and not hit her. Francesca sadly laughed.
«Why do you need to sit in the province, near the villages? You would be able to become a pet even by a more powerful king.
«Keep silence!» I ordered strictly.
«Why have I to keep silence? Nobody hears us. There are no royal spies here. And even if there would be someone and conveyed the king about you? It is no use. The monarch wanted to see in you his son and his friend. It would be better if he chose someone from his courtiers to this role, and not a killer and arsonist.»
Without restraining, I threw my hand from behind my back and cut with the claws the shoulder of France. The look of deformed hand shook her before she managed to scream from pain. The necklace was broken, the pearls rolled along the bottom of the cave, the laces were broken, and long red scars from claws stretched on the shoulder. Previously, the executioners branded only fallen women, and I myself, not wanting, stamped the countess. Now these scars will always remind her of what the strength she awakened, touching the portrait.
I cut the chain. Francesca, did not hold on her legs and fell. She tried to push off her palms from the bottom of the cave and climb, but confused in long skirts. The hair fell on her forehead and when she took them into her hand, she saw that I brought a claw for another blow, but this hit did not come over her. The countess screamed and tried to crawl from the a huge ugly snake with fragile dragon wings and a poisonous saliva, fluttered along with blood of dissected throat. Her ankle stuck between the broken and sharp growths of stalagmites, so it could not be released. I had to throw off the shoe and it probably remained forever to lie among the flickering stones and minerals. I did not doubt that now the countess will be go out from the cave and will find the road herself, but still on the way back, knocking at her fortress, I ordered the servants to take the crew and go to meet the countess. Nobody dreamed me to object, my statement was too convinced that her lordship had changed her mind to sail over the see.
Returning home, I found Vincent there. It was clear that he had already found out everything and believed that I behaved me mean, even worse than he himself.
«Go drink something and don’t look at me as if I am a complete villain,» I warned. «You also did not always follow the conscience.»
«Do you mean a granted village?» He immediately became red, quite, as a schoolboy who was guilty. Only he was not ashamed at all, and just afraid of punishment and regretted that he was so quickly caught.
«Was it noble?»
«At least you had the opportunity to fly,» he grunted softly, but I appreciated the justice of comments. If I myself had now decided to attack, then Vincent could not fly or hide or even defend.
«Immediately it is clear that the angry crowd did not attack you.»
«You’re wrong,» Vincent objected, but it was useless to ask him about the troubles of the past, he would still not tell anything. Even now he fell into the sullen, almost partisan silence, fearing unwanted questions.
«Well, if you were the same, it means that we are comrade in misfortune. You can go, console your countess. She now needs only the presence of a poet or a confessor. For whom do you give yourself this time? Maybe even she will confess your doubts to you. And then you will tell me what it is to confess noble ladies,» I pulled my hands to warm them up above the fireplace. I was glad that the hand became beautiful and smooth again. There were no reminders of the scandal and murder that happened in the cave. I violated the law of secret society for the second time, but did not feel guilt. After all, this slippery snake almost attacked me myself, not to mention the frightened Francesca. In addition, I knew that the Camille would not decide again to invade the residence of fairies and to demand justice in all his voice.
«Okay, I will visit all our neighbors to recognize the news?» said Vincent. «By the way, do you not allow me to borrow one of those beautiful hats that are folded in the dressing room. You still got used to walking with a uncoated head, and I don’t like cold.»
«Soon you will begin to claim my castle,» I said as a joke.
«In no case. I hate winter and frost. There is an eternal winter around the castle, it is better to enjoy such a luxury for yourself,» Vincent seriously objected and at the end of the gloomy tirade received the long-awaited permission to choose in the dressing room what he likes.
Before leaving, he was delayed to report:
«All the same, this beauty is too stupid and unbalanced, even if she tried to enlighten someone about our problems, then her statement would be accepted for a book story which she herself had invented.
He marked simply all experienced by us with an expression «problems» – only Vincent was capable of such optimism. He corrected in front of a mirror a hat with magnificent feathers, playfully spent his fingers on plume of the hat and bowed politely, just as after our first conversation in the tower, from which there was no stone for a long time. It was necessary to be more careful, and not to let such an intriguer, like Vincent even on the threshold, but I could not do anything with me. He reminded me of the past, was the only living being on Earth, which I remembered me as I was before my fatal transformation, even before the day, when I first woke up in the dungeon, which became the workshop of the sorcerer.
Of course, I did not want to take a boarder, I have Percy, who was arbitrarily volunteered to help me in all matters. I could not entrust Vincent a single order. So, he simply settled on me with the rights of a poor relative or a classmate. I didn’t know how he wanted to introduce himself to others.
Having decided not to let him down for a long time, I also picked up the first hat, the cloak and went on feet to the castle of the countess. It was necessary to look after Vincent so that he did not make new troubles. After long flights and lightning overcoming spaces, it was pleasant to feel the solid soil under my feet. Probably, just as nice and unusually you went on feet after a long sailing.
Francesca did not have to go far, the coach picked her up almost at the entrance of the cave. Of course, I did not wait for gratitude for my foresight. Most likely, if I decided to visit her openly again, I would run into new reproaches, charges and curses. Fortunately, I did not need directly declare my visit. For a long time, walking on the wide range of cities, I discovered the opportunity quietly to fly to the highest windows and without the knowledge of the owners to follow what they were doing at leisure. This way to apply courtesy visits I really liked. Lightning and silent movements and almost silent breathing did not give out my presence, but I could learn a lot of interesting things, while observing incognito. Only Vincent once managed to calculate that I was followed him, and then thanks to the lost hat, and not his own foresight.
At the foot of the hill at which the count’s fortress rose, I stopped. This dark monolith with a multitude of towers appeared unshakably calm, but inside the warm halls, furnished in the last fashion, reigned real turmoil. The interested servants and maids whispered in the corridors, the last gossip turned out to have all new and very incredible details. The cooks were busy in the kitchen, hoping that the tired, sick mistress at the insistence of the doctor will try at least a broth – this decoction, similar to the soup now prescribed by doctors from all diseases. But the countess refused to eat and drink. Her strange disease could be reduced to the grave and a more stronger man, but Francesca was still full of power. What helped her stay on the feet, melancholy, thirst for revenge or impending madness?
It was unlikely that she could lose the mind from such a smallness as her little
