Heart of the Castle

Chapter 30 Part 9 Black Feather, White Feather
The rotating earth rushes towards us at a frantic speed, and the scenery is as beautiful as a tapestry embroidered by skillful hands.Siegfried was very aware that she was falling rapidly, the strong wind screamed in her ears, there was nothing around her to hold on to, and when she opened her fingers, she could only feel the icy cold air between her fingers.

Siegfried screamed, his voice cut through the silent twilight like a steel wire, but there was no sense of panic in it, but full of joy.The Queen of the Crow has seen places far taller and steeper than the ancient towers. She has flown over the Silver Frost Mountains, and the majestic figure of the Holy White Stone Castle has passed by her feet; The continuous and magnificent scene of forests and towering icebergs.This height is not worth mentioning to her. Under the terrified gaze cast by the two pairs of eyes on the tower, Siegfried stretched his arms as hard as he could, drinking the long wind, and a pair of black wings followed this movement. , stretched from her back, making her fall suddenly slow.

Then Siegfried's small body turned into the posture of a big crow again. She vibrated her wings vigorously and pierced into the sky like a sharp black arrow.

Unfortunately, it failed.

Siegfried forgot one important thing. When she escaped just now, she voluntarily gave up the black robe made of feathers, and was able to escape smoothly from between the fingers of Grand Duke Raul.Since the black robe is the feathers on her body, when she transformed from a human form into a bird form, of course, except for a pair of wings, the shiny black feathers that originally covered her whole body disappeared completely.

In all his life, Siegfried had never tried to fly in the sky naked.The cold wind blowing in front of her seemed to be several times stronger, making her tremble all over, and her muscles tensed; her wings were as heavy as if two stones were tied, and every flapping was exhausted; Yes, without the help of feathers, Siegfried has no way to maintain the balance of flight.A horrified hoarse cry rolled across the sky, and then Siegfried fell towards the ground in irregular circles like a kite out of control.

"Damn the gods, that's not a little girl, but a shapeshifter!" Grand Duke Raul roared while clutching a handful of black feathers.The queen regent, Lilaya, gestured at him and yelled something, but he pushed her away fiercely. If it weren't for the swiftness of her majesty, she would almost fall to the ground.

"Woman, this is all trouble caused by you!" Grand Duke Raul yelled at her, "You ruined our lives!"

The entire Grand Duke Raul's mansion erupted after a few minutes, and more than 100 palace guards were dispatched, and even the servants and maids were organized into teams of three or five, each holding a mop, broom and long bamboo poles, like Like ants whose old nest had been stabbed, they rushed out of the mansion.

The Grand Duke Lau stood among his dozen or so grown-up children, wearing a hooded cloak, followed by his second son, Sir Bonnar, and his third, Knight Hyde, each high above a blazing pine torch.

"The target this time is a damned crow! This despicable bird has taken the precious gem, it must be captured, and the bird will die or the dead will be seen! In addition, if a bird of about 12 years old is found Don’t let the little black-haired girl go, she is the culprit who can turn into that crow!” Grand Duke Raul announced his order loudly, “The whole house must be searched carefully, under every stone, every place Rat Hole Crypt, every tree and every house must be spared! Sir Al Adil, all are at your disposal, including these grown children of mine, and if there are not enough, take My token is borrowed temporarily from the Royal Guards. I don’t care what you do, before dawn, I want you to catch that nasty crow, or at least find the traces it left behind!”

"Obey, Your Excellency the Grand Duke!" Sir Can Jian was indeed loyal, even though it sounded like such an outrageous order, he still agreed loudly, and then waved his hand to assign the task.

It was an unlucky day for the old castle that once served as the residence of King Firmeyer. Many exotic flowers and plants were broken and fallen by the rude actions, and the exquisite and luxurious furnishings were turned aside. Due to the excessive actions, many porcelain and crystal utensils that were worth gold were smashed on the ground. .

Heart-pounding cracking sounds came from time to time, and each sound meant that a valuable furnishing had disappeared. Both Sir Bona and Knight Hyde's cheeks twitched when they heard it, but the expression of Grand Duke Raul was as serious as ice. , cast heavy eyes on the raging flames burning on the torch, as if he didn't hear those voices at all.

Not everyone can understand the strange order announced by Grand Duke Raul, but Grand Duke Raul obviously didn't mean to explain it to them. They just need to check every corner as carefully as possible to find out the big crow or the little girl with black hair just fine.The fallen tower that no one stepped on before became the focus of inspection this time, and the night owl and the crow that had just returned to their nests became ghosts under the broom and mop.

Those bird carcasses that were almost invisible were taken as precious trophies, and presented to Archduke Raul by the joyful servants. These people thought they would get a rich reward, but what they got Your Excellency the Grand Duke cursed without thinking.

"It's a big crow, a big talking crow! It's not an ordinary crow or an owl!" Excessive anxiety caused Grand Duke Raul to change his usual gentle attitude, and his face even became ferocious. "A bunch of idiots, if you can't find anything, you don't need eyes! If you can't find any clues by the time the sun comes up, I'll gouge out the eyes of half of you and give them to the other half. I think four eyes each If you do, it must help sharpen your eyesight!"

A small group of guards hurried towards the kitchen, which was diverted during the first search. After all, no one thought that the big crow would hide in the steaming and noisy kitchen.But this time it's about their own eyes, so let them decide not to miss any corners.However, they didn't see a black-feathered bird in the kitchen, but saw a young clown bouncing around and practicing dancing with half an iron bucket on his head.

"Clown, have you ever seen a big black crow?" The head guard asked muffledly. He had a very huge flat nose, which took up one-fifth of the space on his flat face.

"I know, I know, oh oh oh." The happy clown stood on one leg and swayed. "The black bird hopped and flopped in the flour bucket and came out white!"

"Damn clown, do you take us for fools?" the flat-nosed guard yelled. "The crow turned white? How is that possible?"

"The crow can be white, and the flour bucket can do anything. I know, I know, oooh!" The clown changed his leg, but because the shoe was too big, he stumbled and fell in a series of somersaults Out, and finally stopped by bumping headfirst into the flour bucket.

This scene is really funny. Normally, those guards would have burst into laughter, but now they are all so anxious that they don't know what to laugh about.

"I know, I know, oh oh oh." The clown's voice sounded again, with a series of sneezes and coughs.The flat-nosed guard was about to curse, when a head covered in white flour suddenly appeared in front of him, so frightened that he almost chopped it off with a sword.

"Now is the time to witness a miracle!" The clown suddenly announced in a very solemn tone, and then stretched out his left hand from the flour bucket, and the snow-white flour fluttered with his movements, but no one backed away, because in the palm of the clown's hand, Standing was a snow-white bird, about the size of an adult rooster.

The bird's head bobbed up and down, and the flour rustled, revealing the blackness beneath. "Crow, I'm a crow!" The bird said in a strange voice, before it could say the third word, several big hands stretched out together and snatched it from the clown's palm.

"That's it, such a big crow that can talk!" the flat-nosed guard shouted happily.

"Oh, oh, my lords, be gentle, don't crush it!" The clown begged hurriedly, "Give me back this bird, and I will teach it tricks, making everyone laugh haha."

"Keep your little trick, clown." The flat-nosed guard replied angrily, "This is something that Grand Duke Raul ordered us to catch." Then he waved his hand and said, "Let's go, His Excellency It will be great to see us bring back the crow."

There was an eerie thumping sound from the flour bucket, but it was ignored by the cheery guards.They were all immersed in the excitement of catching the target, and they didn't even notice the movement hidden under the ugly singing of the clown.

"Hush!" the clown made a low warning sound, and then the eerie sound from the flour bucket died away.After watching the guards leave, the clown quietly took back his right hand that was behind his back.It turned out that in his right hand he was holding a big crow that was hairless and had only a pair of shiny black feathers on its wings. The bird looked at the clown with innocent eyes, flapped its wings, and made a "dumb" sound.

"Smart crows talk, play dumb, and go on the grill," sang the clown, with a playful twinkle in his eye.

"Gah, well, I can talk, what do you want?" The big crow said in a hoarse and weird voice.

"The talking bird stays with her, relieves her boredom, and laughs." The clown went on singing, and before the big crow could protest, he flicked his finger on the little skull, causing the unfortunate bird to faint immediately. past.

(End of this chapter)