Dragon’s Empire – 4. Rose for dragon

«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.