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

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.»

      «You’re being a bit dramatic, but in many ways it’s true. The only pity is that unnamed forces sometimes retreat into the shadows for fun, and charlatans begin to claim their places.»

      «If that’s the case, I’ll know right away and won’t be there long. I can tell when someone is trying to trick me.»

      «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 a bridge of some kind and was involuntarily astonished. Why would there be a bridge in such a wilderness? She did not even hear the sound of flowing water. And if there was a bridge, there had to be a river. Rhianon wanted to look out the window, but there was nothing but darkness behind the ajar curtain. A star, dangling on a chain, seemed to be the only source of light in the darkness around her. Rhianon peered at it, and caught sight of something in its rays of light. It was a speck of debris. The object grew to the size of a walnut shell, and now it was a tiny man, taking off his head a hat made just from the shell of a 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.

      «Who are you looking at?»

      Rhianon