Janet didn’t feel like she was in trouble. She had only been in a love bed with an elf. So what of it? What difference did it make if the bed was made of grass and the enchanted roses beside it hissed curses at the lovers? What difference did it make whether Tamlane was an elf or a human, if she loved him.
Janet threw her head up proudly when Ambrose spoke in a high-pitched voice:
«Fair Mistress, you seem to be in trouble, you need help.»
«There is nothing wrong with me!» She retorted angrily. That, of course, was a lie. Her dress was torn, her hair mussed, her skin scarred. And her virginity had been given to an elf. So what of it? She didn’t regret any of it herself. It was better not to live at all if she did not see Tamlane again. And with him, she willingly accepted his whole magical world.
Ambrose clearly disagreed with her. He had a premonition of misfortune. But unhappiness would only happen if she failed to get Tamlane out of the fairies’s realm, because then she would have nothing to live for.
Proudly alone, Janet made her way into the castle. Everyone tried to stay as far away from her as possible. Well, she didn’t need their company. She had Tamlane, after all. Better him than all of them. But she didn’t like the creatures that surrounded Tamlane anymore.
In one of the empty halls upstairs, an orange figure of some sort, resembling a pillar of fire, rose up. It was just getting dark. Janet remembered the song-counting that night belonged to the fire elves and day to the water elves. That was probably how they agreed amongst themselves. They shared the time of day, but they continued to feud over territory. It was now just as darkness fell. Night had begun. And the fire elf entered the castle! He can’t do that! This is water elf territory! Janet looked through the opened door and saw several fire figures already circling the table. Their touches were starting to make burnt holes on the tablecloth and the tapestry hanging on the wall. The fire elves laughed. Why did they start sneaking into the castle?
Janet walked in, and they suddenly flared up and disappeared, as if the fire in the fireplace had gone out. But the burnt-edged holes in the tapestry remained. The tapestry itself depicted a hunting scene, but an unusual one. On it, humans and supernatural beings were hunting a monster crawling out of the ground. And around it were woven gold roses in ornaments around the edges. And in the very corner of the tapestry, the elf had his arm around a girl with a lovely white bird perched on her shoulder. While the hunt was going on, he was seducing her. She was dressed in a bride’s dress. And he certainly wasn’t a bridegroom. Janet stared and didn’t immediately find that the holes had suddenly disappeared somewhere, as if the threads of the tapestry had restored themselves. Was it magic? Janet touched the tapestry with her fingers. It’s amazing.
«Madam!» Ambrose’s voice came to her from the threshold. He dared to approach her, though everyone was now frightened. «You shouldn’t have danced with the elves.»
«I didn’t,» said Janet frankly. What she and Tamlane were doing that afternoon, though it looked like a love dance, was in fact a complete fusion of the human body and the supernatural. «I just fell in love with one of them.»
Now the old knight walked up to her and took her by the shoulders with a jerk, as if he wanted to give her a good shaking.
«He has compelled you! He has bewitched you! But there is still a chance for healing. There’s an old healer in the village called Belladonna who can undo a love spell. You must go to her.»
Janet only laughed, softly and melodiously, as if she was a fairy herself.
«Love cannot be cured. You can only make a man unhappy by taking away his love, even if it is the love of an elf.»
«He will ruin you,» Ambrose said sadly. «Even if he loves you sincerely. Magical creatures in love ruin people all the same. We grow old, they stay forever young, we die, they live on, we are weak and vulnerable by nature, and they cannot be penetrated by any weapon. They will rise from their own ashes and bewitch someone next to them to feed on their life force. An elf will not be your loyal protector or devoted lover. Choose another!»
«Would you offer yourself in his place?» Janet couldn’t resist a sarcastic remark. She bit her tongue. She had upset the old knight.
«Forgive me,» she whispered, «but my lover is indispensable to me.»
«Your mother used to say the same thing long ago, and do you know what happened to her?»
«What happened to her? My father is not an elf. He didn’t ruin her,» Janet couldn’t suggest that her mother’s lover could have been anyone other than her father, but that’s what Ambrose was trying to say.
«Once upon a time, your father tried to make peace with the creatures living in the forest so that they would no longer attack his domain. He succeeded. The king of the elves, named Dagda, showed mercy. He decided that humans and elves had nothing to fight over. Both sides, human and magical, tried to get at least a truce. Peace was made. We celebrated. The humans started communicating with the undead, and everyone was happy.»
«And then what happened?»
«Then…» Ambrose began to speak with difficulty. – Then one of the elves seduced your mother, and she left with him. He enchanted her with his beauty, gave her no passage, he sent her golden roses as gifts. At first she resisted him, remembering her marriage vow to be faithful to your father the earl, but then she gave in. Magical creatures show great persistence when they want to achieve something. Amaranta was caught in the net of their king. And we never saw her again. But a lot of terrible things have happened to us since then. You were young and don’t remember, but fields burned, water turned to poison, flames burst from fireplaces and burned people, creepy creatures flew in, taking victims.
«What if the elf who captivated my heart is enchanted, if he is human?»
«Do not believe his speeches. Elves always lie. They lied when they made the truce with us. So they lie to their beloved. They end up ruining them.»
Janet remembered the scarlet and white roses on the border. Ambrose had a point. But there were exceptions.
«What do you want me to do?»
«Try to leave him. He will resist, call out to you, maybe even come to besiege the castle at night with an army of creatures like him, but at the first light of day he will have to leave, unless you yourself willingly come out to him. Magic can be destroyed by resisting it.»
«And if I can’t leave him?»
«Then you’ll die on your own.»
Janet didn’t want to believe that. Besides, Tamlane said he could be saved.
«People see the marks of the magic kingdom on you, and that scares them, but if you heal, they’ll gradually forget all about it.»
«It seems unlikely to me to heal from a desire for him. Even if the marks go away, the feeling remains.»
«Then you will become like me, a man who was once loved and branded by a fairy.»
Janet didn’t believe him at first, but Ambrose unbuttoned his collar and showed a strange sign, as if a red rose had grown right into his flesh. Janet even found a lamp and held it up to him to get a better look. It was definitely branded in the form of some sort of magical mark. Strangely, the branding was still
