Dragon’s Empire – 1. Curse of the younger Prince. Natalie Yacobson
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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. I also considered people from the crowd until I saw a strange lord dressed in all black. He, as if, wore mourning on the occasion of execution. He looked completely supernatural. Mysterious and bold eyes have long been followed after me. Somewhere I saw this man, but only where and why he seems to me so elusive and ghostly against the background of a noisy crowd. He stood, leaning her back to the wall of some house, and looked at me.
I wanted to get lost in the crowd and even pushed Claude forward, but, turning around, I noticed with surprise that the stranger still does not take eyes from me. This time, in his glance flashed something unkind.
«Claude,» I grabbed my brother for the sleeve. «Why does he look at me, that man in black?»
Claude looked at the side where I pointed to him and seems to be confused.
«I think because you are extremely beautiful,» he immediately found with the answer and pulled me, as far as possible from the subject of my observations. «Let’s go better from here. How do we know what kind of people will break off at the place of execution.»
I wanted to remind Claude that he himself decided to look at the execution, but did not do this. We just took our horses and continued the path in complete silence. For the first time in a long time I felt a strange fatigue. It seemed that the black wings of some birds slammed over my head. And above the castle flashed the rays of a bloody sunset, similar to the bright all-consuming fire. For a minute I even came out that the main tower is glowing, and the red flames of the flame break out from the windows of my apartments. Only with difficulty I managed to shook the obsession.
Claude and I slipped past the guard and omnipresent royal secretaries. On the go, I managed to shout at one of them, that we will tell you everything as soon as we rest. Judging by the surprised expressions of persons, I realized that the castle had already begun to happen to whether it was not worth ordering a requiem. Only Florian did not leave hope to see us alive. After stormy greetings, he began to talk quietly about how he worried, as he watched his dear from his balcony or even surrounded by a suite went to the forest to meet us.
«Did you believed that one wild boar can cope with both of us?» laughed Claude.
«I’m not only talking about the wild boar,» said Florian excitedly and looked at the sides. Only, making sure that there is no one near us, he continued. «Did you not hear that death wanders around the city. And if they returned at night, they could quite be the following victims. Several citizens died and even travel merchants. In the royal port is also restless. Sailors are afraid of something, one of them swear, he saw how a strange woman in a dark cape wanders at the pier. They even say that she does not look like a living person, that it is white and cold, as a revived statue. According to their expression, a marble hand can strangle anyone. Others come to the head of the guard and explain that they saw in the streets a man in black, and then at the place where he stood, accidents occurred. So that the folk excitement calmed down, had to condemn several robbers on the execution.
«And what do you think about all this?» I asked.
«I prefer not to go to the city after the coming of darkness and advise you the same thing,» Florian brushed aside. «You personally, Edwin,» he turned to me, «I advise you to close the window of your bedroom before bedtime, and I will lock the shutters every night.»
This time I could not hold back a laughter.
«Who, in your opinion, will be able to get to my window, on a smooth fortress wall, while bypassing the sentries and not be wounding about sharp spikes?» I asked. «For this you need to have wings.»
«There are also winged creatures in the world, «Florian shrugged vaguely, clearly he didn’t tell everything.
«Well, I will not mind if at night to me in the window will fly a nightingale or a crimson. I love birds and specially open my window for them.
«I would not advise you to do this,» Florian objected completely seriously. He never allowed himself to smile and only read the instruction. Probably, he considered me an incorrigible joker, but I could not resist jokes when I looked at the gloomy expression of his face, tightly compressed lips. In the beautiful years of his youth, he tried to seem thoughtful and wise.
«Well, well, I will do how you want, even if you order me to lock all the windows in this castle overnight,» I agreed. «I can right now nail up windows in my apartments.»
«No, no need to do this,» this time he smiled after all. «By the way, I invited a merchant to the castle, which brought the amulets for the welfare of its owner.
I wanted to refuse the amulet proposed to me, but could not. A merchant with the chests of his goods was waiting for us in the courtyard. He caused my curiosity. I managed to talk with him just a few minutes, but, obviously, I made an impression of an educated person on him, because I received a big book in the binding of morocco as a gift.
«It’s an expensive thing, I can’t take it just like that,» I protested and reached for the wallet.
«No,» the merchant hurriedly stopped me. «Perhaps once this book was really expensive, but now it’s just a parchment with the text of spells written in a language that no one understands.»
«So why do you think that I can read them and understand?»
«It is unlikely that among my buyers will meet another such enlightened person as you,» my interlocutor replied.
I wanted to say that all my enlightenment takes the origins of conversations with random counterparts, but changed my mind. Meanwhile, the merchant said softly on some dialect, on which sailors spoke in the port, and which I learned to understand.
«You are so young, but in your eyes the ancient mind glows,» he fell silent, but for some reason