ISBN 978-5-0056-1167-3 (т. 5)

      ISBN 978-5-0055-4050-8

      Создано в интеллектуальной издательской системе Ridero

      Danger

      «You are mad,» said Vincent, glancing warily at the parcel on the table in front of me. “ «At first was the violin, now this,» he pointed to the object wrapped in a white cambric tablecloth, which was already covered with tiny red flecks. The object was shaped and bulky, like a large head of cheese or a balloon wrapped in a cloth.

      «You’d have to be insane to steal from under the hangman’s nose what he’s supposed to bury.»

      «I think so, too,» I nodded, unable to explain why I flew over the pole and removed something that should have stayed there until it rotted away. Perhaps I should have done it, regardless of my own desire, should have taken Sylvia’s head back to where I’d first seen her, then still slung around her graceful neck, coquettish, smiling in the mirror, but… marble. Perhaps she would turn back to stone if I put her back on the console. Only, how to find that place among the gray plain, even in the prosperity of my father’s country, not everyone could find the archway and get through it to the meeting hall, hidden at the bottom of the ravine.

      «What are you going to do about it?» Rose came so quietly to the table that I didn’t notice her until she was beside me. «Let me bury it in the garden near your theater or inr the vineyard, where the soil is loose and…»

      «No, Rose, don’t,» I intercepted her hand as it reached for the roll. I wasn’t thrilled that she and Vincent, trying to be loyal as puppy, were following me around and trying to figure out how to solve my problems for me. Now I was really ready to believe that if I were to go down into the hell of it all, Rose would follow me without the slightest fear, just as she had once promised. I should have been glad of such displays of affection, but I was afraid for Rose, afraid that once she followed me out of habit she would cross the threshold into the furnace from which she could never get out. I had no intention of endangering those I loved. I could handle everything myself. It was just that I was used to playing the game with the victim, and this time the events dragged on only because I wanted to play the same game with the enemy. And I wanted to play with a capable enemy. The fact that Rothbart had again accumulated strength and could withstand me made the game more interesting and the feeling sharper.

      «Don’t follow me through the streets in the night again, or…» I hissed, glaring at Rose, but the warning was directed at her as well as at Vincent.

      «You won’t do anything to me,» Rose smiled victoriously. «Look, you won’t even squeeze my hand any harder to avoid accidentally scratching it with your nails, and you could easily break the bones of someone stronger than me or him if you wanted to,» she nodded toward Vincent. «Don’t be a hypocrite, Edwin. It’s not the walk through the streets in the night we have to worry about, it’s whoever’s accompanying us, and that’s you.»

      Rose had seen right through me, probably ever since she’d first noticed the dragon’s wings fluttering in my eyes. There was no hiding it from her. I told her the story of my life. She knew all about me.

      I remembered an amusing incident that had happened to us at Viniena just after Charlo, indignant and offended at being deemed insane, had been dragged from the square by two upset servants of the prince. Priscilla wept as she walked away from the place of execution. Her tears washed away the makeup on her face and smeared her mascara from her eyelashes, so that she looked like a rather talentless actress. Clovis behaved more courageously, and held the fellow by the neck’s collar, lest he should pounce on any passers-by, babbling nonsense and thereby exposing the whole secret society. The square was deserted, but carriages were still clattering in the narrow streets behind it. The horses, whether they smelled a dragon or death in my burden, started galloping away, but Rose was in the middle of the road, blocking their way. If it had been anyone else, I’d have been sure the horses would have trampled him, but I didn’t have to fear for Rose. She would have considered my overprotection to be picky. When she and the carriage were already a few paces apart, the horses snorted and bucked, and seemed happy to rush back, if only not to approach the graceful female figure frozen motionless in the narrow alley.

      I saw the royal coat of arms on the carriage, and I was a little embarrassed that I wasn’t the first to rush to the aid to a benefactor who had decided to leave me his power. None of the courtiers would have been as negligent as the heir at that moment. They did not want me to inherit the throne so quickly. It was because they were afraid of me that they in no way wished for their ruler’s untimely demise.

      When the king got out of the carriage to thank his beautiful savior, Rose in a flash had already managed to fly over the distance separating her and the horses, whispered something menacing in the ear of the muscular white stallion and grabbed the reins, as if trying to prove that this simple way and tame the horses. There was nothing supernatural about simply pulling on the reins.

      «They’ve calmed down now,» Rose patted one of the horses on the withers. It was so frightened that it tolerated her touch. Any horse would have tolerated even a bite from a gremlin that peeked nimbly out of his purse and watched the animals with excitement, ready to jump on someone’s mane, but Rose hid her hand with the purse behind her back.

      «Sit still,» she whispered to her pet.

      «You have a brother, don’t you,» the king said, scrutinizing Rose’s face for anything familiar. «It was your brother or cousin who did me the same favor, I believe, a year ago.»

      «Her Highness has no brother,» I said, causing the king to turn back to where I stood. «She has no one but me. She likes to help people out of trouble, never mind the first or second time she’s helped them out, and never mind the monograms on their carriage.»

      I understood His Majesty’s amazement. It would have been a blow for anyone, even one warned in advance, to see his successor outside at night in the company of a girl who had shown too much mercy to be considered an enemy.

      «Edwin sheltered me,» Rose explained. «And if, in one of the countries we visit, I should be sent to the scaffold, there would be no one to intercede for me but him.»

      She shrugged her shoulders gracefully, but did not curtsy. Why should she? He’s a mere mortal ruler, and she herself may very soon be proclaimed ruler of an empire where no man will set foot again.

      «I know I’ve been gone for a long time,» I swung my cloak lightly, imitating the spread of a dragon’s wing. «What can I do? There are things that can’t wait.»

      «But tonight I can invite you both in,» His Highness didn’t even have the courage to tell me that we would be the most beautiful and unusual couple to ever cross the threshold of his palace.

      Rose lowered her lashes, trying to hide the joyless expression in her eyes. She didn’t want to drag a gremlin into the palace, where he might bite the guests who were not as uncomplaining as the wordless horses. I pressed my burden tightly against my chest, trying to cover it with as much of the cloak as I could, and still I felt as if the king’s gaze could see through the cloth, that my mortal protector was watching and discerning, the dead, severed head in the velvet that I held to my chest.

      «Some other time,» I muttered, my lips turning white. And I added to myself, «Not now, not with Sylvia’s head, which would be exposed to the court as soon as the footman removed my cloak.

      The unpleasant conversation was behind me, but the fear of exposure had not passed. What would I have done if someone had pulled off my cloak and, calling to the night guard, pointed out to them the pale, golden-blond young man who was carrying the head of an executed woman in his hands.

      His majesty smiled encouragingly