«Rhianon,» he called her by her name for the first time, and his voice sounded pitiful. «You wouldn’t leave me at the gate, would you?»
She felt pity for him for a moment. Orpheus’ handsome face expressed such longing. The freckles that had recently scattered across his cheeks were now almost invisible on his white skin. Somehow it seemed to her that if he were human he would be red to the roots of his hair now. He clearly felt out of place because he was forced to ask for something. Perhaps he even needed sympathy. Rhianon didn’t even think about the fact that he was hardly pleased to be stomping under the windows of the manor while she herself was inside. But she decided that tenderness would not do him any good. Orpheus had to be handled more strictly, so that he wouldn’t get all riled up. That was his nature.
«You’ll have to learn to behave, then I’ll treat you better, but not before,» she warned him and decided to calculate, almost by the hour, how long it would take to get him to settle down.
The star-shaped pendant was still twirling smoothly on the chain. Rhianon was mesmerized by its brilliance. She never even once compared it to the luster of the axe blade that had sliced the young man’s neck. How terrible it must be to die so young. But she did not see fear in that young man’s eyes. Maybe Orpheus was right and the blade of the axe only unleashes an unspeakably strong spirit from the human body. Then she wanted to believe that the young man was not dead, that somewhere is still his soul guarding the witch secrets entrusted to him in life.
Rhianon suddenly felt that they had crossed aВ bridge ofВ some kind and was involuntarily astonished. Why would there be aВ bridge inВ such aВ wilderness? She did not even hear the sound ofВ flowing water. And if there was aВ bridge, there had toВ be aВ river. Rhianon wanted toВ look out the window, but there was nothing but darkness behind the ajar curtain. AВ star, dangling on aВ chain, seemed toВ be the only source ofВ light inВ the darkness around her. Rhianon peered at it, and caught sight ofВ something inВ its rays ofВ light. It was aВ speck ofВ debris. The object grew toВ the size ofВ aВ walnut shell, and now it was aВ tiny man, taking off his head aВ hat made just from the shell ofВ aВ walnut or acorn.
«Madam,» he bowed to her exquisitely. Though all of him could fit in a thimble, Rhianon was flattered by his gesture. She smiled back. She’d heard of leprechauns before. She’d heard of leprechauns, and had been told that if you caught one and then held it in check, it would grant you every wish. Only somehow it seemed to her that there was no need to catch him. He is already caught, attracted and enchanted by the light of the star she holds in her hands.
В«Who are you lookingВ at?В»
Rhianon could hardly drop the spell and look back at Orpheus.
«What do you mean? Can’t you see for yourself?»
But the tiny creature was gone. It had disappeared, as if it hadn’t appeared at all. But after its departure the moonlight shone just outside the window.
В«Here we are,В» Orpheus commented. В«This is where you wanted toВ be.В»
«There’s nothing beyond this window,» she commented, not seeing anything but the clearing and the bridge that had sprung up over it. It led nowhere, and there was no river, not even a ditch to span it. But the bridge itself was beautiful. Rhianon couldn’t help but notice how exquisitely the railings were gilded and how finely the ornate carvings had been chiseled on them.
В«This is the spot,В» Orpheus said. В«They seem toВ have been waiting for you.В»
Rhianon closed her eyes and imagined the couple in their elegant black robes. What would she say to them if she saw them here on the road, waiting for her for some unknown reason? And wouldn’t the horses have bucked at the sight of the mysterious strangers? Considering that they were already used to Orpheus, it was unlikely. But Rhianon herself could not get used to the fact that the world around her was becoming unusual. It was no longer the world she knew. It was a whole universe, hidden from human eyes, in which anything was possible.
Rhianon looked at the star inВ her hand. Neither end ofВ it was so stretched out anymore as toВ be different from the others. So they really did come. There was nothing around, no palace, no chateau or rotunda, not even aВ shabby shack. And still the girl got out ofВ the carriage. It was as if the bridge was waiting for her. And she went inВ its direction, leaving Orpheus toВ soothe the disgruntled snoring horses.
В«Your Highness,В» aВ voice came unexpectedly, and before she had even set foot on the bridge, she saw the very young man from the masquerade inВ front ofВ her. The dainty black clothes matched his platinum curls. This time he wore no mask and was visibly pale. More pale than aВ dead man. And at the same time his voice was pleasant and his manners courteous.
He was not blocking her way toВ the bridge, but he seemed toВ be the one deciding whether or not she could set foot inВ that territory.
«No! No!» She noticed another dwarf nimbly gesticulating on the other side of the bridge. He was darting in one place, waving his arms as if he wanted to block the way for them both. «She’s not allowed in here. She belongs to him, not us. Wake up, Clive, he’ll burn us all if you let her in here.»
The young man reacted in no way to the dwarf’s obsessive cries. He stared at Rhianon, and though his face was expressionless, she sensed that he was on her side.
В«IВ have it,В» she held out the glittering star toВ him without knowingВ why.
В«IВ know,В» his bloodless lips parted inВ aВ faint smile. В«And there are special rules today. You keep your pass. Come along.В»
He held out his hand, which Rhianon touched reluctantly. Her skin was white as if it had been dusted with flour or chalk.
В«Headless!В» The dwarf muttered angrily before she ducked into the shadows.
Maybe she thought he meant it twice, but she didn’t. Rhianon tried to see the dwarf’s red hat in the darkness, but she could not. The darkness seemed to swallow him up. Orpheus, on the other hand, was not a step behind her now. He stayed close to her train as it slid across the bridge. He stayed just beside her train as it slid across the bridge. She and the young man in black seemed deliberately oblivious to each other.
«I have a right to be here, because I am your personal spirit, and here it is like a shadow,» Orpheus’ laughing eyes informed her triumphantly, but he himself was trying to keep quiet now. He really did stick close to her as an inaudible and invisible shadow. Except that, unlike the shadow, he was too bright. His red hair and motley attire would have stood out sharply even in a fairground, let alone here.
Rhianon stopped wondering where they were going. She had barely set foot on the bridge when the outlines of towers and bastions appeared in the distance on the other side of it. She could see the silhouette of a somber building, with its beautifully curved parapets and almost tracery of interlocking pediments, colonnades, and covered galleries. It was not even a building, but an entire city. It was an empty city. The dead silence ahead made her uneasy. Could it be that all those towers and bastions, even the basement below them, were completely empty. Or so it seemed. The sheer length of the building ahead made her wary, not to mention the fact that there must have been an immense space beneath the floor. She noticed staircases swiftly descending at times, wide and narrow, grand and spiral, half-covered by some dark living creeper, or simply hanging in the dark space without any visible support. She blinked quickly to get rid of the feeling that it was all a dream. Everything here was dark: the passageways, the carvings on the doors, the ampel plants that seemed to move on their own. Candles flickered on and off in sconces or large floor chandeliers, adding to the sense of blackness. At any rate, they only brought out black objects from the gloom. Rhianon only couldn’t tell what materials were used here. What was it, black wood, black stone to upholster the few pieces of furniture?
«It’s easy to get used to,» she heard Orpheus’ insistent voice in her head. «The fiery letters, which appear and disappear on their own when you ask questions, are best seen against such a background.»
Rhianon squinted at him. Of course, his lips weren’t moving, and he wasn’t saying anything out loud, but the words were coming out.
Suddenly the sound ofВ music caught her attention. InВ one ofВ the opened doors she noticed aВ harpsichord. And it seemed toВ be playing byВ itself. She would have thought it was the wind pressing the keys, but ofВ course there was no wind. Why would there be any wind inВ such aВ confined space?
Rhianon imagined a girl in a gorgeous black dress sitting on a pedestal in front of the harpsichord and playing it. And beside her, of course, would be her gentleman, also dressed in black, correcting the sheets of music on the easel. For a moment she thought she saw those two, the same couple from the masquerade, but of course they were no longer masked, and the faces under them were as pale, bloodless, and expressionless as those of her companion. Is that how everyone here becomes? Does the power gained through magic drain all the joy of life from them? Is this the price of knowledge? They say one must sell one’s soul to gain the key to forbidden knowledge. And what happens then, will what you buy be worth its price, or do forbidden sciences merely open a gateway to darkness. Rhianon felt out of place here. She didn’t like the darkness around her and the rustles that echoed within it.
«It won’t always be like this, you’ll get used to it,» Clive didn’t whisper the words to her, but they seemed to sound to her alone, while his fingers gripped her hand harder and harder. He didn’t seem to want to let her go, but he already knew that she would soon want to leave.
She remembered the execution and the way the blade cut through a defenseless neck. The magical pendant was powerless to preserve flesh from the fatal blow. Maybe, by stepping in here, she was setting herself up for the same blow. There is a difference between physical strength and the evil energy hidden within these walls. The second is even worse, because it is more insidious and much stronger. Rhianon felt the crushing emptiness with every cell of her body. Maybe Orpheus had been right when he’d told her that a stroke of the blade was merely liberating. Here, on the contrary, she felt as if she were shackled. The darkness seemed to try to take her captive and never let her out again. Rhianon struggled to breathe in the stinking air and felt a flame build up in her chest. In a second she’d breathe out a trickle of fire into the darkness. She didn’t want to burn her companion, but the flame was bursting out. She couldn’t hold back any longer.
«Calm,» he turned around just as the air next to her heated up, «there’s nothing to defend yourself against, you can live here in peace for centuries without even noticing that they’ve passed, because nothing disturbs the silence.
В«And so you can live here quietly side byВ side with the living and the dead?В» She asked without knowing why. В«And not even know that someone who died aВ long time ago is now keeping you company?В»
В«Yes,В» he admitted simply and unashamedly. В«It would be one grandiose crypt if it were not for magic, it equals all ofВ us, both the living and the dead, or rather there is neither one nor the other, neither life nor death has no meaning here, because the soul is the same after death, and it hungers for magical knowledge no less than the living. Here we all die and are born toВ darkness. And some die before that.В»
She tried toВ wrest her hand fromВ his.
В«IВ remember the execution,В» she whispered.
Clive stopped abruptly, and looked at her differently, not with the long, hard stare she’d received the first time, but with a look of dismay. His unexpressive eyes twisted for a moment, his lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to say something and couldn’t. Rhianon looked closely at him, and for a moment thought she had a glimpse into his soul.
«You’d better leave us,» Orpheus looked as if he were about to come between her and her escort. «You see, she doesn’t need a guide. She can learn a great deal more about this place herself than she can in your presence.»
Rhianon was frightened that a furious altercation was about to break out between her two companions. Orpheus looked angry and disheveled, as if he’d just had a fight with a bunch of rivals and was ready to get into more. There was a palpable power coming from Clive. But unlike the talkative Orpheus, he was still restrained and wise. Apparently, death adds to wisdom. Rhianon had no doubt that he had survived it, and now saw the world very differently than they did. At any rate, instead of the expected quarrel, only a slight nod of the head followed. Clive let it be known that he accepted the remark and was ready to step into the shadows temporarily.
«You shouldn’t be here,» Orpheus clutched at her shoulders as soon as Clive left them, pulling at the lush flounces of the fabric. His ethereal touch was suddenly very tangible. He hurried to lead her somewhere forward through the dark galleries, and seemed ready even to rip her off the ground and carry her in his arms. «You will die here,» he whispered, «and so will I.»
«You think we have somewhere else to go,» she hissed at him. «Perhaps to my castle, where I would be headless and you could sit guarding my corpse or pestering other people. You’d better go and be a companion for someone who’ll really need you.»
He didn’t even take offense at her.
«I’m already too attached to you.»
В«Yeah, IВ can see that,В» she grudgingly looked at the way his thin, too-long fingers wrapped around her shoulders.
В«IВ can hardly keep up with you anymore.В»
«That’s what parasites do when they suck on some plant. Vines in the garden or mushrooms at the roots of trees, you, like them, just need to live off someone else. On your own, you are nothing. You are zero. You are an empty space. You become more material the closer you get to me. And you think I haven’t noticed it yet.»
В«Chill out! Otherwise your breath will ignite this gallery.В»
His remark was sarcastic, but it was the right one. She tried toВ hold her breath. The tight corset tightening her breasts worked well for that. The fire that had matured inside her never broke free with aВ gasp. But Rhianon was still staring into the darkness, afraid that it was about toВ burst into flames.
«To think that you’re so golden and delicate, and you’re what I’d call a fiery beauty.»
She did not react at all to Orpheus’ remark. Sometimes even he was right. But that truth was of little use. Nothing could be changed. She was what she was and that was why they had come here now.
В«Stop dragging me along,В» she snapped at him, В«IВ can find my own way around here.В»
«Well, please,» Orpheus obediently took a step back from her. «Choose your direction. You’re the only one who can get where you want to go. After all, you were the one invited here, not me. Move at random and try not to inflame everything in the process. It’s so dangerous with you.»
He rubbed his hands as if they were burned. He could hardly have been burned byВ the contact with her shoulders. Rhianon regarded his gestures condescendingly, as if they were aВ joke. You would have been aВ fine clown, she wanted toВ say, but she listened toВ herself instead ofВ bickering. She wondered if she should just take aВ random route and let the magic take her where she needed toВ go.
Rhianon stared down one ofВ the branches ofВ the wide, dark corridor, and long rows ofВ sconces flashed on either side, as if pointing the right way. It was so reminiscent ofВ the Milky Way. Rhianon involuntarily stared at the flickering lights inВ the darkness.
And then it suddenly seemed toВ her that she had missed something. There should have been some other rite or ritual, aВ test ofВ her abilities, an initiation and aВ meeting, but there was none. The road before her seemed eerily empty.
В«Why does no one greet us?В» She asked Orpheus quietly.
В«You are different and your story is special,В» he shrugged nonchalantly, the ringing ofВ the stirring bells inВ this space seemed ghostly rather than perky. It was so unaccustomed. Rhianon felt the fire inside her. But an icy wind had blown.
«You are allowed to walk around here alone. The others wouldn’t be allowed to do that. And you go wherever you want, though there are so many forbidden paths here.»
В«IВ thought the way here was forbidden inВ itself.В»
«But there are rules, too,» he too stared into the darkness expectantly, as if he could see something she hadn’t seen yet. «Let’s hope you don’t get hurt, my beautiful princess. After all, you are special, and so pretty. If anyone is offended by your presence in their midst, they will be silent, out of respect for the fire within you.»
В«Stop your chattering,В» she paced ahead ofВ him.
«I’m only trying to talk sense,» Orpheus kept her at her side for several paces. Orpheus would not allow her to go more than a few paces away from him, and he would be at her side as if he were bound to her. There was really no getting away from him. But if she could bear to be around him, listening to his endless chatter was becoming unbearable.
«All you’re going to do is make my ears hurt,» she hissed, silencing him at least for a few moments. How nice it would be if he only commented on business and kept his own considerations to himself. Shall she tell him to do that? Was he bound to her by so much sorcery as to be compelled to do her every wish? That would have to be checked sometime. For now she was more interested in the aura of the place. Rhianon went wherever it seemed to be calling her.
The train glided smoothly behind her on the marble floor. In the silence ahead some rustling could be heard. There were hundreds of voices. They were talking and whispering, making absurd suggestions and jokes and promises, but they were all part of one big overarching silence. Perhaps she could have singled out any one of these voices just by wishing to listen to it alone, but she didn’t want to. She didn’t even want to look beneath her feet and notice in the cracks of the floor a multitude of tiny uncertain creatures, like the midget she had seen in the carriage just for a moment. Then he gave her a bow. Did this mean that she had been expected here for a long time.
Rhianon walked down the corridor for a long time before one of the open doors caught her eye. Every door she’d seen before had been closed, but here a golden light shone through the crack. She stepped closer, and all kinds of hues flashed through it. It reminded her of a rainbow. Rhianon was about to reach out and open the door, when she remembered that the star was still clutched in her hand.
В«There is aВ pendant from the neck ofВ the condemned man,В» she must have said the words out loud when someone inВ the empty space answeredВ her.
В«Do you want toВ call out toВ him?В»
It was not the voice of Orpheus behind her, and it was coming from somewhere above, not behind. She looked up and saw that a tiny man, just like the one she had seen in the carriage, was sitting over the doorpost. He, too, had taken off his wide-brimmed hat when she looked at him, exposing his tiny head. He would have easily fit into a thimble or a walnut shell all by himself. The creature was no bigger than a ladybug or a bug, but he acted as if he sensed his own importance. It was dressed somewhat differently than her last acquaintance. Tiny legs in gold stockings dangled over the ajar door. Rhianon was sure that if he wanted to jump down, he wouldn’t crash, despite his tiny size. She even thought she could put her hand under his arm and he would fly down with a sweep of his cloak like a butterfly’s wings.
В«What do you mean?В» she asked softly.
В«AВ dead one,В» was the serious reply, В«aВ dead one can be the mentor ofВ aВ living one. You could choose him.В»
«I don’t need tutors. I like to learn everything myself, that’s why I came here. Those who are really good at something don’t need a mentor.»
В«It seems that way.В»
The lilliput was staring somewhere beneath her feet, and Rhianon glanced there, too, and noticed the scarlet drops on the floor. She’d squeezed the star too hard in her palm, and it had sharp ends. They were too sharp. Droplets of blood rolled to her feet, a few of them staining the hem of her dress. Others touched the floor and began to faintly ignite on it. But there was no smell of burning, as there usually was, and no shower of sparks or scorching flames. Rhianon saw the scarlet drops fade, and black flowers sprout from them.
«No more frogs and toads that would emerge from the drops of my blood,» she whispered, looking at the tiny black magnolias or orange blossoms. She didn’t even know what they might be called. They don’t look like clover either, but they’re exactly the size of clover heads.
В«It is like aВ drop ofВ your blood,В» someone remarked.
Rhianon glanced at the doorway, but there was no sign ofВ the littleВ man.
«Don’t talk to them,» Orpheus warned her. «You see, they’re all over everyone, trying to lead you astray. They are empty-headed insects. They’ll do as much harm to you as locusts do to a field.»
«But they’re funny,» Rhianon stared into the empty space, trying to see what else was there. But all the tiny creatures seemed to hide after Orpheus’ reproof. It was so easy for them to hide. After all, there are so many cracks and burrows and just dark corners around. They could fit everywhere.
В«What did he say about me?В» she frowned and looked questioningly at Orpheus. В«What do drops ofВ blood mean?В»
В«Well, if your blood is spilled, but fell on no treaty, then your soul is ofВ no use toВ anyone here.В»
«Is it my soul?» She didn’t understand him.
В«There is aВ price toВ pay for learning, my princess. And what did you expect?В»
There is aВ golden crown, aВ triumphal procession, and aВ fanfare,В» she joked, but then she realized this was no place for humor. Her laughter seemed toВ sink into the endless darkness, leaving only aВ crushing sense ofВ emptiness. It was as if her soul had been drained out ofВ her.
«Don’t be afraid, they don’t want to take your soul for some reason, it must belong to someone else,» his own voice cut off and fell silent. Orpheus obviously did not want to finish something.
В«Is it my soul,В» Rhianon repeated involuntarily, and this word sounded like aВ sigh and somehow frightenedВ her.
«Yes,» Orpheus confirmed nonchalantly. «There are general rules for everyone, both for the marginally gifted and the super-talented. But they don’t seem to apply to you.»
В«Do you know those rules?В»
В«OfВ course, and IВ wonder why no one has introduced you toВ them yet.В»
В«Then you name them.В»
«Well, okay,» he shrugged. «First, anyone lucky enough to come here has to sign the contract with his own blood. It doesn’t matter if you stab your toe with a thorn, a pin, a needle, or just happen to cut yourself on a clump stuck in the doorpost, but the fact is, not a single drop of blood spilled here will be wasted. Barely a drop of it will get on the treaty, and you’ll see it. By the way, it’s already strange to me that you didn’t hurt yourself on the way in, no sharp teeth on the doorknob, no sharpened end of the pin you found. They don’t seem to want your blood too much. Otherwise you’d have found a sharp object, or stumbled across one. This is a school of the arcane arts.»
«Now,» she interrupted him abruptly. «What other rules are there? Or is there just one? And that’s my signature on the document, which, by the way, I haven’t even seen yet. And I probably won’t see it again, or else a drop of my blood will burn through it. Maybe that’s the only reason it wasn’t offered to me to sign.»
«I don’t think so,» Orpheus began to curl his fingers, clearly recalling the other terms, and Rhianon involuntarily noticed that there were more than five fingers on his hand. «One, you must sign with your own blood before you can begin training, two, no payment will be accepted – no payment in gold, because you must make your own gold,» he gestured briskly, and the doubloon glinted in his palm. «You see,» he showed the full coin triumphantly, «the third rule is, if you can’t do it, you have no business here.»
В«Is it creating gold out ofВ nothing?В» She frowned.
«And what do you want, my dear, it is sorcery?» He tossed the coin, and it disappeared into thin air, just vanished into thin air. Rhianon would rather have thought he’d managed to hide it in his sleeve, but she didn’t see anything like that. The glittering gold really did seem to just emerge from the gloom and drown in it.
«You make your own gold, that’s the immutable rule of this place, which is why students would flock here in droves if it were open to all, but the trick is that only the chosen can come here. Everyone would like to be able to do something like this, but only the lucky few or the unfortunate can do it, they somehow consider themselves to be the latter, though if I were them…»
«You’re not,» she interrupted him, «and yet you can do it, too.»
В«But not quite like them,В» he corrected her reasonably. В«Even you could do more if you wantedВ to.В»
В«IВ will someday, you bet IВ will,В» she thought ofВ her desperate longing toВ regain her lost kingdom, and the pain stirred inВ her soul again. She wanted power, and if only she had power, she would have no doubt inВ which direction toВ direct it and how toВ destroy her enemies. В«Are you saying that those who come here are unhappy, despite their great gift?В»
