LITMIR.BIZ

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at the lines in your palm, and take a drop of blood from your index finger.»

      «You’ve been through all this before?» Janet was amazed.

      «Oh, no, I haven’t had a chance to get to her yet. There was a line, but the other girls told me something.»

      «That’s interesting!» Janet admitted aloud, but thought to herself that she didn’t want to go through all that.

      «Let’s go to Rhodolit,» Nyssa urged. «Besides the fortune teller, there’s plenty of fun to be had there.»

      To Nyssa, a fortune-telling was just a fun game. And for Janet, dreams were no joke. They left her feeling too dark. The same dream about the unknown knight repeated itself more and more often. Even if Nyssa was right, and she was dreaming of her fiance, he came from fire and a battle of supernatural beings. And with him came a danger.

      The guests did not arrive until evening. By that hour, the castle’s inhabitants were all awake, as if they had cast a spell. Many of those who had served at the feast table were still yawning. Fortunately, the guests were too well-bred to disapprove.

      Janet waited several hours in the observation tower for their arrival, and when the Duke’s escort was approaching, her eyes glittered with colorful banners and even more colorful garments.

      «It looks a bit like the robes of a fairy court!» Sang the same bird with the rainbow plumage. From nowhere, it appeared again above Janet’s head in the sky. The height of the observation tower was not too high for it. And the sentries weren’t paying attention to it.

      «Why didn’t you go into the woods?»

      Janet looked discouraged at the rainbow bird. Where did it learn so many phrases and did she know what they meant. The parrots in the castle were only repeating what they heard from others. But Janet hadn’t said a word yet. Only the bird spoke. Or rather sang. The melodious phrases were unaccustomed to her ears.

      «Who is it?» Janet noticed a gentleman in the duke’s entourage, dressed in rich crimson. What a dandy! He looks like a bright bird himself. It seems that the Duke had no son. And no one else in his retinue could have dressed so splendidly without making him jealous.

      «He’s one of ours,» the bird chirped above Janet’s ear.

      «Is he one of yours?» Janet asked again, but the bird was gone. It was gone faster than the wind. It must have flown into the woods.

      The crimson-clad dapper suddenly looked up, directly at Janet, as if he’d heard her. Could he have seen from such a great distance, for the observation tower was the tallest in the castle. Janet noticed that his eyes sparkled like two jewels. When everyone had already entered the castle, he stayed in the courtyard and bowed slightly to her. So he saw her. He must have eyes like a falcon’s.

      He was not, however, to be found in the banquet hall. All the guests were assembled there, making dull chats about royal taxes, the harvest years, and the dangers of the forest roads. At this last topic, Janet perked her ears and suddenly noticed on the other side of the table, the same crimson-clad dandy who’d been eyeing her in the tower. He smiled at her defiantly. His eyes really did sparkle, like two jewels. And he had a handsome face. His presence made Janet uneasy.

      – «I am Honor,» he said. «From the woods…»

      He must have been joking. Janet suddenly felt his palm on hers. How could he have touched her across a table? But she could clearly see his pale fingers on hers, as if his hand had detached itself from his body and reached out to her. Only it lasted only a moment.

      Honor looked at the guests and servants as if nothing had happened, and his eyes danced with laughter. He kept on adjusting his blond hair, which had come loose from beneath his beret. He did not take off his beret or cloak. At the sight of the meat dishes on the table, especially the roast pigeons and partridges, he grimaced disapprovingly. He cursed through gritted teeth at the sight of a swan cooked with fruit, as if he could not understand how such noble animals could be served at the feast table. Janet shared his opinion, so she ate nothing either. Probably she and her guest had a lot in common.

      In the plate in front of him there was a pile of rose petals instead of food. White and red! Does he think that’s a treat? Janet noticed the same thing on her plate. Rose petals! Is this a mockery?

      But none of her ladies were laughing. They were all busy talking to their guests. Janet could hear that it was becoming more and more difficult to travel in the country. Robber skirmishes! Robbers! Rebellious peasants! Only the King’s court is quiet, but it is in mourning because of someone’s death, which is why the Duke and his retinue have come here.

      The rainbow bird flew into the hall, flew high above the table, and sat on the chandelier. None of the guests seemed to notice it. The harpists were playing, and the bird’s trills were indistinguishable from their music. Janet left the table, though, and followed the bird as it flew out of the hall. She looked for the rainbow plumage in the garden, by the fountain, among the tapestries in the hall, even in the corridors, but the bird, as usual, suddenly disappeared easily from sight.

      Finishing her fruitless search, Janet found that the feast-room was already empty. The guests had gone to bed. How the time had flown by so quickly. Someone was still sitting in the hall. Soft voices came to her ears. Janet peered through the half-opened doors. Two men were seated at the table: her father and the Duke. In the dim light of the fireplace, her father looked even older and more haggard than usual. The precious rings on his hands contrasted sharply with his wrinkled skin.

      «I wear them as amulets of protection against them,» he explained dryly to the Duke, who wondered. «Not all protection comes from semi-precious stones, but from some.»

      Her father’s voice sounded cryptic. Janet tensed at the door. She thought she was eavesdropping on something she couldn’t, but she couldn’t move away anymore. She began to wonder.

      The guest leaned across the table to the earl and whispered confidentially to her father.

      «They have kidnapped one of the king’s daughters.»

      Kidnapped? Were there robbers in the forest? Janet listened attentively. So there are bandits nesting in the woods after all. Bandits are not demons, they can be dealt with. All you have to do is raise a militia. If she’d had a brother, he would have done it. But her father was in no hurry. He was too old and too exhausted. Janet even thought; what a pity she had turned down all the suitors. Had she had a groom, he would have protected the neighborhood.

      But the guest went on, and her heart felt creepy.

      «It wasn’t just my wife and yours that went missing. Some years ago they snatched an only son of duke Audrian. And there’s not even a rumor of him since. People disappear, no one demands ransom, their bodies are nowhere to be found, it is no news of what became of them.»

      «Has the king’s daughter already been given a requiem, though no corpse has been found?»

      «The corpse of your wife has not been found too!»

      The duke clutched convulsively at the armrest of his throne.

      «Don’t remind me of Amaranta. She is with them now!»

      «Probably the king’s daughter is with them too. They do not know for certain at Court. No one has sent a spirit with a message to their castle.»

      «Then she was treated as a victim. It happens more often.»

      «Or not everyone loves their husbands or parents as much as Countess Amaranta, God rest her memory, because, her human shell has ceased to exist since she entered their circle,» the Duke saluted his half-empty glass and suddenly groaned bitterly. «They are strong, and the strong do what they please. There is no warrior yet born who could fight them. Though they say the Duke Audrian’s son killed a couple dozen of them before they dragged him away.»

      «And what is of Duke Audrian himself now?»

      «He has fallen

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