underground city,» informed Henri victoriously. «After the full moon in your empire, I began to feel much better and bright ideas appeared. Daylight is too destructive for creatures, as we, it would not be easier to have spare asylum in soil layers – a city with many tunnels and labyrinths. Personally, I like this idea.»
«A stupid idea,» instead of the expected praise, I as usual honestly expressed what I think. «If you prefer lifestyle, like a mole, then this is your personal matter. By the way, were you hurt.»
«So, I was hurt about the root of the tree,» Henri tried to pretend that the wound is nothing.
«Is there a progress on the battlefield?» I asked him with a light irony.
«No, there isn’t,» Henri snapped. «You do not help us.»
He got angry again.
«Till the meeting,» he grunted angrily. «I’ll win without you.»
«As you like,» I noticed diplomatically and shouted to him. «Why do you need a princess’ thing?»
He did not want to answer, but not without the help of my spell stumbled on the root and spread out on earth.
«Here is rubbish,» he cursed, rising and rushing a strong oak with his foot. Better from this did not become anyone, only Henri frowned from pain. He obviously forgot that he was in armor.
«It’s hard to move in this armor,» he complained. «You seem to ask about her thing? I want to try out one probing spell, which I bought from the old predictor of fate. You know, the most amazing thing that he managed to predict was the epidemic of the plague in Lara. He told about it before it began, but naturally only a few people believed. And now he says that a violinist will soon break free.»
«If you want to know your destiny, so come to Viniena. The provider returned, and he remembers you,» Henri mockingly laughed. «A young man with an angelic appearance, inside whom the beast sits, who was it besides you? And the creature who loved to play the violin? I don’t know anything about her.»
He quickly disappeared behind the thick trunk of elm. Is it possible to understand the plans of this fraudster?
In any case, he disappeared from the surface of the earth, and I remembered my desire to turn the head of a nasty animal. No bats would have decided to attack me if it would not affect other strong sorcerer. In order to find out what I needed to have only to turn the ring with the signet, return to Lara, and threatening Vincent thoroughly if he had not had time to escape from the house. Oddly enough, he was already waiting for me on the threshold and first thrown with reproaches.
«You yourself said that none of us should approach this girl?» Vincent rarely lost control over himself to pour it out, it was necessary to hurt him for living.
«Where did you get such an obedient bat?» I asked.
«On the bell tower left a dozen of these nasty creatures. They do not look better, but they have sharp claws.»
«It seems you envy the fact that my skin is not dismissed with scars, like your throat.»
«Everything heals on you, like on a dog,» Vincent snorted and looked guilty. With the time of time and the acquisition of more experience in the sorcery he himself changed. Chestnut hair has become silky. Even the smallest mimic wrinkles under the eyes and those unfolded, and the eyes themselves instead of dark-brown acquired a warm walnut shade. If he looked at least sometimes in the mirror, he would not have envied anyone. There were scars on the neck, but they could always be covered with a scarf. In any case, the transformed Vincent, who stood in front of me now, was very handsome.
Vincent did not try to fasten the opening camisole’s collar, he understood that I still knew about his largest failure.
«Do you burn me with the house or do you use your claws?» He asked tiredly.
«I would be happy, but I don’t want to make a mess in my own home,» the grim humor and this time did not let me down.
Vincent regarded it as a joke and smiled radiant.
«So I’m forgiven,» he concluded.
«It was for the last time.»
From the street came some kind of noise and Vincent fearful looked back towards the window.
«For some reason, I have such a feeling that someone flew here and he was ready to cut my throat,» he admitted. «Probably, there were a few days of bad weather and the fact that the hunch-back in the mantle and crown wandered over the square. It seems to me that he is looking for you in the same way as the dog goes along the trail.»
«Is Camille with him?|
«Camille regularly visits „the Marionette“, but after Rose has gone from the stage, the play no longer uses such success. He wants to write something new and find a capable actress, but until he did not find one suitable.»
«The theater is just a cover for his dirty plans,» I wanted to burn the prince and his bloodhound. Camille was looking for me and, probably, he already regretted that he so easily gave away the picture. Perhaps over time, the portrait would acquire the same power as the amethyst. By the way, as for the amethyst, I have not felt the fatal attraction for a rather long term.
«You would need to build plans for the future, and instead of it you run behind the girl, I myself do not know why,» Vincent’s voice sounded quiet, like a rustling of a hazel. For all the time staying in fenced spells of the house, I heard only this voice, sweet, driving, full of poison. Vincent would have to speak speeches in the Royal Council, and not to sit voluntarily locked up. If he did not lose weight from the malice, then he could convince the listeners in his rightness, just as convinced the peasants from my village that their owner was the dragon.
«Just do not tell me a long-sorting history that you want to get married,» Vincent said. «You didn’t love anyone and you can’t have anything. You seem to be made of stone.»
«Did I not love anyone? And what about my family…»
«If you experienced some kind of warm feelings to the so-called family, you’d long have already dealt with the prince.»
«It is easier to say than to do. He is still strong. Do not forget that he taught me, and not I him. And who gave you the right to speak so disrespectful about my relatives.»
«Dead relatives,» Vincent corrected sullenly. «You looked among them clearly more than one-only elf in the castle of full people. Your relatives were afraid of you, because they knew about who you would.»
«And they hid it from me,» I thought out loud.
«But from the very beginning I admitted to you honestly,» immediately said Vincent, forgetting to mention that it happened after two unsuccessful attempts to deprive me of life.
«Yes, of course, it is the jackal’s method to pass over to the side of a stronger one,» he laughed, guessing my thoughts. «But, remember, even rats run from a sinking ship, and I stayed in Lara. This means that your chances of success are still more than by anyone else. If you win all your enemies, then for me it is a loss, but the princess will get to you.»
«Is it a loss?» I asked.
«Well, of course I don’t want her to contact you,» Vincent left a direct response. «You’re not even a man, you are a werewolf, an animal, but it seems she doesn’t care about it. Each makes his choice.»
Who am I for her? I am a shadow with candlelight, a voice in emptiness, an invisible and dangerous guest. It is well even if her duenna still did not call the priests to expel me. I had her ribbon only, but turning this pink slice of satin in my hands, maybe I could find out what she thought about.
It was a failure, the ribbon was pretty, but I could not know anything. Vincent urged me to engage in politics, settle things with the