long since been scattered to ashes.»
Flora didn’t like it. It is too ominous. The elf offered her a royal crown to try on, but Flora declined. It was bad luck to try on a crown of dead man, and the king who owned the crown was already dead. She wondered what had happened to him in this palace? Did he stay here for a century before reaching the source of eternal youth? How did that happen? The fairies didn’t let him through?
«It was a futile attempt!» The stone horned face on the wall said.
Flora glanced at her arm and noticed that the scratches had reappeared.
«It is strange!» The elf looked at her skin. «It usually works! You can’t be enchanted, can you? Or sick with the leprosy of the gray trolls? Or are you dead? Only water doesn’t heal the dead.»
The elf felt Flora’s pulse with long, thin fingers. Creeper leaves sprouted in his fingers.
«I’m alive!» Flora wrenched his hand away.
«Your heart beats very slowly, as if someone had forced it artificially.»
«Are you implying that I was dead and some sorcerer brought me back to life?» Flora joked.
She was immediately reminded of a recent incident when she had fainted and spent a long time in unconsciousness. It really was as if she had been dead, and then someone had called her back to the living again.
«Let’s have some fun!» Flora wanted to forget this episode from the past. The present was like a fairy dream, if only there wasn’t danger coming from the fairies. Somehow they looked too predatory.
It wasn’t just the flower fairies that were having fun in the ballrooms. There were also sea fairies, covered with shells, and water fairies, whose trains spread out on the floor with water, and even flaming fire fairies, from whose footsteps on the floor left traces of sparks.
Fairies are not only garden fairies. Flora noticed that her dress was covered with forget-me-nots. The flowers must be a disguise so that the fairies would take her for their own. The mask winked slyly at Flora. Did the mask conjure up the forget-me-nots?
The fairies twirled in a strange dance right in the air.
«When he comes, I will enchant him with my fragrance,» hummed the lilac fairy, in whose hair and skin sprouted bunches of purple and white lilacs. «For the rose is no longer here, and lilac is the most beautiful flower after the rose.»
«No, jasmine is the prettiest,» objected the jasmine fairy. «He’ll like me better.»
«He didn’t notice you last time, and he flirted with me,» boasted the rhododendron fairy. «He loves my flowers.»
«But not you,» the magnolia fairy said cheekily.
«But he didn’t flirt with you at all!»
«It is exactly! I’m going to fly up to him first tonight. Everyone knows he respects bold women. Rose charmed him with her courage, but she’s not here right now. There’s a vacancy!»
They must mean the Rose Fairy, Flora decided to herself.
Because of some gentleman who was not at the ball yet, the beautiful fairies were ready to fight in flight. They were already sharpening their claws when the gold coin fairy flew past them, her outfit and jewelry literally jingling. She glanced disdainfully at the gardening community and snorted:
«What makes you so sure he’ll join in the fun tonight?»
«He hasn’t missed a single fairy masquerade since he ascended the throne,» the exuberant garden fairies replied in unison. It seemed to Flora that now they were going to fight with the coin fairy, because they saw her as a rival.
«Today he has to choose a new friend, and it will not be you,» said the fairy of the burdock fairy with a belligerent brow.
«He shouldn’t! He doesn’t owe anything to any of us, but we’re only here as long as he lets us,» the coin fairy flew past with her chin held up proudly. Coins sprinkled from her hem and lined the floor in a glittering path. Flora bent down and picked up one of the coins. It bore the image of a dragon on one side and a crown on the other.
Curious, what country are such coins from? Flora still hadn’t seen such coinage anywhere.
«Who are they waiting for?»
«It is the most beautiful emperor in the world,» answered the elf.
«A mortal emperor is coming to the fairies’ masquerade?»
«No, he is not mortal, of course,» the elf even laughed. «When did mortals survive here?»
Flora even took offense. Does he think she’s a fairy? She had no wings, but the forget-me-nots on her corset wrapped around her back as if to hide her folded wings.
Some fairies folded their wings like a cape as they walked around the hall, while others spread their wings out to take up more space.
«There are not enough cavaliers here,» Flora remarked as the elf spun her around in a dance.
Many fairies danced with each other or in round dances. They didn’t care that they were alone, for soon someone would come for whom they were all ready to compete.
«Soon this masquerade will turn into a fairy tournament,» the elf said, «but I believe you will win.»
«But I don’t want to take part in the competition, no matter what it’s for,» Flora shuddered at the sight of the delicate fairies’ sharp claws. «I’m not willing to sacrifice myself for even the best prize.»
«It is nonsense! You don’t have to sacrifice anyone. All it takes is for him to see you, and you’ll be a winner again.»
«Is it again?»
«When you become Empress, appoint me as your advisor,» the elf said, as if he hadn’t heard her and was babbling on and on. «I have long wanted to take a high post at the magical court, but there is so much competition! I’m always being passed over.»
«And you’re counting on my help?»
«I realized a long time ago that honest magic won’t get you closer to the throne! Alas, even in the magical world, everything is by proxy.»
Flora sighed. The elf would be very disappointed when he realized that she wouldn’t be of any use to him. He might even try to cast a spell on her.
«You have me confused with someone else,» she hinted cautiously.
«You can’t be confused with anyone, even if your mask is perfect.»
What mask does he mean? Was it the one that squinted slyly in her hand and winked repeatedly? Or some other mask?
Flora didn’t like that the elf was looking at her as if her very body was a mask. At her own risk, she put the mask to her face. It stuck to her skin like a wet leaf. It was really trying to blend in with Flora’s face. Good thing the mask was on a holder. A tug on it and she let out a disappointed gasp. She had to give up her position.
«I smell
