15

When they reached the castle, Deya trudged inside on trembling legs. Bery wanted to follow her, but Aznar stopped him.

- Wait, don't touch her.

Deya, under the frightened glances of the servants, entered the castle. The girl was covered in blood: face, hair, hands. The woolen suit is hopelessly ruined: the blood is caked with a crust.

The princess walked along the familiar path to the baths. There she took off the dirty cloth that had stuck to her body. I sank into the spring and sat there for a long time, losing track of time. She washed and scrubbed dried blood from her skin and hair, shuddered from the rustling. Unsuccessfully warded off the vision of the dead guard, who was left lying on the floor in Leverius' house, face down. Fantasy boldly drew an empty blank look, a terrible wound on the neck, although in fact the girl saw the body only briefly, and even then - in the dark. The water around the girl gradually turned into a pink hue. Daya winced.

She returned only when Arleta c