him a bed for the night. It was clear from his emaciated appearance that he had been running for days.
And why did one dragon seem more dangerous to him than a pack? He should have seen the recent dragon raid on the capital of Livellin! He must have slept through every dragon attack. There’d been a few in recent years. If this was the first dragon he’d ever seen in his life, then no wonder he’d be so startled.
She’d seen enough dragons herself. They don’t scare her. Though there was something peculiar about this dragon. Graymore could feel him at a distance, and fire coursed through her veins.
«Come to me, Princess!»
The voice was in her mind’s throat, sticky as honey. It made it impossible to think of anything else but one dragon in particular. Graymore did not hear the ambassador’s speech continue. She dreamed of the monster in scales waiting for her in the mountains. Their battle would probably resemble a love match. This dragon smells her at a distance, as she does him.
So why has he not come to attack the capital if he needs her so much?
Skeleton Advisor
The skeleton was waiting for her in the tower. It was dressed in a sumptuous purple robe and crown, as if it were the ruler of a kingdom. The great wizard’s body had long since rotted away, but the skeleton remained. Sometimes he came back to life and even spoke, but no one knew about it except Graymore.
If she needed advice, she went to the skeleton. So today she went up to the tower for advice. The skeleton, which had been sitting motionless, immediately came to life as soon as Graymore crossed the threshold of the old tower. The jewels glittered enticingly in his bony hands, as if beckoning: try to rip them off me, and then the skeleton’s hand will strangle you.
Graymore had no use for the dead wizard’s jewels. But a footman who once tried quietly to remove a heavy gold chain with a medal from the skeleton’s neck was found strangled. No one had cleaned the tower since. Cobwebs stretched across the walls in festoons. Even the murky gold-framed mirror, thought to be magical, was covered in a thick layer of dust and draped in cobwebs.
The magician’s skeleton itself, barely alive and moving, began hastily shaking the cobwebs from his hands and crushing the spiders. Graymore turned away. The sight of a living skeleton catching the insects that crawled into the tower was not pleasant.
The skeleton already knew why she had come, and smirked defiantly with a lipless mouth. How not to gloat! The ruler of Livellin could not do without his advice. Graymore wasted no time in long formulas of politeness and asked at once:
«Tell me, should I go on the hunt for the dragon that lodges in the provinces near the mountains?»
«Do you have a choice?» The skeleton was already aware of the unusual dragon. Though the magical observation mirror was covered in cobwebs, and the dead man knew exactly what it could show.
«No, I don’t!» Graymore felt herself burning from within. If she did not set out to catch the dragon, she would go mad with searing pain.
«Then why do you ask, when you already know the answer?»
The skeleton’s squeaky voice was very insolent. Graymore didn’t like the dead wizard’s self-confidence. She wanted to challenge him, and she didn’t dare. To behave boldly with him was to call trouble on the whole kingdom.
«Perhaps the dragon would come here instead of settling near the mountains.»
«I don’t think so. It would wait there.»
«Is he waiting? But for whom is he waiting?»
«What if it’s you, Princess?»
«Don’t joke!»
The skeleton fell silent.
«Why do I suffer pains of fire when dragons approach?»
«It is because you are a true dragon hunter.»
«No, I’ve been bewitched, so I can’t stand the pain of being near raptors. You probably did it. And the goal was to turn me into a dragon myself, but it didn’t work. Instead of being attracted to their nature, I feel the excitement of war with them.»
«Or perhaps you burn from their proximity, waiting for one of the dragons to become your lover?»
«Will he be my lover? Don’t joke! They are monsters!» She remembered the dream – an elf with fiery breath.
«What if it’s destiny!» insisted the dead wizard.
«It is better death in battle with dragons than such a fate.»
«Then kill the next of them! Perhaps this way you will change your fate. Lover or corpse, the choice is yours. After all, you are the ruler of these lands.»
«But I feel I am under a spell, as if they’re throwing me into a fire to make me fight the dragons,» Graymore complained again.
The skeleton hummed. There was something he wasn’t telling her.
«Would you like me to wipe the mirror so it can show us what’s going on in my domain? Perhaps it could show us the future, too, if you ask it?»
«Ask it yourself. I don’t have to,» the skeleton protested.
«You mean you won’t help?»
Graymore was angry. In his lifetime, this wizard must have been insolent and cowardly. Even her father had worshipped his skeleton as a deity to ask for advice. Now it was her turn to beg. It’s awkward for a princess to beg the advice of a dead man, but what can you do!
Graymore took a precious hoop of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires from the folds of her cloak. It resembled a royal crown. A skeleton needs an offering, or he will lie and twist rather than give a straight answer. Such is the wicked nature of every soothsayer. You don’t bring the gift, you don’t get the right prophecy.
«Is that enough to make you kinder?»
Graymore handed the dead mage a crown, which he promptly snatched from her hand and placed on his bald skull.
«Perfect! I am like a king of wizards!» The skeleton gazed in rapt fascination in the mirror, where the cobwebs slid off and the dust vanished. «I am a beauty! I look like death with a scythe! That’s what I always wanted to be!»
How can you be glad to be a skeleton! Graymore did not understand it. The only creatures she liked were those that were pleasing to look at. It was except perhaps for dragons. Though they looked as magnificent as jewels, they were not to be admired. They had to be hunted before they crushed her entire kingdom with their raids.
«I was born in a bad country,» Grahamor complained, rubbing her long dark curls. «There are predators everywhere! There are dragon nests on every border! In the south of Livellin, no one has ever heard of dragons. An envoy from the Southern Kingdom last year reported they had never been raided.»
«Perhaps his king has a pact with dragons,» the skeleton said thoughtfully.
«Is that possible?»
«It
