calm around, the noise of waves, crabs and scorpions crawling between stones and a quiet swaying of algae – all these are normal night sounds on the coast. Smugglers would not be poured back. Their traces were already washed off the surf. The lights went out. Boats, too, was no longer noticeable at the shore. I rose and sat down, trying to come into myself, to separate the dream from reality, but in my heart again there was a leaning pain and a fiery wave spilled throughout the body. I embraced myself with my hands, wanting to warm up and relieve painful spasms. The prince called me. Even at such a distance, I saw the aquamarine ring in his hands. I wanted to drive away his witchcraft. I tried to strike into the emptiness, but had no success. n.
Away from the cave. It is necessary to take off into the airspace until Percy woke up and did not witness a terrible reincarnation. Soon the shining golden dragon flew overnight, without even disturbing the peaceful sleeping of the elf. This time, the wings themselves carried me forward, to some unknown, but excellent bastion. Immediately it was possible to understand that it was the towers of the capital. Alas, the labyrinth of the toy streets, located below, was absolutely defenseless before fiery breathing, but I didn’t want to breathe fire on this wonderful picture.
«Do you really want to destroy all this magnificence, Rothbart?» I mentally asked and heard a deafening, triumphant, vile laughter. Laughter, which no one except me could hear.
Narrow roads, squares and wide avenues, according to the brilliant architectural plan, they were almost empty from the white side of the palace. Bridges, laid out by yellow stones, were cast by sandy color, eaves, chimney pipes and attic enders represented a variety of forms and colors to taste each inhabitant. Even a child who received as a gift one of such doll houses, would feel sorry to break such a beautiful toy, but I could not act according to my own solution.
Someone from the night guard, cheerfully marching very far from me, in the interval between the buildings, stopped and began to point up. The cab driver could not keep a frightened horse and was forced to take a look up. The body of the dragon is the latter that he saw in his life. And then the jet of liquid fire crawled into the city. The buildings are easily ignited. The dream of the inhabitants was interrupted by orange spins, compared with the windows of the upper floors. The golden dragon described again the circle over the fortress wall. Reverse flight to the cave was quick but the heart failed me.
In the morning I saw my bloody clothes, Percy diplomatically kept silence. He only offered me a flask with wine and conscientiously cleaned my cloak from dirt.
«Will be today any instructions?» Percy decided to ask after a long silence.
In response, I could only negatively shake my head.
«Then, with your permission, I should walk around your vassals and bring the chests in the already mentioned place,» Percy always tried to miss the exact names of the places and the names, as if he was afraid that someone could overhear us.
«All this will take no more than a day. But if something unexpected happens, I will return to you as soon as you call,» Percy once again asked my permission and having received it, he disappeared in the bright radiance of the coming day.
«Run, a cowardly elf, until the flames fell to you wings,» someone was angry. It took a few seconds before I realized that a hoarse mocked voice sounds in my mind.
I hoped that if I had spent the night away from the settlements, I can’t harm people. Instead of averting the danger, I most likely got into the place where it was easier for Rothbart to reach me and get to submit to his strength. It was necessary to get away from him as far as possible. Every step that will divide me from the prince must, limit his power to me.
It’s time to go. Percy could find me anywhere. I never appointed a meeting place to him, he himself found me every time and waited for me, standing at a respectful distance. Neither the compass nor the map were with me, only I could guess in which direction I should go to move away from the prince. I quickly crossed the fields, flew through the rivers and lakes, as the shadow rushed past the towns and villages, until I began to feel that the power attracting me to itself as the magnet gradually weakens. With the onset of the first twilight, I got to the borders of the city. It was Roshen. It was immediately clear that, unlike the luxury present in Lara, here, along with new, painted buildings and mansions, there are poor bedrooms. Elegant crowds of honest citizens in the evening are replaced by the beggars and robbers. I decided that in a big city it would be easier to get lost and forget my sorrow. Maybe if I always wander in the crowd or in the center of densely populated areas, then Rothbart will lose a trace and can not find me with the help of his witchcraft.
From large houses came laughing, music, scraps of conversations that I could hear especially acutely, not as people who pass by and will not be able to disassemble in general noise even a couple of words. An old-cut, luxurious cloak – the gift of the prince, waved behind my back. sometimes tasty passersby, but I walked so quickly, which disappeared in the crowd before someone had time to send a passage. It was necessary to stay away from the rich houses. I myself did not notice how I found myself in the poorest neighborhoods. The shabby walls of houses, broken windows and cracks on the shabby doors, were not as strong as the lit expanses of the central streets. It reigned amazing silence.
Only sometimes on the way there was a lantern with a stove or cracked glass. Very rarely in the windows of the second floors under the projected roof, the candle was poorly glued or I heard, as a children’s voice was reading fairy tales from the opened book. Rothbart did not say a word about the fact that in the current times, an education can be found even in slums. Much more often there were tramps and robbers. The outskirts of the city did not go to any comparison with the center. The death danced here in all the catches, but no disease was terrible for me.
Such a decline was strange to me. In the country of my father never ruled the high mortality and hunger, nor in the center, nor on the outskirts. Robbers sooner or later met their end on the gallows, and here they were under the nose of the guard. The consolation was one thing, in such a place Rothbart will not look for me. Camille, his faithful sorcerer, also does not like to visit here, and Percy tactfully will wait for my return in a safer and tidy quarter.
Why the dragon should obey orders of sorcerer, every time rushing on his call, to destroy whole fragile cities, created by many years of work of people. Once at the power of the villain, I again and again, according to his will, turned out in the thick of tragic events.
I went down to the pier. Stopping not far from the slums, it was possible to observe how the moonlight lays the glare on the ink surface of the water. Several boots swayed on its surface, fishing nets were dried on the shore. I wanted to walk around the pier, but several boards were wedged out of the flooring. It remained only to turn back to semi-empty barn and sheds, deserted streets, bridge and tightly locked houses.
Found myself in a dark alley, I heard quick steps and muted muttering, as if two were consolidated about something.
«Look what a pretty little boy!» Someone pushed me in the shoulder and pressed against the wall of the nearest barn. A fool must have been looking for his own death. A man with a nasal voice and a disfigured scarred face took a knife from his pocket. His accomplice, wrapped his face in a dirty scarf attached to my throat the tip of the sword. To keep the weapon as he should not be able, most likely stole the sword together with the sheath from one of the robbed nobles. Such robbers often waited, while someone from the noblemen will go into the tavern, and then cut his throat and cleaned his pockets.
Cliché «money or your life» sounded out of time. A purse I did not have,
