“That’s not true! I have often envied Gisela.”
“She is a duenna!” Reason chuckled nastily. “You’d have been better off turning her over to a convent. She has no business in a palace. She has her nose everywhere.”
“She’s not a chaperone! She’s my tutor.”
“She’s a prude and a jealous woman, and a hunter for a rich husband. If you were a prince instead of a princess, she would have married you long ago, ignoring the age difference.”
“But she’s so elegant and graceful and everyone admires her manners. I don’t know how to behave like that.”
“So I’ll teach you!” Reason finished the game and jumped on Estella’s shoulder. The white chess pieces were lying heavily scratched on the board. “I can’t stand white chess, because white troops have long been my enemies.”
Reason spit ash on the board, and his black spit burned through it. The white ivory pieces cracked inВ half.
“Was it my winning that upset you?” Estella guessed. It must be nonsense that she won and not her mind.
“You just talked me out of it and I had to give you a head start,” he brushed her off. “And what problems in the state were you talking about when I helped you get through the war without any losses.”
“It is almost without loss of life!” She clarified, remembering the dragon-eaten knights.
“Feeding a dragon doesn’t count as loss,” Reason corrected. “We have to feed him while he guards us.”
“He’d rather eat other men’s food than our own.”
“You’re getting smarter, aren’t you? Next time, we’ll turn him on our enemies. I’ll help him change his orientation from our subjects to outsiders. Let him snack on outsiders. Are all our problems solved now?”
“It is not all! The courtiers have been gossiping about ghosts and evil spirits since you arrived.”
“That’s their problem, not ours.”
“Are you sure?”
“If they’re not right in the head, let them see a physician! You’re not their mother to take care of them.”
“I see! You’ve freed me from my problems.”
Estella was glad that Reason had made things so easy. Suddenly he was no longer aВ problem, but it was hard toВ carry on her shoulder.
“You’re not getting off! My shoulder’s stiff, and it’s hard for me.”
“It’ll be even harder without me!” Reason said profoundly. Maybe he was right. Maybe he needs to be close to her head, or else he’ll disappear. And without his advice, it really is hard.
“Come on, my polar star.”
“Where are we going now?”
“Just walk me around the castle. I want to hear who’s talking about what.”
“You mean listen to the news?”
“That’s right!”
He can hear everything from aВ distance. How does he do that? The talkers stand far away and whisper barely, but he hears everything clearly and even retells some ofВ it.
InВ the beginning Estella liked the new entertainment, because Reason retold her all the funny gossip about swaggering ladies and their admirers, but gradually she tired ofВ the monotony ofВ the news.
“There’s Lady Frederica plotting against her husband’s sweetheart,” Reason reported. “And that Lady Cassinda ran to the physician in the morning to cure her pimples, but he did not help her. She’s now powdering her rash and whispering nasty things about the doctor to her friends Lady Eden and Lady Fancy. And the Duchess Gloriana is left abandoned by her suitor. These two gentlemen with whom she is whispering now are the bravi, the assassins for hire. She wants to send them to the traitor at night. And these ladies are the ones who are badmouthing everyone who seems more successful than they are. And it’s all high society! Even the demons would behave more decently if you wanted them to drive the humans out and make them your subjects. Is that what you want, by the way?”
Reason clawed nervously at her neck, almost ripping her necklace.
“Do you want demons or not?”
“Let me go!” Estella almost threw him off, and Reason scolded. She had to go with him into the alcove, where no one would see them.
“You’d better take me to the dragon!”
“But he’s dangerous! He’ll burn you!”
“Are demons not dangerous?”
Reason went kind ofВ quiet.
“I don’t want demons, I want to see the dragon,” she insisted, tugging at Reason’s tail.
“It is all right, all right,” Reason struggled to free his tail from her fingernails. “When it gets dark, I’ll take you to the dragon. But not now! Not when it’s midnight and all the servants are asleep. Only that he may burn you, you take the responsibility on yourself.”
Estella nodded happily.
Girlfriend ofВ the dragon
Up close, the dragon was an unpleasant swamp color. It looked emerald only inВ the sunlight. InВ the dungeon, lit byВ smoldering torches, its hide no longer glowed as brightly. Estella was not disappointed. AВ real dragon is aВ miracle, no matter what it looks like.
He slept on kegs ofВ beer and completely ignored the princess. He must have been fedВ up.
“I’ll call him Emerald anyway,” Estella decided aloud, “even though he looks more like a swampy in color.”
“You should call it Ale,” said Reason. “He always responds to the word ale.”
There were plenty ofВ empty ale barrels inВ the dungeon. Some had been crushed toВ splinters byВ the claws ofВ dragons. From the smell, it was clear toВ this day what their contents were.
“And he likes to drink heady drinks,” Estella concluded bleakly.
“Well, call him Drunkard,” Reason jumped off Estella’s shoulder and began bouncing around the kegs, even trying to pull the corks out of some. He didn’t seem to mind a drink himself. “Fortunately, our dragon had not yet reached the fancy wine cellars in the royal cellar. And it wasn’t because he was lazy. The cellar is a narrow passage, and your daddy’s spell on the door. It’s impossible for a dragon to get in. Otherwise he’d have been nicknamed the Wine Connoisseur a long time ago.”
“It is no more name choices,” she said, staring mesmerized at the green spines on the dragon’s backbone. “I’ll call him Emerald.”
“He’s not really a doggy to give him names.”
“Of course he’s not a little dog. He is my own personal dragon. I have the right to give him a name and an honorary title like chief watchman of the kingdom.”
“You’d better give him the title of sleepyhead. He can sleep for decades.”
Reason poked the dragon on the tip ofВ his ear, but the sleeping monster grumbled drowsily and exhaled aВ puff ofВ steam from his nostrils.
“He grumbled, as if he were in a laundry, with steaming laundry,” Reason grumbled grudgingly.
“Well, it’s not right in the oven, is it?” Estella realized that the dragon’s mouth was as large as several ovens. Its tongue and saliva must have been fiery. And this monster had been asleep in her dungeons for years, and she didn’t even know anything about it.
“And if he wakes up now, will he burn us, like my knights?”
“Of course not,” Reason said uncertainly. “He doesn’t burn anyone alive when he’s full. Well, not unless it’s fun. Do you know any charms for controlling dragons?”
“What kind of stupid question is that? I’m not a sorceress.”
“So the King didn’t teach you anything,” Reason was visibly disappointed.
“Why did he have to teach me magic? He trained me to be a queen, not a sorceress.”
“You’re a laugh and a sin! You’re the daughter of a sorcerer king, and you can’t do magic,” Reason scowled resentfully. “If you could, you could control a dragon. And the good ale would not go to waste in his fiery belly.”
Reason realized he didn’t have the strength to pull the plugs out of the barrels or unscrew the faucets. He murmured something to the effect that the wine bottles in the nearest cellar would be much better. How he could get one for supper?
Estella didn’t care about Reason’s worries. She could see the dragon’s twisted horns, its scales sparkling in the torches, and its sharp claws, each the size of a spear.
“If you could conjure, you’d take him out to hunt and he’d drink blood, not ale, as a martial dragon should.”
“Is he a battle dragon?”
“King Abraham would feed a non-combat dragon in his cellars. Your father was a shrewd and hoarder,” Reason grudgingly kicked a barrel of ale with his clawed paw. “Had it not been for his provisions, the dragon would not have been a drunkard.”
“Emerald!” Estella called softly and stroked the dragon’s scaly horn.
“Careful! You’ll hurt yourself! The scales are sharper than razor blades and impenetrable to arrows and spears. There is a reason why magicians have long since learned to fashion armor from dragon scales that is resistant to fire. Such armor makes anyone a hero. Once you wear it, not even magical creatures can defeat you. By the way, you have one such armor in your arsenal. When you put it on, you can go to war with evil spirits.”
Reason hastily covered his mouth with his claws. He must have said something unnecessary.
“I’m not going to war with anyone else,” Estella reassured him.
“Of course you aren’t! Why would you want to go to war when you have a martial dragon? If you send it to war, there’ll be no more enemy troops left. As long as he stays awake, he can get to the battlefield in time, long before the other armies march on to our castle. Imagine! Enemies are already ramming the gates, and you can’t get the dragon to wake up.”
Reason laughed evilly. His laughter caused the dragon toВ wiggle his ears sleepily, as if trying toВ drive away aВ pesky gnat.
“Tell you a secret. If you sing a song, a lullaby or something touching, the dragon will wake up.”
“Lullabies usually make you fall asleep.”
“That’s just it! Everything works differently for dragons than it does for humans. They especially like the songs of young innocent maidens. If you want to tame it, you’ll have to become a singer.”
“Let’s try it!” Estella prepared to sing the only song she knew. The girls used to sing it at the spinning wheel.
“The yarn stretches,
My heart is aching
I’m waiting for a beautiful bridegroom,
And there’s nothing but evil around.
I’m waiting for a rider on a horse,
But only black elves are dancing in the hearth.”
The song was aВ somber one. It was usually sung byВ spinners at work. Apparently there was aВ shortage ofВ young men inВ the villages ofВ Aluar, and there were plenty ofВ bad ones. Estella could see for herself that there were more ofВ them when she discovered colonies ofВ boggles beneath the battlefield.
“Don’t sing!” Reason nimbly jumped up and clamped down on Estella’s mouth. “Not when you want to wake up a dragon for war or hunting.”
“But I want to wake it now,” she protested, and Reason jerked his claws from her mouth. She must have gotten her teeth caught carelessly in them.
“You are wretch!” He hissed and blew on his fingers.
“Who are you talking about?”
“It is a cask of ale, my dear,” Reason brushed her off. “Ale is a bad drink, if a dragon drinks it. Let’s go to the cellar and get some wine. He’s going to wake up and give us a hard time. If we leave, he’ll go back to sleep.”
But the dragon was already awake. One ofВ its yellow eyes flickered reluctantly open.
“Emerald!” Estella exclaimed happily.
“His name is Virgil,” said Reason, correcting her. “That’s what your father once called him. And what his real dragon name is, only his scaly ancestors know.”
“I am so glad you are awake! How handsome and scaly you are! I’ll sing for you again, if you like! I’ll even learn ballads and romances. You like singing, don’t you?”
Estella stroked the dragon, and it rumbled like aВ bigВ cat.
“Hey, you,” Reason scrambled up the barrels so that the dragon could see him. “Remember me, big boy?”
The dragon hissed at him, but Estella encouragedВ him.
“Virgil, my dear,” Reason snapped at him, “you ought to loosen up a little, keep watch over the realm. Otherwise you’d be lying on your side.”
The dragon shooed at him, exhaling hot steam again. Reason ducked behind the pile ofВ barrels.
“He’s comfortable here,” Estella said for the dragon.
“My tail stiffened as I sat in the chest,” Reason complained.
