Such a struggle resembled more flirting. Trying to defend, Vincent only teased the wolf. The torch went out, and in his hands remained only a violin, which he willingly substituted under the claws of the beast. When the crumpled instrument was already lying in the snow, Vincent of course remembered with which spell he could pacify the beast. Damage has already been not corrected. Such situations, probably, repeated more than once before that night, when Vincent, who first tested jealousy, without regret, gave me his trophy.
I have already decided that this is a funny episode, of course not for the victim, but for the observer, but suddenly I saw something blurry and unclear what looked through the turbid glass. Blurred paints merged into a bizarre combination of black with white spots. The strange picture, voiced by deaf clapping, as if a flock of the pigeons once broke off and rushed into flight. For some reason, I thought that if I tried to look deeper, I would see something scary or at least unpleasant, so I hastily removed my fingers from the smooth surface.
«You do not want to leave this castle?» I turned to Rose. «There are many oddities around, but I managed to make sure you are brave. Tell me, one bloody rag can not scare you? In addition to frightening, there must be at least something that you like. Is it truth?»
«Well I like you,» Rosa hid her hands behind her back, as if she felt that the ring prevents us to speak on equal terms. Nobody, besides her, could be able to put me in a dead end so often. So this time I froze from amazement. Is it possible to be in the rank of the idol in her eyes? She managed to see the wonderful elevated creation there where others saw the cruel and inexorable enemy.
Perhaps I would consider the beauty as a crazy or a pretender if she said it, knowing that I was a dragon, but she did not know, and I was hoping that she would not know as long as possible. I did not care about the opinion of Rothbart, who considered me as reckless and ungrateful rake, as well as the opinions of people who have nicknamed the dragon, the worst of evils, but the contempt of Rose could burn me much more than I myself had burned my victims. How it so came out, I myself did not know. Until now, no one managed to capture me. And she managed.
Recently, I did nothing and enchantingly watched Rose, and it was not shifted with manuscripts from the dead point. Someone, for sure, would be wondering why I having a lot of power, needed new spells, since I was already able to conquer the overwhelming part of the world, but I have always sought more, even if this desire could burn me yourself.
Anyone would have stopped at the achieved. I was in the castle, where the basements were clogged with treasures, where the turbulent force performed all my orders. There were many books on the shelves. Odil would envy me. Rose called them «black books» and stayed away from them. I was sure, she had already managed to hear a seductive whisper from the books, the very whisper, that had repeatedly worried me at the first stage of my learning. I got used to disembodied interlocutors, and then learned to use them for my own purposes. Conversations with them for a beginner were informative. But it was strange, probably, to be alone in the library and suddenly hear someones disembodied voice. It was trying to draw you into a conversation, laughs, joking, teased with suspicious suggestions. Rose immediately should have understood that the sounds did not come from a living being. Even a person with a very good hearing was difficult to believe that the books suddenly gained voices, but Rose believed.
Personally, I without fear touched any of the books. It was not even necessary to go to the library, it was worth only to wish, and the desired book itself turned out to be in front of me on the table and revealed on the required page. So now I looked at one of the volumes without much interest. The pages turned over themselves. A sideline observer could seem that the wind turned them.
Rose gradually began to get used to the fact that the most ordinary problems here were solved in some incomprehensible way. All, ranging from cooking and ending with cleaning and heating of the rooms, happened by itself. Rose did not see if I began to burn the fireplace or I lit the candles, but, nevertheless, it was warm in the castle, and the lighting has never been excessive or too weak.
Color illustration flashed in unusually bright kaleidoscope. Fancy ominous symbols alternated with simple letters, and those and others were the same for me easily understandable. It was worth learning foreign languages, whether an ancient one or a dialect of a neighboring country and it became for me as my own. Therefore, I guessed I felt everywhere at home. It was not difficult to me to speak in foreign languages, on the contrary, the sound of foreign language words was strangely pleasant. At least some variety.
Rose, as far as I understood, hated two things: embroidery and studying other peoples languages, because she was taught against her will. It suffered her pride. I shared her belief that bad teachers could inspire hatred for the most interesting subject. Prince, bless the Lord his negligence, rarely tried to explain something to me, therefore he did not have time to distract an independent student from curiousness. I still havent tried to become a mentor, but I was sure that if I became, I would be able to breathe in the student a love for my dark art.
Another young lady could be imagined as a gift a basket with knitting, a set of needles, threads, or in extreme cases of a necklace. But if I tried to impose Rose as a gift an embroidery, she would at least be offended. She needed quite another.
Therefore, I picked up for her in arsenal the most elegant and light musket, a sword with hilt, snapped with small diamonds. And I also rashly promised to teach her fencing, as if I did not know that the acquired skill she would always have time to apply against me. Of course, she was able to fence, she managed to take a few lessons of fencing by the father. But she, like me, always sought more. Once I was one of the best knights, I neglected the education, but overnight everything has changed. The hand, accustomed to the sword, could not adapt to the feather, but during the captivity I was so young and reckless, that I believed the explanations of the prince about my great destination. Therefore, I hated him, he managed to deprive me of freedom of choice, but could not deprive me of my pride.
«You have a beautiful ring,» I noticed.
«Its pretty hard,» Rose frowned painfully.
«Why dont you take it off?»
«I cant,» a concise answer, and after him a short scribe of thought «Surely, the scar will remain.» Did I manage to catch her thought. Having dropped to the side all the tricks, I independently turned the page and pretended to read.
«I tried to use soap, but, alas,» Rosa made a theatrical sigh. «It is necessary to resort to the extreme method, take something sharp, say, a razor, but there is no single razor.»
«It isnt simply needed here.»
«There is no scissors here too. Dont you never cut your nails.»
«Actually» I almost blurted out «No», but I restrained on time and transferred a look at my even elongated, but seemingly well-kept nails. They grew only in those terrible cases, which Rose was better not to observe, and then they did not grow at all, as well as the hair. For me it was quite usually, but people would certainly have any questions: why he was not such as we, there was something wrong.
«If you need scissors, I will find somewhere,» under the «somewhere» was meant in the first house, where there were no owners or in the inexhaustible reserves of Percy, who has repeatedly managed to circumvent other housing before me.