Burned
Patricia had a dream. In the dream, Beatrice was winding a tangle of flowers and charms. Her eyes were empty. Behind her graceful back, her bony wings stood out sharply. The wings seemed to have been artificially attached to her back. Then why were her wings moving? They were alive and yet not natural at the same time.
«Come with me through the labyrinth of dreams all the way to Opal,» Beatrice suggested, not looking up from her work. The garlands of flowers, wrapped in a tangle, sparkled. Suddenly one of Patricia’s fiery hairs was somehow caught in the tangle. How had it gotten there? Beatrice was already winding her sister’s red hair into a ball, not the flower garlands.
Patricia woke in horror. For some reason, the image of Beatrice in her dreams was frightening. They say this happens if you meet a ghost. Ghosts can be very beautiful, but looking at them makes you scared.
The night had just begun. Her pocket watch read half past one. Twelve had passed, so the danger was over. There’s a belief that all evil has power only at midnight. Does the Queen of the Fairies belong to the evil spirits? It doesn’t matter! If Medea Shai doesn’t arrive tonight, the deal is off and the fairy’s offer is off.
Patricia began to count the minutes until morning. As soon as dawn broke, Medea Shai would be forgotten.
Purra played with the pendant like a rattle. Obviously, she didn’t need sleep. It was lucky to have an animal that could stay awake forever. The Purra would make a great sentinel. The Purra was a little bigger than a cat and could climb the ropes as nimbly as a monkey. Climbing into a sentry’s booth was a piece of cake.
«Won’t you climb aboard and see if a fairy with black wings is flying through the sky?» Patricia called out to the Purra.
The beast either didn’t understand human language or preferred to keep playing. Zeligena had said that it was impossible to make a Purra work. But they could haggle. At the island market, the Purras were adept at showing with gestures what they wanted if they couldn’t understand foreign speech.
«What if I offered you candy for one night’s watch on the mast? – Patricia found a box of ettes, magical candies that gave pleasant visions, beside her bunk. Where had they come from? She didn’t remember buying candy from the Purras. They had probably been traded from the Purras by Zeligena or Nethopyrina. Then again, it was strange how the Purras had gotten the candy on the island. Ette was only produced in a few island kingdoms: Arcades, Midia, Merida, and elsewhere. They were prepared not by cooks, but by the king’s wizards. Since abuse of the candy led to side effects, the goods were considered contraband.
«It’s against the law to bring ette into many countries around the world, and we’d be stopped at the first port if we weren’t pirates,» Patricia complained to Purra.
Purra nodded and continued playing. She didn’t seem to understand what had been said. Patricia looked at the box of candy. It was an exquisite box. The lid was adorned with a lush bow, and inside on a silk lining were a dozen ettes of different colors. The red ones seemed to be the most harmful of the candies. The yellow ones gave the illusion that you were wandering through sand kingdoms and communicating with sand spirits. The pink ones gave you love obsessions. Patricia would risk a taste of pink candy to spend the night in the arms of that young man who came to the ship in the company of the fairy queen. Let the night with him be but a hallucination, but it would bring pleasure. Patricia had already reached for the pink candy, but then she noticed one unusual ette in the center. It was black and red, like Medea Shai’s robes. Could this mean that the box was a gift from the queen of the fairies?
Ette’s are usually solid-colored. They can be decorated with a star or monogram, but they can’t be two-colored, otherwise the magic in them would mix ridiculously and cause an unexpected effect.
«It is a danger!» The screams of the fairy hostage came from the hold. «We’re all going to burn to the ground!»
Was the dragon ship moving toward «The Bloodsucker» again? Patricia looked out the cabin window. There was not a single spark of radiance on the horizon. If the fiery ship was indeed sailing toward her, the sparks would resemble the flames of a sunset.
Aleandra must have drunk too much of the rum some goblin had given her the night before, and now the fairy was having a drunken tantrum.
Patricia leaned back on her pillow and suddenly smelled the odor of burning. Had the panic not been false? None of the sentries had warned of the danger. There was still no fire on the horizon.
But a black burnt shadow slipped into the cabin, spreading the smell of burning. It seemed to separate from the wall. The shadow had wings. Patricia squinted, trying to see the face. She had only two fairies on board, not counting the hostage in the hold.
«Are you Nethopyrina?» The first fairy that came to Patricia’s mind was a bat fairy, because she was the only one so gray that she was indistinguishable from a shadow.
The bat fairy would have responded immediately, but the shadow was silent.
«Is it you Zeligena?» Patricia raised herself on her elbows. «What are you doing in my quarters? Is there something you want to warn me about?»
«Put out the lantern!» A hissing whisper came.
Patricia had forgotten that there was a lantern hanging from a hook in the ceiling of the cabin. She didn’t want to put it out and be alone with her nocturnal visitor. Seeing her hesitation, the shadow rushed toward the lantern to extinguish it herself, but Patricia jumped up from her bunk to interfere. She managed to intercept the shadow creature’s hands and was extremely surprised when the face of the fairy queen looked up at her. Not that Medea Shai’s visit was anything out of the ordinary. She had seen the queen of the fairies before, but that was the blackness of her face until now. Not long ago it had been white and smooth as porcelain. Now it looked like a burnt mask.
«What are you staring at?» The fairy queen angrily moved her burnt wing. Her entire body and her wings were covered in the same burns as her face. It was as if the fairy queen had just crawled out of the furnace where she had been burned like a witch on a bonfire.
«I didn’t expect you to come so late,» Patricia whispered. «To be honest, I had given up expecting you at all, because midnight had passed…»
«And you think I can’t offer you anything favorable anymore?» The fairy queen grinned and snapped her fingers. Treasure chests and bars of gold glittered seductively in the cabin. «Don’t worry, I still have the treasure, but I don’t plan to give it to you.»
«Why did your plans change?»
«I burned and you survived.»
«You don’t want to rip my skin off to put it on you, do you?» Patricia joked.
«Your skin wouldn’t fit me, but if you were a fairy, I’d take it off you and take it back instead of my burnt skin,» Medea said dreamily. «If I could find a healthy fairy now, my burns would seem like a molt.»
Patricia was afraid for her friends. She has two fairies and a third hostage on board, after all. Aleandra should probably be offered, but that would be too cruel. Medea Shai would skin her.
«I still have some power over my subjects,» Medea Shai sniffed as if she could smell a fairy on board. Would she be able to take the fairies from someone else’s crew?
Patricia hadn’t thought about the fact that Nethopyrina and Zeligena were subjects of the fairy queen, just like all the other fairies. But they are wandering or disgraced fairies. Fairies in these two categories were simply cast out of the magical realm and started living on their own, clinging to random encounters with their magic. It could very well be that Nethopyrina and Zeligena are disgraced or wandering fairies. Then there’s nothing to worry about.
«You’re not even alive. How did this happen to you?» Patricia tried to distract the fairy queen.
«How did my beautiful face become a mask of burns?» Medea Shai’s burned eyebrows moved. The expression on her burned face was like a wiggle. «I haven’t aged in thousands of years, and then one dragon messed up all my plans. He breathed fire on me! His mistress! It is all because of you!»
The revelation came as an even bigger surprise than Medea Shai showing up burned.
«What do you mean because of me?» Patricia let go of her guest’s hands and backed away. Medea Shai had a frightened look on her face. She wanted to attack the captain in his own cabin. She should take a saber to defend herself. The magic saber itself won’t fight against the queen of the fairies.
«I shouldn’t have messed with you,» Medea Shai flapped her wings aggressively, ash falling from them. «I was warned that you were trouble!»
«I’m sorry, but you came on my ship, not me on yours. You weren’t invited here.»
The Queen of the Fairies was so angry, she attacked Patricia. All the gold she brought back turned to hot coals. That’s no way to buy fairy gold! When the magic runs out, it turns to pebbles, coals or leaves. Even the most gullible people remember that. Patricia, on the other hand, was gullible. Who would expect trust from a pirate captain? Or was it Medea Shai’s gold that burned like she did?
«Did the dragon ship burn you?» Patricia guessed. Who else could harm a fairy or a mermaid? «You dared to fly aboard it. Everything there was fire and beyond your magic? I just don’t understand why you couldn’t fly away before you were completely burned. And why didn’t that dragon, who supposedly still serves you, pluck you out of the flames?»
Patricia remembered the fairy queen telling Edwin about the dragon she still controlled. Apparently she had exaggerated her powers.
«You are hypocrite!» The fairy queen shrieked. «You’re the one who turned it on me!»
«Wait a minute! I didn’t plot anything against you!» Patricia barely dodged Medea Shai’s claws. «I’ll find a healthy fairy for your experiments, and you can leave.»
«Prisoners from the mortal world have often failed me, but never dragons!» The fairy queen hissed. «If it weren’t for you, he’d be loyal to me!»
Medea Shai lunged at Patricia and knocked over the lantern with her wing. The frightened Purra, who had been hiding under the bunk the whole time, put out a pillow as a shield to keep away the splinters.
Patricia fumbled for her saber and grasped its hilt. The saber creaked unhappily. She clearly didn’t want to cut through the body of the fairy queen, but she didn’t have to. Suddenly, a dragon roar sounded over the sea, and the burnt fairy queen disappeared into the darkness.
Boarding
Patricia breathed a sigh of relief as the fairy queen disappeared. Had the matter resolved itself? No deal was out of the question now. But why was the fairy queen so furious? Even if the dragon almost burned her, Patricia had nothing to do with it.
Purra crawled out from under the bed and climbed onto Patricia’s shoulder.
«Were you scared?» Patricia gently patted the animal’s scruff and felt Purra’s body trembling. Even rogues like purras could be frightened by something.
The dragon flew low over the ship. Its roar became deafening. The dragon seems to be furious, too. We don’t need another run-in with it. Patricia had had enough of one angry fairy queen.
The goblin on watch sounded the alarm.
«What the hell happened out there?» Patricia went out on deck.
The dragon was no longer visible in the sky. So it had flown over the ship too fast. So it was headed somewhere far out to sea. Its purpose was not to burn the ship. Medea Shai had been frightened and fled for nothing. But it’s for the best! The important thing was that the fairy queen never came back.
Patricia put her triangle on her head.
«There’s an oncoming ship!» Nethopyrina, hovering above the masts, roared. The fairy was excited.
«Is it a merchant caravel?» Patricia guessed.
«No, it’s a warship, but it’s carrying a cargo of gold bars from Opal’s treasury.»
«Do they have any fairies or peri on board?
«There was an astrologer, but I put him to sleep.»
«Then let’s board the ship!» Patricia raised the pirate flag. The response was cannon salvos from the oncoming ship. Apparently, the ship was ready for defense. If Zeligena hadn’t intervened, one of the nukes could have perforated the side of «The Bloodsucker». The swamp fairy instantly wove slimy green threads oozing from her fingertips. The resulting net was a net into which the enemy’s cannonballs were caught.
Patricia had triumphed. Now the King Opal’s subjects know that their cannons are useless. All that matters is that they don’t use retaliatory magic.
The sleeping astrologer was idling, and the boarding hooks of the goblins from «The Bloodsucker» had already grazed the side of the oncoming ship. Patricia read the proud name of the Opal’s ship, «The Victory Bearer». It was a ridiculous name for a ship about to be sunk by pirates.
«Let’s go! Board it!» Patricia belatedly commanded.
The goblins had already jumped to the deck of «The Victory Bearer.» A short fight ensued. It would have been even shorter if they hadn’t had to take prisoners for «The Bloodsucker,» for the pirate ship needed food, and its food was known to be blood. The ropes and sails of the ship greedily caught the men in a cocoon, squeezed them, and bloody stains spilled across the sailcloth. The blood quickly disappeared from the ropes, the sails, and the deck. The ship was feeding greedily, and the men were falling for it like a trap. If one knew that an oncoming ship might turn out to be a vampire, one would be wary of sailing the seas.
Patricia’s saber hovered above her head, striking left and right. It became her routine while Patricia herself wielded her dagger and knuckles. As captain she lagged behind her subordinates. While she handled only a trio of enemies, her goblins slaughtered dozens of foreign sailors. Soon the bars of Opal’s gold were unloaded onto the deck of «The Bloodsucker,» and «The Victory Bearer» was sinking.
«If I’m lucky, the King of Opal will soon follow his ship,» Patricia barely made it back to her ship from the sinking ship. She was delayed because she was looking for magical items on board. They either weren’t there or she couldn’t find them.
«Don’t you think it’s strange that the ship with the gold cargo sailed alone?» Nethopyrina was belatedly wary.
«You mean without any accompanying ships?»
«I can sense that there were originally a lot more ships,» the bat fairy sniffed the sea air. Could she really smell such a thing in it?
«And where did they go? Had they fallen behind? Then it’s time to prepare for another battle. The crew’s not too tired just yet. We can still fight.»
Nethopyrina shook her head negatively.
«They’re definitely gone,» she determined as she sniffed the air above the sea. What an intuition she has!
– I hope they were dragged to the bottom by mermaids to help us!
The mermaids thought Patricia was some sort of girlfriend. It’s not a bad idea to use their misconception to our advantage.
«The Victory Bearer» sank successfully. Hungry mermaid swarms gathered over the sinking ship, rushing to pick up anything shiny. Soon the sirens’ chanting filled the neighborhood, but it had no effect on anyone aboard «The Bloodsucker.» The captives didn’t seem bewitched. They resisted the goblins. Their resistance didn’t last long. The ship was hungry. A quiet hissing sounded from the planks of the deck. The feet of the captives began to bleed, the captives themselves falling to the deck and seeming to dissolve into it. There were only pools of blood left of the captured men, and they were greedily absorbed by the ship. Patricia could not count the number of victims. She noticed a few familiar faces among the captives. There was a colonel and a lieutenant she had met in Opal. The ship had devoured them both, as well as the common soldiers guarding the gold. Only one man proved unfit to eat. He lay unconscious on the deck and the ship had rejected his blood. Judging by the uniform insignia, it was an admiral. Patricia bent over him. She thought she’d seen him somewhere before.
«What’s that on his neck?» Patricia nearly burned her fingers on the fiery branding that was literally burning.
«Shall I throw him overboard?» One of the goblins asked obligingly.
«No, wait,» Patricia listened to what the dying man whispered.
«Save your own death…»
He was probably delirious.
«What does he mean?»
«We could give him fire wine, then he would die, but he would regain his senses for a while,» suggested Nethopyrina.
«Good, bring a cup of fire wine, and we’ll take him to Zeligena’s quarters for now.»
«Why is it my quarters?» The swamp fairy was indignant.
«It is because you have a swamp there! And from the mire, as you know, no one escapes!»
«That’s right!» Zeligena nodded reluctantly.
The goblins hurried to carry out the order.
Purra, clinging to Patricia’s neck from behind, managed to snatch the pocket watch of the captain of «The Victory Bearer.» Her furry paws hugged Patricia’s throat while clutching the watch chain.
«You are thief!» Patricia didn’t even know if she was scolding the Purra or praising her for showing dexterity.
The gold bars glittered on the deck like an entire dragon’s treasury.
«Well, here was a substitute for the fairy queen’s generous offer!» Patricia picked up one of the bars. It was heavy. Holding gold in her hands felt good. Not that she had ever seen gold before, but it was valuable because it had been taken from her nemesis. At least she had done something to annoy the King of Opal! That’s a victory! A small victory, but a victory! The main thing was that the gold was not enchanted and right now it did not spread on the ship as a puddle of tar.
Time passed, but the gold didn’t disappear. Then it’s not enchanted.
«Why should I bargain with the Queen of the Fairies when I can get more treasure myself?» Patricia triumphed.
The gold glittered under the moon and for some reason it seemed that it was bound to bring a lot of trouble to the ship.
Save your own death
Patricia turned back to her quarters and shrieked in surprise. The fiery young man was in her quarters again. He had come after the fairy queen again, only he hadn’t burned. But he could have made the whole place blaze. The beautiful face was surrounded by flames, as was the entire silhouette.
«So you’re not a dream!» Patricia didn’t want to touch him, but she did. There was no burn from the touch. How can this be? She touches the fire, but it doesn’t burn. The fiery young man suddenly kissed her. Kissing him was the same as burning in a fire, but not burning. Patricia felt like a witch being burned, but it felt good. Fire was her friend! The flames were her lover!
«Who are you?» she asked, pulling away from the fiery lips.
«Don’t you remember me?»
She shook her head negatively. He seemed disappointed. Patricia felt the heat from him for a moment longer, and then suddenly the cabin was empty and dark.
Where had he gone? Patricia felt a sucking emptiness in her chest. How could he appear and then disappear! She couldn’t wait to see him again.
Business aboard the ship couldn’t wait. The goblin’s paw was already knocking on the cabin. The prisoner was awake. Patricia searched the captain’s cabin for a first aid kit, but there were no medicines or bandages on the shelves. We’ll have to rely on magic.
«You stay here and guard my quarters!» Patricia told the Purra. In case the dying man had to undergo an operation or a blood transfusion. That’s not a sight for a Purra. The beastie must be impressionable.
Patricia was even willing to transfuse the captive with magical blood to find out what happened to him. A pint of beer helped him more than a blood transfusion. The captive felt an overpowering thirst.
«Fire!» He muttered.
«It’s mire, not fire,» reminded Zeligena, whose quarters were slowly turning into a swamp. The captive laid half in the green mire that had replaced the bunk.
Patricia, as soon as she crossed the threshold, felt that her boots were bogged down in the sludge.
«What a curse!» She cursed. «You can’t keep your quarters any cleaner than this.»
«Don’t go visiting a swamp fairy if you don’t want to get dirty,» Zeligena said with an offended look.
The marsh fairy was hanging head down from the ceiling. It was a good way to keep her from getting dirty. But the tips of her long gray hair hanging down were stained green by the mire.
«Make the interrogation quicker, or I won’t be able to stand it!» She turned to Patricia in a martyr’s tone. «It smells of frogs and toads.»
Luckily, there were no frogs or toads, or they would have been croaking by now. Patricia bent over the prisoner. Someone had already torn his clothes. His body looked like a map of burns.
«Who did this to you?» Patricia noticed that the burns were not spontaneously applied. They would join into lines and even marks, as if the man’s body had been inscribed with fire. The captive resembled a living map of lines and inscriptions burned into his skin.
«They are dragon signs,» determined Nethopyrina, who was hanging from the ceiling.
«Is it another note from the dragon for me? Is it on leather instead of paper?»
«I don’t know! I don’t understand the dragon language,» Nethopyrina flapped her gray wing nervously and almost flew off the ceiling. She seemed to understand something, and she didn’t like it.
«We saved our own deaths,» the captive whispered.
«Who are you?» Patricia leaned over him. «Is it the crew of your ship?»
At the sight of her red hair, the prisoner shuddered.
«Put out the fire!» He demanded.
«It’s not fire, just unruly red strands,» Patricia wanted to argue, but decided against it. There was no telling how long the prisoner would live. She pulled her hair into a braid and tucked it under her triangle. That’s better.
«It is no more fire! Who burned you?»
The prisoner coughed. The goblin brought him another mug of beer. The beer, ale and wine were taken from the same ship as the gold. It did not hurt to treat the captive to his own supplies.
«Are you the Admiral of the King of Opal?» Patricia has decided to engage in some serious questioning.
«I was, until my ship sank. Or rather, it burned and then sank. It burst into flames like a splinter.»
«The dragon burned it?»
The prisoner stared at her in bewilderment.
«There are dragons flying over the sea,» Patricia explained.
«That’s what he said, too,» he muttered.
«Who is it?»
«It is the young man from the wreck. He said that if it hadn’t been for the dragon, he wouldn’t have tried to drown himself.»
How strange! Some sailor could have been driven by the dragon to try to drown himself. Drowning to avoid being burned isn’t the answer. Patricia didn’t know which element was more deadly: fire or water. Water is home to mermaids and various predatory creatures of the sea. You can’t even count the sharks.
«You have brought this young man aboard, and then what?» Patricia spurred him on.
The captive coughed often and stopped speaking. He was breathing heavily and intermittently. Patricia feared he would die before he could speak. If she had one grave fairy on board who knew the basics of necromancy, and she would have revived the corpse to question him. But there were no grave fairies on board, so we had to try to keep the prisoner from dying before he told his story.
«We brought him aboard «The Banner Bearer.»
«The Banner Bearer, „The Cuckold,“ and „The Crown Prince“ are Opal’s best warships,» Patricia said happily. «So, „The Banner Bearer“ is gone, but what about the man you rescued?»
«He was very young, almost a boy. He looked like an elf with strange sparkling eyes. He recovered at first, but he began to talk about things that made the team’s hair stand on end. He had a knack for sorcery.»
«Are the King Opal’s subjects afraid of witchcraft?» Patricia asked and immediately regretted her words. The Admiral wasn’t a sorcerer, or he would have been cured of his burns long ago.
«If only I had realized at once that the saved man was not human! It’s a pity he didn’t show his magic right away. It wasn’t until the third day that it became clear that we had fished the evil magician out of the water. He was just sitting in his cabin, and objects were floating around him. Fire flared up here and there. The foremast burned first. It seemed as if lightning had struck it, but it was not a stormy night. Then the crew started burning alive. They were flaring up like torches right on the spot! Then strange creatures came aboard. And then it was just me and him on deck,» the prisoner stammered and confused. «He followed me, and the deck burst into flames beneath his feet. He said he had a message for someone, and began to make marks on my skin with the fire.»
«He’s delirious!» said Nethopyrina.
«Shh!» Patricia put her finger to her lips. Keep the bat quiet. The prisoner could barely speak.
«Learn from my example!» The dying man clutched at Patricia’s arm. «Don’t pick up strange shipwrecked people, especially if those shipwrecked people resemble beautiful shabby elves. You will pick up your death! Death has beautiful azure eyes, sharp claws, and a fiery grip! Don’t buy into the innocent look of those who are drowning, or you will save them and they will drag you into a fiery hell.»
He must have said too much, because the sigils on his skin suddenly burst into flames. Sparks raced down his body. The skin was peeling off of him. In a moment, his whole body burned. Even the mire couldn’t save him.
«I wish I could read dragon symbols,» Patricia lamented.
«You can,» Nethopyrina surprised her. «You just don’t remember how to do it.»