you ashamed of misleading a boy?» The woodsman interrogated, nodding his disembodied, horned head in Clement’s direction.
«I want to test him.»
«But he’s that… special!» The green creature scratched the back of his head with twiggy fingers.
«I’m starting to wonder if he has a gift. You have to patronize him, like a teenage brother.»
«But he’s got a purpose, that’s for sure.»
Raymonda looked back at Clemente questioningly, and he promptly pretended he was still asleep.
«Is he The Chosen One?» She snorted. «Doesn’t sound like it! He’s handsome but not very strong.»
«But he’s the only one of the four princes who didn’t die. It’s fate!»
«I think he was just lucky.»
«You just want to burn him, just like all the other suitors.»
«It is the groom, not the beggar. And all because he’s supposedly special! But how do you test him for that special gift?» She snapped her fingers together, sending out golden sparks from the tips of her fingernails.
«For now, you have to support him, not test him. He needs a hold, but only until he can shake off the charms of Lord Shai.»
«And then he will know who I am and put me in a cage?»
«What if he can unseal you?»
«It is not likely! The boy is completely naive. Why is it that all the most handsome princes are either tyrants or weak-minded?»
«He’s not weak-minded. He’s just worried that his whole family’s been burned. So don’t show him your talents just yet.»
«Why should I have to be secretive? I always do what I feel comfortable doing.»
Raymonda lit a fire on the ground with a single breath. She didn’t even need the logs. The fire was lit from scratch.
«It is a magical flame!» The creature, composed entirely of moss, horns, and leaves, darted cautiously into the bushes. Clement rubbed his eyes in bewilderment. Had he really just seen a dryad or a fairy? Or was he just imagining it. The forest path was empty, not counting the campfire and the pretty girl. No more creatures of the leaves were around. Raymonda herself could be mistaken for a forest nymph. Maybe she is a nymph. Clement wasn’t sure exactly how nymphs differed from elves and the most common of woodland fairies. The latter seemed to be distinguishable by flowers growing directly in their hair or by their greenish skin. Clement raised himself carefully on his elbows. He did lie down on the tracks left by the wheels of a recent wagon. The tire tracks went deep into the ground, and there seemed to be tiny, shiny pixies in them, like glittering insects. Clement remembered that it was good luck to see pixies. But where would he, a fugitive, find that luck?
Raymonda didn’t see that he was awake. She was dancing around the fire and humming softly.
«The arrangement with the wizard is already in place!
But there might not be a wedding,
Unless the bridegroom proves
He is worthy of a special bride.
How is he better than kings?
Sultans, sheikhs and kings?
Who’ve all been wooed to me…
All have become ashes.
The one who survives,
The great miracle will be mastered.»
Her feet did not touch the ground. She danced directly over the fire, and her feet did not burn. She took off her beaded slippers. Apparently they were uncomfortable for dancing over the fire. Clement noticed some jewelry on her feet. Or were they scales? They surrounded her heels like armor. He rubbed his eyes again. If that was magic, his uncle didn’t know how. Perhaps Raymonda wasn’t a nymph after all, but an elf princess. Elvish princesses are the best at magic. The magic made up for the song’s lack of rhyme. Raymonda may not be a poet, but she is the greatest sorceress he has seen in his short life.
«Oops!» Clement felt a dry branch crunched under his hand. Raymonda immediately landed and quickly put on her shoes. The fire was instantly almost extinguished. Only a faint orange trickle remained blowing in a column like the silhouette of a genie.
Angry pixies sprang from the pits and flashed in front of Clement’s face like a flock of fireflies.
«They say you owe them compensation for bringing down the earth walls of their new dwelling,» Raymonda translated.
Dwelling?! Those are wheel marks! But Clement didn’t dare argue with the tiny magical creatures. They might cast a spell again! And to break the spell on his own, he was not yet experienced enough. His uncle had never been able to get him to be diligent in his studies.
«Tell them I’ll pay for it when I’m King,» Clement promised.
Strangely enough, the diminutive folk calmed down. Probably because Clement forgot to make it clear to them that it’s not that easy to banish invaders. He might never be king.
Grim Population
The pixies were already having their housewarming party in an empty, cracked jug someone had dropped in the woods. Raymonda had pointed out the place to them. She herself had tamed an owl and spoke to it in the bird’s language. She knows the languages of woodpeckers and quail, even the owl understands her. But he didn’t study very well. He had hoped to inherit the throne and had not heeded his uncle’s advice to chew on the granite of science, that is, the granite of magic. Magic is also a science. Or is it pure magic? Clement was confused. Besides, seeing someone as beautiful as Raymonda made serious thoughts to vanish from his mind. As long as she was near, he thought nothing of the danger of pursuit. And yet Shai’s lord might be peering at him in the magical mirrors right now.
«You’d better not go back to the gamekeeper’s hut,» she advised him. «It’s too risky to live there.»
«Don’t even tell me! I found the bones of a dead gamekeeper in a hole near the house! I wondered what had happened to him.»
Raymonda hummed something dismissively. Clement himself would have guessed there was a gang of outlaws in the woods, but the bones were black as if they’d been burned. Surely they were the marks of dragon fire.
«Let’s walk to town,» Raymonda suggested.
«But it’ll probably be a couple of days’ walk into town!»
«I know shortcuts,» she snapped her fingers, flicking out sparks, and suddenly there was a thin trail of light in the thicket. It was the only bright one in the dark night forest. Something’s wrong here!
Magic! Clement realized. His uncle had told him about the secret paths that were hidden from the eyes of travelers. They could be followed in a matter of hours to the other side of the world. The main thing is not to get lost on them. By the way, only a magical creature can lead them. Even with a magic spell, you won’t be able to find them on your own.
Clement had been convinced from the start
