The knight, the dragon and the necromancer.

  Part One. In an era of change.

  "An old proverb says that it is misfortune to live in an age of change. For most people, this is certainly true. But there will always be those who turn the energy of change into strength. To give it form and direction, determining the course of history. I happen to be just such a person. I can't look into the annals of the future, but even now some people write that I have ridden the storm...".

  Witch-Queen. "Memories”, Volume One.

  Chapter 1

  Rose looked at the forest through the eyes of a bird. It wasn't easy, given that bird eyes are positioned differently from human eyes - and yet she enjoyed the sharpness of another's vision. She could make out every leaf in the crown, every vein in the bark, every gnat in the air. Her own eyes, weak even by human standards, did not allow such a thing. The forest rumbled in the wind, the tops of ancient, age-old trees swayed, but the ground was comparatively quiet. However, the bird was worried for some reason, and its excitement was transmitted to the girl. The invisible thread that connected the bird with the young sorceress could not transmit only the "picture" - Rosa felt at the same time how the breeze ruffled the feathers on its back, how its clawed paws stepped over the rough dry branch, how the air smelled of resin... A person unprepared would be completely confused by these sensations. But Rosa had been trained, and perfectly.

  She was nineteen now, and for the past five years, the girl had been studying to be a nature mage at the Royal Academy, in the capital. The best place for a mage to learn her innate talent. Rosa's family had enough money not to send her to one of the free military schools that trained mages for the army - she chose her own speciality. She had never regretted it, though many considered nature magic to be too theoretical and therefore of little use. Rosa was madly fascinated by the lessons - after all, "forest" magic existed at the intersection of other disciplines. Studying it, the girl looked with one eye into healing, necromancy, and many other things. Nature mages learnt to understand the forest, desert, steppe, sea, mountains, sand and snow, animals and birds, fish and flowers. The mechanisms that connect it all together, and thus the laws by which the world itself works. And magic, among other things.

  What Rose was doing now was not idle curiosity either. She had to share her body with the bird for her own project. Her studies at the Academy were coming to an end, and she had to think about the future. An interesting research done by a student might attract the attention of a mentor from among her senior colleagues. After all, a magician learns all his life, and the years at the Academy were only the very beginning of the journey.

  Rosa had always been interested in the effects of magic on living things. The release of raw magical energy distorted flesh, creating people and animals into helpless piles of meat and bone at best and dangerous monsters at worst. But constant low-level exposure should have some effect, shouldn't it? Maybe even cause inherited changes. Few people were studying such issues - the girl had dug through the faculty library to make sure of that. She was not going to be one of the discoverers, but she had a chance to bring something new. Rosa prepared an expedition at her own expense and set off.

  Long ago, in the days of the old empire, this forest was not so dense, and on its outskirts there was a portal station. A building packed with arches of magical portals - through them messengers, imperial officials and just rich people could instantly travel anywhere on the continent. When the empire split into small pieces, fighting with each other, the portals were abandoned, some were destroyed - they caused more harm than good. But before that, for centuries, the stations had been passing through themselves an insane amount of energy, fueling portal jumps. There was a reason they were forbidden to be built near cities. A malfunctioning portal could cause massive casualties, throwing raw magic thousands of feet around.

  Not even the ruins of the local station remained - but the memory of it still lived in the forest. Rosa found confirmation of her theory as soon as she arrived. After setting up camp and getting a couple of rabbits for supper, she noticed a strange pattern on their white-grey skin. It was as if some joker had drawn nautical knots on their backs with white paint. For the next month the young sorceress prowled around the forest with a crossbow, catching new specimens of animals, and at the same time looking around with her magical vision. The forest was slowly waking up from its winter hibernation, and no magic could be felt in it. But the plumage of the birds she had caught was also different in colour from normal, and the partridges in the far walnut grove had one more feather in their wings than they should. Little discoveries delighted Rose. At night she stayed up and by the light of the lamp wrote down and sketched in the tent the oddities she found. After the external differences it was the turn of differences in behaviour. Here it was no longer necessary to chase the animals with a crossbow, but to observe their ordinary life from afar. Quickly tired of being stuck in the bushes for twenty-four hours, under the protection of charms, repelling human odour, the girl decided to try a more interesting method. She caught a greenfinch, a tiny forest bird, enchanted it and released it. Now every day the young sorceress spent a few hours in the wilderness, lying on a spread cloak, connecting her feelings with the feelings of the bird. She could not do it directly from the camp - the invisible thread had a limited length. Luckily, the greenfinch didn't fly far away. However, nothing interesting happened to her. Until today.

  Rose could feel the bird's anxiety growing with each heartbeat, though she did not understand why. It seemed to be frightened by the cries of its feathered companions, louder and more frantic. Other birds, not only greenfinches, were also shouting. Winged shadows flashed in the sky - a whole flock came down from the branches. After them, the greenfinch flew off. Screaming loudly, the bird darted upwards, rising above the trees. For a second Rose saw something large, dark, clumsily moving below... And at the same instant the etheric thread burst.

  - H-hah! - The girl sat up jerkily, clutching her chest. Inhaled convulsively. The bird's sensations were fading slowly, overlapping with Rose's own sensations. The girl quickly touched her face with the palm of her hand. Small, neat nose, high cheekbones, slightly weathered lips. No beak. No feathers. To be sure, she pulled a strand from behind her ear and held it up to her eyes. Wavy, badly brushed hair the colour of a crow's wing. Not feathers.

  - Oh god... - Rosa took a breath, fixed her glasses, large, round, expensive silver-rimmed glasses that had slipped down to the tip of her nose. She looked round, resting her palms on the ground. There was peace and tranquillity all around. Only from afar came the sound of birds. But the girl already knew that the birds were noisy for a reason. She closed her eyes again, trusting her magical vision. She saw nothing but a faint flicker at her temples. But she heard something. The bird noise had died down, and a crackling sound came to Rose's ears. Just to the side where the greenfinch had seen a dark body moving between the trees. It was as if something was... breaking branches. Big, thick branches.

  Strictly speaking, the girl should have rested after the sudden break in the etheric connection. Just lie on the cloak for a quarter of an hour, getting used to her own body. But she suddenly felt very uncomfortable. For the first time in years, the daytime forest frightened Rose. Something was wrong. She should get away and try to figure out what was going on from the outside.

  She hurriedly drew her light crossbow, slipped her short cloak over her shoulders, and shook off her clothes. She wore a hunting costume - a short green jacket, black trousers with pockets, soft thigh-high boots, thick long gloves, a green beret decorated with a falcon's feather. She didn't have her usual belt with amulets and flasks - she had left most of her equipment at the camp, under the care of a maid.

  - Paulette's probably worried by now, - Rosa said in a low voice, slipping her beret over her unruly, barely coiffed black curls. - Lunch was long gone.

  The girl hurried towards the edge of the forest, moving almost silently. She knew how to walk in the forest. A mage of any speciality has non-magician mentors. A healer needs lessons in anatomy, a master of amulets needs the knowledge of a goldsmith. Nature mages were taught by a retired royal gamekeeper. And Rose was a diligent student.

  - We need more rabbits, - the girl whispered under her breath, looking round as she went. - I'm sick of bird meat. When I catch a rabbit, we'll make a roast with Paulette. There are still some vegetables left.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She stopped for a moment at an ancient oak tree with a bifurcated trunk and squeezed her eyes shut. Again, nothing. Traces of magic in any form glow for a magician with multi-coloured fire even through lowered eyelids. But Rose could only see the enchanted temples of her own glasses, the dim lights on the sides of her head. Thanks to the enchantments, the glasses stayed on her face in any situation and were instantly cleaned of any dirt. It was hard to lose them, but the glow at the temples was sometimes distracting. However, the girl no longer doubted that the strange movement in the forest had nothing to do with magic. Leaving the oak behind, she picked up her pace.

  The shriek came as Rose was approaching the edge of the forest. It was a high-pitched shriek of horror, but she recognised the voice of her maid.

  - Paulette! - She ran headlong, jumping over roots and through bushes. When she emerged from behind the last trees, Rosa raised her crossbow and... stunned. Their small camp was full of people. Men in felt robes and fur hats, with white scarves hiding their faces, were busily engaged in robbery. Some were pulling things out of the tent, some were tying Rosa's mare to the saddle of their horse, and three were tearing the dress off Paulette, who was lying on the ground, and gagging her with her own scythe. "Steppe nomads!" flashed through the student's mind. "But where from?!". Rose had not been spotted yet, and she still had a chance to return to the forest, to hide in the thicket. Even if the raiders realised that there were two girls living in the camp, they would never find even a trace of the young sorceress. That thought, however, lingered in Rosa's mind for a second or two. Then the girl swallowed and pulled the trigger of the crossbow. A short arrow pierced the shoulder of the nomad holding Paulette by the neck. The man cried out, falling on his side, and his companions turned their heads in surprise.

  - Paulie, run into the woods! - shouted Rosa, pulling the cocking lever. - Into the woods, Paulie! I'm right behind you!

  It was a lie, of course. The girl realised that there was no way she could run away now, only divert more attention to herself. It turned out so well. The steppe horses were grazing untethered around the camp, and only two raiders immediately jumped into saddles, rushing towards Rosa. One of them was shaking his spear, the other was taking something off his bow at a gallop. The girl drew the bowstring, put in an arrow, and froze, spreading her legs wide, as at a drill. A moving rider is a difficult target. But no harder than a snipe. And if he's galloping right at you...

  - Bdank! - The second arrow entered the steppe man with the spear exactly between his collarbones. Rose did not even have time to reach the third - the loop of the harness was caught on her shoulders. The killed bandit's partner rushed past the girl, pulling the rope - and a terrible jerk toppled the sorceress to the ground. The tightened noose pinned her arms to her sides. The crossbow fell into the grass, and Rose herself fell down beside it, hitting her elbow painfully. She was dragged a couple of steps, but then the raider must have let go of the harness.

  - Ouch! - A sharp pain pierced her elbow and shoulders. The girl barely managed to roll over on her back before the other steppe men arrived. The young sorceress was surrounded by five men. One man laughingly kicked her in the thigh, another kicked her shoulder with his heel, and the others mumbled in their incomprehensible language as well as birds in the forest. Surprisingly, Rosa had never been truly afraid until now. She had been anxious and worried, but she had not been afraid or lost her head. Only now, finding herself helpless and unarmed, the girl was actually frightened. And she screamed at the top of her voice:

  - Help! Help! Somebody!

  Only the forest could hear it. And the forest responded with a deafening crackle. Even the nomads turned their heads at the sound, forgetting Rose. The crunch of breaking twigs grew, growing closer... And then a dragon burst out of the thicket. The green winged lizard, larger than a house, crushed a couple of young ash trees with its belly and stopped at the edge of the forest, looking at the people in front of it. He certainly didn't like this humans. With a roar, the dragon launched itself at the nomads, surrounded by a halo of splinters, leaves, and wood chips.

  Rose, who had recovered the quickest, rolled to the side, away from the feet of her captors. The nomads rushed with shouts to the camp, where their horses were waiting for them. The lizard trotted past the girl, tumbling from side to side as it ran. She caught a glimpse of the leather harness and the white figure of the rider between its wings. Then she didn't care - wriggling her whole body, Rose managed to loosen the noose around her shoulders. Girl reached into the sheath on her right hip and pulled out a hunting knife. She slipped the blade under the rope, cut the harness, and quickly jumped to her feet. She cried out from the pain in her hip, almost fell to one knee, but managed to stand. Fortunately, no one paid any attention to her. There was a real massacre going on near the camp. The dragon trampled the nomads and their horses, beat them with its tail and wings, grabbed a man or a horse with its jaws and immediately threw them aside... The steppesmen did not try to fight - they were rushing back and forth, catching panic-stricken horses. Only one warrior, standing with his back to Rosa, drew his short bow with surprising equanimity and did not move from his place, as if waiting for something. "Aiming at the rider," the girl realised. - Waiting for the right moment....". In other circumstances Rose would have been horrified at the very thought of what she did next. But at that moment she was driven by pain, fear, and anger at the steppe men. Anger in the first place - the burning hatred simply pushed all other feelings aside, muted them. The pain in her hip had receded. The girl took a few silent sliding steps, approached the archer closely and, standing on tiptoe, drove her knife into his neck, right, from behind. The feeling of the blade entering the flesh was familiar to Rosa - she had many times killed wounded deer, skinned hares, chopped the heads off birds... Without giving herself time to think about the fact that it was not a deer she was cutting, she pulled the knife out and ran past the settling body. She hurried towards the ruined camp without looking back or listening to the wheezing behind her. Paulette lay where the nomads had left her, on her back, staring up at the sky with glazed eyes. A stab wound gaped in the maid's chest. Before rushing at Rosa, one of the steppes had pierced the first captive with a spear or a dagger. The young sorceress knelt down in front of Paulette's body, took off her glove, brought her fingers to maid lips, inexplicably hoping for something. Of course, there was no breath.

  Rose sat over her companion's body as the dragon tore the last of the looters to bloody shreds. Hands and heads were flying in all directions. Three or four of the steppesmen managed to catch their horses and run away. One of them was thrown by a frightened horse right under the winged lizard's clutches, and the others soon disappeared from sight. The dragon flattened the unlucky rider with a paw, lay down on its belly and began to lick its claws with its long, thin tongue. The man slid down on its lowered wing to the ground. Holding his sword in his sling, the stranger walked briskly toward Rose. She found the strength to stand up, pulling on her glove. Her beret was left at the edge of the woods, along with her crossbow, and she brushed her short, shoulder-length hair back with the palm of her hand.

  The dragon rider was a russet-haired young man in his twenties. He was draped in the white leather costume of a royal dragon knight, his belt buckle decorated with a crest unfamiliar to Rose. Almost running up to the girl, the knight asked excitedly:

  - Mademoiselle, are you all right?

  "The girls at the Academy joke about a knight on a white horse, but I was saved by a knight on a green dragon..." - Rose thought out of place. She nodded tiredly:

  - Yes. Yes. I am.

  Only now did the young man notice Paulette's body. Pale, he squeezed it out:

  - Sorry, I didn't have time... I happened to hear the screams and decided to check it out. Or rather, my dragon did, and then I did. I had to...

  - You should have, - Rose repeated slowly, looking the knight in the face.

  - I'm sorry. Who was she?

  - My maid.

  - And you, mademoiselle?

  - I… - Rose stammered. Tears suddenly sprang to her cheeks. Her throat spasmed. It was as if a tight string had burst in her chest. She fell to her knees and burst into tears, covering her face with her hands, dropping her glasses to the ground, shaking her whole body. The dazed knight first looked helplessly at the crying girl, then gently touched her shoulder:

  - Well, well. You’re safe now. Toad and I will protect you.

  Seeing that it wasn't working, the young man bit his lip and suddenly... put his arms around Rose, pulling her tightly against his chest. He whispered in a voice she could barely hear:

  - It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Everything is good. Everything is good. It's okay.

  - Y-yes. - A minute or two later, Rose pulled herself together and gently pushed the knight away from her. He handed girl her glasses and helped her stand up. - Thank you, my lord.

  - I'm sorry, I just have a lot of sisters, and I'm used to them crying... Oh, yes, I'm not... - The young man coughed embarrassedly. - I am Don Marius de Hvogbjorn, dragon knight. And you are?

  - Rosa Granchi. - The girl sobbed convulsively and wiped her tear-wet gloves on her jacket.

  - I knew at once that you were Iolian, from the Republic, - Don Marius smiled. - Black hair like that is rare in Daert. And your skin is so dark.

  - I'm not... I mean, yes, I'm Iolian, but I'm not from the Republic. - Rose finally got her voice under control. She unhooked a flask of water from her belt, poured some directly onto the palm of her gloved hand, and rubbed her face. The touch of the glove's rough skin against her cheeks helped shake off the daze. - I was born in Daert. In the capital.

  - What were you doing here, Donna Rosa? - The knight gently took the girl under her elbow and led her away from the maid's body, back to his dragon.

  - I am not a donna, - the girl corrected him. - We are merchants. I'm... oh... I'm a mage. Worked here in the woods. Don, where are the nomads from? It's a week and a half on horseback to the steppe border.

  - The Duc de Velonde has let several tribes of savages across the border to plunder the lands of Daert, - the knight explained glumly. - He hopes to weaken and delay the king's army, which is on its way to put down his rebellion.

  - What king? - Rose stumbled on a flat spot and stopped. - Queen Octavia came to visit us at the Academy recently....

  - How long have you been... in the forest, mademoiselle? - Don Marius asked softly, standing up beside her.

  - A couple of months. Maybe three.

  - Oh... - The young knight rubbed his forehead with the base of his palm. - Queen Octavia has been murdered by conspirators. The new king is Auguste the First, the former Duc de Veronne. Not everyone has accepted him. There is war in the kingdom, mademoiselle.

  Rose lowered her head and covered her eyes with hand. She took a few deep breaths. Straightening up, she asked:

  - What is your dragon's name, my lord? Did you say Toad, I believe?

  - Uh... - The young man blushed. - She's Cornelia Severina the Sixth, but... Yes, you can call her Toad.

  - May I touch her, my lord? - The girl spoke softly, looking at the knight's chin rather than into his eyes. - I need it now... I need it very much...