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Clement decided they weren’t wolfberries, so he tasted them. His mouth was bursting with a cocktail of sugary tastes that killed thirst and hunger in a jiffy. All bad thoughts flew out of my head. He really wanted to dance barefoot on the stunted grass. Maybe Raymonda would keep him company. She beckoned him out into the woods, laughing. Her feet hovered lightly over the grass. It is probably a continuation of the dream? Clement eagerly wrapped his arms around the girl’s thin waist and spun her in a dance. This was the best moment of his life. No court coquette in the sumptuous Aluar’s ballroom was as good and free as this elf in the woods.
It was no longer a dream, but a sweet dream. One can only hope that the pale beauty does not turn out to be an evil moon spirit that lures him to the precipice.
«Is it a dream?» Clement wanted to kiss Raymonda on the lips, and she would not have resisted, but the clatter of horses’ hoofs could be heard in the distance.
The clatter of horses’ hoofs was muffled and unpleasant, like the clatter of gnoms’ hammers beneath the earth. It was as if it were coming from beneath the earth. Clement remembered the lore that the black knights of Shai were adept at finding their way along the roads of the Underworld, so they could appear on the surface or disappear at any moment.
The angry shouts and whistling of poisoned arrows were certainly not a dream. One arrow hammered into the timbers of the hut above Clement’s head and turned into a real dark red snake.
Clement turned around. There were riders rushing through the woods. It was a whole troop. Raymonda was gone when she saw them. Only the silvery smoke hung in his hands. What a coward! What did he expect? She is a lady. He should be her protector, not expecting her to conjure up a barrier of obscurity from the knights.
Clement’s weapon was left in the hut. The door, as luck would have it, was jammed. So what to do? The black knights had surely been sent here on purpose, and at night. Men sleep at night, but the Shai’s knights, on the other hand, are most active at this time of day. Surely their leader had already figured out from some magic mirror that the prince was hiding in the forest. Thanks to his uncle’s spells, though, it wasn’t so easy to pinpoint his exact location.
For a moment, Clement had a stray hunch in his head. What if Raymonda had brought them here? She might not have done it deliberately, of course, but accidentally. She herself had spotted him and thus removed the shield of impenetrability.
Clement could not think for long. Defending himself with his bare hands was also a waste of time. But once again a dragon came to the rescue. Its scaly belly glimmered in the dark, like orange gold. Clement had never realized that a dragon’s scales could be so dazzlingly beautiful. The dragon’s fire, on the other hand, was something to run for. The torrent of flame was once again rained down from the heavens as an act of justice. It didn’t hit the trees, or the hut, but went straight for the black squad. The knights burned like logs. The charred remains were smoking. The smoke was black and acrid. It made his eyes water.
«Raymonda!» Clement called. «Where are you?»
His cry echoed through the empty space.
«You may go now! The danger is over! The knights are gone, and the dragon has flown!»
There was no answer from Raymonda. She was probably miles away by now. The elf’s girls don’t seem to be shy, but Moon Fairies are timid. Perhaps she was one of the latter, after all.
The smoke made him dizzy. Clement began to think creepy things. Spirits of some kind, formed from columns of smoke, were trying to speak to him, to warn him of something. They were making faces and making silly prophecies.
A snake arrow withered and petrified on the hut’s log, barely out of the knights’ sight. What wonders! It was too much for Clement, who could hardly master a few of his uncle’s magic formulas.
«I’m going to walk to the nearest village,» he decided to himself. «Maybe there was something there that had survived.»
Or maybe he was just imagining the fire. Alone in the woods, you can’t help but lose your senses. Loneliness makes people go crazy. At least, that’s what the hangmen say when they lock up the next conspirator in the prison tower. With only one dragon in the realm, the conspirators could no longer be imprisoned or executed, but merely fed to the beast for supper. But how do you catch and tame a dragon?
«You can’t! You can only make friends with a dragon,» someone whispered in Clement’s ear.
At times like these, it would seem as if there were dryads in the woods. Clement turned around and saw no one.
The path to the village was not long. He just had to know the side trails to get there quickly. By dawn Clement had reached there. The sight was sad. The village, even the outlying farms had burned to the ground. No cattle left, no houses, no hedges, no wells. The land was black with ash. It was nothing to rest your eyes on. There is blackness and sorrow everywhere.
«That’s what the world would look like if you let a dragon loose,» said a hoarse voice over the ashes. It sounded as if the speaker had swallowed enough ashes to make it impossible to speak his words properly.
Clement looked around, but saw nothing.
«I’m here!»
In the place that had just been empty, there appeared a figure sitting in the middle of the ashes. It, too, was all black, as if drenched in ash.
«Are you burned?» Clement got worried. «I know where to get healing herbs.»
«It’s too late for that!» The haughty voice cut it off. There was an unkind mocking tone to it. «It’s too late for that! She has you in her claws.»
«What do you mean?»
The black stranger laughed a dry, rustling laugh, like loosened ash.
«Who are you?» Clement kept expecting him to wipe his face from the ashes and introduce himself, but he sat motionless. His limbs were too long to be human and clawed. His figure was lanky. He had some sort of encrustation on his shoulders, and a crown or cap with bells on his head. He did not look like a jester or a king. He was a stranger, but his ashes were so thick!
The sinewy stranger wiggled, and then the ashes woke and wailed upon a multitude of black faces. Clement watched with horror. This was more than his uncle’s magic tricks. It looked like real ghosts. The ashy faces resembled the discarded masks of burnt creatures. They squirmed, crooked, frowned. They opened their mouths in a mute or muffled cry.
«We’re all burned because of her,» they whispered. «Run from her, at least you!»
«Run from her!» In tone with them said the black creature, sitting in the middle of the ashes as if in his own house.
«From whom it is?» Clement didn’t understand. From the dragon, it seemed, you should run. The dragon is «he,» not it is «she.»
«It is from her!» The faces echoed, ignoring, for some reason, the threat of attack from the beast. «She can turn anyone and everything to ashes.»
There they were again, talking about some sort of witch. Could she be the dragon’s mistress? Running away from a dragon made more sense than running away from the sorceress who was controlling it. Besides, Clement had gotten past the dragon’s fire so far. Except that the dragon’s slip might have been pure chance.
«We don’t know her name, but if you get in her way, the same thing that happened to us will happen to you. You will become ash,» the ash masks whispered.
Clement was frightened. He didn’t want to burn alive. The ash faces gave too tragic a prophecy.
The ash-soaked creature pointed with its claws busily toward the sky, as if it had seen a sign there.
Clement looked up as well. No dragon was flying over the ashes. So what was it?
As he pondered, the creature chanted in a low voice:
«Beauty and scales, but she is not your bride!»
It laughed and vanished. Only its black crown lay briefly among the ashes, and the black faces lamented in mass. They made the ashy ground seem like a sea of severed heads.
Flames and scales
Clement dreamed that he was walking through the throne room of the Aluar’s palace. Here everything had changed. Instead of a row of knightly armor and sculptures, creepy monsters in armor stood on either side of the hall. Each one was the size of a giant. Their horned heads almost rest against the ceiling. The monsters themselves are as motionless as statues. They do not hinder his advance toward the throne. Everything looks like the day of the coronation. Only on the throne lies a crown of golden laurel leaves, thorns, and claws. All these symbols are not part of the coat of arms of Aluar. Only the crown of some dragon kingdom could be like this.
The floor is sprinkled with golden pollen, in which evil pixies circle. The mirrors reflect ladies and gentlemen in ghastly scarlet and black masks, like ghosts, though the room itself is empty. There are no guests. But in the flames of the candles sit tiny fire fairies. They hiss unhappily at the sight of Clement.
The steps of the throne are lined with skulls. There were several skulls in crowns. These are his brothers and his father!
«You are the last, but you are the most valuable!» There is an ominous voice over the hall. «I will get to you in any one piece. Even over the corpse of the one I love. Even through the flames of the strongest dragons. Your life belongs only to me!»
On the throne sits someone dark, he was resembled a monster formed from ashes. The teeth of his crown are so sharp you could cut yourself on them. Red eyes burn rubies in the shadow’s face.
«Come to me yourself?» A dark clawed hand beckons him forward. «Stop to play hide and seek! You were born a hero, but you run from your destiny like a hare. It is time to face your destiny.»
A wave of darkness rushes from the throne. The darkness turns into claws. They slide across Clement’s body, leaving scratches like seals. In reality he cannot bear to fight with a sword; in his dreams the sword is his only defense.
«I need a fifth crowned head, and then I will have the most beautiful and powerful bride in the universe! You want to help me, don’t you? Do you want her to be queen of Aluar and queen of Shai at the same time?»
The darkness’s hypnotizing voice is convincing. The claws of the darkness snatch the sword from him. Clement is ready to put his neck under the blade to join his brothers. But then the mirror on the wall shatters. The reflection of the dragon and Raymonda is seen in the shards that scatter across the hall. The sight of Raymonda lifts the spell of darkness. Clement understands that he is prepared to do some heroic deeds for her.
And that is all. The awakening is painful, like falling from a height. All around is not a hut but a dense forest. As it turned out, he sleeps right on the road and only by some miracle did not fall under some farmer’s cart, carrying hay to town.
«It’s all the invader’s charms! They make his mind wander somewhere far away,» said a familiar female voice.
Even without opening his eyes, he recognized the tenderness of Raymonda’s fingers as they brushed strands of hair away from his forehead. Her fingers had sharp scales on them. He winced. He must be hallucinating! Why would there be scratching hot scales in a maiden’s pampered skin?
«It’s bad enough the enchantments from Shai caught up with him on the road,» answered an unpleasant male voice with a lisp that made his ears hurt. «Think what would happen the next time they caught him unawares on the field and he fell asleep beneath his enemies’ axes.»
«The Shai’s ruler has tapped into it heavily,» Raymonda agreed. «He’s looking for a power source. But he’s not a fighter anyway. I’m disappointed in him, I admit. If he weren’t so handsome, I’d have broken the contract. But I have a weakness for handsome young men.»
«This one is not for burning!» The husky bass warned her defiantly. «For roasting you have his enemy troops. You can do what you want with them. You can burn them on a spit, but the boy is our liberator-to-be.»
«And what if you’re as disappointed in him as I am? He’s not even a knight. He’s just an archer. There’s no sword hidden in his things. I’ve already checked. He’s a very good shot, though. But he’s no better shot than any elf.»
Raymonda’s voice was pleasant, but the bass was like the rattle of twigs snapping in a storm. An owl howled. Clement opened his eyelids cautiously. She had already moved away from him. She looked beautiful in her new silver dress with its lace trim and waistband. But the hunched creature that galloped around her looked more like a living bush of moss, clusters of leaves, and branching horns. This is how the late, frightened travelers describe the wood spirits that attacked them. Could this be the wood spirits? There’s no other name for this creature.
Not that Clement was frightened, but the sight of a woodland creature near a stately elf maiden startled him. What could such an ugly creature have to do with a forest beauty?
The green monster and Raymonda seemed to be formally acquainted.
«Aren’t you ashamed of misleading a boy?» The woodsman interrogated, nodding his disembodied, horned head in Clement’s direction.
«I want to test him.»
«But he’s that… special!» The green creature scratched the back of his head with twiggy fingers.
«I’m starting to wonder if he has a gift. You have to patronize him, like a teenage brother.»
«But he’s got a purpose, that’s for sure.»
Raymonda looked back at Clemente questioningly, and he promptly pretended he was still asleep.
«Is he The Chosen One?» She snorted. «Doesn’t sound like it! He’s handsome but not very strong.»
«But he’s the only one of the four princes who didn’t die. It’s fate!»
«I think he was just lucky.»
«You just want to burn him, just like all the other suitors.»
«It is the groom, not the beggar. And all because he’s supposedly special! But how do you test him for that special gift?» She snapped her fingers together, sending out golden sparks from the tips of her fingernails.
«For now, you have to support him, not test him. He needs a hold, but only until he can shake off the charms of Lord Shai.»
«And then he will know who I am and put me in a cage?»
«What if he can unseal you?»
«It is not likely! The boy is completely naive. Why is it that all the most handsome princes are either tyrants or weak-minded?»
«He’s not weak-minded. He’s just worried that his whole family’s been burned. So don’t show him your talents just yet.»
«Why should I have to be secretive? I always do what I feel comfortable doing.»
Raymonda lit a fire on the ground with a single breath. She didn’t even need the logs. The fire was lit from scratch.
«It is a magical flame!» The creature, composed entirely of moss, horns, and leaves, darted cautiously into the bushes. Clement rubbed his eyes in bewilderment. Had he really just seen a dryad or a fairy? Or was he just imagining it. The forest path was empty, not counting the campfire and the pretty girl. No more creatures of the leaves were around. Raymonda herself could be mistaken for a forest nymph. Maybe she is a nymph. Clement wasn’t sure exactly how nymphs differed from elves and the most common of woodland fairies. The latter seemed to be distinguishable by flowers growing directly in their hair or by their greenish skin. Clement raised himself carefully on his elbows. He did lie down on the tracks left by the wheels of a recent wagon. The tire tracks went deep into the ground, and there seemed to be tiny, shiny pixies in them, like glittering insects. Clement remembered that it was good luck to see pixies. But where would he, a fugitive, find that luck?
Raymonda didn’t see that he was awake. She was dancing around the fire and humming softly.
«The arrangement with the wizard is already in place!
But there might not be a wedding,
Unless the bridegroom proves
He is worthy of a special bride.
How is he better than kings?
Sultans, sheikhs and kings?
Who’ve all been wooed to me…
All have become ashes.
The one who survives,
The great miracle will be mastered.»
Her feet did not touch the ground. She danced directly over the fire, and her feet did not burn. She took off her beaded slippers. Apparently they were uncomfortable for dancing over the fire. Clement noticed some jewelry on her feet. Or were they scales? They surrounded her heels like armor. He rubbed his eyes again. If that was magic, his uncle didn’t know how. Perhaps Raymonda wasn’t a nymph after all, but an elf princess. Elvish princesses are the best at magic. The magic made up for the song’s lack of rhyme. Raymonda may not be a poet, but she is the greatest sorceress he has seen in his short life.
«Oops!» Clement felt a dry branch crunched under his hand. Raymonda immediately landed and quickly put on her shoes. The fire was instantly almost extinguished. Only a faint orange trickle remained blowing in a column like the silhouette of a genie.
Angry pixies sprang from the pits and flashed in front of Clement’s face like a flock of fireflies.
«They say you owe them compensation for bringing down the earth walls of their new dwelling,» Raymonda translated.
Dwelling?! Those are wheel marks! But Clement didn’t dare argue with the tiny magical creatures. They might cast a spell again! And to break the spell on his own, he was not yet experienced enough. His uncle had never been able to get him to be diligent in his studies.
«Tell them I’ll pay for it when I’m King,» Clement promised.
Strangely enough, the diminutive folk calmed down. Probably because Clement forgot to make it clear to them that it’s not that easy to banish invaders. He might never be king.
Grim Population
The pixies were already having their housewarming party in an empty, cracked jug someone had dropped in the woods. Raymonda had pointed out the place to them. She herself had tamed an owl and spoke to it in the bird’s language. She knows the languages of woodpeckers and quail, even the owl understands her. But he didn’t study very well. He had hoped to inherit the throne and had not heeded his uncle’s advice to chew on the granite of science, that is, the granite of magic. Magic is also a science. Or is it pure magic? Clement was confused. Besides, seeing someone as beautiful as Raymonda made serious thoughts to vanish from his mind. As long as she was near, he thought nothing of the danger of pursuit. And yet Shai’s lord might be peering at him in the magical mirrors right now.
«You’d better not go back to the gamekeeper’s hut,» she advised him. «It’s too risky to live there.»
«Don’t even tell me! I found the bones of a dead gamekeeper in a hole near the house! I wondered what had happened to him.»
Raymonda hummed something dismissively. Clement himself would have guessed there was a gang of outlaws in the woods, but the bones were black as if they’d been burned. Surely they were the marks of dragon fire.
