but willingly drank a glass of wine and began to spread about the latest news.

«This event is a real event,» he almost joyfully said, pretending that he did not notice the fatigue of the countess. «For the first time, I managed to learn something intriguing. The rebels accused the rich feudal in witchcraft, they drove him to the roof of the mill and threatened with fire, and suddenly he turned into a dragon. So the accusations are not so unfounded.

Vincent finished his monologue in the tone of the investigator and did not even notice that his only listener was silent and didn’t even nod to him.

«This story is worthy of getting to the pages of one of your books,» Vincent nodded towards the bookcases.

«No, you can hardly convey all the horror that eyewitnesses experienced,» she objected. Today you caught me scared and depressed, but this fright will not last long. Tomorrow you will return here, preferably in the late afternoon and take your cards with you. I need to ask you many things.»

«How do you order, Milady,» Vincent agreed. He drank, looking at the dark corners, where the candelabra’s light fell. It seemed to him that someone watches him, but he could not understand: the truth was it or an unpleasant feeling.

«See you tomorrow, dear countess,» he said softly and with a grin, crossing the threshold, but Francesca no longer heard him.

I did not want to show me at servants and maids, which, noticing such an invasion, could raise a cry. Penetrating into the bedroom, I began to wait until the countess remain alone. Soon, holding a candlestick in her hand, she crossed the threshold, closed the door. The peaceful radiance of one candle was illuminated the room. Francesca pulled the latch, turned around and noticing me was frozen without movements like an ice statue. How she was pale! It seemed that the scarlet dress with the waves of black lace, was on the mannequin, and not on a living woman.

I also sat down in a deep chair and stared in her eyes. Must be, Francesca thought that I was a ghost haunting her.

She backed up, but the back came across the door, which he just locked. A painful meeting with a wooden barrier led her to feelings.

«You didn’t have the right to appear here,» she finally spoke quickly and desperately. «You could not cross the threshold without invitation! You are an evil spirit!»

«So read the prayer to expel me!» I proposed indifferently, but the steel was ranked in the voice. It means that she herself invited me once, believed that no evil spirit had the right to enter the house without an invitation of the owner. An old one, having nothing with the reality of superstition, but the blonde countess believed everything that she read in the books. She knew the words of prayers and began to pronounce them, quickly, uncertain, expecting that I was about to disappear, but I did not turn into a smoke, did not fly out as a black cloud through the window and Francesca was silent. She did not want to show her cowardice, she approached me. I stand up to meet her, the etiquette did not allow to sit in the presence of the lady. A hand with a candle rose to my face. A tiny light almost rushed my cheeks, giving Francesca an opportunity to consider and remember every line.

As if observing some kind of gloomy ritual, the countess touched with her fingertips first to my cold skin, and then to the velvet binding of the book lying on the table. Feeling the ice fatal touch, she breathed quietly:

«Not alive!» Francesca dropped the candle and repeated again. «You’re not like all the living people, you had to die many years ago, but something happened and thanks to this you live, moving, breathing, charming naive people.

«You are far from naive!» I pointed to the book, where she had read about me me. The book, lying on the table, revealed the lines of the ancient, forgotten language. «Do you know some letters or the whole alphabet and can you read it?»

Francesca did not answer, but only pressed the palm to the neck, then to the heart. It beat often and strongly, like a bird in a cage.

«You are still alive,» she said. «When I read about you for the first time, you wandered somewhere nearby. But it is impossible, such simply can not be.»

She was amazed of acquired knowledge.

«Yes, I live, you yourself touched me to make sure that my heart, Francesca, it doesn’t beat, the first flight turned it into a stone.»

I waved the cloak. The wind rose from the light wave pulled out the pages from the book and they rushed to the floor with the rustle.

«From the very beginning I understood that you exposed me.»

– This predictor of fate, asking for a visit, is for sure your spy, otherwise you could…

I immediately understood who she had in mind, and hastily objected:

«Vincent is not my hound. He is an enemy and he is very dangerous, remember it. If it were not for his dexterity, he would also have been an ash for a long time.

«And who would you be now, if the sorcerer did not pull you out of the burning castle to make his student?»

«An ash!» I calmly and honestly replied, and from this answer she frown. «In the same rush, what sooner or later you will become, my beautiful countess, while in front of me is an eternity.»

«Eternity without joy, without a friend, without a companion. Eternity in the darkness,» Francesca tried to blame, but the voice fell into tears.

«What’s so bad in this,» I objected. «Your fortress will rot, your books will turn into dust, and my people will exist in teasing proximity to your dilapidated world, subject to disease and old age. Recently, you sought forbidden: feasts, treasures and secrets of my possessions. Is not it?»

I was silent, the wind picked up the torn pages, circled them under the ceiling and removed in the opened window. They disappeared forever together with the confession of the prince’s prisoner. Disappeared a distorted story about my atrocities. Francesca did not know what to answer how to call for help all her braveness to continue to throw charges. She wanted to raise the candle from the floor and again to light it, but did not dare.

«Clear pretense!» Francesca whispered, with despair, but so quiet that it was almost impossible to hear it, but I heard and unexpectedly felt irritation.

«And what did you expected, that even the devil will like your sophisticated manners, right, but false speech and the talent of the ingenious tracker?» The question was malicious and painfully cut a hearing. «No, Francesca. In fact, everything is much more prosaic. I came here to pick up my property. That is, almost mine,» I immediately corrected. «Anyway, a picture, according to a pure chance, that fell into your collection is written by one of the masters of my world, and therefore should return in the empire. The sooner, the better,» and if you can immediately, I added to myself, remembering that I was too late. You can never postpone tomorrow, otherwise you will never fulfill the conceived. I just wanted to play a day or two in a cat and a mouse with titled lady, and this couple of days dragged on more than a week.

«The painter!» Finally, exclaimed Francesca, as if this word was the key to all existing secrets. «He was the same as you.»

«Well, not quite like that,» I noticed with the knowledge of the case. «There are even in our world lords and servants. Camille was a conventional servant, even worse, almost a slave of his insidious Mr.»

«Yes, he accidentally mentioned that freedom was now very valuable for him,» Francesca nodded thoughtfully.

«Camille does nothing by chance, and he gave the picture exactly you, for sure, with a special intent.»

«He managed to run away from you. Well, I am glad for him,» Francesca has found strength to smile. «Now it’s clear to me why he wanted to destroy the picture.» Why do you need to keep an image of the owner, who probably very brutally addressed him. But he loved you very much, it feels in every stroke laid on canvas. Otherwise he could not draw with such inspiration.»

«This is a pretty ill manifestation of love – to create an eternal reminder about experienced sufferings,» I said and thought that this was really the most sophisticated torture – to capture the moment when several months have separated me from the carefree past, and the long road to the future was dark and thorny. How did Camille attracted the prince on the verge of dishonor? Why was it possible to transfer all mysticism with such an impression of reality, as on this, undoubtedly the best of his canvases? Cleanliness and innocence, the memories of which are still preserved in the picture, was already unattainable, and the dark satellite behind my back was just revealed his black wings.

«How did I not immediately guess who he was,» Francesca laughed at her naivety. «It was suspicious from the very beginning, well, he looked like a boy, and painted as a recognized talent. Then someone noticed his sharp ears, which sometimes peeking out from under the beret, the fiery shine in the eyes, the ability to move the items without touching them. And then these six ladies came, and Camille realized that it was time to run.

«Also and the spinners,» I said, thinking that for the count’s castle, the most worthy company was treated. Francesca, which naturally did not understand about the spinners, stared at me in amazement.

«All this does not have any relationship to you personally. They will no longer appear,» I comforted Francesca, although I myself was not sure about it. If the spinners will want to force their way somewhere in secret, then nobody will stop them. If one of them wants to kill this frightened amateur adventure, it is unlikely that the guards of the fortress can save her.

«Go away from here and do not appear here more!» Francesca shouted in the rage. «Take your picture and fly back to hell, where you came from. Surely, all these ballroom halls and statues were just an illusion. And in fact there is no castle, there is only a hell and there is the place for you, the fallen angel.»

I calmly waited when Francesca will keep silence. When the rage of the countess became dangerous, I slightly removed her, but she swayed with this light touch and almost fell.

«I’ll pick a portrait so that you could no longer touch it and thus call me out of my… hell,» before the last word, an expressive pause was made only because I didn’t dare to call my delicious castle as a hell. Then I boldly moved to the tower where the picture was kept, throwing on the move. «Perhaps I will return to pay.»

Absolutely innocent offer Francesca interpreted in her own way. On the same night, she began to collect her things and told to prepare the crew, but I never bothered to check where she was going to go.

Reaching my own castle, I did not decide to destroy the picture, but I didn’t want it to hang on the wall. Only after reliably hid it in the basement, and locked the door with the key, I unwittingly thought about Francesca. Was it worth to let her go. She knew now a strange unforgettable secret? And how long will her silence last?