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«Don’t drink the wine!» He whispered to the king. «She will poison you! She will bewitch you! Enchant you!»
But Conrad ignored the advice and drank. And he didn’t die! The counselor bit his tongue.
However, besides poison, there might be other reasons to feel fear.
The fruit on the plates turned out to be alive. One peach slipped from his hands and rolled on the floor, laughing. A ruddy apple rolled over in his fingers, smiled at him with a woman’s face as if painted on the rind and winked. The same faces appeared on the unfamiliar tropical fruit. The mouths on the peels opened and sang in unfamiliar languages.
«And these creatures we ate!» The counselor jumped up from the table. The knights felt sick, but not from fear. It seemed that the fruit was already stirring and singing in their bellies.
«They will vomit, but they will survive,» Medea Shai accompanied them with a glance as they fled.
«Now we are alone!» Conrad was glad he hadn’t eaten anything, or he would be sick now, too.
The living fruit at the feast, the statues that came to life, the flowers with talking mouths – it was enough to drive even a strong wrestler mad. But he proved to be a tough nut to crack, and he got the prize. The mistress of the castle ushered him into her bedroom.
A black salamander flew in front of them, posing as a candelabra lighting the way. There was lighter from its scales than from real candles.
Medea Shai’s bed appeared to be made of black flowers. Only the canopy and silk bedspread stood out in bright purple. But a dragon, coiled in rings around the bed, would have alarmed anyone. He glared so fiercely at his guest that the king instinctively drew his sword.
«He’s not jealous,» Medea Shai gently stroked the dragon’s scaly spine.
«Should he be jealous?»
She only smiled enigmatically.
«People are so innocent!»
I’ve had many women before, Conrad wanted to say, but realized that by innocence she meant something else. Was it naivety? Was it people’s ignorance of enchantments and magic? Was it a mystery that united only her and the dragon? And it was a secret Conrad shouldn’t have poked his nose into. He felt as if he were standing under a keyhole watching Medea Shai make love to a dragon. And in fact it would be the dragon who would be watching their coitus. Even an experienced womanizer would be uncomfortable here. Conrad already was. The dragon’s eyes were staring right at him as Medea Shai unbuttoned his sash.
The white and red fairies were already fighting under the window in the dizzying height above the wasteland. The red fairy was winning.
Passion is strongest! The black moths that had fluttered out of the gloom were lacing Medea Shai’s corset, trying not to catch her wings. Conrad looked at the half-naked fairies’ queen and realized he didn’t care. Let the dragon watch as much as he wanted. It was as long as he didn’t interrupt them.
Thorns in the heart
When Conrad awoke, Medea Shai was not there. Even the bed was not crumpled where she lay. Her black dragon was gone, too. But the other two, the white one and the amber one, sat unobtrusively in the doorway. They did not interfere with Conrad as he left the bedroom.
Going through the castle in search of the queen was not the smartest thing to do. The enfilades of the hall resembled a labyrinth. After ten minutes, Conrad realized that he would not be able to find his way back to the bedroom on his own. Servants were nowhere to be seen, and the wattles of black roses that abundantly braided the walls and columns proved biting. Conrad almost lost an arm when he caught them.
All that remained was to turn down a dark corridor where there were no roses. True, he had to find his way through it as well. The chandeliers and chandeliers which had previously gnawed at him through the eyes of salamanders were gone. But the keyholes in the many doors let out a measured glow, now azure, now pink and emerald. Behind the doors one might have thought they had locked a rainbow. All of the doors were different shapes and sizes.
The end of the corridor spiraled into darkness and was lost in infinity. Closed doors of fanciful shapes stretched across the entire corridor.
«Let me out! Let me out! I already regret not obeying you.»
«Who are you?» Conrad leaned toward the door, pushing it open, but it was locked.
«Who are you?» Out of the keyhole flashed a frightened, bright red eye.
«I am a man!» The prisoner howled, either enthusiastically or disapprovingly. It was impossible to tell from his tone. «Bend your ear to me! I will whisper something secret to you.»
Probably out of curiosity, Conrad bent down, and immediately a sharp black claw nimbly peeked out of the crevice and nearly pierced his ear.
«Don’t listen to him! Come to me!»
This time the king did not yield, though the summons came from behind a very different door. It was of black metal, and its shape was that of a great sheaf of ears.
«The queen has us locked in here. She forbids you, too. Get out of here!»
He wondered if this was a dream. Conrad even pinched himself. The voice moaned in different ways, as if a whole regiment of different creatures were lurking behind the same door.
«Let us out! And we will tear the villainess to shreds!» The voices of all sorts of tones croaked and muttered.
And only one squeaky voice warned:
«Run for your life! Get away from her! Or you will be imprisoned, as we have been, for all eternity!»
Conrad looked at the fancy door. Were it not for the keyhole, it might have been a bas-relief of black spikes. In any case, it was too small to hold many prisoners, and he could hear a chorus of voices. One hoarse bass in the chorus was surely that of a giant. No more, no less!
Except that it was unbelievable that a crowd of creatures could fit into such a narrow space at once. Behind the door was probably a tiny storeroom, not a room. Conrad tapped the wall, checking by the sound to see if the interior was hollow. There was no echo. The door seemed to have a blank wall.
«Hey, mortal!» That same squeaky voice, apparently belonging to the dwarf, called. «The fairies’ queen has a soft spot. I can tell you where it is.»
Conrad already knew.
«It’s her heart,» he suggested, remembering the night before with Medea Shai. If she hadn’t fallen in love with him, there would have been a bloody battle between them.
«No, it would not!» Someone jumped at the door. «It is Honeydew!»
«What is it?»
«Not what is it, who is it!»
«And who is it?» Conrad scolded himself for having conversations with someone he couldn’t even see. But he was torn by curiosity.
«Honeydew is a living black flower. It can strangle you with its stems if you get close, or it can give you the key to a secret if you ask very hard. Speaking of keys…Medea Shai has a bunch of keys, each with a head the same shape as these doors. You couldn’t steal her key to the door where I’m languishing! It’s the one with the black sheaf notch.»
«Are you alone in there?» Why is the polyphonic chorus here? «It seemed to me that there were many of you inside.»
There was a wheezing laugh in reply.
«How stupid mortals are!»
Conrad took offense, reached for his sword, and realized he did not have his sword with him. If one of the fairies’ queen’s monsters attacked him now, he would not be able to fight back.
«It is at your service!» A voice at the door insisted. «I told you how to overpower her, and you get me the key!»
Conrad wanted to blurt out that he wasn’t a thief, but it would have been nice to ask something first:
«What were you locked in here for?»
There was a long silence on the other side of the strange door.
«So… A minor transgression! It was sorcery against her majesty’s charms. It was trampling her fields.»
«But there are no fields, only black wasteland.»
«This is Shai! You see only a black wasteland, and if the dragons of the queen burn your army, the wasteland will be covered with black sand from ashes like a blanket. The ash from your warriors will pile up into whole barchans. Medea Shai likes to sow her fields with seeds from human bones.»
The man who spoke chuckled like a madman. Maybe he is insane.
«What is going on here? Who are you talking to?» Medea Shai walked down the corridor, rustling her black and scarlet skirts. A living candlestick flew ahead of her, rustling with notches in the shape of golden wings.
Conrad noticed that the train of the fairies’ queen’s new outfit was woven of thousands of black butterflies. It stretched across the carpet, rustling unpleasantly. The butterflies looked as if they had been captured. They also adorned the neckline and sleeves. Conrad couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead? They seemed to be moving their wings, as if they wanted to warn him about something. But he was no longer willing to listen to warnings. The beauty of the fairies’ queen captivated him once more. One look at her face, at the black curls tangled in the shoulders of moths, and he couldn’t think of anything but love.
«I’ve heard that when people start talking to emptiness, it means they’re going crazy.» Medea Shai brushed some butterflies off her sleeve, and they encircled her forehead in a living hoop. «I have a tincture for insanity. Would you like some?»
As Medea Shai approached, the voices outside the door fell silent, as if they were not there at all.
«I heard the ghosts…»
«Believe me, if there were ghosts nesting here, I’d be the first to hear and see them. I love taming ghosts and genies. It’s been my favorite pastime for centuries.»
«Is it several centuries?»
Medea Shai nodded. How old is she? She looks young and beautiful. Conrad had heard that time flows differently for fairies than it does for mortals. Humans tend to grow old and die in a century. Fairies, on the other hand, live forever and never grow old at all. That’s why they are called magical creatures.
«I’m older than you… by a couple of millennia,» Medea Shai noticed his embarrassment and began to calculate her age. «But that doesn’t mean anything. If I like someone very much, I can give them eternal life. And there are still conditions not to go outside of my realm, or you will grow old and die despite my charms. Only within Shai can you live forever with me.»
Forever enjoying the love of a true fairy! How tempting that sounds! But Conrad remembered his responsibility for his people. Even though his kingdom is made up of humans and not immortal creatures, he is responsible for them. And he also has a fiancée! How can he tell Medea Shae about this? Or is it better not to say anything at all? How about forgetting the stunted princess Araminta for the sake of the beautiful black-haired fairy?
Medea Shai reached out and kissed him. She didn’t even have to stand on tiptoe, even though Conrad was taller. She simply flew over the rug and touched his lips.
«Who would have thought I would like a mere mortal so much!» She frowned.
«I am a king, not a mere mortal,» Conrad corrected.
«Kings and peasants are mere mortals to the Fairy people,» Medea Shai told.
Morals are complicated! The aristocrats were considered special in Aluar. They belonged to the upper classes.
Something jerked at the door. Conrad looked around quickly. It felt as if a force imprisoned within was trying to tear all the doors off their hinges.
«Who’s locked in here?»
Conrad counted on an honest answer, but the fairies’ queen pretended not to understand him.
«What makes you think there’s anyone locked in here?» Her graceful eyebrows rose in surprise.
«It looked so to me. Is this place like a dungeon?»
«Are dungeons ever this grand?» Medea Shai grinned.
Indeed! The doors are all shaped like works of art.
«What lies behind them?»
«There are rarities from distant lands, treasures and wonders.»
«And are they not prisoners? Say, punished subjects?»
«I don’t lock up my subjects. They’re loyal enough,» the fairies’ queen jangled a bunch of keys hanging from her belt. They all had whimsical shapes, like the sun, elephant, mermaid, crown, moon, month, sickle, apple, heart. And even a sheaf of ears! The voice at the door was not lying.
«Would you have locked me in here?» He decided to test her.
«Why would I lock up someone who already belongs to me?»
«Someone who loves you,» Conrad corrected. «And how do you feel about me?»
Medea Shai turned on her dragon. He muffled and crawled away resentfully.
«What do you feel for me, not your dragons?» Conrad insisted.
«I love you,» she said, her voice indifferent, but her dark eyebrows rose in surprise.
What’s the matter with her? Can’t she understand her own feelings? And he can’t dare tell her about his fiancée. Or does she already know? They say fairies can read people’s minds.
Medea Shai touched her hand to his chest, and his heart was pierced with pain. When the queen of the fairies took her hand away, a rose with black and red petals was left on his skin. A moment and it dissolved into his skin, but he felt the thorns of its stem pierce his heart. It was painful and sweet at the same time. It was strange that he had survived. After all, if you pierce the human heart with something, people die. Unless, after the nights he spent with the fairy, he got a piece of her immortality himself.
«I propose that we unite,» Medea Shai proclaimed. «You are the ruler of Aluar. I am the lord of magic, dragons and fairies. Together we can build a great state where mortals and immortals can learn to get along together.»
«But you must be my wife to do so…» Conrad shrugged. «I have already tried to make an alliance with one empire.»
«Is it by marriage?» She guessed.
He nodded.
«But you are not married yet.»
«But the wedding has been arranged, though we must hope for Araminta’s frail health. Her physicians said she would not last more than a year.» The illness was a mysterious one, contracted on the magical moors on the road to Aluar. Araminta was summoned from the mire by strange voices, and after that she fell ill. It was said that only a fairy could heal the king’s bride. Fairies were searched all over Aluar and found none. And so, as soon as he met a real fairy, he realized that he no longer needed a bride.
«Don’t be worried!» Medea Shai brushed an unruly lock of hair from his forehead. «I can be your co-ruler without being your wife. Besides, your wife would die in a century, and you yourself could have eternity.»
She added the last sentence coquettishly, but the dragon grumbled unkindly behind her back. Steam billowed from its nostrils and wafted down the corridor. Behind the doors someone sighed, sobbed, whispered:
«As soon as she gets tired of him, he’ll join us!»
But Conrad no longer believed the voices. Nor did he believe that humans and fairies could become one people, but on leaving the castle he discovered that his warriors were already getting along with the monsters of Medea Shai. The monsters were teaching the knights to play a strange game similar to a golden checkers. Purple tents and shawls with witchcraft emblems woven on them were reminiscent of palace luxury. They were displayed on the black field by Medea Shai’s servants. The tents themselves were already populated by slender fairies, and not only black-winged ones. Conrad had seen silver fairies, gold fairies, rainbow fairies, and even those with wings like rose and peony petals. Some of the fairies wore exotic oriental robes.
