«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 inВ aВ way that silencedВ 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.
В«It can be forced with magic, yes.В»
«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 hurtВ 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.»
В«What am IВ supposed toВ do withВ it?В»
В«It is nothing. Just take it toВ the castle and treat your enemy with it, if you have an enemy.В»
«And if I don’t?»
В«Save it for when he shows up. But remember, this fruit is only harmful toВ humans; toВ fairies and elves it will do no harm.В»
В«How do IВ get out ofВ the forest?В»
«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.
AВ Friend ofВ 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 inВ aВ high-pitched voice:
В«Fair Mistress, you seem toВ be inВ trouble, you need help.В»
«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 toВ her and took her byВ the shoulders with aВ jerk, as if he wanted toВ give her aВ 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 aВ fairy herself.
В«Love cannot be cured. You can only make aВ man unhappy byВ taking away his love, even if it is the love ofВ an elf.В»
В«He will ruin you,В» Ambrose said sadly. В«Even if he loves you sincerely. Magical creatures inВ love ruin people all the same. We grow old, they stay forever young, we die, they live on, we are weak and vulnerable byВ nature, and they cannot be penetrated byВ any weapon. They will rise from their own ashes and bewitch someone next toВ them toВ feed on their life force. An elf will not be your loyal protector or devoted lover. Choose another!В»
«Would you offer yourself in his place?» Janet couldn’t resist a sarcastic remark. She bit her tongue. She had upset the old knight.
В«Forgive me,В» she whispered, В«but my lover is indispensable toВ me.В»
В«Your mother used toВ say the same thing long ago, and do you know what happened toВ her?В»
«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.
В«Once upon aВ time, your father tried toВ make peace with the creatures living inВ the forest so that they would no longer attack his domain. He succeeded. The king ofВ the elves, named Dagda, showed mercy. He decided that humans and elves had nothing toВ fight over. Both sides, human and magical, tried toВ get at least aВ truce. Peace was made. We celebrated. The humans started communicating with the undead, and everyone was happy.В»
В«And then what happened?В»
«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.
В«What if the elf who captivated my heart is enchanted, if he is human?В»
В«Do not believe his speeches. Elves always lie. They lied when they made the truce with us. So they lie toВ their beloved. They end up ruining them.В»
Janet remembered the scarlet and white roses on the border. Ambrose had aВ point. But there were exceptions.
В«What do you want me toВ do?В»
В«Try toВ leave him. He will resist, call out toВ you, maybe even come toВ besiege the castle at night with an army ofВ creatures like him, but at the first light ofВ day he will have toВ leave, unless you yourself willingly come out toВ him. Magic can be destroyed byВ resistingВ it.В»
«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.»
В«It seems unlikely toВ me toВ heal from aВ desire for him. Even if the marks go away, the feeling remains.В»
В«Then you will become like me, aВ man who was once loved and branded byВ aВ fairy.В»
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.
В«Are you her slave?В»
В«Morally, yes, but she does not call. And that makes it especially painful forВ me.В»
В«My elf knight is not like that. He would not harmВ me.В»
«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 toВ him.
«Remember, if you need any advice on how to fight magic, I’m always here for you.»
He bowed toВ her. He left, and the tapestry beside her seemed toВ breathe, the figures on it as if they were moving, acting out aВ scene from the past and trying toВ warn her about something.
Wishes inВ Chains
В«You first did it because you wanted to, not because you were forced to,В» Malachite flew behind Tamlane, noisily discussing his recent intimacy with the mortal girl. В«The queen will notice that. You changes, you feel the hope ofВ deliverance inВ you. Medea Shai will kill us all for this!В»
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.»
В«This is your bedroom, too, until aВ new minion displaces you,В» 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 aВ lot harder. She had turned into aВ tree. She had been aВ clever and resourceful girl inВ life, but she had no idea how toВ escape now. She could only watch inВ silence as everyone who was lazy picked leaves from its branches and moan inВ pain. Other than moaning, the tree made no sound. But Tamlane somehow believed that Lily had not lost her ability toВ speak. Her graceful lips and eyelids were clearly visible against the wooden head. It seemed as if she was just about toВ open her mouth toВ say something. Since the tree stood right inВ the hallway, Lily could hear everything the secretive fairies were gossiping about. All their secrets were instantly known toВ her. If Tamlane could talk toВ her, she would probably retell him some overheard secrets that might prove useful toВ the rescue. But the wooden lips were so still. It was as if it was hard for them toВ 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 aВ companion every knight could only dream of, but not Tamlane. AВ love imposed byВ 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 inВ time. But toВ love aВ being who forces intimacy on you and seeks toВ control all your desires is too much!
But for all those who have not yet managed toВ force aВ love bed, and such gathered inВ the lobby ofВ her palace most ofВ them, Medea Shai caused sincere admiration. She was feared, but her truly magical beauty still inspired involuntary respect. Every fairy secretly wished toВ be like the queen, every elf dreamed ofВ sharing aВ bed withВ 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 toВ move subtly and quickly. Her long, spidery fingers stroked his shoulders. The black moths that flew over her head were like aВ 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?»
В«Is it aВ torture? IВ give you all my love.В»
