The lady of the palace’s secret chambers
As Samantha ran away, she threw a heavy vase at the demon. The vase shattered, but it didn’t hit the Mind.
«You missed!» A muffled voice came from behind her, followed by a heartbreaking squeak. Samantha looked back in horror.
The Mind was holding the heavy table on one pinky finger! Samantha gasped. A demon even in a pinky finger had more strength than a giant. The Mind intended to throw the table at her.
«I’ll kill you like a pesky gnat!» He hissed, his eyes flashing angrily.
Where to go? There’s a dead end ahead.
Suddenly, the wall in the dead end moved. The wall was replaced by a gilded door that swung open. Samantha quickly slipped inside and slammed the door shut. She found herself in a spacious room that smelled of incense, peace, and the exquisite scents of unfamiliar flowers. A beautiful woman in oriental garb was lying on a soft sofa smoking a hookah.
«I am Romana,» she introduced herself. «And you have just been called a troublemaker, a trickster and a temptress. Which of the three names is really yours?»
«I’m Samantha,» the girl mumbled embarrassedly. «Thank you for saving me.»
«Don’t thank me, I’m happy to give the Mind a ride or stick needles in his throne. But he usually prefers to ride on the king’s shoulder. Do you think maybe we should stick spikes in the king’s camisole to spite him?»
Samantha was not against such mischief, but diplomatically replied:
«It’s cruel to trap a beastie.»
«That beast almost ate you alive,» the oriental beauty looked at her guest sympathetically.
«He only wants to drive me out of the royal castle.»
«So she sees you as competition. But don’t get your hopes up. The Mind sees all pretty girls as rivals.»
«Where’s the hope?»
«If the Mind is jealous of you, then you have a chance to be the King’s bride.»
«I don’t think so.»
«Every girl has one. Serpin needs a mate, so the Mind sees potential brides everywhere and tries to get its claws into them. Thing is, once the king has a bride, the demon has to go back to hell.»
«Well, to save the king, I’m willing to take on the role of his bride.»
«First we need to save you,» Romara looked at the claw scratches on her guest’s shoulders. «I have elixirs. Would you like a hookah? It’s very soothing to the nerves.»
Samantha shook her head negatively as the beauty held out the mouthpiece to her.
«Well, suit yourself!» Romara shook her blue-black curls, which reached almost to her knee. The beaded pendants on her bodice and silk pants jingled melodiously, and her dark slanted eyes suggested hypnosis. Samantha felt dizzy and had to sit down on the unusually shaped sofa. All the furniture in Romara’s chambers was unusual, and the carpets were woven in some strange patterns. The room with its bamboo screens looked like an oasis from an oriental fairy tale. Only the shelves and cabinets looked modern, and there was a collection of figurines on display.
Samantha involuntarily gawked. The pinky-sized figurines seemed alive.
«If hookah doesn’t appeal to you, would you like tea with honeysuckle or rahat-lukum? – offered the hospitable Romara.
Rosafeira and Tea had long ago treated Samantha to nothing but roses’ petal tea, which had grown tiresome, so the girl agreed. It was dangerous to accept a treat from someone she didn’t know very well, though. What if Romara wanted to get her drunk or even poison her? Who was she? And what is she doing in the palace of the King of Ivilor? Romara has never appeared at any of the receptions or balls. In any case, Samantha has never seen her. What guarantee is there that the Oriental beauty isn’t in league with the king’s demon?
«Are you a court sorceress?» Samantha asked, noticing the amulets and bundles of herbs that could be considered witchcraft’s things.
«I am not a court witch, but a bit of a wizard,» the mistress of the secret rooms said with embarrassment. «You know, sometimes magic is the only way to escape an evil fate.»
There was something unexpectedly trusting in Romara’s smile. Samantha wanted to tell her all about herself, but it turned out that Romara already knew everything about her.
«I know every little detail of what happens to the guests of the royal residence,» she confessed.
«What do you call the courtiers?»
«That’s what the Mind calls them. His voice is the loudest in the palace. Its hiss comes from every corner, so I listen to it. You know the demon has been looking for me for a long time and can’t find me. So he can’t get me out of here, and I’m very cozy here. I’ve been hiding from everyone and practicing magic for years.»
«Aren’t you bored living alone?»
«What makes you think I’m alone?» Romara squinted slyly and began to resemble a sly kitty cat. The ears under her black curls, by the way, were pointed like a cat’s.
«Who’s here with you? Are they ghosts?» Samantha thought of the ghost of Duchess Evangelina. Maybe she’s visiting Romara.
«First of all, I like to listen to the walls talk, like mermaids listen to the whispering waves. The walls in a great palace see and hear everything and everyone, and they also hold many memories. You can learn anything from them.»
«You’re lucky! I can’t hear the walls talking, or I’d ask them a lot of questions, too.»
«I’m not lucky,» Romara leaned back against the silk cushions with annoyance. «Like you, I’m a victim of ambitious parents. They wanted to marry me off favorably, but I met wizards, took up magic, and now I’ve been hiding here for hundreds of years.»
«You’ve had to live in isolation for so long!» Samantha gasped.
«I’m comfortable,» Romara waved her hand, and the sorcerer’s scrolls flew off the shelves, then unfolded before her eyes. «We need a solution of basil, mint, and fern flowers to heal the wounds from the demon.»
«Maybe we shouldn’t make one of those. Only fairies can get fern flowers.»
An already prepared potion flew off the shelf. Romara caught it deftly.
«You don’t want the wounds to rot. The demon’s claws trigger the poison. You could turn into a zombie in thirteen days if you don’t heal.»
«The number thirteen is haunting me!» Samantha patiently put her shoulders under the wand smeared with the healing solution. Her skin stung badly, but she had to bear it. She didn’t want to become a zombie. What if she had to serve the demon for eternity? The fairies whispered that the Mind lifted the dead from the battlefields and they served him forever. The thought of an army of the living dead was frightening.
«Someone has cast the magic of the thirteen curses on you,» Romara said, unmistakably.
«Almost thirteen things have already happened to me: a demon, werewolves, the annoying ghost of a rival, blackmail by fairies who eat roses from the garden, an encounter with a living scarecrow in the black fields, the pursuit of a giant, a trap with ogres. I love the king.»
«Enough! I got it!» Romara’s hand trembled nervously, and she almost smeared the medicine on her guest’s dress. «Count exactly how many disasters have already happened and give me a number. It must be less than thirteen so far.»
«How do you know?»
«It is because the spell works in such a way that the thirteenth misfortune will surely put you in a coffin.»
«What do you mean?» Samantha gasped.
«What have you heard? The first twelve misfortunes will only pinch you, but the thirteenth will kill you.»
Romara’s statues
«It can’t be! Can’t even a fairy mark save me?» Samantha decided to resort to the tried-and-true.
«It doesn’t save you from everything,» Romara said with a look of expertise. «But I can think of something. The main thing is not to reach the fatal number, or it will be too late.»
Samantha feverishly counted all the misfortunes that had befallen her. They seemed to be countless. There are coincidences too.
«I’m not very good at math,» Samantha admitted after some inconclusive calculations.
«Me, too,» Romara sighed. «I can’t even count my statues. I don’t know if it’s more than a thousand or less. I think I have to stop at a thousand, or my magic won’t hold up.»
Samantha didn’t quite understand what she was talking about. Romara really did have a lot of figurines. All of the figurines depicted handsome slender young men. Not a single girl. It’s usually the other way around. All the collections favor statues of goddesses. In the royal palace, everything was decorated with copper or gilded figures of nymphs, naiads and mermaids. They could be seen on candelabras, on clocks, on fruit vases, in general everywhere. Cupids were less common, but they mostly resembled girls. The decoration of the palace clearly hinted that the rulers of Ivilor worshipped the female sex. Romara’s room was in stark contrast to the general atmosphere. Male beauty was favored here. The statuettes of young men were very beautiful, but they did not resemble ancient gods at all. Rather, they reminded of the history of Aluar’s fashion from the past to the current centuries. Only a few figurines resembled oriental princes.
«Are they porcelain or plaster?» Samantha wanted to take one of the figurines in her hand, but lightning struck her fingers.
«Don’t dare to touch them!» Romara got nervous. «They belong only to me! The protective magic prevents another woman from touching them.»
«You make it sound like they’re not figurines, but your personal harem of men!»
«They are!» Romara was not embarrassed. She waved her ringed fingers, and one statuette suddenly slipped off the shelf, but it did not shatter, but began to increase in size and contrasting colors. The marble layer seemed to have been scraped off with a scraper. In the room stood not a statue, but an attractive dark-haired guy in clothes from the last century. He looked around sleepily for Romara. The beautiful woman approached him, rustling her light clothes, kissed him and whispered to him:
«Not now! I will see off my guest and then invite you to my bed, but for now sleep some more, my love!»
As soon as she ran her hand across the boy’s chest, drawing some ornate symbols on it, the transformation was reversed. The handsome man paled to a monotonous marble color, shrank in size and jumped back on the shelf. The statuette remained alive and mobile for another second. Then it froze in its former pose.
Samantha gasped.
«You’re holding them captive!»
You should have known at once that these young men were not statues, but slaves of the sorceress.
«They agreed to it themselves,» Romara didn’t even look embarrassed. «I never take anyone into my magical harem without their consent.»
«Do you expect me to believe that anyone would voluntarily want to petrify themselves and become your prisoner?
«Have you ever heard that love is a sweet captivity?» Romara smiled condescendingly.
«Stay back!» Samantha put her hand forward in self-defense. «I don’t want to turn into a statue for love or anything else.»
«Don’t worry! You’re safe. I don’t cast spells on girls. What good are they to me? If I meet another boy who can capture my heart, he’ll be added to my collection immediately.»
«Just don’t go for the King of lvilor.»
«Young Serpin isn’t my type, or I’d take him from the demon, and you’d have to work harder.»
Romara’s knowledge was sometimes frightening. Samantha bit her tongue resentfully.
«Don’t be mad at me. I didn’t steal your fiancées,» she said in an ingratiating tone. Apparently, she wanted to have a live friend to chat with. Among the entire marble collection, a live companion was a rarity. Sorceresses wanted to share gossip with someone once in a while, too. Samantha herself was not averse to complaining about the demon’s intrigues, but she was afraid that Romara was even more dangerous than he was. Who would have thought her statues would turn out to be enchanted guys. What other surprises can we expect from her?
«Remember, I saved you from being chased by the king’s demon. Actually, I could have given you away to him before the secret door slammed shut,» Romara read her guest’s mind.
Samantha didn’t listen to her, staring dumbly at the countless figurines.
«You have so many! And they were all once living people! I shudder to think of it!»
«They are still living people. Why are you so nervous? I awaken them regularly to give them fabulous pleasures, and we’re all happy. Magic and love are a great combination.»
«But why couldn’t you pick just one person to love? Why you need for a harem?»
«I’ve become possessive and a collector. As soon as I see someone worthy of my attention, I immortalize their beauty and another figurine appears on my shelf. It’s so convenient. I have a harem of men, but they don’t bother me while I’m practicing magic. When I want their company, one of the figurines turns into a lover. Right now I like that boy,» Romara said, running her hand over the shell-and-pearl framed mirror hanging on the wall, and it suddenly showed the galleries of the royal palace. There, like a peacock, strolled a smart overseas ambassador, with a young attaché walking beside him. Romara jabbed her finger at the young man.
«It is that one! He is the attaché from Étar. Not bad, is he? And no one’s waiting for him at home. No fiancée, and he’s desperate to find one, and I’m waiting in the hiding place. Aren’t we right for each other?»
It was useless to object. Romara had identified her victim. The hunt was on. As it turned out, Romara could sometimes leave secret chambers or lure someone into them. In a matter of days, another statue was added to her collection. Oddly enough, the guy enjoyed being her victim.
Samantha watched her wizard friend’s new romance. Behind love affairs Romara completely forgot that he wanted to help her overcome the magic of thirteen curses.
The Visitor
The Mind’s claws tapped on the windowpane so suddenly that Samantha screamed in terror. Did a nimble demon intend to sneak into her bedroom for revenge? Rosafeira’s magical defenses should not allow him to do so.
The demon had a worried look on his face. Samantha noticed the tangle of pearl threads the demon had wrapped around his feet.
«I stole them from the mermaids,» he bragged, catching Samantha’s eye. Obviously, he thought she was jealous of him.
«It’s not good to steal from mermaids,» she remembered an old omen. «Even if they left their crests on the shore, they should not be picked up, otherwise you will bring a storm or someone from your family will drown.»
«There are no storms or tempests in the garden pond,» the Mind said smugly.
He was wrong. In the pond below the palace window, the waves suddenly rose so high that they reached almost to the roof. The Mind barely survived, clinging to the window ledge with his paw. One string of pearls he dropped. Samantha happily picked it up. The pearls shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.
«Now I have mermaid’s pearls too!»
«Give it back!» The Mind swung its paw so aggressively that it almost hit Samantha in the face.
«Watch it! You could’ve gotten a bruise.»
«The mermaids will drown you for keeping stolen pearls,» the demon threatened.
«So I can’t steal from them, but you can!»
«I am great and mighty, and you are nothing! You are a bug!»
«Actually, you are the size of a bug! There’s also a belief that mermaids welcome girls.»
«Mermaids love to drown girls,» nodded the demon.
«Why didn’t they drown the mad princess? All she does is walk around the pond all day and night,» Samantha looked out the window while the demon hovered above it, tail tip gripping the molding under the eaves. Florimonda didn’t seem to be walking around the pond, but stepping right across the pond between the water lilies.
Samantha rubbed her eyes. It must be a hallucination. As she gawked, a demon swooped in and snatched a string of mermaid’s pearls from her.
«Give it back, you thief!» Samantha was furious.
«Which one of us is the thief?»
«You were the first to steal!»
«And you stole from a thief. You get double punishment!» The Mind tried to put his paw through the window sill and couldn’t. Rosafeira’s defenses wouldn’t let him in. «I’ll report you to the mermaids in the pond,» he threatened.
«And I’ll report you to the king! Surely you did not steal these pearls from the bottom of the pond, but from his treasury!»
«I’m not stealing anything from the king,» said the Mind proudly. «He will give me everything for my loyal service.»
«What service is it? You are a hypocrite! You rule the country and the king. You’re the horned and tailed master of lvilor! What if the people find out about the devil who rules the kingdom? You’ll be chased away by an angry mob.»
«I could hypnotize the mob! Well, that’s settled!» The Mind muttered, but for some reason he was frightened. Apparently, he’d been chased out of the kingdoms by a mob more than once. «Actually, I’m not here, but Serpin is the kingdom’s master. You don’t want to hurt sweet Serpin, do you?»
«Serpin is your plaything! You use him as your servant!»
«It is a slander!» The Mind faked indignation. «Serpin is the master of the kingdom. He can do whatever he wants. He can put the crown on his forehead if he wants to, and take it off if he doesn’t. If he wants to, he can go hunting, or he can go begging. He can sit on the throne if he wants, or dress up if he wants.»
«But he’s not allowed to meet ladies,» Samantha said, snidely.
«But his life is a rush. But I have to run the country while he’s having a good time. Do you know how hard that is?»
«You can put all the heavy duties on someone else, and you can go to an honorable retirement with a state pension. Surely Serpin won’t hurt you and give you at least a quarter of the treasury.»
«And who will defend Ivilor from greedy neighboring kings, from nomadic tribes, from enemy fleets from the sea, from devilish storms, which are arranged by the fairies of the black deserts on the western borders of the country? Who will drive away the forest elf guests who want to overgrow the whole kingdom with flowers and trees to make it a forest kingdom instead of a human kingdom? Who will chase away the garden fairies? They eat up the flowers of Ivylor like locusts do the harvest.»
At the last point, Samantha blushed involuntarily for Rosafeira? She knew from her example that the fairies were indeed ruthless to the native flowers and they eat the roses. Had the Mind known that she had promised the garden fairy all of Ivilor’s flowers for the queen’s throne, he would have torn her alive.
«I could have dealt with the voracious fairies by sprinkling roses with poison,» she said hypocritically. «And the king’s throne would be good to be sprinkled with dust, so you don’t wipe it with your paws.»
«What is dust?» The Mind frowned.
«It’s obvious you’ve never kept a household?»
«Is it some kind of magic remedy?» The demon was surprised that the village girl knew anything about magic.
«No, it’s an excellent household remedy for insects and other pests.»
«Who’s a pest?» The Mind aggressively waved his clawed fists and almost fell from the window right into the pond, from which transparent watery hands reached out. Apparently, the mermaids noticed that the pearls were missing. He had been so careless in spoiling his relationship with the underwater people. The pearls weren’t worth having all of Ivilor flooded.
Samantha wasn’t sure the dust would work on the demon, but she had to try to get the flea off the king’s throne.
«You are pest!» She gave the powerless Mind a tongue-lashing. The demon can’t break the fairy’s defenses and get into her bedroom anyway. «And you’re a thief! If I ask the mermaids for pearls, they will give them to me for one smile.»
«Go to the pond and ask for them,» said the demon. «Then I won’t have to take you out of the palace like a flea, the mermaids will drown you anyway.»
«Are you ashamed?»
«Impudent maidens should be taken out of Ivilor like fleas, mice and cockroaches!»
The Mind wagged its tail at Samantha, put a pile of pearl beads on its hump and horns, and was gone. Only the window sill bore the mark of its claws.
It was evening in the garden. The mad Princess Florimonda was singing a song about an army that slumbers in the water and the day when it will rise from the bottom of the pond. Someone was singing along to her in chorus, obviously mermaids. Samantha didn’t have the courage to ask the mermaids for pearls as a gift, so she closed the window tightly and went to bed.
Rosafeira was in no hurry to visit her tonight. The fairy was probably having a fling with the park architect, who turned out to be a young and attractive single man. So she wouldn’t be coming for tea tonight. The dragons were already asleep as well. Tea made tea from rose petals and slept curled up next to the porcelain cups. In her sleep, the little dragoness snorted sparks. All that remained was to hope that there would be no fire. Samantha decided to rely on the fairy’s magical defenses and went to bed. From underneath the bed came a scurrying sound that resembled that of a mouse. Probably one of the dragons had gotten in there and was sharpening its claws on the parquet. Samantha counted the sleeping dragons. They all seem to be in place. Some were sleeping on the chandelier, some on the canopy, some on the footstool, and even on the dressing table was a powdered bully. Was the parquet really being scraped by rats, and the dragons didn’t think to catch them? Samantha wanted to rouse the pets, but she imagined they’d mutter, «We’re dragons, not cats, catch the mice yourself.» Sometimes dragons can give a sterner reprimand than a schoolteacher. It’s better to set the mousetraps yourself or scare the rats away with a broom. Only there were no rats in the room. The Mind must have driven them all out of the palace.
But an old acquaintance in a green velvet coat crawled out from under the bed so unexpectedly that Samantha shrieked. She almost mistook him for a mouse. How could she mistake a dwarf for a mouse? It’s much larger in size.
«I greet you, my lady!» The Dwarf King kissed her hand courteously.
«It’s you again!» Samantha was pleased to see him in the court of Ivilor, but at the same time worried. «Is it safe for you to be here? In confidence, the king’s demons are furious.»
«To be honest, I just crawled out of the underground tunnels beneath Ivilor, because I heard rumors that with the appearance of a certain young lady in the kingdom, the demon’s vigilance has fallen asleep. In the past, even fairies weren’t allowed to fly over the local gardens, but now they’re welcome here. The demon does not notice them because all his attention is concentrated on one person, whom he wants to get out of the country by any means. They say this lady is a thorn in the demon’s tail.»
Well, if it isn’t her. Samantha blushed shamefully. There was no denigrating rumor that could be spread by chatty people, or rather chatty fairies. They hardly knew what was going on in Ivilor. They didn’t even see the demon, or took him for a black monkey.
«By the way, I visited your father,» the dwarf admitted, jumping onto the bed and sitting on the pillows. «He is a kind man, and he gave me port and punch, and let me read all his books. He has so many! A whole collection! I love bookish people! They are such a pleasure to talk to. Book lovers are most often scholarly and sensitive people. Your father and I used to talk all night long until your mother got hysterical about our late-night banter. She came to kick me out of the library with a poker, so I decided to move elsewhere.»
«Mom’s hearing has gotten so acute that she can hear noises in the library at night?»
«Well, the landlord and I got drunk and started singing dwarf songs at the top of our lungs,» he confessed, blushing with embarrassment.
«Then I see!»
«I lectured your daddy about the structure of the dwarf kingdom. He asked me to do it. It was very interesting to him as a scientist,» the king of dwarves puffed up with pride.
«How nice is it!» Samantha praised, though she often fell asleep during lectures. Out of politeness she patted the dwarf king on the head like a child. He rejoiced like a dog.
«What a good girl you are! My sweet wife was the same until the elves seduced her. Once a woman starts dancing with elves, she loses her mind.»
«Don’t talk to me about mind,» Samantha clamped her ears shut. «That’s the name of the king’s demon.»
«He’s been called Darkness and Coal and something else. He likes to change names and patrons.»
The dwarf took a gilded watch out of his pocket.
«Time is running out,» he said, «the royal library is about to close for the night. I want to sneak past the curator’s feet and read books for free. If the demon finds out I’m using the king’s books, he’ll fine all the dwarves.»
«Can’t you steal the books and sneak underground?»
«Alas, the demon now has vampires sleeping in the ground in the local cemeteries. They’ll get us even underground.»
«You say vampires!» Samantha shuddered. What if the next time the Mind gave her over to the vampires? He had vampires and werewolves and all sorts of evil spirits at his command. Where would he go if he turned them all on her? Could she fly away on Pegasus again?
While Samantha was thinking about what to do, the dwarf king was already gone. For a minute his little feet stomped on the floor, and then the gnome seemed to sniff into a trapdoor in the floor. If you took his word for it, all human houses are full of secret loopholes for gnomes. Samantha looked under the bed, but found no trapdoor there. Probably only the gnomes themselves can see them.