not listen to me.
«Do you not really feel that there is someone here!» I exclaimed.
«Everyone who first descends here, becomes bad,» the baron explained condescendingly. «But this corridor is not the worst. Let’s go further!»
My head began to spin and, nevertheless, I went ahead, risking in any moment to lose consciousness. What is it, a terrible dream? Some severity fell on me, as if the ancient walls were about to collapse and bury us both under their wreckage.
Still, I got to the end of the corridor and in the glare from the orange light saw the doors.
«I ordered to establish them here for the sake of the security of others,» the baron explained.
I noticed that the door was with a variety of heavy chains. The chains were firmly fortified in cast-iron rings inserted into the wall. Why such a precaution? Is there really a monster behind this door, which the ancestors of the baron have been held in sharpening for centuries. I wanted to express my guess, but I was afraid to be ridiculous.
«It must be a gate to hell,» I grinned. Just think, even at such a moment I did not leave a sense of humor. Although it is unlikely to be a hereditary feature. My brothers have always been restrained and serious as young philosophers.
«Evil is hidden there,» the baron raised his hand and his unnaturally long index finger almost touched one of the numerous hanging locks.
«Do you keep the dragon in imprisonment?» I asked with the same smile.
«With such a light-mindedness, you will not be able to keep even a titmouse, my prince for a long time,» the baron was clearly offended by my untimely jokes. «Dragons are too powerful creatures, you will not hold them with chains. At this door there is a hatch, also with chains, and under it a stone staircase, which descends deeply into the womb of the earth. There, many generations of my family hid their scary treasure. If you open these doors, then a black hurricane will break out of them and knock you down. And if we go a little further, we will be threatened with inhuman voices. They will also ask to open the hatch, but sorrow to someone who believes their sweet speeches and will release evil to the will. Sometimes the hatch cover shudders so that the chains are ringing and the walls are shaken, as with an earthquake. Even it seems to me that some monster sits underground and is trying to free themselves from its century old shackles.
«And what is under this hatch?» I already asked more seriously.
«If you go down, then you will find yourself in a small room,» my enlightener clearly slowed down with the answer, as if he was weighed, what could be said, but what is not and is it worth talking with a skeptical guest.
«There is an organ in the corner. Sometimes you heard how someone plays on it, although there is not a single living soul in the dungeon and nevertheless the organ makes heartbreaking sounds. And the manuscripts with the witchcraft symbols are stored near.»
«Are you saying that there is a witchcraft? Then why don’t you invite any scientist to decipher all the records?»
«It is excluded,» shook his head the baron. «No one can even touch these ancient scrolls. If you just knew what force they hide in themselves and the curse falls on the one who keeps them in their home. A few years ago, my son tried to descend under the ground and died. Since then, these doors are always closed and sealed by a variety of locks.»
«But there must be some kind of dare-devil!» I protested. «If the witch mysteries hide behind this set of locks and seals, someone who wants to decipher the manuscripts will come.»
«I have no more heir, but maybe someday you will return here to take care of my ominous heritage. Are you bold enough to take on such a cargo? If so, I will show you a place where the keys are hidden.»
«Yes, someday I’ll be back here,» I not think that I promised. It seemed to me that in this moment the triumphant laughter came across the door, from which the chains were shouted and ran.
Although I was and uncomfortable, but on the way back I asked exactly how the son of the baron died. Are there any wounds on the body?
«No,» he shook his head calmly. «Only his shirt was broken, and three scratches and a red handprint remained on the throat.»
«Maybe it was not a palm, but a paw of some kind of creature?» I expressed my assumption.
«No, it was a track from a very elegant female hand. I can’t say anything else. My help was late,» he showed me a cache, where he hid the keys from the locks. I tried to remember the simple cipher. Although if the story of the Baron is truthful, then these keys had to be destroyed long ago, and the door to leave the locked forever. I looked at the door covered by the web of a heavy chain, and her species made a depressing impression on me. In my heart, cold and fear were sought. It seemed that from under the ground, despite the cast-iron barrier, I heard a joyful, victorious laughter and someone’s voice, at the same time, and a terrible and attractive, whispering to my ear:
«You finally come back! We waited for you so long!»
Deceiver
On the way home, I tried to observe the silence, so as not to tell the brother about my night adventure. The baron showed us on the map the shortest path and explained how we can drive around dried forests. In the capital, I was hoping to relax, persuade Claude to walk along with me past shops selling flowers and baubles. Alas, the city met us with sullen silence. Stone streets were empty, shutters on the windows are closed. And today there was not a soul around. Even closely pressed to each other, stone houses seemed uninhabited. The city looked abandoned, as after rat’s invasion.
We turned to the main street, but here it was also quiet and deserted. Only in one alley I saw a girl. She dressed in a wool shawl and pressed a bracket with a silk goods to the chest. I called her, but she ran past, without even paying attention to us.
It seems she is in a hurry to the square of two swords. Let’s go there,» suggested Claude.
I sighed quietly, but obeyed. The square of two swords, named so in the emblem of one duke’s family always caused me dislike, because there were executions. The heat of fire and the whistle of the ax at the frontal place every time spoiled me a mood, although numerous yawns flocked there from all over the capital. For the first time in life, I found myself in such oppressive loneliness, in the center of the empty city.
Claude leaned and raised a colorful poster from one counter.
«Oh, that’s what some robbers execute today,» he will notify me. «There must be all the townspeople gathered to see.»
He sent a horse to the sinister square. I followed him, although I didn’t want to look at the execution at all. On the wall of the gray house in front of the square hung a shield, and two crossed sword were drawn on its smooth surface.
Claude was right. It seemed that today all residents of the city were glanced at the place of execution and only the most god-fearing remained sitting in their tightly locked houses. From the saddle, I could only see the heads of citizens.
Some boy volunteered to hold our horses, while we go through the square. We rushed into the thick of the crowd to listen to people talking about. Claude joined the sides enthusiastically.
