a fear of confined spaces,» Patricia said, who had read the encyclopedia in Opal’s library. She’d even come across a manual on magical skills once. Too bad she hadn’t studied it.
«You have nothing to fear as long as you’re compliant,» Medea Shai promised, but the tone of her voice betrayed guile.
«So why did you come? Isn’t that a generous gesture, even for a fairy queen? I’ve done you no favors, and you’re giving me gifts?»
«I’m giving you a chance to start an honest life. Finish your career as a pirate. It’s a criminal enterprise, not a career! Buy yourself a mansion and a title, and I’ll fly around your lands on patrol and protect you.»
«And what is it in return?» Patricia squinted suspiciously.
«It is nothing.»
«You help unselfishly!»
«Why are you so surprised? I’m a fairy.»
«But you are not a good one, unless I’m mistaken.»
«Even an unkind fairy can do a good deed unselfishly.»
«Usually, everyone needs a benefit – unless the fairy queen is luring a gullible fool into a trap.»
«It’s a win-win for me,» Medea Shai admitted grudgingly and sighed. The role of benefactor was beyond her.
«Get me off the seas! What do you want from the sea? What am I in your way?»
«That’s an unnecessary question.»
Patricia hesitated.
«Give me time to think,» she finally suggested.
«It is three days!» The Queen of the Fairies held up three fingers, and the coins swirled around the cabin. The gold tinkled and disappeared. The Fairy Queen herself disappeared.
«She didn’t even leave an advance,» Patricia complained. «And she’s greedy!»
Not a single coin on the floor.
Mistress of the Mists
The fairy queen’s generous offer had already ceased to be tempting in the morning. Money could only bribe poor people or greedy officials, but not a proud noblewoman. Patricia is a noble lady! Didn’t she have estates and jewelry in her past life? She had tiaras, necklaces, and chests of rings. Yes, she lost all of that when she became a rebel and a fugitive, but she was still a spoiled lady at heart. So why did the queen of the fairies see her only as a pirate? Can’t fairies read minds?
Patricia thought it was strange. The King of Opal had gathered fairies around him so that they could be used to make secret weapons. For example, put an ambassador or an enemy monarch to dine surrounded by fairies. The fairies will silently find out all his secrets, just by reading his thoughts, or even hypnotize the poor man and compel him to do whatever he needs.
One sultan, who was about to go to war with Opal, found in his war tent a dozen beautiful fairies who brought gifts and viands from the King of Opal. The sultan did not even consider why the king himself did not show up with an offer of truce, but sent the fairies? In a normal situation it would be suspicious, but the sight of fairies exudes a magical charm and men lose their heads. The Sultan sat down to dinner with the fairies, and at night he was expecting entertainment, but instead he waited for tragedy. The fairies whispered something to him, while laughing sweetly. The Sultan ordered his armies to march into the sandy marshes, and stabbed himself with his own sword. Patricia and her brother spied that night, and saw everything with their own eyes. The Sultan cut his own throat with the blade. The fairies swooped down on the corpse like piranhas and licked up the blood. The fruit they brought turned into salamanders and the wine turned fiery. Patricia lifted the veil of the tent and peered. The fairies were either too engrossed in the feast to notice her or mistook her for one of their own. Patricia’s beautiful appearance was almost indistinguishable from that of the fairies, save for her lack of wings.
Patricia’s brother was about to follow the army of sleepwalkers blindly into the sands. It was good that some strange troll-like stranger had warned him not to follow the army. The sandy marshes turned out to be a plain of brown sand. One step on it and the sand sucked you in like a quagmire. All the warriors drowned as soon as they set foot on the sandy floor. In the very center of the plain lived and rumbled some huge monster. Apparently, it was devouring anyone sucked up by the sands.
Patricia could have died that night, but she survived. However, the troubles of her noble family only began that night. The fairy who had delivered the Sultan’s relics to the King of Opal in a precious chest had whispered about a plot the nobles of Opal were plotting against the king. Patricia’s relatives were among the conspirators.
Queen Esperanza was partly kind, not without reason her name in translation from the ancient language means hope. She could have spared the conspirators, but the king had his own plans for both his enemies and the queen.
Patricia shuddered, remembering the moving skeleton in the alcove, its bones still showing skin and royal dress. Could Medea Shai bring Esperanza back to life? Maybe ask her for that instead of the treasure?
The fairy queen turned out to be a fraud. Yesterday, she had managed to suggest to Patricia that the cramped quarters could hold more treasure than the king himself had. The treasures were to multiply exponentially from the fairy queen’s click. It was possible that eventually there would be more than in the dragon’s cave.
Patricia herself had never been in the dragon caves, but she had heard that the most gold and gems were stored there. That’s why dragons are always being hunted to take away their savings. Only it’s the hunters who are most often caught in the dragons’ claws.
Curious, could Medea Shai have appropriated some dragon’s life savings just by using her fairy charm? In her nightly dialog with Edwin, the phrase slipped in that she loved subduing dragons.
This smells like a stinker! After all, a fairy queen can only do magic, but a fairy queen who also commands dragons is capable of launching a flame war and burning entire nations. Does Medea Shai want to raid Opal? We’ll have to ask her on occasion. After all, it is Opal that harbors all the traitors who deviate from the service of the fairy queen. Medea Shai must be angry with them.
«And you betrayed me too,» Patricia turned to the magic saber. – You let a spy into my quarters and didn’t even try to restrain her.
The saber lay in the corner of the cabin and stubbornly pretended that it wasn’t magic at all. Apparently, it’s weak for her to attack the fairy queen.
And the fairy queen herself showed weakness. She couldn’t see into Patricia’s past. Medea Shai probably lost some of her magical powers when her subjects scattered from her. What’s a queen without subjects?
«What if I’m under some kind of spell?» Patricia thought aloud. «Why else can’t she touch me and bargain with me? The fairies didn’t bargain with the Sultan of Ethar. They just killed him, and Medea Shai didn’t even scratch me.»
The night she flew in with Edwin, she definitely wanted to kill Patricia, but something changed. The queen of the fairies hit some obstacle she couldn’t overcome. So money came into play. Bribery is the weapon of choice for those who cannot be defeated by force.
«And
