Swan and Dragon. Dragon Empire

“Catch the princess!” shouted all the same soldier, but when his comrades climbed on their horses, Rose was already rushing through the forest at a fast gallop.

The blizzard intensified. Snow and wind lashed her face. Rose fell to the bow. Her hair flew like a black banner behind her. How quickly the enemies identified her. The compassionate neighbors must have appointed a reward for the capture of the enemy princess.

Behind her there was the sound of hooves, voices and threats in unison. Rose spurred her horse to break away from the chase. Because of the raging blizzard, it became difficult to drive, but Rosa did not stop until a fork in three roads appeared ahead.

Something strange was happening beyond the line lined with small stones. On the two roads going left and right, a blizzard was spinning, and on the middle road everything was calm. Spruces and pines stood at its edges, like fabulous giants guarding temporary peace. Even the snow did not dare to cross the invisible border.

Rose didn’t have time to think. She turned onto the calm middle road. Traveling along it will be much easier than fighting a storm. But instead of obeying, the previously pliable horse whinnied in fright and reared up, almost throwing the rider off his back.

However, Rose held the reins and forced the animal to move forward. The snowfall is left behind. Finding himself on the forbidden path for a blizzard, the horse rushed forward. She rushed without stopping, without any prodding. However, the pursuers did not lag behind either.

Above the treetops lay a clear azure sky. Snow glittered here and there. There were no wolves or other predators to be seen around, and nevertheless the horse began to snore in fright and began to resist.

Rose plunged her spurs into the horse’s flanks and made it gallop across the frozen lake. Sparks fell from under the hooves, but the ice did not crack. The brave rider looked back. She was able to buy time. The enemies are a little behind. She jumped off the horse, secured her bag better to the saddle, and checked to see if there were any weapons in the saddle bag.

Maybe under the weight of a whole detachment, the ice on the lake will break. No bellicose cries were heard yet. Only someone’s rapid breathing broke the silence of the forest. A ringing, almost musical whistle resounded over the treetops.

Rose stumbled and fell, black hair covered the snow with silk. The ring on her hand shone dazzlingly, and a terrible, huge figure hovered in the sky among the winter azure, as if it were all molded from gold. It sparkled dazzlingly, although the sun was not in the sky. The golden dragon, its wings, claws, head were all golden, but the eyes resembled a terrible secret, as in fairy tales about the castle of elves. Rose shuddered inwardly, he found her again, like death the color of precious metal. A terrible scream broke the frosty silence, and everything was quiet. The deadly pursuit from the warring world of the two kingdoms also fell behind.

And suddenly a silvery, rich sleigh stopped next to her, strangely, she did not even hear how they drove up, although the snow crunched. The aura of nightmare emanated from the sleigh, although they were anywhere, the royal ones would not be compared with them. Thoroughbred white horses in a harness beat impatiently with their hooves. Their luxurious manes and tails were shiny, their eyes sparkled wildly, and flames seemed about to burst from their nostrils. The bridles jingled, and the ringing of bells echoed them. Rose froze in horror and saw that the same young man was sitting in the sleigh. His golden curls scattered over a velvet cloak, his face was striking in beauty.

“Let’s go, Rose,” he invited, they won’t catch up with you.

He bent down and held out his hand to her. The skin on the back of the hand was a phosphoric whiteness, but there was a striking defect – a thin gold plate implanted into the arm where the vein should be.

Rose was numb with surprise, but the radiant, hypnotic gaze made her obey. She climbed into the sleigh and settled down on the satin seat. The driver whipped the horses. They snored viciously and trotted forward.

The young man signaled to Rose’s steed. He, as if spellbound, bowed his head, as if he were a man and obediently trotted after the sleigh.

There was a crackling of ice and muffled curses from behind. Rose looked around. There, among the sharp ice floes in the water, her pursuers splashed. They managed to reach the middle of the lake before the thick crust cracked. They could not get out of the lake. Uselessly they clung to the ice floes, their hands sliding along the smooth surface, and heavy armor pulled to the bottom.

The sled rushed forward, leaving deep furrows behind and billowing waves of snow splashing in its path. The chime of small bells accompanied them all the way.

Rose turned to her savior.

“What’s your name?” Plucking up courage, she asked.

He looked at her with a strange gleam in his eyes, as if deciding whether to tell her his name or not.

“Edwin,” he finally answered. Maybe it was his soft, calm voice that had such an effect on her that the name seemed familiar to the princess.

The further they went into the forest, the more beautiful the dense thickets on the sides of the road became. Rose looked at the snow-capped fir trees, at the squirrels jumping from branch to branch. She did not succeed in seeing the driver, occasionally waving his whip. All that was visible was his coat, sewn from fox tails.

“Why did you save me?” Rose asked after a long silence.

Edwin carefully draped a fur-lined cloak over her shoulders.

“Why?” He echoed. “How could I leave you in trouble?”

“How did you know that I was in trouble?”

This time he said nothing. However, the cheerful ringing of bells did not stop, the frisky horses continued to neigh. The small bird livened up the frosty forest with their singing. Bullfinches pecked at rare rowan berries. One bright red cross pecked at a pine cone.

“Where are we going?” Rose tried to start a conversation again.

“To the castle,” the companion answered shortly.

“You mean there is a castle in this wilderness?”

Edwin looked at her with surprised, twinkling eyes.

“There should be a castle,” he explained in the same laconic way. “What kind of state is it without a castle?”

“What other state?” Rose asked in a whisper. The unknown frightened her the most.

The attendant lowered his head sadly.

“You want to know too much,” he chided.

“No more than I’m allowed to,” Rose immediately retorted. “Everyone has the right to face their fears. After I was not even allowed to make excuses, it is not surprising that I am afraid of making a mistake. You are not the Golden Sovereign to chastise me.”

He was not even offended. On the contrary, mischievous sparks flashed in his eyes.

“You don’t have to be a flying monster to crush people’s hopes,” he said with secular nonchalance. And yet there was something in his words that it made her blood run cold. Some kind of invisible magic enveloped Edwin. In his manner and strange modulation of his voice, inhuman power was guessed. One gesture was enough for the distrustful, fearful tit, as if bewitched, to fly off the branch and sit in his palm. He stroked the yellowish head, and the bird chirped happily.

Now his hand is normal again. As if there was no plate inserted into the flesh. Rose studied Edwin for a long time. Even in the light of day, he looked like an unearthly creature. He sat next to her, real, alive, and at the same time remained distant and unattainable, like a radiant image of a saint in the corner of a darkened picture.

“We’ll be here soon,” he said, letting go of the titmouse. It chirped goodbye and soared into the air. Edwin followed her flight.

“How do you do it?” Rose could not resist.

“What?”

“To command animals and birds.”

He just shrugged his shoulders, making it clear that he himself could not explain it.

“Who are you?” The princess gasped. The amazement and fright that sounded in her voice. gave this question an almost mystical meaning.

“You want to know not only about this,” Edwin warned the next questions, “you are interested in who really is a humpbacked sorcerer? Where did the dark power come from over the vaults of the chateau? Why were you tried for other people’s crimes, and how did you manage to escape punishment? And, after all, you want to know who the Wind Singer is.”

“Wind Singer?” Rose asked in surprise.

“He is also called the Golden Lord. The dragon has always been revered and feared. He keeps humanity at bay, and the fairy people submit to him. This zwergs called the whistle of flight a song. When the dragon’s wings cut through the air masses, then it really can be called the Wind Singer.

The forest in the white lace of snow was left behind. The sled was rushing along the narrow road. Rose did not notice how dark it was. A minute ago it was day, and now the horn of the month was silvery in the black sky. The snowdrifts rose like a single wall over the edges of the road. Now one, now another snowflake flashed with a bright fire, like precious stones.

The charioteer whipped the horses mercilessly, and they rushed forward with an arrow, in spite of their fatigue.

“Look!” Edwin ordered, pointing forward.

Rose looked up and saw the valley. Whirlwinds blew over her. The carpet of fluffy snow glittered as if a myriad of small diamonds had been mixed with it. And in the very center of the snow-covered valley stood a gloomy and majestic castle. Even from here one could see impregnable bastions, semicircles of observation openings, towers resembling chess rooks.

The horses ran even faster. The fortress, which adorned the snow with a dark crown, attracted them like a magnet. Rosa herself gazed with admiration at the outer wall, which encircled the entire grandiose structure with a stone ribbon. The loopholes of the powerful barbican gaped empty. The lowering grates lifted by themselves, allowing the sled to rush through the gate and, letting it pass, immediately returned to its former position.

Torches blazed brightly in the castle courtyard. An unusual palisade is located near the walls. Rose shuddered, noticing that each stake was crowned with a severed, human head, or what was left of it.

The horses beat furiously with their hooves. Rose jumped out of the sleigh and wanted to stroke the nape of the most beautiful snow-white horse.

“Caution!” Edwin warned. He was already standing behind, stepping up silently like a shadow. “They are not horses at all and, besides, they are very ferocious.”

The horses calmed down a little, sensing the approach of their master. It seems that apart from him and the driver, they no longer obeyed anyone. Even after a long journey, these extraordinary animals still had so much strength that they could smash the whole city over the stones. How wildly and ominously their eyes sparkled in the bloody glow of smoking torches. How they longed to break the bridles and trample under their hooves anyone who met them on their way. But they were afraid of Edwin. What could scare them so much in this handsome, seemingly fragile youth. Is that his equanimity, the complete absence of human feelings in the huge blue eyes and the proud bearing of the prince.

The most cocky of the horses grinned viciously at Rosa. Then he turned a plaintive, obsequious glance to his master, as if wishing to warn about something. More consciously than hearing Rose caught three words, alternating with horse snoring.

“She’s your enemy!”

“Take them to the stable,” Edwin ordered to the driver.

Rose went up to her horse, which was rubbing fearfully behind the sled, and untied the knot with its meager belongings from the saddle.

“Let’s go to!” Edwin took her hand and pulled her toward the tall, cast-iron doors covered with intricate ornamentation. The door ring was attached to the copper head of a lion, with its mouth wide open and empty eye sockets.

The doors opened smoothly, without the slightest creak. Behind them lay a gloomy hall. But as soon as Edwin stepped through the threshold, all the candles in the numerous candelabra flashed as one. The magical world of ghostly mirrors, purple carpets and silent sculptures appeared before Rose. The marble goddesses stood in the shadows. Tall stained-glass windows shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. Pictures and portraits hung on the walls in heavy, patterned frames. A wide front staircase led upstairs.

It was not only wealth and luxury that amazed. Simply, everything here seemed to be alive. Emerald bats hid behind paintings. The sculptures sometimes changed positions and curtsies. Magic was dormant in every corner. All the shining magic of this castle was subject to only one person – its mysterious, golden-haired master.

The chimes announced the approach of midnight. At the last blow, Edwin perked up. He scanned the lobby and the closed doors with an anxious gaze, as if expecting an intruder.

“My time is running out,” he whispered under his breath. “In a few minutes I must leave, otherwise the irreparable will happen. If you only knew what ties I have with the rooms of this castle and the empire that stretches beyond it.”

There is nothing but dense forests, Rose wanted to say, but for some reason she kept silent. She ran up the stairs after Edwin. They walked through galleries and covered passages, past columns and knightly armor whitening in the dark.

Edwin opened the door of a room, lit all the candles in it with a wave of his hand, and turned to look at Rose.

“Stay here tonight,” he suggested. “I’ll be back soon and try to explain everything. You are safe in my castle, but outside of it, death awaits you. If you leave now, then the winged enemy will find you, wherever you hide. You attract him like a magnet.”

Edwin’s quiet, threatening words frightened, and his figure, frozen in the span of the door, looked ghostly and unnatural. He silently moved from his place and walked towards the end of the corridor. Halfway through, he turned around, theatrically waved his black cloak and said goodbye:

“Tomorrow you will find out everything,” there was a note of pain and subtle disappointment in his voice.

Rose was left alone in an unfamiliar, richly furnished room. How tasteless and worthless the decoration of the royal palaces seemed to her now, in comparison with the gloomy luxury of her new chambers.

Beautiful ball gowns lay on the bed. Rose chose one of them and tried it on. It fit her, as if it had been made to order for her.

She sat on the edge of the bed and waited for the owner of the castle to return. She was afraid that the dream that overcame her in these fabulous palaces would never end. The candle flame was so quiet and steady. As soon as Rose looked at these lights, there was no trace of her determination to stay awake all night. The princess’s eyelids became heavy and sticky. She soon fell asleep.

Edwin went down to an underground laboratory littered with ancient manuscripts. They all need to be deciphered. And then what? Who will win the final victory? So many years have passed in search of the right spell. These years were filled with impotent rage and a desire to free themselves. And now a distant gap appeared, and the almost extinct guiding star began to shine. Now the thirst for revenge has cooled a little, but has not disappeared.

For today, he has already fulfilled his duties, but before sitting down to his usual work, it is necessary to check how the wonderful guest got there. Edwin arranged the new papers on the shelves, checked the old ones in place, and left the laboratory. The lock on the strong, oak door had long been rusty, but it was not needed. Edwin ran the key crosswise across the smooth surface of the door, now no one can open this door even with a crowbar.

A narrow, spiral staircase with sharp turns led to a secret passage to the room where Edwin had left the beauty. It is unlikely that the guest expects that he will enter her not through the door, but by pushing the wall mirror. She is, after all, the daughter of a man and does not yet know that in a real castle every third painting and statue must contain a special secret.

He pushed back the mirror frame and slipped into the room. He learned to move so easily and silently that only his hair, sparkling like the rays of the winter sun, distinguished him from the shadow.

The beauty slept peacefully. Edwin moved closer to the bed to get a better look at it. Here is the one pursued by evil fate. What fate awaits her in the dragon’s deadly embrace? Is she guilty of being born the daughter of a king and a witch.

For a long time Edwin did not take his intent, studying gaze from her. His cold heart was touched for the first time. For so long a man’s foot has not stepped into this castle. And now a princess has appeared in the enchanted world. She curled up into a graceful ball among the clothes scattered on the bed. The skirts of the puffy dress surrounded her with a scarlet halo. The drooping eyelashes touched her cheeks, but there was something wrong with the hair. Edwin lightly touched the dark-haired head with his hand and found confirmation of his guess. One strand was missing.

And the girl continued to sleep so serenely. She looked like a beautiful china doll. Edwin even got scared when he imagined how she would become one of the statues in his collection.

“What should I do now?” He shook his head in sorrow. The question drowned in silence, without even disturbing the princess’s sleep.

Edwin went to the window, clasped his hands behind his back, as if he were still a prisoner, and looked longingly at the sickle of the month.

“Evil genius,” he whispered, “since you brought me out of my dungeon, I have disobeyed you for the first time.

Memories inspired melancholy. Edwin hoped that the girl would sleep until morning. And in the morning it will be easier to come to terms with the facts than during a dull nauseating night. Business awaits him now. He must practice magic long before the decisive battle. There is little time left, and the challenge to the enemy has already been thrown.

When the lord of the castle left the room, a stubborn black-haired head rose from the pillow. Rose squinted at the flame of candles and could not understand if someone came here or if she was just dreaming about it. What happened was more like a dream, because in reality the mirrors do not move from the walls by themselves, opening a loophole for wizards.

Rose sat up in bed and examined the luxurious furnishings. So, then, she got into the wizard’s castle. She could not name her new friend otherwise. His power over living things and inanimate objects like statues and candles seemed unlimited. Now she need to find out what he started and for what purpose he allowed her to enter his dwelling.

Rose quietly got up and left the room. The castle was huge. Will she be able to inspect all its chambers for the rest of the night.

Long corridors branched out like labyrinths. Rose chose her path at random. She tried to open one of the many doors, but it was locked. The princess tugged at the carved handles in vain; not a single door gave way.

Rose abandoned her vain attempts and ran down the narrow corridor. Her steps were light and silent. She herself was surprised at the speed with which she rushes past the walls decorated with tapestries and various door niches. It seemed to her that now swan wings would grow again and help her soar up. Dreams were interrupted by a sharp sound. An open door creaked in a low stone niche. She swayed on hinges, as if from a strong wind.

Rose hurried there. She had to bend in three deaths to squeeze through the low doorway. An unsightly door led into a tiny living room. There are several armchairs, a sofa and a table. There was only one picture on the wall.

A small chandelier dangled from the ceiling and dropped cones of light onto a brightly painted canvas. The artist depicted an autumn forest in the picture. Contrary to all the rules, from a distance, the painting looked tasteless, and close up the landscape was transformed. The freshness of early autumn emanated from it.

Every detail of the landscape looked alive: a crimson maple, an orange oak, fallen leaves on the water of a muddy stream. And the imagination painted the endless forest. Rose smelled wood, mushrooms and oak bark. As soon as you touch the canvas with your hand, it will be transferred to the picture, turning into a tiny drawing.

With a huge effort of will, Rose managed to look away from the canvas. In order not to succumb to the magnetic influence of the landscape again, she began to study the oak panel to which the painting was attached. The girl’s fingers slid over the carved patterns. The panel was scratched in places. Rosa ran the tips of her nails over the scratches, as if she was involuntarily looking for some kind of cipher, the solution of which would open a cache.

One deep scratch on the surface of the panel was shaped like a swan feather. Rose pressed down on her, and the panel creaked out, revealing a bottomless black hole. Bursting out of the dark void, the wind hurled dry, yellow leaves in her face. The peaceful murmur of the river reached the ears. A second later, the outlines of trees began to appear in the darkness. Rose stepped forward and felt solid ground under her feet. As soon as she crossed the permissible border, a terrible creak of a sliding panel was heard from behind. Rose turned sharply, but, to her surprise, did not find the previous wall. There was a forest behind the princess. Fallen leaves rustled underfoot.

At first it seemed to Rose that she was transported through a hidden hole into another dimension. After all, the leaves on the nearby birches were made of copper, and the air saturated with river moisture caused dizziness. Although it was unlikely that a secret passage could lead to another world, there must have been a magic line behind the wall, through which one could overcome many miles.

Rose moved away from the birches with clinking copper leaves and wandered towards the river. A arch bridge led to the other side. Moonlight blazed a glittering path across the inky waters of the river.

The night cavalcade rushed past the opposite bank with a noise. A nondescript-looking carriage stopped next to the bridge.

Rose did not expect to hear the familiar whistle in the sky, but the song of the dragon’s wings reached her at the most unexpected moment. Rose shuddered all over. After all, Edwin warned that outside the castle walls she would be left without protection. She should have obeyed his advice, not rushed to find trouble.

The shadow covered the moon. As soon as she saw a luminous spot in the dark sky, Rosa rushed away. She managed to reach the bridge before she heard the wild,