«You?» I asked. Own voice seemed to me someone else’s, cold and incredibly cruel. He hit the copper roofs of houses as steel and caused a weak echo.
«Me and those rats, crows and insects, who pounced on the cellars of taverns and an empty mill,» it seemed the opponent wants to fight a duel, but he is afraid to say about it directly.
Remembering the words, once carefully rewritten by me on a blank sheet of paper, I made a thin ray of the moon to lie as the spot next to him. My right hand involuntarily squeezed into the fist, and the stranger wheezed, his body was delayed in convulsions, long wrinkled fingers reached out to the throat. He felt the loop delayed on his neck, and realized that I strangle him slow, but true. In his glance flashed a genuine horror. I allowed him to retreat a little and immediately made a new gesture with my hand, so that the lantern hanging on a copper hook at the porch of the tavern, flared up bright, orange light. The stranger bounced off the burning heat, agile overcoming most of the street. I felt the evil and fear from him.
«You, of course, came for the tribute, Your Majesty,» a rough voice stuck out of the darkness. How fast this cruel killer made me in the kings. With my internal vision, I looked at the bottom of the dried well. There are piles of gems, coins, caskets and chests.
«Tribute is just the formality so that you and those who like you have not forgotten that there is also the highest power over them,» I took a step forward and he backed away from me. I had to follow the rays of the moon so that they would be golden dust about the roof of the houses and illuminated a narrow street.
«It’ll be enough?» quietly asked a hoarse voice. Behind my back there were bags with coins, tiny emeralds, gold and silver bars. «The tax is going to every seven years, it should be enough.»
The shadow, twilight world, to which I now belonged, also waited for the beginning of the next era.
«The ruler does not apply to collect tribute himself,» I said thoughtfully. «Not later than tomorrow I will send my servants here. Try not to scare them with your sudden appearance.»
I was sure that Percy would come out of the situation with honor, gathering on the pavement even a little more coins than he was due. Not that I respected the ancient custom of collecting taxes, but it was the only way to remind the terrible winged reptiles that even they can suffer punishment if they broke the permitted border. Only now I realized how it was profitable for Rothbart to have a tamed sorcerer.
Returning to Percy, I felt unusual fatigue and, nevertheless, I climbed into the saddle. «If we turn to the west, we will come to the hospitably open gate of the city with an interesting name Lara,» the elf’s voice spilled around the night with musical trills. City-dwellers must believe that spirits patronize them. This is true, it is the richest and luxurious of all cities, especially now in the spring masquerade season.
Once I saw the motley masquerades in the native capital, followed how the lush cape of Lady Sylvia flashed in an elegant crowd, felt the burning breath of the pursuer at the back of my head. Memories briefly struck the gap in cold insensibility and immediately retreated to the background. Dazzling fragments of the past now hurt, and it was better not to sort out them. Now I belonged to a different world, and in this world I was just a third-party observer, a magician who decided to make a pilgrimage on unfamiliar cities only to win in the crowd of mortals. Maybe one day I will decide to penetrate to the kings and give them dangerous advises if Rothbart will not cross all my plans. Who knows what the kingdom will not like him next time.
The path to Lara passed by the forest, destroyed by stray lights and pieces of rotten wood. Flocks of the fireflies rushed past us, somewhere deafly hooted a owl, but before opened gates were only a few guards. The boats swam in the narrow canal about city’s walls, a variety of masks created the atmosphere of fun. The whole way Percy slid in front of my horse’s hooves at the same time, without touching with his feet the earth. The horse, which has already been accustomed to the presence of two unusual owners, neither afraid of the elf’s tricks.
Percy’s suit quite fit for masquerade. I just adhered the edge of the cloak to the level of the eyes sneaking through the festive crowd. In order not to attract unnecessary attention to my gold hair, I put on a black velvet hat, which my new friend have already managed to borrow somewhere. Anyway, sometimes surprised glances rushed out of the slots of masks.
«Take a look like his skin is flickering, there is something wrong here,» they whispered in the crowd and immediately kept silenced. I made my way into the smallest crowd, where youth and noble ladies in velvet alone were occupied only with their companions and did not pay attention to outsiders. After a deserted dead city, it was pleasant to be in the center of the festive noise. I noticed musicians on the balcony of the nearest home. From the open door, the girl in the purple domino was slipped and ran around the narrow path past well-dressed citizens. I am not knowing why followed her. Someone called her from the emptiness of the ancient temples and the dungeons.
Florian argued that the carnival was a microcosm, where to distinguish a stranger from the enemy can only be a thin hint, accidentally abandoned the word, barely in the movement of the eye, but, despite the many masks, I immediately recognized a man standing on the main square before the well. I even felt evil, I felt the presence of another dragon. He called a girl to himself.. He also noticed me and made way a little. My look found him, even despite the abundance of the people on the square.
Fast ramp of raincoat and flexible, high figure has noticed between dancing couples, making yourself the road. Where an outdoor area ended and a winding labyrinth of quarters began to get lost was much easier. I felt the presence of a creature similar to me even through the thickness of the stone walls. The girl in the purple domino made her way into the crowd, trying to keep up with the one who silently called her. I felt a thin but durable thread that had connected them, some striking contact between the predator and the victim.
Intrigued, I followed the unusual pair. Some sounds that penetrated the stones of the nearest building forced me to linger. I carefully listened, but at the beginning I did not catch anything but noisy scratch, some mouse clogged near the foundation. The facade of the building was shrouded in a bluish haze, but, looking after, I noticed a low window in a niche. It was raised from it a warm orange light, but its rays did not touch the bridge, as if the radiance was illusory.
I leaned against the wall and looked into the window. In the boiler over fire boiled some kind of liquid. In addition, the walls decorated with lambrequins and carved panels did not resemble the kitchen atmosphere. The skin of a polar bear was laid on the floor, and at a small table sat two men and lazily played cards. The glare from the candles, the hearth and the lamps were danced on the walls, giving the whole room a sinister look.
One of the players who covered the face with the black velvet mask postponed cards and looked around. His eyes were tired.
«Are you afraid of someone, Vincent?» His partner asked.
«In addition to the royal guards of anyone,» followed a slightly mocking answer. «I hope that these hounds will not get in the midst of the holiday to us.»