Natalie Yacobson - Rhianon-2. Princess of Fire and the Winged Warrior

«You mean all eternity,» she frowned. «Oh, don’t be so modest, I’m sure you’ve seen better fireworks. There were at least the dragon raids. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen one in your whole life.»

«Are we expecting something like that here?»

«I won’t stay long here,» she was reluctant to give him the details, and she was sure he knew all too well.

«How are we leaving already?» Orpheus pretended to be amazed. «And I thought my beautiful lady would be celebrating all night. It is the death of other people’s enemies, not yours, but who cares if you can feast at other people’s expense. Besides, the enemies of friends are our enemies. You liked being friends with the fairies, by the way.»

«Don’t waste your breath,» she snapped at him. «Would you steal a carriage or horses for us?»

«What is it for?» Now he really didn’t understand her.

«I can’t go on the muddy roads dressed like this,» Rhianon wondered how he didn’t understand her at once. She could barely hold the train of her dress with her hand so it wouldn’t end up in the dust.

«Ah,» Orpheus snapped his fingers at her as if he hadn’t noticed just now. «Well, all right. I think I’ve seen a suitable carriage here.»

The carriage did not shake at all on the desert road, and the wheels did not rattle. Orpheus turned out to be a skilled coachman as well. Rhianon already thought that all he knew how to do was steal. Though the carriage he most likely stole from the master of the house, it is unlikely he would dare touch the carriages of any of his supernatural brethren. After all, the dead lord didn’t care that he was left without a carriage, and the extraordinary and overly exuberant horses in fairy cabriolets could have carried on, after all. She had to hand it to Orpheus for his ingenuity. He had chosen ordinary and unsightly, but obedient horses. Now he could steer them easily. And Rhianon could fall asleep. Inside the carriage it was dark and comfortable. Only occasional glimmers of light penetrated the window. Only it was impossible to determine their source. Where in the wilderness, where there was nothing but heath and forest thickets, could lights come from? She was beginning to fall asleep when someone gently touched her shoulder.

«Is this right? Are we going east?»

A familiar voice sounded right above her ear and brought her to her senses. Rhianon stared at Orpheus in amazement. He was here, beside her, then who was sitting on the horses. The carriage had not stopped; the horses were galloping forward, which meant that someone was directing them.

«They obey me anyway,» Orpheus said, understanding what she was thinking, «they don’t need me to hold the reins.»

«And you’re sure they won’t have to at the turn, too?» She feared a catastrophe that would naturally have no effect on the disembodied spirit, but would have a very tangible effect on her.

«Surely,» Orpheus snapped his fingers as if to prove it, and the carriage horses took a sharp turn, dragging the carriage after them.

«Wait, we must keep to one direction,» she was not surprised by his skill and was already worried about the course.

«That is to the east,» Orpheus finished for her. «Or where is your star pointing now? Don’t you want to take it out and check?»

Rhianon frowned. After the way the fairies had so deftly transformed her outfit, she was no longer sure she would find the star at all. The pendant would have been in her pocket. But the pocket itself was now gone. She felt only the folds of her ball gown.

«Look in its folds,» her spirit suggested.

Rhiannon slid her fingers through the fabric. A star seemed to slip from her sleeve.

«It is a focus,» Orpheus perked his ears happily. «How I love these little tricks. Not magic, and a little more inventive than pulling a rabbit out of a hat.»

«Shut up,» Rhianon interrupted him, not quite politely. «You are disturbing my thinking.»

«As you say, ma’am,» he bowed playfully, and surprisingly, even in the narrow space of the carriage, he did not bump into anything.

Rhianon regarded the star. One of its tips still remained elongated. It was pointing the same way.

«Straight ahead,» she concluded.

«And let’s hope the road at least leads somewhere,» he whistled expressively.

«Don’t be ironic,» she glanced at him thoughtfully. «It’s better than hanging around with other people’s company again, isn’t it? In the end it’s better than hanging around another man’s company again, don’t you think?»

She was well aware of his weaknesses. Orpheus immediately fell silent.

«But isn’t there another stranger’s company you’re going to seek out at the School of Witchcraft?» He asked after a pause. «Why do you need other people if you have me?»

«What do you have to do with me?» She burst into anger. «I’m interested in the place. What is it like? What do they teach there? Is it really a path only for the chosen ones?»

«Yes, but it is not for people like you.»

«Are you saying I’m worse than them?»

«No, you’re chosen too, but not like them. You’re better than them.»

«Oh, come on. I just get burned if I’m touched by people I don’t like.

«What if I do?» He arched his eyebrows defiantly. «Why else would I love you so much?»

«Because no one else was stupid enough to put up with a companion as chatty as you,» she wasn’t even surprised that he was suddenly confessing his love, she took it for granted that, after all, he was never serious, which meant he shouldn’t be taken too seriously. «Besides, you had nothing to do in those caves, so you picked on me. It’s boring to be stuck in the same place for centuries without anyone to talk to.»

«Yes, of course,» he wasn’t trying to lie, «but if you weren’t special, I couldn’t relate to you like that. There’s something inside you. It fascinates us all. I mean all magical people.»

«It is the flame,» she prompted him. It was the only thing inside her.

«I don’t know,» he looked at her seriously for the first time.

Rhianon looked away. She tried to comprehend what had just happened to her.

They’d tried to keep her in someone else’s house for a masquerade party, and she’d ignited everything there. And who was there? Masks, just masks, and she thought they were real demons. They flew out of the fire to talk her into staying with them. She wanted to forget it. Rhianon began to watch the glitter of the gold star in her palm. It calmed her. Even though she had seen this very pendant around the condemned man’s neck, it did not make her fearful. The gold warmed her hand pleasantly, and sometimes it was cold. The pendant seemed to have a way of cooling or warming itself, regardless of the ambient temperature or someone else’s touch.

She held the chain in her weight and watched the star rotate quietly. Strangely, no matter where she turned, the elongated end remained pointing in the same direction.

«So we’re going in the right direction,» she concluded to herself, but Orpheus immediately responded to her statement.

«You’re drawn to that place, where snobs gather, or a threatening emptiness reigns. It’s bad there, believe me. They try to tame the magic there. They want to keep your talent within limits, and there are no limits.»

Rhiannon looked at him with interest. «Were any of them at the masquerade?»

«There were only students, not teachers.»

«But there can’t be any teachers, because magic is an element that can only be controlled by a higher power. I’ve heard that teachers always remain invisible, because they are not living beings – they themselves are a force from the darkness that, without calling themselves, teaches evil to others.»