were the strongest in the world, and he understood this, now he was driving to her, still not knowing what lay ahead, but he was not tormented by fear of the future, he firmly decided: either to achieve Odile’s love, or to die.
He was ready to accept death, just to look once more into Odile’s dazzling green eyes, because he loved her more than life.
If his mother – the queen knew now where he is, but he didn’t care what his family and his eccentric, but beloved brother think, they have been dear to each other since childhood, but now his heart called him forward to where the gloomy old castle of King Rothbert towered.
Christian grew up early, took up arms early, and fell in love even earlier. He didn’t care who Odile really was, even if the black swan, as everyone alive called her. He was not afraid of the curse, he just rode boldly forward and did not think to turn away from his path, love was most important in this world, full of strife and danger, where everyone was enemies, everyone except him and his beloved princess.
The storm was noisy outside, but inside it was cozy and warm.
The guests of King Rothbert sat at a huge table, filled with various dishes and precious cups. The king sat at the head of the table. Everyone was afraid of him, except Odile, because she was his only and beloved daughter. He never showed his feelings for her, but she knew that he loved her as much as he loved her dead mother. She knew how he suffered because of her death, although he did not say a word, but she could see it in his eyes.
Odile’s hair was adorned with a gold diadem with diamonds. She was the only princess in the country, the heiress of the greatest king in the history of the world, but she was not pleased with either luxury or wealth, because she was a dark beauty.
Like a black swan, she shone with her beauty. Odile was a dark princess, beautiful and mysterious. People said that she had neither a heart nor a soul, that she was the same as her cruel father, albeit beautiful, but also magical, but no one knew that she had a heart, no one knew that Odile was in love.
She sat with her head down sadly, not daring to look into her father’s black eyes, and he did not say a word, what if he guessed, because the king of evil knows all human secrets, and this was the secret of her heart that Odile could not reveal to anyone…
Her father sat silently at the table, but his fiery gaze pierced right through, his eyes burned with fire. Today he was as sullen and gloomy as ever. He had something in his heart, if only he had it, and did not want to give it out to anyone.
«Our night has come,» he said, and everyone in the hall was startled, «today the dark ritual will be completed.»
And although Odile did not understand absolutely nothing, the gazes of all those sitting at the table in an instant were directed at her in a kind of ominous expectation.
«But there is one more thing,» said Rothbert, and it seemed that he became even darker than he was, «this damned prince from the neighboring kingdom.»
«Yes, it’s him,» there were exclamations at the table, and everyone confirmed:
«He must die.»
«He is a hindrance on our way.»
«He spoils all our plans.»
But as soon as Odile looked up, everyone was silent, and a dead silence reigned at the table.
«No,» said Odile, «Father, you don’t know, you’re telling a lie, this prince is not so bad, he is brave, courageous and he is also very handsome,» she added, lowering her eyes, and Rothbert’s fiery gaze pierced her through and through.…
«Do you know him?» sternly, as never before, he asked, so Odile had never seen her father.
«No,» she hastened to object, and although it was a lie, she succeeded, «I just heard about him…»
«And that he is in love,» the king grinned maliciously, everyone knows that he has been not indifferent to you for a long time, isn’t it, Odile?»
«Forgive me, father,» she whispered, but now she was thinking that Christian was rushing here, and what he could find here, besides death and eternal damnation.
«You have not drunk wine, Odile,» said Rothbert in a strange way, «you must drink for tonight, it will make you even more beautiful than you could ever dream.»
His eyes lit up with a furious fire, and Odile involuntarily realized that something special awaited her tonight, perhaps even terrible, the king’s gaze spoke of this, there was some kind of secret hidden in it.
Immediately one of the luxuriously dressed servants approached Odile and poured a precious glass of sparkling wine into her. Odile did not touch it, she was afraid of something, and which she did not know herself, but her fear intensified with each beat of the clock and with each minute spent at the table.
«Odile,» repeated Rothbert, «today is a special night for us and for you, today you will be initiated into the secrets of our witchcraft, and it will be so, beautiful black swan.»
Christian was already at the gate of the castle, but he was not going to wait all night for the guards to let him in or kill him. He grabbed the ledge of the wall and in a minute climbed into the window of one of the halls. He was not afraid of anything except the words of Odile herself, although he knew that she would not reject him, they had already made vows of love.
Odile looked at her hands, they glowed as if they were on fire. Her scarlet dress turned black, like the plumage of a black swan, a green light flashed in her eyes, and only the golden crown on her head remained the only one that did not look like a swan in her. Did the prediction come true, and she became a dark princess.
Odile could not understand what was wrong with her, but immediately the air around her burst into triumphant laugh of Rothbert, and a transparent tear flowed down Odile’s cheek, her love was lost forever, she became a black swan.
Suddenly the silence of the night was broken by a roar, and Rothbert, in anticipation, raised his eyes to the wind-blown window, the whole sky behind him became flaming. Odile stepped back from the window and saw a golden dragon with wild, fierce eyes hovering in the sky like a gloomy bird. He was so terrible, so disgusting, but how could he be here in the land of darkness.
Odile watched him, forgetting that her dress had turned black. He flew into the open window and occupied almost all the empty space in the hall. Its tail curled in rings, and golden scales glittered in the darkness, as if combined with a golden crown on Odile’s head.
Fiery breath was bursting from its mouth, its paws were so strong that it seemed that if they wanted to, they would destroy the entire castle, but this was impossible, the castle of King Rothbert was indestructible.
With the dragon, something began to happen right before Odile’s eyes, its tail and paws began to shrink and grow into a golden body, golden color and scales began to shrink and disappear, and now, it was no longer a monster, but a young man. Odile recognized him, he was a frequent visitor to their castle. Now Odile understood why, at nightfall, he politely said goodbye to her and left any ball in order to quickly hide in the dark.
«Edwin,» she barely managed to say, not believing what she saw. Odile looked frightened now at her father, then at her friend, but now both of them, so dear to her, turned into fiends of darkness.
«It
