“Meanwhile, you’re scorching them,” that whisper again. It’s become intrusive. At another time I would have been wary, but now I was engrossed in another activity. I diligently brushed away the ashes that were still on my camisole, and looked for new encounters with strangers.
I visited elegant salons, boudoirs, bridal apartments, merchant’s houses, and even brothels. And the voice above me kept whispering:
“I understand you so much! I too, in my time, rushed after each of them. And none of them escaped me.”
I looked up, but there was no firefly following me. There were no translucent spirits around either. It was probably the unquiet soul of some maniac talking to me. I haven’t killed anyone myself right now. It’s nice to know that I’m no longer a murderer or arsonist, but just an adventurer. All nobles are like me. They are seeking pleasure, never missing a skirt. So why should I behave any differently?
If Rose had stayed with me, I wouldn’t have had to meet anyone. With her alone, I could spend every night in the arms of another beautiful lady. Each new body would just have her in it. Naturally after she left the used body, it would begin to rot and turn into a skeleton. Rose somehow never kept alive those whose bodies she used. She probably couldn’t enter their minds as long as they remained alive. I didn’t know much about her complex and pernicious magic. Every law I taught her, Rose had broken. That’s partly why we couldn’t stay together. We were a good match, though: I was a dragon and emperor of all evil, she was a princess and the daughter of a sorceress. At first we had a good deal on marriage and her coronation, but ever since Rose decided to dethrone me and keep all the power for herself, we’ve been in a black streak of trouble. That’s how all marriages fall apart; one wants love and the other wants profit.
It’s better to be a bachelor. That way there’s the least risk of getting attached to any one lady.
I didn’t want to be bound by a strong and sincere love anymore. It’s too painful. But it seemed I had sipped too much from the magic cup. No matter how much I walked around, the passion kept growing. A flame was burning inside. It protruded from my body, swirling at my fingertips. Whole tongues of fire were shooting out from under my fingernails into the night. They formed intricate symbols.
“He’s behind you!” whispered to me the spirits that dwelt in the flames. Their voices always sounded like the hissing of fire. I listened to them and turned around. There was no one behind me, of course. Someone had spread a rumor about a dragon raider in the city, and in the evenings people tried to keep their noses out of the street. As if locking inside could save them from the dragon! Yes, he would burn everyone at once, and everyone would burn in his own house.
I didn’t want to grieve and wander around the labyrinth of city streets. What for? If you remember the address of the hostess of the assembly, where you recently visited, it is a sin not to visit her. The closed doors didn’t bother me. I went straight through the third-floor window. And I didn’t have to climb up the chimney to do it. I just flew up.
Simonetta expected me to announce my arrival with a note, but I was already here. The stacks of love letters never sent to me didn’t matter anymore. One had fallen into my claws. Before, I would have come to run my claws down her throat, but now I wanted to know other things. Something I hadn’t wanted or known until now. I ran my fingers through her hair, the color of ripe wheat. It curled in small strands and ran down her back almost to her knees. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were golden, too. Amazing beauty! I pondered for just a moment whether or not she would feel the fire in my breath, and then I bent down and kissed her. Even if it hurt, she wanted it.
Excitement burned stronger than fire. And she was even more attracted to me than I was to her. That’s the way it usually is. Rose was an exception. But Simonetta was an ordinary woman, though as charming as a fine porcelain statuette. Her fingers in expensive rings slid down my chest, deftly unbuttoned my camisole. Apparently, I was no longer the first on her list of overnight guests. But I was the first to be a dragon.
“Who would give their life for one night with a dragon?” whispered the same annoying disembodied voice in my ear. “Not even my magical portraits were as willing to give their lives as your fiery embrace.”
He hissed something else angrily, but I wasn’t listening. Simonetta’s lips pressed against my ear. She, too, whispered fiercely to me something about how long she had waited for me, and what a bastard I was for not coming to her the first night we saw each other, and making her wait. She was all exhausted, for she had never wanted anyone so much as she wanted me, and so on and so forth. I had listened to all this love nonsense dozens of times, but I was still not satisfied. It was different with Simonetta than with the others. The embrace was passionate. The touch was filled with rare tenderness. I really thought what I had done in vain by not flying to her window from the beginning.
The disembodied voice above the hipped canopy was still squeaking resentfully, and on the wide, silk-sheeted bed our bodies were intertwined, moving toward each other. The act of love was glorious, only my fiery seed spewed into Simonetta, burning her from the inside out. She cried out, but I quickly muffled her scream with a long kiss.
I rose and began to dress long before dawn came. I couldn’t sleep in the arms of mortals. Once I’d had an orgasm with them, I didn’t want them anymore, and they suddenly began to slow down. Simonetta lazily rubbed the ashy stains on her wrists, as if her skin had burned from the inside out. There were traces of ash in her tangled long curls as well. Where did it come from? I didn’t set anything on fire, except by accident. Simonetta, too, looked so bewildered, as if she could not understand why, after a stormy night of love, she suddenly felt so bad.
As I left, I noticed a slight burn at the corner of her lips. I tried to be gentle, but I can’t control everything. The ointments and balms she was using, judging by the number of them on the dressing table, would do her good.
Someone whispered to me that I should linger to see the curious consequences of what I had done, but I was in a hurry to get to Foyle. Moriella is waiting for me there. Well, I hope she is. And even if she isn’t, it won’t be too hard to seduce the lonely poor thing. It’s those whose husbands or fiancés are old who seek comfort in the arms of lovers the most. And this was Moriella’s case.
I turned into a dragon and flew toward the coastal town of Foile. The sensation of someone watching my transformation through the window was far away near Simonetta’s house, and the cold waves were crashing beneath my wings in a matter of minutes. Jokingly, I exhaled a jet of fire directly into the sea. Before it was extinguished, it caught fire right on the water, easily burning the flocks of fish swimming on the surface. So I can make a fire in the sea if I try hard enough.
“Don’t, monsieur,” a mermaid squeaked pitifully from the depths. With a coral comb in her blue curls and blue eyebrows and eyelashes, she looked so pretty that I obeyed her. Maybe I’ll visit her someday at my leisure. But for now, my goal was Foile and Morietta’s father’s fortress. I reached the city in astonishing speed. Yes, it wasn’t far away. It was built on a small island. The sea surrounded it on all sides. There was a long bridge from the land to it, which was used by food carts and mail carriages. All other trade with the city was conducted by sea. The caravels and brigs in the harbor looked like fairy-tale rooks. There are good shipyards, talented craftsmen, and the city itself is beautiful, but I suddenly awoke the devil in me. Why not burn it down? Moriella’s being held prisoner here, and they want to marry someone they don’t love.
The mermaid had already hidden from me