«I like you,» the queen of the fairies said first, before he could answer. «Thats why youre still alive. But for how long is it?»
«Were not going to fight at the feast table, are we?» Conrad thought belatedly that the treats might be poisoned. However, he was in for an even worse surprise. Among the vases and trays of fruit and sweets, one dish drenched in blood stood out too sharply. It is not customary to serve fresh meat to guests unless the guests are monsters. The ghastly warriors of Medea Shae certainly dont eat meat when its roasted. And he just didnt eat fresh. For it is against human nature. A man should not become entangled with fairies, and he became entangled, enchanted by the beauty of a magical woman.
Blood dripped from the platter onto the table. There was a head of a man on the plate. Conrad could scarcely recognize it as the head of one of his generals.
«Ah, pardon!» The hostess made a quick sign to her maids, and they hurriedly removed the dish with the mutilated head. One of the black fairies deliberately or accidentally whipped the king in the face with her wing.
«This dish got here by mistake,» Medea Shai apologized with a charming smile.
«And for whom was this dish intended?» Conrad almost asked. That would have been an unnecessary question, for he had seen for himself the monstrous army of the fairy queen.
«Sit down, help yourself!» Medea Shai poured him some wine. There were no chairs near the table except for her throne, but here some glittering creature crawled up behind him and touched Conrad on the shoulder with a claw. He turned around and saw a pedestal that resembled a coiled snake.
He could not sit on it. He didnt feel like eating either.
«Why such monsters serve you?» He went straight to what he was worried about.
«Do you think I have to fight this war alone?»
«Thats not what I mean! Arent your subjects supposed to be exclusively elves and fairies?»
«Oh, no,» she even laughed. «Fairies Queen is just a title. It means that all magical creatures are subject to me. Fairies are the strongest among us, they form the highest caste, and to rule them is to subjugate them all at once.»
«And I thought monsters were the strongest. They are such giants!»
«People are naive. But I can teach you to see deeper than any man can.»
Corundum sprouted in Medea Shais forehead. The skin around it gave the impression of porcelain about to crack under the weight of the stone. But the stone itself resembled a third eye. Is it true that the third eye is all-seeing?
«Do you enjoy my company?»
Conrad nodded.
«Do you want to fight me further?»
«It was you who declared war on me!» He reasonably reminded me.
«I had to lure you to Shai.»
«Where did your kingdom come from? From nothing!»
«Shai exists wherever I wish it to be,» Medea Shai raked her sharp fingernails across the table. The corundum in her forehead seemed to glow with fire.
«You may summon your advisor and the knights to join in the feast. It is not proper to leave them in the vestibule.»
Conrad first made sure that there were no more severed heads on the table among the courses and only then called his retinue.
The two roses, scarlet and white, had been crushed by the hooves of the horses on the battlefield, but in her hands they came to life. One of the monsters picked them up from the bloody field and brought them to her with a bow. Even if you put the flowers in a vase of water, they do not refresh as quickly as from the touch of her hands.
«But these same hands cause rashes, leprosy, pustules, and various infections. Dont touch her,» whispered the counselor, who had reluctantly joined the feast. He squinted warily at the lady of the castle. «Do not sleep with her! Do not sleep with her, or you will not awake alive! Or worse, youll be a cripple. Why do we need a crippled king?»
But Conrad wouldnt listen. Who could listen to it? Near him was such a beautiful woman. She was not a match for his ailing and stunted bride. The princess of Luan Araminta has gray skin and a gaunt body, but Medea Shai has tall, feminine breasts, a face like a porcelain doll and beautiful wings. It does not matter that they are black. They go very well with the slender waist.
There is a purple blush on her cheeks, like the crust of an apple showing through under a layer of porcelain.
Could she break? It feels like shes all made of porcelain.
«So touch it, check it out?»
Someones voice rang in his brain. Or was it coming from the walls, where bas-reliefs of inhuman faces were carved? Or was it the roses whispering with their hundreds of scarlet mouths? The roses here are so reminiscent of a maidens mouth, and sometimes the lips of vampires.
In the presence of the insolent counselor, the feast turned to hell.
«Dont drink the wine!» He whispered to the king. «She will poison you! She will bewitch you! Enchant you!»
But Conrad ignored the advice and drank. And he didnt die! The counselor bit his tongue.
However, besides poison, there might be other reasons to feel fear.
The fruit on the plates turned out to be alive. One peach slipped from his hands and rolled on the floor, laughing. A ruddy apple rolled over in his fingers, smiled at him with a womans face as if painted on the rind and winked. The same faces appeared on the unfamiliar tropical fruit. The mouths on the peels opened and sang in unfamiliar languages.
«And these creatures we ate!» The counselor jumped up from the table. The knights felt sick, but not from fear. It seemed that the fruit was already stirring and singing in their bellies.
«They will vomit, but they will survive,» Medea Shai accompanied them with a glance as they fled.
«Now we are alone!» Conrad was glad he hadnt eaten anything, or he would be sick now, too.
The living fruit at the feast, the statues that came to life, the flowers with talking mouths it was enough to drive even a strong wrestler mad. But he proved to be a tough nut to crack, and he got the prize. The mistress of the castle ushered him into her bedroom.
A black salamander flew in front of them, posing as a candelabra lighting the way. There was lighter from its scales than from real candles.
Medea Shais bed appeared to be made of black flowers. Only the canopy and silk bedspread stood out in bright purple. But a dragon, coiled in rings around the bed, would have alarmed anyone. He glared so fiercely at his guest that the king instinctively drew his sword.
«Hes not jealous,» Medea Shai gently stroked the dragons scaly spine.
«Should he be jealous?»
She only smiled enigmatically.
«People are so innocent!»
Ive had many women before, Conrad wanted to say, but realized that by innocence she meant something else. Was it naivety? Was it peoples ignorance of enchantments and magic? Was it a mystery that united only her and the dragon? And it was a secret Conrad shouldnt have poked his nose into. He felt as if he were standing under a keyhole watching Medea Shai make love to a dragon. And in fact it would be the dragon who would be watching their coitus. Even an experienced womanizer would be uncomfortable here. Conrad already was. The dragons eyes were staring right at him as Medea Shai unbuttoned his sash.
The white and red fairies were already fighting under the window in the dizzying height above the wasteland. The red fairy was winning.
Passion is strongest! The black moths that had fluttered out of the gloom were lacing Medea Shais corset, trying not to catch her wings. Conrad looked at the half-naked fairies queen and realized he didnt care. Let the dragon watch as much as he wanted. It was as long as he didnt interrupt them.
The white and red fairies were already fighting under the window in the dizzying height above the wasteland. The red fairy was winning.
Passion is strongest! The black moths that had fluttered out of the gloom were lacing Medea Shais corset, trying not to catch her wings. Conrad looked at the half-naked fairies queen and realized he didnt care. Let the dragon watch as much as he wanted. It was as long as he didnt interrupt them.
Thorns in the heart
When Conrad awoke, Medea Shai was not there. Even the bed was not crumpled where she lay. Her black dragon was gone, too. But the other two, the white one and the amber one, sat unobtrusively in the doorway. They did not interfere with Conrad as he left the bedroom.
Going through the castle in search of the queen was not the smartest thing to do. The enfilades of the hall resembled a labyrinth. After ten minutes, Conrad realized that he would not be able to find his way back to the bedroom on his own. Servants were nowhere to be seen, and the wattles of black roses that abundantly braided the walls and columns proved biting. Conrad almost lost an arm when he caught them.
All that remained was to turn down a dark corridor where there were no roses. True, he had to find his way through it as well. The chandeliers and chandeliers which had previously gnawed at him through the eyes of salamanders were gone. But the keyholes in the many doors let out a measured glow, now azure, now pink and emerald. Behind the doors one might have thought they had locked a rainbow. All of the doors were different shapes and sizes.
The end of the corridor spiraled into darkness and was lost in infinity. Closed doors of fanciful shapes stretched across the entire corridor.
«Let me out! Let me out! I already regret not obeying you.»
«Who are you?» Conrad leaned toward the door, pushing it open, but it was locked.
«Who are you?» Out of the keyhole flashed a frightened, bright red eye.
«I am a man!» The prisoner howled, either enthusiastically or disapprovingly. It was impossible to tell from his tone. «Bend your ear to me! I will whisper something secret to you.»
Probably out of curiosity, Conrad bent down, and immediately a sharp black claw nimbly peeked out of the crevice and nearly pierced his ear.
«Dont listen to him! Come to me!»
This time the king did not yield, though the summons came from behind a very different door. It was of black metal, and its shape was that of a great sheaf of ears.
«The queen has us locked in here. She forbids you, too. Get out of here!»
He wondered if this was a dream. Conrad even pinched himself. The voice moaned in different ways, as if a whole regiment of different creatures were lurking behind the same door.
«Let us out! And we will tear the villainess to shreds!» The voices of all sorts of tones croaked and muttered.
And only one squeaky voice warned:
«Run for your life! Get away from her! Or you will be imprisoned, as we have been, for all eternity!»
Conrad looked at the fancy door. Were it not for the keyhole, it might have been a bas-relief of black spikes. In any case, it was too small to hold many prisoners, and he could hear a chorus of voices. One hoarse bass in the chorus was surely that of a giant. No more, no less!
Except that it was unbelievable that a crowd of creatures could fit into such a narrow space at once. Behind the door was probably a tiny storeroom, not a room. Conrad tapped the wall, checking by the sound to see if the interior was hollow. There was no echo. The door seemed to have a blank wall.
«Hey, mortal!» That same squeaky voice, apparently belonging to the dwarf, called. «The fairies queen has a soft spot. I can tell you where it is.»
Conrad already knew.
«Its her heart,» he suggested, remembering the night before with Medea Shai. If she hadnt fallen in love with him, there would have been a bloody battle between them.
«No, it would not!» Someone jumped at the door. «It is Honeydew!»
«What is it?»
«Not what is it, who is it!»
«And who is it?» Conrad scolded himself for having conversations with someone he couldnt even see. But he was torn by curiosity.
«Honeydew is a living black flower. It can strangle you with its stems if you get close, or it can give you the key to a secret if you ask very hard. Speaking of keysMedea Shai has a bunch of keys, each with a head the same shape as these doors. You couldnt steal her key to the door where Im languishing! Its the one with the black sheaf notch.»
«Are you alone in there?» Why is the polyphonic chorus here? «It seemed to me that there were many of you inside.»
There was a wheezing laugh in reply.
«How stupid mortals are!»
Conrad took offense, reached for his sword, and realized he did not have his sword with him. If one of the fairies queens monsters attacked him now, he would not be able to fight back.
«It is at your service!» A voice at the door insisted. «I told you how to overpower her, and you get me the key!»
Conrad wanted to blurt out that he wasnt a thief, but it would have been nice to ask something first:
«What were you locked in here for?»
There was a long silence on the other side of the strange door.
«So A minor transgression! It was sorcery against her majestys charms. It was trampling her fields.»
«But there are no fields, only black wasteland.»
«This is Shai! You see only a black wasteland, and if the dragons of the queen burn your army, the wasteland will be covered with black sand from ashes like a blanket. The ash from your warriors will pile up into whole barchans. Medea Shai likes to sow her fields with seeds from human bones.»
The man who spoke chuckled like a madman. Maybe he is insane.
«What is going on here? Who are you talking to?» Medea Shai walked down the corridor, rustling her black and scarlet skirts. A living candlestick flew ahead of her, rustling with notches in the shape of golden wings.
Conrad noticed that the train of the fairies queens new outfit was woven of thousands of black butterflies. It stretched across the carpet, rustling unpleasantly. The butterflies looked as if they had been captured. They also adorned the neckline and sleeves. Conrad couldnt tell if they were alive or dead? They seemed to be moving their wings, as if they wanted to warn him about something. But he was no longer willing to listen to warnings. The beauty of the fairies queen captivated him once more. One look at her face, at the black curls tangled in the shoulders of moths, and he couldnt think of anything but love.
«Ive heard that when people start talking to emptiness, it means theyre going crazy.» Medea Shai brushed some butterflies off her sleeve, and they encircled her forehead in a living hoop. «I have a tincture for insanity. Would you like some?»
As Medea Shai approached, the voices outside the door fell silent, as if they were not there at all.
«I heard the ghosts»
«Believe me, if there were ghosts nesting here, Id be the first to hear and see them. I love taming ghosts and genies. Its been my favorite pastime for centuries.»
«Is it several centuries?»
Medea Shai nodded. How old is she? She looks young and beautiful. Conrad had heard that time flows differently for fairies than it does for mortals. Humans tend to grow old and die in a century. Fairies, on the other hand, live forever and never grow old at all. Thats why they are called magical creatures.