Of course, he's seen jugglers before, but never so skillful. Ten hands moved as if they belonged to one living creature.
Waiting for the continuation, Andrew mechanically put in his mouth a couple of candies. He was looking forward to the artists, but fate on this day for some reason, for some reason, all the time there were other plans ...
As soon as the jugglers, having wiped sweat and swallowed water, again came to their site, as from the side of the palace shouted amicably: "Emperor! Emperor! Without letting go of their juggling rings, the artists looked with cautious interest towards the balcony. But the Emperor had already left his vantage point - having climbed a high barrel, Andrew saw the Emperor majestically descending the stairs of the palace. A bright avalanche carpet, flowing under his feet, led to seating places for the nobility in front of the main stage.
But parents and girls are surely there now!
Andri jumped off the barrel and ran as fast as possible to the big stage. Having forgotten about jugglers, he thought only about how happy his ring Vladka would be. And how relieved Mom will breathe a deep sigh of judgment on her bad son, who managed to get lost at the beginning of the holiday. Of course, she knows that Andri is old enough and has been walking around town unsupervised for a long time but still worries...
Andrei threw off his forehead the cracked hair as always. The stage was already very close by!
He joyfully giggled, jumping over someone else's box (surely with pies!) and suddenly he really saw long smoky blue feathers on his mother's hat.
For a moment Andri felt that his mother had also noticed him in the crowd, and threw his hand over his head to wave from afar.
And then there was a deafening thunderclap, and Andri looked up at the clear blue sky, where there was no cloud...
Alexander did not immediately understand what had happened.
He missed the balcony terribly, dreaming of being downstairs next to his father. And when he heard the rumble, he was very surprised and even rejoiced, because the holiday did not suppose any fireworks. So it was probably a pyrotechnic trick!
Alka didn't even think about the bad thing... And he was terribly angry when on the balcony, and even below on the square filled with astonished exclamations: "The Emperor was killed! They shot the Emperor!
How ridiculous!
Complete stupidity!
How can this really happen? With anyone but the Emperor!
But the crowd that walked by the Emperor almost at the very stage suddenly rang out, and Alcus saw with his own eyes that his father, having stretched out his arms, lies on the red carpet ...
His heart stopped for a moment. And time stopped too. It froze, froze, and with him, Alexander himself froze as if caught in an amber bar of a dragonfly ... And then his heart knocked so often that Alcus grabbed the railing, afraid of losing his balance. My head was dizzy...
- Take the heir away! - someone shouted, and Alka was dragged from the balcony into the gloomy coolness of the palace rooms.
And he, passing through the glass doors, finally realized that something irreparable had happened...
- Let go! - Alcus pulled his elbow out of the Guardsman's fingers and rushed away.
He did not remember well how he had passed the endless enfilade of the front rooms and rolled down the main staircase leading to the wide porch, which today is covered with a long scarlet path. The only thing left in his memory was the moment when Alcus was corked out to the stage, pushing the people standing in the aisle between the rows of comfortable gentlemen's chairs.
Someone turned his father upside down, and now the Emperor was lying face to face with the sky. His golden camisole was covered in bloodstains, but his eyelids trembled. He was alive.
- Father! - Alcus rushed to the Emperor, clung to his sleeve. - Father... - Tears splashed out of his eyes.
A few more moments later, the palace doctor finally found himself next to him. He quickly looked at the Emperor's wounds and gave some commands. Alcus couldn't figure out which ones - his ears rang and it was hard to breathe from the spasms that squeezed his throat. Someone took him by the shoulders again, forcing him to rise. Looking back, Alec saw that only the guardsmen were standing around them with his father, and all the other gentlemen and ladies who were in the vicinity of the incident had already been wiped away.
Soon a stretcher emerged from somewhere. Having laid the Emperor on them, the guardsmen carefully carried the wounded Emperor to the palace. Alexander followed them, keeping an eye on the fine chain of red drops falling on the carpet.
The red ones on the red one...
Continuation in the next part 18.