give us a hard time. If we leave, he’ll go back to sleep.”
But the dragon was already awake. One of its yellow eyes flickered reluctantly open.
“Emerald!” Estella exclaimed happily.
“His name is Virgil,” said Reason, correcting her. “That’s what your father once called him. And what his real dragon name is, only his scaly ancestors know.”
“I am so glad you are awake! How handsome and scaly you are! I’ll sing for you again, if you like! I’ll even learn ballads and romances. You like singing, don’t you?”
Estella stroked the dragon, and it rumbled like a big cat.
“Hey, you,” Reason scrambled up the barrels so that the dragon could see him. “Remember me, big boy?”
The dragon hissed at him, but Estella encouraged him.
“Virgil, my dear,” Reason snapped at him, “you ought to loosen up a little, keep watch over the realm. Otherwise you’d be lying on your side.”
The dragon shooed at him, exhaling hot steam again. Reason ducked behind the pile of barrels.
“He’s comfortable here,” Estella said for the dragon.
“My tail stiffened as I sat in the chest,” Reason complained.
How is it that Estella liked the dragon, but not Reason? Maybe dragons prefer silly coquettes.
“Oh, my darling,” she petted him.
“You sound as if you were singing a lullaby to him. He’s a monster, not a baby.”
“He’s so nice and cute.”
“When he shoots sparks at you, you’ll change your mind.”
But the dragon was slow to fire at Estella. Apparently dragons don’t hurt princesses. Not without reason, even the prim Gisela loved tales of love between beautiful girls and dragons. Estella felt almost in love when the dragon encouraged her affectionate touch. She had finally found the friend she had never had in her life. And Reason had managed to pierce the bottom of the barrel with his claws and was now greedily drinking ale straight from the puddle on the floor.
“It was delicious!” He said. “If I’d been locked in a cellar with hops and groceries, I’d rather be in there than with you.”
Estella wasn’t even offended by him. After all, the dragon had made a choice in her favor.
“Don’t be fooled! He liked your jewelry, not you. Dragons love rings and necklaces and things like that.”
“So do you!” She remembered hiding place beneath the throne.
“But I would not pity a maiden merely because she stroked me with her hand in precious rings.”
“You mean you’ve hurt girls?”
“I have even killed…” Reason paused. “Why should you want to know about my past? Think of the dragon. You’re lucky you found fun. Mind your own business.”
Her Reason’s past is no one else’s business, is it? Estella frowned. That doesn’t make sense. Considering, of course, that her Reason had been taken from her by magic, and she’d been trapped in it, anything could have happened to her that she didn’t know about. If the situation is extraordinary, it must be handled differently. It is better not to ask Reason what he himself does not want to tell. He was already ranting about the dragon’s past mischief.
“Last time, the dragon ate a brewer and then wondered why no one else made beer. He even crawled into the kitchen to burn everyone there. Anyway, acted like a serviceable worker who stopped being fed for no reason.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“Of course, you weren’t there yet.”
“Were you?”
It seems strange that her mind was born before hers. Maybe that’s why it got lost in the beginning. Reason chuckled slyly.
“You know too much, you’ll grow old early.”
Estella immediately wanted to look in the mirror. No wrinkles? Mind chuckled something very snidely. She didn’t have a mirror with her; she must have left it on the dressing table in her bedroom. But if she rubbed her dragon scales with her sleeve, they were just as reflective as a mirror. Her face looked fine. There was no sign of aging yet. And she was too young. She wasn’t even twenty. The dragon really liked her. And as everyone knows, dragons only like the youngest and most beautiful girls. An aging lady would not have been to his liking.
As luck would have it, just as she was about to make nice with a dragon, a sentry snuck into the dungeon.
“So long since anyone’s been down here,” Reason muttered as he heard the clatter of his armor, “your song is what got the sentries going. You ought to keep your voice down.”
“So the dragon wouldn’t have heard me! He wouldn’t have woken up.”
The watcher’s helmet was already gleaming in the passage. The dragon moved only the tip of its mighty tail to send the sentry tumbling to his feet. The armor thundered loudly. The halberd flew aside and nearly decapitated Reason. Thankfully, Reason was very agile and bounced off the blade in time.
“It’s like war at home!” He complained, while the dragon had already clawed at the guard and was about to unleash a blast of fire on the unfortunate man.
“No, it is not here! It would set the whole castle on fire! Not, Emerald!” Estella whispered, but the dragon could not hear her. But it was impossible not to hear Reason howling at the top of his lungs. He was waving his clawed paws vigorously, leaping onto the pile of barrels in front of the dragon, and shouting:
“Stop it! You’ll burn another brewer. Who’s going to make you beer?”
The dragon scratched at the back of his head with his claw. Drunkenness was not a hindrance to his quick wits. But he had let the sentry go for nothing. He was no brewer, so he began to panic.
“We must fly away while your guards run about the castle looking for the dragon, and when the clamor dies down we’ll be back.”
Reason was right. Estella herself was terrified of the conflagration that could break out as soon as an armed detachment burst into the dragon’s dungeons. She tried to climb onto the dragon’s back, clinging to the spikes. She did not succeed. She herself only slid down the dragon’s fur. If the dragon hadn’t have held her up by his wingtip, she would have never made it onto his backbone. But there, between the big green spines and the ridge that extended from her head to her back, she sat down comfortably in the saddle.
“Let’s fly! Take me for a ride!” Estella asked, but the dragon did not respond.
“That’s not the way to ask,” Reason jabbed him with a claw, and the dragon sprang away. She barely had time to land on its back.
Reason slid onto the dragon’s ridge like a nimble black flea. There was a broad opening to the outside
