LITMIR.BIZ

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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.

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