never too late to learn,» Nethopyrina encouraged her.
«Isn’t magic the result of study, not talent?»
«It can be. We all knew a wizard who learned magic so well that he became emperor of a whole empire populated by fairies, elves, and monsters. What a guy! Handsome, smart, talented, and…»
«He is golden-haired!» Patricia said.
«How do you know?»
«I saw someone like that in a dream.»
«You could have seen the King of Dreams in a dream, and I’m talking about…» She hesitated. «I guess I can’t talk to you about it.»
«Why is it not?»
«It’s the rules!»
There, Nethopyrina had intrigued her and left her wondering.
«So magic can be trained so well that it can take over magical creatures?» Patricia decided to find a way around the questioning.
«I misspoke,» she frowned, clearly not wanting to say anything. «That young man originally had a magical gift. He just needed to be awakened with the help of magic books.»
«That could be said of anyone who was trained in magic.»
«No, he was really special. You wouldn’t find the likes of him anymore.»
As they walked forward along the shore, Patricia and Nethopyrina came upon a stranger who was also dripping water, but he didn’t look like an old man anymore. Patricia recoiled from him. It was an ugly morgen with gills, twisted horns and webbing. You’d have to run away from him if you didn’t want to get into a fight. Patricia fumbled for the hilt of the saber at her belt, but the morgen wasn’t going to attack, he mumbled something and shoved a gold coin into Patricia’s hand.
«You shouldn’t have taken it!» The mongrel flapped her wings excitedly. «Everyone knows that the Morgens deliberately give their gold to fools in the harbors so that they can become slaves of the underwater kingdom.»
Perhaps she should have been frightened, but Patricia had rightly decided that if the dragon ship continued to sail the seas, there would soon be no underwater kingdom left.
The coin was beautiful. It was embossed with mermaids and some unfamiliar crest. It reflected the rays of the setting sun.
Patricia shuddered as she noticed that the light on the shore was tinged with scarlet. It meant that the day was coming to an end. The sun was setting over the horizon.
The sunset of the third day has already come! In the night, Medea Shai will appear. And what shall she say to her? Accept the generous offer or reject it, risking the wrath of the Queen of the Fairies?
Somehow Patricia was sure that she risked the same in both options. After all, becoming a business partner of an evil fairy was no less dangerous than incurring her wrath.
Purra
The setting sun was as warm as dragon fire. The dragon seemed to be flying across the sky above the ship. Patricia stood at the stern and watched the island of Purras disappear over the horizon. The cute little animals wouldn’t go away.
«If one day I live on my own estate, I’ll have a purra,» Patricia said.
Perhaps she should have thrown a coin into the sea, so that one day she could return to the Isle of Purras. There is an omen that if you throw a coin into the water, you will surely return to this place again.
Nethopurina shook off some invisible grit. She brought Patricia back to the deck and noticed a red hair on her wings to shake off.
«Your hair is like fire yarn,» complained the bat fairy. «It seems to be hot like fire.»
«It must have gotten hot in the sun,» Patricia watched the goblins load bags of fruit on board. Zeligena took the role of bookkeeper and wrote down the list of purchases in the ship’s log. She used green swamp sludge instead of ink and a fish bone instead of a quill. The lines came out green.
«How is it that instead of robbing, we started buying?» Patricia wondered.
It is nothing surprising!» The mongrel spread her wings. «The Purras will drive anyone to extremes.»
«Are they magical animals? Can they do any small magic?»
«Of course, they can! There are also human-sized Purras, but they live on other islands. For example, on the island of Shean (which is south of here) lives Princess Leonella, who has surrounded herself with large purras instead of bodyguards. By the way, she doesn’t like the King of Opal either. You should meet her.»
«Will her purras turn on me again?» Patricia felt her purse lighten after landing on Purras’ island.
«Well, pirates rob the ships they meet so they can spend the money on booze and pleasure,» Nethopyrina said diplomatically.
«I thought it was to accumulate more treasure and bury a pirate’s treasure, which can then be dug up at the end of the career and spent on a large estate.»
«You’re a humorist!» Nethopyrina gave Patricia a friendly pat on the shoulder with her wing. «I haven’t seen a single pirate who could save up money for his own farm, let alone an estate.»
«Have you seen many pirates?»
«I’ve been flying over ships for a long time, eavesdropping, peeping. I steal something pirates don’t have well. They usually blame the thefts on each other and don’t suspect the fairies. Pirates have an unstable income, depending on the wealth of the ships they encounter, and an unreliable future. They can always be captured and hanged or sent to feed the fish. Each boarding could be their last, so pirates dump all their booty on Peony Island. There are many taverns there, you can drink and have fun.»
«I’ve heard that there is a slave trade on Peony Island,» Patricia said.
«That too! The pirates have to sell captured prisoners somewhere, but we don’t take prisoners, so we don’t need to go to Peony.»
That’s true. All the prisoners were destroyed by a bloodthirsty ship. It’s impossible to spend a single man on «The Bloodsucker», the ship will drink his blood immediately. The planks of the walls and deck would turn scarlet for a moment, and the man would die. The only exception was Patricia, that’s why she was the captain. And the ship was squeamish about the blood of fairies and magical creatures. Their blood must be poisoned or enchanted. That’s why the fairy in the hold was still unharmed. She was now singing strange songs that sounded like drunken ramblings. Probably one of the goblins gave her rum and the fairy got drunk.
«Everyone drinks from grief,» Nethopyrina nodded. «And for a fairy to be a hostage is a great sorrow. I bet she feels like a moth in a jar.»
«No kidding!» Patricia was nervous, because the scarlet rays of the sunset were beginning to fade behind the horizon.
«You’re so serious! What if I told you about the dancers from Peony? They’re all nagas, serpentine or evil fairies. Their
