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Raphael looked around warily.
«I don’t seem to feel sick.»
«All infected people feel healthy at first. The disease doesn’t kick in right away.»
«You’re a healer?» Rafael had a frightened look on his face.
«Your friend gave me a lecture yesterday about what a bad castle we have.»
«What friend is it?»
«It is an aristocrat named Edwin.»
«I don’t know any Edwin.»
«But he was here yesterday.»
«It was an aristocrat in the middle of nowhere! He was a messenger from the King, perhaps.»
«He is more like a traveler. I invited him to dinner.»
«It’s good to have someone to talk to other than the prim astrologers my father invites. The frequent visits of alchemists and astrologers probably made our castle a bad place. When Father dies, I’ll drive them all away. I can’t stand minions and crooks.»
«How can you talk about Father’s death when Father is alive and unhurt?»
«My mother was alive and unhurt, and then suddenly…» The words froze on Raphael’s lips. «If mom were alive, she would have dispersed those alchemists.»
«I’ll find out what happened to Mom,» Flora promised herself. A chain of tiny footprints could be seen on the path. If only Raphael hadn’t noticed them. Only fairies could have such graceful feet.
«Floretta!» The brother had gotten into the habit of calling her by her pet name, so something was wrong. She was usually called Floretta by her mother or nanny. Flora was immediately alert.
«What do you mean?»
«Don’t go to crossroads in the evening, even garden crossroads,» Rafael advised. «The evil spirits love to catch travelers at crossroads.»
And at masquerades, Flora wanted to say, but she had the good sense to keep silent. Raphael wouldn’t have understood. He himself was now terrified of crossroads and gambling trolls.
Advice from the fairies
As soon as Raphael had left the garden, Flora breathed a sigh of relief. Now she had time to cover the dragon’s trail. Her absent-minded brother hadn’t noticed it, or he would have panicked by now.
She had to hurry before the gardener and his helpers got here. There’s no way to trample the dragon’s trail. It’s too big. Maybe we should try to cover it with a rake or a broom. She wished she had Drusilla’s broom right now. She was sure the witch’s broom could do a fine job even with a dragon’s mark.
Laughter sounded from behind the briar bushes. It resembled the chiming of bells. It was the way fairies laughed at a masquerade. At the memory of fairies Flora was terrified. She was more afraid of fairies than she was of the dragon.
If fairies got into the garden, they would definitely try to strangle her or tear her apart.
The rosehips at this time of year were blooming with tiny roses. They were supposed to be white, but for some reason they were blue. Are there blue roses? Flora looked around the bush in surprise. It looked like magic. It was as if the fairies had enchanted this bush.
Someone was still laughing in the thicket. There was a gravel path around the bushes. No one was walking on it, but the imprints of graceful feet were suddenly imprinted on it. Where had they come from? Unless an invisible man had walked here.
Flora stared at the footprints in puzzlement. They looked as if they had been left by feet in winged sandals. Probably some fairy flying over the path had decided to play a prank. Flora stared up at the sky, but the fairy suddenly appeared beside her and laughed. She was translucent for a moment. Then she turned blue.
«How lucky I was to play a trick on you!» The unfamiliar fairy hovered in the air above the path and clapped her hands joyfully. Her nails, eyebrows, and eyelashes were silver, and her dress, hair, and wings were blue. Such beauty! Flora glared at the fairy, forgetting the danger. Somehow the fairy looked suspiciously like a blue rose from a bush.
«Are you a garden fairy?» Flora guessed.
«Uh-huh! I’ve been living in the hollow of an old elm tree for a couple of decades and I know all the secrets of the garden.»
«Are there any secrets in this garden?»
The fairy obviously did not want to answer. She flew forward along the avenue of poplars. Flora followed the fairy. It was strange that at this time of year the down was flying off the poplars. The fairy caught it and laughed. The poplar fluff turned blue in her hands.
When she reached the beech, the fairy tapped the trunk with her hand for some reason.
«What are you doing?»
«I want to call my friends. They live in the yew, ash and cypress trees.»
«Are they fairies like you?»
«Yes, they are.»
«No, you don’t need to call them.»
«Why is it not?» The fairy fluttered her silvery eyelashes in amazement.
«I don’t like noisy company.»
«I heard you and an elf agreeing to go to the fairy masquerade.»
«I didn’t like it.» Flora didn’t specify that it wasn’t the noise she didn’t like, but the claws of aggressive fairies.
«I don’t like it either, that’s why I haven’t attended masquerades for centuries,» admitted the garden fairy.
«How long have masquerades been held in the fairies’ residence?»
«I don’t remember exactly,» the Garden Fairy frowned. «I think since the Empress disappeared.»
«Which empress is it?»
«Does it really matter? Personally, I liked having fun in the company of the local marquise. She was such a fun person.»
«She’s gone,»» Flora said sadly.
«Is she?» The garden fairy was very surprised. «I saw her only yesterday.»
«You couldn’t have seen her yesterday.»
«It was definitely her.»
«You must be mistaken.»
Aren’t there many similar women all over the world? To the fairies, surely all mortals look pretty much alike. Then it’s strange why the fairy didn’t mistake Flora herself for her mother. After all, Flora was very similar in appearance to the late Marquise.
«Let’s dance in the air above the garden,» the fairy grabbed the hesitant Flora by both hands and tried to pull her into flight. «Let’s have a masquerade right here in the garden.»
«No!» Flora struggled to break free. «I’ll fall and get hurt.»
«It is really! You don’t have wings!» The garden fairy seemed to have just noticed this. She flew around Flora in surprise and even tried to unbuckle her corset to see if her wings were hidden underneath.
«I took you for a newcomer to the garden. Sometimes stray fairies come through here.»
Flora didn’t know what to say. The garden fairy must be out of her depth. Or she could be stealing her father’s port and drinking it in the hollow tree. The maids complained that one flask of port had disappeared.
How could the garden fairy otherwise claim to know all the secrets of the estate if she mistakes the master’s daughter for a stranger?
Between the footprints on the path something glittered. It seemed to be a coin. Flora bent down and picked it up. The coin was unusual. It had no crest or tails. There was a silhouette of a dragon embossed on both sides.
«Had the dragon dropped it?» Flora could only think of such an assumption. Although on the other hand, the unusual coin could have belonged to a garden fairy or the young wizard Edwin.
The coin was hot, as if it had been heated on fire. Flora almost dropped it from her fingers.
«Don’t throw it away!» The fairy warned. «The coin is magic. If you throw it, you will find the way to the dragon’s kingdom.»
«Is it to the dragon kingdom! Why would I go there? I’m afraid of dragons!»
«And they love you.»
«That’s not true! The dragon was just told to watch over me and pester me with advice.»
Another piece of advice was scorched on the bench. Why did the dragon ruin the bench! It was expensive, the Aluar’s craftsmen made it from yew and valuable copper. Flora didn’t even bother to read the inscription. She’d had enough of the dragon’s advice.
«Keep the coin! If you toss it, you can find a way out of any situation,» the fairy squinted slyly.
She flapped her wings and knocked over a statue of some garden goddess.
«Careful, it’s expensive!» Flora rushed to save the statue, but it was already shattered.
«I don’t like garden goddesses! But if it’s expensive, let it stay here. Just give me the coin.»
Flora was glad to part with the coin that burned her fingers.
With a flap of the fairy’s wings, the statue was whole.
«One coin is worth a whole gallery of such statues,» the fairy explained, but she didn’t give the coin back.
«Is it alive?» Flora recoiled from the statue, which began to make faces.
«No, it’s my magic. It only takes a pinch of magic to revive a statue.»
«You can put her back to sleep, or she’ll scare the guests away with her marble facial expressions.»
The garden fairy stared at Flora in discouragement.
«You’re impossible to understand!» She sighed.
Flora could have said the same thing about the fairy, but she delicately kept silent.
«Do you think that a magician who comes to visit you will be stunned at the sight of just one living statue?» The fairy was busy shaking off the debris from her skirts, which resembled the petals of a blue rose. The statue suddenly fell asleep. At least it didn’t make any more faces.
«Thank you!» Flora thanked.
«Do you want some advice for the future?» The garden fairy was about to fly to the top of the elm trees, but she delayed. «If you find another dragon coin on the road, don’t give it to anyone. Otherwise, you’ll lose your chance at magical luck.»
«Thank you, but I can do without that chance,» Flora muttered, thinking to herself that the fairy’s advice was all she needed.
Why did all magical creatures, except for witches, take her for a naive person? First the dragon came to her with advice, and now the fairy.
«How proud you are!» The garden fairy snorted. «For your information, not everyone can find a coin dropped by a dragon. If I had seen it on the path before you, I would have picked it up immediately, but I didn’t. So I don’t have a gift for finding gold.»
«Do garden fairies need gold? I think you only like flowers and plants,» Flora wondered.
But the fairy had already flown away with the coin. What was she going to spend it on? The Marquis de Rione’s castle was rarely visited even by shopkeepers, not to mention foreign merchants with silks and spices. Father scared them all away.
Besides, why should fairies buy anything when they can conjure up whatever they want? She guessed the garden fairy really believed she could use a dragon coin to find some forbidden path to dreamland. Well, let her dream on!
Flora looked around for the gardener’s tools. There must be some way to cover the dragon’s trail. She was too late. Drusilla’s broom had already covered the flowerbed. Drusilla herself was nowhere to be seen. The witch’s broom could do the job without her mistress.
Flora sighed in relief. How convenient to have a kind-hearted witch who wanted to help you. The broom covered the dragon’s trail almost instantly. Flora, on the other hand, wouldn’t have been able to do it in a whole day.
Garden mysteries
Raphael didn’t know anything about Edwin. So Edwin wasn’t one of his acquaintances from the local taverns. That was comforting. In the beer halls, his brother tangled with the rare hooligans. If only all these drunks and hustlers weren’t his constant company. Brother needs a more aristocratic friend. But where could he get one?
Flora caught herself thinking she couldn’t forget Edwin. He is so elegant, so mysterious! There’s something special about him. It is apart from the charms, of course.
«I feel as if I were in love!» Flora whispered. She was glad that the magic mask was not with her. Otherwise the mask would have laughed!
You have to put up with your own mask’s witticisms! She shouldn’t have gone to the fairy masquerade. Then she wouldn’t have the magic mask now. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have met Edwin.
«I wonder if he’ll come to dinner.»
The witch’s broom, naturally, did not respond. It covered the dragon’s trail and flew back into the window of the castle from which it had flown. It must have flown back to Drusilla. It was strange that the witch’s broom was actively flying during the day as well. Flora was sure that all witches’ tricks worked only at night.
A bush of particularly lush dark blue roses appeared at the garden gate. The gardeners were careful to avoid it, pretending it wasn’t there. It grew right by the side of the gravel path. There’s no such thing as blue roses! It’s a fairy joke! Flora already knew about her, but the others hadn’t even seen her yet, so they blamed it on the curse of the castle.
«All cursed castles are besieged by wickedness,» Flora heard bits and pieces of the head gardener’s assistants talking.
