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Clement is tired of being talked about as if he isn’t around.
«And how did you two meet?» He asked his uncle and Raymonda.
They both looked at him in confusion.
«You could ask the same question about how we met you,» uncle grinned. «I paid courtesies in the Southern Kingdom of Livellin long ago, and am a friend of the King, and therefore tutor to all his children.»
«What does this have to do with the kingdom of Livellin? Wasn’t Princess Raymonda an elf?» Clement didn’t understand. «She lived in the woods! I was sure she was an elf!»
Abraham laughed this time. «She is a Livellin’s princess. But you’re right about the elf blood. Her mother was of elves’ blood. So my lessons have taught you something. You’ve learned a thing or two, even though I thought you were a slacker.»
«Am I slacker?» Clement flared up.
His uncle had never spoken to him so familiarly before. He would never have dared to call the Crown Prince a slacker. But now his title was in doubt. Clement felt like a criminal on the run.
He couldn’t help but think of the moment uncle Abraham had found him in the woods after the fight with the boar. Clement had no life left on him. If he hadn’t found the forest spring of healing water, he would have died of blood loss himself. The black boar, which he chased, turned out to be a witch creature. He could not shoot it to death. Even with a dozen arrows in its hackle it was strong. She had to fight him in a fight. That’s when Clement realized he could wield a dagger as well as an arrow. In the morning, as he was aiming his wounds at the spring, his uncle appeared out of nowhere to tell him the kingdom was gone. That is, it had been occupied by the beasts of Shai.
«And why didn’t all those monster invaders live in Shai?» Clement asked belatedly.
«It was too small for them,» Raymonda answered in place of his uncle. She must have known the monsters of Shai well. Perhaps they had taken her country, too. «They want to conquer the world.»
«And they have started with us! It was bad luck!»
«Well, all right! You’ll settle this without me!» Abraham was glad that Clement and Raymond could communicate without an intermediary. «Your wedding will most likely take place in the woodland realm of the elves. Princess Raymonda’s relatives live there. They may also reveal to you some magical secrets to help you fight Shai’s lord. I’ll pass. My meager knowledge of magic is not enough to fight the invaders.»
And that’s the advice of a wizard! Clement had hoped that his uncle, who had sat through some witchcraft folio, might have found some means of combat. It was all an empty hope! He would have to survive on his own, just as he had when he fought the black boar. Except there was only one boar, and the Shai invaders came in hordes. And if he were to disappoint Raymonda in any way, she would be more attacker than protector.
She had a sly twinkle in her eye as she watched Clement. He already knew that she could light a witch’s fire right there in the cave and start dancing around it through the air, so that her feet barely touched the flames. If one day she drags him into such a dance, as in a dream, he will burn.
Uncle was about to leave, and not in the usual way, but in a magical way. A dark shimmering cloud formed around his feet, shod in oriental shoes with sharp curved toes.
«Learn! Work! Get married! What else can you do?» gave uncle Abraham’s parting admonitions, before finally disappearing into the black shimmering vortex.
Indeed! What else is left? Learning magic is almost a waste of time. For a non-talented student, it’s gibberish. He was accustomed to toil with a mediocre sword. Marrying a dragoness, on the other hand, was new. Raymonda shot a steady stream of flame through the air.
«If there’s no wedding, are you going to burn me?» Clement guessed.
«I can burn you before the wedding!»
What a beast! But she’s pretty.
«But don’t be afraid! You’re very pretty, so live for now.»
In a way, Clement was glad. After all, his fiancée was the girl he’d fallen in love with for the first time in his life. There you go! The fool had been made happy! At least Raymonda was a werewolf! He’d marry a dragon for that much gold.
«Don’t think of it as my dowry,» she said. Raymonde surmised what he had in mind. She’d probably had suitors who’d asked her out of greed before. She must have been scorning them all for a reason.
«I don’t give a damn!» Clement sneered. «I’ve got enough gold in the palace myself.»
«You don’t own the palace now,» said Raymonda reasonably.
Well, she’s right. Clement looked grim. No alternative but to take up residence in the cave or the woods.
«Don’t worry! We’ll try to fix that.»
She picked up the blue star-embroidered cloak she’d draped over the pile of treasures below.
«Where are you off to in the middle of the night?»
«To look for someone to burn and eat instead of you!»
Is she serious?
«You mean you’d roast a traveler on a spit with your breath?»
But she was already gone. He wondered what she was doing to her victims. Maybe she’s burning them without a spit.
Clement didn’t want to spend the night in a dragon cave, but there was nowhere else to go. There wasn’t even a bunk, so he’d have to sleep on a pile of gold. That’s romantic, of course. Everyone dreams of gold mines, but when there’s nothing left around, gold doesn’t seem so valuable anymore. What he needs now is a soft bed and a feather bed, or at least a straw mattress. But there’s nothing like that here! It was only hard metal all around and hard gems.
He caught hold of a pile of coins, from which large elves’ doubloons immediately fell and rolled across the floor. Either Raymonda had put new coinage on them herself with magic, or she had taken them from the magical creatures. She probably robs not only humans, but elves as well. Seizing the mint and forcing the intimidated workers to melt coins with the new coat of arms is unlikely.
In the silence, the gold seemed to sing as the coins tinkled against each other and rolled along the bottom of the cave. Perhaps Raymonda was right, and her gold was enchanted.
Clement looked outside. The mountains of ash left by the burned troop were settling in the valley. The ash swirled over the ground. It was too high, swirling in spirals and resembling faces. Clement had the feeling that the ghosts from the ashes were calling to him again. Here, as there, the ashes were folded into living moaning masks. They were squirming and giving disgusting advice.
«Lead her away! Seduce and kill her! Are you on the side of the arsonist?»
And now it was no longer the masks, but the faces of the demons of Shai.
Clement stepped back from exhaling from the cave and hid between the golden slides. He didn’t want to hear the advice of the evil spirits. It was a good thing they hadn’t even looked into the cave.
The Oracle Tree
Raymonda arrived a day later and said it was time to get ready to go. It’s not a good time! Clement had already become accustomed to the cave. He was even beginning to like the quiet song of the gold. It sounded so intoxicating that he could forget about eating and drinking. Clement felt both fed and satisfied as the coins rolled through the cave, chanting something about how all the gold in the world came from some solar deity. The hymns dedicated to this deity caressed the ear, but Clement did not fully understand their meaning.
Who would have thought that dragon gold could sing? He wouldn’t have dreamed that in his wildest dreams.
Today Raymonda wore her crown of golden laurel leaves and what looked like dragon claws. That crown made her look like the queen of some witchy state inhabited by dangerous creatures.
«So are we going on a journey?» Clement rubbed his eyes sleepily. He dozed lazily while the gold sang to him.
«Did you want to hole up in a dragon cave all your life?» Raymonda shamed him.
«I just thought it was risky to leave the place unattended. What if they looted it?»
«Who would want to rob a dragon?»
«There are all kinds of daredevils.»
«They’ll get caught! My gold is treacherous. It will drive them to the precipice, drive them mad or blind them. Coins, for instance, love to leech into thieves’ skin.»
«It’s a good thing I didn’t get my hands on any,» Clement rejoiced sincerely. «Still, there’s a chance of ruin if the knights of Shai invade here.»
«Why do you fear for my life savings?» Raymonda was furious. «Don’t worry! If I have to be gone for a long time, it means the cave is so protected by magic that no one will find its entrance. And it’s not the only cave where I save my money.»
«And you’re a rich bride!» Clement cracked a joke. Raymonda was too serious.
«And I am dangerous!» She flashed her eyes, which instantly turned orange like flames.
Okay, if she wanted to be quiet instead of talking, fine. Clement felt so happy in her company anyway that he whistled songs to himself as they walked through the meadows and fields into the night. For some reason Raymonda wanted to travel at night. She could see well in the dark. Clement didn’t even ask where they were going or why they were going there. The important thing was that Raymonda was with him. And he expected no other bride than her. To know he was engaged to her was bliss. And her dragon character would probably soften in time.
«By the way, why didn’t you tell me you were my fiancée?» Clement decided to ask.
She gave a dismissive chuckle.
Why had she been leading him on from the start? She was playing with him like a cat with a mouse. Or rather, like a dragon with its prey.
«By the way, am I the groom or the victim?» Clement asked the question directly, at the risk of exposing himself to a torrent of fire breath.
«I don’t know yet!»
Raymonda hovered over the thicket of tall grass, and Clement struggled his way through it. He produced a dagger which he could use to shear back the stalks and clear a path, but Raymonda warned him:
«Don’t dare!»
«Why is it not?»
«The grass is magic. If you cut it, it’ll grow twice as tall.»
That’s probably why it was so tall. It reached to Clement’s waist. Someone had already tried to mow it down.
The tree up ahead was magical, too. It stood in the middle of the meadow, huge and gnarly, like a giant’s severed head.
She strode up to it and stroked its bark gently, as if she were greeting an old friend. The tree’s branches stretched out from the lush crown like vines and lay on the ground, creating a cover like an arbor. They are more flexible than willow branches, and the leaves on them resemble in shape the badges of card suits and the coats of arms of some countries that have long since disappeared.
«Once there were battles fought here and powers crumbled,» Raymonda explained. «Now there’s only the tree, but it’s a wise one.»
Several of the branches suddenly sprang to life, lifted from the ground like slender fingers and touched Clement, unmistakably feeling the injured areas on his skin. There was nothing left of the burns and scratches in a jiffy.
«So the tree really is a healer!»
«And you thought I was lying to you?» She took an oddly shaped leaf or two and put it in her purse. «It’s also an oracle.»
«Isn’t it?» Clement was more interested in the rainbow-like color of the leaves. And its bark had fanciful growths that, in the dim light, might be mistaken for living, supernatural beings. Several birds flitted from the top of the tree. These are the real Syrines and Alconostes!
The living roots continued to grope Clement, though no wounds remained on his body. Clement trusted them now, like a doctor, so he willingly opened his palms as the branches began to glide along the lines of fate.
«He has a noble soul!» A hoarse voice was heard from within the tree. «It is an excellent choice! You are a perfect match! The archer and the dragoness! You are a prince and a princess!»
The giant face of the oracle seemed to fade into the bark of the trunk for a moment. Clement’s heart gave out. Hooray! The oracle tree had predicted good things. So the scoundrel in the square was wrong. His ominous visage made him want to believe less than the lush tree. Though beneath the sprawling crown lurked magical figures sprouted in the trunk and small magical creatures, as well as syrene. Clement whistled.
«Would I have a bird like that?»
«Would you propose to her too?» Raymonda mocked him. «Or make her your mistress?»
As luck would have it, the bird came up with a beautiful female head, braided hair, and a tiny corolla of turquoise.
«Mind you, if you marry me, I will let the minions go no further than into the furnace. That is in the dragon’s mouth!»
«You mean you’ll burn them all?»
«And you, too!»
«Won’t you be sorry?»
«Would you pity the minions you haven’t even had yet? How do you know they won’t turn out to be scheming witches you want to execute?»
«It’s too cruel a burnt offering anyway.»
«I promise I’ll burn anyone who annoys me or contradicts me. I will start with my rivals.»
«And that will be until you’re disenchanted?»
«As your uncle hinted, I don’t think that’s possible. But spells are good for me. I can remove all my rivals and enemies with fire. Your kingdom will burn. So, you’re not going to marry me, are you?»
«Absolutely not! I’ll find a way to tame you.»
She breathed fire into him, and nothing! He didn’t burn. Only the heat ran through his skin until he was red. It was as if he had been bewitched. And it is not by his uncle. Uncle couldn’t do that.
«And your uncle is right! You are the special one! If I can’t burn you, it can’t be otherwise.»
Raymonda suddenly respected him. As it turned out, even she could be impressed by something.
Well, the tree had to do the healer’s job again, probing the branches to see if the fire had left any small injuries on his body.
«I once watched a great battle here!» Raymonda said dreamily.
Clement thought a ghost battle was about to break out in the field, but there was nothing behind him but a statue of a fairy that stood on a pedestal right in the middle of the thicket of grass. She looked beautiful and a little ominous. She seemed to come to life as soon as the moonlight touched her.
«Why hadn’t I noticed her before?»
It was as if the marble fairy had just grown up in the middle of the field.
«Don’t go near her!» Raymonda was frightened. «Don’t even look at her!»
«But why is it?»
The statue seemed very beautiful to him. What could be wrong with it? Except that it was in a strange place.
