I go everywhere, even to the most inaccessible places sometimes, Arnaud smiled guiltily. Some people say that there are no doors that can be locked from me, because I can even go through the keyhole.
This tower has no doors, she reminded him reasonably.
But there are gaps between the stones and windows.
She didnt quite see where he was going with that. To squeeze through a crevice is certainly impressive, but its hardly dexterity enough to do something like that. She could tell from Arnauds shabby appearance, however, that he had to use both dexterity and ingenuity to get his crust of bread. Thin and unkempt, he was, however, surprisingly handsome. She smiled at him.
You wanted to play instead of me? Dont worry, despite my skills I am in no hurry to take work away from the minstrels. At any court you will be welcome, even if they hear my music before you.
They dont like music here, he interrupted her. They prefer shouting.
Rhianon knew who he meant and nodded slowly. Heavy strands of thick hair fell to her forehead, as if they were the shadow of a crown. Only Arnaud did not notice the dainty hoop of sapphires on her head; he reached out to touch the strands. Amazingly, standing far away from her, he was immediately beside her. His hand, as if reaching across the room, easily fumbled with the curls.
Theyre like golden rays, he whispered with a quiet, enthusiastic gasp. I wonder if hell have the same
Who is it? Rhiannon looked at him worriedly. Somehow she didnt like the suggestion. At that moment footsteps sounded in the distance. A piercing echo echoed through the darkened enfilade of the hall. Madael was hurrying this way.
Arnaud could not utter another word as he sensed his approach. He quickly put his fingers to his lips to indicate silence, and then darted behind the drapery. He had already disappeared, and his pleading gaze still haunted Rhianon. Arnaud asked her not to tell anyone about him or what hed said.
I hope I do not have to stay here tonight? Rhianon tried to draw Madaels attention away from the moving drapery before he crossed the threshold.
Not if you dont want to, he tossed aside his helmet, scrolls of some sort, and began to remove the steel wires around his wrists as if they were fetters or chains. He had never attempted to remove them before. Rhianon was surprised. She had thought the bracelets, so intricately wrought, had become inseparable from his flesh. But it turned out that he could just as easily have thrown them off. The skin beneath the removed hoops was not scarred. He looked at his wrists as if hed never seen them before.
You know, in heaven, I wished Id worn some kind of jewelry, but everyone was equal there. Our only difference from the clouds and the ether was our beauty, not tiaras or crowns. Jewelry was forbidden.
And then you wove a bracelet out of the suns rays, she didnt remember how she knew that. It wasnt like hed ever told her about such things.
Yes, Madael turned to her and stared at her for a long moment, as if he thought she was someone hed lost and known, but couldnt.
And it was nice to have the distinction that no one else had. It was as if you made yourself the boss, and you were allowed to?
I was the favorite, Madael shrugged lightly. Everyones favorite. But in the end, my jewelry became my shackles.
I know that, she traced the coils of gold patterns that wrapped around his skin like a net. Until now they might have looked like tattoos or gold snakes parasitizing on a living body, but now it turned out that they were all part of a body that would have been perfect without them. He didnt need jewelry, either. He decorated the dark hall around them with his very presence. It was enough to look at him and all fears were dispelled. Rhianon shrank back; he belonged to her, and yet he seemed so unreachable at the same time.
Whats in the scrolls? She asked as if casually.
So, ancient truths, he said. I wonder how to break them
Can I help?
I dont think so, he said in a startled voice. No one can.
Help him? It must have sounded silly, and yet she believed in her strangeness and advantage over even higher powers.
Sometimes women can be more cunning and resourceful than men.
Im not a man, Im the devil, he said innocently. Is he a devil? His surroundings may have made him doubt otherwise, but Rhianon remembered the other things: the tent, the bed, lily petals.
I know you as a man, she reminded him, others remember you as a warrior, and no one knows the truth.
Not even myself. Sometimes you can get tangled up in all the things youve created yourself. Its like a golden web, youve woven it and now youre surrounded by it. But Im looking for ways out.
I really can help. You dont believe Im capable of anything?
I dont want to risk you, he looked at her seriously. This is not a childs game, Rhianon. This is combat. Not the tiny battle you fought on earth. It can take forever, and it can become more and more complicated. It is difficult to fight forever, even with my powers. And you have such a frail body.
He put his hands on her shoulders, so thin and delicate. With a press of his fingers he could crush every bone in them. His acquisition, made in a mortal world, was so vulnerable, it would take only a push to wipe it away, and yet he looked at his new toy with unspeakable tenderness. There in heaven he had a bracelet, here on earth a girl appeared. During the battle in heaven, the bracelet twisted from the suns rays in the shape of a golden crowned snake came to life and stung him with such fury that he was no longer able to clutch his sword in his hand. Maybe thats why he lost. Maybe Madael lowered his head, unable to finish the thought. What would the girl bring him? His favorite with golden curls and eyes as clear as the sky, would she one day be able to strike out at the one who embraced her? Is she capable of betrayal?
It is always the most beloved who betray, his former assistants voice whispered to him from the darkness.
He did not want to think about that now. Rhianon may be a copy of him in appearance, but only in appearance. He would not give her cause to rebel against himself. He would be very gentle with her. Though it is amazing how a hand capable of clutching a sword and slashing without mercy can be gentle at all. Perhaps there is a romance. Strength resigned to beauty. Gently he lifted her face by the chin with his fingertips and touched her seductive lips with a light kiss.
Ill give you anything you want, just dont put yourself in danger for anything. Dont risk, just wait until I bring you what you want. Believe me, in time I can give you everything.
He tried to put all his feelings into those words. Did Rhianon understand him?
She looked anxiously at the spot where the harp had recently been lying. The musical instrument had disappeared somewhere. The drapery no longer fluttered either. Then Arnaud was no longer there. Perhaps he really is capable of leaking into any crevices. Rhianon breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, Madael could have found out about everything. He would have been able to read it in her eyes, but now he was busy with his own complicated business and the intricacies of the worlds laws. So her lie passed easily. She didnt want to explain to him about the harp or Arnaud. What if he got angry? Would his anger cost poor Arnaud his life? She didnt want to let the minstrel down at all. Whatever he was, he deserved the right to live. Unlike the rest of her acquaintances, he had never once plotted against her or uttered hurtful words, so she could repay him in kind.
You said we wouldnt spend the night here, she reminded him.
Are you sleepy yet?
No, she looked at him questioningly, as if he were planning something, or thinking of making some sort of suggestion.
Then lets go. If you want a new experience, I have something to show you, he took her hand and forced her up. You know, Ive always wished to wander my kingdom with someone, not alone.
Rhianon felt someone place the cloak of purple damask with silver edging on her shoulders and quickly unfold it. She did not even have time to look back. The shadowy servant had already vanished into the darkness.
Its cold out there, Madael explained.
Is it outside?
It is outside the walls of that tower.
He said it casually, as if he were used to being or keeping prisoners. Rhianon shuddered. The walls of this place truly seemed to her to be living creatures, capable of emitting moans and evil energy. She looked around, but she saw nothing strange this time. Everything around her was silent. But she already knew how deceptive that calm could be.
Night was already falling over the land when Madael took her outside. In the tower it was impossible to tell exactly what time of day it was, for there was always darkness, just as in their celestial castle it was always dawn. Rhianon had already realized that in some of the enchanted places chosen for the unearthly to dwell, time could simply stand still. It did not apply to the mortal world. She sensed a sudden change. It was indeed much colder than the last time she had been on earth. A frosty wind blew in her face as they flew into the darkness of night. Above the black valley that surrounded the tower, Madael suddenly descended. Poisonous fumes whiffed in her face.
What was out there?
She spotted some creatures wriggling on the ground. The writhing bodies were naked despite the cold, and the pathetic, muddy rags that covered the sores were scarcely what they looked like. From below, cries and moans could be heard.
They burn like you from within, though there is no fire inside them, only infection.
I want to take a closer look, she saw, even from her height, that some small creatures were climbing up to the sores and gnawing into them. It was hard to tell who was squirming in the potholes on the ground: humans and nonhumans. If human, they had lost their human appearance as quickly as Madaels angelic servants.
Its dangerous, he warned. Even immortals get infected from them sometimes.
So why dont you burn them. Leave only ashes of them.
It is poison ashes, he corrected. It will scatter across the world and poison others, your beautiful fairies, for example. Besides, who told you that when we are dismembered, shattered, or even burned to ashes, we cease to feel pain?
But She thought it was too monstrous.
Chop me up into thousands and thousands of tiny pieces, and each of them will retain all my feelings, including my feelings for you. The latter is fine. But they dont have that feeling. They have only anguish.
I pity them.
Dont feel sorry for them. Theyve earned theirs.
His indifference echoed over the valley of sores like a bell. Even she was hurt by it.
But they are your army. They went after you.
So what is it?
Should you feel anything for them?
They chose their fate.
Stop! She felt something attached to her belt snap off and fly down to the contaminated ground. It was the mirror shed been carrying, and it must have shattered, falling from such a height, but she still wanted the golden frame back, even if it had no glass.
Come down, please.
He complied with her request and let her pick up the shiny object. Rhianon brushed dirt and lumps of earth from the mirror. To her joy it didnt break or even crack. The glass must have been enchanted. She twirled it around, catching reflections of the squalid wasteland in the distance and the writhing bodies nearby. She held the mirror up to the moaning creature beneath her feet and almost dropped it in surprise. It reflected not a black, hunched-over creature, but a beautiful creature, wounded, moaning, but beautiful. Blood streaks ran down its white face and the same white wings behind its shoulders, but they did nothing to spoil it. The same two deep streaks also dissected his back at the point between his trembling wings.
Lets go! Madael grabbed her arm. You cant stay here much longer, you might get infected.
And what if Im already infected? she was used to playing with fire, and even feeling it in her, but she found this place truly creepy.
I wouldnt be surprised if all the incurable diseases that existed on earth were just the remnants of the contagion that had come down to us.
Rhianon saw the lights of a village in the distance.
What is there? Is it a place where ghosts dwell?
It is worse, he drew her to him, as if to shield her from the decay around her. Come, Ill show you.
He led her to the little village faster than shed expected. It seemed that even now, as he stepped on the contaminated ground, he was not walking, but flying. The golden sandals on his feet didnt have earth or lumps of dirt clinging to them. He clutched his companion to him as if he wanted to carry her with him through space. Rhianon marveled. She was sure that if she had walked alone, it would have taken her most of the night to reach the mud huts. Shed seen the village so far from the heath that the low, one-story houses seemed like dots against the horizon. Now she stood beside them and could even peer through the windows. It took only a few minutes to get all the way here. Yes, with a companion like hers she didnt need speed boots. Rhianon walked through the narrow, dirty streets, leaning here and there to one window or the other. Sometimes the light inside was on. People were awake, but they looked so haggard they probably couldnt get out of bed. The narrow bunks, soaked with the stench of disease, were not even beds.
What a miserable place this is!
Theyre all sick, Madael said. His voice echoed through the dull silence with an unusual golden echo, bringing a kind of magic to the darkened alleyways. Even the pestilence and epidemic vibes that danced there seemed to stop for a second.
Death was already dancing on these logs, walls, thatched roofs, but people didnt die for long. And anyone who wanders in here is also infected. After a while, no one will be alive here, and anyway, if, centuries later, anyone who wanders in here accidentally or on purpose and seeks adventure, the same thing that happened to them will happen to them. You cant clean a place like this.
But your tower is untouched by the pestilence, built at the very heart of the pestilence, she blinked when she realized what she had said was foolish. Of course his tower could not be affected by the disease, and neither could he.
Why did this village seem so close to your land? She asked instead.
You see that mountain range there in the distance, he pointed ahead. They call it the Dark Spit, and you dont want to go near it. Theres a lot of strange and dangerous stuff up there, except for the Ifrit up there, whod throw stones at anyone, but theres a lot of gold up there, too. Precious ores, stones, gems, everything valued by mortals, are found in such abundance in that black hole as nowhere else. One day a stranger in a black robe came to the village and showed the people a handful of gold nuggets. He succeeded in awakening their greed and luring them closer to the Dark Spit. He said that he had mined it all there himself and would now live like a rich man, and that there was more treasure left for them in the mountain womb. Enough to make several countries rich, let alone a single village. In a ring of mountains, closing in the shape of a sickle, he suggested that they build a mine. So the peasants abandoned their ploughs, cattle and homes and decided to settle close to the mountain range. No warnings from spirits or ghosts had any effect on them. They even built a village here. The houses turned out so miserable because before they could set them up, the epidemic had already done its work.