«What kind of lady would degrade herself to a mans profession?»
Patricia felt herself covered in mud under the fairys gaze. Fairies are such schemers! One word from them would turn any fame into shame.
«It suits me,» Patricia cut her off.
«You could have been queen.»
«One night of ritual and the next morning you are a skeleton in a crown.»
«At least I wouldnt have to swing a saber. You could stand in a niche like a palace ornament. The grave fairies would serve you well. I think they recognize you for letting you go. I recognize you too.»
The fairy smiled greedily, as if she had met an old rival who was about to be torn apart.
«And the dragon will come for you!»
Patricia didnt know what shed done to the dragon. Maybe she had stolen some magical thing that the dragon had left unattended on the coast or in the mountains. Patricia saw strange marks burned into the sand. They had definitely been left by the dragons breath. Maybe she shouldnt have touched the burned sand. She could have broken some dragon spell by scooping up a handful of that sand.
Patricia remembered the strange sounds that had been heard on the coast then. If only she could apologize to the dragon for intruding on his magic then.
«He can smell you in any guise,» the fairy cheered. «You cant hide from him. Masks wont help.»
By any guise, she must have meant a bandits clothes. Patricia dusted off the lapels of a smart camisole that the goblins had taken off the corpse of the captain of an enemy ship and presented to her.
«Fairies are nothing but trouble!» Patricia muttered.
She must have insulted Zeligena and Netopyrina, because they hissed nervously. You have to be careful what you say when youre surrounded by evil spirits.
«Or maybe hell come,» Patricia decided to mock the evil fairy. «I saw a dragon ship.»
«You saw it?» Aleandra was interested. «Where it was?»
«I wont tell you.»
«You are a liar! You havent seen it, or youd be burned.»
«And if we meet it now, well burn.»
«Yes,» nodded the fairy in the cage.
«Is it everyone? Is it even you?»
«Uh-huh. You cant fly away from him. The whole sea will burst into flames. The waves would surge to the heavens, burning anyone who tried to fly away.»
«Is he a living dragon or is it a ship?»
«It is both.»
«How is it so? Ive never seen it fly. Its bottom always touches the water and the water beneath it catches fire.»
«Hell either burn up all the seas or find one that hides from him. He probably thinks she is in the Underwater Kingdom, so he ruins the water. Before, fire falls only existed in Tioria, but with the advent of the dragon ship, entire seas become fiery.»
«I saw it myself.»
You have only seen it so far, and then youll burn,» the fairy giggled insolently. «Youll get your ass kicked.»
She probably intended to get free and fly away somehow.
«Keep an eye on her!» Patricia told the goblins.
Her own mind suddenly went blank. There was no need to look into the fairys hypnotizing eyes. Patricia staggered out of the hold and into the fresh air. She was about to faint like a sourpuss. And shes a pirate captain. Its a shame shes staggering around like a drunk. Thats the worst thing you can do when youre dealing with an insolent fairy.
There was no flaming ship on the horizon, but a clear picture suddenly appeared in her mind: the silhouette of a slender aristocrat coming out of the fire and treading on the water, leaving fiery footprints. Its a young man. He would be very handsome if he were not entirely made of flames. He reaches out to her and wants to say something to her, and the picture fades.
Patricia woke up from her reverie. There was a burn on her elbow, as if someone had really just touched her with fire.
A fiery stranger
As soon as she fell asleep, she dreamed of the fiery young man again. He was treading on the water, and the water under his soles became fiery. There was a solid bonfire in the sea. The young man looked at Patricia with orange eyes fused from the fire. Behind his back fluttered a fiery cloak. What was the cloak! His eyebrows, eyelashes, hair, skin everything was composed of fire.
The stranger made some signs to her, and symbols of sparks lit up in the air. Patricia managed to read:
«It is an escape! It is treason! It is a change of essence! It is an empty crown! It is the absence of a queen! It is the eternal search! It is an anger that burns everything!»
How did she learn to understand these bizarre fiery symbols? Surely they must be some kind of magic writing. The stranger was tempting her with magic. No, hes not a stranger. Patricia knew him from somewhere. She couldnt remember where.
She woke up terrified. The blazing sea from her dream was still in front of her eyes. The alarm was sounding on deck. The mute was flying overhead like a stray.
Patricia reluctantly got up from her bunk. «Was the fairy villain rebelling in the hold again?»
Bad premonitions gnawed at her soul like worms. They shouldnt have taken the prisoner. A fairy prisoner is a great danger. Those who keep magic creatures in captivity risk being torn apart themselves. Patricia remembered the story of an overseas merchant who came to Opal. He told of a circus for which magical creatures were captured. One of the captured creatures had driven the circus owners mad. It was a syrin or something. Anyway, it sat in a cage and sang magical songs, and the circus owners went crazy. Eventually all the circus pets broke out of their cages and clawed the entire town the circus was in. Patricia didnt even remember the name of the town, but the merchants story impressed her. Queen Esperanza, who was still alive at the time, had laughed for a long time in response to the merchants tales.
«Things are even worse in Opal,» she said.
Patricia hadnt realized what the queen meant. When she learned of the kings magical experiments, it was too late to heed her warnings.
«We burn! Fire!» screamed Netopyrina, hovering over the ship. One of its wings grazed the porthole of the captains cabin.
Patricia shuddered and grabbed her saber. How could one burn on the high seas! The threat seemed to be empty. There is water all around. The fire has something to put out. Unless the fairy trapped in the hold managed to summon magical fire. Theres nothing to put that out. Then the ship would burn, and the fairy hostage would escape. Patricia closed her eyes and imagined the triumph with which the freed fairy would look at the sinking wreckage of the ship before flying away.
There was no smell of fumes yet. Could the alarm be a false alarm? You dumb alarmist!
Patricia looked out the porthole and gasped. The entire horizon was ablaze.
«Theres a dragon ship coming this way!» She exclaimed, pressing her palm against the glass of the window. Her palm burned immediately. The glass in the porthole was so hot it could have melted.
What do we do? The dragon ship was heading straight for Patricias ship. We could try to turn away from it, but the sea around it is burning for leagues around. Theyll never make it anyway.
«Wed need a tailwind so strong we could sail a hundred leagues a second! Thats the only way we can get away from him! Can you conjure such a wind, Zeligena?»
Patricia thought the swamp fairy was standing behind her. A murky, magic aura was spreading through the air.»
«It is a lovely specimen, but alas, she is only mortal,» said an unfamiliar voice.
Patricia turned around. The fiery young man from her dream was standing in the cabin. Strangely enough, he was no longer glowing. Only the outlines around his hair, forehead, and shoulders remained fiery. Even in this state, if he touched something, the cabin would burst into flames. There are a lot of wooden objects around. It is as long as the guest didnt touch anything. Otherwise thered be a fire.
Patricia found herself wanting to touch him, despite the risk of burning herself. Gods, he was so good-looking that one could even burn in his arms! Patricia imagined their bodies entwined in an embrace and collapsed onto the narrow bunk. Then the hard mattress would seem like a kings bed. Or is it a funeral pyre? In the arms of a fiery lover, you cant help but burn.
«Who are you? How did you get here?» Patricia opened her lips, but no words came out. It was as if the guest had magically blocked her from speaking. She couldnt move either, as if her whole body was paralyzed. And the fiery guest was scrutinizing her.
«Are you Rose?» He asked hesitantly.
Patricia thought frantically. Who is a rose? A rose is a flower with thorns. There are no flowers on board. And there are no rose fairies on the ship either. But there were Rose Fairies in Opal. Their temper was as prickly as the thorns on a rosebush. Rose fairies threw lightning bolts and thorns that stabbed painfully into peoples bodies. Rose fairies could kill their abusers with a thorn sent straight to the heart. It was best not to clash with the rose fairies! Patricia learned this lesson when the rose fairies surrounded the most beautiful lady of Opal and plunged so many thorns into her body that the beautiful woman died in agony. And one singer of frivolous songs they lured into a ravine with rose bushes, where the poor man died of his wounds. The fairies laughed at him for a long time, picked up his lute and composed mischievous songs about his death among roses and thorns.
Patricia learned to avoid any interaction with the rose fairies. To do so, she had to avoid the rose garden of the Opal Royal Garden.
«Did a rose fairy sneak onto my ship?» Patricia could only squeeze out a whisper. Her lips and tongue were numb.
The fiery young man shook his head sadly.
«Rose is the key to everything,» he said quietly.
«She is a mere mortal,» a graceful woman in a luxurious purple and black dress emerged from the darkness of the cabin. «And she is a bandit, too!»
Patricia blinked her eyelashes. Where had the lady come from? It was as if she had formed out of the darkness like a ghost. There were many ghosts in Opals court, but such an arrogant beauty was not one of them. The guest seems to be a queen, as a magnificent crown glistens in her coal-black hair.
«I cant stand robbers and thieves!» The lady twisted her pretty face. «This wench is a criminal! If it werent for the magic of her ship, Id have her executed immediately. My bats can do it with the whole flock!»
The lady prepared to make passes with her hands. Black glitter fell from the tips of her fingernails.
«Stop it, Medea Shai!» The fiery young man commanded. His voice hissed like a flame. Or was it a serpents hiss?
Patricia blinked, but couldnt move. The magical stupor wouldnt go away. Orange scales seemed to have formed on the guests skin, as if a dragon was sitting inside him.
If Patricias not mistaken, the guest is a powerful wizard.
«Theres a dragon ship coming right at us! Help us!» Patricia called out mentally because her lips wouldnt move.
The arrogant guest shook her long, serpentine curls. They looked like tar-black snakes scattered over a purple dress.
«Shouldnt you be on your ship, fairy queen?» The young man addressed his companion. «You seem to be a spirit bound to the ship Medea Shai. How on earth did you manage to leave your ship?»
«I followed you, Edwin! If you remember, were tightly bonded now!»
«Dont tell me youre planning to do to me what you did to Tamlane.»
The lady moved her wing and hit a shelf in the cabin. The compass fell from it and shattered.
Patricia only now noticed that the lady had wings. They were black as darkness, so until they came into motion it was impossible to see them. If the lady kept flapping them around, she would knock over all the things in the cabin.
«Lets fly out of here!» A fiery young man named Edwin unceremoniously grabbed the lady by the wing.
«O! What are you doing?» The fairy beauty rebelled. «Youve lost all manners over the centuries!»
Patricias heart pricked. This feeling was called jealousy. The presence of a beautiful lady next to Edwin was very unpleasant to her. Why couldnt Edwin come alone?
«Would you just let her go?» The lady panicked. The corundum in her forehead glittered dazzlingly. The black wings seemed woven from spiders lace. The long earrings in the ladys ears appeared to be two black spiders.
«You are chained to your ship! You cant go on other peoples ships!» Edwin lectured.
«Burn the girl! Pirate girls should be burned!»
«Shes the wrong one!»
«Burn her anyway! I want you to burn her!»
«Im sorry, Medea Shae, but your whole kingdom is your ship now. The fairies and elves dont listen to you anymore, and neither do the dragons.»
At the mention of dragons, Medea Shai felt as if stung.
«One dragon is still mine!»
«Its a moot point!»
Medea Shai and Edwin disappeared, sinking into the darkness. Patricia suddenly regained her speech.
«Have mercy on us! The sea is on fire! Well burn if we run into a dragon ship!»
Somehow Patricia was sure Edwin could prevent a collision.
«Let the pirate ship burn!» Medea Shai laughed victoriously, but Edwin looked at Patricia and nodded seriously.
«The dragon will sail past,» he promised.
The entire sea outside the porthole was already ablaze. Edwin and Medea Shai were gone, as if they had never been.
Patricia could hardly catch her breath. The stupor had lifted from her body. And the fire outside the porthole suddenly went out. Only ash swirled over the water. A thin streak of flames and sparks shifted, disappearing over the horizon. The dragon ship changed course.
A letter from the fire
They are saved! She still couldnt even believe it. Patricia was ready to dance on the deck. The fiery death floated by. A wizard named Edwin had given the pirates a chance for salvation and free sailing.
Edwin! The name seemed vaguely familiar. Patricia recalled all the ambassadors and delegates she had met at the Opal court. Not a single person or supernatural being named Edwin had been among them. Various werewolves, wizards, and representatives of magical races often came to the King of Opal on business visits. Was Edwin not one of them? Then how did he know her? Patricia had the feeling that she had known him for a long time.
Edwin resembled a fiery dawn. Except that the memory of Medea Shai stirred a wild jealousy. Patricia wanted to take a saber and behead the queen of the fairies. She believed Edwin had called the lady fairy queen. Judging by the crown of golden wings, she was a fairy queen. Probably she was deposed, because fairies are a free tribe nowadays. Thats why theyve been frequenting the King Opals house. Many fairies were tempted to join Opals banner.
Sometimes it seemed that the King of Opal was planning a war against the whole world, and was going to create a magical army out of the evil fairies. With such an army he could take over the whole universe. Patricia felt frightened for a moment by this assumption.
«Would there be warlocks like Edwin to stop him if he decided to conquer the world?» She thought aloud.
The deck had become very quiet somehow. Why wasnt the crew rejoicing that the danger was over? Patricia stepped out of the cabin and almost stepped on a glowing orange object that lay just beneath her feet. Its a letter! But why was it on fire? Who set it on fire and why? And why isnt the deck burning beneath it? Only the letter is on fire.
«Dont touch it!» Netopyrina warned. «I burned my paws on it!»
Did the fairy really call her delicate webbed claws paws? Patricia laughed. The fairies who lived in Opals court didnt even call their scaly claws paws. Nethopyrina was more straightforward.