Bloody Dawn. Daughter of Dawn. Natalie Yacobson

eyes. They killed him, but they became his slaves. He died, but he mastered their consciousness, and they were forced to stay alone until the end of their days, struggling with terrible urges inside themselves.

      Donatello promised that this would not happen to Ferdinand.

      «You’re too clean,» he explained. «Not a drop of wine, not a single night with a courtesan and not at all because in your pockets you didn’t have money. You lived among the temptation and did not succumb to them, because you just didn’t want. Such and there are real chosen, they simply do not feel the desire to sin. God created you morally very strong. You will do your job, but your reason will remain untouched. If such as you were more in our ranks… But someone is special, like the devil, is born only once a few centuries. Such is the idea of the Most High.

      In the prophetic gift of Donatello did not doubt no one. Ferdinand had to believe him for word. And he believed until the fire began to burn his blood from the inside.

      Their order was also similar to the dragon, just at the same time, almost sleeping. Each cycle they expected the appearance of the catch.

      And here it appeared. After the rite, Donatello took him to the hall at the very top. A strange hall with columns, but without glasses and balustrade, blown by all winds. From there, the sea and the sky were visible, and there was an amazing clock under the ceiling.

      «This is a clock of the Universe,» Donatello explained. «Devil’s clock! When the hands meet at the very top, and this happens only once in a few centuries, at the time of the sunrise, which is clearly visible from here, in this moment you will have only one second to strike. Only in this moment the devil is vulnerable. Just one – the only second, and it should be enough for you. Do you cope?»

      It was not a question, rather a statement. Nevertheless, Ferdinand nodded. The clock consists entirely of gold plates and monograms, firmly crashed into memory. It seemed that they had a living face as an ornate sun disc. So far, it dreamed, obviously, it will wake up only when the decisive moment comes. In this moment, the devil either dies from his hand, or remains in the world already forever, only no longer as a ghost creature, but in the form of a real and only ruler. It all depends on the determination of Ferdinand.

      It is stupid to hang such responsibility for a single person, but he will have helpers, a whole order.

      This thought was not easier. The image of the clock pursued him, recalling the sleeping supernatural creature with two hands, gears, musical ticks and an ominous golden glitter. How can the creation of the devil be the most beautiful thing that you saw in your life?

      «Remember that the mechanism of the Evil One only one second for the centuries works against him himself,» Donatello inspired him.

      Now Ferdinand dreamed of this clock, but in dreams they were huge from the floor to the ceiling and further. In dreams they lived. The golden face was smiling. Ferdinand concerned the hands and felt the blood of the cuts immediately flows on the dial. The clock seemed to drink this blood.

      Donatello explained to him about this clock not all, but in some of the books stored in the monastery, it was recorded that they mean all divisions, symbols and letters on the hellish mechanism. So far, he knew that one of the hands measures time in the supernatural world, the other in human, and both of the same length. Only one of them moves into the past, as if giving tribute to each cycle of the devil recovery, the second hand moves into the opposite direction. When both hands will meet, the decisive moment comes. Ferdinand instinctively squeezed his hand. When it is time, he will not shake.

      Silence. Obviously, the brothers decided that he fell asleep, and left him alone. Only he did not sleep. So the heat drops after the fever: the body is still trembling, but there is no more fire in it. Ferdinand hardly rose. In this state it was madness, he felt very weak, but he wanted to read about the clock now. It did not remain so much time to the decisive blow. Now there was a deep night. Well, night is the best time for prayer. At night, nothing will distract you… Is it only except for lechery thoughts, but Ferdinand did not have them. He could not call any object: neither female, nor male, which would attract him.

      Although the exception was. Just one thing. The statue in niche. But his love for it was far from physical. It was some kind of piercing spiritual aspiration that could not describe any words. It was his God. It made him morally strong. It deprives all the desires towards people.

      Someone from his cousins would laugh, saying that the feeling towards sculpture stands between him and all the brothels of the Universe. The cousins were sad about nothing. Ferdinand left them his titles, estates, land. Many would call him crazy or blissful. He was still. He chose his destination in life.

      The strange clock was waiting for him in the hall. Since the initiation, he had the right to all. He could choose those who will be his right and left hand in the fight against evil, could give orders, Donatello temporarily moved to the shadow. Ferdinand was allowed to enter where the other was forbidden. Therefore, he was extremely amazed, noticing someone else’s at the clock. The man fell down as a shadow, and more resembled an unearthly winged creature. Actually, there was nothing surprising in meeting near this clock a supernatural creation, but someone was not. The fact that Ferdinand at first accepted for the wings was only the folds of the monastic hood. Just the gray robe was slightly open, hence the feeling of the fact that the wings winks over the old monk.

      Ferdinand froze in indecision. In his life, he did not mention the word with his brother Ernesto and was already accustomed to consider the old man a dumb.

      Silence came for a long time. Ferdinand began to study the symbols on the clock, and then noticed that there were some wounds and scorched lines under the folded collar, like after torture. Maybe he only seemed that the scars on the Ernesto body add up to the same symbols as on the clock.

      He managed to see a little. The lines, for sure, were burning out with fire, such deep and inflamed, as if their carved the dragon burning claws right on the human flesh.

      Ferdinand heard that the devil skillfully tortures people, but never saw anything like that. Ernesto smeared the gray robe too quickly. He was gloomy and inconspicuous, as a touching ghost, but in his eyes it was frozen something inexpressible. Suffering, pain, longing, a whole range of negative feelings. Only fear was not in them. Last Ferdinand respected. Full fearlessness.

      He suddenly felt sympathy to a gloomy monk.

      «I always think about it as the beginning of the world. The devil has so much power over us, because we all started with him. From the moment he became himself, as we now know him,» said Ferdinand

      Ferdinand himself did not know why he was set in revelation.

      «Sometimes he is not like himself,» Ernesto said. «Sometimes he can become closer to us than God. Be careful, boy!»

      There were already many such warnings. Ferdinand got used to them without much attention. He was aware of what risk goes, and it was not scarecrow. But the words of the monk hung like a black cloud. It seemed that he invested in them some kind of special meaning.

      He left, went into darkness as an imperceptible shadow. The clock was purely gold, but it seemed that all the darkness of the universe was accumulated within it. It had no eye, nor lips, but Ferdinand felt that they were laughing at him.

      It was a fair laughter. They left him just one moment for victory or defeat. Here is really a devilish trick. Ferdinand wanted to move away from it and could not. It seemed to measure the term of his own life. And this term approached the end. But then, how can he be able to defeat the evil, if he will not live.

      «Stupid, just one moment,» the clock stated. «To wait for a single moment, you do not have to live for a long time.»

      Aspiration

      «Why not now?» said James.

      «Let the clock are not in a hurry, and we hurry,» it was the moral of three scouts. Bob, James and Renault hurried to him with news. Father Donatello naturally did not know anything. He would not