Kitabı oku: «Amaranta’s Tapestry», sayfa 4
Black fairies
«Danu hates Amaranta,» was a voice through the dream. «There was a time when Danu was a great elves’ goddess, but a mortal girl came from across the sea and took away her first place. Now there was trouble!»
Gloria lifted her head from the pillow on the sofa where she had fallen asleep sitting up. For a moment it seemed to her that the same horned creature was standing near the sofa and making signs to her.
The girl instantly jumped up and grabbed the sword lying next to the sofa, but the strange creature was no longer there. It must have been a vision.
Gloria felt a pain in her back. Her whole body ached. Maybe she should try lying on a bed of roses and hope the thorns wouldn’t sting her.
The same golden lady Gloria had let out of the tower slipped past the boudoir.
«Hey, wait!» Gloria went after her. «Who are you? And why did you come in here without asking me?»
That’s a silly question to ask someone whose door you’ve broken open with a lock pick. Gloria embarrassed, remembering this piquant detail, but the lady had already turned around and looked at her with one-toned golden eyes on an all-golden face. Gloria aghast even the eyelashes and lips on it were gold. But what was more amazing was that this face was copying her. The lady appeared to be her twin.
«Oh, the horror is it!» Gloria covered her mouth with her hand, remembering that twins appear to doomed people shortly before death. That’s the popular belief.
Taking advantage of her confusion, the lady quickly disappeared. Now she could not be found in the labyrinth of castle passages.
«Maybe I was imagining things,» Gloria tried to comfort herself. «I’m too young to die.»
The sword in her hand vibrated strangely, as if it were a steel bird trying to break free and fly away.
There was something viscous and slippery beneath her feet. Gloria glanced at the floor. There were flowers growing on it again. So the carpet of roses was definitely not a dream. There it was under her feet again. Only the roses were suddenly black.
Are there black roses? Gloria accidentally struck one of them with the tip of her sword. A red juice oozed from the severed petal, very much like blood.
«Medea Shai is here,» someone whispered in her ear. «Leave while you’re still in one piece.»
The voice was clearly male and familiar.
«Fior?» Gloria looked around for the elf. «It’s your jokes again!»
One of the black roses suddenly began to grow in size until it stretched to the ceiling. And now it was no longer a rose, but a fairy in a black dress and with black wings. She indifferently flew past Gloria, hitting her with her scarf. Gloria gasped. Her skin burned as if it had been struck with a hot iron. If even fairy scarves burn like fire, what would happen if a fairy scratched you or attacked you?
Gloria followed the fairy, even though it was reckless. Roses tangled under her feet, keeping her from walking. There were already several black fairies hovering around the castle. They were probably midnight fairies. Gloria had heard of them as a child, but didn’t think she’d ever see one.
There was a whole pack of black fairies. Where did they come from? It seemed like there wasn’t a single one. Now it’s night, and there are at least a hundred of them in the castle. How did they get through the narrow windows? Or did they come through some other way?
Gloria watched with her mouth ajar in amazement as the fairies hovered above the floor, climbing over cabinets and cupboards, going through some papers in the castle master’s study. It finally dawned on her. They were looking for something!
What they’re looking for is probably very valuable to them. The fairies looked nervous.
«The queen won’t forgive us if we don’t find the treaty,» one of the fairies whispered to the others. The black wings rustled so noisily that Gloria could barely make out the words.
The fairies obviously hadn’t found what they needed and became aggressive. Silver goblets and heavy seals flew down from the shelves. Sentries came running to the noise. The fairies dealt with them instantly. As soon as the black-winged beauties touched the bodies in chain mail, the sentries began to rot before their eyes. Their skin turned black, shriveled, dried to the bone. And now they are no longer sentries, but pathetic rotten relics lying on the floor, with black roses blooming over them.
«An invasion of fairies is a disaster,» whispered Fiore’s voice from somewhere above. «Hide from them in a niche. They don’t look in the niches because they are afraid they will come across the statues of saints Angus brought from Roshen. The sight of St. Queen Rhiannon frightens them very much. If you need to scare the fairies away, tell them that you are under the protection of Rhiannon and Madeel.»
«But that would be a lie,» Gloria whispered back.
«They wouldn’t be able to check anyway. Rhiannon and Madeel had long ago and forever descended into the underworld.»
Fior was out of sight, but a golden web had grown densely under the ceiling where his voice had come from.
Gloria didn’t like his advice. She would not hide. She walked belligerently past the swarming fairies. They paid her no attention. It was a shame. They’d killed the sentries, but they wouldn’t even yell at her. It was zero attention, a lot of contempt.
«Why are they rummaging around like thieves?» Gloria gritted her teeth. «It’s like a pack of black magpies, not fairies.»
«Did you expect them to dance around the castle like forest nymphs?»
Fior was hovering nearby, but he remained invisible. Probably didn’t want the fairies to see him. Can’t fairies even see the invisible? They’re all fairies.
«The Queen of the Fairies is flying here!» Fior whispered and then stopped talking for good.
Gloria did notice a black fairy in a crown. She came straight out of a large mirror as if it were a portal. She was so beautiful that Gloria gasped with envy, but she acted like a hooligan. The first thing she did was to break a floor vase by deliberately whipping it with her wing, and the second she dropped a splinter of black sparks on the tapestry, and it became moldy as if it were the surface of a swamp. Threads of black cobwebs grew from the black fairy’s fingernails, which she directed at the walls. The black web crawled across the castle like a net. The last living sentry became entangled in it and turned to rotting relics in just a fraction of a second. It was as if the web had sucked all the life out of him.
There was no one else to protect the castle from the invasion of the black fairies but a young squire who came running at the noise. Gloria had seen this young man before, but didn’t know his name.
«You are here again! How dare you come back? You brought us so much trouble!» The squire shouted at the fairy.
Did he think that the black fairy came with the intention of making war? And what was this raid if not a fairy attack?
The black-winged fairy began to release a web of nails that quickly coiled around the neck of the screaming young man. Breaking the silence meant he would suffocate from the black nub.
The squire wanted to strike the beauty with his sword, but the blade only slid across the fairy’s skin without wounding her, and immediately turned its point against the young man himself. He howled in pain as his own sword sliced through his shoulder.
«Get out of the castle! Do not disturb my lord!»
«I have a treaty with the Count, by the way.»
The fairy squinted unkindly, noticing that the sword had cut through the web she had woven, but quickly found a way out. She pulled out of her hair a dainty hairpin, which extended its tip into a blade and became a dagger before her eyes. The dagger the fairy aptly threw right into the squire’s throat. He fell down, bleeding.
«Well, there are no more obstacles,» the fairy sighed with relief. A black mist floated in the air from her black sigh. The dagger became a stiletto again and returned to the fairy’s outstretched hand. The squire’s corpse rotted instantly. «The last awake warrior was out of the game. There was no one else to defend the castle.»
The black fairy clapped her hands in triumph over the mold-covered corpse.
«You left me out!» Gloria stepped out of the shadows.
«Is it the girl with the sword?» The fairy’s graceful eyebrows arrogantly arched over squinting eyes. «Don’t hurt yourself, sweetheart. It’s hard and dangerous for a girl to wield a sword. Better learn some needlework.»
Now that’s an insult. Gloria lunged forward and struck the black fairy with her sword. The sword stabbed lightly into her wrist, preventing her from creating a new web. Black blood flowed from the wound.
The fairy gasped in amazement and froze, hovering in the air. The red carbuncle, which Gloria had at first mistaken for a crown pendant, shone in her forehead like a third eye. The entire flock of fairies scattered throughout the castle smelled the blood of their queen and became alarmed.
«You’ll be sorry!» The black fairy threatened Gloria with the finger of her healthy hand and hurriedly flew away from the sword as far as possible.
The sword absorbed the black fairy blood like it was a sponge. Gloria turned around and threatened the sword at the flying fairies, but it was no longer needed. Apparently, the queen was the strongest of them all. If she was hurt, the others didn’t dare to get in the way.
The fairies were gone in a split second. Some of them flew out the windows, others disappeared into the mirrors. Gloria was left alone amidst the black mummies of the sentries’ dried up bodies.
«You have made yourself a powerful enemy,» – whispered Fior’s voice.
«Just a fairy…»
«It was a fairy queen!»
«Suddenly I was just dreaming.»
Gloria examined the sword. There’s no blood on it. It doesn’t clot that fast. There should have been stains, not brown, but at least black. And there were none. But the ubiquitous Janet watched the fight from the corner and seemed to applaud.
«This isn’t a theater,» Gloria said angrily, and Janet nodded scholarly to her surprise.
«I know, it’s a wrestling match!»
«Go to bed and shut the windows.»
Gloria herself decided to take over the duties of the dead sentries and went around the castle with a watch. The knights were asleep, as if enchanted. The fairies must have spread a sleeping spell around the castle, which somehow didn’t affect everyone. So the fairies have their faults, too. Or they were waiting for someone to meet them. The crowned fairy said she had some business with the castle owner. Gloria thinks Angus is a monk and he’s messing around with fairies. The hermit count is full of surprises.
In Gloria’s bedroom all the windows were closed, but two winged figures were fighting by the bed. Fairies again! Gloria grasped her sword more comfortably, but these fairies were only figuring things out with each other. One of them was red, the other white. They fought, hovering a meter above the floor.
«This bed is not yours,» hissed the white fairy, clawing at the hair of the red fairy. «Why aren’t the roses on it half white?»
«It’s not Amaranta’s bed anymore,» the red fairy defended, scratching the white fairy’s elbows. «Someone else is here.»
Seeing Gloria, both fairies froze in flight.
«And who are you?» The red fairy opened her eyes in amazement under scarlet lashes.
«I live here now!» Gloria confessed and felt awkward, as if she had invaded someone else’s bedroom and not the other way around.
«You’re a guest? Are you a guest? Are you Angus’s second wife?» The scarlet fairy opened her eyes under her purple eyebrows.
«She is Fior’s girlfriend,» the white fairy explained.
Both fairies suddenly stopped fighting and straightened their dresses covered with fragrant petals. Strangely, they began to act like allies.
«This is no place for white roses,» whispered the white fairy.
«It’s no place for red roses either,» the red fairy frowned.
Gloria looked at them like a miracle.
«I hope you haven’t mistaken my bedroom for your own,» she said.
The fairies looked at each other.
«This is not love!» The white fairy said.
«And definitely this is not passion!» The red fairy said.
«Then what is it?» The fairies looked at each other again.
«Who can tell?» The white fairy stomped her foot in a dainty sandal and turned into a white pillar of radiance. The red one followed suit, only the vortex she turned into was purple.
«Roses are not for her!» She could hear the fairies whispering even after they were gone.
«Well, don’t!» Gloria took offense. «I don’t really like roses. I prefer fragrant jasmine.»
As if by magic, the bed suddenly bloomed with fragrant jasmine. Gloria wiped her eyes in disbelief. Now this bed was safe to sleep on. After all, jasmine has no thorns. She would be able to get a good night’s sleep. Thank the fairies!
Magical neighbors
No one said a word about the night’s battle with the fairies. The corpses of the sentries were removed before Gloria woke up. The knights greeted her but remained silent.
Let them hide! She herself did not say a word to anyone about sleeping on a bed of jasmine flowers. By the way, it was a pleasure to sleep on it. The jasmine was fragrant, soft and gentle. This is truly the bed of fairies! And by coincidence, it was given to an ordinary girl.
In the morning Gloria went to visit Janet, who lived in a spacious apartment full of toys, where she was left to herself all day. She had probably once been tutored by teachers, for in one of the rooms hung a blackboard, which was now used only for entertainment. Today, the chalkboard was scrawled with fanciful symbols and silhouettes of centaurs.
Gloria noticed that Janet no longer had any babysitters or governesses. They must have all fled the place, afraid of the devilish things going on in the castle.
«Would you like a lesson in etiquette?» Gloria offered kindly, but there was no response.
Janet plucked another doll as if it were a chicken. What predatory instincts this beautiful girl has!
Gloria gently ruffled the child’s hair.
«Don’t dare!» The child was outraged. «I am the future queen of fairies!»
«What a fantasy!»
«It’s not fantasy.»
«Well, it’s fairy tales.»
She was sure the child has heard too many fairy tales.
«You’re so stupid!» Janet snorted, as if she were the teacher and Gloria the student.
«Fairies are creepy creatures,» Gloria admitted grudgingly. «Did you know that?»
«It is not all of them!»
«Have you ever met one in person?»
Janet hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should confess.
«Flower fairies are very nice creatures,» she said. «Only rose fairies are prickly, like roses themselves.»
«Is it literally or figuratively?»
«Both.»
«That is, they are thorny, and their temper is angry, fiery, in a word, prickly as a thorn.»
Now she was starting to play along with a cranky child. Gloria wondered to herself. Did she doubt the existence of rose fairies when roses miraculously braided all over her bed. In Gloria’s bedroom, at least, there was no watering can from which to water them.
«Rose fairies appear where strong feelings have developed between humans and nonhumans. Human couples don’t interest them, but once a guy falls in love with a fairy, or an elf falls in love with a mortal girl, the fairies start watching the affair develop.»
Janet was thinking like an adult. Gloria was even frightened. Either the child was smart beyond her years, or some ancient spirit was speaking through Janet’s lips, inhabiting the child’s body. If so, it must be exorcized. Gloria had heard of rituals to exorcise spirits and changelings. She’d have to fry an eggshell sometime and see how Janet reacted. If she’s a changeling, she’ll give herself away in no time.
The writing on the board suddenly changed. The images of centaurs were gone. There was the silhouette of a fairy tormenting a knight.
«It’s Elves’ writing,» Janet explained. «To you, they probably look like unreadable hieroglyphics.»
«You should learn Aluar’s language, not Elves’,» Gloria said admonishingly, «because I could take you to Aluar.»
«But there are Elves here, not in Aluar.»
«Are there Elves?»
Janet nodded scientifically.
«What crazy teacher taught you lessons about elves? I hope he’s been fired by now.»
«That teacher’s name is life.»
«I thought it was one of those drunken knights who passed off fairy tales as reality.»
«You’ve seen fairies yourself, and you don’t believe there’s magic here.»
That may be true, but a child can’t believe that or she’ll grow up to be a freak.
«If I told you I don’t believe in magic,» Gloria began.
«I wouldn’t believe you.»
«Why it is not?»
«You’ve already seen our neighbors.»
«Do you say neighbors?» She actually calls fairies neighbors!
«We have magical neighbors, except for King Ilior, but even he often gets a visit from the Queen of the Black Fairies right in the throne room.»
«Your father has a pact with her?»
«And so does the king. You have to make pacts with your magical neighbors.»
«Or…?»
«Or else we’re all gone.»
The writing on the board has changed again.
«Stop it!»
«I’m not the one writing the chalk,» Janet snorted resentfully.
«Then who is? Fior?»
«No, it is someone else.»
The signs on the board were turning into hieroglyphics.
«My teachers say you’re bothering them. You’re interrupting class.»
Gloria was stunned.
«Your father promised you to the elves in payment for peace with them, so you are learning the elves’ language?» Gloria guessed.
«How naive you are!»
And this is coming from a child!
«You said yourself that magical neighbors have to make concessions.»
«Not always! Sometimes you can get along with them. Would you like me to teach you?»
Gloria shook her head no and darted for the door. She felt as if the paws of some invisible creature were at her throat, strangling her. Near the door, the sensation passed, but a monstrous shadow scurried along the wall.
«I’ll go!» Instead of words, a wheeze came from Gloria’s throat, as if she had just been strangled.
«You’ll do the right thing,» Janet said with a nod. «It’s best not to interrupt a magic lesson.»
The door slammed shut behind Gloria as loudly as if it had been pulled down by a giant. There was a menacing hiss from the walls, and Gloria could hear it:
«Get out!»
She had to go to her niece with a sword. How had she not guessed that Janet might have unholy guests living with her! It was too late to correct the mistake.
Gloria clenched her fists and thought gloatingly that once she learned to fight properly, she’d have the place in order.
«To do that, you’ll have to learn magic,» whispered the annoying voice of Fior, who, of course, was nowhere to be seen.
Gloria went to look for him in the tapestry room, and on the way she came across Angus, who was sitting on the floor of the bay window overlooking the garden, drinking wine from the neck of a bottle.
«Drinking is not the best way to deal with problems!» Gloria defiantly crouched down beside him and tried to snatch the bottle.
«What are you doing?» Angus was indignant. «Get off! You’re not my babysitter! If I’d known you’d act like a duenna, I’d never have let you in here!»
Gloria gave up and left the bottle with him. It was already three-quarters empty anyway.
«Why didn’t you tell me anything about the nighttime fairies?»
«Did you see them?» Angus was surprised.
«What do they want from you?»
«A bit of mischief, that’s all fairies usually want.»
«They were babbling on about some kind of treaty… their buzzing gave me an earache.»
«The sentries were even less fortunate,» Angus brushed strands of greasy hair from his forehead. The longer Gloria watched him, the greasier his luxurious hair became. Clearly, the earl hadn’t had a bath in a long time. But he wasn’t lazy about emptying the bottles.
«Usually fairies only want to seduce knights. They suck the life out of them,» he began to explain. «But this is different. My king himself gave the queen of fairies the opportunity to dispose of his troops and lands.»
«Well, you’re keeping up with the fashion,» Gloria quipped.
«I’m in a state of war with the fairies, not in an alliance.»
«Why is it not?»
«They deceived me,» Angus admitted reluctantly. «Or rather their queen deceived me, and all fairies are her subjects, so you can generalize them.»
«Fairies can do a lot of damage. We need to set some traps on them in case they come again.»
«Traps won’t work. I’ve already set snares. Fairies tear them down with a flap of their wings. They also steal babies from their cradles. They make crops rot and milk go sour. Once they put their mark on livestock, there’s an animal epidemic.»
«And if you try to make friends with fairies, bring them some offerings. Superstitious people leave a jug of milk and a loaf of bread on the field to placate the field fairies. Otherwise, there is a belief that the fairies will trample all the crops or cause a bad harvest. I can leave some jewelry on the windowsill as a gift for the fairies.»
«Don’t dare!»
«Why is it not?»
«It’ll only make it worse.»
«Have you checked?»
The castle master laughed bitterly.
«Now I know what friendship with elves is worth!» Angus saluted with a half-empty wine bottle.
«And what do you mean?» Gloria couldn’t take it anymore.
«If you tangle with the elves, they’ll steal your wife.»
Gloria snorted incredulously.
«If you get a favorite guy and you make friends with fairies, they will steal your lover just for fun. It will be fun for them to fly outside your windows and watch you grieve over him. At the same time, they will use him for magical entertainment, for example, turn into something monstrous.»
«Then you’d better not fall in love with mortal boys if fairies are flying around,» Gloria snorted. Had Angus known the warning was overdue? She’d already fallen in love with an elf.
«If it weren’t for the elves, Amaranta wouldn’t have left me.»
«Did she escape? Was she kidnapped?»
Something about Angus’s statement didn’t add up.
«What do you think?» His gaze settled on Gloria. His eyes weren’t as groggy as those of all drunkards. Strange, how could Angus drink so much wine and not get drunk at all? It’s like he’s mesmerized himself.
«Now the magical people are demanding tribute from us for failing to honor the terms of our alliance.»
«What does tribute mean? Are they cows and goats?»
«It is live girls.»
Gloria shuddered.
«That’s why there were none left in the castle.»
«I refused to pay. Don’t worry! I’m not a murderer. Giving the girls to the elves is worse than killing them.»
«What if the elves could love mortal girls? If there’s magic, there must be romance.»
Angus smashed the bottle angrily, knocking it against the wall.
«Gloria! I guard the borders with the magical states with my last strength. If I stop doing that, then…»
«Humans and elves will have to intermingle and live together as one race?»
«There will be no humans left at all!» Angus cut off her rainbow dreams. «For magical creatures we are victims!»
«Is it really so tragic? Fairies seem nice, just ill-mannered.»
«You haven’t seen all our monstrous neighbors yet.»
«Then we’ll have to fight them,» Gloria sighed.
«It’s pointless, but preparations for war are still being made. The forces are not equal. The humans are much weaker. The only thing that warms my soul is the legend of a legendary warrior who will appear suddenly and side with the humans. The old sages promised that he would defeat our magical neighbors.»
«Who is he?»
«The sages and astrologers have never found out his name, even though they guessed night after night.»
«Where are they? I haven’t seen any astrologers here.»
«They’re in the capital. The King of Ilior wanted to break the agreement with the fairy, so he summoned the astrologers.»
«I see,» Gloria was stung by a wasp. «Could this warrior be a girl?»
«Are you kidding me?» Angus looked sadly at the shards of the bottle, regretting that the wine had run out.
«Imagine if that warrior was me! I’d have saved you all!»
«As soon as you saw your opponents on the battlefield, you would have fallen in love with some elf and gone off with him, forgetting your duty. Just like my wife.»
«Not everyone is such a traitor.»
«You can’t trust women,» Angus muttered sleepily. «And you can trust elves even less. I respected the Elf King so much, and he betrayed me.»
What is he talking about? A fairy tale, not a life! King of the Elves! Queen of the fairies! And they all have to be fought! Gloria thought it was a good time for her to become a knight, too. After all, if the castle was attacked by more monstrous creatures than black fairies, it would be up to her to defend herself. Drunken Angus and his vassals were not to be counted on.
