Dragon’s Empire – 4. Rose for dragon

«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?»