The witch’s advice
Sparks flew from all directions. A fire was growing below, and an orange liquid suddenly oozed from the mountains, looking suspiciously like volcanic lava. Orange creatures separated from it, hovering in the air. They must be the spirits of the volcano. Flora had heard of them, but had never seen one. She reached out to touch one of them and almost burned herself.
«She’s waking up!» The volcano spirits hissed.
«Who’s waking up?» Flora didn’t understand.
«It is the Queen of the Fairies!»
«But I don’t know any fairy queen. Do fairies really have a queen? I think they’re all so stubborn that they won’t obey anyone.»
The spirits looked at Flora as if she were a fool and then flew away. The orange lava continued to ooze down the rocks. It was no less hot than the volcano spirits. If the lava flooded the entire plateau and the dragon didn’t come, Flora would die. She couldn’t jump down from the plateau. It’s too high, and there are no mountain trails visible below.
The familiar elf appeared suddenly. He hovered over the mountain plateau like a glittering jewel in the air.
«Charles! You didn’t burn up in the castle fire,» Flora rejoiced. «So elves don’t burn?»
«Hurry up, Mistress,» Charles held out his hand to her. «I’ll carry you away from the dragon.»
«Is it from the dragon?» Flora wistfully remembered Edwin in his beautiful form. Should she run away? Edwin had been gallant. But suddenly his gallantry would end when he became a dragon again. His animal nature might outweigh his own human nature, and then he would harm her.
«Hurry up, before he comes back,» Charles urged. «He’s already exposed you. You’ll have to find a new shell to hide from him.»
What kind of shell? Flora couldn’t understand the elf.
«We must hurry!» The elf unceremoniously grabbed Flora by the waist and tore her away from the plateau. In a moment they were flying away. Charles clearly had to strain his wings to carry Flora. He has no dragon strength!
«Bring me back!» Flora turned back to the plateau.
«Are you kidding? You’re putting me at great risk!»
He’s probably right. Maybe the dragon had some clever plan for her. Everyone knows that dragons hunt girls, not fall in love with them.
Charles was out of breath as he flew.
«Am I that heavy?» Flora wondered. Everyone thought she was as thin as a reed.
«No, I haven’t practiced my wings in a long time. And the fire didn’t do me any good. Dragon fire makes me lethargic and stunted. You know, dragon fire has one bad thing: poisonous smoke. It kills even magical creatures.»
Then Edwin is a dangerous man indeed. But for some reason it hurts to part with him. Flora was torn between the desire to escape from the dragon and to return to him.
Charles made the choice for her. He carried her away. After about ten minutes of flight, he set her down on a deserted country road. In the distance, a volcano was erupting.
«Don’t worry, the lava won’t hit us. This road is protected by a spell. There’s no rain, no snow, no human passers-by.»
«Where does it lead?»
«Just wish for the right place, and in a day we’ll arrive there.»
Flora wondered. Not long ago she had dreamed of going to the capital of Agrania, but the dragon knows she’s going there. He could sit and wait for her there, eating the king and his court. So we’d better go to Aluar. It’s a wealthy neighboring kingdom that’s become a trendsetter for fashion and good taste. Flora’s aunt lived there, the elderly Countess Hortense. She would always shelter destitute nephews.
Drusilla caught up with Flora halfway there. The witch was flying her broom low over the path, and the black cat was nestled on the broomstick.
«What an encounter!» Charles hurriedly skirted behind Flora’s back. He made it seem as if Flora had become winged.
«Where is my brother?» Flora asked demandingly. «I saw you pull him out of the fire. What did you do to him?»
«It is nothing. He’ll catch up with us soon enough.»
«He didn’t want to travel with the witch?»
«He had other things to do.»
Did Raphael go drinking at the first tavern he saw? That sounds like her brother. Flora sighed.
«Was he badly burned?»
«Not badly, but he is depressed.»
«And I’m desperate,» Flora looked questioningly at the calm sky. «I wondered if a dragon was about to fly across it.»
«Did the dragon make you despair?» Drusilla guessed.
«I don’t remember him! But he remembers me! Can you imagine?»
«You have a girl’s memory,» said Drusilla.
«And how is that?»
«Well, in the villages they say this saying when a maiden promised to marry someone and then forgot. It’s very convenient to forget about the past groom when there’s a more favorable suitor.»
«Only the King of Argania is more favorable than a dragon.»
«And you’re targeting the king!»
«Do you think the target is too difficult?»
«I think you’ll lose in money. Dragons have more capital than kings. Unless you like the king’s looks so much that you’re willing to sacrifice the dragon’s gold mines for him. Love can be a fool’s errand! But personally, I prefer profit. I’m a witch! I’d choose the dragon! No offense to you.»
«No offense taken. He’s not mine!»
«What do you mean he’s not yours? He still follows you around.»
«That’s right. He said something like he’s my admirer.»
«Your father kept him away from you a lot, but that’s all gone now. All the astrologers, stargazers, alchemists and even the clairvoyant Lady Serpina are gone. You’re free, but you’ve lost your defenses.»
«Don’t be ridiculous! What protections could my father give me? All his friends were charlatans, not magicians.»
«You’re wrong! He could do something,» Drusilla flared her lush black skirts. Her curls looked like writhing snakes in the moonlight. Her pointed hat was pulled low on her forehead, as if Drusilla were hiding from someone. Was it from the dragon, for instance? Apparently, she had some kind of score to settle with him, too. Suddenly, before Flora, the dragon had tried to kidnap her and was rebuffed. Flora bet the witch was good with a broom, even against a dragon.
«Have you ever wondered why the Marquis gives dinners for his guests at midnight?» She suddenly asked.
«Gathering earlier is the specter of bad taste when it comes to the company of astrologers?» Flora suggested.
«The Marquise Archibalda disappeared at midnight.
«She is dead.»
«Did you see her corpse?»
«No, but I know for a fact.»
«Without seeing a corpse, you can’t be sure someone’s dead. And sometimes that’s not enough. If you open a tomb, you won’t find a corpse.»
«Of course, after all these years, it’s decomposed beyond recognition.»
«It wasn’t there at all.»
«The Magician could have hidden it.»
Drusilla didn’t mean to say Flora’s father was a wizard, did she? Yes, he preferred to dress in black and socialized exclusively with alchemists and soothsayers, but it was unlikely he knew much about black magic, or he would have exposed the witch as his housekeeper long ago. Or was Drusilla lodged in the castle for a reason? What if the witch had a trusting relationship with the Marquis?
A hidden path
Drusilla showed some sparklingly colored cards, painted with months and stars. They glittered and shimmered in the moonlight.
«It’s a deck of Moro cards, left over from Lady Serpina,» she explained.
«Are they not called Tarot?»
«No, the Tarot is another gypsy card used for fortune telling, and these Moro cards come from the word confusion. They help to fool the clients. Lady Serpina used them to successfully fool her clients.»
«Then I’ll just call cards of Moro.»
«Would you like to keep them?» Drusilla looked as dejected as if Flora could take them away from her.
«No, I don’t need them.»
Drusilla was glad she didn’t have to give the cards back.
Drusilla let the deck fly. The cards arced over the witch’s hat. Then they circled around Flora. Flora was frightened.
«Stop it!» Drusilla shouted at them, and the cards obediently lined up in the air.
«I know how to handle cards and brooms!» Drusilla saved her trusty broom from the fire, or on the contrary, it was the broom that saved her.
«Was it hard for you to fly out of the fire?» Flora sympathized.
«I caught up in time, but I got a little burned. Can’t you heal it?» The witch rolled up the black cuffs of her sleeves, showing off her injuries.
Flora didn’t know how, but she touched the burns on Drusilla’s elbows and they suddenly went away.
«How was it?»
«Thank you!» Drusilla ignored her amazement. «It’s good to be privileged to be carried out of a fire by a dragon in its clutches. No one but a broom can rescue me. So I’m not expecting a rescue.»
«But I saw you save Raphael.»
«We need him. Your so-called brother is as dumb as a cork! We’ll use him to our advantage.»
Flora didn’t like it. And Raphael certainly wouldn’t like being rescued from dragon fire only to be sacrificed at some coven. Drusilla is a dangerous companion, but there’s no escape. It is except into the dragon’s claws. The alternative to befriending a witch, though there is one, is not a happy one. Flora realized she didn’t want to be friends with the dragon. The risk of getting burned is too great.
«Don’t worry! The dragon won’t notice us on this path, even if it flies right over it,» Drusilla intercepted Flora’s wary glance up into the sky. «It’s a hidden path! It’s only for witches, trolls, and wandering elves.»
The witch wanted to reassure her, but instead frightened her. The risk of meeting a troll frightened Flora no less than the dragon’s fire. Scary stories were told about trolls attacking people.
On a normal road, Flora would have taken off her jewelry to avoid attracting robbers, but on a hidden path, she couldn’t get away with it. Magical creatures might attack just for fun.
Drusilla flew slowly forward on her broom. Blackie was busy washing up, and the elf, who had tired his wings, was trailing behind Flora.
Raphael soon caught up with them.
«He was lingering in the village we passed,» Drusilla explained. «They don’t like witches there, but the good peasants gave the burned aristocrat some milk.»
Raphael did not look happy. He’d just lost his entire inheritance. The castle had burned down and the feudal lands were occupied by strange creatures.
«Could it be that the fiends have driven us from our territories?» Flora sighed.
«What do you mean, sister?» Raphael looked distracted.
«It is nothing,» Flora decided not to upset him any more than he was already upset. How do you cheer your brother up?
«Did you meet someone in the village where you stayed?» She decided to touch on her brother’s favorite topic about finding a girlfriend.
«There are only village girls there!» Rafael snorted contemptuously.
«And you want a fairy with wings!»
«Even a witch with a broomstick would do,» Rafael glanced at Drusilla.
Naturally, a witch like her would suit any guy, because she was young and beautiful, but dangerous. Rafael didn’t think of danger.
«Floretta, will you introduce me to your friend,» he asked after a while.
«Don’t you remember her?»
«How can I remember her? I’ve never seen her before.»
«You don’t remember Drusilla, the old woman who was our housekeeper?»
«I remember the old woman, but – »
«So she’s in front of you!»
Rafael didn’t believe it at first, but when Drusilla kindly showed him the transformation from beauty to old hag and back again, his interest in his sister’s friend waned.
«It happens!» Her brother said to himself. «Maybe I shouldn’t have drank milk in that village. Strong ale didn’t make me feel anything like that. But with a mug of milk I began to see the devil.»
Drusilla grinned understandingly, and Raphael deliberately lagged a dozen paces behind so that he wouldn’t be in the same company as the witch.
«Raphael is a few years older than I am, but he’s much less intelligent,» Flora explained in a whisper. «I guess intelligence doesn’t depend on age.»
«You are mistaken, Madam. You are actually much older than he is.»
Flora didn’t even have time to ask what Drusilla meant, because Raphael was in danger. Some fairy hovering at the edge of the ravine beckoned him to follow her. She was a very beautiful blonde with turquoise wings. The boy simply could not succumb to her charms. But if he followed her into the ravine, he would break all his bones, and the fairy would fly away.
«Ah, get away from him!» Flora threw the first thing that came to hand at the fairy. It turned out to be a lump. Oddly enough, instead of confronting it, the fairy flew right away.
«She recognized you by the look in your eyes,» Drusilla winked. «That’s how you can control them.»
Flora again did not understand anything.
But she fought Rafael off for nothing. Before they could walk a couple of meters, the next fairy was already pestering her brother. What’s wrong with Raphael? Fairies are clinging to him like flies.
«Don’t worry that mortal girls don’t notice you,» another winged beauty whispered to him. «You’ll have the love of a fairy. You’ll only win.»
«That’s how the elves hit on his mother, and then she disappeared,» Drusilla shared her secret.
Flora didn’t have time to ask her more, because suddenly a dragon flew over the path. It was hard to believe that he could not see them. The dragon flew straight at the travelers. Not far away was a crossroads.
«The crossroads is where we can disappear if it sees us,» Drusilla pulled Flora forward. Before they reached the crossroads, the dragon flew past.
«Oh, it’s gone!» Drusilla rejoiced.
As it turned out, she rejoiced too soon. The dragon was flying in circles, as if looking for someone.
A dragon coin
The night was suddenly illuminated by a golden dawn. Is it morning already? No, it’s the dragon flying across the sky again, now quite low over the trail. Even if it can’t see the trail itself, it can smell potential prey lurking on it. Flora put a palm of her hand to her forehead. The dragon’s glare made her eyes glare. And the dragon’s roar made her want to crawl into the bushes.
One must be brave! Flora remained standing at the crossroads and was rewarded. A coin fell from the sky and rolled on the ground. The dragon had dropped it.
Somehow Flora managed to pick up the coin before anyone else did. The coin glittered like a miniature sun. It had a delicate chiseled design on it. But the dragon suddenly disappeared.
«Look, Drusilla! I have dragon gold!» Flora turned around and saw no one. The path was empty. There was silence all around. No dragon roar! No friends in sight anymore either. Where had everyone gone?
So is this a good luck coin? Or is it bad luck? As soon as Flora found it at the crossroads, dubious individuals began to emerge from the bushes. The glitter of the coin attracted the trolls. They came out from all corners around the crossroads.
Flora looked desperately for Drusilla or Charles, who could carry her from here to flight. Both the witch’s broom and the elf’s wings would do her good right now. How was it that she was alone on the road?
Drusilla appeared suddenly at the crossroads, though. The witch seemed to form out of the void. For a second, a glowing aura shimmered around her.
Flora breathed a sigh of relief that at least Drusilla had found her. But the trolls were surrounding her in a tight circle. They must be the same trolls that Raphael had lost to recently. He said he met them at the crossroads.
«You are sweet lady!» One troll jumped up to Flora and kissed her hand. The others bowed courteously. Yes, trolls are more courteous to ladies than to young men. But they obviously didn’t consider witches to be ladies. Drusilla clutched her broom belligerently to ward off the trolls. They only made faces at her, while Flora was being groomed.
«Let’s play!» The troll who had jumped up to Flora first said. From nowhere a table appeared at the crossroads, which turned out to be an overturned empty barrel. Above it was glittering dice.
«Is it gambling?» Flora hesitated. «It’s not a good thing! My kinfolk will condemn me.»
Drusilla snorted insolently, obviously remembering Raphael. The witch saw that Flora was being hypocritical.
«But how much you can win,» the troll whispered ingratiatingly. He was wearing a tattered and torn camisole that Flora hardly recognized as Raphael’s former clothes. Apparently, her brother had lost to this troll. Flora was overcome with righteous anger. She boldly sat down on the large flytrap that was replacing the chair. It was uncomfortable to sit on it. The mushroom tried to slip out from under Flora. Multicolored lizards were nesting under the side table. One of them crawled into Flora’s slipper.
«What a clever little thing!» Flora took off her slipper and tried to chase the insolent lizard out of there, while the troll used magic instead of his hands to break the dice.
«Let’s play!» He proclaimed.
«With what is it?» Flora asked demandingly. «Is it your camisole?»
«Such a fine lady wears men’s camisoles?» The troll was surprised.
«This camisole is from an aristocrat’s shoulder. It is precious to me.»
«Do you want to give it to your fiancé?» The troll guessed. «Shall we play for a chest of rubies?»
The chest suddenly appeared next to the barrel. As if it had grown out of the ground. The rubies in it sparkled like sparks. Each stone was the size of a pigeon’s egg. Well, well!
«If I win, will the rubies be a hoax?» Flora suspected.
«No, my lady!» The troll gave himself an aggrieved look.
«You don’t need a coin when you have chests of rubies yourself!» Flora was puzzled, and then suddenly she realized. It must be a special coin from the dragon’s treasury. With its help you can find your way anywhere. All you have to do is drop it on the path on a moonlit night. That’s what the garden fairy was talking about. Flora tossed her coin into the air and it sparkled, the dragon coinage on both sides of it coming to life. So the coin really is magic!
«That’s what it is!»
«You didn’t know that when you picked up the coin dropped by the dragon,» Drusilla hissed, but no one listened to her except Blackie, who wrapped her tail around her mistress’s neck. The cat was perched on the witch’s shoulder, as usual.
Flora was hesitant to play, but there was such a gorgeous ruby necklace in the chest that she gave in. We must take the risk!
«It is round one,» the troll announced, rolling the dice. His companions gathered around the table and watched the game with excitement. One troll brazenly put his claws on Flora’s shoulders and felt as if he had been burned. At any rate, he immediately retracted his paws and blew on them for a long time, hopping up behind the crossroads.
«She is lady of the fire!» He wailed.
Flora had won the first round, but it was too early to rejoice. She had heard from Raphael that all crooks and cheats let the victim win the first two games to build up confidence. While the victim rejoices at winning, the cheat scratches his paws gloatingly. Only the troll is unspeakably upset for some reason. Maybe magic cheats work differently.
«Usually the first round is the last! Maybe there’s something wrong with these bones!» The troll nervously shook the dice himself, without using magic. «Okay, it is round two!» He announced.
Flora won again. The dice were lucky the first, second, and even the tenth time. The troll barely had time to put on the line another chest of jewelry, which each time came straight out of the void.
«You are a very special lady!» The troll scratched his rough chin. «Or is that coin special? Let me see it!»
A clawed paw reached across the table to Flora.
«No, I won’t! Win first!»
Much to the troll’s dismay, Flora was no fool.
«You’re used to gullible Raphael.»
«Who is Raphael?» The troll didn’t understand.
«He is the one whose camisole you’re wearing.»
«And this one,» said the troll, who was wearing someone else’s clothes. «So let’s play it.»
Apparently, he’s out of jewelry. The troll took off his camisole.
«As soon as the polar stars shine over the crossroads, I’ll have your coin,» he said, and the other trolls nodded enthusiastically.
They were disappointed; Flora had won three more games. In addition to Raphael’s camisole, the troll had to put on the line a watch and a snuff box that had clearly been taken from someone else.
«You can’t play more than thirteen rounds,» the troll said sadly. «And you are a rogue, my lady. How cleverly you tricked me! You know your magic tricks.»
«What makes you think that?» Flora was frightened. The troll’s eyes glittered unkindly.
«You’re a sorceress!»
The troll reached across the table again. Flora recoiled from his claws. Accidentally, the troll touched the fire rose Flora was carrying behind her corsage.
«Ouch!» He shrieked.
How come a rose that didn’t burn Flora had burned him. The troll’s paw caught fire. The scent of burnt wool wafted through the air.
«She is Dragon’s lady! Get away from her!» All the trolls spun at once at the crossroads and turned into pillars of black smoke. In a moment, the intersection was empty except for Drusilla. The side table disappeared, the fly chair slipped out from under Flora so suddenly that she fell over.
«They’ve finally realized who you are,» Drusilla exulted. «They were disappointed! They usually rob players with magic dice. How clever of you to pretend to be a mortal lady, and a simpleton at that! You’re a great actress!»
Flora picked up Raphael’s tattered camisole. Since the troll took it off, the camisole didn’t disappear. But all the rubies and sapphires Flora had won were gone. Only one jewelry box stood at the crossroads.
«I’ll at least take it!» Flora reached for the jewelry box.
«Don’t make the crossroads fairy angry,» Drusilla said. «She’s friends with the dragon, and she might tell him about us.»
«I’m not afraid of any dragon!» Flora grabbed the box. An angry fairy did glimpse at the crossroads, but disappeared.
«Those who take treasures from the crossroads bring home ghosts with them,» Drusilla said admonishingly. «But you’re not afraid.»
«That’s right, I’m not!»
Flora was sure that no ghosts would follow the box. But she was taking a big risk. They say a bandit was hanged at this crossroads a while ago. What if a ghost with a noose around his neck came to her at night?
The dragon coin glowed in her hands like a golden star. It had brought good luck after all!
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