nearer. Around the console stood candlesticks in the form of golden hands holding candles. Another step forward. The light fell on the elastic women’s curls, and I realized with horror that they were made of marble. Did I accepted the cold sculpture for a living person? Yes, and to whom it occurred to put on the statue of real muslin dress and stick into the marble fingers a manual mirror. This clothing was just a mockery above the talent of sculptor. In addition, near of it the statue looked sinister. A live smile on marble lips was washing the border between animated and empty. The sculpture again seemed to me alive. Probably located on such a manner of mirrors and candles it can create visual illusions.
«You have a similarity with the goddess,» I said the phrase from the poems, turning to the statue, and in this moment someone hurts me to elbow. I turned around. No one. Only from one of the aisles came the hurry steps. Raising the curtain, the boy slipped into the passage, most likely the page, although he was dressed too smart. In his hands he held a small mandolin. I was ready to swear that the strings were jerked by themselves, making a long-distance sound.
«Do not wake her!» came to me a frightened boyish voice. «She will wake up only tomorrow.»
The page dragged me from the statue. I continued to look at the sculpture. The boy pulled me over the sleeve.
«Let’s go, everyone already gathered in the hall,» he said.
Thin features of his face were somehow strained, a fold was laying between his eyebrows. The hair was assembled under the velvet beret. I noticed that his ears with pointed to the top ends were too long and do not combine with an elegant face.
«Come on!» He grabbed me at the lapel of sleeves and pulled insistently behind him. «Do you really want to skip such an event? The prince himself will take us today with his presence.»
Without keeping even my senses, he raised one curtain and pushed me into a huge half-walled room. There were no candles in the room. The dull rays of the light made their way through a large glass dome in the center of the ceiling. Thin marble columns lined up near the walls of the round hall. Several elegantly dressed ladies and cavaliers passed by me. They were in completely identical blue half masks. Of these, all I managed to dress a black mask. But I found it quite by chance. I was sure that I was confused with someone, so it is so kindly adopted on this strange collection of graceful, almost essential beings. And someone else’s mask, which I decided to try, allowed me to maintain incognito. This hall under the dome reminded me of an illustration from some novel. Its overwhelming sizes made an unpleasant impression on me. And it was worth only to look at the dome, as a noise in the ears began. A dizzying height can only be safe for those who have reliable wings and strength for flight.
I looked at the page more attentively. Undoubtedly, he was nice, but these sharp ears tips were an unpleasant addition to charming face. If I heard his music, he knew how to play well on mandolin. As if he felt that I was looking at him, he hurriedly moved away from me and stopped next to the lady, sitting on the sofa in the shade of the column.
«You don’t seem that we have a stranger here,» she turned directly to him. «I feel the presence of a person.»
«Strange, I didn’t feel anything,» the page responded. «Believe me, the person’s foot has not yet stepped into this place. People would pass by, without even noticing the steps leading to the gorge.»
I hurriedly stepped into the shadow. If I go now, then it will be a cowardly act. My hand did not want to release the handle of my sword for a moment.
Quiet, musical blows were heard under the dome, but the clock itself could not be seen. People in the hall became noticeably more. Some of them were talking among themselves in some unfamiliar to me language. I have already begun to get used to quiet, rustling voices, how suddenly all the conversations stopped, as if someone mighty and invisible came in. The curtain at the entrance raised itself, as from the gust of the wind, passing into the hall a man, the face and proud posture of which seemed to me vaguely familiar. I have already seen him somewhere. But, no matter how much I stared at him, I still could not remember where we met with him before and under what circumstances. This man had some secret power over every one at whom he looked.
I wanted to look at his face, but instead I stared at a gilded staff in his hand. In one moment, all the surrounding seemed to me to be a ghostly, unnatural, fog and remained only the stately figure, dressed in black fur.
«There is a stranger here,» the accusatory speech has come to me from a magical emptiness, topped with a transparent glass of the dome. «Someone broke the ban and allowed a stranger to go through the sanctuary.»
I have already thought that I have to get ready for defense, but suddenly the same domineering voice announced.
«It seems I was mistaken. The stranger has the full right to be present here.»
A man dressed in fur several times stuck up on the floor. Sharp sounds brought me out of a stupor. I pinned myself to make sure that all this is not a dream.. Several suspicious eyes turned to me from the slots of masks.
«Leave!» whispered in my ear someone. Even without looking at the speaking, I obediently backed up to the exit. Passing by the statue, I noticed that the position of the marble statue changed a little. Probably, the mirrors have played a joke with me again. After all, the sculpture can not move. The shuttle still swung on the water next to the staircase. I jumped into it, without even thinking about the need to find a paddle. But it was and no need. The shuttle itself moved across the flow. I could only observe how the arches and stony shores slip.
Despite the fact that it had to go against the current, the shuttle gained speed. Fearing that it would not take me too far, I jumped up and went to a high arch. It, as a gloomy guard, was bent around the lower stage. I did not want to go through arched opening, but I decided to bypass the arch and step immediately to the second step. I stepped into a staircase cut down in a mountainous stone, but stumbled upon an invisible barrier, as if a glass barrier appeared on my way in the blink of an eye. I went around the arch on the other hand, but groped there the same smooth glass wall. To get out of the gorge, I had to go under the arch again. Stages crumbled under my feet, small pebbles rolled down. A superstitious peasant would call all my adventure an evil joke of elves. I myself could not find a logical explanation to everything that I have seen. When I came out from the gorge, I hurried to the place where I promised to wait for Claude.
My brother, at the same time, arrived at the glade. He brought a beautiful white stallion for me.
«The gift of the baron’s people,» he explained.
«His people are very generous,» I stroked a silky mane and jumped into the saddle. “ The baron already knows that the wild boar is killed.»
«No,» Claude dismissed. «He does not go anywhere from his castle. It will take some time before he is reported about us. But here nearby is a small village where we can spend the night.»
«Then we go to a local tavern, if, of course, such a place is in a small village,» I decided to joked a little over Claude. He, as always, instead of smile nodded quickly and drove ahead, pointing the road.
Soon we sat at the table at the window in the cozy room of the tavern. In front of me in the tin mug smoked some hot drink. The aromatic fluid taste turned out to be tart and astringent. As long as the hostess prepared lunch for us, I decided to tell Claude about my adventure. Of course, I risked to get in response to my revelation alone ridicules, but I had a proof – a carnival mask, which I put in a wide pocket of my camisole. In proof, I took it out and showed it to Claude.
«Well, what will you say now?»
«Edwin, this is an ordinary leaf of fern. Perhaps the sprout made its way under the snow,» on the face of Claude was written a complete bewilderment. «I am afraid that the superstition of the messenger was contagious.»
I looked