Swan Lake. Dragon Empire. Natalie Yacobson

shadows. Odette shrank from the cold, she didn’t know how she got here. What ghost brought her into this enchanted world? The only thing she remembered was the tale of her maids of her beautiful mother and the spirit of evil that killed her. Everyone tried to hide this story from the little princess, but still one day she heard it, and she remained an eternal imprint of horror in her heart.

      The rocks filled everything around them with a blue-bluish color, he was beautiful and cold, like the endless kiss of the wind, only the wind flew into these gloomy possessions, until Odette herself stepped here.

      She was wearing a light, light dress, but even it was luxurious, like a princess’s outfit, her long wavy hair fell in a light cover over her shoulders, her face was beautiful, she herself was a worthy daughter of Diana. Although no one dared to pronounce this name since the moment of death of the graceful queen.

      Odette did not want to seek adventure at all, but some evil fate drew her here along with him, some voice called her, breaking through the veil of her dreams.

      Suddenly, a shadow flickered around the bend in the maze of rocks, and Odette froze in place, as if a ghost was showing her the way. She did not think long and decided to go to the call.

      As soon as she moved forward, a black bird flew right over her head, it was a gloomy eagle, but what he did here, it was the first bird that flew to the witch’s rocks and how unusual it was, how bold was the look of shining eyes, as if they were full of human hatred and mysterious pain.

      Odette turned her head, wanting to follow the bird’s flight. Suddenly, in the distance, there was a sound like a quiet, ominous laugh. There was something dark and triumphant about it. Fear seized Odette, but she slowly moved forward. Her journey was long and dangerous. Some kind of indistinct burning flame blew into her face and burned her eyes so that she involuntarily closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she saw what was behind the bend of the rock.

      The rocks were a real labyrinth, it was impossible to predict what was hidden behind the next turn, and there could be any danger, although even the robbers did not look here, because they were also people who were afraid of ghosts, only witches gathered here at night, and Odette believed in this legend, like everyone who lived in the country.

      She plucked up the courage to bend over to see what was happening there, beyond the rock, and saw a burning bonfire, a huge cauldron with some kind of scalding brew, and three figures standing around it.

      They were dark, almost indistinguishable, but Odette could see their dirty black robes and long hair falling almost to the ground, and the gnarled nails on their bony hands, barely covered with dark skin like ash from a fire.

      Odette pressed herself against the rock and looked closely, their faces lit up by the glare of fire, and the terrible deformities of the three witches were barely discernible in them. It was difficult to describe their ugliness, but besides that, each of them had their own terrible flaw, and Odette shuddered when faced with it. Her eyes darted from one witch to another, each of them turned out to be even more unpleasant than the last.

      The first had one eye missing on her swarthy face, but not in the same way as in people, as if it shouldn’t have been on her face at all by nature. Dirty skin had grown there, as if from birth, the second eye was mobile and vicious, like some ominous light of a cursed swamp, it sparkled and shimmered with its red, almost bloody fire and burned brighter than the flame of a fire.

      Her long hand reached out to her friend, the next witch. The one was much worse than the first. Both eyes were missing on her face, but they were not gouged out – such was the eerie nature of the creation of the night. She seemed to see everything without eyes. She did not need them to have her evil power over the world and to frighten all people. Her face expressed too much. Large nostrils felt everything around them and slowly inhaled the rotten smoke of the fire, scarlet lips were thicker than those of a common man, and yellow, huge and rather rare teeth peeped out from under them.

      Odette looked at the third witch, her face was as disgusting as her two sisters, there was no mouth on her face, it was overgrown with smooth and gray skin, there was no nose either, only two small specks shone in the place where he should was to be located. But she spoke, like everyone else, and her voice was raspy and disgusting, it sounded like the sound of a flowing water or the sound of a falling tree, although it was not clear how she could speak without lips, probably it was another mystery of witchcraft…

      The hair of the witches was prohibitively long, they were stuck with mud and dirt, and they themselves were of a resinous color and curled at the ends like snakes, but the fire did not touch them, although they fluttered next to the flame, as if it were an unspoken agreement of witchcraft and lords of bitter fires. Suddenly Odette thought that she knew what the mistress of all this nightmare looked like and that her hair was red like fire.

      Odette watched the three witches for a long time and did not even notice how they began to talk among themselves. Their voices rang out in the valley between the rocks. It seemed that the fire itself flames in time with them and merges with their even more burning flame.

      «Today is that night,» one of them hissed, «a sacred night, and we must meet her with a new victim, I hope you have lured someone to the rock today.»

      «Yes, our new victim will come soon, we have completely bewitched her,» the second remarked mockingly.

      «I hope she’s attractive?» croaked the impassible witch, although it was not clear where her voice was coming from; from the depths of her grim figure or hell itself.

      «Of course,» the second answered her, «it is such a pleasure to kill beautiful and young.»

      She smiled longingly in anticipation of diabolical delight, which made her face even more terrible and disgusting. Odette clung to the rock in horror to see if they were talking about her. They lured her to a rock and now wanted to kill her. She wanted to run away from here as soon as possible, but her legs did not obey her, they were completely numb, as if in a dream, and she could neither walk nor run, she seemed to be rooted to a rock.

      «You remember what happened on the same night many years ago,» meanwhile the witch said.

      «Yes,» her friend responded, and a fiery eye flashed with a wild light, «exactly so many years ago the beautiful queen died, she should have gotten to us, but this scoundrel took her soul from us.»

      «It’s right that the mistress killed her. Diana was just an angel of strife, so many lovers suffered because of her, she ruined her beloved king and she herself had to die.»

      «She was too young, but it is the souls of the young that give immortality.»

      «Her daughter is to be queen tonight, but we’ll intervene, don’t we?»

      They all laughed deafeningly, their laughter filled the entire space between the rocks..

      «And Rothbert’s daughter,» meanwhile, they said, «she must also be with us.

      «He himself will consecrate her, besides, it is better not to have anything to do with him, because he can destroy us all, and then we will cease to exist.»

      «No,» said the other, «this will never happen, at least as long as our mistress is alive, we are under her dark protection.»

      «Odile is a real beauty, but her soul is dark, and woe to those who fall in love with the curls of her dazzling black hair.»

      «Yes, such a person died, because she is the daughter of the king of darkness, but when will she join us.»

      «I would like to kill her,» the one-eyed witch remarked with hatred and fury, «a girl of such beauty has nothing to do in this world, let her live with angels, not with people.»

      «But she is… a dark angel, and she is Diana’s daughter, although she has forgotten her mother, she has the beauty of a dead queen and the evil heart of her father, her hair curls like snakes of death, that will be fun when the young prince gets to us from- for the love