«No, it isnt! There is no such thing as a fire wine.»
Patricia opened one of the barrels and was astonished. Inside the barrel, liquid fire was bubbling.
«Is this really drinkable?»
«Yes, it is!» The big goblin snatched the barrel and took a big gulp, then snorted insolently.
«And you didnt burn your throat?» Patricia wondered.
The goblin shook his horned head. Then he clawed at his stomach. His eyes bulged and turned orange, and sparks flickered across his fur. The goblin grinned contentedly. He was enjoying the effects of the fire wine.
«Do the others drink it too?»
The goblin nodded.
«Drunks,» Patricia muttered under her breath. The goblin took no offense. Everyone here liked fiery wine that burned the palate. And this was her team! All monsters! She didnt know that before.
Patricia was getting discouraged. The other pirates had taken the treasure, and all they got were barrels of wine. In frustration, she stabbed one of the casks with her dagger.
«No, dont tear them off!» The jumpy creature from the hold squeaked, but it was too late. An orange trickle flowed onto the deck.
«Theres fire in every barrel, not wine!» Patricia was indignant.
«Its fire wine,» the Bogles grumbled resentfully. «Dont you realize that this is the highest kind of wine?»
«And who drinks such wine? Are they suicides? Are they condemned to execution? It will burn your throat!»
«Dragons and dragons friends drink it,» replied the Bogles.
«But it will burn our ship. Hurry up and get buckets of water!»
Are there buckets on board? Patricia didnt even know. But the flames on deck went out by themselves. Did the ship soak it up?
«Our house isnt on fire,» the pixie flipped in the air.
«It is the ship, not the house!» Patricia corrected her.
«It doesnt matter!» The pixies scattered and the goblins began to drink heavily.
Patricia stepped away from the horde of monsters. They were pouncing on the barrels of fiery liquor. The barrels didnt even have corks. The goblins were smashing the lids with their paws to get to the contents.
«Hey, Captain! Look at me? Do I fit in with your crew?» A female voice squeaked from somewhere above.
Patricia looked around. There was no one around, except for the strange, stiff gargoyles on the sides. They looked like they were about to come to life. Could she have been approached by a ghost? Theres no sign of it, by the way. Are there invisible ghosts?
«How is about that?» The unfamiliar voice came from above again.
Patricia raised her head, holding her triangle with one hand. There was no one flying in the sky above the ship. So she couldnt have been called from the sky.
«Look here!»
A beautiful gray head with pointed ears hung down. The eyes on the gray face glittered like amber. A thick cloak covered her narrow shoulders. The lady resembled a dunghill.
«Do you like hanging upside down?» Patricia asked puzzled.
«I do!» The lady shook her gray cape and appeared to be a huge bat. She jumped down gracefully and stood in front of Patricia, straightening up to her full height. Its head reached Patricias chin.
«How did you get here? Are you even a fairy or a bat?»
«Im both, and Im both, and Im both.»
«Whats the third thing?»
«Im a bat fairy, thats the first two things, and the third, Im a member of your team.»
«How come I didnt notice you before?»
«Were you too busy enslaving the crew?»
Enslavement! Whats the word?
«I recruited them, not enslaved them.»
«Hmm,» the bat fairy squirmed incredulously.
«What are your talents?» Patricia looked her over from head to toe. Her feet were two paws with sharp claws that scratched the deck.
«Are they talents for what?»
«It is to fighting.»
«How warlike you are!» The gray fairy clucked her tongue.
«I need warriors.»
«The mermaids say that you cant survive on the seas without strength,» the fairy sighed and showed her clawed feet. «I can tear anyone to shreds. In my claws the enemy is like in a meat grinder, but my main talent is in agility and in the ability to whistle a strong wind. My whistle, by the way, can make people deaf or insane. Would you like a demonstration?»
The bat-fairy put the claws of her little fingers in her mouth and prepared to whistle.
«No, you dont,» Patricia interrupted her. «Its better to introduce yourself. Whats your name?»
«Nethopurina.»
«Youre from a race of celestials?»
Nethopyrina shifted her triangular eyebrows in puzzlement.
«Im from the bat fairy caste.»
«Okay, its not about bloodline. So, Lady Netopyrina»
«I havent been called Lady since King Opal threw me out of the castle in disgrace.»
«What did you do to him?» Patricia immediately felt good about the fairy.
«I drank the blood of the wrong lady to be executed.»
«And he threw you out for such a small thing? He loves fairies, peri, divas, and especially the night fairies, the blood-drinking fairies.»
«But it is not me. I was out of place.»
«So was I.»
«You ran away. No one threw you out,» Nethopyrina scrutinized Patricia. «I see your line of fate. By the way, youre being chased.»
«Is it from Opal?»
«No, it is from somewhere else.»
«I havent made any more enemies anywhere else.»
Is Nethopyrina a clairvoyant? Shes a little vague in her predictions. More like a fraudulent fortune-teller from Opal Square. King Opal had a good eye. He knew how to tell the real sorcerers from the charlatans.
Patricia remembered the feast hall at Opals castle, the poison glasses lined up between the food, the dishes of meat and blood, and the snide laughter of the peri community. Peri are the female variety of evil genies. Outwardly they are beauties, inwardly they are demons. The King of Opal released them from some ancient candlestick, and all of Opal turned into hell.
Patricia remembered sitting at the feast table between giggling peri, and on the platter in front of her was meat left over from the cut corpse of her uncle who had rioted against the king. It was best not to clash with a king who had subjugated an unclean force. But the fateful step had been taken, nothing could be undone.
«The King of Opal wanted to give you up to the dragon,» Netopyrina determined.
«Ive surrendered to the dragon!» Patricia kicked a barrel of fire wine that had been forgotten on the side of the ship. The packaging was faulty. The fiery liquor ran down the deck. Its going to burn!
The puddle of fire suddenly turned green and turned into a swamp. How did this happen?
«Is there room for me?» A green hand rested on the side.
Had one of the swamp women crawled in? Patricia didnt think shed ever see one of them again.
«The dragon burned my swamp as soon as you left,» she explained, climbing up onto the deck on the smooth side. «So I choose to travel in your company. Its safer with you.»
«Staying close to me is like sailing on a pirate ship.»
«Well, then I want to join your crew. Who says a swamp fairy cant be a pirate?»
«Can you fight?»
«I can be useful,» the swamp fairy pointed to the green trail of slime that followed her through the water.
«It is mud,» Patricia said.
«And what is about this one?» Her wing stretched out and touched the water behind the deck. The waves immediately became mire. «I can turn the ground beneath your enemies feet or the water beneath their ship into mire.»
Patricia whistled. Thats even better than strength. The Swamp Lady knows how to be useful.
«You better learn to fight with a saber, too.»
«Ill try, but its unnecessary. I dont need a saber when I have claws.»
A swamp fairy could cut a human throat with them. Patricia turned away.
«I am Zeligena,» the swamp fairy introduced herself.
«Isnt that the name of a whole race of fairies with goat hooves under their green dresses?» Patricia wondered. She had met such fairies at Opals court.
«Maybe so, but in this case its a name, it is not a nationality.»
It wouldnt have occurred to Patricia to say that fairies were divided into races and nationalities.
«All right, stay, Zeligena. Lets hope youre not a spy.»
«What do you mean?» Zeligena snorted insolently. «Im an honest swamp dweller who was defeated by a dragon.»
«Im angry with him myself,» Patricia noticed a metal tube on the side of the boat. It looked like a spyglass, but it was fancy.
«It is a morgen spyglass!» Netopyrina was surprised. «It must have been left here by the sea people. Or maybe its a gift?»
«You can see the Undersea Kingdom through it,» Zeligenna interjected. «Let me see!»
But Patricia had already looked through the peephole herself and was surprised. The tube showed not the water and the horizon, but the walls of a palace of shells and pyramids of pearls.
«It is beautiful!» Patricia exhaled.
«What? What did you see?» Nethopyrina and Zeligena began to snatch the telescope from her.
«Calm down! Im the captain, not you insolent fairies!»
What do fairies do? They wrestled the telescope from her just as the handsome triton appeared in it. Patricia wanted to look at him again. She wanted to bare her saber to wrestle the telescope away, but the water suddenly smelled foul. Had the dragon struck again?
Patricia glanced at the waves and exhaled in exasperation. Burnt bodies floated in the water, only not human. Maidens with fish tails burned to the color of ash. They were dead mermaids! They turned their faces to the sky like dead fish lying belly up. Slender bodies burned partially or to the bone. The bones, scorched by the fire, were coal-black.
«The dragon burned them! They were burned alive!» One mermaid in the dead pack was almost intact. Only her tail was burned. The blue scales on it were inflamed. But her shoulders, arms, and delightful face were not burned. Over her blue hair, the mermaid wore a kind of crown with pendants of pearls. Her scales were spliced on her stomach and breasts, forming a fancy corset.
Several more lovely mermaids floated out beside her.
«The heavenly fire has passed us by, but weve all got burns,» they complained in unison. «Do something!»
«But what can I do?» Patricia was shocked by their plea for help. It was the mermaids who could sink her ship. Everyone knows theyre sea sorceresses, able to conjure up a storm with their singing. Maybe theyre messing with her. Testing her for strength and wit?
«The dragon is looking for you,» said the mermaid with the crown in her hair. «He is so angry that he burns even sea creatures. This never happened before. It was safe underwater. If we dont turn you over to him, hell burn the whole sea kingdom.»
«Is it one dragon?» Patricia was surprised.
«It is a special dragon!»
«You are the princesses of the sea,» Patricia noticed the thin coral crowns on the heads of the other mermaids.
«We wont give you away,» the blue-haired mermaid slid her webbed hand around Patricias wrist. «Its still you, isnt it? We owe you a debt.»
Its still her! Yes, though its hard to believe, its still her Lady Patricia, the disgraced and outlawed Lady Patricia. But how do the mermaids know her?
«Did the King of Opal send you?»
If hes in charge of peri and genies, he can handle mermaids too. A logical conclusion! But the mermaid was surprised.
«We dont know him.»
«How do you know me?»
«Are you playing games with us again? You need to hide from the dragon, not from us,» said the mermaid, waving her webbed hand, in which large pearls sprouted like rings.
«I know,» Patricia shuddered at the memory of the burning waves, but now she had fire wine on the deck herself, and the crew of monsters drank it happily. The goblins have even begun to yell drunken songs. The shy mermaids were embarrassed.
«What a company you have now!»
Is this really a reprimand! Mermaids are princesses, they cant hear pirate language.
«I will bring discipline on board,» Patricia promised, though she didnt think it was possible.
«Dont overdo the magic, or everyone will fall asleep. When you sing, even dragons fall asleep, so dont sing any more magic songs and dont overdo it,» the mermaid waved her tail and disappeared into the waves.
Or else she has magic! What a joke!
«See you later, my lady!» came from the waves.
Patricia was discouraged. The mermaids had mistaken her for someone else. And she had unwittingly played along. Playing with mermaids is dangerous. Once the deception is exposed, theyll come back and sink the whole ship. If they find their mistress, theyll realize Patricias a liar.
«What a mess weve gotten ourselves into! It is all because of the King of Opal and his insolent peri!»
The goblin nodded at her, though he didnt know what she was talking about.
The phoenix flashed with sparks. So there was a ship on the horizon. Patricia snatched the spyglass from the gawking Netopyrina. It still showed only the sea: tritons, sirens and an underwater palace.
«No kidding! Show me the horizon!»
The telescope reluctantly obeyed, showing the sea hundreds of leagues ahead.
«Closer! A couple leagues away!»
Someone snorted inside the tube like a capricious evil spirit, but obeyed anyway.
«You really are the Lord of the Wicked if they obey you like that,» said the bat fairy.
«Who do you mean?»
«They are the spirits of the waters.»
Patricia swallowed her objections. The gray fairy would not call out that she had been confused with someone else. She mustnt ruin her credibility as captain of the undead. She had an excellent reputation on board so far.
«It is the King of Opals fleet!» Patricia saw the flag through her telescope. «Well, Im going to settle accounts with everyone! Prepare! Were going to fight!»
A sea battle
Trolls, as it turned out, could jump from ship to ship. They didnt even need boarding hooks. The trolls pushed off the sides of the ship with their spread paws. They clawed at their opponents with all their claws and fangs. Each goblin could handle a whole group of opponents at once. The gargoyles from the boards came to life and threw themselves into the battle against other peoples ships. Lean boggles clawed at their opponents legs and shattered their bones. They killed or maimed many. And still the King of Opals fleet won the battle.
«What we have to do?» Patricia thought frantically. «Shouldnt you use bat magic?»
«Thats dangerous!» The mongrel clawed at the board, and wood shavings flew off of it.
«I know its dangerous!»
The swamp fairy was already using her unpretentious swamp magic, trying to turn the sea waves beneath the Opal ships into mire. Her magical powers didnt last much longer. The water turned green, but the sea did not turn to mire.
A fiery ship would have turned the entire sea into flames in no time. Only in that case, Patricias ship would burn too.
The thin mire from the swamp fairy was not enough to swamp other peoples ships.
«All the other swamp fairies from my swamp were burned by the dragon, otherwise wed be dragging all the ships into the mire right now,» the destitute fairy sighed.
Patricia saw the situation differently. If he hadnt burned them all, not even one swamp fairy would have come to her.
«If we lose, Ill drown myself, but I wont go back to Opal!» Patricia was already regretting getting into a fight. It was better to ask one of the fairies or mermaids to summon the mist. Under the veil of mist, the ship could pass by the fleet and go unnoticed.
«It would be better to ask the mermaids for an elixir to breathe underwater,» Netopyrina said judiciously.
«Is there such an elixir?»
«Mermaids have all sorts of wonders in store. I dont even know about many of them. Mermaids will gladly give you an elixir.»
«Why would they?»
«Theyre very fond of you.»
Patricia barely dodged a sword wielded by one of the taller goblins. The sword slipped out of her hands and began slashing at the crew of the alien ship closest to the Bloodsucker.