A strange creature
As soon as the fairy flew away, Samantha woke up as if from a magical dream. She finally realized it.
If the fairy had put her mark on her, then she was enchanted! What a surprise! Samantha pulled her dress down off her shoulder and looked at the glistening mole. From the outside, the mark looked like a piece of jewelry, but if the inquisitors noticed it, they would suspect something wrong. Only the Inquisitors were nowhere to be seen in Ivilor, as if they had all disappeared into thin air. Perhaps young King Serpin doesn’t want to see their grim faces at court. Surely Serpin is cheerful and light-hearted. And he probably has tons of minions!
That last suggestion made Samantha sick. Jealousy pierced her heart with a red-hot needle. Had she fallen in love with the king? But she was no match for him! She was just a provincial girl, while Serpin was the ruler of a great and powerful country. He may be very young, but he must be treated with respect. After all, despite his youth, he holds the rulers of all neighboring states in fear.
Samantha herself did not notice that she had left her apartment. She stopped only when she came upon a large floor vase of gladioli. Oops, she thought these were already someone else’s quarters. Fortunately, their balcony overlooked the terrace, and from the terrace one could walk across to the night garden.
There was only one girl strolling through the royal garden at this late hour. Judging from the tiara in her hair, she was no less than a princess. Except that she looked disheveled and strange. Her once luxurious dress was torn in some places, with burdock thorns clinging to the hem. The princess was picking twigs from the ground and folding them into fanciful patterns, as if she were going to leave a coded message for someone.
«Florimonda still lives in this palace!» A familiar voice whispered in amazement behind Samantha’s back.
Samantha turned around. The same blonde fairy who had recently slept in her closet was swinging on a cypress branch like a swing.
«So you didn’t fly away!» Samantha rejoiced.
«I decided to see if there was anything edible in the royal garden. There used to be sweet peaches here.»
Now instead of peaches, there were briars and thorns everywhere. Maybe the fairy flew to the wrong part of the garden for fruit trees.
«And this girl is a princess?» Samantha pointed to Florimonda.
«Yes, she is a crazy princess,» the fairy nodded indifferently. «They say a demon put its claws into her brain and she went mad.»
«Is she Serpin’s sister? But he looks quite normal.»
«What a sister! Florimonda is an overseas princess who came to Ivilor to be Serpin’s bride, but it didn’t work out.»
«No wonder if she’s crazy. Who would marry a madwoman?»
«She wasn’t crazy when she came to lvilor.»
«How is it so?» Samantha wondered. She was sure that one was born crazy, not made crazy, but the fairy thought otherwise. According to her, Florimonda was driven mad by demons.
«Florimonda liked the young king very much,» the fairy said,«and he liked her, but the king has an advisor, a real demon, who does not want the king to marry. He has scared away the princess brides, or thrown them down into a ravine, or given them to demons. One crazy princess is still wandering the garden. Her father’s fleet was sunk by an imp who summoned water spirits. Yet somehow he couldn’t bring Florimonda herself down.
«You’re telling tall tales!» Samantha was indignant.
«Listen to her!»
Samantha listened. There was indeed a whisper.
«The water hands have pulled you to the bottom,» whispered the mad princess. «But I can hear you. You are still alive under the water.»
Florimonda was just leaning over the pond. If she’s really crazy, she’d better get out of the garden soon. There aren’t even any guards around. Samantha was afraid that the crazy princess would attack her, but she was stacking twigs on the surface of the pond. Instead of sinking, they floated on the surface, joining together in fanciful patterns.
Samantha walked down a path overgrown with weeds. The fairy didn’t fly after her. She herself only barely managed to find the doors leading back to the palace. In the evening the corridors of the palace were deserted. Where had all the gossipers who had teased Samantha during the day gone? It was instantly calmer without them. Except for some reason the silence was a little frightening. Samantha looked around for the guards with halberds. They were supposed to stand at every door in the enfilade, but there were no guards.
Samantha walked forward until she came upon closed doors. From behind the doors came a low murmur, which was suddenly cut off by an angry grumbling voice:
«Without me you are nothing! Remember that! If you want everyone around you to think of you as a mighty ruler and tremble before you, you need me! Who will sink enemy armadas for you? Who will defeat foreign armies while you sit peacefully on your throne? Who will catch all the spies and wipe out all the conspirators? You can’t do it all yourself!»
«But I’m grateful to you! Why are you sulking?» The pleasant voice replied carefree. Somehow Samantha thought that it was exactly what King Serpin’s voice should be: beautiful, kind and gentle. She cautiously opened the door and made sure she was not mistaken. In a spacious, semi-dark hall draped in velvet draperies stood Serpin. His bright blond hair stood out against the gloom. A few candelabras flickered only somewhere behind him. It seemed as if stray lights, rather than candles, had been inserted into the holes.
What was Serpin doing here alone at this late hour? Where are the king’s bodyguards? The king doesn’t think he’s invulnerable. Serpin looks carefree and seems to be playing at something. Or is he playing with someone?
Samantha opened the door wide and watched the king squeeze either a skinny black cat or a black monkey. Where was the king’s strange grumpy interlocutor? He probably hid behind the draperies or was not there at all. The king was spending time with his tailed pet, who, of course, couldn’t talk.
«You are my dear little one!» Serpin wailed over the animal.
Does he really adore such a freak? Samantha marveled at the king’s quirks. How was he not afraid to have such a horrible clawed pet? She didn’t even know the name of such a terrifying beast, but it looked like a demon with a black tail, horns, and spikes on its spine. And the royal pet’s eyes burned like two red coals. Samantha became frightened as she intercepted the predatory gaze. In another moment, the pet jumped from the king’s arms and deftly climbed up the curtain. At the ceiling it disappeared as if it had never been there. Samantha thought she had imagined it.
«You scared him away!» The king was furious until he saw who stood before him. He had a weakness for beautiful ladies. In a dress transformed by a fairy, Samantha was a real beauty.
«Ah, a lady from the provinces…» King Serpin took a long, appraising look at her figure and was satisfied. «What a lovely provincial violet!»
«Samantha,» she reminded him. Suddenly everyone who expected her at court had forgotten her name. And even more so, the governor was not to be informed about her. After all, who was this Lady Samantha from the remote province of Ivilor? Even the mad Princess Florimonda would probably be of more interest to the court.
«Yes, Samantha,» the king walked around the girl and examined her back as if he were looking for wings.
«I’m a lady, not a fairy,» Samantha joked.
«Yes, definitely not a fairy,» the king nodded, «fairies usually have corset lacing bursting from the wings hidden under the fabric.»
Samantha almost fainted. What a joke the king was making! He embarrassed her. It was one thing to compare her to a violet, for she wore a violet-colored dress, but it was quite another to suspect her of being a fairy.
«In the province where I live, they catch fairies and cut off their wings,» Samantha remembered the old stories.
«What a bunch of animals they are!» Serpin was genuinely indignant. «We should send the auditors to them. Let them clean up the mess.»
A royal emissary was in the province recently. He had persuaded Samantha’s parents to send their daughter to court in search of a powerful groom. If the emissary had not been married, the fussy mother would probably have married Samantha to him without asking her daughter’s consent. For the mother was the main thing that the daughter did not remain an old maid. And the father, always disappeared in the family library, did not worry about anything at all. For some reason, the royal emissary was visiting Samantha’s father. Why, Samantha never understood. It seemed to be about some kind of danger to the young king. It couldn’t have come from a creepy animal climbing around the palace. Or is it from fairies? Apparently, Serpin is familiar with fairies, if fairies exist.
«Fairies haven’t come to our land for a long time,» Samantha hastened to reassure him.
«They haven’t come to me for a long time, either,» Serpin grumbled resentfully. «I guess it’s the animals from your province. They frightened all my fairies.»
An obnoxious giggle sounded from the ceiling. If that was what scared all the fairies away, Samantha wouldn’t be surprised. The sound made her want to run as far away from the king as possible. The giggling voice seemed to follow Serpin.
«The Mind!» Serpin looked up.
«What do you mean?» Samantha didn’t understand. «Did I say something unreasonable?»
The same clawed beast was swinging on the chandelier under the ceiling. A moment later, it was gone. It couldn’t have shown itself to her a second time, could it? Samantha felt as if she were going mad. She had been warned that life at court would be difficult, but not this difficult! She sees little black demons everywhere. They are also favored by the king.
Serpin blew a kiss to the empty ceiling.
«Do you see fairies up there?» Samantha marveled.
«No, do you?» Serpin was embarrassed and gave the girl a disarming smile.
«Then what’s under the ceiling?»
«The fairies are no longer there, but they used to come here in droves. Such beauties!»
Samantha felt a burning jealousy.
«But something scared them away. Or someone had scared them off. We must ask the Mind who?»
Laughter came from the ceiling again.
Samantha didn’t understand the king’s last words.
«You’re pretty as a fairy, too,» the king complimented her.
This time a chandelier pendant flew from the ceiling and hit Samantha’s forehead. Now there will be a bruise! The crystal pendant that fell to the floor was covered in blood. Blood flowed from Samantha’s cut temple.
«The Mind!» The king’s exclamation now sounded like a curse.
From above, laughter resounded again.
«What’s up there?»
«Nothing much,» the king handed her his handkerchief.
«What a horror!» Samantha rushed to the mirror shimmering in the partition between the draperies. «Is it going to bruise? My bruises don’t last that long! The last time I fell off a horse, I was bruised for more than a month. All the neighbors laughed at me, assuming someone had beaten me.»
Stop! Her tongue is her enemy! How can she tell the king about her blunders? He’s not her buddy from the village, he’s the real monarch! It doesn’t matter that he looks the same age as the stable boys. He is the king, period! He must be treated with respect.
«Excuse me for talking,» Samantha looked back at Serpin, but he had already left.
Somehow she felt sad that he had left her alone so suddenly. They’d been having such a nice conversation. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said too much. There was a reason her mother had hired a teacher of manners, but she had never learned good manners.
Samantha wiped the blood from her forehead and wondered if the court healer could treat bruises. In the mirror behind her, an eerie black silhouette suddenly appeared. It vanished so quickly that it looked like a play of light and shadow.
The draperies were covered with intricate symbols in the shape of five-pointed stars, circles, and horns. How like the sorcerer’s symbols Samantha had once seen in a beginner’s magic manual she’d accidentally found on the top shelf of the family library. The symbols looked appropriate there, but where did they come from in the royal palace? Did anyone do magic here? She must have imagined it.
Her wounded forehead ached unbearably. Who would have thought a chandelier pendant could hurt so badly? The handkerchief was soaked with blood.
The King was gone, but the handkerchief remained. Samantha unfolded it and noticed the king’s initials embroidered in gold thread in the corner. S.I.R. The first two letters made sense. Samantha could decipher them. The first initial stands for Serpin and the second for Ivilor. So it’s Serpin of lvilor. But where did the letter R come from? Surely it doesn’t belong to the dynasty of Ivilor? Whose initial is it, then?
The king’s handkerchief
Now she had a souvenir from the king. Samantha returned to her room and pressed the handkerchief to her lips. Besides blood, it smelled of nice cologne.
Since it was impossible to get the king himself into her arms, she could take comfort in his handkerchief. It was unlikely that the king would demand back so little as a handkerchief. Samantha can keep it as a memento of a wonderful moment. Being alone with Serpin was so pleasant. Even in the darkness, the young king resembled a ray of sunshine. Only the black monkey spoiled the whole impression.
Samantha wondered where to hide the handkerchief. It had become something of a relic to her. She hid the bundle of coins in the closet among her dresses. The coins, strangely enough, did not turn into clods of earth, nor into dry leaves. They remained gold coins! So, it is indeed possible to grow gold and jewels in the black fields. Only bread does not grow on them, but a magical tree with coins or diamonds on the branches will grow easily.
«I hope the demons from the field won’t make me pay for this wealth with my own blood!» Samantha sighed.
She had already decided that if she didn’t find a suitable suitor, she would spend the coins on a house in the capital of Ivilor or a farm in its suburbs. She didn’t want to go back home to her parents. Her father was a good man, but she could not bear her mother’s whims any longer. If Samantha couldn’t marry favorably, her ambitious mother would reprimand her every day. Therefore, it is better not to spoil her nerves and do not go back to the native estate. Let the dwarf king settle there. He and Samantha’s father would probably become friends and find common topics of conversation at night.
The coins in the bundle were enough to buy a decent house and live well into old age. And if she went to that marvelous field again, she could get rich. Samantha wished she had planted an amber earring or even a diamond ring in the black field. Then she’d have a whole bag of gems right now. Ivilor’s jewelers were willing to pay a good price for large gemstones. Samantha had loved haggling with them when she pawned the jewelry she had inherited from her great-grandmother. Alas, her family estate had fallen into such disrepair that some of the rarities in the family collection had to be parted with. That’s not surprising! After all, while his father sat in the library and engaged in science, mom spent money left and right.
«Probably the best thing would be if my mother were a fairy,» Samantha thought aloud. «One can only dream of a magical mother! What a pity my father didn’t choose a fairy as his wife!»
«Don’t regret it, sweetie! Fairies are scum!» hissed a husky, nasal voice from somewhere above.
Samantha shuddered. It seemed to be the same voice she had heard before near the king. It was unpleasant and malicious, as if coming from hell.
A paw with black claws reached for the king’s handkerchief left on the dressing table.
«Give it back! That’s mine!» Samantha cried out, but the demonic creature’s paw slipped into the darkness, taking the priceless handkerchief with it.
«You are thief!»
Samantha feared incurring the demon’s wrath, but screamed and cried anyway. The vanished handkerchief seemed to symbolize that she could not have Serpin. It was nothing to even dream about!
Curious, where did the demon’s paw come from? Could it have come straight from the round mirror on the dressing table? Samantha tapped on it. The mirror, as it turned out, was rotating and spinning vigorously. It seemed to reflect some kind of horror.
The window shutter creaked. It seemed that some black animal had scurried across the window sill with a crumpled royal handkerchief in its paws. Samantha rushed to the window. Alas, there was a tall chestnut tree outside the window. The animal had jumped right onto its branches. Now we’d have to catch it in the garden. At least everything was back to normal. There was no demon in her bedroom. The handkerchief was stolen by a stupid monkey.
«Well, I’ll show it!» Samantha ran into the garden, forgetting the risk of running into the crazy princess. «How could anyone be such a thief? Even a monkey who was put in the royal palace needs to have some manners!»
The monkey didn’t hear her. There was no one in the garden except squirrels and peacocks. Even Florimonda had gone somewhere. Samantha examined the chestnut tree that grew just below her window. The fluff was falling from it, but there was no monkey in the branches.
«Would you like a chestnut fruit?» A squeaky voice came from behind her.
Samantha turned around and shrieked. A green face with bulging yellow eyes was staring back at her. It was exactly how swamp witches were described. Except it’s not every night you meet a swamp witch where there is no swamp. Samantha looked back at the pond. The witch must have gotten into the castle through it. Swamp slime dripped from her green rags and stained the edge of the pond green.
«And you look like a fairy!» A hooked hand with green claws reached for the girl’s face. Samantha recoiled in fear. She knew that swamp witches could give her dangerous swamp fever, which turned her skin green and made her hair and teeth fall out.
«Just don’t touch me!»
«Don’t worry!» The witch took her hand away resentfully. «I came to collect old debts from the king, not from you.»
«Did the young King Serpin owe you a debt?»
«Actually, it wasn’t him who owed me, but his late father,» the witch confessed with embarrassment, «but I thought that since his son was doing well, I might as well remember the debt.»
«What does he owe you?» Samantha asked. It was none of her business, but she was curious.
«It is just a few chests of emeralds for dragging an enemy army into my swamp.»
«Emeralds are expensive stones!» Samantha was indignant. «One chest is enough to outfit an entire army.»
«A debt is a debt! That’s the amount we agreed upon.»
«Why do you want emeralds? Sapphires and rubies are expensive stones too. Is there any place in lvilor where emeralds are mined?»
«You see,» the witch hesitated,» the color of emeralds is similar to the shade of my swamp, and that’s why I value emeralds the most.»
«Then perhaps the king will pay you in emeralds if he respects his father’s memory,» Samantha thought that a few chests of emeralds would not make Ivilor’s treasury too poor. Wealth oozed out of every crevice here. Even the draperies are adorned with fine diamonds.
«Alas, it is impossible to collect on the king’s debt,» the witch admitted. «That’s the eternal problem of creditors! And I didn’t believe it when people complained that debtors miraculously disappeared in my swamp.»
«But the king is here. He won’t run away from lvilor!»
«He won’t, but there’s a demon in the kingdom. He won’t let me collect the king’s debt.»
«The demon is guarding the treasury!» Samantha marveled.
«It is like the apple of his eye,» nodded the swamp witch. «The king’s treasury is his treasury. As long as the demon owns the king, he can have the king’s money.»
Samantha stared at the witch incredulously.
«If you don’t believe me, look for yourself!»
Samantha looked around the empty garden. There was no one there, only frogs croaking in the pond.
«It is not in the garden, you fool! Look for the demon in the throne room. He sits on the king’s shoulder and whispers his pernicious advice to him.»
«But if that were so,» Samantha hesitated, «the demon would have been caught and burned at the stake long ago, and a rebellion would have been organized against the king, who had conspired with the demons.»
«That’s how it would have been! But no one can see the demon.»
«Then how do you know there is one?»
«I’m a witch! I see demons, and fairies and people marked by fairies see them.»
Samantha remembered the mark on her shoulder. It was probably the only reason she had seen the demon on her way to the capital of Ivilor.
«Well, he can also be seen by anyone he wants to show himself to,» the witch added. «You can see him if you burn a sprig of willow over a candle.»
The willow was just growing in the garden. Samantha broke one twig. She still doubted the witch’s words, but decided to check.
«Do you know what the letter „R“ next to the king’s initials could mean?»
The witch was even frightened when she heard that.
«The letter R stands for Reason, Mind, Intelligence,» she explained reluctantly.
«The king repeated the word,» Samantha recalled.
«It is a nickname, not a word. The demon’s nickname,» the witch laughed wryly. «This demon is very clever! He’s very learned, because he was trained in the magical arts by the Queen of Hell herself, Luciferina.»
«This must be a nightmare and I’m going to wake up,» Samantha thought, but the witch didn’t disappear. Talking, she led the girl to the entrance of the throne room and left her on the threshold, while she herself fell through the floor.
Samantha looked back. There was a slurry on the parquet floor, reminiscent of a swampy mire. There was a low malachite table at the door of the room, and a candelabrum with seven candles burning on it. Samantha held a sprig of willow to the candle flame. It burned, making a slight crackling sound.
«What are you doing?» The copper nymph, who had been propping up the candelabra’s holes with her hands, suddenly came to life and squinted unkindly. «It’s forbidden to misbehave here!»
«I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!» Samantha recoiled. She was terribly embarrassed to apologize to the candelabra.
«You are a hooligan!» The brass nymph called her and froze again. The candle in which the willow had burned was flickering dangerously. Samantha would have liked to explain to the nymph that she was trying to identify a demon among the royal officials, but she was afraid of being laughed at.
The throne room was crowded despite the late hour. The king was receiving ambassadors. He was seated on a throne that stood on a dais of three marble steps. Serpin wore a magnificent purple robe lined with ermine. The king looked great in it, but the skinny black monkey on his shoulder spoiled the impression.
The smell of burnt willow hit Samantha’s nose, and it was as if she began to see clearly. It wasn’t a monkey, but the same creepy demon she’d seen on her way to Ivilor. Only now he was not riding around the corpse of Duchess Evangelina, but climbing on the king’s shoulders. Black clawed paws rubbed the ermine on Serpin’s robe, the demon’s horned head pressed against the king’s cheek as it whispered something in the king’s ear.
Serpin said nothing himself. He only repeated what the demon whispered to him, but for some reason everyone around him thought Serpin was wise. No one but Samantha had ever seen a demon advisor.
So the swamp’s witch didn’t deceive her. Samantha gasped when she saw the king’s handkerchief in the demon’s black clawed paw. What a thief! The handkerchief was soaked in her blood. The demon sniffed at the bloody stains as if he were trying to cast a spell.
Samantha was frightened. Maybe she should get out of Ivilor before the demon got to her. Otherwise her torn corpse would one day end up on the road next to Evangelina’s.
The demon, as if sensing her thoughts, stared in her direction. The king’s handkerchief immediately disappeared, as if dissolved in his clawed paw.