The cunning oriental beauty probably forgot about her guest because it was more convenient. If Samantha had become queen, Romara would have immediately come out of her chambers to beg for favors. Rosafeyra would definitely ask for a lot of roses for dinner. Fairies like to eat flowers! Samantha had once tasted a rose petal and immediately spit it out. The fragrant flowers tasted as bitter as grass.
Running away from the eyes of the dragon, Samantha slipped into a wall niche. Finally, she was hidden! Before Samantha could catch her breath, there was a heavy thud on the wall. Broken stones and fragments of stucco decorating the facade fell on her. A huge dragon’s paw entered the wall and reached for Samantha. There was nowhere to run. The breach in the wall was between the doorway and the dead end. Samantha screamed! Naturally, no one came screaming. And even if all the guards of the castle had run to rescue her, what could they have done. The dragon would take them all down in one breath. Maybe we should try one last chance and sing to him. Maybe the dwarf gave the advice for a reason, and the dragon would be affected by the singing? No matter how ridiculous the hope was, we should take advantage of it. We can’t just die without trying to save ourselves. As long as the dragon doesn’t realize she’s trying to beat its brains in. She had to have the last word, the last song. Samantha prepared to sing, but she couldn’t remember a verse.
The dragon almost reached her, but noticed the fairies’ mark on her shoulder and pulled his claws back into the breach in the wall.
Had the magic mole saved her again? Samantha couldn’t even believe it. Well, thank the fairy! How nice to be under the auspices of fairies!
«Don’t get too excited. Anything the fairies bestow can turn out to be a nasty surprise. They’re such tricksters!»
The Mind was scratching his claws contentedly and whispered some commands in the dragon’s ear. A moment later, the dragon swung a paw and swung it at the castle tower that housed the library. Samantha found herself in the center of a disaster. The floor collapsed beneath her feet and the girl flew downward.
Coin Tree
Rosafeira managed to save her at the last moment. The fairy’s wings blocked Samantha from both the rocks and the approaching solid ground.
«And mom still thinks you’re a rival!»
Samantha laughed as the fairy lowered her to the other side of the moat from the castle. The tower above collapsed and the victim survived thanks to the fairy.
«One could only dream of such rivals!»
In response to her enthusiasm, Rosafeira snorted unhappily.
«You can take it from here!» She advised. «I don’t want to get caught in the dragon’s fire.»
The fairy was right. The Mind rode the dragon forward and pointed his claw at Samantha. He could see her perfectly from the top of the towers. The girl’s vision had sharpened as well. It was time to run away again.
Samantha raced across the field, the dragon shooting fire at random. The ground behind it was erupting. Nothing would burn here though, the fields were barren. Not so! From beneath the ground, the offended voices of some creepy clawed creatures howled at the dragon.
Samantha was scared out of her wits. It became dangerous to run across the field. Black claws crawled out of the ground and cut into her shoes. Were there really vampires sleeping underground? Samantha had to jump over the creepy claws sticking out of the ground here and there. It was like running an obstacle course.
«I’ll lose weight after this sport,» Samantha consoled herself. «Serpin would certainly like me better if I lost a few pounds. Men love slim girls.»
Behind her, the Mind yelled:
«She is a walking disaster! Burn her, Virgil!»
The Mind opened his mouth when he saw the gleam of the coin wood. This is where all his sadistic plans met a delay. Treasure had always been a greater temptation to the demon than girls. Does he save them only out of excitement and does not spend them at all? In any case, the sight of gold made the Mind go wild. Now he told the dragon to drop down in flight and began to tear up the coins. The branches immediately rose so high that he couldn’t reach a single one.
«Give me a lift!»
The dragon claw lifted the demon up. Only this time, too, the tree teased. The Mind burned its paws on the coins.
«Coin trees shower bounty only on those who helped them to grow,» the demon thought about it. «Come on, give me some gold, you greedy bastard! You are the owner of the tree. It will let you cut off all its branches.
«Why do you need so much gold?» Samantha, who had stopped to rest, was indignant.
«Why is it? I’m a beggar!» The Mind jumped with indignation right on the dragon’s back. «It’s hard for a rich girl like you to understand how hard life is for the poor!»
«You have the entire treasury of Ivilor, and the treasury beneath the throne,» Samantha reminded him unashamedly. She had done the math, and she was flaunting her knowledge.
«What a rude girl! Ask the dragon why he needs mountains of gold! If you insult the little ones, you’re the first, but with the dragon you bit your tongue right away!»
«You can be offended by any question!»
Samantha shivered as the dragon opened its mouth.
«Burn her!» The Mind jabbed a claw in Samantha’s direction. «Spare the state from its greatest calamity! Be a hero, Virgil! And I’ll ask the king for a medal for you.»
«Stop it! Don’t! I’ll give you gold!»
The third phrase was decisive. The Mind immediately forgot that the dragon needs a medal of honor and greedily scratched his claws.
«I want more coins!»
«It is all right!» Samantha reached for the branches where the dimes were jingling. She picked up handfuls of them. «All is for a demon! My heart bleeds! That kind of money could have fed all the poor people of Ivilor! My mother would have a heart attack at the sight of such waste!»
«Your mother would have spent it on fancy dresses and fancy repairs, and I’ll use it for business.»
«What business is it?»
«Like what? So I don’t starve to death for the next hundred years.»
«Can a demon starve to death? That would be great!»
«It’s easy for you people! You live one century and retire, but I have to suffer for thousands of years! There’s no end in sight! Cold, hungry, hopeless! And mean people chase me away from everywhere like a flea, as soon as they see me! They themselves, by the way, live on someone else’s territory! The whole land belongs to the Old Byvians, that is, fairies, elves and other flyers. And you people have appeared here, like locusts in the magic fields and started to shake your rights!»
Having received all the coins from the black branches, the Mind decided that there was nothing more to lose.
«Now burn that splinter, Virgil!»
«Wait! That wasn’t part of the deal!» Samantha looked around. There was nothing to hide behind. Not a bump or a stump in the fields.
«You can’t negotiate with a demon, sweetheart.» The Mind rubbed its paws together smugly, and the dragon opened its mouth.
«Stop it! Don’t!» Serpin himself came rushing onto the field.
Samantha was at first overjoyed, but then her heart sank. The king was coming alone, without an entourage. But he was on a white horse. Alas, the horse was no Pegasus. You can’t fly away from a dragon on a regular horse.
The dragons, too, came in a cloud of color to rescue Samantha. Alas, next to the big dragon they looked like colorful flying fleas. Virgil could have dispersed them with one paw.
But no one could drive the king away. For without the king, the Mind would lose everything. Samantha decided to hide behind Serpin, but she miscalculated. A long howl echoed through the night. A pack of wolves ran from all directions as fast as if the Mind knew the magic spell to summon them. Jessica threw off her wolf coat first and appeared as a dazzling pale beauty with bloody lips.
«Attack her!» The Mind commanded, pointing a claw in Samantha’s direction. «And bring in the vampires from the graveyards. You can’t fight this thing alone.»
Jessica shook her head in denial.
«I can’t take her down with the whole infernal army! She’s got a fairy mark on her.»
«You are an useless she-wolf!» The Mind howled. «I’ll have all your wolf cavaliers for coats if you don’t let them have the girl for supper.»
Jessica hesitated, her wolf retinue slowly turning to pale men. One of them winked at Samantha. It seemed to be the werewolf that had spoken to her first at the manor. All of Jessica’s subjects were like one another: pale, dark-haired, mysterious.
Seeing that the werewolves weren’t attacking, the Mind shouted the vampires from graveyards. Those showed up in ragged pale crowds, but didn’t dare attack either.
«She’s magical or something!» The demon raged.
«She’s not magic. She’s the king’s bride,» Serpin suddenly interjected. «So no one in Ivilor has the right to attack her, not werewolves, not vampires, not demons. You all live on the king’s land and are his subjects.»
Blackmailer
Samantha was taken aback. Had Serpin’s independence finally awakened? He was becoming manly! Who would have thought it? Until now he had behaved like a mama’s boy, and the role of mama was played by an insidious demon. And now Serpin has staged a rebellion to take over the reins of power. It looks like the big day has arrived.
«How can you be so cruel to me?» The Mind wept slyly. «I have cared for you, driven your enemies from your country.»
«But you couldn’t drive away the drowned men Florimonda summoned from the pond, even with dragon fire. She has a whole army in the garden pond, and they all blame you for their deaths,» Serpin objected. «Did you really sink their fleet on purpose so they wouldn’t get to Ivilor?»
«Well, I can’t get into the royal garden now,» the Mind hesitated, «but it’s not wise to trust a mad princess. It is better to try to marry her off to one of the sea princes. They will not even notice that Florimonda is insane, but she will go under the water with all her sunken retinue. They can’t stay in our pond forever. They haven’t even paid their rent. It’s time to get all these water ghosts out of the royal garden.»
«Mind! Don’t deviate from the topic!» Serpin patronizingly took Samantha’s hand. «If I proclaim Samantha my bride, then none of my subjects have the right to touch her, and you, by the way, are also my subject.»
That’s where the Mind’s patience ran out.
«Throw her out of the kingdom!» He shrieked. «It’s either me or her!»
«But, Mind, my dear, how can you choose?»
«Am I not the wisest? Without me, you’d be lost.»
«But you’re not as beautiful as she is. If you could turn into a beautiful young lady, you’d be worth a fortune.»
Samantha was afraid. What if the demon was capable of such a trick and the queen’s place would soon be taken by a beautiful girl with cunning demon eyes, or even worse, if the demon queen Lucefirina slipped out of hell with black smoke and seduced the amorous king.
«If you do not expel her, I will have a nervous breakdown!» The demon continued to shriek.
«I think you’re already having a nervous breakdown. You overworked yourself giving me advice. You need to rest while I marry Samantha.»
«We should declare her a witch and send her to the stake!»
«But Mind, you’re the one who decreed that witches and warlocks are just fiction. They are not to be found in real life.»
The Mind hissed with indignation. He was being stonewalled.
«We should burn you both, and put a ghostly double in the king’s place,» he mumbled to himself. «But ghost doubles don’t keep a decent appearance for long.»
The dragon stood idly by without a specific order to spit fire, but Samantha decided to take a chance and bargained with the demon.
«Give Serpin to me and keep the throne.»
«You’re beautiful, but you’re crazy. Just like Estella!» The Mind was clawing at her forehead. «Could I alone rule mortal people? They think I’m a demon!»
«But you are a demon.»
«I tried to become an autocrat once before, but the people rebelled. You see, they don’t like the devil on the throne. Not handsome, not blond, not blue-eyed. In a word, I am not Serpin. I need a screen in the form of Serpin.»
«What will you do when Serpin dies?»
«Why should he die?»
«There’s an epidemic going around the country that you yourself planted with the black harvest. People are mutating and dying from it.»
«But Serpin is not sick. I’ve taken care of that. And I’m a great healer if I have to be. Mix a few black herbs and a pinch of fairy pollen and you have a potion for every ailment.»
«Can you cure mortality? Serpin will grow old and die someday.»
The Mind looked puzzled. He himself is immortal.
«People die, you know!»
«But a demon can’t die,» the Mind scratched his chin thoughtfully with his claws. «What a coincidence!»
«You see, even you can’t do anything sometimes!»
«I’ll find a way.»
«Serpin needs an heir!» Samantha had one last trump card. «It will be a sweet, naive young man like him who will take your advice on everything.»
«And that’s the thing! Sometimes even a silly girl like you can give some good advice!»
«Thanks for the compliment.»
«Where can I find a boy like Serpin, who will be the sole ruler of a great state? I’ve searched the whole world, but I’ve found only one of such quality as the young king of Ivilor. Nowhere else in all the centuries I’ve lived. And I’ve looked everywhere. Do you guarantee that a second king like Serpin will be born in the next century?»
The Mind released its claws and moved toward Samantha.
«And if not, why annoy me for nothing?»
«I guarantee that Serpin’s heir will be as meek as he is!»
«And where would we get one?»
«Even kings have children, you know. It’s only necessary to marry first, so that the heir is born legitimate and no one can remove him from the throne.»
«You’re all about the wedding!» The Mind suspects a trick.
«But I’ll give birth to a copy of Serpin if I become the King’s bride.»
«And what if you give birth to a copy of you? I’ve had enough of you already! And what if there are two such troubles at once?»
«Sons are usually born like their fathers,» Samantha said. No one else would give her that assurance, but the Mind was too smart to ask for advice.
«What if a daughter is born?» He hesitated.
«So I’ll arrange with the fairy. She left her mark on my shoulder to. I will have a son, but only if I become Serpin’s lawful wife.
«Do you think his lawful wife will live long? There have been so many brides! They’re all dead now.»
«But then you have nothing to lose.»
The Mind scratched the back of his head thoughtfully with his claws. Samantha realized with horror that the trees were victims of the black epidemic.
There was no telling how long the Mind would have thought if the ghost of Duchess Evangelina had not flashed among the black thickets in the distance. Pale as chalk and incredibly beautiful, she somehow scared even a demon into panic.
«It is all right, let’s fly back to the palace,» the Mind waved his claws graciously, indicating that Samantha and Serpin could climb onto the dragon’s back. «We’ll sort this out at home.»
«You fly, and we’ll ride the horse,» Serpin objected, suddenly distrustful of his pet.
The Mind hissed with anger, but obeyed. Soon the dragon flew away like a comet, and Serpin put his arm around Samantha’s waist and mounted his horse.
A ruse
Surprisingly enough, neither vampires nor werewolves touched them. Probably the fairy mark can protect not only the girl herself, but also her lover. For Samantha, riding with the king on the same horse was the most pleasant moment in her life. If only she and Serpin could be together forever. What if when they got back to the palace, the imp threw another tantrum?
Samantha braced herself for the worst. She already knew how cunning the Mind was. He couldn’t be fooled. He must be trying to summon the spirit of the demon queen, Lucefirina. A demon on the throne next to Serpin is naturally more desirable to him than a mortal maiden.
Once in the palace, Samantha starts looking for the Mind and finds him in the secret treasury, galloping around the ritual circle.
«What a mess!» He scolded. «Rituals don’t make gold. What are you doing here?»
The Mind noticed the girl and jumped with indignation.
«Spying on a demon is a sign of bad manners.»
«Isn’t sorcery a sign of bad manners?»
«I only wish to increase the treasury of lvilor by magic.»
«I thought you were trying to summon Lucefirina to make me look bad.»
«If only it were that easy! Her spirit hasn’t responded for a long time. Even blood sacrifices don’t work. I’ve used up so many maidens, and still no results. The demon queen must have fallen asleep for good. Not surprising after Estella took all her powers and even her looks. You know Luciferina was the most beautiful of all demons.»
«I’d be more jealous if she was the most beautiful of women.»
«You are stupid! Are mortal women the equal of demon women? Demons are always more beautiful.»
«And when I saw the spirit of the demon queen, she wasn’t the prettiest.»
«That’s because you have rustic taste. If the demon queen isn’t blushing, she’s not pretty. You don’t look like the queen of lvilor to me. I won’t let you on the throne even in exchange for an heir!»
The Mind changed its mind as quickly as Samantha had hoped. She was already going over in her head the options on how to outwit the demon again.
«What if I’m just in a hurry to get married, even if not to Serpin,» Samantha winked slyly at the demon. «You are wise, and you must know that my ambitious mother will eat me alive if I don’t find a noble fiancé who can pay all her debts and renovate my family estate.»
«I know noble and wealthy bachelors,» the Mind beckoned Samantha into the castle galleries where the courtiers were lounging. «I can cast a spell on any single nobleman for you, and if you like a married man, I can make him a widower in no time.»
How convenient to deal with a demon! Samantha thought she’d been wrong not to set her greedy mother up with him. She would have shaken the demon out of his soul if she’d realized he had a profit to make. Samantha herself was too soft, so she went along with the Mind, but today she decided to outsmart him.
«Let’s make a deal! I’m a poor girl. I need a wedding dress.»
«Is it woven by fairies? All I can arrange is a dress from the local spider fairies.»
«I’ll do it! I also need a groom. There he is.» Samantha pointed at some duke at random. «Bewitch him! I’m going to go make arrangements with the fairies for the wedding. When he wakes from your spell, his title and fortune will be irrevocably mine.»
«You’re clever!» The Mind approved. «If I were king, I’d take you as my counselor.»
For some reason Samantha blushed at the praise.
While the Mind ran after the groom, the fairies married Samantha and the king. There was no one else to perform the ceremony, for the Mind had driven all the inquisitors and clerics out of the country.
«Fairies can be considered sacred spirits of nature,» Samantha comforted Serpin, «and sacred spirits of nature, of course, must have the power to seal the marriage bond.»
In short, Rosafeira had to perform the marriage instead of bishops and cardinals. The fairy was not discouraged. She decided to take all the flowers prepared for the marriage ceremony as a fair payment for a hard day’s work.
Romara came out of her chambers to observe the wedding. In her hands she clutched two beautiful statuettes.
«You don’t want to give one of them to me in case I get tired of my husband, do you?» Samantha asked cautiously.
«It is absolutely not!» Romara sighed languidly. «I just didn’t want to leave them alone. These are my favorites. Which one do you think I should revive tonight, this one or this one?»
«They look like twins to me, only the clothes are different,» Samantha tried to imagine how aristocratic statuettes would look with flesh-colored skin instead of porcelain.
«Did you know that the mad Princess Florimonda had a fight with a demon and raised an army of drowned men from the bottom of the pond?»
«Yeah, I know, and now the devil’s trying to marry her off to some sea king to get her off the royal pond.»
«Is that so?» Romara’s slanted eyes lit up with keen interest. «I too would like to add newt and sea prince figurines to my collection. I’m going to try to make friends with Florimonda, maybe when she gets married, she’ll introduce me to the water guests.»
«Make friends with a crazy person! You’ve got to be kidding me.»
But Romara wasn’t kidding. In a minute she was already down in the garden, praising the crazy princess who was luring the watery silhouettes of the warriors out of the pond. Alas, they could step no farther than the edge of the pond. Upon touching the ground, their silhouettes spread out in puddles. However, the demon was afraid to enter the royal garden while Florimonda’s army was rattling their weapons from the pond. After the wedding with the waterman, if it took place, the Mind would start harassing the gardeners again.
«Romara must be crazy, too, if she wants to be invited to a wedding in the underwater kingdom,» Samantha concluded.
Her own wedding to the king had already taken place. Rosafeira had managed to steal some gorgeous wedding rings from the treasury guarded by the Mind.
At the end of the ceremony, the Mind arrived as well. Samantha had forgotten why she had sent him, but he kept his promise. The imp brought three groomsmen to choose from. All were bewitched and agreed to marry the devil.
«There are duke, marquis and earl. You can choose any of them, or you can have all three,» the Mind sang cheerfully, but when he noticed Samantha’s veil, his jaw dropped. «What did I lure the wedding dress away from the spider fairies for?»
The wedding rings on Serpin and Samantha didn’t catch his eye right away, and when the Mind realized what was going on, he howled out of breath.
«You fooled me, you poor fools! Liars! Hooligans! You are traitors!»
«Why are you so upset?» Serpin couldn’t understand his pet’s rage. «It’s not like she’s planning to be my counselor. She won’t take your place.»
«Is it really?» The demon frowned skeptically.
«Yeah, she’s not going to get on my shoulder. You’re the only one big enough for that.»
«She’s going to sit on your neck! And she’ll tyrannize you! Remember I told you how dangerous girls are!»
«But she didn’t hurt me! She didn’t even scratch me once, but you scratched very hard,» Serpin showed scars on his neck.
«Mind, weren’t you supposed to disappear right after the wedding? I think that was the magic condition,» Samantha reminded him. She couldn’t wait to get the demon out of Ivilor.
«I don’t care about the conditions! A powerful wizard like me can’t make such a fool of myself, but you’ll have to leave anyway,» the Mind scratched its paws wearily at the train of Samantha’s wedding dress, which Rosafeira had hastily conjured up. The lace the fairy had woven was torn, but Samantha made no comment. It’s a shame to send the Mind away, after all. And Serpin doesn’t want to part with him. The Mind is a demon, but he’s still a pet.
«I don’t want to leave lvilor!» the Mind wailed.
«Then rule with us. You’ll be our joint advisor.»
«Is it really?» The Mind jumped on her shoulder. «And you remind me very much of little Estella! You have the same almond-shaped eyes and that soft voice. Will you sing to me and play the lute?»
It was like a weight on her shoulder, but Samantha forced a smile. You have to get along with the Mind.
«You’re so small and you weigh so much!»
«I have legions of demons after me, but that’s in confidence,» the Mind brought a claw to Samantha’s lips. «If the demon queen Luciferina were alive, I would have ruled with her, because she was a beauty, but alas, there are no ashes left of her. Even her skeleton was destroyed by jealous Estella. I can’t handle autocracy alone, so I’ll have to put up with you. It is all because of Serpin. You see, without a bride, he can’t enjoy power.»
«Get down!» Samantha’s shoulder stiffened so badly she had to throw the Mind off. The imp understood her in his usual way and, of course, threw a farewell tantrum.
«Again I lost a profitable roost!» The Mind howled. «The kingdom is not mine again! The king is not mine! It’s time to crawl away into the hellhole, but this time my brothers will tear me apart for my blunder. They’ve learned over the centuries that I’m a big loser.»
«Stop it! Stay!» Samantha called out to the demon, who was actually preparing to crawl into the crevice in the floor. «I don’t think you’re bad at all. When you don’t fight or scandalize, you’re even cute.»
The Mind jumped on her shoulder again and held out the black diamonds.
«From me and Luciferina,» he explained. «If you care for her pet, you honor her memory.»
«Is it the memory of the Queen of Hell?» No, she wouldn’t want that, but you can’t hurt the Mind. If you upset him, he’ll start biting and plotting hell again. «Isn’t Alais the queen of demons and magical creatures?»
«Alas, Alais doesn’t need me. She wouldn’t even notice a little demon like me. But if she were here now, she could turn those mountains over there into gold!»
The Mind pointed dreamily with a claw out the window, where the snow-capped mountains of Ivilor loomed in the distance.
«I’d rather let them remain mountains for now, and you will be our common counselor, of the king and of the queen,» Samantha decided aloud.
«So I am friends with you both from now on, that is, I serve you both. Hooray! Victory! I have a home again and two crowned fools, i.e. friends,» the Mind seemed to be out of control of his own tongue.
«God forbid my mom finds out I’m queen and comes here. She’ll turn the whole palace upside down. Her ambition would make the devils groan.»
«It’s all right! I’ll cope with her,» the Mind released its claws.
«Just don’t kill her!»
«That’s not what I mean! Death is a mercy, but living for years with a mischievous demon on your shoulders is harder. Those who put me on their tail will earn the torture of hell. Your ambitious mother would tremble at the sight of her own shadow if she came to Ivilor.»
The Mind was pressing Samantha’s shoulder again, and his tail was wrapped around her neck like a ligature. The newly crowned Queen of Ivilor felt a sharp discomfort.
«Oh, you’re so heavy!»
«Since you are Queen of Ivilor, you are now obliged to ride me like a king. By the way, it’s nicer to sit on your shoulder.»
«But it may not last long,» Samantha remembered the words of Romara, who was probably now choosing from her statuettes the best guy to spend the next night with. «A leprechaun had cast thirteen curses on me on the way to Ivilor. I’m afraid they’re about to take me to my grave, for more than ten of them have already happened to me. The thirteenth calamity will be the end of me.»
«Unless the trouble turns to good,» the experienced demon corrected, «then the victim will survive, but it’s better to be safe.»
The demon disappeared for a moment, but soon returned. In his paws he was dragging the same leprechaun in the red hat whose hole had once been run over by Samantha’s carriage. The Mind fluttered to him like a cat to a mouse.
«What were you saying about the thirteen curses, asshole? Apologize to the queen immediately and take back your curses!»
The trembling leprechaun obediently removed the tiny red hat and muttered an unintelligible apology.
«Are you satisfied?» The Mind asked Samantha.
Only after she nodded was the leprechaun released. He ran away as fast as mice can run from cats.
«So now I have the King and Queen of Iviylor in my claws!» The Mind looked at the pair of their new masters, or rather, subordinates, meticulously. In fact, both of them were now in the demon’s claws, but that was okay. Samantha leaned over and kissed the Mind in the horny scruff of his neck.
«You know, you’re cute when you’re not angry!»
Even the demon blushed at her words. Probably it was because today she was a bride.
«You deceived me, poor thing, but it’s all right. I will still rule the country,» the Mind looked around fearfully for a chest where Samantha would try to lock him up, copying the legendary Estella, but there was no chest nearby and the demon calmed down.
Samantha took a satin white ribbon off her sleeve and tied it around the Mind’s tail.
«It’s a wedding present,» she smiled at the demon’s disgruntled snicker.
«I wish you’d given me a gold piece,» the demon snorted.
«You stole my bag of gold from the coin tree.»
«And you remember such trivialities! A queen shouldn’t be so greedy!»
«Let’s find a compromise. Let all the gold of lvilor be yours, and leave us the love.»
«I don’t want your love! Enjoy yourself! I’d rather sit comfortably on the throne,» the Mind galloped into the throne room, and Rosafeira was already flying around the room, plucking wedding bouquets. Everything seemed to be in place. Samantha turned to face Serpin. She’s the queen, he’s the king, the Mind is the de facto ruler. It’s even more convenient. A king and queen must have a wise counselor. It doesn’t matter if he’s an imp. The main thing is that he no longer prevents them from loving each other. As it turns out, even a demon can be negotiated with.