«Run, a cowardly elf, until the flames fell to you wings,» someone was angry. It took a few seconds before I realized that a hoarse mocked voice sounds in my mind.
I hoped that if I had spent the night away from the settlements, I can’t harm people. Instead of averting the danger, I most likely got into the place where it was easier for Rothbart to reach me and get to submit to his strength. It was necessary to get away from him as far as possible. Every step that will divide me from the prince must, limit his power to me.
It’s time to go. Percy could find me anywhere. I never appointed a meeting place to him, he himself found me every time and waited for me, standing at a respectful distance. Neither the compass nor the map were with me, only I could guess in which direction I should go to move away from the prince. I quickly crossed the fields, flew through the rivers and lakes, as the shadow rushed past the towns and villages, until I began to feel that the power attracting me to itself as the magnet gradually weakens. With the onset of the first twilight, I got to the borders of the city. It was Roshen. It was immediately clear that, unlike the luxury present in Lara, here, along with new, painted buildings and mansions, there are poor bedrooms. Elegant crowds of honest citizens in the evening are replaced by the beggars and robbers. I decided that in a big city it would be easier to get lost and forget my sorrow. Maybe if I always wander in the crowd or in the center of densely populated areas, then Rothbart will lose a trace and can not find me with the help of his witchcraft.
From large houses came laughing, music, scraps of conversations that I could hear especially acutely, not as people who pass by and will not be able to disassemble in general noise even a couple of words. An old-cut, luxurious cloak – the gift of the prince, waved behind my back. sometimes tasty passersby, but I walked so quickly, which disappeared in the crowd before someone had time to send a passage. It was necessary to stay away from the rich houses. I myself did not notice how I found myself in the poorest neighborhoods. The shabby walls of houses, broken windows and cracks on the shabby doors, were not as strong as the lit expanses of the central streets. It reigned amazing silence.
Only sometimes on the way there was a lantern with a stove or cracked glass. Very rarely in the windows of the second floors under the projected roof, the candle was poorly glued or I heard, as a children’s voice was reading fairy tales from the opened book. Rothbart did not say a word about the fact that in the current times, an education can be found even in slums. Much more often there were tramps and robbers. The outskirts of the city did not go to any comparison with the center. The death danced here in all the catches, but no disease was terrible for me.
Such a decline was strange to me. In the country of my father never ruled the high mortality and hunger, nor in the center, nor on the outskirts. Robbers sooner or later met their end on the gallows, and here they were under the nose of the guard. The consolation was one thing, in such a place Rothbart will not look for me. Camille, his faithful sorcerer, also does not like to visit here, and Percy tactfully will wait for my return in a safer and tidy quarter.
Why the dragon should obey orders of sorcerer, every time rushing on his call, to destroy whole fragile cities, created by many years of work of people. Once at the power of the villain, I again and again, according to his will, turned out in the thick of tragic events.
I went down to the pier. Stopping not far from the slums, it was possible to observe how the moonlight lays the glare on the ink surface of the water. Several boots swayed on its surface, fishing nets were dried on the shore. I wanted to walk around the pier, but several boards were wedged out of the flooring. It remained only to turn back to semi-empty barn and sheds, deserted streets, bridge and tightly locked houses.
Found myself in a dark alley, I heard quick steps and muted muttering, as if two were consolidated about something.
«Look what a pretty little boy!» Someone pushed me in the shoulder and pressed against the wall of the nearest barn. A fool must have been looking for his own death. A man with a nasal voice and a disfigured scarred face took a knife from his pocket. His accomplice, wrapped his face in a dirty scarf attached to my throat the tip of the sword. To keep the weapon as he should not be able, most likely stole the sword together with the sheath from one of the robbed nobles. Such robbers often waited, while someone from the noblemen will go into the tavern, and then cut his throat and cleaned his pockets.
Cliché «money or your life» sounded out of time. A purse I did not have, but it was growing confidence that the evil power hidden inside is about to break loose. Until now, it had been waiting for his hour. I tried to handle myself, as once in the alleys under the towers of the castle of my father. But then I was free, and now I was under the power of my curse. My detached view something startled the robber, armed with a sword and yet he rudely ordered to his accomplice.
«Check his pockets, quickly!» he told
«Just look at his hand there is a ring with the emblem,» happily exclaimed the second, eagerly staring at the glittering signet ring. «Is granted to us a curious prince! Infrequently lords favor us with their appearance.»
The nasty laugh rang, in one hand of a villain flashed a knife blade, and the other reached for the intended victim. In a flash, I slipped out from the corner, the sword barely scratched my forehead. I stopped in front of a stone wall of the next building and turned. The robber took aback glancing at me, and he almost dropped the knife, see how the wound on my temple is rapidly dragged with the new skin. On the hand began to break through the golden scales, nails stretched and sparkled. I did not even try to cast, the transformation happens by itself. The right hand is now much more like the golden gauntlet with long claws of dragon.
The second sword blow would hit me on the head, but I just ducked and the blade crashed against a stone wall in millimeters from my temple. One severed strand of hair fell on the wet ground and now writhing in clear puddle, like a golden worm.
Instinctively stretched out my right hand, I slashed with my claws on the neck of disarmed opponent. Blood was gushing from wounds. What will happen now, if someone finds a corpse with traces of the monstrous claws? In a secret society will have every reason to accuse me of a lack of caution.
I did not even have time to turn back to the second scoundrel. With a cry «Werewolf», the tramp rushed away, but a clawed hand did not allow him a step. Percy said that it is impossible to leave witnesses of our reincarnation from simple travelers in supernatural beings. I dragged the bodies on the pavement and then they fell out of my hands straight into the deep ditch. Even if someone finds the corpses of robbers here, it will decide that they became victims of drunk fights. And scars on the neck? Well, after a few nights, the rat and decomposition will make their job. Nobody will know that the dragon was held on this street. The stones of the bridge will not be able to talk to anyone about the presence of a supernatural being here.
Moon light fell on my hand. The spectacle caused some surprise even by me. The hand again became smooth, covered with flawless white skin, long fingers with pink nails did not resemble sharp claws.
Neither dust left on clothes, raindrops were glistened like a scattering of diamonds on a blue raincoat. Now, I could go at least to the ball, and none of the guests could see in my eyes the reflection of the fighting. Not even turning to the scene, I quickly walked away.
Overcoming a small distance, I felt the presence of another member of a small gang over the distant angle. While two of his senior comrades were not far from the pier, he was hidden in ambush, waiting for call. From his weapon, he had only a folding knife. He did not see me, but he felt the approach of a stranger, because I set a mental contact with him and in several words gave to understand that to contact with a passersby, as I, is too troublesome and dangerous. He still did not leave and even leaned out from behind the