Бесплатный фрагмент - Tamlane — Prisoner of the Queen of the Fairies — 2

Rose Girls

The dagger with the emeralds was the only means of self-defense Janet had. It might not be enough if a pack of wolves or any monsters surrounded her.

The woods grew quite dark, but the glowing fruit in her hands was a substitute for a lantern. At least it was of some use.

When the moon rose in the sky, its light too was suddenly very bright, though pale. It fell upon the thicket of roses, and it became visible that all the flowers, both scarlet and white, had women’s faces.

Pretty faces were hiding in the thickness of the petals. The prickly shoots of the roses began to move like crawling snakes. They intertwined with each other, like hands in an embrace, then separated, grew, and suddenly… Janet looked and could not believe her eyes. Instead of roses, she saw before her a crowd of beautiful girls in white and scarlet dresses. They gathered around her like ghosts. Could it be that these were all the same girls Tamlane had bewitched?

In the moonlight they were themselves again. A host of ghostly figures surrounded the astonished Janet. She looked around them in amazement. They were pretty. Could it be that Tamlane kissed each one in the moments before they died.

«It is his favorite!» One of the girls held out her pale hands with shimmering skin to Janet’s face. The girl recoiled. She liked these beauties much better as pink fences, though even then they could do harm. But now their outfits didn’t have roots in the ground; they could get off and move toward her. All dressed either in white or scarlet, though the outfits all had different styles. You can guess a lot by the style of clothing. For example, what country the person is from. Judging by the dresses, there were both inhabitants of Rodolit and those who came from far lands or even from across the sea. And all were seduced and ruined by the wood elf. Why did they only enter the reserved forest?

«Not everyone is given to choose their destiny like you,» remarked one, «they can also read minds!»

«And not everyone knew the forest was reserved,» added another.

«What do you want?» Janet was frightened. What if they all jumped on her and hurt her. They were jealous. You could feel it in the tone of their voices, rustling like leaves. They were all in love with Tamlane. And he was in love with Janet.

The girl knew that the beauties wanted to strangle her. Eloise, hiding in the hem of her dress, for some reason did not become a girl again, but also did not hurry to protect her with her thorns.

«Free us,» said one of the rose-girls, the prettiest one. «Or take us to Corund, where we will claw our thorns into the body of the fairies’ queen and strangle her to death. We will drink her blood.»

«And then? Then what happens to you. You’re all already dead. Without the enchantments of the fairies’ kingdom, you’d just wither and fall to dust,» said Janet.

«The magic in Corund won’t die even if the queen dies. But we could pretend to be human again, not just for the night. It would be much more comfortable.»

«For even in human form we now retain thorns,» said a pleasant voice behind Janet. She turned around and noticed that the white rose had disappeared from her dress, and instead there was a lady in a gorgeous white outfit, with blond hair and a gold hoop on her forehead, standing on the grass.

«Eloise!» Janet did not immediately recognize her. She had simply never seen the rose-lady in human form before. But now she looked and was amazed. Eloise turned out to be a dazzling beauty. And Tamlane had the stamina not to fall at her feet. Instead, he turned her into a rose instead of going crazy with love and trying to run away with her from the fairies’ kingdom.

Janet noticed that the beauty had thorns growing from the skin of her hands, the same thorns that replaced her finger nails. You could stab to death with thorns like that.

«It’s a clever idea, taking us all to Corund, we could tear the queen apart. She’s the one who tells her knight to turn seduced maidens into helpless flowers. She should pay us for it.»

Janet disagreed with the definition of helpless, but prudently remained silent. The beauties looked too embittered and dangerous, and the thorns on their fingers were too sharp.

«How could I carry all the roses to Corund. There are so many roses.»

«And there will be more,» Eloise said sadly. — She tells Tamlane to bewitch everyone, so as not to miss the one chosen girl who, according to the prophecy, will enter this thicket and who is destined to overthrow the queen of the fairies to take her place.»

«And where is to find such a girl?» Janet wondered.

«Tamlane thinks Rainbow has already found her. But you don’t exactly seem the type to dethrone Medea Shai.

Medea Shai! The name filled the mind with gloom. Janet was uncomfortable to hear it. She fumbled for the star wreath on the grass beside her. It slipped off her head. Maybe she should put it back on and become invisible to the rose beauties.

«If I am the chosen one, I promise to do everything I can to overthrow her,» she murmured, turning to the ghostly ladies. Janet was ready to say anything as long as they wouldn’t touch her. The beauties looked at her with great distrust.

«Don’t let us down,» Eloise sighed. — We don’t want to be roses forever.

They probably thought it was better to be corpses. After all, if Tamlane hadn’t turned them into roses, they would be corpses now. Magic is magic. It can do anything. They would simply never be allowed to leave the country again, lest they turn to dust, which, in fact, they would have been had it not been for magic.

The rose-girls didn’t touch Janet, didn’t prick her with their thorns. They seemed to have hoped for her, however fragile that hope might have been.

They wandered around her all night and whispered. Their voices sounded like the rustling of leaves. Janet dozed off, and when she awoke, it was morning. The roses were just roses again. They were fragrant, white and scarlet in a fringe of green leaves. The hedge, in the center of which an archway formed, seemed part of a fairies’ garden. Janet stood up and walked over to the roses, touching them with her hands.

«It’s not true, you couldn’t be alive…»

As if in response, their thorns stabbed so hard into her palms that the girl cried out. Eloise, clinging to her hem, hissed unhappily, too.

Blood came out of her palms. Janet wondered if she should burn the entire rose hedge of such willful flowers. But just at that moment Tamlane pulled up. His hair gleamed gold in the morning sunlight. It would be the color of ripe rye by day, amber later, and red at sunset. And only late at night would he be a brunette. The amazing thing is not the magic that changes the color of his hair and eyes depending on the time of day, but that all these shades go equally with his beautiful face. Even if he became white-haired like the bloodhound elves, it wouldn’t diminish his beauty one bit. Janet’s heart sank habitually at the sight of him.

Tamlane dismounted and walked under the arch of roses, crossing the border of the magical realm. Today he looked pale, tired, and worried about something.

Janet didn’t tell him she’d been here all night so he wouldn’t worry. She just pressed her lips to his in a long kiss. His lips felt as cold as water in a forest spring, but they were sweet. How sweet the kisses of an elf are! Janet could hardly tear herself away from his lips. If only it had been possible, she would never have left his embrace in her life. But Tamlane was not free. The fairies’ kingdom held him captive. He had no control over himself or his time. And what could be done to make it different? Janet racked her brain and could think of nothing.

«My forest elf,» she whispered rapturously, snuggling against him. «Could a girl who had torn herself away from her friends and followed a wondrous bird into the woods have thought she would meet you here. And that your curls change shade depending on the time of day: they are light in the morning, golden at noon, reddish at sunset, dark in the evening. And at night they should turn charcoal black. Am I right?» — She touched them with her hand. «How fickle you are! But I know you in every form.»

«Are you sure?» How strangely he asked that.

Janet suddenly remembered the bear, the deer, and the unicorn with eyes like his.

«You can turn into beasts?»

«Not only that!»

«Is that bad?»

«It is bad that I am not in control of myself at such moments. I can hurt even you, and then, when I come to my senses, regret it.»

Now he felt faint from the potions Medea Shai had long ago tinctured upon him to rob the knight of his own will. Lately she had begun to offer him more and more elixirs, foaming in a magic crystal goblet adorned with the scales of a sea dragon. It was impossible to refuse them. She made sure he drank them all. And the ghostly miniature dragon on the rim of the glass was moving, as if it also wanted, along with the elixir, to penetrate Tamlane’s body and enslave his mind.

«What do you know about me, Janet?» Tamlane sighed. — Would you still love me if you knew everything about me?»

«Then don’t hide it! Tell me!»

She waited, but he was silent. Tell this girl everything, like in a confession? And then she would run away from him and never come to see him again in this thicket. Without her visits the world would fade, and the magical captivity would become even darker and more burdensome. Still, Tamlane decided to take the risk.

«I shouldn’t have taken those cloaks,» he admitted.

Janet ran her hand across his chest, cautiously, and almost grazed herself on the sharp scales of his armor. «It resembled a dragon cast in steel, taking the size of a human body.»

«They are not steel,» he protested. «They are of a material only the Zwerg can mine. An ancestor made a pact with them and was given the armor as a gift. They make a warrior invincible and as strong as a dragon, but not everyone can wear them. The dragon armor chooses who gets to wear it. The armor, safely locked in the armory, seemed to call to me, and I took it without asking. I put it on with difficulty. The steel dragon seemed to resist me. But strength came afterwards, and devilish strength. I had won the war. Legends began to be made of my strength. And then on the way back to my father’s castle, someone whispered to me that I had done violence by wearing armor that was not meant for me, and now violence would be done to me. And so it was. The queen of the fairies, flying over the forest on her black dragon, spotted me and decided to take me prisoner. Perhaps she was attracted to my unusual armor, forged by her own people, or maybe she was just looking for some entertainment. I fought desperately, but you can’t beat supernatural creatures. No matter how much you burn or cut them down, they rise from their own ashes, form themselves anew out of bloody pools, and become more and more vicious. All my comrades-in-arms are dead, and I now live as a prisoner in a magic kingdom. By day I guard the borders, by night I entertain the queen. She is cruel. She loves to torment both prisoners and her own subjects. What else do you want to know?»

Janet frowned. Something in his story didn’t add up.

«You speak as if you were a man, but you are an elf,» she glanced down. He’s got green sprouts under his camisole instead of legs, alive and snake-like. It made her recoil in fear from him. One could tell at once that he was not human.

«It happens to those especially chosen by the fairies’ queen. Or with people who have a bit of something supernatural in their blood. Once in the realm of fairies, such people themselves begin to become magical beings.

«And how can a person get a little bit of magic blood?»

«It is from a distant kinship with a magical people. Suppose your great-great-grandfather was once seduced by a fair, then she disappeared, but a child with a share of magical blood remained. Or someone in the family married someone who had once been born of a supernatural being. There can be many variations, but they all lead to one thing: a fraction of the magical blood in the family. Members of such a family would either be afflicted with strange ailments or differ in some other way from mortals, but not so much that they could be immediately unmasked. My ancestor did wrong by accepting the armor from the Zwerg, but apparently he needed it to protect his duchy from invasion by unearthly foes. Legend has it that the dragon in whose blood the armor was forged tried to steal his bride from him, and my ancestor killed him in a fair fight. Perhaps the armor have been cursed ever since. But he who wears them never loses a battle.

«But you lost the battle with the evil one if you were taken a prisoner.»

«I was just tired of fighting. You couldn’t kill them, they weren’t tired, and I was only human… I was only human then,» Tamlane could not tell her that the outcome of the battle had been decided by the appearance of the beautiful fairies’ queen who had immediately bewitched him. Janet didn’t need to know that. The presence of a dark rival might scare her off. But sooner or later she’ll find out anyway.

«Janet, there’s one day to break me out of my captivity.»

«Yeah?» Janet’s all tense. The hope that Tamlane could be taken from the fairy realm forever was truly uplifting.

«Before I tell you everything, think about whether you want to break me out of my captivity and take responsibility for it. If you succeed in freeing me, the fairies’ queen may take revenge, and then a series of magical tragedies will ensue in your county: her dragon will begin to burn fields and villages, the water in wells will turn to poison because of her snakes, the fire in hearths and fireplaces will burst forth in the form of fire elves.»

«The fire elves I’ll have to deal with somehow,» Janet interrupted him.

«What do you mean?» Tamlane arched an eyebrow incredulously.

«They’re really nice people, you just have to find a way to get through to them, and show them the anklet of fire in time to keep them from burning.» But she wouldn’t say anything about the latter. «I’ve noticed that the elves if they don’t live in your realm aren’t too fond of your queen.»

«No one likes her, but you can’t disobey her. And I, too, have to obey her, though I don’t want to. I wish I could break free, but I can’t. I need your help.»

He touched her cheek with his hand, and Janet cried out. It was not a hand, but green living shoots. The whole Tamlane suddenly became an unimaginable green creature for a moment, like a living bush or a tangle of snakes hugging her. It only lasted a second. After a moment he was himself again.

«If you want to free me, don’t believe I’m an elf, even if you see otherwise. Believe that I am human, like you. I am with a bit of magic blood, but human. Don’t let me out of your grasp, even if I become a trembling serpent. If you, clutching the monster in your arms, continue to believe it is me, you will set me free.»

«Even now,» she hugged him and waited for him to turn into a snake or a monster, but he didn’t.

«It is not now,» Tamlane corrected her. «It is on the night of the elves equinox. It happens once every thirteen years. It’s only a week away. It is the only night you will be able to rescue me from my captivity.»

«I’m ready.»

«In any case, you have a week to think about it.»

Rainbow, who had been listening intently to the conversation while sitting in the tree, was very unhappy with what she had heard.

«Who would dethrone the fairies’ queen if you two just ran away?» She laughed. «Come to your senses. You can’t leave Corund in the lurch. There are many others suffering besides you, and you only want to save yourselves. You cannot be so selfish.»

Tamlane looked at her in a way that silenced her.

«I believe you will save me, because you are so uncommon,» Tamlane ran his hand through her shimmering hair. «The love of a mere girl would have been enough, but she would have died to save me. You have a bit of magic in you. I can feel it. And that’s what attracts me to you. Or maybe it’s something else. I’ve never seen another girl like you, not in the magic world, not in the human world. And I’ve been to both.»

«And the ladies here and there have tried to seduce you?» Janet said it in a half-joking tone, but Tamlane turned sullen, as if he’d been inadvertently reminded of something painful.

«The love of a fair lady can be very onerous at times, especially if she’s a queen of magic and has so much power,» he complained. «No one likes it when they try to impose love by force.»

«Can it be forced?» Janet couldn’t imagine.

«It can be forced with magic, yes.»

«But you didn’t force it on me. I fell in love with you at first sight. I can feel it in my heart. You did not bewitch me.»

Tamlane turned away.

«Do you think it came out differently?» Janet guessed. «You’re wrong.»

«I wasn’t referring to you and me at all, but to the queen of the fairies. She thinks she has the right to force her subjects to admire her, to fall in love with her.»

«Are they her dragons?» Janet remembered Rainbow saying that the dragons were the fairy queen’s lovers. «Or are they her elves? Or are it you?»

That last one hurt her.

«Don’t speak of that,» Tamlane dropped his gaze and noticed the wondrous fruit languishing in the grass.

«You shouldn’t have picked it,» he glanced at Janet, seeing how she’d been exposed to it. «You might not be able to find your way back home because of it. It makes you crazy, it confuses you, you can’t leave fairies’ kingdom.»

«What am I supposed to do with it?»

«It is nothing. Just take it to the castle and treat your enemy with it, if you have an enemy.»

«And if I don’t?»

«Save it for when he shows up. But remember, this fruit is only harmful to humans; to fairies and elves it will do no harm.»

«How do I get out of the forest?»

«I’ll give you guides. I have many friends in the thicket,» he said, referring to the clawed, furry little beasts she’d already seen. «Better yet, spend an hour in my arms. I’ll share with you all the magic I got myself from the fairies’ queen. She made me an elf. And by becoming an elf’s mistress, you’ll be immune to little magical tricks like this fruit. Even if the fairies fed it to you, you wouldn’t lose your mind, since your body and heart belonged to a particular elf, and not to anyone else.»

He didn’t have to talk her down. His kisses and touches were always extremely seductive, and the carpet of green grass replaced the bed. Roses were jealous of what they could do. Janet could hear their furious hissing as she let Tamlane lay her down on the grass. His fingers tangled in her hair, the green spurs on his torso caressed her, as did his hands. And it felt as if snakes were slithering across her skin. The kisses didn’t burn, but it was as if they left a mark on her body-the invisible seals that she belonged to her elf lover from now on. Love was a beautiful thing, but intimacy was even nicer. Someone in the thicket looked at them with judgment. He was wearing a mask of golden leaves, if only it was a mask. Janet spotted him, but the next moment he was gone.

She and Tamlane hadn’t parted until closer to evening. And they didn’t feel like parting at all.

A Friend of Magical Creatures

Janet was returning from her date with the elf, her hair disheveled and her hands scarred by rose thorns. Pixies were tangled in her hair, and magical creatures followed her out of the woods. There was a whole flock of them. Tamlane had asked them to escort her to the edge of the forest, but they followed her farther. The sunlight seemed to burn them. But the last rays of sunset were already dissolving into the first twilight, and the magical creatures were getting bolder. They were jumping on Janet’s torn train, making faces, dancing right at her feet. And all this was happening in full view of the maidens, who had just finished playing ball and were now standing as a group at the drawbridge. There were several knights with them. Among them was old Ambrose. He was warning the girls about something. Probably about the danger of magical creatures, and then Janet came in with a pack of witch creatures. The creatures had leaped out of the woods after her, and now they were under her feet. Janet looked helplessly at them, but could not chase them away. And here they were, trying to scratch her with their claws or tear out a strand of her glistening hair. Eloise was tired of resisting them, and her thorns made no impression on them.

Several of the maidens fainted as the creatures that came out of the forest began to make faces at them. Others looked at Janet with fear and mistrust, and when she approached, they all scurried away from her like the plague. If she hadn’t been an earl’s daughter and lived anywhere in the countryside, they’d have sent her to the stake for having such an entourage. But no one dared touch the daughter of a local landowner. They only stared at her with horror. Janet herself was frightened when the attendants trotted after her across the field. Tamlane summoned the creatures with a light whistle, and Janet herself couldn’t chase them away, not even with a threat. They only chuckled back and let out their claws. Now how to get rid of such an entourage?

«Let’s get out of here!» It came from the moat, and a jet of water splashed toward Janet’s vicious escorts like a fountain from the back of a whale. The ghastly retinue immediately shrieked and scattered. But this did not diminish the fear of the maidens. In addition, they noticed the strange wounds on Janet’s skin. The marks of elves and fairies! That’s what they seemed to call it. The wounds and scratches from the roses were beginning to form some bizarre symbols on her skin. And people who saw that she was marked by fairies tried not to get close to her. Old Ambrose was the only one who wasn’t frightened. And there was no judgment in his gaze. He looked at Janet as if he sympathized with her distress and wanted to help.

But Janet didn’t feel like she was in trouble. She had only been in a love bed with an elf. So what of it? What difference did it make if the bed was made of grass and the enchanted roses beside it hissed curses at the lovers? What difference did it make whether Tamlane was an elf or a human, if she loved him.

Janet threw her head up proudly when Ambrose spoke in a high-pitched voice:

«Fair Mistress, you seem to be in trouble, you need help.»

«There is nothing wrong with me!» She retorted angrily. That, of course, was a lie. Her dress was torn, her hair mussed, her skin scarred. And her virginity had been given to an elf. So what of it? She didn’t regret any of it herself. It was better not to live at all if she did not see Tamlane again. And with him, she willingly accepted his whole magical world.

Ambrose clearly disagreed with her. He had a premonition of misfortune. But unhappiness would only happen if she failed to get Tamlane out of the fairies’s realm, because then she would have nothing to live for.

Proudly alone, Janet made her way into the castle. Everyone tried to stay as far away from her as possible. Well, she didn’t need their company. She had Tamlane, after all. Better him than all of them. But she didn’t like the creatures that surrounded Tamlane anymore.

In one of the empty halls upstairs, an orange figure of some sort, resembling a pillar of fire, rose up. It was just getting dark. Janet remembered the song-counting that night belonged to the fire elves and day to the water elves. That was probably how they agreed amongst themselves. They shared the time of day, but they continued to feud over territory. It was now just as darkness fell. Night had begun. And the fire elf entered the castle! He can’t do that! This is water elf territory! Janet looked through the opened door and saw several fire figures already circling the table. Their touches were starting to make burnt holes on the tablecloth and the tapestry hanging on the wall. The fire elves laughed. Why did they start sneaking into the castle?

Janet walked in, and they suddenly flared up and disappeared, as if the fire in the fireplace had gone out. But the burnt-edged holes in the tapestry remained. The tapestry itself depicted a hunting scene, but an unusual one. On it, humans and supernatural beings were hunting a monster crawling out of the ground. And around it were woven gold roses in ornaments around the edges. And in the very corner of the tapestry, the elf had his arm around a girl with a lovely white bird perched on her shoulder. While the hunt was going on, he was seducing her. She was dressed in a bride’s dress. And he certainly wasn’t a bridegroom. Janet stared and didn’t immediately find that the holes had suddenly disappeared somewhere, as if the threads of the tapestry had restored themselves. Was it magic? Janet touched the tapestry with her fingers. It’s amazing.

«Madam!» Ambrose’s voice came to her from the threshold. He dared to approach her, though everyone was now frightened. «You shouldn’t have danced with the elves.»

«I didn’t,» said Janet frankly. What she and Tamlane were doing that afternoon, though it looked like a love dance, was in fact a complete fusion of the human body and the supernatural. «I just fell in love with one of them.»

Now the old knight walked up to her and took her by the shoulders with a jerk, as if he wanted to give her a good shaking.

«He has compelled you! He has bewitched you! But there is still a chance for healing. There’s an old healer in the village called Belladonna who can undo a love spell. You must go to her.»

Janet only laughed, softly and melodiously, as if she was a fairy herself.

«Love cannot be cured. You can only make a man unhappy by taking away his love, even if it is the love of an elf.»

«He will ruin you,» Ambrose said sadly. «Even if he loves you sincerely. Magical creatures in love ruin people all the same. We grow old, they stay forever young, we die, they live on, we are weak and vulnerable by nature, and they cannot be penetrated by any weapon. They will rise from their own ashes and bewitch someone next to them to feed on their life force. An elf will not be your loyal protector or devoted lover. Choose another!»

«Would you offer yourself in his place?» Janet couldn’t resist a sarcastic remark. She bit her tongue. She had upset the old knight.

«Forgive me,» she whispered, «but my lover is indispensable to me.»

«Your mother used to say the same thing long ago, and do you know what happened to her?»

«What happened to her? My father is not an elf. He didn’t ruin her,» Janet couldn’t suggest that her mother’s lover could have been anyone other than her father, but that’s what Ambrose was trying to say.

«Once upon a time, your father tried to make peace with the creatures living in the forest so that they would no longer attack his domain. He succeeded. The king of the elves, named Dagda, showed mercy. He decided that humans and elves had nothing to fight over. Both sides, human and magical, tried to get at least a truce. Peace was made. We celebrated. The humans started communicating with the undead, and everyone was happy.»

«And then what happened?»

«Then…» Ambrose began to speak with difficulty. — Then one of the elves seduced your mother, and she left with him. He enchanted her with his beauty, gave her no passage, he sent her golden roses as gifts. At first she resisted him, remembering her marriage vow to be faithful to your father the earl, but then she gave in. Magical creatures show great persistence when they want to achieve something. Amaranta was caught in the net of their king. And we never saw her again. But a lot of terrible things have happened to us since then. You were young and don’t remember, but fields burned, water turned to poison, flames burst from fireplaces and burned people, creepy creatures flew in, taking victims.

«What if the elf who captivated my heart is enchanted, if he is human?»

«Do not believe his speeches. Elves always lie. They lied when they made the truce with us. So they lie to their beloved. They end up ruining them.»

Janet remembered the scarlet and white roses on the border. Ambrose had a point. But there were exceptions.

«What do you want me to do?»

«Try to leave him. He will resist, call out to you, maybe even come to besiege the castle at night with an army of creatures like him, but at the first light of day he will have to leave, unless you yourself willingly come out to him. Magic can be destroyed by resisting it.»

«And if I can’t leave him?»

«Then you’ll die on your own.»

Janet didn’t want to believe that. Besides, Tamlane said he could be saved.

«People see the marks of the magic kingdom on you, and that scares them, but if you heal, they’ll gradually forget all about it.»

«It seems unlikely to me to heal from a desire for him. Even if the marks go away, the feeling remains.»

«Then you will become like me, a man who was once loved and branded by a fairy.»

Janet didn’t believe him at first, but Ambrose unbuttoned his collar and showed a strange sign, as if a red rose had grown right into his flesh. Janet even found a lamp and held it up to him to get a better look. It was definitely branded in the form of some sort of magical mark. Strangely, the branding was still bleeding. Apparently it had been made long ago, back when Ambrose was young. She couldn’t have a fairy falling in love with an old man. Maybe the brand was a mark of her kiss. Surely it was made to subdue both the knight’s will and body. But Ambrose resisted, and the fairy’s mark hurt him. Janet touched the mark with her hand. It vibrated.

«Are you her slave?»

«Morally, yes, but she does not call. And that makes it especially painful for me.»

«My elf knight is not like that. He would not harm me.»

«Not him, but the people around him. And there is a scar on your arm…»

Janet only now noticed that Tamlane’s kiss had left a mark on her palm, like a burn in the shape of a bizarre sorcerer’s symbol. In the afternoon, as they said goodbye, Tamlane intercepted and kissed her hand for some reason, as if her lips alone weren’t enough for him.

Ambrose was good, too. He looked at her with such condemnation during the day, and at night he admitted that he himself was at the mercy of some fairy who had long ago abandoned him. No wonder, then, why he’s so eager for Janet’s love to break, too. After all, he hasn’t found reciprocity himself. He is nothing but a jealous man.

«I’ll think about everything you said,» Janet assured her, «but I can’t promise to give up my elf.»

Ambrose nodded, signaling that he respected her decision, however reckless it might seem to him.

«Remember, if you need any advice on how to fight magic, I’m always here for you.»

He bowed to her. He left, and the tapestry beside her seemed to breathe, the figures on it as if they were moving, acting out a scene from the past and trying to warn her about something.

Wishes in Chains

«You first did it because you wanted to, not because you were forced to,» Malachite flew behind Tamlane, noisily discussing his recent intimacy with the mortal girl. «The queen will notice that. You changes, you feel the hope of deliverance in you. Medea Shai will kill us all for this!»

Tamlane did not answer him. What was the use? The emerald colored serpent was only worried about his own precious hide.

«Keeping you prisoner is cruel,» he tried to justify. «Forcing you to sleep with a monster is even more cruel. But those are the rules. Once you’re captured, you don’t get to choose what you want or who you love.»

«You could have kept quiet,» Tamlane said. «And there was no need to peep at me. Don’t you have enough keyholes in the castle? You only used to peep through them. You look into Medea Shae’s bedroom every night, and that is until her dragon hisses fire when he smells a spy.»

«This is your bedroom, too, until a new minion displaces you,» Malachite reminded him reasonably.

«This is my prison,» Tamlane corrected him firmly. That’s what he considered his forced love affair with Medea Shai a prison and slavery.

«But a dragon doesn’t consider it a prison,» the serpent behind him jokingly remarked.

The dragon, because of Tamlane, had to hole up on the roof of the tower that housed the queen’s bedchamber to observe the starry skies all night. Sometimes he would crawl inside and huddle in the boudoir. He wanted to kill his rival, but the queen would not let him.

Everything in the Forest Kingdom, Corund, was subject only to the queen’s wishes. No one here had the right to his will. Medea Shai had tight control over everyone. If she found out someone was dreaming something in secret from her, she would immediately clear his mind with magic. She was good at reading minds, and if any supernatural creatures were not deft enough to hide their thoughts in time, they were subjected to various magical experiments in her hands and open harassment by her dragon retinue. Medea Shai loved to deprive her unfaithful even at the thought of her subjects of reason, memory, and hope, and they were transformed into helpless puppets that she treated as broken toys. Someone who lost his mind after her sorcery, she then banished from the kingdom to be mocked by mortals. After all, humans were so fond of catching and displaying creatures at the fair that looked something like funny animals with wings and tails and fins, even if combined with an elegant elf’s head.

Tamlane grew sad, thinking that if Janet managed to get him out of Corund without fully casting a spell, he himself would pass for such an amusing beast in people’s eyes. The green sprouts on his skin alone make him a peculiar creature.

Lily had it a lot harder. She had turned into a tree. She had been a clever and resourceful girl in life, but she had no idea how to escape now. She could only watch in silence as everyone who was lazy picked leaves from its branches and moan in pain. Other than moaning, the tree made no sound. But Tamlane somehow believed that Lily had not lost her ability to speak. Her graceful lips and eyelids were clearly visible against the wooden head. It seemed as if she was just about to open her mouth to say something. Since the tree stood right in the hallway, Lily could hear everything the secretive fairies were gossiping about. All their secrets were instantly known to her. If Tamlane could talk to her, she would probably retell him some overheard secrets that might prove useful to the rescue. But the wooden lips were so still. It was as if it was hard for them to move, though they tried.

The queen of the fairies was discussing something with the hideous black creatures that scurried beneath her feet like pageboys. She noticed her knight’s appearance in the hall, and smiled slyly at him. The large scarlet gem that grew from the skin of her forehead flashed mysteriously. It was rumored to have sprouted in her skin when she had seized power in Corund and now replaced her third eye, which was, of course, all-seeing. Tamlane did not know how true these rumors were, but Medea Shai’s power over magical beings was truly limitless. Tamlane was the only one who resisted her influence. He wasn’t exactly a magical creature. His humanity had not yet died in him. No matter how hard the queen tried to take away his memory that he had once been human, she failed. He was the only one she had not yet succeeded in taking away his mind. She was, of course, not happy about that. It was more convenient for her to turn the captive knight into her obedient plaything. But Tamlane resisted her, and their life together in the realm of fairies was turning to hell. The black dragon was jealous, and the fairies’ eyes awakened a fierce desire to rival the queen, which they, knowing the queen’s violent temper, did their best to conceal, but the atmosphere still heated up.

The elves hated Tamlane, sensing in him a strong rival. They all wanted his wonderful dragon-body armor, but they burned themselves on it. But he had managed to take them himself once. And he paid the price. Not right away! In the beginning he won the war. His enemies fled from him. Legends began to circulate about him that he was invincible. And some strange creature on the battlefield stood hunched over and listened. Tamlane did not pay attention to him at the time, mistaking him for a cripple who had come to beg from the victors or search to see if anything of value was hidden in the pockets of the dead. Marauders were not usually welcome, but he did not touch one crippled creature, and then regretted it. The creature with the red eyes and rags was the spy of a fairies’ queen. And the black bird with the puffy tail and corundum in its forehead, flying over the field and as if counting dead bodies, was Medea Shai’s personal spy. Even then one could detect laughter in her cawing.

«You are a knight in dragon’s armor. You are a dragon knight,» she cawed. «You will not win forever. Because there is no knight my people cannot defeat.»

She was almost mistaken. His troop, with which he was returning through the forest, was attacked. And he almost defeated them all. Yes, they couldn’t be killed. Superbeings live on, even with their heads cut off. Arms, legs, paws, and tails reattach as soon as you cut them off. And they have to look for their heads blindly. He’d cut their heads off all of them and run away while they put them on. Probably try to burn them all. Though they didn’t burn all the way through in the fire, either, he was doing them harm. If Medea Shai had not descended on a dragon from behind the clouds and blown a handful of sleeping charms in his face, he would not have given up so easily. He wouldn’t have expected more danger from the beautiful lady than from a whole company of evil spirits.

Now this most beautiful powerful lady had become his mistress. Such a companion every knight could only dream of, but not Tamlane. A love imposed by compulsion tormented him more than shackles. Perhaps if Medea Shai had behaved tactfully and not forced her dark passion and intimacy upon him at once, he would have loved her in time. But to love a being who forces intimacy on you and seeks to control all your desires is too much!

But for all those who have not yet managed to force a love bed, and such gathered in the lobby of her palace most of them, Medea Shai caused sincere admiration. She was feared, but her truly magical beauty still inspired involuntary respect. Every fairy secretly wished to be like the queen, every elf dreamed of sharing a bed with her.

Thierry, the elves’ chief with whom Tamlein had not so long ago clashed in the woods, had been watching her dusky majesty unceasingly. He had longed for a queen for a long time, but he had never had a chance to be in her bed. Everyone knew that Medea Shai preferred to take only dragons as lovers. They are her equal in strength and power. So no one would serve her better than them. But Thierry was strong too. He was the strongest of the elves in Corund. He kept hoping… At first the dragons, scaly and clawed and fire-breathing, had bypassed him, he tolerated that. But when Tamlane appeared and took the bed to which Thierry himself had been aiming as easily as a dragon breathed no fire. Medea Shae’s black lover had not even had time to breathe a flame, and he had already been displaced by a mortal. Thierry hated him fiercely. It was hatred he cherished in his soul like a precious flower. Even now he looked as if he was ready to kill Tamlane at any moment if the queen commanded it. But she was in no hurry to give such an order. And Thierry grew more and more angry. For all his elfish beauty, he looked more and more like not an elf, but a chain dog who was not allowed to bite to death a burglar who had broken into a house.

He regarded Tamlane as the worst evil in the universe and wished to drive his rival out of Corund. In the latter, Tamlane would gladly agree with him. He himself had dreamed of escaping from here. If only it was that easy… Medea Shai’s charms were as strong as her blind love for her own captive.

Before he knew it, she was there. She knew how to move subtly and quickly. Her long, spidery fingers stroked his shoulders. The black moths that flew over her head were like a living veil.

«I can feel the resistance in you,» Medea Shai said to him, kissing his cheeks, his temples, his lips. «It’s as if you don’t belong to me. Your consciousness is somewhere far away now. Not with me! Don’t you like being my prisoner? Look,» she turned him to face the retinue of elves. «Any one of them would give anything to be you, in my heart, in my bed, beside me. And you act like you’re not happy.»

She frowned gracefully. Her flying black eyebrows resembled the curve of wings. The skin of her face was white as a shell. The intricate relief of her cheekbones made her face look even more like a shell that had been carelessly painted over with feminine features. The red stone in her forehead seemed merely a pendant to a glittering crown, but in fact it grew straight out of her skin. Tamlane knew this because more than once at night he had touched it and felt its heat. Not once did the fairies’ queen fall asleep in his arms. She didn’t sleep at all. Forever awake was her habit. And yet she was never tired. She didn’t want to eat, she didn’t want to drink, she didn’t want to sleep, but she encouraged the pleasures of love. Her embrace always resembled captivity. Tamlane wished to break free of it and could not.

«What is so special about me that your elves don’t have?» He asked the question so often that the words had become a fable. «Why am I so different from everyone else that you have chosen and tormented me?»

«Is it a torture? I give you all my love.»

«It is a black love,» he wanted to strangle her, but he could not, her throat seemed iron, and all the attempts to kill her were like a love game.

«You won’t get any better on earth. The love of a fairies’ queen goes only to a select few.»

«They are elves, not humans.»

«But you are my beautiful mortal, and I love you,» she ran her webbed hand over his cheek, «though you are rebellious.»

«That’s what attracted you to me in the first place. You love to tame wild dragons and harness them to your chariot.»

«And I love to tame wild elves and make them my lovers, but I like mortals better. Why? I do not know myself.»

«Let me go!»

«Why? Your old father forgot you long ago.»

«He wasn’t an old man when I left on that hunt. Or was it a fight,» he could no longer remember much himself. Medea Shai’s potions were corroding the fragile human memory. When he had forgotten, he would no longer claw his way out of her captivity, but would be an empty shell, fit only to give pleasure to the queen of the fairies. If only that moment had never come. Better to die. But she would not let him die. He had already tried. There is no escape from the captivity of the fairies’ queen, dead or alive.

Medea Shai gently stroked his forehead, as if testing when the man’s memory will be gone forever.

«I love you very much indeed, my beautiful knight. I remember when you rode your horse through the thicket at the head of your frail human troop and without your helmet. Your hair was like the sun, and I knew in that moment, as I flew over the forest road, that you must be mine.»

The wretched helmet! If it hadn’t scratched his cheek, Tamlane wouldn’t have taken it off and drawn the fairies’ queen’s attention. The unusual helmet had been given to him by a legendary warrior, his ancestor, and was kept in the castle, a rare chosen few could touch it and not cut themselves on the dragon spikes on it. Tamlane was able to take it and fight in it, but ended up hurting himself. Apparently the helmet was not meant for him. He took it off and was captured. The creepy creatures flooded the thicket and pounced on his warriors so quickly and with such ferocity that it was almost impossible to resist them. Tamlane killed many of them in battle, but they rose from the dead even more embittered, reattached their severed limbs, and raged on to attack again.

«Love is an amazing thing. When you see someone, you realize that there is no other creature in the world so beautiful. I was flying on a black dragon over the forest when I first saw you, and the dragon realized that he would never lie with me again in a bed of love, strewn with rose petals in the king’s bedroom.»

«That’s probably why he’s so angry with me,» Tamlane surmised. The dragon has been watching him forever, even now slumbering under the door of the hall, waiting for an opportunity to burn him in passing. «He hates me and wants to incinerate me.»

«That is impossible! After your nights with me you have become invulnerable to fire.»

Tamlane did not believe her. There is a fire that can strike down a magical creature as well. The supernatural fire of the flame elves, but they dance in the hills too far from here to be reached. He had already tried, but it was painful to go farther than the edge of the forest. Medea Shai’s power was pulling him back with invisible chains.

«You wanted me to spare the guilty servants. I did. They were not executed. Out of love for you, I am capable of much.»

«Then let me go back to the humans.»

«Leave me?»

«Yes.»

«Out of my kingdom?» It was as if she was playing around, asking questions.

«To the world of humans, where I was born. I am not a creature of your world, you have no right to keep me here,» he pulled her hair, but it became living snakes that hissed around his arm.

«Don’t resist! You can’t leave. You have been with me too long. Legend has it that a man who stays too long in a magic realm will grow old and die before he sets foot on mortal land again.»

«I have not been with you long enough to be an old man. I was still young, if I’d lived my life in the mortal world.»

Medea Shai sighed.

«Don’t be so torn back! There’s nothing there that I couldn’t give you either. It’s just that things are better and more magical for me.»

There’s a girl, Tamlane wanted to say, but he prudently didn’t. Medea Shai has no reason to know about his new crush. Lily, turned into a tree because of her sympathy for him, was still groaning heavily in the hallway of the magical palace. Various dwarves and trolls plucked leaves from her, hurting her. And once he caught a whole group of laughing fairies doing this. They were even breaking branches off of it. It was the same as ripping off a man’s fingers, for the tree trunk had become her body. Medea Shai had punished her like that for falling in love with Tamlane. Janet cannot be allowed to suffer the same fate.

If a fairy queen is even capable of destroying a rival he never desired for one liking, what will she do to the girl he has already managed to fall in love with?

Fairy Girlfriend

Janet felt lonely because she herself knows about the world of other creatures and others don’t know about them and can’t keep up the conversation. The maidens were playing in the garden, but she would not join them. They would not have been thrilled, either, to be approached by a girl who was branded by everyone as a lost, seduced by elves, et cetera, et cetera. People judge too superficially.

«If only I had a friend who understood me in everything,» she made a wish, looking out the window, and a tiny fairy appeared on her desk. It was as if she had been formed out of thin air. She had wings and a dress that looked like a flower. Her face and body resembled that of a grown-up girl, though she was no bigger than her little finger.

«Well, did Tamlane send you?» Janet wondered.

«Not him. I came to get you, and I decided to live here. I’m actually a garden fairy, not a forest fairy. I’m cozier here, and I can be your companion.»

«Were you the one who spoke to me yesterday and stuck a lost pin right into my pillow?»

The fairy nodded cheerfully.

«Don’t do that again,» Janet asked. «I might have pricked myself.

«But you didn’t prick on a live rose,» objected the fairy.

«I pricked oh her congeners,» said Janet, showing her scratches and wounds.

«Go to the water elves. They can heal anything with water.»

«I don’t believe it.»

«They can heal anything with water, but they can do irreparable damage, too. Water in their hands is both a cure for all diseases and a terrible weapon.»

The conversation with the little one began to take interesting turns. You can learn a lot about the magical world and its inhabitants from this little one.

«What about the fire elves?» Janet wondered. «What can they do with their fire?»

«Oh, they’re not to be messed with,» the fairy said. «They burned my flowers long ago. Cannes. They grew by the waterfall. They called me Canna, too, after the flowers I lived in. So it’s nice to meet you.»

«I am glad to meet you too!» Janet wanted to ask the little girl a lot of things, but she hesitated.

«Are you in love with Tamlane?» The fairy shamelessly inquired.

Janet nodded.

«It’s dangerous!»

«So what is of it?» Janet was getting tired of everyone warning her about the danger coming from him or anyone else holding him captive.

But the fairy, as it turned out, had something else entirely in mind.

«Your father would not approve of this choice. He himself once stole a mortal from her husband and now, as a sign of remorse, tries to dissuade others from repeating his daring deed. Ridiculous! He did it himself, and he tells others that mortals and immortals must no longer make love.»

«You’re confused,» Janet interrupted her. «My father is a mere mortal and so is my mother. None of them are fairies or elves. We are human. It’s Tamlane who looks like an elf. Well, at least in part.»

«I’m not confused,» the fairy frowned. «I’ve been around a lot longer than you, and I know a lot more. But you only know what you’ve been told. That’s all you know. How could you know who your parents were? You weren’t smart when you were born, but I’ve seen it all and understood it all. And I’ve seen your parents on secret dates, too.»

«That’s enough,» Janet didn’t like hearing lies. Even if a fairy liked to make up all sorts of stories, she shouldn’t pass them off as truth. It wouldn’t make the conversation any more interesting.

«By the way, your friends are coming to get you. A knight named Ambrose has persuaded them to take you to the village to see an old hag who is an illegal witch, and often gets in our way. He thinks it is time to rid you of the child you conceived by an elf, who may well be born a monster, or at any rate a creature with unusual and dangerous powers for mankind. I myself have seen such children from the union of humans and elves, they are capable of destroying entire cities with their spells, and they do not understand why they do it themselves. They are driven by instinct, which is why they are called monsters in both our worlds and yours. But sometimes they can be very beautiful.»

Janet’s ears perked up from her babble. Soon Nyssa and Latonia actually came after her and began to persuade her to go to the village with them. It was as if they had unexpectedly gone there themselves to see some kind of celebration. They did not mention that Ambrose had sent them. Janet thought it was nice to have a fairy friend who could fly over and spy on everything and report back to her. So getting to know the tiny creature seemed useful.

All the way to the village, Latonia tried to hide her face, which was swollen and puffy, as if its features were being washed away by water. She hid all her other previously naked body parts: arms, shoulders, even her fingers, under her long, wide-sleeved outfit, buttoned up to her ears. She would also do well to put a veil over her face, so that no one would notice that her skin had turned a watery color, and her ears and eyebrows resembled the curves of seashells. Had the water elves bewitched her? Janet looked at her with apprehension and sympathy.

Nyssa, on the other hand, had been looking in the mirror she’d once bought from Quentin the whole way. Was that unusual, too? She’d never been so narcissistic that she couldn’t tear herself away from her own reflection for even a moment. She even seemed to talk to it. Her whisper, addressed to the mirror, could be heard all the way. How could you talk to your own reflection? It certainly wouldn’t have occurred to Janet. Talking to Tamlane or the fairy Kanna was much more pleasant. Nyssa didn’t think so. Her whispers reeked of passion, and in response, from the mirror, it was as if someone was whispering something. The voice was different from Nyssa’s. Janet noticed that the golden face of the supernatural being in relief on the back of the mirror sometimes seemed alive and moving. It even winked at her. Janet immediately looked away. Magic objects can be dangerous. And this mirror definitely contained some kind of magic. No wonder it did. After all, Quentin had sold it to her, and he had something to do with the magic world himself. Maybe she should have warned Nyssa that the thing in her hands wasn’t easy. But Nyssa was so engrossed in her dialogue with the mirror that she paid no attention to anything else.

On the way, Latonya began to feel sick. They had to stop the carriage for her to go out to the stream and get drunk. The girl complained that she couldn’t stand being away from water for long periods of time.

«It gets too stuffy, as if I’m going to melt,» she excused herself for her behavior as they drove on. Her behavior was strange, indeed. No well-mannered lady would stoop to the stream and drink directly from it like a doe at a watering hole. Latonya didn’t even ask to have the goblet, so she hurried to the water.

The old fortune-teller in the village received Latonia first and spent very little time alone with her. Judging by the look on the girl’s face as she left her, it was clear that she could not be helped. Nyssa did not go to the fortune teller. She stood by the roadside and talked to the mirror. Her curiosity about fortune-telling ended the moment she found herself holding a magical object. And she had once warned Janet to beware of magic and not to be friends with elves. What a hypocrite. Kanna flew beside her and laughed at the affected creature. The fairy was so tiny that no one paid any attention to her. As the earl’s daughter’s new friend, she followed her everywhere, while remaining, herself, unnoticed by anyone.

For some reason Janet was afraid to go to the fortune-teller. The last time she had been here was when she was a child, with her mother. She remembered the shabby little house, standing in the middle of nowhere, just over the cliff. It was dangerous to live here. If you stepped any farther away from the house, you’d fall straight down into a crevasse. But the old witch, as the locals had dubbed her, was obviously happy with the location.

Nothing had changed inside the house. It was dark even in the daytime, the hearth was burning, a cauldron of some kind of brew was hanging on chains from the ceiling, and the skins of slaughtered animals were everywhere.

«You came at last,» Belladonna seemed to be waiting for her. She approached Janet, shaking her gray hair, and suddenly placed a wrinkled hand on the girl’s waist.

«I knew it! Just like your mother. Do you really want to get rid of him?»

Janet jerked away, and backed away a little. She stumbled back toward the cauldron and stopped. The smell from the cauldron was not appetizing; it wasn’t cooking food, but something that smelled disgusting and irritated her nostrils. It even seemed to Janet that something shapeless but alive was reaching for her from the cauldron.

«I only wanted to see you.»

The old woman gave a distrustful snort.

«No one around here wants to see the witch again,» the old woman grinned incredulously.

«Are you a witch?»

The old woman was even embarrassed by Janet’s direct gaze.

«Oh, your lover is strong. Even now, in your presence, I can feel his green claws strangling me,» she complained. «I wish you hadn’t come.»

«I didn’t want to,» Janet admitted honestly. «I only wanted to reassure the people in the castle. They would have thought I was cured after they’d come to see you.»

«Is it from your love of elves, from your friendship with water and fire, from the handsome man in the thicket, or from your magical bloodline. What exactly would they want to heal you from? Almost none of these things are curable. Even the temptation you succumbed to in the thicket cannot be cured. You can only banish its fetus,» she ran her stubby finger along Janet’s waist again.

«I don’t think I want to cure anything. Love is not a disease.»

«But you’d better think of it,» said Belladonna, «for Aspasia spoke of you as a young, naive creature who thinks of nothing but amusement. And thus you lose a great deal. You’re naive! For example, I could drink all your youth and strength out of you right now, and you wouldn’t even think anything of it. Everyone would think you’d have withered away from your illness. But your friend from the forest won’t let me. It’s good to have a lover who cares about you and can do anything. Well, almost anything. If he was king of the elves and fairies, Amaranta’s story would be the same as yours. He would have come after you to the earl’s castle with his army of evil spirits.»

«Who is Aspasia?» Janet was more alarmed by the name than by the old hag’s chatter.

«She is my sister. She’s in Rodolit now.

«She is a fortune teller,» Janet guessed. But how could that be? Belladonna was an ancient, gray-haired old woman, and suddenly she had a young, attractive sister. Yes, she’s old enough to be her granddaughter.

«Don’t think I’m lying,» Belladonna warned her, sensing her doubts. «You see, one abuses magic and feeds on other people’s powers more often than the other. But I can do something, too.»

She turned for a moment toward the hearth, where orange sparks flickered. Her body trembled, and she turned back to Janet, already young and enchanted. Even the fortuneteller in Rodolit was not so pretty.

«Have you seen enough?» Belladonna was a moment later a hunchbacked old woman with long gray hair. «I don’t like to deceive people for a long time.»

«Does Aspasia like it?» Janet inquired.

«She’s an aristocrat,» said Belladonna. «She appreciates fancy things. She wants revenge on the Queen of the Fairies for petty quarrels that aren’t worth a damn.»

«How do you feel about the fairies’ queen?» For some reason Janet became curious.

«I’d rather know how you feel about her. After all, she does whatever she wants with your lover. She owns him like he owns you. And she can destroy you both unless your father comes to the rescue.»

«And what can a mortal earl do against a fairies’ queen?»

«Am I talking about an earl?» Belladonna was greatly surprised. «I am talking about the king of the elves.»

Janet almost laughed.

«Don’t you know your mother is with him now?»

«You’re confused about something.»

«Girl, I never confuse anything. Not the past, not the future. I know everything,» with these words the old fortune-teller took out a roll of some kind and put it in front of Janet. The roll was moving. Claws were coming out of it.

«Take this! It’s your mother’s bastard and King Dagda’s bastard! They both don’t want it. You can take him with you.»

«You don’t like it, you’ll have to take care of others. Medea Shai has bastards, too.»

With what a sneer she said it, as if she hoped to hurt the girl’s feelings.

«You should know that she bore children to her mortal captive!»

Janet ran out of the distraught fortuneteller’s cottage, fearing that the creepy creature from the roll might come out and chase her.

She was leaving the village in a hurry, and she suggested she stop at Rodolit on her way. We must try to find Aspasia there and get her to refute all this terrible news. Unless the fortuneteller had left town, she could dissuade Janet that she was the old witch’s sister and reassure her that she didn’t agree with all this nonsense.

The area outside the house where Aspasia had once dwelt was now unfamiliarly empty. Janet walked alone toward the square where the fair had been held not so long ago, and noticed one abandoned tent. Some animal was whimpering there, begging to be let out. In a human voice! Janet rushed over there.

She found the cage in which the dwarf was sitting. It was a real dwarf, with eyes that glowed scarlet like fire. Janet recoiled at first, but then decided she’d better let him out. Surely he had been banished from Corund by the fairies’ queen and was helpless before the inhabitants of Rodolit dared to catch him and show him off in a circus for the public’s amusement.

She felt pity for the unpleasant looking creature on the one hand, but she was afraid of him on the other.

«Do not be afraid!» He caught her fear. «Just pull back the latch.»

His voice was husky and gruff. His eyes glittered dangerously. Janet hesitated for a moment, then she pulled the latch. The cage swung open easily, but the dwarf struggled to get out. The opening of the door was too narrow; Janet helped him by grabbing both hands. She almost pulled him out. He found himself on the sidewalk, jumped up and down with joy, and turned to Janet.

«Thank you, madam.» he bowed, and was gone.

Well, there, one magical creature, exiled from Corund and held captive by humans, she has set free. But could she free them all? Rose whispered to her that there are many others, and she has released only one so far.

«It is not enough to be queen,» Eloise admonished her.

«But I don’t want to,» Janet admitted. «Why would I want to be their queen? I’m happy with my position as it is.»

The white rose did not believe her.

Gloomy Captivity

The past came back in dreams, like a magic mirror. Tamlane would fall asleep or stare into the mirrored glass, surrounded like a frame by enchanted black roses, and see everything that had happened to them years before. If it weren’t for the mirror and the dream realm, he would have forgotten all about it long ago. Before he was captured by the fairies’ queen, he was young and naïve. His father was a duke. And Tamlane was his only son and heir to all his possessions. All the girls in the area knew this and were crazy about him. Because besides being rich and noble, he was also good-looking. It was a rare combination. Beauty as an elf, not as a mortal, many whispered. At that time Tamlane did not know that in time some evil force in the person of Medea Shai would try to make him a real elf. In those days he had lived a carefree life, learning the art of warfare, spending his days at the hunt and the roustabout, flirting with the ladies, listening to his old uncle’s tales of the great ancestors of their kind who had faced danger and magic.

His uncle was an alchemist. He knew all about rare metals and alloys. But even he didn’t know what the armor, which was shaped like a human-sized dragon’s body, was made of. They were so skillfully made that one could mistake whoever wore them for a steel dragon. Legend has it that they were made using both real magic steel and scales taken from the body of a dragon slain by his ancestor. Tamlein believed in these legends, but his uncle did not. He would sit up nights in his workshop, surrounded by ancient scrolls, strange implements, and retorts, trying to determine the nature of the metal’s origin. Tamlane’s father would not allow him to borrow the armor for experiments, but his uncle got hold of a glowing piece of scales from a helmet that resembled a severed dragon’s head. He’d stolen it one night from the armory. He joked that he’d met a beautiful fairy who’d flown through the keyhole in the moonlight and helped him get what he wanted. Of course, the love story between the now-aged uncle and the enchanting fairy seemed like a joke to Tamlane. But only until under the door of the armory he heard a maiden’s musical laughter and a melodious voice saying:

«I will fly to you with the moonlight and the next night. I will fly here as long as you wait for me. And if you want to leave with me, we’ll disappear from here together.»

«No, until I finish my experiments, I can’t leave. Understand, Mirabel, my brother, my nephew is in danger… unless I’m right. I must find confirmation of my hunch.»

A sad sigh sounded in reply, also reminiscent of music.

«So you will grow old and die before I have time to take you away. I can rejuvenate an old man, but I can’t bring a corpse back to life. Even the powers of a fairy aren’t enough to do that.

Intrigued, Tamlane looked out the ajar door. His uncle was sitting on the floor in front of his dragon armor shimmering in the darkness, and the translucent winged silhouette glowing softly beside him looked more like a disembodied ghost. Tamlein held his breath. Surely this must be some other experience. Uncle had only created an illusion! But that illusion moved, danced in the moonlight, and even kissed his uncle on the lips.

«You had better get rid of your armor,» warned the one whom Uncle called Mirabelle. «The spirit of a slain dragon still lives in it. He doesn’t realize he’s dead. And he is furious. He thinks you are holding him prisoner. As soon as he arrives at whatever body he sees fit, he merges with it. And trouble for the man who puts them on. The dragon will want to make him his own. And then he will wish to incinerate our magical realm as well, for we did not prevent his murder, and you people, for killing him. He doesn’t remember exactly what happened, but he wants revenge on the world. I can feel the flames about to erupt from this armor.»

She held up her transparent hand as if to catch the moon’s rays, and in her fingers a thin stream of flame shot from the dragon’s helmet, but it didn’t burn her, didn’t burn anything. It, too, seemed ghostly.

«These armors are about to summon someone,» Mirabel continued. «I sense that their chosen one is near. They all tremble at the prospect of merging with his living body. Dead dragon scales and enchanted steel in fusion with a human body will be the union that will destroy the world.».

That’s the common name for the evil ones. Tamlane tensed. And the fairy slid a glowing hand across the breastplate of her cloak, and the scales glittered as if she were reflecting a nonexistent flame. It must have lurked within the armor itself, for all the torches in the armory were out. If the moonlight didn’t shine unnaturally brightly into the room, you wouldn’t be able to see anything.

«I’ve got a present for you,» his uncle took out a necklace of seashells. He must have made it himself, and collected the shells near the castle on the seashore. They were amazingly embossed and the same size. Those are hard to match. And the necklace chain was made through his alchemical experiments. The thing came out amazing. But Mirabelle shook her head sadly.

«I can’t take it. You know I can’t. It’s material. And I am the Moonlight Fairy. I am made of ether. Material jewelry is not for me.»

As if to prove her point, she held out her hand to take the necklace, and her fingers slid right through it.

«Do you see?»

Mirabelle was so sad and lovely, but Tamlane was already focused on the armor. The metal dragon seemed to call to him, and the call burned his mind like fire. The armor demanded that he take it and put it on, that he wield it. But, after all, according to Mirabel, they would be the ones to own him.

Mirabel, however, is only a fairy. She is immaterial. Her presence here may turn out to be nothing more than an illusion or a dream. Why listen to her warnings.

«You and I were made for each other,» the metal dragon whispered. Its fiery whisper haunted Tamlane even as he stepped away from the armory door. The whisper was tempting. The young man only fought the temptation until word spread through the country that war had broken out in the kingdom. The old duke wanted Tamlane to gather a troop of his vassals and join the king in battle. After all, they, too, were only vassals of the king. If a threat was imminent, it was their duty to support their suzerain. So Tamlane decided it was time to take up his armor.

«You will be a young hero,» the steel dragon whispered in his sleep, enveloping him as if in metallic flame. In the dream, the dragon’s body was as illusory as Mirabel’s. But the dragon armor proved more desirable than even the fairy. Tamlane wanted it by all means. He longed for it like a lover. And the door of the armory was locked at all times, with sentries standing beside it.

«This armor cannot be taken without a special blessing,» his uncle explained to him. «Once upon a time, saints from Roshen were invited here to give their opinion on how dangerous this thing was. Somehow they got burned by the armor and forbade anyone to go near it. They could not take them with them, nor destroy them, nor remove the spell from them. All the people get burned by that armor.»

«Do you think this is magic?»

«I’m an alchemist, not a magician.»

«But they say it’s one and the same.»

«Not exactly,» his uncle countered. «I believe there is an intelligent explanation for everything, and there is no such thing as a logical interpretation of magic.»

«Maybe we don’t know it, but we’re looking for it.»

«That’s right,» the uncle squeezed the stolen scales from his armor and went to do experiments on them again. Not long after one such experiment he was found dead. Something in the workshop exploded. His uncle’s face was burned, as if a dragon had breathed on him. Tamlane saw the burned corpse and the inscription carved in relief on the table, «all my experiments I dedicate to the moonlight fairy Mirabella.» The uncle was a romantic, but he died by fire. Tamlane aspired to fire and glory.

The next night, when the armor called to him, the sentries at the door were asleep for some reason, and there was a key in the door. It was an unusual key with an image of a dragon’s head instead of the usual relief on the head. Tamlane turned it and entered. The armor shimmered and cast flames in the darkness. The helmet seemed to bring the dragon’s head to life. A hissing voice called out:

«Put it on! It’s yours! My hero! The second part of the dragon is you! Put on your armor and go into battle to crush the world!»

He was able to put on the armor himself without the help of a squire, though for other knights this was impossible. But the armor itself helped him. The metal clasps opened and closed by themselves. All he had to do was pick up his helmet. In these armor he felt as if his body had become fiery.

He left the castle without even saying goodbye to his father, lest he notice he was wearing forbidden armor. His detachment took banners and torches and rode out into the dead of night. They reached the battlefield in the midst of the battle. And it was Tamlane who proved to be the decisive force that helped the king to win. He was honored as if he was the king himself. Everyone thought he fought like a dragon. The young hero was praised. No one noticed the creepy black creatures that flew high above the battlefield, both in the midst of the battle and now.

«You are intervened! You stopped our queen from seizing another country in addition to Corund!»

Tamlane looked around, trying to figure out where the voices were coming from, but they reached his ears as if from heaven. He looked up and spotted the foul creatures, as if no one had ever seen them before.

«Our queen will burn you for this!» They hissed.

He must be imagining it. They couldn’t really talk like humans. Their hissing voices suddenly hit him in the head as if he’d been stabbed in the head with a dagger. And his armor felt like it was on fire. He felt a fever throughout his body, as if he was burning alive.

The dragon’s armor! It was enchanted. He shouldn’t have put them on. But without them he would not have won the battle. And their country would have been destroyed or overrun by an unknown enemy who attacked without warning.

They praised him loudly, and Tamlane walked away on trembling legs. He felt sick to his stomach. He burned like hell. And a black bird with a red stone in its forehead was flying quite low over the corpses of fallen warriors. Its luxuriant tail resembled a black fan. It made the bird seem like it was bringing a whole swath of night with it.

The strange creature, hunched and lanky, wandered across the field, leaning over the corpses of fallen knights and sniffing at them as if they were food. It flashed bright red eyes at Tamlane.

«You are no hero and no dragon!» It hissed. «You’re just a petty thief who stole the power that belongs to a dragon. Did you know that the dragon whose remains you carry was the lover of my queen? She will punish you! You interfere with her plans, and she will interfere with yours.»

They should have had soldiers capture and punish the tramp, but Tamlane was lenient. That cripple will not live long enough as it is. Even his skin was blackened by the sun, and his clothes were crumbling like ashes. He did not know then that his clothes were tattered wings, and that such limbs were well proportioned for Duergar, Finodirri, and other creatures whose mere name was difficult for a human to pronounce.

After his victory, Tamlane decided to take a shortcut home through the woods. He let the bulk of his party go so they could rest after the battle and travel more slowly along the wide road. He himself, with a small retinue of his best warriors, took the narrow forest path. The knights had to ride alone.

«The woods are dangerous!» Some hag that had met them at the edge of the forest warned them, he believe some of the locals called her Belladonna. «There are beings there, they’ll make a beast of you, winners.»

Tamlane merely grinned, but his warriors were grimly silent. Many believe in the lore of the forest dwellers and the existence of magic in the thicket.

«The fairies’ queen will not forgive you for using magic on her lands,» the old woman shouted after Tamlane, who had already passed.

«Was it magic?» He turned back in surprise as he held his steed.

«It is a dragon magic,» she pointed to his armor. «And you emptied the field of its leprechauns during the battle. Now they can steal only corpses, and if you had not intervened, they would have taken all this land for themselves. Like the land of that kingdom you were now fighting against.»

«Is she out of her mind?» Tamlane said to his knights when the old woman could no longer hear him. But it felt as if she could hear, even despite the distance that separated them, and condemned him for his carelessness.

He was tired. He held the helmet in his hands, and it felt as if the dragon-head that now merely slept in his hands was about to come to life and demanded from him some payment that he owed it for his grand victory over his foe.

Tamlane even had the compulsive urge to throw the helmet away. It seemed to move in his hands, and flames glittered in the narrow eyeholes.

«It is a danger!»

Was that voice coming from the armor? Is it from the helmet or from the trees? Tamlane looked around. His troop was moving slowly through the forest. The path was narrow. The knights had to go one at a time. They were pulled forward in a line. Everyone was tired. Tamlein thought it selfish of him not to let them rest after the battle, but he was in such a hurry to tell his father of his first great victory that he could not wait long. Would the old duke praise him? Or would he reprimand him for taking the wonderful armor without asking?

High above the woods there was a measured clapping, as if a huge bird were flying by. That must be how a dragon’s wings flapped in flight.

«There’s the one with hair that shines like the sun!» A voice said in the air. It felt as if someone had pointed a finger at Tamlane.

The young man froze! The dragon-head helmet really came to life in his hands. The horns and spurs of the steel snout were moving, the dragon ears of metal strongly resembled wings that were now moving, orange fire running through the scales. Tamlane almost dropped his helmet, and at that moment they were attacked.

«It is ambush!» It shouted one of his warriors. Tamlane had not even had time to draw his sword before they dragged him off his horse. They were clawing at him with agonizing force, as if they were going to rip him apart. He looked up and saw a hideous snout in front of him. It was neither beast nor devil. He had heard that this was what the creatures of the fae nation looked like. Trolls, goblins, harpies, whatever else they were called. They were winged, clawed, with horns and tails and fangs and tentacles and spiky growths on their backs. They swooped down on his warriors as if they were devils from hell. They stung with venom and fire. Yet he managed to draw his sword and cut off the hand of the one who had grabbed it. The creature howled and recoiled. Black blood gushed from its severed limb. Black, not red! Tamlane couldn’t believe it. He thought the mangled creature would have crawled away into the thicket, but it didn’t. The arm itself suddenly crawled back to him, like a living snake, it glued itself to the stump and reattached itself to his shoulder in an instant. All of his other enemies were just as easily restored. Their severed tails, hooves, spines, and even heads immediately crawled back. Tamlane himself was already holding the severed goblin’s head in his hands, the goblin screaming and making faces as it struggled back toward its decapitated body, which flailed about blindly bumping into trees in search of its lost body part.

Other warriors tried to carve out fire and burn the ghastly foes, but nothing worked. They also rose from their own ashes. No matter how many you chop them down, there are more and more of them. The dead come back to life, and new enemies jump out from everywhere: from behind bushes, from the tops of trees, from shallow forest creeks, and even from holes in the ground. There’s a whole army of them, and his warriors are few. The dragon’s armor had somehow lost its power in an instant. Tamlane could no longer feel the fire in him. Either magic had no effect against the foul folk, or the dragon armor had no desire to mess with them for some reason. That reason floated in the clouds. Tamlane could hear the armor on him whispering something about a woman against whom their fire was powerless. But it was just the woman that Tamlane did not see here. There were only monsters. They had already killed most of his warriors and were now tearing at their corpses with their fangs, like a wolf’s prey. Toward the end of the battle, beautiful creatures also appeared. They were elves with white hair and unusual weapons. They fired not arrows from their crossbows, but live snakes. Tamlane barely had time to fight them off with his sword, cutting the snake bodies on the fly. Someone wounded the young man with a claw in a place on his neck that was not protected by armor. The young man’s helmet was gone before the battle, and now he was reeling like a dragon’s head in the grass, seemingly devoid of magic.

Tamlane was losing his strength. A claw smeared with venom must have run down his neck, but the young man continued to stand up for himself. He noticed that the creepy creatures were beginning to fear him and were in no hurry to lunge at him again. He struck them too often and too hard with his sword, and they cooled their ardor. And so he was the last of the mortal knights left alive. And all around him the fiends were gathering. They surrounded him on all sides. The most beautiful elf moved toward him, grinning crookedly. He looked as if he wanted to seduce rather than kill, but the stiletto in his hand suddenly hissed in a human voice.

«I want his blood! His blood is sweet! Not exactly human blood! It is blood with the flame of a dragon!»

Tamlane couldn’t even believe it. Could it be that the blade itself spoke. It reflected some face that was not there, as if it existed inside the stiletto itself.

«You are the finest knight I will ever kill,» said the beautiful white-haired elf the others called Thierry. «You are a most worthy opponent.»

They fought a duel. The others watched. They believed in Thierry’s victory. But it was Tamlane who won. He threw his opponent to the ground, grabbed his white hair, and prepared to cut off his head. It might grow back, but how nice it would be to chop it off. This elf, by all appearances, is in charge here. If he could be overpowered, he could terrify them all.

«Halt!» the imperious voice came again from the heavens. «A mortal knight cannot do in my woods what I do not, nor can a dead dragon.»

She descended from the heavens, just slipped from the black dragon’s wing, and floated forward through the air, supported by a scarlet cloud. Her long curls resembled a train of black snakes, her dress itself was like a scarlet cloud with a black web of lace.

«Your Majesty!» The elves knelt before her, but Tamlane was not impressed by her beauty. The gloom emanated from the lady. The young man was disgusted to be near her.

She instantly understood and frowned, whispering something to a black bird that had landed on her shoulder. Tamlane did not take his sword away from Thierry’s throat, and the dark-haired beauty looked at the helmet lying in the grass with a sneer.

«You can’t throw a dragon’s head like that, or its power will leave you,» she scolded, and then she put her empty palm forward and blew on it, turning the air above her hand into a handful of glowing charms. The queen blew them right into Tamlane’s face. He was suddenly out of control. Darkness fell over his head.

He awoke in the queen’s chambers, gloomy and luxurious. In the magical fireplace danced multicolored spirits, from a distance seemed like a blaze of colored flames. Black flowers were singing from the ceiling, and their voices were whispering and alive.

«He is the mistress’ new captive,» they whispered. «What a handsome fellow!»

The queen shared their opinions. She ran her black fingernails over his skin, leaving witch-like patterns, and hummed something. Tamlane found himself chained to the wall by his wrists. He couldn’t feel his lower body, as if it didn’t exist. In fact, his legs had merely turned into the scaly tail of a turquoise lizard.

«Green would have suited you better,» the queen of the fairies, as the spirits and flowers called her, smiled. «But you’re not a very pretty lizard, are you? I think it’s time to change my passion for dragon limbs for something more romantic. What do you think?»

Tamlane didn’t know what to say, but she wasn’t addressing him. As it turned out, the darkness around him concealed an entire enormous black dragon, which hissed jealously at his mistress’ words.

«Jealousy is unnecessary,» the queen reprimanded him. «Jealousy is punishable, as is infidelity.»

She clawed Tamlane’s chin with her black claws and peered into his eyes. Her hypnotic gaze should have robbed him of his sanity, but it didn’t. The queen was furious. Her fingernails raked into the enchanted scales on his body, and he could barely contain his scream. The lizard’s tail was sensitive to pain. It felt like it was being skinned every time he touched it.

She wanted to kiss him, but she couldn’t. For some reason she stepped away. «You’re a mystery, though. At first I thought my dragon had come to life, but all you did was made armor out of it.»

«Not me,» Tamlane protested. «It was another mortal hero.»

«It is of no importance! You will be my hero and my guest in my bed for now. You should be glad you fought to win the sympathy of the fairies’ queen. My favor is not easy to gain. All magical warriors are at my service, and I wanted you. You are grateful to me.»

He only laughed, muffled and doomed. And the flames in the fireplace hissed, emitting colored sparks that were actually tiny creatures that sympathized with him.

«I’ll wake soon, and you’ll be gone,» Tamlane whispered. «I want you to be just a dream.»

«I am better as a dream,» she gently caressed his cheek.

«You are a night mosquito,» he corrected her.

«So I’m a nightmare to you?»

She didn’t even flinch when he nodded, and wrapped her supernatural arms around his head.

«I’ll still teach you to love me, make you love me if you have to, and in time you’ll learn that nightmares can be sweet.»

Her kiss tasted like poison. There was nothing heavenly about it. Unable to tear himself away from her lips and sigh, Tamlane realized he was in hell. Henceforth he was a prisoner of the fairies’ queen. There was no way to call this captivity sweet.

Masks of golden leaves and flowers

A girl played with her by the hill. It was a strange girl with magic in her eyes, with a pixie in her basket, with a live ball. That ball looked like a head without a body. And that head smiled at Janet as she caught the ball. A storm was coming. And Janet’s new girlfriend had no intention of hiding from the first raindrops.

She preferred to play ball in the middle of a downpour. Janet didn’t leave either, lest she offend the little one. How old the child was, and what she was doing near the earl’s castle, she didn’t even bother to ask. The girl looked ten years old, with purple sparks in her eyes.

«My name is Tamsin,» she said. «I live near here in the buckthorn bushes. I like to spy on you from there. But my sister Heather is furious with you.»

Heather! What kind of name is that? Janet caught the ball and held it in her hands while it looked at her with its face covered in golden leaves. And then the whole ball turned into a round, elf-like mask of leaves. Janet dropped it, and Tamsin watched her fright carefully.

«All the fairies of the forest and the lands near the forest are mad at you,» she continued, as if nothing had happened. «Lungwort is especially furious with you. She hasn’t even seen you yet and she wants to rip your head off so she can play with it like a ball. Are you afraid?»

What kind of naughty child is that? Janet did not respond to the impertinence, turned and walked away. The red lights in Tamsin’s eyes were beginning to scare her. The girl looked like a little demon, though she was pretty. She wore a wreath in her hair, woven from twigs of buckthorn.

«Lungwort will find you!» Tamsin shouted after Janet, who for some reason she dared not follow. «Lungwort is mad at you! You captured her prisoner. She can easily break through walls to reach you.»

Lungwort! That word somehow frightened Janet more than an entire enemy army. That’s the name of a flower, after all. All flowers are pretty to look at. How could one be frightened of them? But something told Janet it wasn’t a flower at all.

Why had she just left the castle when the sky was already darkening in anticipation of a thunderstorm? Why was she playing ball with a girl she didn’t know? Where would a child come from in these surroundings? The nearest village is quite far away. Squire, who recently hovered in the village of relatives, said that the well of the old witch Helga nicknamed Belladonna is indeed nailed up, and voices can be heard from it. Eyewitnesses assure that at night the fortuneteller scandalizes them and nails the well even harder. Where does she draw water for her brew? Unless it’s made with water and not blood. Janet was amazed that Belladonna really had a handle on the water elves. She herself could not find a way to deal with these magical folk, and had always succumbed to their provocations.

She should have known right away that Tamsin was not really a playful little girl, but a bush spirit. But Janet only realized this when someone knocked on her bedroom window.

«Let me in, I’m Heather, sister of Tamsin,» came a thin, girlish voice from outside. «I want to play with you, too. Ball, hide and seek, chase, whatever you like. I’m bored.»

The branches of heather began to climb through the window, they were alive. Live branches! They clung to Janet like the fingers of a monster. She broke off a few twigs, but they immediately grew back, and even longer, and a child’s voice outside the window laughed and sang something about the same old Lungwort and her terrible revenge, spreading to all temptresses.

«Hurry up! Get the dagger,» said Canna, who had fallen from the mantelpiece.

Janet obeyed her. It was as if the dagger wanted to be uncovered. The blade lunged forward, guiding her hand. Janet cut down the biggest branches with it, and blood gushed from them. She clutched the dagger tightly. The blood on the blade hissed as if it had been consumed by fire.

The heather was gone. Only roses still braided the window.

«Don’t play with them! They are harmful!» Kanna warned her. «Play better with me.»

Tiny fairy somehow managed to move the chessboard closer to Janet and began to play a game. The pawn came forward under the pressure of the tiny fairy’s body. Janet was in no hurry to retaliate.

«Is it more fun to play ball?» Kanna wondered.

It had been a long time since the maidens had called her to join them for a game. She didn’t need to. She didn’t want noisy company. But playing ball with Tamsin proved enjoyable. Too bad it ended so unusually. Janet concluded to herself that not all fairies can get along.

«Would you rather swim in a moat and stroke the tentacles of a kraken slumbering at the bottom? Or dance with the water elves? Or summon fiery ones from the fireplace to cheer you up?»

«I’d rather walk in the woods,» Janet confessed honestly, and Eloise sighed. The white rose longed for the woods, too.

«The rain will be over soon. You can go there,» Kanna hovered over the windowsill and stroked the scarlet roses gently. «How they’ve sprouted. Trouble seems to be brewing, if the castle’s armor is growing so strong.»

«Is is a castle armor?» Janet didn’t understand her. «You don’t mean to say that roses are armor.»

«It is exactly!» Kanna confirmed, flapping her wings vigorously.

Janet didn’t believe her. Immediately after the rain she went down to the garden. Lilacs and roses glistened with water droplets. The jasmine branches in the far corner of the garden were fragrant. Janet pulled them apart with her hands and spotted a golden lady who stood surrounded by knights and just kept quiet, and they all mistook her for the earl’s daughter. Janet herself! They called this golden faceless creature by her name. Janet gasped, and the golden face stared at her from beneath a thick veil. For a moment the girl thought she was seeing her absolute double. It was only an illusion! Janet backed away. She did not want to see any more of this illusion.