Pegasus
As Samantha stepped out of her suite, a heavy candlestick flew at her from above. It would have hit her in the temple if it hadn’t miraculously veered off target and landed on the carpet. The fairy’s mark must have kept her safe again.
Samantha immediately guessed who might have thrown the heavy lead object at her. As if to confirm her guess, an angry, hoarse voice sounded from above:
«Get out of my palace! And away from my king! Get out of Ivilor, you rogue!»
The Mind climbed the stucco on top of the wall and shook a clawed fist.
«Don’t you dare come near my king again!»
«I wasn’t going to him!» Samantha defiantly walked past the Mind before he could reach for another candlestick. He had nothing else to throw at the girl. It was unlikely that a small demon could collapse a column or tear a huge picture in a heavy frame from the wall.
In fact, Samantha wanted to see the king once again, but apparently it was not fate. The imp stood in the way of her lover.
It was impossible not to fall in love with Serpin. It was even more difficult to get past the dark creature that leapt on the walls and ceiling, intent on driving Samantha out of the royal palace. She had to go out into the garden. That’s where the Mind no longer followed. Apparently, the sight of the mad princess wandering around the garden was unpleasant to him.
By chance, Samantha found herself near the stables. It was probably a good time to check on her horses. Naughty, Sleepyhead and Ardent were standing quietly in their stalls, but Pegasus was roaming freely in the stables. Who would let him out of his stall? Samantha looked around. For some reason there were no grooms in the stable right now. How could the horses have been left unattended? Samantha clutched Pegasus’ bridle.
«Come on! I’ll take you back to your stall and give you some nice hay,» she promised, but she couldn’t bribe the horse. He broke free and galloped toward the exit of the stable.
«Wait!» Samantha clutched at the horse’s tail, and the Pegasus gave a low growl. She must have thought she heard a human voice in the horse’s roar. Some strange glistening growths appeared on the Pegasus’ flanks. Was this another fairy joke? Samantha looked around for a mischievous fairy hiding in an empty stall and giggling, but there were no fairies in the stable. Then what was the matter? Who is doing magic to her horse? The Pegasus shimmered all over as he left the stable. On his way out, he stopped and looked back at the girl. For a moment, Samantha thought she saw Rosafeira’s mischievous eyes staring back at her from the horse’s muzzle. If the Pegasus winked at her now, she wouldn’t be surprised.
«Did Rosafeira turn into a horse to play a joke on me once again?» Samantha thought aloud.
The Pegasus shook his head negatively. He allowed Samantha to get close to him and feel his fur. How strange that she hadn’t noticed before that the horse’s hide had the same glistening markings as her shoulder. It must have been a gift from the fairy to Pegasus as well, like the unusual birthmark. Rosafeira may well have left him in her father’s stable on purpose, so that he could watch the people of the manor and report back to the fairy. There was no doubt in Samantha’s mind that Pegasus was a magical horse. Regular horses don’t have shiny hides.
«I didn’t know that horses could be magical,» Samantha stroked Pegasus’ silky mane. «Do you know what I’m talking about?»
Strangely enough, the horse nodded. He had a sly look on his face, as if he thought all the words of his mistress were incredibly stupid.
«Can you speak human?»
Samantha thought that the horse’s roar sometimes contained words. Instead of the horse’s roar, a nauseatingly familiar, gruff voice sounded from above.
«Get out of Ivilor!»
This time the Mind threw a bulky yoke at Samantha. It would have hit the target if Samantha hadn’t jumped on the back of Pegasus, who sped away. The imp was not far behind. He leaped across the roof of the stables, his claws out, throwing the harness at the fugitives.
The Pegasus had accelerated. He was galloping now, but the demon was moving even faster. Samantha looked back and noticed in his paws the heavy pitchforks the stablemen used to spread hay to feed the horses. Naturally the Mind intended to throw them at the fugitive, but this time he took long aim so as not to miss. Samantha was scared out of her wits. If the demon threw the pitchfork at her and hit the target, she wouldn’t survive.
A dead end loomed ahead. The Mind rejoiced.
«Well, now you’ll get what you deserve, you shameless temptress!»
The imp swung and threw the pitchfork at Samantha. Samantha prepared to die, but suddenly felt the ground slipping away from under Pegasus’ hooves. Were they both going to heaven, her and the magic horse?
Samantha squeezed her eyes shut as she felt them both flying, but then she dared to open her eyes. It turned out that the ground remained below, as well as the roofs of the buildings adjacent to the palace. And they were flying not to paradise, but to the night starry skies. Pegasus was flying, and she was clinging to his mane so as not to fall. Snow-white wings grew right out of the horse’s flanks.
«So you really are a Pegasus?» Samantha marveled. «I thought the nickname had been given to you as a joke! It happens!»
The horse surprised her with a roar that sounded like laughter. The demon, on the other hand, was shrieking and shaking his clawed fists. He’d been fooled.
«You are temptress! Fraud! You are hooligan!» Samantha heard his furious cries.
«I think he’s scolding me. What do you think, Pegasus?»
This time the horse did not answer. He flapped his broad wings smoothly, carrying Samantha into the starry heavens. It was cold up there. The Pegasus soared long among the stars, circling the royal palace far below.
Samantha was afraid for a moment that Pegasus would not want to return to earth. It was beautiful to soar in the starry sky, but Samantha didn’t want to stay here forever. She froze when she suddenly smelled the heat from afar. Were there ovens in the sky? Samantha looked around, but Pegasus was the first to spot the star dragon and flew away quickly. Apparently, even the magic horse was wary of dragons.
«Slow down! I didn’t even get a good look at it,» Samantha turned to look at the dragon, but it was almost out of sight.
«When you get a closer look at him, you’ll burn yourself,» came the roar of the horse.
Samantha bit her tongue as she imagined herself and Pegasus flying into the dragon’s opened mouth as if it were a burning stove.
Pegasus’ advice was sometimes worth listening to. The magic horse knows better than she does how to survive in a world full of dangerous magic creatures. It’s just a pity that Pegasus wasn’t taking her away to fairyland, but back to the palace.
When the magical horse descended on the palace roof, the demon was nowhere to be seen. However, Samantha gingerly looked around. Facing the Mind once more was not something she wanted to do. Who would have thought that the little demon would have claws so sharp that they would intimidate even her?
«I wasn’t afraid of a pack of werewolves in an abandoned mansion, but I’m afraid of some insolent beast!» Samantha wailed.
When he sat on the king’s shoulder, the demon looked like a small black animal, like a monkey that had rolled its fur in the ashes of the furnace. Why did the king need a personal demon? Can’t the country be ruled without one? And how to get out of the delicate situation of the girl on whom this demon has turned? You can’t fly away every time you see him on a Pegasus.
From the roof it was possible to descend through a hatch on a spiral staircase into the attic of the palace. The Pegasus was gone. Without it, Samantha felt insecure. She scolded herself for being a coward. Even her own shadow in the palace corridors suddenly began to frighten her.
Luciferina
Samantha crept down a corridor lit by numerous sconces. The enormous shadow of some monster was creeping behind her on the carpeted walkway. Could it really be her shadow? There wasn’t another soul in the hallway. No, it wasn’t. It’s the Mind’s shadow, magnified to the size of a giant. Samantha turned around nervously. The shadow immediately reared up and disappeared. A door slammed somewhere.
Samantha broke out in a cold sweat. It was a shame that guards were all too rare in the corridors of the royal palace. It was as if the devil had eaten them all! If there were guards with halberds around, Samantha wouldn’t feel so intimidated.
It was as if everything in the palace had been specially designed to make it easier for the king’s favorite to attack the unfortunate girls.
Samantha’s eyes darkened. Out of the darkness suddenly came indistinct whispers. Thousands of voices were calling in chorus:
«Luciferina! Luciferina! Luciferina!»
What an unusual name! Samantha had never heard it before. She’d studied the list of names and their meanings many times. Her father had a volume in the library that listed all known names alphabetically from A to Z in columns. Had she missed something?
«Luciferina will come, she just needs to find the right body,» one voice suddenly overrode the whispering chorus.
Samantha looked around. There were no speakers in sight. The night fairies must be hovering in the ceiling and whispering. Everyone knows how dangerous night fairies are. It’s best not to engage in any conversation with them. Samantha has often heard that night fairies, like cemetery fairies, only appear at night, wear mourning clothes, and foretell tragedy to people. Obviously, the name Luciferina has something to do with tragedy. Probably, long ago in Ivilor there was a queen with this name, who suffered an evil fate, so the name and tried to forget. The ghosts must be whispering it to her now.
In one of the corridors there were many swords and helmets. They were no substitute for guards, but they brought to mind ghosts. Samantha flinched when one of the helmet’s gates creaked. She thought she saw the Mind hiding inside the helmet, giggling at her. She could have sworn she saw his clawed paw behind the visor for a moment. A moment later, the heavy knight’s armors came crashing down on her as if someone had shoved them hard. Samantha barely had time to bounce aside. If she hadn’t been so nimble, she would have been mangled or crushed.
A small, monkey-like shadow climbed quickly up one of the drapes. Could it be the Mind’s work again?
«Don’t think the fairy’s mark will protect you forever,» it sounded in the silence.
Samantha turned around and was stunned. In the dead end of the corridor hovered the ghost of Duchess Evangelina with her throat ripped open. The dead beauty looked whiter than a shroud. The claw marks on her skin resembled fingerprints. Blood from the wounds dripped onto the expensive dress. It was the dress Samantha remembered best, because the corpse was lying in it on the roadway.
«Run!» Evangeline said in a muffled, eerie voice. «If you don’t, what happened to me will happen to you!»
«What happened to you?»
Samantha saw the ghost for the first time, but she wasn’t even surprised. That a woman who had been tormented by a demon had become an angry ghost was expected. Where’s the guarantee that a tormented ghost is giving advice for good and not for bad. What if there’s some kind of trickery at work here? If the Mind ruined Evangelina, then she had a claim on the king. What if now her ghost wants to drive her rival out of the castle so that even after death she can take the throne? If legends are to be believed, this has happened before. In ancient times, dead beauties rose from their coffins to become queens of Ivilor. The ghost queen on the throne would feed off the king’s energy if he loved her enough to share his life force with her. Such gullible kings died quickly, but even death could not separate them from their beloved. Samantha thought that Evangelina’s ghost would make a very beautiful queen with a proud posture.
How strange that even in ghosts she was beginning to see her rivals? Apparently the Mind had infected her with a keen sense of competition. In any case, Samantha was curious to know how the demon had managed to lure the duchess into the wilderness to kill her. Why couldn’t he have killed her right in the palace, for example, with the help of a giant? Rosafeira had once mentioned that the Mind was still able to cooperate with swamp witches and other evil things, so why didn’t he direct them all at Evangelina? There were many boggy ponds in the royal garden. Some bog’s fairy could drag Evangelina to the bottom at the demon’s request.
Instead of answering Evangelina’s ghost smiled defiantly. Her bloodless lips were plump and seductive, but her smile came out as sinister as a wolf’s grin.
«Run faster!» Evangelina opened her eyes wide with no pupils left in them. The pure whites of eyes that seemed sightless stared back at Samantha, but somehow the ghost saw everything.
«Visitors from the other world never give warnings for nothing,» she said goodbye, before her silhouette began to fade and disappeared.
Samantha stared dazedly at the spot where Evangelina’s ghost had recently hovered. A droplet of blood remained on the carpet there. The ghost’s blood must be poisonous. Samantha turned around and ran away. Running through the royal palace wasn’t very decent, but she had just seen a ghost, after all. The extremity of the situation justified it.
«First a demon, then a ghost, and next time I’ll see the devil!» Samantha wailed as she ran. «I think I’m becoming a big loser!»
When had she ever been lucky? Unless it was the one time she’d been lucky enough to fly away on Pegasus. Samantha hoped with all her heart that the fact that her horse turned out to be magical was not bad luck, but luck. We can only hope that Pegasus will not be capricious.
As if by some evil fate Samantha once again found herself in front of the doors of the royal apartments, which, of course, no one was guarding. Why put up guards if there was an evil demon inside? In this case, guards would be a waste. The demon himself will perfectly guard the king from everyone, even from brides. Strange as it may seem, the evil demon behaves like a caring mommy, who intends to protect her son from all the insidious temptresses. With such troublesome mothers, even the best boys from the village, near which Samantha’s estate was located, remained bachelors for life. Could that be King Serpin’s fate?
From the doorway came the sounds of a conversation that sounded like a secret meeting. The imp and the king were in secret? Samantha was instantly so curious that her fear vanished. She put her ear to the door.
The Mind and the king were talking inside:
«Why can’t the ship of Medea Shai, Queen of the Fairies, be allowed into Ivilor?» Serpin wondered. Naturally, the king had asked his tiny advisor for permission to allow the lady in question into the port. The Mind hissed and clawed at the mention of the fairy queen so much that Samantha wanted to call it not a demon, but a demoniac. The royal counselor’s black claws could be heard scraping the upholstery off the chair.
«It is because she’s a known temptress! If she flew into the palace window, we would all be on our knees before her!»
«But she’s asking permission to enter the harbor, not the palace. The letter the owl brought says the Fairy Queen is bound by spells to the ship. She can’t even fly a meter off the deck!»
«Letting the Fairy Queen into lvilor’s harbor is the same as surrendering lvilor without a fight!»
«Aren’t you exaggerating?» Serpin had his doubts. «My late father used to say that women should be courted, treated with delicacy and courtesy. How can we chase a woman in trouble from the doorstep?»
«Women don’t grow black wings from their backs. She’s a fairy, not a woman.»
«But the Queen of the Fairies is also a woman.»
«All women are bad!» The Mind shrieked. He has proven himself a true misogynist. She wondered who offended him so much that he now can’t stand the entire female gender? Or is it not a matter of personal offense, but of pressure on the king? Any royal bride or even a favorite is likely to chase a demon out of the palace. So the Mind’s keeping his place. Surely he trembles at the thought that the royal treasury and various honors will go not to him, but to some beauty. The demon himself looks so nauseating, but the king tolerates him because of his strength and wisdom. However, a woman can destroy the alliance between the demon and the king. Samantha starts to figure out what this is all about.
«All women are slick, greedy, and mean,» the Mind continued to bend. «Luciferina was the standard! She was a real demon queen!»
«So you would let me marry her?» Serpin sincerely amazed.
«You are stupid!» The Mind wailed and swung his scepter at the king. «I would marry her myself!»
«What about Estella? You said you adored Princess Estella.»
«Estella was Luciferina, that’s why I chose her. Her body was perfect for Luciferina’s spirit, but it all fell apart. Because of love! Love is poison, Serpin! Remember that! If you fall in love, it’s „gone“! Great kings, great warriors, even wizards have died because of love. How can you, weakling, cope with it? You’d better keep your heart locked from all the beauties!»
The Mind instructed the king like a caring mother who has nightmares about her disobedient daughter-in-law. What a family! The devil and the king! Samantha recalled that when the king married, the demon was gone. But how would the king marry?
Pointers of kilometers
Samantha slowly backed away from the door. The Mind did not look in her direction, but somehow she thought it had noticed her and glared angrily at the keyhole.
«There are spies and spies everywhere!» The royal demon grumbled behind the door.
Samantha tiptoed in, but her spirits were racing. Could it be that the demon’s sensitive ear was picking up all her footsteps?
Strangely enough, the demon didn’t chase her. So she was safe this time. Samantha’s used to running away. Soon she’ll be a champion in speed runner. No time to turn around and give the demon a fight. Alas, she’s not what you’d call brave.
Rosafeira was already hovering in her chambers, tidying up in her own way. Rose bushes were blooming right on the furniture. Roses were taking root in mahogany countertops and dressers.
«What are you doing? This is my bedroom, not my garden!» Samantha was horrified, but the dragons loved the floral opulence.
«I always sleep in the garden,» Rosafeira admitted. She was hovering over the bed and was about to cast her floral charms on the mattress.
«Don’t dare! My bed is not going to be a flower bed!» Samantha put her hands to her sides.
«You don’t want to sleep on flowers?» wondered the fairy.
«I don’t want to sleep on thorns!»
«Well, as you wish!» Rosafeira took offense and flew to the window. «If you don’t want the fairies’ gifts…»
«You already gave me a Pegasus. Thank you, by the way.»
«You’ve already noticed that he’s a real Pegasus,» Rosafeira’s pretty face brightened up. «How did he expose himself?»
«So you wanted the horse to keep his disguise. But why is it?»
«I needed a spy in the human manor,» the fairy grinned innocently. «Pegasus is so smart and silent. He’ll tell the fairies everything, but he won’t tell the humans anything.»
«You slipped us your agent as a gift?» Samantha was breathless with indignation. How insidious fairies are! More insidious than demons!
«Well, the Pegasus harmed only small things: trampled crops, plucked rye in the fields, spit poisonous saliva in the water.»
«And you’re not ashamed to harm people with a magic horse?»
«Why would I be?»
The fairy could not be shamed.
«A human maiden wasn’t ashamed to steal my fiancé,» Rosafeira reminded her. Damn her vindictiveness!
«Can mortals marry fairies?»
«They must want to.»
«I didn’t realize fairies were so unscrupulous. Humans will be dead before you’re a century old.»
«There’s an eternity ahead. You can make new marriages with new mortals,» Rosafeira shrugged coquettishly.
«You’re a minx! No wonder my father chose a mortal scandalous woman over you.»
«Don’t be rude!»
«I think I called my mother a scandalous woman, not you.»
«And you called me, a fairy, a libertine. If it weren’t for my good nature, I’d have turned you into a rosebush.»
«Don’t dare!»
«I should waste my rose charms on a foolish girl. The king’s devil will eat you alive without me.»
Samantha became despondent. Rosafeira had hit a soft spot. How could she get the demon out of the palace before it got her?
«I’ll let you in on a little secret,» Rosafeira sang out. «If a fairy has truly fallen in love with a man, she can take him with her to a magical land or give him the elixir of eternal life. Then a married couple consisting of a human and a fairy will spend all eternity together. Isn’t that romantic?»
«And you were going to give that elixir to my father?»
«I’m not sure about him,» Rosafeira hesitated. «My feelings for him had yet to be tested. However, if a man can pass all the tests, then he’s in love.»
«Stop it! No more revelations!» Samantha covered her ears.
Rosafeira flew to the desk to dance on it and suddenly noticed an envelope with the royal seal. The fairy immediately grabbed the letter and unceremoniously opened it. Samantha opened her mouth stunned. Until now, only her own mother had opened her correspondence so unceremoniously. Apparently, the fairy was no more delicate.
«Wow!» Rosafeira clapped her hands together. «It seems that you are about to wipe the nose of the clever demon! Such a modest girl, but you turned out to be so clever!»
«What is the meaning of this?»
«You’ve been invited to the royal hunt!» The fairy proclaimed triumphantly.
«What good is that? I deeply disapprove of hunting! And you, as a fairy should condemn it and spell all hunters for hurting innocent animals! Cast your spell right now!»
«You are fool!» Rosafeira clucked her tongue disapprovingly. «It’s not about the hunt, it’s about the invitation. If Serpin showed autonomy and signed the invitation to the lady himself, then he’s out of the demon’s control. That means you may soon become a royal bride.»
«Then I can ban hunting in lvilor?»
«Can you get the king to issue such a decree? Yes. And from the looks of it, you can get Serpin to do anything, enchantress! That’s why the King’s demon is so afraid of women. He foresees one of them taking complete control of the king.»
After the fairy’s enthusiastic words, Samantha felt reassured. Rosafeira helped her pack for the journey. It turned out that the king’s hunting lodge was many kilometers away from the castle. A carriage was sent for Samantha in the evening. Rosafeira hovered nearby and accompanied her on her way, but the fairy did not follow the carriage. Apparently, she didn’t approve of hunting either.
The dragons wished to stay at home. Naturally, they considered Samantha’s palace chambers to be their home. Here they could lounge and chill all day and night. The dragons liked the idle life. They had decided unanimously not to fly far from home, and Samantha was not so cruel as to cage her pets and drag them with her by force. Let them loiter if they liked it that way. They’re of no use anyway. They’ll only start a fire if you make them angry.
«I’ll make sure that they don’t tear your dresses with their claws,» promised the kind fairy, who also didn’t want to go anywhere from the royal palace. The main thing was that the demon should not catch her here. Otherwise he would force her out. The Mind loved to use its claws and intrigue, as well as to put pressure on the king to sign a decree the demon wanted.
Samantha was curious, who was Luciferina? Why would even the king’s demon speak of her with such reverence? Who could a demon respect? Was she a demon queen? What if Luciferina is just a legend the Mind is filling Serpin’s head with. To keep the king away from earthly women, the demon invented a seductive demon. Samantha herself never imagined that the demon could be a woman. If Luciferina really existed, the demon would be her rival. Rosafeira would have laughed.
Samantha didn’t like driving out into the woods at night to spend the night at the royal hunting lodge. The fairy had promised her guest luxurious quarters. It turned out that she had flown nearby more than once and peered through the windows at the interiors.
«There are gilded antlers on the walls, and the walls themselves are lined with rosewood,» Rosafeira said. «The tapestries there are so beautiful that fairies could not weave such a thing, and what baths there are! After hunting, the king and his guests love to take a bath with incense and fragrant foam.»
Samantha didn’t care about all this luxury. The palace was luxurious, too, and the bumpy road in the carriage was a torment.
At dusk, ugly pointers of kilometers appeared on the road. For some reason they stood in a group and looked like hunched trolls. The carriage braked sharply in front of them. It turned out that there was a large boulder in the way. While the coachman went to clear the way, Samantha leaned out the window. She reached out her hand and wanted to touch the strange pointer, which seemed to have a face and some signs carved on it.
«Don’t touch it without asking!» A hoarse bass voice said.
Samantha shuddered. Had she heard it? It sounded like thunder, but the sky was clear. Could the voice have come from the pointer?
The pointers suddenly turned into goblins. Samantha didn’t have time to blink. They were going to attack the carriage! The clawed paws reached out to tear the door open, but were suddenly delayed.
«We know you!»
The ugly faces grinned.
Samantha suddenly remembered them. She had seen these goblins before, a long time ago. Once when she was a child, she had run to see a wrecked carriage, and the pointers of kilometers had come to life, just as they did now.
One reanimated goblin pointer leaned over to strangle the coachman, but Samantha whispered pleadingly:
«Don’t! Otherwise who will take me through the forest?»
«You can ride on our backs,» the tallest goblin bent down, putting up his hump. Samantha shivered with fear.
«Don’t worry, we won’t hurt the fairies’ ward and we won’t eat her on the way,» the goblins wheezed. The coachman did not see them, but Samantha trembled with fear. So far the goblins had been good-natured, but they might get angry.
«Are all the pointers of kilometers in Ivilor like this?» She mumbled.
«What do you mean?» The goblins laughed. Their laughter sounded like thunder.
One goblin nodded to a boulder in the road, and it turned into a small troll and scurried into the bushes. Now it was safe to set off again. The coachman, suspecting something wrong, hastily jumped on the horses. The carriage moved off, but the goblins followed it for some time.
«Don’t go to the hunting lodge,» one of the goblins warned. How had he known Samantha was going there?
«Why is it?» Samantha turned around.
But the goblins had already turned into pointers of kilometers again, and a whisper hung in the silence above them:
«You can’t give away a secret!»