style="font-size:15px;"> She was leaving the village in a hurry, and she suggested she stop at Rodolit on her way. We must try to find Aspasia there and get her to refute all this terrible news. Unless the fortuneteller had left town, she could dissuade Janet that she was the old witch’s sister and reassure her that she didn’t agree with all this nonsense.
The area outside the house where Aspasia had once dwelt was now unfamiliarly empty. Janet walked alone toward the square where the fair had been held not so long ago, and noticed one abandoned tent. Some animal was whimpering there, begging to be let out. In a human voice! Janet rushed over there.
She found the cage in which the dwarf was sitting. It was a real dwarf, with eyes that glowed scarlet like fire. Janet recoiled at first, but then decided she’d better let him out. Surely he had been banished from Corund by the fairies’ queen and was helpless before the inhabitants of Rodolit dared to catch him and show him off in a circus for the public’s amusement.
She felt pity for the unpleasant looking creature on the one hand, but she was afraid of him on the other.
«Do not be afraid!» He caught her fear. «Just pull back the latch.»
His voice was husky and gruff. His eyes glittered dangerously. Janet hesitated for a moment, then she pulled the latch. The cage swung open easily, but the dwarf struggled to get out. The opening of the door was too narrow; Janet helped him by grabbing both hands. She almost pulled him out. He found himself on the sidewalk, jumped up and down with joy, and turned to Janet.
«Thank you, madam.» he bowed, and was gone.
Well, there, one magical creature, exiled from Corund and held captive by humans, she has set free. But could she free them all? Rose whispered to her that there are many others, and she has released only one so far.
«It is not enough to be queen,» Eloise admonished her.
«But I don’t want to,» Janet admitted. «Why would I want to be their queen? I’m happy with my position as it is.»
The white rose did not believe her.
Gloomy Captivity
The past came back in dreams, like a magic mirror. Tamlane would fall asleep or stare into the mirrored glass, surrounded like a frame by enchanted black roses, and see everything that had happened to them years before. If it weren’t for the mirror and the dream realm, he would have forgotten all about it long ago. Before he was captured by the fairies’ queen, he was young and naïve. His father was a duke. And Tamlane was his only son and heir to all his possessions. All the girls in the area knew this and were crazy about him. Because besides being rich and noble, he was also good-looking. It was a rare combination. Beauty as an elf, not as a mortal, many whispered. At that time Tamlane did not know that in time some evil force in the person of Medea Shai would try to make him a real elf. In those days he had lived a carefree life, learning the art of warfare, spending his days at the hunt and the roustabout, flirting with the ladies, listening to his old uncle’s tales of the great ancestors of their kind who had faced danger and magic.
His uncle was an alchemist. He knew all about rare metals and alloys. But even he didn’t know what the armor, which was shaped like a human-sized dragon’s body, was made of. They were so skillfully made that one could mistake whoever wore them for a steel dragon. Legend has it that they were made using both real magic steel and scales taken from the body of a dragon slain by his ancestor. Tamlein believed in these legends, but his uncle did not. He would sit up nights in his workshop, surrounded by ancient scrolls, strange implements, and retorts, trying to determine the nature of the metal’s origin. Tamlane’s father would not allow him to borrow the armor for experiments, but his uncle got hold of a glowing piece of scales from a helmet that resembled a severed dragon’s head. He’d stolen it one night from the armory. He joked that he’d met a beautiful fairy who’d flown through the keyhole in the moonlight and helped him get what he wanted. Of course, the love story between the now-aged uncle and the enchanting fairy seemed like a joke to Tamlane. But only until under the door of the armory he heard a maiden’s musical laughter and a melodious voice saying:
«I will fly to you with the moonlight and the next night. I will fly here as long as you wait for me. And if you want to leave with me, we’ll disappear from here together.»
«No, until I finish my experiments, I can’t leave. Understand, Mirabel, my brother, my nephew is in danger… unless I’m right. I must find confirmation of my hunch.»
A sad sigh sounded in reply, also reminiscent of music.
«So you will grow old and die before I have time to take you away. I can rejuvenate an old man, but I can’t bring a corpse back to life. Even the powers of a fairy aren’t enough to do that.
Intrigued, Tamlane looked out the ajar door. His uncle was sitting on the floor in front of his dragon armor shimmering in the darkness, and the translucent winged silhouette glowing softly beside him looked more like a disembodied ghost. Tamlein held his breath. Surely this must be some other experience. Uncle had only created an illusion! But that illusion moved, danced in the moonlight, and even kissed his uncle on the lips.
«You had better get rid of your armor,» warned the one whom Uncle called Mirabelle. «The spirit of a slain dragon still lives in it. He doesn’t realize he’s dead. And he is furious. He thinks you are holding him prisoner. As soon as he arrives at whatever body he sees fit, he merges with it. And trouble for the man who puts them on. The dragon will want to make him his own. And then he will wish to incinerate our magical realm as well, for we did not prevent his murder, and you people, for killing him. He doesn’t remember exactly what happened, but he wants revenge on the world. I can feel the flames about to erupt from this armor.»
She held up her transparent hand as if to catch the moon’s rays, and in her fingers a thin stream of flame shot from the dragon’s helmet, but it didn’t burn her, didn’t burn anything. It, too, seemed ghostly.
«These armors are about to summon someone,» Mirabel continued. «I sense that their chosen one is near. They all tremble at the prospect of merging with his living body. Dead dragon scales and enchanted steel in fusion with a human body will be the union that will destroy the world.».
That’s the common name for the evil ones. Tamlane tensed. And the fairy slid a glowing hand across the breastplate of her cloak, and the scales glittered as if she were reflecting a nonexistent flame. It must have lurked within the armor itself, for all the torches in the armory were out. If the moonlight didn’t shine unnaturally brightly into the room, you wouldn’t be able to see anything.
«I’ve got a present for you,» his uncle took out a necklace of seashells. He must have made it himself, and collected the shells near the castle on the seashore. They were amazingly embossed and the same size. Those are hard to match. And the necklace chain was made through his alchemical experiments. The thing came out amazing. But Mirabelle shook her head sadly.
«I can’t take it. You know I can’t. It’s material. And I am the Moonlight Fairy. I am made of ether. Material jewelry is not for me.»
As if to prove her point, she held out her hand to take the necklace, and her fingers slid right through it.
«Do you see?»
Mirabelle was so sad and lovely, but Tamlane was already focused on the armor. The metal dragon seemed to call to him, and the call burned his mind like fire.
