Kitabı oku: «One Century to Marriage. Prisoners of the Magic Kingdom», sayfa 3

Bride’s Sickness

Araminta has had many dreams about driving to her betrothed through stunted, enchanted woods where the trees have not a single leaf and the branches are as crooked as trolls’ fingers. Her companions whisper that the forest is haunted by evil spirits. Some sort of dwarf monster is indeed swirling under the hooves of the horses, trying to lead the entire cortege into the swamp. And voices call out from the swamp. They call out her name:

«Araminta! Araminta! Araminta!»

There is a whole chorus of voices. But where are they coming from? White winged figures swirl over the mire, like the ghosts of fairies. Araminta’s companions can’t see them, but she can. Could it be that she has discovered a secret sight? The swamp fairies turn toward her. Their faces are like plaster masks.

«Another will take your place!» They whisper.

The wheel of the carriage carrying Araminta becomes stuck in the mire. It is so easy to get stuck in the swamp forever. Araminta tries to get out. Pale, webbed hands reach out of the mire. One of them holds out a ripe fruit, like a winged apple. It is fresh and beautiful on the outside, but beneath the ruddy rind is a deadly disease.

And that’s it! The dream ends! Each time it repeats the same thing that happened to her in reality. According to the royal physician, it is a normal reaction to the shock she has undergone, but the courtiers whisper worriedly for some reason:

«She has fallen prey to the forest fairies!»

Araminta opened her eyes with difficulty. Her eyelids began to grow a film, like cobwebs. Her whole body was covered with gray pustules. She could hardly feel her arms or legs. She would only sit for hours in a rocking chair in front of a window overlooking the royal garden. Sore growths appeared on her back, as if wings were about to grow out of it. And then she would become like those swamp ghostly fairies who had called her. Because of these outgrowths she will not be able to wear the exquisite wedding gown she brought from Fenir. The Fenir’s princess was to be married in the most expensive gown, trimmed with diamonds and silver. But instead of the wedding, it was time to prepare the coffin. Araminta was rotting alive. And all because of a wonderful apple that was held out to her by a hand from the mire.

There was no need to take a bite out of that fruit. But the voices of the fairies enchanted her.

Now there were ordinary human voices in the room above her, and she wanted to hear the whispers of the swamp fairies again.

«She won’t last a year!» This was Marianne, the sister of the king whom Araminta is to marry, saying. «Everyone says it’s a disease from the marshes, but I’m sure she’s been sick ever since she ate the poisoned fruit from the strange tree that sprouted in the corner of the garden. It would have been cut down, but it withered itself and now resembles a sleeping goblin. My maidens complain that when they approach it, its branches cling to their dresses as if they were alive.»

«What if she was ill to begin with?» The second voice seemed to belong to the king.

«I doubt the ruler of Fenir would hide that from you. After all, the alliance is dynastic, not made for love.»

«What do you know of love?»

Marianne sighed resentfully. Araminta could barely hear her. She was sinking back into sleep. She hadn’t been awake for more than an hour lately. She was constantly drawn to sleep. Her eyelids were slipping, her mind racing back to the swamps full of evil and fairies, where the winged fruit waited. She probably took too small a bite out of it to die at once.

«Does she ever wake up?» Marianne carefully straightened her brother’s fiancée’s blond curls. They had turned almost gray, and a meshed gray rash stretched across the skin under her bangs.

«Don’t touch it! You may be infected!» Conrad warned.

«It is nonsense! I would have caught it a long time ago if it were contagious.»

«You probably only get it from swamp creatures, not humans,» Conrad agreed.

«I don’t want to say anything bad, but if you don’t get married right away, you’ll have to marry a corpse.»

«Shut up about the wedding!» Conrad suddenly became furious. Marianne had never seen him like that. He had changed since his return from Shai’s lands. He had seemed a stranger to her, as if an evil spirit had taken over his brother’s familiar body.

Conrad announced that there would be no war with Shai. Allegedly he had not found enemies there, but allies.

But the king looked grim, as if he was expecting a devastating war. The castle was flooded with monstrous knights from Shai. Each of them was a giant. Marianne was a little afraid of them. These monsters were completely indifferent to female beauty, so she could not twirl them around like ordinary knights. Attack her with one such monster, and her faithful admirers Lance and Henrik would not be able to protect her. What could ordinary warriors do against the giants?

Conrad assured her that there was nothing to fear. After all, Queen of Shai favors him. Marianne was struck by the very fact that Shai was ruled by a queen, not a king. Normally even widows retreated into the shadows, ceding their place on the throne to male heirs. And Medea Shai was no widow. But she was a lord of an army of giants.

Queen of Shai sent gifts for all of Aluar: baskets of black fruit, with wing-shaped growths on the stalks instead of leaves. They were the lightest cloths woven with mysterious symbols, daggers of unusual black steel. The maidens received wondrous ornaments and flowers which did not need soil, but took root directly in the carpet. The townspeople were given bundles of berries that evoked pleasant visions. Even the peasants Medea Shai had not forgotten, sending them sacks of black grain, the harvest from which should ripen in just three days after sowing.

«I don’t want any trouble with all these wonderful gifts,» Marianne worried, but her brother brushed her off like an annoying gnat. He had never been so inconsiderate toward her. But he looked at Araminta asleep, even with hostility. And he had liked her very much before. Marianne had the feeling that Conrad’s heart had remained in distant Shai.

«Better put that away!» She removed a light beige veil woven from Araminta’s curls, another gift from the strange queen.

Conrad was saying something about fairies. They lived in Shai and wove magical capes of cobwebs, but the two servants sent by Medea Shai were not fairies, but monstrous dwarfs in gorgeous oriental robes. They resembled two living bushes, one black, other green. Arms like branches held trays with gifts for Araminta. One held a box of costume jewelry, the other a symbol of sun and moon, and a peculiar star-shaped phial with a lid.

It is an elixir for sickness!» Conrad explained. «My new ally is kind, even though she is the queen of the black fairies.»

«She is a real fairy queen! Why didn’t you say so before?» Marianne’s mood immediately changed. She had only seen elves up close, but never fairies. But her dream since childhood had been to meet a living fairy. There were rumors about them that they were divinely beautiful and could bestow magical talents on anyone who appealed to them.

«Is the Fairies’ Queen really your ally?»

Conrad nodded silently.

«What did you do to make her your ally? Did you accomplish some feat?»

«She liked me.»

«Did you?»

For some reason Conrad became darker than a cloud.

«I might even have married her, had I not already been engaged.»

Marianne thought feverishly about what she heard. She knew she was being naive, but she wanted a fairy sister-in-law so much that nothing else made sense.

«You’d better marry a fairies’ queen!» She advised Conrad impulsively.

«And what is about Araminta?»

Marianne bit her lip. Becoming a fairy sister-in-law was far more interesting than being related to a Fenir’s princess. Besides, a fairies’ queen would be able to drive the aggressive giants away from Cassian’s mountain kingdom.

«Politics is complicated,» Conrad said philosophically, «and sorcery is even more so.»

What’s his point? Marianne watched the two bush creatures as they carefully poured drops of sparkling elixir into Araminta’s morning tea. The king’s bride was asleep, but the twig-like fingers of the servant still poured some of the drink into her pale lips.

«It is a medicine,» Conrad explained.

«It’s from Shai, like all the gifts he sent,» Marianne suspected. The queen of the fairies is too generous.

«So what is of it?» Conrad noticed the dark scarlet cloud flying across the sky. His sadness was immediately blown away. The cloud was approaching the window of the royal armory.

«You go to the tournament, and I will go away!»

Marianne watched in amazement as her brother hurried off like a schoolboy out of school. What should she do with Araminta now? Leave the girl in the company of two unimaginable creatures? To herself, Marianne had already called them both porcupines. One of them reached out to her with stubby twiggy fingers. Two proboscis-like noses sniffed the air.

«Madam has arrived!» A hoarse voice called out. «And in the kitchen they are making deer blood soup for us and other servants of her dusky majesty.»

Are they really picking up smells from the kitchen, which is in the basement below the tower? It is magic.

One of the creatures braided its limbs- twigs around Araminta’s blonde head.

«Her consciousness is far from here, a prisoner of the swamp fairies,» it determined.

«Could you heal her?» Marianne turned to them. She must be insane to put their opinion above that of the Court Physician.

«She can be put back on her feet, but not her consciousness,» the two husky voices answered in unison. «She will remain a weakling puppet forever.»

Marianne had the feeling that she was now in the forest, not in the palace, and the dry branches were crunching beneath her feet.

«Her soul would be carried away into the fairy swamp if she died,» the green creature squinted at the vial of elixir.

Marianne was dizzy with cryptic phrases. Better to leave these creatures alone. Let them figure out how to heal Araminta on their own.

Winged Swords

Medea Shai stood in the empty armory, gracefully spreading her patterned wings. The guards thought it best to leave as soon as she appeared here. Conrad was happy to see her again. Though she brought waves of darkness with her, to him she was like the black sun.

«I’ve been waiting for you!» He exclaimed from the threshold. «You took your time.»

«But I have sent gifts to all your subjects that will radically change the country.»

Conrad did not detect a note of guile in her tone. Medea Shai paced around the circular holder on which the rarest of weapons was laid out. Her dainty black-nailed fingers slid over the double-edged blades. She’d better not hurt herself!

«You collect swords from Menuel!» Medea Shai was delighted at the sight of his collection. Others were frightened by the hilts in the shape of wings, but she was fascinated by it.

«There are legends that such swords fly into the heart of the enemy, if you send them, even through the country, strongly wishing someone death,» Conrad remembered the fables of arms dealers. «Such a sword will find its prey and plunge into it.»

«It’s not a legend, it’s the truth,» the queen of the fairies interrupted him, almost harshly. «True, there is a spell you must first recite before you can send a sword to seek out your enemy. I can teach you…»

She was silent for a moment, and her brow furrowed in incomprehension. Her wings twitched nervously.

«But why should I teach you anything? You’re mortal, aren’t you? Not even a mundane elf! I always wanted to marry an elves’ king. No more, no less. And now I’ve changed my mind. I don’t believe it.»

She gently brushed a lock of hair from his forehead.

«You were so extraordinary. I didn’t expect a human to have the consciousness of an elf.»

«Was it all because of the armory? Has your opinion of me increased so much because I keep Menuel’s swords in my possession?»

«It’s not an arsenal, it’s a treasure trove.»

Medea Shai manipulated one of the swords in some way, and the steel notched wings flapped like they were alive. The sword hung in the air.

«Who do you want it to kill?» She asked him curtly.

At first Conrad didn’t even believe her.

«Do you mean it?»

«And yourself, what do you think?» Medea Shai flapped her wings sharply and knocked over the sword basket. They scattered across the floor. Their clanging sounded like the echo of a bloodbath.

«I don’t want to hurt anyone since I met you,» Conrad admitted.

Medea Shai frowned. The streams of gloom that flew from the tips of her wings grew thicker.

«It’s strange! I usually bring out the darkest qualities in even the nicest people,» she thought aloud.

«So it’s different with me.»

«But every king has at least one mortal enemy. You name it!»

Well, all right.

«It is King Meron of Arador.»

By naming the name Condor didn’t think he was signing his death warrant. The sword dashed through the open window of the armory and flew over the sleeping city like a big arrow.

«In an hour it will have done the job!» Medea Shai promised.

Her luxurious wings scuffed the walls of armoires and spears stacked in niches. Conrad was again afraid she would hurt herself. With wings like hers, it’s hard to walk around earthly apartments. There’s too little room, and she doesn’t want to fold her wings with a cape behind her back like her fairies do. She is, after all, a queen.

Condor noticed the dark-winged fairies circling above the tallest tower spire.

«They are my retinue,» Medea Shai explained.

«Don’t they want to fly into the castle?»

«They’re more at ease in the heights.»

Conrad didn’t insist. The fairies looked ominous. They seemed to be calling for a storm. Black storm clouds were gathering where they were dancing.

«Will you grace the royal tournament with your presence?» Conrad gestured to the queen of the fairies. Even though she is a magical guest, but we must observe the etiquette. But to enter through the windows instead of the doors, as Medea Shai had already done, was a clear violation of all the rules.

«That is unnecessary!» She shrugged. «I don’t like mortal tournaments. Magic tournaments are more fun.»

«But there aren’t any in Aluar.»

«We shall remedy that,» «Medea Shai levitated off the floor to catch up with Conrad and kissed him. The kiss of a fairies’ queen must make everyone lose their mind. Conrad momentarily forgot what he was about to say. Medea Shae’s lips tasted and smelled of the dark forest, pine and witch berries. Conrad was ready to forget everything and make love to the fairy right now in the armory, among the scattered weapons, regardless of the risk of severe injury. But there was a sharp whistle outside the window. It was the winged sword coming back. It flew back on its own, moving the notches of its hilt like real wings. Its blade was covered in blood. A flap of Arador’s coat of arms clung to its hilt.

«Your opponent is dead!» Medea Shai took the sword, twirled it in her hands, and suddenly licked the blood from the blade. «And he was no longer young, but cunning. It would have been nice to get to know him while he was still alive. I can talk to the dead, too, but it’s not as interesting as talking to the living.»

The sword dropped from her fingers and took its former place in the hollow of its holder. The blood wasn’t caked on it, but disappeared, as if the steel had absorbed it.

«You said it would take an hour for the sword to do its job, and it came back much sooner.»

Medea Shai only grinned wryly. He must have been the one who lost track of time while he was kissing the fairy.

Conrad picked up the sword that had just killed his rival.

«What are you doing?» Medea Shai grew wary.

«It boggles my mind to think that an hour ago it was in the heart of my enemy,» Conrad confessed.

«What surprises me is that this sword does not crave your blood. Ordinarily, if you draw it from its sheath, it would be as thirsty as its proprietor. And it only drinks blood.»

Medea Shai’s slender but incredibly strong fingers slipped over Conrad’s sword-clutching hand.

«I suddenly realized that you were special…» she whispered, and somehow she was frightened. «You’d rather not give Araminta elixirs anymore.»

«Why is it not?»

Medea Shai didn’t want to explain. She stormed out of the armory and into the corridors of the castle like an arrow. The footmen and knights, whom she had knocked down, did not understand what was wrong. It must have seemed to them that a black hurricane had just rushed past them. Conrad hurried after the fairies’ queen. She flew straight to his bride’s chambers. It smelled familiarly of musk, fresh flowers, and medicine. The two horrid creatures were still swarming over Araminta’s bedside, but this time they were no longer medicating her with elixirs, but dressing her cold corpse.

«It is the horror!» Medea Shai folded her wings in a horn.

«You mean her appearance?»

Even the gray faeries, each the size of beetles, crawled away from the bed of relics, expressing distaste.

«I mean her death,» Medea Shai clarified. «She could be raised from the dead, but only the shell would come back to life, not Araminta, who is already dead and accounted for in the records of the Dead Realm. It is too late to bring her back to life.»

«So you’re not happy that I’m free now and can choose a new bride. Don’t you want to be my queen?»

«You are silly! I don’t want to lose you for a century. I could fall out of love with you in a year, let alone a century. Fairies are fickle.»

«I will not live a century,» Conrad laughed at that, and suddenly he realized his mistake.

«Don’t say that for a century!» Medea Shai reached out to kiss him, but the air around him turned cold to ice. The cabinets and tapestries were covered in an icy crust.

Some icy creatures crawled down the corridors and peered through door crevices.

«We must hide from them before they find me,» Medea Shai worried.

«Who are they?»

«They are the guardians of the law of one century before the wedding. But I will try to deceive them.»

But one of the creatures was already looking right at them from a gap that had suddenly formed right in the wall.

«No, I don’t want to go to the castle beyond the clouds! It’s too cold!» Medea Shai cried out, but her silhouette suddenly began to pale, covered in an icy crust.

Conrad tried to grab her, but all he felt was ice. Medea Shai’s fingers managed to press against his chest for a moment.

«The rose sprouted firmly! You will never betray me!» The queen of the fairies exclaimed triumphantly before the dense mist covered her figure for good.

The mist spiraled and vanished, along with all the ice creatures. Only two or three of them crawled around Araminta’s corpse, obviously intent on taking her with them. The two servants of Medea Shai, who had managed to dress the princess in her wedding garb, had also disappeared.

The vial of elixir that had been given to Araminta tipped onto the carpet. The liquid gave off a pungent fume. It looked like poison!

Conrad did not know what to do now. Rose squeezed his heart with steel thorns.

«She’s ours for life,» one icy creature wheezed, running its fingers through Araminta’s tresses. «And this one stays with you! Bury her with honors and wait a century from now. With any luck, the queen will return to you. There are some trials to be passed before the end of the term…»

One icy creature blew on the clock, and it suddenly stopped. One century of waiting appeared to have begun.

Conrad couldn’t think of an hour without the fairy queen, and now he would have to suffer without her for a century! And would he live through the century? What if he is not immortal after all?

Elves at the Tournament

Conrad has not yet graced the company with his appearance. Good! Marianne took the empty throne. Good if her brother doesn’t come at all. She had enjoyed sitting on the royal throne in his absence.

It was a pity his new ally hadn’t come. To see a real fairy was so exciting! Especially it was the fairies’ queen. She must be incredibly beautiful! Marianne looked out for her in the crowd of courtiers. But there were only elves around. They flooded the tournament. Except for a few monster knights sent from Shai, the contest was becoming purely elves.

The blond winged elves fought solely against each other so far, soaring in battle over the field. Magical sparks were flying from their combat. Someone in the audience had already been burned.

There was no bloodshed. The mortal knights had agreed with the elves that in the first rounds of the tournament, each would fight only members of his own race. And then, as fate would have it! If there were knights of equal strength to elves, then there would be inter-racial duels. So far elves fought elves and men fought men. Boring! Marianne yawned.

For some reason her admirers weren’t even looking at her. Someone had spread a rumor that she had behaved unworthily, forbidding the elves to be honorary guests of Aluar. Most of the knights sulked at the princess for ignoring their advances. They used to shower her with flowers, gifts, and madrigals of their own composition, but now there is an icy indifference. Only the commoners who watched the tournament from behind the fences pointed fingers at her.

«There’s the princess all the elves are in love with! It was because of her that they made a commotion and began bewitching the townspeople in the streets of the capital, and the peasants in the fields! All evil spells have been summoned by her!»

The Church! What to expect from them? Marianne cracked open the fan. Somehow she wanted to hide her face behind it. And the accusations were groundless! Witchcraft tricks like that are usually done by fairies, not elves.

«You’ve been too capricious, and they blamed all their troubles on you,» one of the maidens whispered to Marianne. The princess brushed her off.

Someone had left a magnificent Menuel’s dagger with an intricate hilt beside the throne. She picked it up, drew it from its sheath, and then heard a whisper:

«I want your blood!»

Who said that? Marinna looked around the stands helplessly. Everyone was busy watching the tournament. No one would speak to her. Except the maid of honor! But this voice was distinctly masculine and hoarse. It sounded as if it were coming from a blade of steel. Blades cannot talk, can they? Though there were many legends of Menuel’s steel. The doors of the armory where Conrad kept his Menuel’s swords were forever locked by order of the king. This could have meant that they were either very expensive or very dangerous. Once as she walked past the armory, Marianne had already heard the same hoarse whispering that urged her to break open the door and steal one of the swords. Naturally she did not, though the voice had a hypnotic effect.

«I want your blood, Princess!» Someone whispered again. She no longer doubted that the insolent whisper came from the dagger. She wanted to sheath it again, but the hilt slipped from her hand as if by itself. The blade of the dagger pricked her finger.

How painful! Marianne had not expected that a slight prick with the tip of a dagger could be so painful. A drop of blood dripped onto the ivory and jade throne. A scarlet and white rose instantly grew right on the armrest of the throne.

Marianne watched breathlessly. The two lush roses seemed for a moment like two women’s faces, one under a scarlet veil, other under a white one.

Some slender girls in fancy airy robes appeared beside the throne. They were hugging one another by their thin waists. Surely they must have been two friends who had come from distant exotic lands. One lady was dressed in a scarlet dress, the other in white. And both had real wings fluttering behind their backs. Marianne gasped. Surely these must be two fairies in the entourage of the Fairies’ Queen Medea Shai.

It seemed that no one but Marianne could see them. They both winked at the princess.

«Tonight is no reason to fight,» the two fairies said in chorus. «Ordinarily, our alliance is a tournament, but with you it is already decided. You should not have summoned us.»

«But I didn’t call you!»

The two fairies pointed to her sore thumb.

How could you tell? A pair of roses did sprout from her blood. Maybe the roses were a signal to the fairies.

«I’ve been dying to see a real fairy,» said Marianne. «Why don’t you sit beside the throne?»

The velvet covered pedestals were for guests of honor, but two fairies shook their heads in disapproval. Marianne noticed that their feet in gold sandals did not touch the ground. Both winged guests hovered an inch above the bleachers. And both of them were watching Marianne so intently that she felt uncomfortable.

«It’s definitely not passion!» said the scarlet fairy, waving her wings as bright as blood.

«It is love!» joyfully determined white fairy. «It is pure love! How I like it!»

She was staring into the ring where the elves were fighting.

«It is a poor comparison!» Marianne muttered. «I can’t stand those impudent elves!»

Her eyes fell on the victor, the one who had won the contest. They say that love is like an arrow through the heart, but Marianne felt as if she’d been scalded with boiling water, head over heels.

«Who is he?» She clutched at the lady in waiting behind her.

«Which one is it?» Lady Hilaria, the blonde-haired lady, could barely get her hand out of the princess’ grasp.

«It is that one! It is the one with the winged helmet!»

«They almost all have winged helmets!» Hilaria determined, bewildered. «Only a few had helmets made of golden leaves, ornamented with horns or winged snakes.»

«It is the one with the gilded armor!» Marianne pointed forward, though the gesture might have seemed indecent. This was a royal tournament, not a marketplace. And she was a princess, not a bazaar girl.

«It reminds one of dawn! And he has notches in the shape of golden maples running down the side of his cuirass.»

«Ah! It is this one!» Hilaria opened the fan with a bang. «At the sight of him I too am ready to faint, as most ladies. He is an elves’ prince! Lurel.»

«It is an elves’ name for sure, but looks like an angel.»

«And he fights like the devil! All elves look like angels, but they fight like demons. So much magic,» Hilaria was both indignant and delighted.

«Do you know if the Fairies’ Queen’s knights will be in the tournament?»

«They already did. The elves’ prince defeated them. Didn’t you see that?»

Marianne was ashamed to admit that she had missed most of the tournament because of the conversation with the fairies. However, they quickly disappeared. Only the scarlet and white roses were left, which were fragrant on the armrest of the throne. The magical dagger, which Marianne had retracted into its scabbard, hissed unhappily.

«I was dreaming!» Marianne fidgeted nervously with her peacock feather fan. «You do not know how to call the winner to me? I want to make a solemn speech in his honor instead of the king.»

Hilarie hesitated.

«You think it would be difficult, after all the fights I’ve had with the elves?»

«They don’t like you now, Your Highness, and the people agree with them.»

The commoners would have been about to throw rotten vegetables at Marianne if the fence and the guards hadn’t separated the crowd from the tribunes where the nobles sat.

But the handsome elf prince suddenly looked at her sympathetically. Marianne felt as on hot coals, as if the throne beneath her turned into a roaster. And Lurel just got a wreath of golden laurel, which is customary to give the lady of the heart. Such a lady will be called the most beautiful all day long just because the winner of the royal tournament gave his reward to her.

Who will Lurel choose? Is it fairy? By the way, there were no fairies in the audience. There were only mortal ladies. Elves are renowned as magical benefactors. So Lurelle might give a golden crown to some beggar from the city.

He did not hesitate to choose. Earth etiquette was broken, too. Instead of picking up the trophy with the tip of his spear, as earthly knights do, he dismounted and took the wreath with his hands, then confidently headed forward. At once, clearly, he already knew which lady he was hurrying to. Marianne tensed.

«The tournament is not yet over by any rules,» she muttered grudgingly. «The elves have not yet fought the humans.»

«But a fight like that would be suicide!» Hilaria protested.

«So what is it!» Out of jealousy and envy of her unknown rival, Marianna had easily overstepped her own principles.

«The elves had defeated the monsters of the fairies’ queen! That meant they had won!» Hilaria was on their side.

Marianne merely pursed her lips and rose from her throne.

«I will demand a new round of the tournament!» She resolved, but before she could summon a herald to proclaim her will, the most beautiful elf imaginable was standing at her side. Marianne’s wrists began to shake. Without helmet Lurel was even more beautiful than she had previously seen.

Elves are unbelievably brave. The slits in their helmets were so wide they barely covered their faces. Not surprising for invincible warriors, though. After all, any wound on them would instantly heal.

The handsome elf bent one knee in defense of her. He was neither more nor less than an elf prince! And she still thought Cassian handsome! Marianne suddenly regretted that she was already engaged.

Prince Lourel presented the victor’s crown to her. That meant he had chosen her to be his lady. Victory on the one hand, defeat on the other. After all, she already has a fiancé. And why was she in such a hurry to choose.

Hilaria sighed enviously behind her back, and the elf rose leisurely. He had looked arrogant when he had fought, but now he was suddenly modest, even timid. But Marianne grew bolder.

«How is it that I did not notice you before?» She asked flirtatiously. – «Either I was blind, or someone put a magical blindness on me.»

«But you chased me from the window of the throne room a week ago,» Lurel admitted with a half smile. «Don’t you remember? You had my companions doused with boiling pitch.»