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Amaranta’s Tapestry
Natalia Yacobson
Gloria sets out to find her cousin who has been kidnapped by the elves. All she found was a gloomy castle wrapped in enchanted roses, a child who looks like a fairy changeling, and a magical tapestry near which settled a beautiful and dangerous elf with whom it is impossible not to fall in love.
Amaranta’s Tapestry
Natalia Yacobson
Translator Natalia Lilienthal
© Natalia Yacobson, 2024
© Natalia Lilienthal, translation, 2024
ISBN 978-5-0064-3000-6
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Elf Mask
And here’s the castle at the end of the path! It was not as gloomy as it looked in the picture. Its walls were thickly lined with wattles of red and white roses. Gloria looked closer. Those roses weren’t in the engraving. The engraving isn’t that old. And if they had been planted recently, how had they grown so large? The flowers seemed to be whispering:
«Go away! This is a place for Elves’ sacrifices. Run, mortal!»
The horses snorted. The coachman could barely hold them back. Gloria had once seen a trampled victim of a carried horse and now lived in constant fear of being carried by horses.
No one had ever called her mortal until now. With her waist-length mop of red hair, she herself resembled a mischievous fall fairy. She was the only redhead in her family. No one knows who. And what does her niece look like? She was actually on her way to see her niece. After all, the cousin she needed to visit was supposedly kidnapped by elves.
Legends and legends! Most likely, Amaranta was the victim of jealousy. She loved to provoke men into duels. Someday she was going to get in trouble for it herself.
«Go back!» This time the voice came from the branches of an oak tree, somehow colored in autumn. It was summer! Why were there brightly colored autumn leaves on the tree? They swirled and fell beneath the wheels of the carriage. Gloria saw tiny pixies on each leaf. It was probably just imagination. She’d been frightened by the legends of Amaranta’s abduction by the elves. That’s why she’s imagining all this nonsense.
«Go away!» The insolent voice sounded from the branch of an oak tree where someone was sitting, though you couldn’t see it behind the lush foliage. «The Sea King will let you back through his domain. You won’t drown! But they won’t let you out of here!»
A creature the size of a lynx was dangling its legs on a branch. It was white as snow. The wings behind its back were made of snowflakes. Did the coachman see it? And why had the carriage stopped?
Gloria got out of the carriage. Puddles glistened under her feet, and yet it hadn’t rained. The weather had been clear since morning. The coachman wasn’t on the coach either. Where had he gone? Gloria looked around helplessly. There was no one around but fantastic tiny creatures. But a stately gentleman suddenly separated himself from the thicket of trees and stepped right into the road. He was dressed in all green. Because of this, Gloria almost mistook him for a living tree.
«Don’t listen to them! Don’t go! We need you here! Every beautiful girl here counts! And there are never enough of them.»
Gloria didn’t know what to say. The stranger spoke to her simply, as if he were an old friend. A mask of gold leaf glittered on his face. Behind it, only eyes of an unusual iridescent hue and golden eyebrows were visible. For some reason it felt like the mask was growing right out of his skin.
«Let’s dance!» The stranger wrapped his arms around Gloria’s waist in a frivolous manner. His arms, too, appeared to be covered with gold leaf. It was probably a fashionable piece of jewelry in Ilior.
It was indecent and absurd to dance with a stranger right on a traveled country road, but Gloria had no time to refuse. The gold-masked cavalier whirled her into a dance. The fall of leaves from the autumn tree intensified. Leaves fell on the road, got tangled in Gloria’s hair and became golden in color. Music seemed to be playing somewhere in the distance. Gloria listened. It sounded like a procession of lutes, flutes, and tambourines.
«Is there a festival in Ilior today?» Gloria asked her dance partner.
«No, just an ordinary day,» he replied nonchalantly. His voice was melodious, and his iridescent eyes were mesmerizing.
«It feels like you have a holiday every day.»
The stranger laughed and suddenly lifted Gloria in a dance above the ground. It didn’t seem like it to her. Her feet didn’t touch the ground. For a minute they floated, twirling in a waltz while the leaves swirled around them.
«They say only fairies and elves have a feast every day,» Gloria reminded herself.
The Chevalier’s face darkened. He set Gloria back on the ground and touched his fingers to her cheek.
«Beautiful mortal girls are always at a premium. And there are always too few of them. My lord’s cauldron craves new beauties every day. I’d tell you to run, too, if I wasn’t afraid of losing you. You know how hard it is to suffer for someone for all eternity when that person is no longer alive.»
Gloria was frightened, but the stranger pulled her to him, and suddenly she felt calm and good. He bent down to kiss her. What if he really was an elf? Gloria fumbled for the cape-like wings behind his back.
The cavalcade was indeed coming this way. Gloria saw cavaliers, ladies, unicorns, and even some monsters.
«It is another one!» A lady applauded when she saw Gloria, and then she suddenly frowned. «She’s a redhead! That’s against the law! Elar, let her go!»
Some beasts in the procession roared dangerously and scraped their claws on the ground. Elar wouldn’t let her go. But Gloria was afraid. The breath of the oncoming travelers was fiery. They would burn her! Even the leaves on the tree are on fire. Someone in the leaves is laughing.
«Get out of my territory in the name of Dagda!» Someone shouted.
The marvelous procession vanished as if they were not there. Only curses were heard in the void, where no one was standing. But from the direction of the Count’s castle, a small group of armed knights rode by. They were definitely the guides that Count Angus had sent to fetch his wife’s cousin. And they somehow managed to drive away the unusual creatures. The knights are just ordinary people. The contrast with the marvelous procession was stark. Gloria wanted to howl at the fact that it was humans and not elves. But the procession was dangerous. They definitely meant her harm. So why was she saddened by their disappearance? The wistfulness gripped her heart.
Gloria was alone on the road. Elar was gone, but a single gold leaf from his mask lay in the road dust and glistened. She bent down and picked it up. It could be kept as a talisman. After all, from the looks of it, it was a leaf from the elf’s mask.
Arrival at the castle
«Who were they?» Gloria still trembled at the memory of the monsters that the beautiful ladies and gentlemen seemed to hold on magical leashes. Was she imagining it?
«Who are you talking about?» Earl Angus, who was leading a group of knights, gave a stern look.
«I am talking about those gentlemen and ladies on the road. They were carrying creepy beasts?»
«You imagined it.»
«No,» she almost showed him the leaf as proof.
«This forest is capable of illusions.»
«They only say that about mirages in the desert.»
«Now you know there are mirages in our forests,» Angus flicked a stray strand of hair from his forehead. He was a very handsome brunet. And though his face had a spider web of deep wrinkles, he still looked stunning. It was clear at once why Amaranta had gone to him across the sea. There were no such handsome men at home. Angus handled the white horse skillfully and rode ahead of the troop.
Gloria was flattered that it was not some ordinary chief of guards who had been sent for her. The master of the castle himself had come to meet her. But the coachman had disappeared without a trace, and the horses were gone too. The carriage was left standing on the road. Angus had promised to send one of the stable boys to fetch it.
Something stirred in the foliage overhead. This time it was not a pixie, but a bird with iridescent plumage. It flew swiftly toward the heavens, as if it were a spy in a hurry to report something to the heavenly spirits.
«I once saw something in the forest that still makes my blood run cold,» Angus whispered.
«Then you must all the more believe me that I saw some people on the road.»
«All the people who are here live either in the castle or in the village. And the village is a long way from here.»
«It couldn’t have been ghosts.»
Angus remained silent.
The castle up close was even more magnificent than in the engraving Amaranta had sent Gloria. Even though she had married a foreign ambassador, she often sent gifts home. And now Amaranta has disappeared. How could a young, healthy woman just disappear? Was she murdered? Gloria was suddenly afraid. What if she was on her way to a bandit’s nest? Although all the knights looked decent, except a little gloomy and very silent. You can’t get a word out of them. Angus was the only one who spoke to her, and that was because she was boring him with questions.
The roses at the entrance to the castle, tightly wrapped around the arches and columns, even one of the doors, so that it was impossible to open it. How they had grown! Isn’t there a gardener here to cut them back? And should they be trimmed? They smell so wonderful! Gloria inhaled the fragrance. It was the smell of paradise. So why does Angus wrinkle his nose at the sight of roses, as if he sees a monster in them? Men in Ilior can’t stand roses?
«Here she comes! She is another elf bride!» A low whisper came from the roses, as if there were pixies hiding among them. Gloria looked closely at the white roses. They all seemed to have female faces. She must be having sunstroke to be seeing these things.
«She is a lover, not a bride. Elves should not marry mortals!» This time the whisper came from the red roses. Their buds seemed to be scarlet mouths. «Nothing comes out of the relationships of elves and girls but passion and poisoned fruit. Look at Dagda’s children.»
Gloria has heard that name before recently.
The accompanying knights squinted at Gloria strangely.
«You’re a redhead!» Angus explained leading her into the castle hall through an entrance lined with wattles of red and white roses.
«Is it a crime to be a redhead?» Gloria wondered. In the hall she noticed two figures, a scarlet one and a white one. The ladies themselves resembled roses, but once they entered the lobby, they were gone.
«Red hair color is associated with prancing fairies. They came to seduce and drive mortal men crazy,» Angus explained with a serious look. He wasn’t flirting with her at all. Gloria even felt offended. Usually men were always flirting with her. Angus, for all his attractiveness, was as cold as ice.
«I’m not a fairy, or I’d have wings,» she snapped.
«There are wingless fairies, horned fairies, and even fairies with hooves instead of feet.»
Gloria defiantly lifted the hem of her lush green skirt as she crossed the threshold, showing her slender ankles.
«I’m not a fairy,» she repeated. «Or even a mermaid.»
She found the joke mischievous, but Angus didn’t even smile.
«Why are you a redhead if you’re not a fairy?»
«How would I know? I was born a redhead, and many people think it’s very beautiful.»
«But Amaranta was blonde.»
«She’s my cousin, not my own sister. But there’s a family of baronets in my homeland where the sisters have different hair colors. One is blonde, the other is brown, and I’m friend with both.»
«You shouldn’t have come,» Angus said, turning the coals in the fireplace with a poker. Gloria thought it odd that the fireplace was burning in the middle of a hot summer. It was cooler in the castle than outside, but not so cold as to be freezing.
«Why should it be?»
«The forests of Ilior are full of wild animals, aggressive birds, poisonous insects, and brigands. Don’t go into the forest at dusk. It is no way!»
«Or else I’ll get mauled by wild beasts?»
«Or wild elves,» said one of the knights behind him.
His words sounded like a cruel joke, but no one laughed. How strange everyone was! Gloria looked around, and Angus suddenly put his arm around her waist and put his palm to her forehead as if he were going to peel her skin off.
«What’s matter with you?» Gloria was outraged.
«I’m sorry!» He let go of her immediately. «I wanted to see if you were wearing a mask.»
«Is it a mask? What makes you think that?»
How could he mistake a clean, pale face for a mask? Gloria didn’t even have freckles.
«Fairies wear human faces like masks,» Angus shrugged.
Everyone here is crazy! What fairies are they talking about? There aren’t even any maids around.
«Don’t be so familiar to me again,» Gloria shook off her dress. «Remember that I’m not your wife or even your fiancée. Don’t confuse me with the missing Amaranta.»
For a moment there was an oppressive silence. Gloria looked at Angus. He was young, and there were already strands of gray in his hair. What had he seen in the woods to make him gray before he was thirty? Was it true that sacrifices to the gods of the ancient tribes were made in the forests?
«Gloria!» Angus sank tiredly into the chair by the fire. «I’m not going to marry again. So if you’ve come to take Amaranta’s place…»
«I had no such intention. I’m a relative. How can you marry a relative!»
«Amaranta’s friend Adelina was like a sister to her, and as soon as Amaranta disappeared, she started trying to marry me.»
«I’m more delicate. And I’m not getting married at all! I’m a feminist.»
Angus furrowed his beautiful eyebrows.
«What do you mean?»
«It is a woman who fights for her independence from men.»
«Apparently it’s a new-fangled word. It hasn’t been heard in Ilior yet.»
«You live in the middle of nowhere!»
«And I’m happy here!»
«But there are terrible tales of bloodthirsty elves and sacrifices to the ancient forest gods. I heard on the boat that a certain goddess, Dana, is still honored here.»
«It is enough!» Angus put the sword down on the table with a clatter. The hilt glittered dangerously with some strange symbol that looked like a pentagram. «I’ve had enough talk of elves. They stole everything from me.»
Is it everything? He lives in a castle, in luxury, has an army of his own knights, and thinks he’s deprived!
«I don’t believe in elves,» Gloria hissed. «Some gang of jokers and pranksters hiding in the woods and taunting you.»
Angus only snorted dismissively. Why argue with a fool?
