Beatrice
Above the masts of the caravel came the rustle of wings. A sparkling mist drifted across the seaweed. Someone put their hands on Patricia’s shoulders. The cold of a crypt and the scent of roses wafted nearby.
«Don’t turn around!» A gentle female voice warned Patricia. It tinkled like a silver bell. The sound of it made the waterman sick.
«If she turns around, she will become a prisoner of death like you?» The waterman pointed his webbed paw in the direction of his guest. «Fly away! Death fairies are not welcome in my cove.»
«But I’m not a death fairy, I’m a mist fairy. Or to be more precise, almost a fairy…»
Patricia recognized Beatrice’s voice and turned around slightly. Her sister (or that creature that was incredibly similar to her sister) was hovering behind her. Beatrice’s slender figure shimmered. Her fishnet wings and white ball gown made her look like a ghost.
«Only sea fairies are welcome in Water Cove,» the caretaker was still trying to insist on his rights, but Beatrice wasn’t about to leave.
«I’ve heard that the sea fairies don’t visit you. It’s too dark here, and they’re light creatures of the morning sea foam. So don’t expect them to visit. Only a creature like me can come to you.»
«But you have no right to be here!» The waterman wanted the guest to fly away. He probably feared that she would expose him as a cheat. A fairy could do that. Playing with fairies wasn’t as easy as playing with ordinary girls. Patricia thought that if Beatrice suddenly decided to help her, she could beat the waterman. Surely Beatrice must know a lot of magic tricks besides sending up fog. Even if she loses, she can carry Patricia out of the cove on her wings. Patricia already knew that fairy wings were very strong. They can support a double burden. A fairy could probably abduct even a heavy cove keeper from the ship and lift him to the clouds. What a howl of indignation the waterman would have screamed when Beatrice threw him down from the heights. If he fell in the middle of the land, he’d probably die.
«I have a right to watch the game, for my sister is playing,» Beatrice insisted. She shimmered like a ghost in the shadow of the masts. The waterman looked at her doubtfully.
«You are not one of the drowned beauties. You have no right to be here!» He found another clue.
«But I’m dead, too. Ghosts can do anything!»
«Fly away!» The waterman used magic to dispel the fog, but it was no good.
«Let’s go to Opal,» Beatrice pulled on Patricia’s hair and felt as if she’d been burned. She quickly pulled her hand away. «In the crypt of Opal you can sleep among the roses. I’ll cover all the entrances with fog. No one will find us there, not dragons or watermen. We’ll be safe there.»
«There is a king in Opal,» Patricia reminded her.
«But in Opal’s crypt, as in the mist, only I am queen.»
How quickly she went from being a ghost to a queen! It was too suspicious. Beatrice’s presence was beginning to frighten Patricia. If she had reappeared from the fog, then danger must be waiting nearby. For some reason, Beatrice’s mists frightened Patricia even more than the fiery dragon-ship.
But it was the fire that frightened Beatrice herself. She touched her saber inadvertently and burned herself on a drop of blood dripping from the blade. Who would have thought that Edwin’s blood would be fire?
«It is a fire! It’s liquid fire, not even mercury!» Beatrice took off like a stunned man. She flew over the deck and shook her saber with her fist. It looked comical from the outside, but somehow even the magic saber chickened out in front of Beatrice’s lacy fingers. Patricia noticed that Beatrice’s fingernails were blackened, as if her fingertips were covered in ash. The saber slid cowardly behind its owner’s back.
The waterman was distracted from the game, too, interested in what was happening to the insolent fairy. He seemed glad that Beatrice had been hurt and was now hovering over the masts like a white wasp. Patricia took advantage of the hiccup in the game and threw the waterman’s shells off the board.
«That’s not fair!» He wailed.
«I heard somewhere that cheating is encouraged in the Underwater Kingdom!» Patricia was pleased to see that her remaining shells were no longer sinking into the ground. The game was over. There were no stranger shells left on the board. One of the dropped shells tried to climb back up onto the table, but couldn’t.
«You are swindler!» The waterman muttered, but he wasn’t upset. As soon as he swiped his claws across the board, new shells suddenly reappeared in the empty fields. «See, you haven’t beaten me yet, pretty girl!»
«How could it be?» Patricia wondered.
«We’re allowed to cheat,» the waterman smiled with his fishy mouth. «Let’s see who’s the cleverest! Usually ladies are never dexterous. You’re such delicate creatures.»
Patricia looked back at the saber hovering behind her shoulder. With such a companion, a gentle creature was unlikely to become entangled. The waterman ignored Patricia’s pirate garb. He persisted in seeing her as a pampered lady who could easily be tricked.
Patricia found herself on the verge of defeat. She had only a few game shells left, and those were already sinking in the watery fields of the board. The cove keeper rubbed his webbed paws triumphantly. He rejoiced in advance at what a beautiful captive he would get.
«Pull yourself together!» An inner voice commanded. Patricia shuddered. It seemed to her that someone alien and all-powerful was inside her head. It was trying to command her like a puppet. At another time she would have resisted him, but now was the last moment. Someone who is drowning is ready to grasp at straws. If she didn’t immediately think of a way out of this delicate situation, she would become a prisoner of the Underwater Kingdom. There were horrifying stories about captivity in the Underwater Kingdom. People there could be deprived of reason or memory, or even turned into a water monster. Although the opponent in the game and assured that Patricia will make a lovely mermaid, but Patricia herself did not want to become a mermaid. She had to get back at it, no matter what.
«Well, what do you advise me?» Patricia mentally appealed to the ghostly creature that was broadcasting from the depths of her consciousness. It responded instantly. Only Patricia could hear its voice.
«Remember who you are! Mobilize all your inner strength. You have a lot of them. Just wish to win! Call on the magic!»
It’s easy for the inner voice to say. What kind of magic can she summon? She’s not a sorceress! But the magical crew of the magic ship somehow obeyed her. The magical creatures have smelled their head in her. It could be for a reason. Patricia tensed. She could barely see the board and the figures moving across it. She concentrated on her desire to win, as the voice advised her. The board suddenly shimmered. Patricia spotted a shimmering key among the shells that neither sank nor bogged down. Guided by instinct, she quickly grabbed it. All of her opponent’s shells suddenly exploded as sparks burst. The cove keeper roared with indignation.
«I will call such a hurricane that all your pirates will sink!» He thundered with his webbed fists. «You will be chased by a typhoon, and a tsunami, and a tornado, and there will be so many whirlpools on your sea route that you can’t avoid them!»
The waterman raised his webbed clawed finger threateningly. His claw glistened. Behind the cove a hurricane of such force that even Beatrice was frightened and flew away. Her mist flew away with her. She had been in such a hurry. The hurricane subsided as suddenly as it had come. The cove keeper gave Patricia a hateful look.
«What a sly one are you! You won and robbed me of all my powers!»
Patricia clutched the key triumphantly. Her instincts were right. The key that appeared on the board signaled her victory. Morgen grumbled for a long time, but finally obeyed her and began to conjure. He drew a claw on the deck and began muttering incantations. The ships rose from the seabed, covered in mud. The sailors on them appeared to be morgens or skeletons covered in slime.
«Here’s your dead fleet! Take it!»
Patricia was startled to realize that all these monstrous ships would follow her. They’ll scare away all the sailors.
«Don’t be afraid!» The Morgen sensed her fears. «They can only be seen at night, during the day they have to go underwater. They’re sensitive to sunlight. So during daylight hours you’ll only see their masts underwater.»
«It’s a good thing I have my own ship so I don’t have to drown with them every morning,» Patricia joked. At the same time, she was afraid that any gullible person who was lured by the watermen to ride on their ship in the evening would drown in the morning when their ship was forced to go under water. Surely the sea-dwellers have pulled such tricks more than once. The ghosts of drowned women were indeed visible around the cove keeper’s ship. They were easily distinguished from ordinary ghosts by their blue-tinged skin and the seaweed tangled in their hair. Patricia ignored their somber crowds and cautionary whispers. A deal with the Morgens would not end well. But does Patricia have a choice? She must gather the magical armada at any cost. Perhaps then Beatrice’s soul can be retrieved, and her sister will be transformed from a ghostly creature back to her old self.
Golden stingers
During the night the ghastly armada followed Patricia’s ship. In the morning, the dead ships were no longer visible, but the tips of masts covered with algae and the scraps of sails covered with moss were visible underwater. The fleet under the command of the waterman kept pace with «The Bloodsucker.»
Such an escort was a little frightening even to Zeligena.
«I don’t think the drowned men will try to drag our ship to the bottom, too,» she muttered, looking at the broken masts that slid like reflections in the water.
«I don’t think they’d dare. The keeper of the drowning cove gave me his word that he would help us, not harm us.»
«What’s the word of the watermen worth!» Zeligena shrugged her wings as if she were shoulders. The gesture came out as if it were a token gesture. «I’m a distant kin myself, and I know how insidious the morgens are.
«But you didn’t let me down!»
Zeligena had to bite her green tongue. She really wasn’t going to let the captain down. Strangely enough, the entire crew of magical creatures enjoyed sailing «The Bloodsucker» and acting as one.
«I won the cove keeper the right to help, so he can’t break his word,» Patricia admitted, fiddling with the strange key. The game of sea chess was over, but the key remained. For some reason, this key didn’t sink into the ground when it was on the watermen’s chessboard. So it’s special. It would probably still be able to open some magical lock in the future.
Patricia remembered the ship’s logbook she had once found near the burned ship. It was lying in her cabin, waiting for her to read it. Strangely, at first it had seemed to her just a charred folder in an iron binding. In time, the paper began to recover. It no longer looked black. It was only with difficulty that the iron binding could be opened. Patricia twisted it this way and that, but it only opened when she cut her little finger on it. It was a good thing the ship, smelling the captain’s blood, hadn’t eaten her alive. She must have been enchanted to be able to sail on a magic ship.
Patricia could not understand the language in which the text was written. It was a ship’s log, judging by the dates alternating above the paragraphs. How strange that it hadn’t burned up in the fire. The captain was definitely not from Opal or its environs. This was not the Opal language, or even the coastal dialect that all sailors and inhabitants of small island nations knew how to speak.
Where would one find a translator? Fairies seem to be able to understand all languages, but goblins are illiterate. Near the captain’s cabin there were only goblins. Patricia wanted to call for one of the fairies. Zeligena or Nethopyrina would probably be able to translate the notes. One could even click on a mermaid. The pearlescent tail of an unfamiliar mermaid flashed in the waves outside the cabin window. Patricia was already used to sea maidens treating her with respect. She wanted to beckon to the mermaid and open the cabin window, but then a deafening clang sounded over the ship.
Patricia instinctively covered her ears. It seemed to her that a swarm of metal bumblebees had flown in and were buzzing about the ship, making the noise unbearable.
«Come to me, captain!» The tallest of the goblins screamed. «Pixies have taken up residence in the hold! What do you want me to do?»
What’s he saying? Pixies can’t make that kind of noise! Pixies are tiny, cute creatures that resemble miniature fairies and elves the size of butterflies. Pixies are usually peaceful, unless someone trespasses on their property or the clearing they guard. Her assistant is confused about something.
Patricia set the folder aside and walked out of the cabin. A huge goblin was waving his saber helplessly, trying to ward off some glittering insects. The scene looked comical from the outside. Such a huge man couldn’t handle some gnats!
As Patricia realized what the gnats were, she was frightened herself. A flock of golden bees or bumblebees with female heads in helmets and sharp stingers swooped down on her.
The goblin had not exaggerated. They were indeed pixies, just not the typical ones. They were probably bred artificially, crossing bumblebees with magical warriors. Such experiments could only be done by the King of Opal. He alone had the audacity and talent to experiment on magic.
The pixies had a beautiful and warlike appearance. It was as if Patricia was surrounded by a flock of legendary warriors who had somehow shrunk to the size of bumblebees. Despite their tiny size, they fought skillfully. Their golden stingers resembled rapiers. Patricia tried to fight back with her saber. She managed to knock down a few pixies, but they were instantly lifted off the deck. Their wrinkled wings unfolded themselves, and the golden pixies sprang into action again. Patricia tried to crush one fallen pixie with the sole of her boot. It failed. The boot felt as if it had hit a piece of metal.
«Where did those bumblebees come from?» Patricia asked the goblins.
One of the goblins merely pointed his saber at the open door of the hold.
«Did they fly right out of the gold that was stored there?» Patricia wondered.
The goblin lowered his eyes guiltily. Apparently he and his companions had snuck into the hold to steal the gold bars from the captain’s share and spend them on rum in the nearest port. Instead of gold, he released a flock of bumblebees that resembled miniature Valkyries.
«You’re not lady bumblebees, you’re savages,» Patricia shouted at them in an attempt to shame them. The bumblebees didn’t care. Their hard golden bodies seemed clad in armor. The saber didn’t hurt them. But if one of the golden pixies fell into the sea, it was caught from the waves by the greedy hands of mermaids. Apparently, sea maidens liked everything golden and shiny, even things that moved. Anyway, the pixies couldn’t get away from the mermaids. It was probably worth trying to knock them all into the water. Patricia waved her saber aggressively, but only a few dozen pixies fell into the sea, while the rest continued to attack. They were flying out of the hold in flocks.
Patricia left the saber waving in the air on its own and dashed toward the hold to close the door. Her hands were immediately pricked by the golden stings. The skin at the point of the stings began to harden and turn golden in color.
«Don’t turn into a golden statue,» Zeligena suddenly appeared behind her and squirted some swamp slurry into Patricia’s wounds. «The bites of these crumbs render people immobile and turn the bitten part of the body into metal.
The green moisture oozing from the swamp fairy’s fingers neutralized the poison of the golden pixies.
«Where did they come from?» Patricia looked around the hold, which was bright without torches. The looted gold shone. There seemed to have been more bullion before than there was now. Where had they gone? Anyway, they had been replaced by gold warriors. Patricia suspected that the Opal gold would cause problems. She should have exchanged it for something at one of the ports, but she had been so busy looking for allies that she had forgotten to do so.
«They’re hovering out of the ingots,» Zeligena pointed to the remnants of the gold ingots that were melting before her eyes, shattering into tiny winged bodies. The golden warriors were becoming more and more numerous. They circled the hold in an aggressive flock. Zeligena covered the captain with her wings. For some reason, the golden insects were wary of attacking the swamp fairy. Apparently, they were intolerant of moisture. The mermaids also managed to deal with them easily.
«We must find a way to throw them all into the sea!» Patricia decided. We would have to part with the looted gold without pity and learn a simple rule: never steal anything from a wizard. Otherwise there would be trouble later. For the first time, pirate loot has become a real curse. It wouldn’t be easy to catch the golden warriors and throw them into the water.
«I have a better plan,» Zeligena stretched her arms forward. Wet green threads flowed from her fingertips. They wrapped a net around the golden pixies. In a matter of minutes, the bulk of the warriors were trapped in the wet net. The only ones left to catch were the pixies that flew above the deck. When they smelled the swamp fairy, they ran away. That’s when they were grabbed by the mermaids’ webbed hands. It turned out that mermaids can easily dive out of the waves and make rapid jumps over the sea. Turning over in leaps above the waves, they resembled scaly birds.
The last golden pixies were nailed with sabers by the goblins, and Zeligena had a green thread firmly wrapped around them. The raiders had lost. Probably in the green net they will merge back into bars of gold and fall asleep. Then it would be better to sell them to the merchants in exchange for provisions and silks. Here the merchants will be surprised when the gold breaks into a flock of warlike pixies and attacks them. Or did it only attack Patricia at the will of the King of Opal? Patricia had a feeling that right now the king was watching her and pursing his lips in displeasure. She had won the first round.
Princess Leonella’s Island
The ship was on course for Princess Leonella’s island. Patricia knew it was absurd to ask her for help, but she was going to take the risk anyway. According to the descriptions, Leonella was the most unusual of all princesses, and her flying ship fleet could easily lay siege to Opal from the air if the sea armadas were powerless. Getting Leonella’s support would be very helpful, but it was not easy to reach her island. She even had to ask the ubiquitous mermaids for directions.
Goblins grumbled unhappily after being raided by aggressive golden pixies. Even the crafty trolls had not realized that such pests could escape from bars of gold. Patricia thought so, there would be trouble with Opal gold, but it was beyond her to give it up. Anything that came from Opal could be magical. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to dump the remaining bars into the sea right now. The mermaids would love the offering, but Patricia hesitated.
It took several days to sail to Leonella’s Island. Nethopyrina had assumed the island would be surrounded by mists that were easy to get lost in, but the island was surrounded by a rainbow. It curved around a large white stone palace built on the island. From afar, the rainbow seemed to multiply and split, turning into hundreds of rainbows.
«They’re actually rainbow bridges,» Zeligenna explained. «Fairies and elves usually travel over them. Leonella must be on good terms with the winged people to have rainbow bridges coming right up to her windows. She’s probably expecting a delegation of fairies. Let’s pretend to be them and quietly enter her palace via the rainbow bridge.»
It was a good plan. Zeligena and Nethopyrina instantly flew to the rainbow bridge that led to the spacious boudoir. Nethopyrina carried Patricia, who had no wings. In flight, Patricia felt crippled. How inconvenient to live without wings! You can’t even use the rainbow bridges because they are too high off the ground.
Below the rainbow bridges, there was one blue bridge. It must have been one of the sea bridges, because there were ugly morgens crawling on it and sirens sitting on the railing. Patricia had heard that there was a network of jade and amber bridges across the sea, invisible to humans, on which the sea-dwellers walked. Sometimes people were lured onto such bridges, and the people on them disappeared.
The rainbow bridges looked much nicer, but Patricia didn’t see any fairies or elves walking across them. There were guards flying around the windows, though. Zeligena was outraged when she came across a flying rook and tried to braid it with a net of swamp slime. Suddenly Nethopyrina and Patricia were blocked by a huge Purra standing by the window niche, armed not only with claws but also with sabers. The furry beasts had a belligerent look.
«Let them through!» A lazy female voice came from the depths of the boudoir.
The huge Purra immediately parted. The two fairies and one girl were able to pass through the wide, human-sized window unhindered. All the windows in Leonella’s palace were enormous bay windows with the ends of rainbow bridges approaching them. The princess herself was a charming creature, whose beauty was not spoiled by a fluffy white tail peeking out from under her luxurious dress.
«You have such a cute little animal,» Leonella said to Patricia. «Does she like to drink a cup of tea?»
Purra, who was clinging to Patricia’s neck, jumped onto the tea table as soon as the princess beckoned her. Patricia noticed that Leonella’s hand resembled Purra’s clawed paw. The jeweled rings only slightly concealed the white wool that had grown on the princess’s fingers.
«Do you two prefer buttercup tea or violet tea? I have only those two flowers in my garden,» the princess poured the fragrant tea into porcelain cups.
«I hope she doesn’t want to poison us,» Patricia whispered, but Nethopyrina clamped her mouth shut with the tip of her wing. The fairy must have been letting her know that the princess could hear whispers at a distance. The ears that protruded from Leonella’s hair were indeed very pointed and cat-like. For some reason, the princess didn’t bother to cover them with lush curls.
Patricia’s Purra was already drinking tea and snacking on tiny cakes. Zeligena was also drinking tea, and Patricia glanced out the window. Below the bridges, an armada of ships was gathering below, their bottoms not touching the water. Their oars raked the air as if they were flapping wings. The rumors about Leonella’s flying ships were not false.
The princess herself was an enchanting creature with lush blonde curls and violet eyes. The princess’s bodyguards were two huge Purras armed with halberds. They almost never left the beauty, whose ears and facial features resembled the Purra’s cunning face.
Leonella herself had a fluffy white Purra’s tail peeking out from under the hem of the purple royal dress and resembled a kind of train. However, as soon as the tail curled in rings, this impression was ruined.
«Make yourself at home!» The princess graciously invited the guests.
Patricia wondered whether she would have to persuade Leonella to help her or whether she would have to win her help in some magical game.
«I know why you came to me,» the princess stunned everyone with her knowledge. «The mermaids once gave me a mirror that can see everything that happens in the vast world around my island. You could call it a spy’s eye. Thanks to it, I know everything about everyone. You, for example, are plotting an attack on Opal, but it’s extremely risky.»
«I’ve heard that you don’t like the King of Opal because you two had a falling out,» Patricia said.
«Dislike is an understatement. The old wizard has crossed me in many ways.»
Is the King of Opal old? Patricia frowned, thinking back. He looks to be in his forties. He probably uses some kind of magical elixirs to make him look younger than his years. If the omniscient Leonella calls him an old man, he probably is.
«Will you help us?» Patricia hoped. «Your Purras look very formidable. They wouldn’t scare the King of Opal alone, of course. But if you add my team and the ghosts and morgens…?»
Leonella thought for a moment.
«Beyond all the windows of my palace stretched bridges of rainbow. You can walk straight across them to Opal,» she said. «It would be faster than traveling by ship, but let’s not risk it. The rainbow road could then open from Opal toward me. If we don’t win, they’ll start occupying me.»
«To be honest, I’m more excited about your fleet of flying ships than your Purras,» Patricia said. «The King of Opal can defend his port from invading armadas, but he can’t defend it from a flying armada. Your ships can pass where others would run aground.»
«I’ll lend them to you, but I won’t run the fleet myself. Let your „Bloodsucker“ be the flagship for the time being.»
«Aren’t you afraid a vampire ship will pull the ropes and attack your warriors?»
«They are all Purras.»
That’s right, Patricia remembered, a vampire ship doesn’t drink the blood of magical creatures. It only feeds on human blood.
«What’s the strategy of the flying fleets?»
Leonella began drumming her fingers on the walnut table. «They’ll fly to the windows of Opal’s castle and then fire the cannons.»
«But I don’t want Opal destroyed!»
«You can rebuild it in an instant with building magic. One and done! When your enemies are gone, the walls will rebuild themselves. You don’t even need a Finodirri builder.»
Finodirri builders are not invited.
«What do you take me for?»
«I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but that’s your business. I recognized you immediately, so don’t count on me forgetting. And I’m only helping you because it’s my duty to the dragon empire.»
Whoever she thought Patricia was, it was a good thing for all of them right now. Patricia held back her indignation and nodded dutifully. Let Leonella continue to be deluded. She had probably had too much ette, hence her delusions.
True, there was no ette on the tea table. But Princess Leonella’s eyes were shimmering iridescently. Only elves and fairies have iridescent eyes, and they’re usually not wrong about anything.