The countess was not too worried after the owner of the mysterious castle tactfully and kindly in the midst of the night pointed her a door. So it seemed to me when I looked into the castle’s window and saw her in a circle of fans. Elegant and beautiful, she flirted at once with everyone and did not even suspect that the Golden Shadow is watching her from the darkness of non-existence. And maybe she suspected. In any case, for one long moment her eyes rushed to the window. She did not see anything other than a snowfall behind the illuminated glass. Did she notice a golden, winged snake that had clung with all its slippery body to the stone wall?
The countess with a crash folded the fan and hit them on the knuckles of their fingers, so the skin turned red. She could not have to pinch herself to check if her sudden imagination was true. She miraculously managed to feel that there is a golden something firmly connected with the restless soul of her dark idol behind the window. If it were not for a noisy company, and not questions that flew on her from all sides, Francesca would undoubtedly rushed to the window to test their assumptions or again to let the spirit into the house. That is how she first called me – a light touch to the picture on canvas. Now she tried to establish a mental contact with me, but inexperienced in witchcraft, she did not know how to fasten the subtle binding threads of strangers.
«Did you cut yourself?» said excitedly someone from the guests, turning towards her.
Francesca really squeezed the fan too strong, the ostrich feathers were broken, and the revealed needles scratched her on the nameless finger. She did not even feel pain, but I breathe in air even at such a distance the aroma of her blood. So you inhale the smell of expensive wine before you enjoy a thin bouquet of taste. This feeling made me look again through the glass to determine whether it was on the finger of Francesca that amethyst ring, which Rothbert tried to intimidate me. It was not an amethyst. The most attractive magnet was in the fortress – the picture. I needed only this magnificent canvas, but since Francesca felt my presence this evening, I had to fly away.
The estate met me with the usual panorama of the majestic launch. The snow was spinning over the frontons, covered the balconies. Snow flakes melted, touching marble caryatid. The rooms of the palace, intense and cold, did not welcome the owner. Only in one fireplace in the ash, dry branches were preserved, as if someone recently was here. There was neither the time nor the desire to bypass with the ward all the premises from the attic to the basements to discover the tramp who could look for the shelter from the snowfall. Even if someone snuck through the window, it will soon be afraid of the arrival of legal owners and will run away.
Having visited the mill to the next morning, I even found there two shy peasants: a miller and his assistant, who swore, that they used to worked here and asked me as a new owner, allow them to take up former duties again. I decided to allow them to grind the grain of neighboring farmers, because it’s not to stand without a mill, but put forward one prerequisite. Having finished their day work, in the evening they should leave the mill to their home and not to return to the dawn itself. Of course, such a whim could seem strange, but such a contract guaranteed security to people. With the onset of darkness, my subjects could frighten them too much. Taking advantage of the fact that two men are in the evening alone on the lands of their sovereign the evil spirits could attack them, pushed, and pester until the unfortunate drown in the nearest mill pond.
The imperative tone, which was put forward by the condition, became a guarantee of its observance. I myself examined the mill. There was nothing unusual to the room, not a single hint that this place belongs to evil. Of course, two mercenaries could dissolve rumors about the oddities of their new owner, but I didn’t care. I wanted the mill to earn again to rotate the wheel of the wind in former times. Maybe then something unusual will happen here.
I secretly watched the Countess when she ordered to collect a road chest and prepare the carriage. It seemed to me that in the capital she would not only entail the desire to acquire new books, because she could send someone from servants. The first impression could not deceive me. Francesca was too nervous when she sat down in the carriage. The entire way Francesca could not calm down. I corrected the warm raincoat with a white fox. At the entrance to the lively wide road, she put on the face a dark half mask, as if she did not want that her friends could know her by chance met in the way.
On the streets of the capital I had to abide by the double caution and slide behind the crew as an invisible shadow. On too narrow stone streets, each passerby was well noticeable. Of course, the old king invited me to go to the palace at any suitable time, but after a frank conversation in a hunting house, I did not decrease to put a visit to him again.
