they all stayed there in a silent marble gallery.
During the trip, I wondered for a long time, from what old-clothes dealer Rose had time to acquire a well-minded form camisole, breeches and high boots. The clothes were obviously a little bit alone and were not intended for cold weather. Every one strip of brown fur stretched around the collar, too tough for gentle skin of the neck and cheeks. Rose seemed to feel in all this quite convenient. The most amazing was that she looked even more beautiful than before. Perhaps the boyish outfit emphasized her fragility. In any case, the beauty again managed to touch me and for this she did not need to cry or complain. She did not even say anything, she only raised her beautiful, tired eyes and I immediately began to feel sorry for her. Even gave her a cloak so that she did not freeze.
«The storm is coming,» I said. «It is better to be in the castle in the bad weather.»
«What kind of the castle is it? Is there a castle in this wilderness?» In a charming voice, disdain was heard.
«What kind of empire is without a castle?» I grinned, thinking that without my own fortress, I would not make a proper impression on the subjects. Rose did not say anything, but looked at me like a madman. She still saw only forests and a wretched hut, and I suddenly spoke about the empire.
«What is your name?» After a pause, she asked.
What is it to say? I was already used to that no one asked for my name. I heard only the offensive shouts: «Dragon», «Demon». The peasants who went to me with the forks and knives didn’t care about my name. The name was given with the baptism. So where could it be by the dragon?
«Edwin,» said I, and immediately thought with a mockery, the unfortunate handsome Edwin, it would be better for him if the royal advisors cut his head before the prince came with his fire, his demands, his dark legion.
«What’s next? What is your title? What is your Family’s name?» Rose with difficulty could understand me, but I only smiled coldly and allowed generously.
«It is just Edwin.»
She would know that to call the emperor by name in any country it is a rare honor, not only in the empire of shadows, spirits and fairies, in one word, damned and unusual creatures.
«Look, we are almost at the goal,» I pointed to the patterned teeth of the towers, raised above the forest on the background of an amazing-bright blue sky. Before that, Rose enthusiastically watched the annoying birds circling about me, waiting for orders, and did not believe in the existence of the castle. See – it means to believe. And the towers, the gate and bastions were quite tangible. True, there were neither guards nor gatekeepers. Witchcraft is the most reliable watchman, the most complex lock without a key. Rose didn’t understand what kind of fortress it was.
She felt uncomfortably only when she noticed in the courtyard the semicircle of stakes stuck in the ground. That spectacle was usual, simply on the top of each of the stakes was a severed head. My enemies, traitors or unwanted guests who accidentally invaded the territory of the Empire were long beheaded, but it seemed that they still lived and the dead would tell about their torments. Human persons eventually decomposed and turned into skulls, and the faces of inhuman creatures always remained unchanged, suffering and a little surprised. As if they did not want to believe that the end was still coming. I hoped that the next stake would decorate the head of the prince.
The castle’s doors were opened, but Rose was not dare to enter. The horses in the sledge beat about the ground with hooves in such a rage, as if they wanted to stamp and the girl, and coachman and all who would meet on the path.
«What’s the matter?» I asked without words. The punished elves perfectly understood me. I had to stand between one horse and Rose.
«Your death is behind you,» in a short rye you could distinguish and bitterness, and laughter. I myself was ready to laugh, because I had only Rose behind my back.
«She will destroy you,» again a short laugh.
I turned to Rose and immediately reproved myself for it. Of course, she did not understand anything. She simply could not understand a horse’s neighing.
The apartments for Rose have long been prepared, the necessary things and the best outfits, which only managed to find. I did not hope that someday I would be able to lure her in the castle, but I still dragged all the things from all sides what I thought she could like. My heart rejoiced, Rose would remain in the castle. Why did I need her sculpture’s copy now? I wanted to laugh in the face of each statue found on the way, in the face of my own reflection in countless wall mirrors, but my laughter in an empty castle would be inappropriate.
It was necessary to disperse creatures, nesting in the dungeons, strictly ordered each harpy and chimera, so that they did not dare to get closer to my guest. And I still really wanted to visit Vincent. Not in order to boast before him, and to check: whether there was no more unusual in Lara. The city, after all, I was already used to consider as mine.
Vincent was pale and something frightened. He was waiting for the appearance of someone else, but not me. Were there the secret spirits in my house? In the rooms on the second floor everything was inverted, the furniture is overturned, the frame of the paintings were broken.
«Take it from here,» Vincent, instead of a welcome, pointed to the only non turned over round table in the room as if there was on it the source of all his troubles.
«Don’t ask me about anything,» Vincent himself looked with regret at the torn canvas, broken vases. «I’ll clean it myself as soon as I am convinced that I am safe.»
«What a danger can it be here,» I tried to calm him like a child, but Vincent was in rage.
«Do you think that I myself scratched the walls, broke paintings and my own books?»
«Well, if you went to a witches’ sabbath before it…»
«I didn’t go out of the house for a couple of days,» Vincent was justified, or blamed. «How long have you not walked. I thought that I had to watch this damned thing all my life. I swear, no one night I’ll spend alone with your violin.»
He expressively pointed to the table again. Now I also saw that there was a bundle on the table top, which I had ever kept in my hands and brought home myself. Only blood spots on the taffeta looked more fresh and thick than that night. It was not necessary to deploy the fabric to guess that the violin was wrapped in it.
From the street came some kind of sound. Vincent swore, jumped to the window and closed it.
«And what should I do with this violin?» I picked up a bundle and felt like durable strings even through the fabric rub about the skin as if they want to cut my fingers.
«Throw it out! Dig somewhere in the forest, in the cemetery, in the desert, in general, away from human settlements, where she cannot harm anyone.»
I did not understand who Vincent meant saying «she», a violin or someone living. He spoke about this cracked instrument as if it was alive. I myself remembered the bloody tears that dropped out of cracks, and I immediately felt them in my fingers. I became somehow not in my own. From the extensions of Vincent, the atmosphere around became depressing, as if fear was punctured in the room.
«Okay, I will burn it in the
