I got out of the slums and turned to the central streets and overlooking the moment jumped through the fence of the first mansion that I liked me. The servants put up at the door, did not even ask me for an invitation. Hypnotized, they retreated to the side, and the guests either did not notice me, or took for one of the invited.
It was interesting for me to watch how the manners and the behavior of noblemen have changed with the time.
Stopping by the fireplace, I felt a pleasant warmth and at the same time I watched the surrounding. The hall was visible as on the palm. The candles were given little light, but it was immediately noticeable that, compared to past centuries, fashion made a step forward. The ladies became more elegant. There were only lush cascades of flickering satin and ball’s dresses embroidered with pearls. Men’s camisoles also sparkled from jewelry. According to the abundance of gilding and silver on handles’ of swords could be said that this weapon serves only as another decoration, real duels rarely happen, and their participants are deprived of that skill, with what the sword owned my contemporaries.
I have already started to bore, as suddenly I heard the sounds of a violin, a familiar melody. It was from an open terrace. Boldly moving through the crowd, I stopped next to the glass doors. Among the honeysuckles and rhododendrons, a slim silhouette of a woman in a white light robe was clearly highlighted. I have already seen this violinist. Long ago, near the village, lost among the forests. She stood far from the fire and played. Then only the wolves listened to her music, and the villagers were locked up the windows and doors so that she could not go to them.
On the moment, dark eyelashes shot up, and I saw bright, blue eyes performed by malice. Did anyone see a strange violinist too?
Those who passed by, did not even hear her music. I myself watched her no more than a minute, and then a translucent silhouette, as if, dissolved in the thick of the rain. Dancing and fun continued in the hall, guests led casual conversations. Maybe it only seemed to me that in the crowd flashed Camille, combed and laid by curls in the last fashion.
With the onset of dawn, guests will begin to drive around. I did not want to wander all day through the streets. Each big city has such a place where people are afraid to go. For me, it was not difficult to read someone’s careless thoughts and find out that the only damned place in Roshen is a crypt of one count’s family. The crypt of seven angels, where seven generations of a noble family rest. Duellists, murderers, gamblers who almost ruined the estate that were nearby. I left the ballroom long before the dawn and went there, to the locked on many chains and locks the doors of the crypt.
Passing by the estate, located near the crypt, I noticed only one lit window. It was on the first floor, low above the ground level and through the open shutters was well visible a girl playing on the harpsichord. Hearing the steps, she shuddered, hastily stood up from her place and closed the window.
Therefore, even those who live in the estate naively believe that at nights near the crypt walks evil spirits. This time, the superstitious girl was right, from such a guest, as the dragon that transformed into the young man is better to lock the windows and the doors. However, besides me, there were no evil spirits. There were many locks on the doors of the crypt. I was not difficult for me to disrupt them all by several quick movements, but such a maneuver would have drawn attention of citizens. It is always better to act with the mind. Remembering and repeating the necessary spells in a whisper, I just gave a short order and heard the locks with a click open. They did not need the keys, the chains themselves slipped from heavy forged doors, and those in turn with a quiet creak opened, as if inviting me. It cost me to cross through the threshold, as the doors smoothly closed behind me, the chains again littered the door of the iron web, and the locks snapped up, being in former places. I descended down the marble steps. There were the statues of seven angels on the steps. They reminded silent visitors who were sacrificed right here. A few lamps flashed, pointing me the way into the gloomy deep hole.
There were no windows. Among the smooth stone tombstones and sarcophagus covers occasionally met statues. There was not fortunately any cross in the tomb. In the marble plates of the floor crawled disgusting insects. Moss made through the cracks. There was no bench around, so I climbed onto a flat sarcophagus cover to fall asleep right on it. After a long and tedious escape, no bed could seem uncomfortable.
In the tomb, settled down a few feet underground, it was possible not to fear that the prince would find me. There were no soul around, only spiders were taped in distant corners and two or three bats hung down heads, clinging to the ceiling.
Must be, the city has already lit the first rays of the sun, but it was cold and dark in the crypt. In a dream, I again saw the spinning-wheel and magical spinners. Then the walls of some kind of fortress and at the window I saw for a moment a strikingly beautiful girl with dark braids, crown-laid on her head and sculptural features of the face. There was an open book before her on the table. The beauty wrote something on a sheet of paper. Only in the last moment before the awakening, I realized that her feather smoothly wrote witchcraft signs. I wanted to warn her from this dangerous classes, talk about the dangerous influence of witchcraft books, but at that instant I woke up and felt someone’s unwanted presence in the crypt.
There were steps, but not from the side of the stairs, but from a long corner. How could I not notice a secret door. Manual lantern with a ringing dropped onto the marble floor. Even before opening my eyes, I knew who I would see.
I instantly threw the crumpled raincoat and raised on the elbows. Noticing me, Vincent froze in one place, fearing even to move. Even with such poor lighting, it was possible to notice that Vincent had not almost changed. He even became more attractive, only in large dark eyes there was some embittered expression. He quickly came to his senses. It didn’t even need to ask how he found me, and why he was generally needed to search for an old friend. Vincent pulled out some object from under a wide cape and threw it on an unoccupied sarcophagus cover. In the glare of green light, I saw that this was a black velvet mask.
«It would be unpleasant to lose forever such a beautiful thing? Is it not true, Mr. Elf?» Vincent asked with sarcasm. I remember the tender nickname, which so loved to call me my brothers and fascinated peasants.
The poor fellow Vincent hoped that at the first reminder of the past, I was angry. He did not take into account that the former trustful Edwin was now a hardened a magician. Like everyone, he relied only on the impressions of the appearance and did not even try to look deeper into the soul. Although he certainly knew how to read thoughts, because it was not for noting that he was kept for many years in this damned school.
«I didn’t expect to see you here. Usually, the inveterate adventurer can be found anywhere, but not only in the monastery of the ghosts,» I noticed with a gloomy humor. Vincent was only more angry and even clenched fists. He measured the narrow passage between the rows of sarcophagus and looked at my side with uncomplicated hatred.
«Why are you?» He finally blurted out. Why is the power about what dreamed all the students of the school of witchcraft, namely yours? The prince was supposed to choose me, I waited for so many years to triumph. I tried so hard to achieve heights at least at school, and everything went to someone who had never had to take himself by reading the book. After all, you did not know anything, except for fighting skills, while you lived in the father’s castle.»
«Perhaps if you spent less time to swindle, and more to study, then, indeed, you could achieve some heights,» said I.
«How can you say that, Edwin,» Vincent squeezed his fists with such force that the nails were dug in the palms, and there was blood on the skin. «While you are alive, I can not