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«I can hear,» the elf perked his ears. «Your brother is raging and cursing at the servants. And I have no right to divulge your father’s secrets. Everyone in the castle is busy. No one will miss you.»
Flora was disappointed.
«By the way, did you know that one night in the fairies’ residence can be a century? You’ll come home and everyone there is old and dead. You’ll have to come back here again to be alone.»
«Are you kidding me?»
«It is absolutely not!» The elf waved affably at the firebird that sat on a perch under the ceiling and replaced the lamp. «There is a source of eternal youth here somewhere, and there is none on earth. There it is!»
In one fountain, beating straight out of the wall, the water was iridescent.
«A single drop will smooth out wrinkles or heal wounds,» the elf boasted. «Check it out!»
One of Flora’s hands was pricked with thorns of garden roses. The girl dipped her palm into the rainbow fountain. The scratches healed instantly.
«You see! All humans can be healed here, but this is the realm of the fairies. Humans are rarely allowed in. Although once, a mortal king was invited here by a carnation fairy in love. Now all that’s left here is his crown. There it is,» the elf picked up a precious crown of rubies and emeralds from the floor. «The king’s bones had long since been scattered to ashes.»
Flora didn’t like it. It is too ominous. The elf offered her a royal crown to try on, but Flora declined. It was bad luck to try on a crown of dead man, and the king who owned the crown was already dead. She wondered what had happened to him in this palace? Did he stay here for a century before reaching the source of eternal youth? How did that happen? The fairies didn’t let him through?
«It was a futile attempt!» The stone horned face on the wall said.
Flora glanced at her arm and noticed that the scratches had reappeared.
«It is strange!» The elf looked at her skin. «It usually works! You can’t be enchanted, can you? Or sick with the leprosy of the gray trolls? Or are you dead? Only water doesn’t heal the dead.»
The elf felt Flora’s pulse with long, thin fingers. Creeper leaves sprouted in his fingers.
«I’m alive!» Flora wrenched his hand away.
«Your heart beats very slowly, as if someone had forced it artificially.»
«Are you implying that I was dead and some sorcerer brought me back to life?» Flora joked.
She was immediately reminded of a recent incident when she had fainted and spent a long time in unconsciousness. It really was as if she had been dead, and then someone had called her back to the living again.
«Let’s have some fun!» Flora wanted to forget this episode from the past. The present was like a fairy dream, if only there wasn’t danger coming from the fairies. Somehow they looked too predatory.
It wasn’t just the flower fairies that were having fun in the ballrooms. There were also sea fairies, covered with shells, and water fairies, whose trains spread out on the floor with water, and even flaming fire fairies, from whose footsteps on the floor left traces of sparks.
Fairies are not only garden fairies. Flora noticed that her dress was covered with forget-me-nots. The flowers must be a disguise so that the fairies would take her for their own. The mask winked slyly at Flora. Did the mask conjure up the forget-me-nots?
The fairies twirled in a strange dance right in the air.
«When he comes, I will enchant him with my fragrance,» hummed the lilac fairy, in whose hair and skin sprouted bunches of purple and white lilacs. «For the rose is no longer here, and lilac is the most beautiful flower after the rose.»
«No, jasmine is the prettiest,» objected the jasmine fairy. «He’ll like me better.»
«He didn’t notice you last time, and he flirted with me,» boasted the rhododendron fairy. «He loves my flowers.»
«But not you,» the magnolia fairy said cheekily.
«But he didn’t flirt with you at all!»
«It is exactly! I’m going to fly up to him first tonight. Everyone knows he respects bold women. Rose charmed him with her courage, but she’s not here right now. There’s a vacancy!»
They must mean the Rose Fairy, Flora decided to herself.
Because of some gentleman who was not at the ball yet, the beautiful fairies were ready to fight in flight. They were already sharpening their claws when the gold coin fairy flew past them, her outfit and jewelry literally jingling. She glanced disdainfully at the gardening community and snorted:
«What makes you so sure he’ll join in the fun tonight?»
«He hasn’t missed a single fairy masquerade since he ascended the throne,» the exuberant garden fairies replied in unison. It seemed to Flora that now they were going to fight with the coin fairy, because they saw her as a rival.
«Today he has to choose a new friend, and it will not be you,» said the fairy of the burdock fairy with a belligerent brow.
«He shouldn’t! He doesn’t owe anything to any of us, but we’re only here as long as he lets us,» the coin fairy flew past with her chin held up proudly. Coins sprinkled from her hem and lined the floor in a glittering path. Flora bent down and picked up one of the coins. It bore the image of a dragon on one side and a crown on the other.
Curious, what country are such coins from? Flora still hadn’t seen such coinage anywhere.
«Who are they waiting for?»
«It is the most beautiful emperor in the world,» answered the elf.
«A mortal emperor is coming to the fairies’ masquerade?»
«No, he is not mortal, of course,» the elf even laughed. «When did mortals survive here?»
Flora even took offense. Does he think she’s a fairy? She had no wings, but the forget-me-nots on her corset wrapped around her back as if to hide her folded wings.
Some fairies folded their wings like a cape as they walked around the hall, while others spread their wings out to take up more space.
«There are not enough cavaliers here,» Flora remarked as the elf spun her around in a dance.
Many fairies danced with each other or in round dances. They didn’t care that they were alone, for soon someone would come for whom they were all ready to compete.
«Soon this masquerade will turn into a fairy tournament,» the elf said, «but I believe you will win.»
«But I don’t want to take part in the competition, no matter what it’s for,» Flora shuddered at the sight of the delicate fairies’ sharp claws. «I’m not willing to sacrifice myself for even the best prize.»
«It is nonsense! You don’t have to sacrifice anyone. All it takes is for him to see you, and you’ll be a winner again.»
«Is it again?»
«When you become Empress, appoint me as your advisor,» the elf said, as if he hadn’t heard her and was babbling on and on. «I have long wanted to take a high post at the magical court, but there is so much competition! I’m always being passed over.»
«And you’re counting on my help?»
«I realized a long time ago that honest magic won’t get you closer to the throne! Alas, even in the magical world, everything is by proxy.»
Flora sighed. The elf would be very disappointed when he realized that she wouldn’t be of any use to him. He might even try to cast a spell on her.
«You have me confused with someone else,» she hinted cautiously.
«You can’t be confused with anyone, even if your mask is perfect.»
What mask does he mean? Was it the one that squinted slyly in her hand and winked repeatedly? Or some other mask?
Flora didn’t like that the elf was looking at her as if her very body was a mask. At her own risk, she put the mask to her face. It stuck to her skin like a wet leaf. It was really trying to blend in with Flora’s face. Good thing the mask was on a holder. A tug on it and she let out a disappointed gasp. She had to give up her position.
«I smell mortal!» The flameless fairy widened her nostrils predatorily.
«Is it here?» The violet fairy said. «I don’t think so.»
«I’m not wrong.»
«But tonight is not hunting night. The gates are closed to humans.»
«Maybe someone slipped in by accident, or maybe the Dark Lord sent us a gift.»
The rumors spread throughout the hall, and soon the gathering of fairies was buzzing like a beehive.
One fairy, flying by in search of a mortal guest, hit Flora with her wing.
Somehow the fairies had failed to denounce her. Could they really have mistaken her for a fairy? How could that be? Out of caution, Flora put the mask to her face. The mask became hot. Flora felt that the mask wanted to hide her from the predatory fairies.
It’s not nice to wear a mask that makes faces over your face and gives off frivolous smiles, but there’s nothing to be done.
«Why did I have to come here?» Flora berated herself.
It was as if the fairies had gone blind. They couldn’t find one ordinary girl among the whole magical gathering. Serves them right! While they were looking for her, they should get away from here. The elf might well carry her back on his wings. Was the elf was on her side? Flora was beginning to doubt him. He seemed to value the dream of his own elevation more than her safety.
A witty thought occurred to one fairy, and she began to whisper it to everyone.
«Let’s take off! All are at once!»
Why would they do that? Flora didn’t realize right away. It was only when the swarm of fairies took to the air that she stood alone on the floor. You can’t fly without wings!
«She’s mortal!» As the fairies unmasked her, the mask gasped. She was good for nothing. And it was vouched for by Donatello himself, the great master of magic masks.
«Perhaps the mask is not his work, or perhaps I didn’t pay him enough,» said the worried elf.
The fairies pounced on Flora as a pack.
«Stop it! She’s my companion,» the elf tried to protect her.
Flora was relieved. Well, at least she had an elf on her side! Too bad the elf’s defense was nothing, against a whole pack of clawed and winged beauties. They showed great aggression.
«Mortal! Come to steal our suzerain!»
«Let’s eat her alive!»
«All Earth girls are so clever!»
«She came here on a day like this! And you led her through the guards!» One fairy clutched at the elf’s hair. She called a kraken sleeping in the water under the palace windows, which woke up from the fairies’ cries and swarmed with its tentacles in the water. If it wrapped its tentacles around the palace, it would be the end of everyone. Or rather, she’s the only one who’s dead! The fairies will fly away, but she’ll stay buried under the ruins.
«She could take away our last chance!» The fairies screamed. «Let’s kill her! Let’s use her blood for elixirs!»
Flora prepared for the worst, but then one of the locked doors burst open. All the fairies panicked. They immediately fell behind Flora and began to fancy themselves. Could it be that magical emperor they were all waiting for?
Flora was curious to see him too, but the wings of the fairies blocked her view. And from the direction of the open door came the sound of rumbling footsteps.
In the dragon’s arms
«It sounds like the emperor has claws on his feet,» Flora said by ear.
«Just be glad you weren’t mauled before he got here,» the mask in her hands snickered. She loved to sneer.
«I should throw you out!»
«Just try it!» The mask’s twisted holder instantly stuck to her hands.
«You’re so clingy!»
«I want to be the mask of the Empress herself.»
«You’ll be disappointed! I’m definitely not going to be an empress.»
«I still have the right to fight for my place in the sun,» said the mask insolently. «Maybe one day my luck will shine.»
Instead of luck, something like dawn shone through the door. Had the sun really fallen into the fairies’ residence? The glow was so bright that Flora squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them, she noticed that the hodgepodge of fairy wings that had obscured her view of the hall had disappeared. The fairies had scattered in different directions.
That’s good! Otherwise we had to stare at winged backs instead of a fascinating sight. Flora expected to see a fairy handsome man and was disappointed. Instead, a glittering beast strode into the hall.
It was a dragon!
But what kind of dragon was it? Its skin shines like the sun! Is it golden? Where is the emperor? Is it behind the dragon’s back? Or is he not here yet and the dragon came here by mistake? Either way, he saved Flora. A mob of angry fairies could have torn her apart, and an elf wouldn’t have helped.
The dragon roared, and the fairies suddenly became frightened. They all scattered hastily to the wall niches and corners. A few fairies even flew into the chandelier.
The dragon stepped on the marble floor, leaving scratches on the tiles. The scratches were immediately smoothed out, but the fairies’ fear of the dragon did not go away. They had done something that he could not forgive.
Flora belatedly realized she was alone in the center of the hall. Again her inability to fly had failed her. Too bad fairies had wings and she didn’t. Otherwise she would have flown away frightened now too.
Apparently, the dragon had mistaken her for prey, because it reached out a paw toward her. For a moment, Flora felt like a toy. The elf thoughtfully fluttered away.
The dragon’s touch was like some kind of ritual before a sacrifice. The huge paw could have crushed Flora, but hesitated. It was as if the dragon recognized her.
What eyes it had! Real aquamarines! No, they’re sapphires! How quickly they change color! Flora stared into them like a kaleidoscope.
