«You are mad,» said Vincent, glancing warily at the parcel on the table in front of me. “ «At first was the violin, now this,» he pointed to the object wrapped in a white cambric tablecloth, which was already covered with tiny red flecks. The object was shaped and bulky, like a large head of cheese or a balloon wrapped in a cloth.

«You’d have to be insane to steal from under the hangman’s nose what he’s supposed to bury.»

«I think so, too,» I nodded, unable to explain why I flew over the pole and removed something that should have stayed there until it rotted away. Perhaps I should have done it, regardless of my own desire, should have taken Sylvia’s head back to where I’d first seen her, then still slung around her graceful neck, coquettish, smiling in the mirror, but… marble. Perhaps she would turn back to stone if I put her back on the console. Only, how to find that place among the gray plain, even in the prosperity of my father’s country, not everyone could find the archway and get through it to the meeting hall, hidden at the bottom of the ravine.

«What are you going to do about it?» Rose came so quietly to the table that I didn’t notice her until she was beside me. «Let me bury it in the garden near your theater or inr the vineyard, where the soil is loose and…»

«No, Rose, don’t,» I intercepted her hand as it reached for the roll. I wasn’t thrilled that she and Vincent, trying to be loyal as puppy, were following me around and trying to figure out how to solve my problems for me. Now I was really ready to believe that if I were to go down into the hell of it all, Rose would follow me without the slightest fear, just as she had once promised. I should have been glad of such displays of affection, but I was afraid for Rose, afraid that once she followed me out of habit she would cross the threshold into the furnace from which she could never get out. I had no intention of endangering those I loved. I could handle everything myself. It was just that I was used to playing the game with the victim, and this time the events dragged on only because I wanted to play the same game with the enemy. And I wanted to play with a capable enemy. The fact that Rothbart had again accumulated strength and could withstand me made the game more interesting and the feeling sharper.

«Don’t follow me through the streets in the night again, or…» I hissed, glaring at Rose, but the warning was directed at her as well as at Vincent.

«You won’t do anything to me,» Rose smiled victoriously. «Look, you won’t even squeeze my hand any harder to avoid accidentally scratching it with your nails, and you could easily break the bones of someone stronger than me or him if you wanted to,» she nodded toward Vincent. «Don’t be a hypocrite, Edwin. It’s not the walk through the streets in the night we have to worry about, it’s whoever’s accompanying us, and that’s you.»

Rose had seen right through me, probably ever since she’d first noticed the dragon’s wings fluttering in my eyes. There was no hiding it from her. I told her the story of my life. She knew all about me.

I remembered an amusing incident that had happened to us at Viniena just after Charlo, indignant and offended at being deemed insane, had been dragged from the square by two upset servants of the prince. Priscilla wept as she walked away from the place of execution. Her tears washed away the makeup on her face and smeared her mascara from her eyelashes, so that she looked like a rather talentless actress. Clovis behaved more courageously, and held the fellow by the neck’s collar, lest he should pounce on any passers-by, babbling nonsense and thereby exposing the whole secret society. The square was deserted, but carriages were still clattering in the narrow streets behind it. The horses, whether they smelled a dragon or death in my burden, started galloping away, but Rose was in the middle of the road, blocking their way. If it had been anyone else, I’d have been sure the horses would have trampled him, but I didn’t have to fear for Rose. She would have considered my overprotection to be picky. When she and the carriage were already a few paces apart, the horses snorted and bucked, and seemed happy to rush back, if only not to approach the graceful female figure frozen motionless in the narrow alley.

I saw the royal coat of arms on the carriage, and I was a little embarrassed that I wasn’t the first to rush to the aid to a benefactor who had decided to leave me his power. None of the courtiers would have been as negligent as the heir at that moment. They did not want me to inherit the throne so quickly. It was because they were afraid of me that they in no way wished for their ruler’s untimely demise.

When the king got out of the carriage to thank his beautiful savior, Rose in a flash had already managed to fly over the distance separating her and the horses, whispered something menacing in the ear of the muscular white stallion and grabbed the reins, as if trying to prove that this simple way and tame the horses. There was nothing supernatural about simply pulling on the reins.

«They’ve calmed down now,» Rose patted one of the horses on the withers. It was so frightened that it tolerated her touch. Any horse would have tolerated even a bite from a gremlin that peeked nimbly out of his purse and watched the animals with excitement, ready to jump on someone’s mane, but Rose hid her hand with the purse behind her back.

«Sit still,» she whispered to her pet.

«You have a brother, don’t you,» the king said, scrutinizing Rose’s face for anything familiar. «It was your brother or cousin who did me the same favor, I believe, a year ago.»

«Her Highness has no brother,» I said, causing the king to turn back to where I stood. «She has no one but me. She likes to help people out of trouble, never mind the first or second time she’s helped them out, and never mind the monograms on their carriage.»

I understood His Majesty’s amazement. It would have been a blow for anyone, even one warned in advance, to see his successor outside at night in the company of a girl who had shown too much mercy to be considered an enemy.

«Edwin sheltered me,» Rose explained. «And if, in one of the countries we visit, I should be sent to the scaffold, there would be no one to intercede for me but him.»

She shrugged her shoulders gracefully, but did not curtsy. Why should she? He’s a mere mortal ruler, and she herself may very soon be proclaimed ruler of an empire where no man will set foot again.

«I know I’ve been gone for a long time,» I swung my cloak lightly, imitating the spread of a dragon’s wing. «What can I do? There are things that can’t wait.»

«But tonight I can invite you both in,» His Highness didn’t even have the courage to tell me that we would be the most beautiful and unusual couple to ever cross the threshold of his palace.

Rose lowered her lashes, trying to hide the joyless expression in her eyes. She didn’t want to drag a gremlin into the palace, where he might bite the guests who were not as uncomplaining as the wordless horses. I pressed my burden tightly against my chest, trying to cover it with as much of the cloak as I could, and still I felt as if the king’s gaze could see through the cloth, that my mortal protector was watching and discerning, the dead, severed head in the velvet that I held to my chest.

«Some other time,» I muttered, my lips turning white. And I added to myself, «Not now, not with Sylvia’s head, which would be exposed to the court as soon as the footman removed my cloak.

The unpleasant conversation was behind me, but the fear of exposure had not passed. What would I have done if someone had pulled off my cloak and, calling to the night guard, pointed out to them the pale, golden-blond young man who was carrying the head of an executed woman in his hands.

His majesty smiled encouragingly and understandingly at me, deciding that I wanted to have a pleasant time with the living girl, while I tried with all my might to hide the dead one from his eyes.

«So much misery in life,» Vincent muttered aloud, and added to himself, «probably as much misery as Edwin had had girlfriends.»

I wasn’t offended. I remembered well that most of our troubles came from my former companions, such as Deborah. When she tried to take revenge, Vincent had a hard time, and now he feared a repeat of the same situation.

Vincent paced from corner to corner, contemplating what to do if this time the nails of the headless vigilante began to scratch at the window of the house in Lara. Rose fidgeted nervously with a shiny object, which I recognized without difficulty as Lady Selina’s locket. The necklace had vanished without a trace.

«It broke off when Vincent tried to take it away,» Rose explained.

«Haven’t you enough jewelry?» I asked without reproach or sarcasm. I really wanted to offer her something that would make her realize that the habit of stealing could be left to poor people like Vincent. I took the candelabrum, blew on the candles to make them flare, and beckoned her to follow me.

«Come along. I want to show you something.»

Rose was skeptical, but in the end, curiosity overcame fear. I wouldn’t lure her into a trap in my own castle, or take her away from the only witness to tell her off. If I had to threaten or swear, I didn’t hesitate to do it in front of Vincent.

I led her up the spiral staircase to the basement floor, but not to where my lab was located, but even lower, to the bowels of the earth. Beyond the curving spiral staircase there was a pair of doors with bas-reliefs. There were doors to the unknown. Just as I felt now, Rose, when Baron Raoul led me into his dungeons, to the terrible treasure hidden in them. The doors in front of which Rose stood were not chained, but behind them in an underground well slumbered a serpent – the guardian of his master’s savings.

«Come in! Do not be shy!» I grasped Rose’s arm with my free hand and pulled her through the doors, past the well, into the arched doorway, beyond which a dazzling glow pervaded the darkness. Here, in the dungeon, I kept not only the treasures I had inherited with the castle, but also what I had managed to gather or accumulate myself during my adventures. Besides a pile of gold coins and uncut, large gems, there was everything to attract any woman. But I wanted no one, noble ladies, young ladies, actresses, courtesans. All the women I met on my way were sooner or later victims, so why give them jewels when sooner or later they would end up at the bottom of the well anyway.

«And this is all yours?» Rose gazed admiringly at the chest with its lid folded back, where various necklaces gleamed, but hesitated to touch any of them.

«No. It’s not mine. It’s all yours,» I corrected her. «You can take anything that interests you.»

In one day Rose could not have carried one hundredth of this treasure, but even if I had not been so rich I would have offered her everything I owned. To me, the treasury was just a dead sheen of bars of gold and scatterings of gems, everything that reminded me of the past. There is a belief that dragons hoard treasure only to keep the memory of a bygone era alive in a changing, human-populated world. After all, precious ores are something that has existed on earth since the primitive world. The antiquity of gemstones determines their value to the dragon. Looking at the accumulation of opals and diamonds, I recalled my father’s treasury, certainly less rich, but no less brilliant.

I never spent long hours in my treasury, nor did I spend hours reminiscing or sleeping on piles of rubies. I had only to look at the walls of amber and turquoise, at the large carbuncles and the chests of bracelets and necklaces and pearl beads, trinkets that I had despaired of using, for only a girl would wear them.

I would have liked to see how all these earrings and pendants and clips and rings would have looked on Rose, and how the heavy necklace of diamonds she was considering would have snowballed around her neck and shoulders and covered most of her corset. All these things, which were priceless to people, I would have given her as mere toys, but apparently in tribute to old habits and the modesty Odile was trying to instill in her, Rose chose one simple sapphire necklace.

«It turns out we’re not as poor as I thought we were,» she said with delight as she watched her find shimmer in the light from the candelabrum. «The mother said that if I stayed with you I would either starve or die a violent death. I guess she didn’t know you were rich.»

«I never told her that,» I agreed.

«Besides, I only came to her to ask for the locket and she must have thought we were living a modest life,» she whispered and shook her head when I suggested her to try on the tiaras.

«I don’t feel comfortable picking up so much at once, I’d rather come back here again,» she suggested. «Just to make sure it’s not all a dream.»

She glanced again at the chests with emeralds and diamonds, at the collection of crowns, any of which would have made a mortal monarch jealous, and at the gold coins that didn’t fit in the chest and were piled unnecessarily in the corner by the door. I touched the twisted malachite pillar that supported the ceiling and, like the walls, was decorated with stones.

«What is all this worth compared to the happiness of seeing a living creature near you that can love you?» I asked, as if nature itself dictated that a dragon live alone near a pile of treasures, cold and useless. «In the company of it all I felt lonely, you came along, and I realized that someone needed me. So, it’s all rightfully yours. Consider it a reward for bringing back to one ruined heart the desire for life, for explaining to a fallen angel that he is still capable of flying. Not only to fly, but to rejoice in flying. Remember, no matter what burning city you find yourself in, to carry you from there, my wings will always sustain the two of us.»

«Yes, maybe,» Rose shook my hand, as if she wanted to seal some kind of oath. «But I don’t have wings, so I can only offer you my heart.»

«But that’s more than I could ever hope for,» I laughed, remembering that the first time I’d seen her I’d thought I was the cursed, evil creature, the one who couldn’t expect anyone to treat him kindly and had to ruin everyone. Then I decided to hide and let Rose choose a better life than with me, but fate decided otherwise.

Rose decided to take a couple of other things with her after all, a crown with pearl pendants and a wreath of diamonds.

«And I know that the prince would be happy to have even a thousandth part of what you are so contemptuous of,» she remarked playfully, her skirts rustling happily down the stairs.

«It is a dream of usurer,» I said, and thought to myself that I had made a very good point. Rothbart was accustomed to sue everyone and everything as if they owed him money.

«It is a dream of usurer?» Rose said. «I’d rather call him a buyer-up of human souls, like the ones they write about in fairy tales. Look, all those shadow servants act as if they’d sold themselves to him for nothing more than a promise.»

«Maybe,» I couldn’t help but agree that it looked that way from the outside.

«Vincent and I should be glad that you haven’t picked up your mentor’s habits.» Rose overtook me on the stairs and was the first to enter the hall. The light from the candelabrum I held high above her head was enough to keep her from stumbling down the stairs.

«So we’re going to find a ravine to take the head of your former sweetheart to,» she asked in the tone of a spoiled child.

«Rose, I’ve only talked to that woman two or three times in my life, and believe me, those conversations have left a very unpleasant impression on me. How could you possibly know anything about my plans?»

«And this woman, or rather this fairy, she went mad after you drove her away. Didn’t she?»

«I think she was insane before she met me, saying something about some secret, about a crown left in a deserted city. Now that crown is mine, but happiness is not in the crown.»

«Pray that your tutor understands that,» Rose joked.

«Do you think he would be happy to have my crown?»

«He wants something more from you, doesn’t he?» Rose frowned, as if she didn’t like the idea of making such a terrible guess out loud. «He wouldn’t follow you around like a lover if all he wanted was to take the throne from you. Then it would be war, not a game, not a talk dragged on all night like serenades, not trickery, but an open combat. He does not seek to fight you, and that can only mean one thing. He doesn’t want to damage something during the battle that he’d like to appropriate intact.»

Rose reached out and touched my cheek.

«He wants your angelic appearance. That’s why he’s afraid to go into battle. He’s afraid of hurting you or disfiguring you. Take advantage of that. Let’s attack first. You wouldn’t spare such a scoundrel just because you got used to his company during your imprisonment.»

«Honestly, it’s you who should feel sorry for him. After all, he’s your distant relative.

«From what you’ve told me, he’s changed like a chameleon in his life. If he had any close relatives left, I don’t think even they would recognize him as a kinsman. He had changed so much that they would take him for an outsider.»

«Rose,» I wanted to explain to her what I couldn’t understand. «I was never afraid of him. I was never afraid of anyone. Rather, I hated him, but in the beginning I respected the majestic stranger in him. As soon as he ceased to be a stranger, all the aura of grandeur immediately fell away, on close examination I revealed all his pettiness, malice, greed, and instead of respect I began to treat him with mockery. That’s what happens when you look at actors. From the distance of the orchestra pit they may still seem attractive, but up close you see only a layer of makeup. I don’t mean you, of course; on the «Marionette’s» stage that night you were the one and only occasional exception.

«So, you’re only being nice to him because he’s a part of a time that has now faded into oblivion?» Rose went to her apartment. I, like a shadow, followed her silently and steadily through the chambers of the castle. I didn’t want to be without company; I’d rather watch as she hid her jewels in the chest of drawers and sat down gracefully in the carved rocking chair in front of the fireplace. I liked silently watching her movements, which became as light and weightless as mine. I liked to be near her, watching her to write some spells or poems in her notebook, but to remain silent and not interfere with her in any way, except to help pick up pens or papers if they fell off the table. In this way, perhaps, only a guardian angel can watch over his ward, always be near her, but remain silent, love her, but not count on reciprocal feelings. It has been that way from the moment I saw her for the first time. Rose herself knew that a certain winged spirit guarded and loved her, but no one close to her guessed about this love.

Now all of a sudden, she wanted to protect me from danger. She was crumpling in her hands the very paper with the witchcraft formula that she had tried to give me before. The chair swayed on its own, and Rose sat motionless in it, as light as a feather and as mysterious as a ghost.

«Read your spells, and they will lead us to the temple, which you called the hall beneath the dome,» Rose was the first to break the silence.

«Do you really want to go there with me?»

«I want to see the place,» Rose stood up from her chair, easily and silently. It continued to sway for a long time, as if her shadow remained seated in it. The princess herself walked around the room, stroked the gremlin that slept on her muff, looked into the wardrobe, where were her gowns. I knew she was looking for her camisole and sword, but could not remember in which closet she had left them.

«We could meet Rothbart there and see how he learned to prolong his youth,» I said without thinking, as if someone had whispered a clue in my ear.

«Could he do you any harm?» Rose wondered. «Could he think of any way to end the life of an immortal creature? Is there any way to end your life at all?»

I looked at her carefully and said what I thought:

«If you leave me, I won’t survive it.»

«Oh, what would you do?» She laughed. «How will you kill yourself?»

The question struck a bell in my mind. Indeed, how? Jump from a height and crash? It is in vain. Even if I did not open my wings at the last moment, but crashed, every cell of my body would still recover. Stab myself with a knife? It is pointless. Drink poison? It is useless. Cut my veins? The wound would heal instantly.»

«The only thing to do is to decapitate me,» I suggested.

«As long as you are a human no one would dare that sacrilege,» she protested.

«He is not a human,» I corrected.

«The Prince appreciates your flawless features too much. So we have nothing to fear,» Rose found in the bottom drawer of the closet what she was looking for: a camisole, velvet pantaloons, vest, boots, and, of course, a sword in sheath.

«Get ready,» I nodded, glad to have a living and beautiful creature by my side at all times. Alone, the journey into the ravine might have seemed endless. «I must tell the king that even if I were to disappear, he must not surrender power to Henri if he should show up. Everything must be foreseen.»

I was already standing by the open window, behind which the snowflakes were swirling, and I was about to fly away, but I stopped, remembering that I should praise Rose for the way she had impressed Camille.

«You know, the author of the play is dreaming of your return to the stage.»

«I know you think „The Shadow and the Marquise“ is a libel, but, come to think of it, the author not only besmirched your honest name, but he made you, the dragon, a famous hero, at least on the stage.»

«It is comforting,» I muttered, smiling at the corners of my lips. Rose said something else, but her words were directed only toward the swirl of snow outside the open window. She seemed to be saying that she suspected some fantasy in the play, but thought it was different in life. I couldn’t hear her because I was in a hurry. Already pacing the streets of Viniena, I was thinking of the words I should have spoken instead of the actor. Of course, Camille had made it up; no conversation had ever taken place between me and Sabrina. I simply did not have enough time to have a conversation with her at the time, but the author’s rich imagination put into my mouth the lines that I could have said only to Rose, not to the victim. I tried to repeat a verse to myself and see if there was anything in the verse that offended me, or if Camille was just taking advantage of what we had talked about in the dungeon. It is too bad that you can’t memorize the whole play with the first time.

I paused, glanced at the disk of the moon high above the rooftops, and remembered Rose standing on the stage. How beautifully and well she had delivered her speech. Camille had written my speech in a way that would have suited him, as well as any of the magical creatures. There was no one in the streets; no one would have heard me, except some fairy wishing to oblige, but hiding in an alleyway for now. In a whisper, I repeated Camille’s poem, the stranger’s answer to the Marquise’s question, «Who are you?

«I am a creature of that country,
Where nature with a mixture of evil
We are born in spite of
Against all the rules of existence
We are our own among the shadows
We’re winged and proud
Always playing hide-and-seek among men
We have to play for it.»

And someone in the dark alleyway responded to my whisper with a muffled, understanding laugh. Only one bandit could greet another with such a meaningful laugh. I looked around, but saw no one.

I did not bother anyone in the palace. Why wake the king? He would be sure to talk me out of my dangerous undertakings, or offer his help. I ignored the door, used the second-floor window, sat down at the table in the king’s study, wrote a short letter to the king, and sealed it with the king’s seal. At least, that way it would be clear to everyone that only the heir could leave such a seal, but to make sure His Majesty did not confuse anything, I stuck a tiny imprint of my seal-ring, which the king had probably already noticed on my hand a long time ago. At any rate, it was better than the dragon’s claw print on the envelope.

I had to stop by the tailor’s shop, which was late special for the king’s successor. I ordered dresses for Rose there, and promised that I’d come pick them up some night. It was a strange order for a prince who was considered unmarried. The proprietor understood me in his own way and, just in case, introduced me to some pretty girls who were seamstresses. Who wouldn’t want their daughter or niece to be a minion? The dragon inside me laughed angrily, but I myself felt only embarrassed, and now I did not come for my things until nightfall, when the whole staff of workers was already asleep. The lamp in the window behind the curtains let me know that the owner himself was still awake.

I took the parcel and the motley hatbox, explained that I was in a hurry to see the lady, and was glad when the door closed behind me. At least the only person in all Viniena could confirm that I had a mistress waiting for me at night, and not a demon to whom I had sold my soul.

I should have hurried back to Rose, but I glanced at the moon, which had already moved in the sky to the left over the spires of the city, and remembered another scene from the play, the Marquise asking something about birth, youth, dawn, and the dragon in the form of a cavalier mysteriously answering and revealing my past in the words:

«My first dawn
Alas, I cannot remember,
I remember a gloomy dungeon
I remember the gloomy dungeon and the glowing candle,
I remember the chains that rang and the gown that rustled,
The voice of the demon in the darkness,
Fate is all-powerful and all-embracing
Death opened to me early.»

In Camille’s opinion, Sabrina could not believe such a frank confession. What could she think of an attractive young man but a pretender who had decided to play the demon for some reason? I could still hear her answer from Rose’s lips:

«Is it death? Is it metaphor or joke?
How many, by pretending to be one.
Have you been able to craze.»

I shook my head, as if I were trying to clear my mind. I should hurry home, not read someone else’s poetry. Before Rose had opened my eyes to the fact that the author was talented I had found the play to be a very offensive piece of writing.

Feeling someone’s light breath on the back of my neck, I turned around. The figure leaning against the wall of the tailor’s shop seemed so familiar that I didn’t even wonder who it was.

«Since when do you dress up in dresses?» someone asked me with a sneer, though no one’s lips moved, and the words sounded as if only I could hear them. Even if a passerby had been around right now, he wouldn’t have heard anything.

«They’re for a girl,» I answered aloud, not thinking that if the observer hadn’t really asked me anything, he might find my words strange.

«Are they for a girl?» It was either an echo or a chuckle. «Do you mean to tell me that some girl who lives with you can live long enough to try it all on?»

The words came out, and again it was unclear whether they were spoken aloud or only intruded into my consciousness.

«Come!» I commanded, not out loud, but mentally, so that no living creature could resist the order, but the figure did not emerge from the darkness, but instead dove deeper into it and disappeared around the corner of the house.

I could see no one in the murky alley, but I was somehow certain that someone was beckoning me to follow. It was awkward to run after someone with the boxes in my hands, so I put them by the base of some building, figuring I’d come back for them later. Even if someone were to pass by, they would not notice the rolls of dresses or the motley hat-cards. Outsiders could not see what no longer belonged to their world, but to me, just as passersby could not see the house I had bought in Lara, though they knew it was not torn down, but stood somewhere nearby in tantalizing proximity to them.

Who to follow if I could hear no footsteps or anyone’s panting breaths and exhalations nearby, and they must have been, considering that someone was running away from me with the speed of an arrow fired. No one’s footprints could have been left on the uneven paving stones, but I was walking like a treaded path. If I had called someone after me, even my soles would have left a deep trail of fire on the cobblestones. No one might have called me this time. Maybe it was just a faint premonition of danger, the kind that sometimes arises only in clairvoyants, somewhere in the strong, wired net of various dragon instincts.

I didn’t have to choose my direction; my feet led me to the square, to the very spot where I’d picked up Sylvia’s dead head. Was it dead? The clear and obvious question in my brain would have alarmed anyone. What if, even severed from her body, it was still alive, and when I took it out of the cambric wrap that replaced the shroud, her dead lips would move slightly to warn me of something.

There was only one tarred torch burning in the square, a tiny orange with a red core, visible from afar. There was a foul, stinking smoke from the flame, but it was beyond anyone’s sense of smell, for there was nothing around, and the torch itself seemed to be hanging in the air above the scaffold, without a stand or holder. Was the square empty? No, it only seemed so. The human eye could not distinguish what I saw, a mass of dark, graceful silhouettes exquisitely draped in black velvet and moiré. There were only shadows, indistinguishable in the darkness. Only the light at the center of the pandemonium of shadows was discernible, and the blessed night sheltered everyone else, even the torch-bearer who had brazenly climbed onto the platform. Night was their favorite time.

12 След.

Dragon’s Empire – 5. Society of Shadows

Danger

С этой книгой читают

Другие книги автора