Otherwise, you’ll lose your chance at magical luck.»
«Thank you, but I can do without that chance,» Flora muttered, thinking to herself that the fairy’s advice was all she needed.
Why did all magical creatures, except for witches, take her for a naive person? First the dragon came to her with advice, and now the fairy.
«How proud you are!» The garden fairy snorted. «For your information, not everyone can find a coin dropped by a dragon. If I had seen it on the path before you, I would have picked it up immediately, but I didn’t. So I don’t have a gift for finding gold.»
«Do garden fairies need gold? I think you only like flowers and plants,» Flora wondered.
But the fairy had already flown away with the coin. What was she going to spend it on? The Marquis de Rione’s castle was rarely visited even by shopkeepers, not to mention foreign merchants with silks and spices. Father scared them all away.
Besides, why should fairies buy anything when they can conjure up whatever they want? She guessed the garden fairy really believed she could use a dragon coin to find some forbidden path to dreamland. Well, let her dream on!
Flora looked around for the gardener’s tools. There must be some way to cover the dragon’s trail. She was too late. Drusilla’s broom had already covered the flowerbed. Drusilla herself was nowhere to be seen. The witch’s broom could do the job without her mistress.
Flora sighed in relief. How convenient to have a kind-hearted witch who wanted to help you. The broom covered the dragon’s trail almost instantly. Flora, on the other hand, wouldn’t have been able to do it in a whole day.
Garden mysteries
Raphael didn’t know anything about Edwin. So Edwin wasn’t one of his acquaintances from the local taverns. That was comforting. In the beer halls, his brother tangled with the rare hooligans. If only all these drunks and hustlers weren’t his constant company. Brother needs a more aristocratic friend. But where could he get one?
Flora caught herself thinking she couldn’t forget Edwin. He is so elegant, so mysterious! There’s something special about him. It is apart from the charms, of course.
«I feel as if I were in love!» Flora whispered. She was glad that the magic mask was not with her. Otherwise the mask would have laughed!
You have to put up with your own mask’s witticisms! She shouldn’t have gone to the fairy masquerade. Then she wouldn’t have the magic mask now. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have met Edwin.
«I wonder if he’ll come to dinner.»
The witch’s broom, naturally, did not respond. It covered the dragon’s trail and flew back into the window of the castle from which it had flown. It must have flown back to Drusilla. It was strange that the witch’s broom was actively flying during the day as well. Flora was sure that all witches’ tricks worked only at night.
A bush of particularly lush dark blue roses appeared at the garden gate. The gardeners were careful to avoid it, pretending it wasn’t there. It grew right by the side of the gravel path. There’s no such thing as blue roses! It’s a fairy joke! Flora already knew about her, but the others hadn’t even seen her yet, so they blamed it on the curse of the castle.
«All cursed castles are besieged by wickedness,» Flora heard bits and pieces of the head gardener’s assistants talking.
Flora knew what the servants were whispering about and realized that they were right. The fairies had indeed been here at night. They waltzed in flight over every flowerbed and mound.
The fairies’ ball would have resembled a fairy tale if the winged beauties hadn’t turned out to be predators.
The bush of blue roses also resembled a hunched predatory troll, which the fairies forced to serve, digging the ground with its nose.
There was some kind of creepy creature living under the bush. Right in the roots! Or was it roots? And next to it was a smiling elf. Only he was dressed all in black.
«Good morning, my lady!» He said hello, taking off his velvet beret. The ears under the beret were as sharp as fish gills.
Flora recoiled from the elf. The same elf had lured her to the fairy masquerade yesterday, only he looked much more unattractive in the daylight.
«What are you doing here?»
«Come to see how you got back?»
Well, what should she say to him? Slap him in the face?
«You threw me to the fairies!» Flora rebuked him.
«I was hurt myself,» the elf showed strange marks on his skin in the form of letters and symbols. «Fairies scratch a lot.»
«What do you want here?» Flora didn’t trust the elf anymore, so she wasn’t being polite either.
«I want to hire myself out as a gardener to be closer to you, my lady.»
It was more like a joke. An elf gardener! Who would believe such a thing?
«My father’s castle has enough gardeners. One more would be too many, and there’s not enough wages for all of them.»
«I can work for nothing. I’m an elf!»
«The garden fairies are already working for free.» Flora pointed at the fighting gardeners’ assistants. The boys were arguing over the cause of the blue roses. The argument ended in a scuffle.
«I’ll just live in the hollow of an elm or poplar tree,» the elf said, uncertainly crumpling his beret in his hands. His fingers were as thin as spider’s legs
«All the hollows in the garden are occupied by fairies,» Flora said sternly. Well, maybe she exaggerated a little.
«I don’t think Poplar Alley is uninhabited yet.»
«Live in the poplars if you like, but I’ll be off.»
«Wait! You can call me Charles if you like, milady.»
«You have a common Earth name,» Flora said warily.
«My real name is Sharneel, but you’ll be more comfortable calling me Charles.»
He’s right! Flora couldn’t pronounce Sharneel, no matter how hard she tried. It must be enchanted.
«Is the dragon coming for dinner?» Charles asked.
«What makes you think that?»
«A starling whispered it to me.»
«You should listen to birds more,» Flora hesitated when she realized. «Do you understand bird’s language?»
«It is a little,» Charles admitted.
«Then I could use you as a servant.»
«So I can move closer to your apartment?» Charles was pleased.
«No, you can occupy
