NIGHT, I Rin [classic book list txt] 📗

guests applauded and Swein came to the throne. He turned to the guests and said loudly:

“My dear friends! It's not a secret that my father organized this ball so that I could choose a future wife! At first, I was dead set against it. Now I realized that my father was right! I can say more, today, at the ball, I did meet a girl I would like to make a proposal of marriage...”

With these words, the King of goblins went down the hall towards Angelica. The girl's heart sank. Swein came to Lica, smiled and... walked past. Then he took the hand of Veronica, who was among the guests, led her to the throne and said:

“Princess Veronica, I am asking you to be my wife!”

Veronica blushed, smiled and said softly:

“Yes!”

The audience chirruped. Everybody was shouting: ‘Hurray!’ Swein’s father shed tears, came up and hugged his son. Then he pulled away from him and said loudly:

“I would like you to consider this day as the engagement of Princess Veronica and my son! The date of the wedding day will be announced later!”

“Happiness, the King of goblins! Happiness, the Princess Veronica!” everybody was shouting.

There were only two people who weren’t so happy enough - Angelica and Edward.

When Swein was asking the princess to be his wife, Lica felt as if a ton of bricks hit her on the head. After Veronica said: ‘Yes’, in addition to the bricks she felt as if somebody poured a bucket of cold water on her. Angelica looked at Prince and realized that he was feeling the same...

“Edward, it’s not our party!” laughed the girl.

“Yes, you are right,” the Prince nodded grimly. “Excuse me, Angelica, I need to be alone for a while and think!”

With these words, the Prince Night left the room. Lica also did not want to see as the guests were congratulating the Goblins’ King and the Princess. The girl went into the corridor and following the familiar her way went to the North Tower.

She was walking slowly until she reached the spiral stairs. Angelica went up to the balcony, where she had met with Swein’s father before. Nobody was there. The cool night air set her mind at rest a little. She sat down in a chair, took off shoes irritating her and began to look at the stars. The mysterious trees were rustling scales quietly in the royal park. And Lica did not notice that she fell asleep...

She woke up because somebody was kindly covering her with blanket. She opened her eyes and saw... the Goblins’ King!

“Swein!” exclaimed Lica.

She began to rub her eyes and blink but the young king did not disappear.

“Yes, it's me!” the goblin grinned. “Did you expect to see someone else?”

“No... I just went out to get some air and didn’t notice how I fell asleep. I thought that you were just a dream!”

“Wow! Am I your dream?!” Swein laughed.

“Stop it!” Angelica pulled him down. “What are you doing here? You should be with your bride, shouldn’t you?!”

“My future wife is sleeping. I went up to the tower to get some air. Sometimes my father falls asleep in this chair and I come to cover him with blanket. But I have found you here this time!”

“Swein,” suddenly she asked, “do you really love the Princess?”

“Why do you care about it?” quirked the Goblins’ King. “The main thing is that I'm going to marry her!”

“You can’t do that!” exclaimed Lica.

She put on her shoes, pulled off the blanket and stood up.

“Have you ever wondered that you can hurt her?”

“How many people do you hurt?”

Swein grinned and leaned on the balcony railing.

“But what about love?” quietly murmured Angelica.

“Love? What is love to you? Suffering, excruciation, jealousy?”

The Goblin King turned and stared at the girl.

“Thank you, I'm sick of it!”

“Swein, are you angry with me?” said Lica. “Why? May be because you are still jealous of me to Edward, aren’t you?”

“Jealous?” laughed the young King. “You are too selfish!”

“What?” she cried getting furious. “I am selfish?! What are you getting at? You know, Swein, you are the same clown as you used to be!”

“Oh, really? Let me ask you, how many men have you had an affair during your journey? I think Prince Edward knows not about all of them!”

He deeply hurt her. Angelica broke feeling severely injured. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, not to lash out with her fists on the Goblin. Then she said slowly:

“Yes, I like handsome young men. Sometimes I even flirt with them, but nothing serious, including Edward... Do you remember, before I left you had asked me not to forget you, and I swear I was always thinking about you! I was rushing to Margo to know about you, and found out about your engagement... I was silly when I said: ‘I love you’!”

“Do you love me?” asked the Goblins’ King strictly. “Then prove it!”

He slowly began to unbutton his coat.

“You are not going to take off your clothes, aren’t you?!” cried the girl. “I won’t prove you anything!”

Swein grinned and took off his coat; he was only in a shirt and trousers. Laughing, he began to unbutton his shirt.

“What are you doing?” Angelica cried. “Get dressed, immediately! I do not want a male striptease!”

At this point, the Goblins’ King took off his shirt.

“I've had enough!” Lica said firmly. “I'm leaving!”

She went to the balcony door.

“I don’t let you go!” Swein said sharply.

He caught her up in two steps, grabbed her arm and pulled her closely. Angelica tried to escape but couldn’t... The young King whispered in her ear:

“You're damn beautiful woman and I am losing my head when I see you! I cannot stand it anymore I want you! Here and now!”

Swein leaned over and kissed her passionately on the lips. Lica was straggling in his arms and shouting:

“Let me go immediately! I will call the guards!”

“I am sorry!” said the goblin. “But I am the King here! So you can continue shouting as much as you want!”

“You’d better let me go!” Angelica hissed through clenched teeth.

“You are nice with others but why not with me?”

These words are so touched the girl that it gave her strength...

By some miracle, she twisted and bit Swein on the neck. Not expecting this, the Goblin squealed and lost his hold. Lica turned to the King and with all her might hit him on the face. Swein stumbled and fell into the chair. Angelica came up and gave him another slap.

“Now you can call the guards! You are the King here!” the girl said sarcastically. “But first, I'll tell you! Nobody will make me love by force! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Your Majesty! Now I have to leave you. My congratulations on your engagement!”

Lica sent a kiss to the Goblins’ King and went to the door. After a few steps, she stopped, turned around and added:

“One more... forget that I told you: ‘I love you’!”

The war preparations

The girl quickly went down the stairs into the corridor and went out of the palace.

“Hey, servants!” shouted Angelica. “Bring my horse up, immediately! I'm leaving!”

The goblins were hovering around Angelica because they had seen that the girl came with Prince Edward and he was a highly reputable in the Kingdom of Night. A minute later a small lackey brought her horse by the bridle. Lica got in the saddle and said:

“Tell the Prince Edward, that due to certain circumstances I had to go to the witch Margo urgently. And give on my behalf apologize to father of His Majesty, as I was not able to do it personally.”

With these words, Angelica pulled the reins and rode along the curves streets of the Goblins City towards the mountains.

The girl was wandering through the narrow streets for a long time, when finally a goblin showed her the way outside. Lica was riding on the road in the moonlight and a storm of hard feelings was deep inside her.

“Why did he do this?” Angelica thought. “I was sincere with him! Why he didn’t believe me?! Why he made suffer four people - himself, me, the prince and the princess!”

She had a terrible headache from all these thoughts. She did not remember how she got to the cave of the witch. Elsa was waiting her at the entrance.

“Angelica, you look so sad!” exclaimed the goblin woman. “What happened? Where is Prince Edward?”

“I am all right,” Lica brushed. “I'm very tired and want to sleep! Please, take my horse.”

Elsa took the reins, and Angelica went to the hall, where she used to sleep. Neither the witch nor her brother was there, so she took a pillow and lay down on the sofa. After five minutes, she fell asleep.

Lica woke up because someone was shaking her shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw Margo, bending over her.

“Angelica, wake up! You have been sleeping for about ten hours. I can’t wait anymore, tell me everything! Why were you back so soon? Why you didn’t tell us that you came back?”

“Oh, Margo! I felt terrible yesterday!” Lica said honestly.

“What's the matter? What happened?”

She sat down on the sofa, remembering the conversation with Swein; she buried her face in hands and burst into tears.

“You were right, Margo!” said Angelica sobbing. “My fans are running away from me like cockroaches.”

“So, take it easy! Drink water and then tell me everything!” said the witch.

She walked to the table, took a glass of water and gave it to Lica. The girl took a couple of sips, put the glass on the table and calming down a little, said:

“The Goblins’ King has chosen his future wife! Ironically, she is the former fiancée of the prince, for whom Edward sacrificed his soul, getting a potion. Moreover, the Prince Night, apparently, still loves his ex-girlfriend. At the end, I was left with nothing!

Angelica burst into tears again.

“Take it easy!” Margo patted her on the shoulder. “It’s life! Remember, I warned you.”

“But how could he do that!” exclaimed Lica.

“Who? The Prince or the King?”

“Both of them!” Angelica burst into tears.

“Well, my dear, I'm sorry! But male harems do not exist yet!” laughed the witch.

Then she hugged her and said:

“Enough, calm down! Get them both out of your mind!”

“I really want to... But how?”

“How? How you can swallow your pride? I think you can! You have one more - the Prince of Vampires!”

“Very funny!”

Margo became serious and said:

“Honestly, another problem worries me now – the war! Huron and I were reading magic books for all night. Only in the Book of Destiny, could we find the spells that would help us to fight against the evil. We have never used them and we do not know how effective they are! Therefore, I want to aware you that the battle will be deadly dangerous for everybody who takes part.”

“But what’s about Swein? He has to stay alive in order to fulfill his destiny!”

“Exactly! That's what I was thinking about...”

“Maybe we will try to convince the King not to take part in the war personally?!”

“It is impossible! You know Swein! I have better idea... We will go with them and keep an eye on him!”

Angelica nearly choked of surprise.

“And how do you imagine that?” she asked with a hoarse voice. “Swein, could you give me your sword or you will cut yourself! Swein, stay away from the monsters, they can bite you!”

The witch laughed again.

“Well, come on, don’t turn geese into swans!” she said. “You will be a side of the battle and Swein, I think, will be with you, remember he was eager to protect you last time when you and Prince were going to look for Huron. He won’t be able to let you to be in danger!”

“I think after the ball, not only will he avoid being with me, but he won’t want to see me again.”

“What happened after the ball?”

“Well,” shrugged Lica her shoulders, “if to make a long story short – we parted like ships that pass in the night!”

The witch carefully looked at her