Бесплатный фрагмент - Simple Princess

Behind the Seven Seals

The doors of the royal treasury were like gates to heaven, but their voices were hellish. Princess Estella ran her fingertips wistfully over the gilded angel wings, nymphs, titans, apple trees, and serpents. Who would think to decorate the entrance to the treasury as if it were the gateway to a temple? Estella’s fingers burned as if the dragon’s breath was burning the gilded flaps of the door on the other side.

“Do you suppose there could be a dragon locked up in the treasury as a guard?” she asked Gisela timidly.

“More like a prisoner! Dragons are only good guards if they are chained,” said Gisela, the young, lively governess, who had wanted to be queen from the first day she came to the castle. Now her dreams of marriage to the old king were dashed with the death of the latter.

Since the king’s burial, Gisela had been sulking as if she had been deprived of her rightful inheritance.

“If I’d known he was going to die so soon, I would have taken a governess’s job with another princess,” she muttered to herself. “He had only just begun to like me! My feminine charms worked only a week ago, when the King invited me to a game of chess. I am sure he wanted me as his wife, not his favorite. He’s too old to have a minion.”

Estella merely nodded at her mentor’s scholarly speeches. She understood little of what was being said. What was a minion? And did the King, who had already been married once to her mother, have the right to marry a second time? Isn’t Gisela herself a princess from a ruined principality who came to Aluar for support and a position at court? Couldn’t she marry a duke or prince? Why would she want an old king?

When Estella asked all these questions aloud, her mentor would get terribly angry with her. So the princess preferred to remain silent.

“You’re so sweet!” Sobbing into a silk handkerchief, which for some reason was embroidered royal coats of arms, said Gisela. “You listen so attentively! You give the impression of a smart, when you do not say anything! And evil people say that the elves stole your mind, and that you have been a fool ever since.”

“What do you mean?” Estella frowned. She was preoccupied with the gilt doors. She could certainly hear the sound of many angry voices whispering in the doorway:

“Let us out! Come here! We have been waiting for you, Princess!”

Gisela did not hear these voices. She was crying and blowing her nose noisily, as if she had just been widowed. Her black silk veil, thrown over her intertwined golden braid, was like a widow’s veil. Gisela would have liked a gold crown over the black veil. Estella would have given her a crown of her own, too heavy and pressing on her forehead, but Gisela said it could not be done. Only queens or princesses had the right to wear a crown, not princesses’ tutors.

Even if there were demons hiding behind the treasury door, they were the only ones who didn’t call Estella a fool. That was nice! The word fool sounded insulting, though Estella didn’t know exactly what it meant. But the courtiers whispered in such sly tones about the empty-headed princess, whose mind had long been taken by magical creatures. It made Estella uncomfortable.

“Ever since you inherited the kingdom, many people have been looking at you like you’re game. You must be more careful,” Gisela warned her.

“I don’t think so! I have suitors who run away as soon as I open my mouth to say something nice to them.”

“It used to be like that. You were considered a princess, not a queen. An unmarried Aluar’s queen is a temptation for everyone. Now many dowry hunters will seek your hand as I sought your father’s. And I almost did! A brutal death has shattered all my plans like a house of cards! And they say death is merciful!”

“In the case of the lepers on the moors, it is,” she reminded her. “When people who have been to the Demon Lands begin to suffer so much that even the Court wizards cannot help them, then death is merciful. But it does not come for them for a long time. Those who are sick turn into monsters as long as they give up the spirit.”

“Don’t tell me such horrors,” Gisela sighed theatrically.

“But I’ve seen the sick ones myself. Their skin cracks like parched heat, their eyes scarlet. They keep saying curses. One of them whispered something in my father’s ear, and my father died thirteen days later.”

“You’d better keep quiet about it, or people will start saying again that an evil spirit has stolen your mind, and that your head is as empty as a cave.”

“It is worse when a mischievous devil gets into your empty head,” someone hissed from around the corner. “That would be a laugh! The man would move like a puppet at the mercy of the demon and smash everything.”

Gisela did not hear the voice, but Estella heard many voices behind the golden doors.

“There are wings of angels, seraphim, cherubim, feet of giants and titans, basilisks, snakes, golden apple trees with monster roots,” she began to list all the creatures she discerned in the bas-reliefs on the door. “There’s even mandrake engraved here. It’s a sacred root. And then there are tritons and leviathans and sirens and mermaids and beautiful fairies. And it’s as if they’re all guarding some kind of evil, not treasure.”

“Are you sure you’re not confused,” Gisela frowned. “I remember mythology a little differently.”

“The six-winged angels are surely guardians of evil.”

“The treasury probably contains the bones of that sorcerer king your father defeated in battle in his youth,” Gisela boasted of her erudition. “He was known as a fearsome sorcerer, wasn’t he?”

Estella looked at her hand. Her fingers and palm were burned. There might be a dragon imprisoned in the treasury.

“Let me out!” A voice outside the door shrieked. “I will find you a demon consort to put sense back into your witch-devastated head.”

Once again Gisela heard nothing, and Estella became alarmed.

“Where are the keys to the treasury?” She inquired, noticing between the bas-reliefs on the door a number of keyholes at once.

“They are with the king’s key-keeper, perhaps.”

“But my father had him executed a month before he died.”

“So someone else has the keys.”

“Could you find out him for me? And find out why there are so many locks on the doors at once?”

“The last one is obviously! There must be a great treasure in there!”

“But the keys aren’t even in the king’s things! Look for them right now! I can only entrust such a delicate task as finding the keys to the treasure to you. You are like a mother to me.”

“I would have preferred to be a stepmother!” Gisela sighed and went to run the errand. Her black silk skirts rustled like fallen leaves. Beautiful, thirty years old, unmarried, and quite sensible, she would have been a far better heiress to the kingdom than the simple-minded princess who had supposedly had her mind stolen from her by elves. Estella sincerely wished the king had married her young tutor. Gisela would have made a model queen. Now, wearing all black, she resembled an elegant widow.

A chorus of eerie voices echoed from behind the door again. With Gisela’s departure they revolted. The cacophony of shrieking, growling, and squeaking grew stronger and stronger.

“Let us out! You don’t need the key! Just let us out!”

Estella ran her finger over the six-winged angel and burned herself again.

“I can’t,” she moaned.

“Open up, you fool!” Behind the door, they obviously thought she was faking.

“You say fool!” She was indignant. “Well, stay there!”

Estella was so furious that she walked briskly away. Her yellow-gold skirts rustled softly, and her auburn curls, intertwined in the summer, tickled her neck. And behind her, it was as if someone was breathing fire. Estella glanced behind her to see if the dragon was following her out of the treasury.

“Come back here!” The voices called out, exchanging anger for kindness. “Let us make peace! You want a dragon, we’ll give you one! You want a prince. We’ll bring him to you! And you want a faithful genie, and we’ll send one to your service!”

“And what is it in return?” Estella couldn’t stand it.

“Just let us go!” The voices repeated the same request. The golden door glowed with a sort of unnatural, magical radiance, as if beckoning to her. Behind it was hidden not only treasure, but living creatures as well. Estella was not so foolish as not to understand it. But how could they live there without food and drink? After all, the treasury had not been unlocked for decades. The king used to drop the gold he brought back from his marches into the treasury through a crack in the manticore’s mouth on the door. Now, it seemed, a claw had come through the crack.

Estella was frightened. The treasury was almost empty, and it was scary to enter the secret treasury because of the demons that lived there. What should we do?

“Let us out!” A piteous plea was heard.

Estella could not do it. For one thing she was afraid, and for another she had no key. She would have to think how to save the state without money. But she was not good at thinking. It was not for nothing that she was nicknamed a simpleton.

Who Stole the Princess’ Mind?

Outside the windows was a tournament. Estella watched from her high balcony. The aim of the contestants was to identify the sorcerer who had stolen the princess’s mind, and the reward was to be the princess’s hand.

Gisela had already warned her about the dowry hunters, so Estella watched indifferently. She didn’t believe that anyone could propose to her. Normally suitors scattered from her like mice from a kitten. All the ambassadors and distinguished overseas guests admired her from afar, but after the first dialogue it was clear that they disliked the princess.

“You are a child,” Gisela consoled her when the princess was sixteen years old. “As soon as you grow older, wiser, the matchmakers will come back. After all, their princes want to take as a wife a mature and wise beauty. She can help in the government of the country.”

Three years have passed since then. Estella is nineteen and no more desirable to suitors.

It was a pity that in Aluar a woman’s age was determined by her mind. Estella was treated like a naughty child. But Gisela, who was twelve years older than her apprentice, was considered quite ripe for marriage. She was inundated with marriage proposals. Alas, all the applicants for her hand were not kings, so she rejected them all.

“The advantageous place is only next to the throne,” she often repeated, taking Estella to etiquette lessons.

Estella often spilled tea on her dress, but Gisela neither scolded her nor mocked her for it.

“Try it again!” She allowed it, instead of laughing at the silly princess like the others.

Gisela studied the family legends of the Aluar’s dynasty carefully, too, because she wanted to captivate the king with her erudition.

“They say King Abraham was married to a star fairy, maybe that’s why you’re not smart enough,” she once remarked while reading another almanac. “Fairies’ children are either ugly or empty-headed.”

“Only they must have some sort of magical talent.”

“How do you know?”

Estella frowned.

“I don’t remember.”

“I must have heard the maid’s stories.”

Gisela began to study the Kings’ Almanac further.

“There seems to be a lot of fairy tales in here instead of truth,” she concluded. “Your Uncle King Clement, who disappeared so abruptly after his coronation, was supposedly married to a sorceress who could turn into a dragon.”

“Is it in a dragon?” Estella wondered. For some reason dragons had fascinated her more than handsome princes and suitors lately.”

“Yes! There she was. Queen Raymonda. For some reason, she’s considered both a wood elf and a dragon. It says here that she burned half the capital. Then she and her husband both disappeared. Aluar was without king and queen, so your father was invited to the throne. He was King Clement’s uncle. So I don’t know exactly who King Clement is to you. Let’s just call him your uncle.”

“It is all right! He’s my uncle,” Estella repeated bluntly. “Is he still alive?”

“I don’t think so! The dragon-wife most likely burned him and then burst out into the wild. He must have kept her with him by some sort of magical spell. Your father also seemed to know how to cast spells: he could make crops ripen earlier, he could call down rain on withered land, and he could send away enemy troops without even starting a battle or surrendering. One conversation with the enemy and they would leave, forgetting about the war. That’s why your father was so beloved by the people. He was the perfect king.”

“Just don’t call him a sorcerer. Sorcerers are feared and hated.”

“I didn’t say he was a sorcerer. He just had some kind of magical gift,” Gisela slammed the almanac shut.

“I don’t want him to pay for it with my mind,” Estella sighed.

“Oh, that’s all right. You’re pretty enough without a mind. Just don’t spill wine on your dress. You can see the scarlet drops on the pale silk.”

“So what is of it?” Estella thought they were just specks of purple.

“It’s not clean!”

“I think it’s beautiful. There are a lot of stars in the sky, and the wine makes my dress sparkle scarlet.”

Gisela sighed wearily.

“It is quite original, but not practical,” she muttered to herself.

“Does it say in the almanac that my name means star? I was named star, in honor of the Star Fairy who was supposedly my mother.”

“It is too bad you’re not a star fairy yourself.”

“Why is it?”

“Well, you don’t have wings,” Gisela twisted. She really wanted to say something else.

“So you’re saying the knights are only fighting for the right to marry my throne, not me?” Estella looked out the window. “I’m just an unnecessary appendage to the king’s scepter and staff and ermine robe?”

Gisela had said it so many times. Even the fool had already memorized it.

Something went wrong at the tournament. The duels turned into a massive battle. The herald escaped. The bouquet the princess is supposed to present to the winner was trampled. It felt as if a demon had strayed among the knights. Some dwarf creature had indeed galloped across the ring, whispering disgusting advice to the warriors, after which they did violence to themselves and to others. Some jumped on their swords. Some toppled a torch over themselves and were burned alive. Some attacked the ladies with their swords. Well, well, well!

“I’m not the dumbest girl in the kingdom!” Estella rejoiced.

Gisela, who hadn’t been looking out the window, didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Look!”

“I don’t like tournaments,” said Gisela. “They’re not all about me.”

She wanted to put the almanac back on the King’s Library shelf, but Estella stopped her.

“No, please, read me something else from it.”

“What do you want to know? There’s too little information about your mother. And there’s no evidence that she really was a star fairy. But I’ll tell you a secret, your late father supposedly could summon moon and star spirits when he locked himself in his study at night. Suddenly he summoned a star fairy one day and they had an affair! But why he had to marry the fairy, I don’t understand. She could have just flown to him at night. So it’s more like a fairy tale with an unsightly truth hiding behind it. The queen was a witch or a madwoman who was burned or locked in a tower.”

“How creepy is it!” Estella grimaced. “I’m more for fairy tales than creepy.”

“But horror is realistic! And fairy tales are made up to please the simpletons,” Gisela commented with an admonishing tone.

“Then reality is not for me. I want to hear a fairy tale. Read me something else about Queen Raymonda and a dragon!”

Gisela began to flip through the almanac obediently.

“I don’t know where it was,” she said, her fingers tracing the pages as she stumbled over the strange symbols. Gisela frowned. “It looked like witchcraft writings.”

“What are they?”

“It is nothing!” Gisela hurriedly gave her a sweet smile. “You mustn’t worry yourself too much. You’ll make yourself even stupider. So who won the tournament?”

“It is nobody!”

“There’s no such thing. There has to be a winner.”

“Look for yourself!” Estella saw a stadium with only the maimed dead and brutally wounded people left. The royal physician was running among the injured with his medicine chest, muttering something about the intrigues of evil spirits.

“There are devils in the tournament!” The frightened voices of the maidens who had been hurt by the frenzied knights could be heard.

“Now all that’s missing is a dragon!” Gisela made her scholarly opinion.

“I’d like to see a dragon,” Estella said, for which she almost got a slap on the wrist from her tutor.

A stolen mind

So the overseas princes fled from her, believing she was too young and inexperienced to run the country? Now the care of the country had fallen on her, and Estella was no more imposing. Her coronation is coming up, and they whisper about her like she’s a child. Estella herself could hear the chatter of the courtiers as she walked through the corridors of the castle:

“The deceased king bequeathed everything to his only daughter Estella, but she is a fool. The beauty is weak-minded from birth or as a result of some spell cast as a child. That is why there are many astrologers at court who dream of breaking it. The late king was certainly a magician. The guards with their halberds also look like wizards. The princess is being guarded from something.”

Has her hearing become so acute, or are the courtiers whispering so loudly to the ambassadors that they’ve forgotten all decency?

Estella paused to question them further, but thought it unwise to ask about her. It’s better for her to know what’s going on with her, not them. She is going to her own coronation. She is about to become queen of Aluar. She is indeed vigilantly guarded.

But some cunning dwarf has sneaked right into the throne room. How did he slip past the guards? It’s as if he grew out of the floor.

“Your Highness!” He took off his red beret and bowed, touching the floor with his forehead. He bowed with his forehead on the floor, and his diminutive stature made him look ridiculous.

“Have you come to amuse me before the coronation?” Estella guessed and clapped her hands. “Bravo! What other tricks can you do? Would you like to be my jester? As the future queen, may I appoint you right now?”

“Actually,” the dwarf hesitated. “I’ve come to talk about money.”

“Is it about wages?” Estella suggested, innocently. “It’s usually discussed with the King’s Bursar, but he’s been absent recently.”

“No, it is not about salary,” the dwarf scratched his head.

“If not for money, you can serve me for food and lodging. That’s what a lot of servants work for.”

“My Lady, you’re so lovely, I’d pay for the privilege of amusing you myself,” the dwarf said pompously.

What a sweetheart! And she wanted to call the guards to turn him away. He knew how to compliment her, and was obviously eager to curry favor with his new ruler. Perhaps he wanted to ask for preferential treatment for the mines in the west of the kingdom.

Well, he first came to honor her as queen. So she’ll defer to him on everything. No one but him has yet come to the expected coronation, though it should be any minute now. Or had she got the time mixed up? Estella frowned. Could she have been an hour or a day wrong? Arithmetic had always been a problem for her. Especially when it came to dates.

“I have come to give you a gift for your coronation,” a large forged chest, suspiciously resembling those in the treasury of Aluar, appeared beside the dwarf as if from the ground. Even the emblems on the lid are Aluar’s. Probably it was an imitation.

Estella applauded the dwarf again.

“Well done! It’s a treasure! Where did you get it? And how did you get it?”

The dwarf is so small, and the chest is so huge. The dwarf instantly dispelled Estella’s suspicions by easily lifting the huge chest onto his shoulder. Underneath the chest, the tiny bearer wasn’t even noticeable.

“That’s it!” The dwarf finished his show of strength and set the chest back on the floor. No matter how its wrought iron edges damaged the polished parquet. Gisela would scold if Estella stained or ruined anything again on Coronation Day. And she won’t accept explanations that some dwarf has caused trouble, either. She’ll blame it on Estella herself.

“What was it you wanted to ask?” Estella prodded him.

The dwarf hesitated again. He’s shy when it comes to business. But he can carry heavy things like a big man.

“Where did that trunk come from and what’s in it?” Estella became suspicious.

“The chest is from your own treasure,” the dwarf admitted, “but I am by no means a thief. I have not taken a single penny from the treasure. Everything was left inside the chest.”

“Why did you take it without asking?”

“I wanted to do you a favor. I saw how dreamily you looked at the locked treasury, and I thought I should fulfill your whim. Pity I could only get one chest, and even that I had to beat off the occupants of the keep. They nearly sounded the alarm, but in the end we came to an agreement.”

“It’s curious!” Estella drummed her nails on the armrest of her throne.

It was funny that the dwarf had stolen the treasure chest from her only to present it to her. After all, the chest is locked. Perhaps it contains cursed gold which has caused the dwarf so much trouble that he has decided to give it back to its owner. It’s a pity he didn’t come with a confession, but an urgently concocted lie. Gisela would have called the guards to put the thief in prison. But Estella was not called a simpleton for nothing. She decided to take the dwarf at his word. The dwarf was still flirting and wailing:

“You are very beautiful, but I, alas, was driven here by an unpaid debt. I owe so much to your father, that hundreds of years of hard work in the mines will not pay it off. But I can give you a treasure that alone is worth more than all the riches of the world.”

“And what is that?”

“It is your best advisor.”

“What is it? Is it instead of jewels?” Estela was instantly disappointed and was about to call the guards. It sounds too much like fraud. She may be stupid, but she’s not that stupid.

“Think about it. Everyone says you lack wisdom.”

It is right,” she said nervously, remembering a conversation she’d overheard recently that had upset her greatly. The courtiers were arguing about who was sillier — the hen or the princess?

“Would you like to be wise?”

Estella didn’t know what to answer. Her fingernails scratched nervously at the armrest of the throne.

“It is to shut up all those insolent courtiers who tell you that you are foolish and unworthy to rule?” The dwarf continued slyly.

He knows how to flatter! He’s right at the heart of it, like a knife through her heart. One dreams of love and beauty. She dreams of common sense.

Estella nodded slowly.

“So, he will be your mind!” The dwarf proclaimed and disappeared.

Who did he mean? Estella took a step toward the chest. It looks like it’s locked. No, the key is in the keyhole. Estella turned it. The lock gave way easily. There was gold shining through the crack under the lid. The chest seemed to be full of gems, ingots and coins. But where’s the Counselor? Or was the dwarf speaking metaphorically? She wished she were smart enough to understand it all! Was the gift really just a trick to mock the stupidity of a gullible princess?

“What should I do?” Estella opened the lid, which was heavy.

Suddenly a monster the size of a monkey jumped out of the chest. She wanted to scream as it nestled onto her shoulder, but it was suave.

“The Fair Lady has been expecting me!” It cried out in a human voice. “You are as pretty as a rose. You should never wait long.”

It was clearly a compliment, but it wasn’t the compliment that startled the princess. It wasn’t even that the creature’s claws were caressing her cheek, repeating the caress of a lover.

“Can you speak?” Estella opened her mouth in amazement. “Oh, yes!”

“I can do many things!” He boasted as he wrapped his black tail around her neck like a noose.

“Get down! I can’t breathe!” Estella complained.

“You can’t really live without me! I must always be near you.”

“Who are you? And why were you sitting in the box?”

“The better question is not why, but who locked me in?”

“That’s right! That’s what you should have said. I’m not thinking straight. Thanks for the tip.”

“From now on, you will think like a great sage!” The monster promised.

“I don’t think so! I can’t think at all. That’s what they all say.”

“Well, you’d better take my advice,” he advised her kindly, running his black claws tenderly across her forehead. “I am your lost mind. You have just rescued me. The trunk was stuffy and cramped. I am much more comfortable with you, my lady.”

“Am I your lady?” That’s what servants usually call their masters, but the beast acted as if it owned her. Is that how a mind is supposed to behave?

“I’ll call you Reason.”

It wriggled.

“But my name is Gloom.”

“It doesn’t suit you.”

“It sure does. If you’ve noticed, I’m as black as the darkness of night.”

“You are like a firebrand from a furnace!”

“I can see why they call you a fool.”

“It is a simpleton, not a fool. It’s a little different.”

“And you’re smart, too. And you’re not stupid. Aren’t you ashamed not to trust your intelligence?”

“You mean you?” She glanced at the monster on her shoulder.

“Who else could it be?”

“They say the mind is in the head, not on the clavicle.”

“It’s harder to get into your head, though it’s empty, but it’s not much room.” He scratched her shoulder as if he were putting a stamp on it.

“Oh, I wish you’d gone into my head and got lost there.”

“Do you know how hard it is for those who don’t listen to their wits, but do things their own way?” Reason quipped.

“That’s what all the duenna’s told me! I didn’t think you’d be so tedious.”

“Go ahead!” Reason commanded. “Take some of the gold from the chest and hide it in the hatch beneath the throne.”

“There’s a hatch under the throne.”

“You have to push the dragon-shaped carving on the back of the throne, and the hatch will open.”

Her mind raced her like a servant girl until she had dragged almost all the contents of the chest into a deep recess beneath the throne steps.

“Look, is living with your mind, I mean being smart, always so hard?” Estella sighed, exhausted from her work as a loader.

“Shut up!” The mind on her shoulder weighed itself like a chest of jewelry. Her shoulder stiffened.

“Why should I be silent?”

“The more silent you are, the smarter you look.”

“It sounds smart.”

“Trust me, and they’ll stop calling you a simpleton.

“They’ll call me Wise?”

“They’ll call you a star. Your name means North Star, doesn’t it?”

“I didn’t know that! I thought I was just a star.”

“You are a fool,” said Reason, spitting ash on the floor. Why is there ash in his mouth instead of spit? His black spit sealed the treasure-filled hiding place.

“What did you say?” Estella was offended when she heard the word “fool.” Who was he talking about?

“It’s all right, my dear, go ahead. We must get out of the throne room.”

“But my coronation is coming up!”

“It is no coronation for sure yet,” Reason glanced around. “You need to take me to the north tower. Come on!”

Estella felt like a coachman. It was as if the Reason were pulling her by the reins. And so they went. It guided her, showed her the way to her home castle. He was getting into her head. It’s cheeky of him, but convenient for someone who doesn’t want to think about anything herself. He thinks for her.

Reason’s claws were almost lusting over her curls.

“How beautiful you are, Princess.”

“What good would that do?”

“What do you mean? Don’t you value your beauty? Careful, it can be stolen by evil spirits.”

“Everyone laughs at me because I’m stupid.”

“What does a beautiful woman need a mind for?” He laughed suddenly. “It turns out that she does!”

Estella suspected something wrong when she looked at him in the wall mirror. Her mind pressed against her cheek like a gentle pussycat, but it looked like a demon.

“If you are my mind, why are you so ugly?”

“It is because beauty and intelligence are incompatible! Smart people are never beautiful.”

“But then you’re not my mind, you’re someone else’s. You were wrong about me.”

“You are fool,” he swung at her with his claws, but held himself back. “I am yours, you know!”

“And how do you know?”

“I can feel it.”

“You feel it? What do you mean?”

“Like you can feel your leg or arm, I can feel you.”

“But I can’t feel you unless you’re sitting on my shoulder.”

Estella grimaced. The small-sized Mind proved to be heavy. Her shoulder ached from the burden. She hesitated to ask it to step down. She hesitated to ask it to get off, or else it would be gone. Being left without a mind again was terrifying to her. And so she was teased for being a simpleton. Things must change when she had her mind.

“Thank you for showing up,” she thanked him. “It was too bad without you.”

“And you’re already beginning to get smart!” Mind clapped his hands cheerfully, and his claws squeaked. “Usually beauties are empty-headed, but you’re lucky, because you have me. With me you’ll be the greatest queen in the universe, just take my advice.”

Estella nodded obediently. Of course, it was unpleasant to know that your mind was as ugly as a demon. But there was nothing to be done. You have to put up with it. As he himself says, the mind is not meant to be beautiful.

“Aren’t you trying to get back inside my head?” Estella didn’t like the way he drove his sharp claws across the back of her head.

“No, just checking something,” his claws hooked the pendants of the crown. “If you only knew how hard it was for me to let go of my magical chains, to free myself and come back to you, you would have snuggled me now.”

“Was it hard for you, too, without me?” Estella rejoiced. It’s always nice to know you’re not the most deprived.

“Of course it is! As you’ve noticed, I’m very ugly, but a wise man. Together we’d make a great tandem. Just don’t tell anyone about me. Let them think I’m still enchanted. It’s a pity they took the magic out of your pretty little head, or I’d look so pretty. No one would ever have locked the doors of the ballroom or the feast room in front of me.”

“But you will be seen with me if you don’t get off your shoulder.”

“They won’t! As long as I sit on your shoulder I am invisible to others. And you can enjoy my wise counsel.”

“I already have one mentor.”

“Is it a stupid chaperone?”

“She’s smart. Don’t insult her!”

“You will be even smarter now.”

He whispered in her ear. His whisper was as hot as a dragon’s breath. Estella winced.

“Come, princess! With me you will be irresistible to court and invincible in war. Only listen to my advice!”

It’s a good thing Reason doesn’t have to be introduced as a tame monkey. No one really sees him.

There is some commotion among the courtiers. Reason has his black ears pricked up and listens.

“There will be no coronation!” He proclaimed. “This is no longer conjecture but fact.”

“Why should it be so?”

“War has been declared from Ravelin. The local king is convinced the girl must be removed from the throne.”

“Oh, he’s a scoundrel!” Estella clenched her fists.

“Don’t be so boisterous, mistress!” Reason cautioned. “You must behave yourself. Summon the army.”

“But Ravelin is the largest state north of us, famous for its torture chambers and dungeons.”

“And they are but men!” Mind clenched his black clawed fists. “And I…”

“Who are you?” said Estella, wary. “Aren’t you a non-human being? Oh, you mean a non-human mind?”

He chuckled softly, as if he were sprinkling ash around him.

“I am the mind of the wizard king’s daughter! I am above the human mind! You’ll see, with a mind like mine, no war is a serious threat to you!”

Magic in war

With Reason’s advice, raising an army was quick and easy. No one remembered that Ravelin was a mighty state. Everyone listened to the orders of a queen who had yet to be crowned. The coronation had to be postponed. War is out of order.

“I’m sure the scoundrel is plotting to take Aluar for himself by marrying the foolish heiress,” Reason snickered on the way. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Even without winning the war, he may propose to you and settle the dispute. Don’t agree to marry him.”

“I wasn’t going to! I didn’t think he was single,” she rode the white horse, which twitched its ears uneasily and winced at the presence of the beast on her shoulder.

“Horses don’t like us,” Reason complained.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean smart creatures,” he twisted away, though he was about to say something else. “Don’t pull on the reins so hard and loosen the girth.”

He climbed off her shoulder and finished the job for the groom. The horse had nearly had a heart attack at the touch of his claws. She relented, though, and Reason quickly returned to Estella’s shoulder.

“Keep ahead of the group!” He pointed and urged. “You lead the march!”

Estella panicked from afar at the sight of the countless army of the enemies. A forest of helmeted heads stretched as far north as the distant mountains.

“We need a dragon to win now!”

“Why didn’t you say so before! One is just sitting in your dungeons.”

“I thought you were my advisor, not the other way around.”

The princess’s guards looked at each other worriedly, seeing her muttering to herself. Estella belatedly remembered that they couldn’t see Reason, so she shrugged it off:

“I’m praying before the fight! Don’t mind me!”

The excuse about prayers bailed her out of the most ridiculous situations. The guards even respected the faithful princess.

Reason put his clawed little fingers in his mouth and whistled. The warriors murmured. The sound was like an omen of impending disaster.

“If the dragon doesn’t wake up and get here within the hour, he doesn’t hold me in high esteem,” Reason grumbled. “Then I’ll have to give him a sterner draft. He’s been so sleepy. Not long ago he was working for your father as a living furnace, burning prisoners and spies in his jaws. As soon as your father grew old and sick, the dragon became lazy.”

“I knew nothing of the dragon.”

“But you felt it. You have dragon’s blood, too,” Reason gently touched her chest with his claws, jabbing at the brooch, but his paw did not bleed. It appeared to be invulnerable. Estella gasped. This monster was about to become her hero.

He had not promised to win the war soon, either, as it turned out, for nothing. He didn’t need a dragon for his revenge, either.

Reason hissed a whisper, and the marching tents of the enemy’s troops went up in flames like matchsticks.

She opened her mouth in amazement.

“Don’t pursue your lips, or a moth will pop into them,” said Reason, chuckling, claws clawing at her shoulder.

“Aren’t you babbling witchcraft words?” Estella panicked when she heard the ominous words in his whisper.

“Why should you care how we win the war?” He grumbled angrily.

“No, I don’t. It’s all about winning it!”

“Bite your tongue while I work! I am working hard to help you. And you call me a sorcerer!”

“I’m sorry!” Estella watched in horror as a black storm rose from the ground on the battlefield, as if triggered by Reason’s hiss. Where it passed, enemy warriors pounced to fight each other, as if they had become blind and could not distinguish friend from foe. And Reason claims he’s no warlock! She finds that hard to believe.

“Don’t worry, I won’t send my Reason away just because it’s witchcraft,” Estella tried to reassure him, but Reason wouldn’t hear her. He hissed strange, incomprehensible words that caused the ground between the two armies to open up, and the bony arms of the dead began to stick out.

Estella cried out in horror, and her horse sprang to a halt.

“Enough is enough!” Reason clicked its black claws. It made the ground between the Ravelin’s and the Aluar’s armies smooth again. And a moment ago there was a pit in it.

“Who were they?”

“What do you mean?” Reason didn’t understand.

“They came out of the ground.”

“They were the skeletons of warriors who had fallen in a former battle.”

“What old battle? We haven’t even started the first one yet.”

“Do you think this is the first time kings have fought on this field?”

“I don’t know,” Estella frowned.

The damage inflicted on someone else’s army forced King of Ravelin to negotiate.

“We haven’t raised the white flag yet, but we’d like to negotiate peacefully,” the counselor, who had approached Estella with the royal delegation, ingratiated. He seemed to think she was a witch, for he trembled shakily as he addressed her. She ought to tell him she hadn’t been conjuring, but she would have to denounce Reason in front of everyone. It would be indelicate.

“You are, of course, the daughter of the Wizard King, and his spirit is clearly protecting you,” the Counselor said curtly. “But, think, what is it like for a woman to rule alone? You need a lively protector in the form of a royal consort.”

“What did I tell you?” Reason clawed at Estella’s hair and pulled the strands tight. “Don’t dare to agree! Do you understand?”

She couldn’t even nod, so hard he tugged at her curls.

The King of Ravelin looked at her with admiration. He was an attractive young man, but the silver half-mask on his face frightened her away. It was the kind worn by victims of alchemical experiments who mutilated themselves. Knights are usually proud of their battle scars.

“A dragon burned me,” the King said, catching her gaze perplexed as he removed the mask. He hadn’t done so in a long time, it seemed, because his counselor gasped in astonishment. Estella didn’t like the sight of the poisonous burn, either. It crossed the king’s eye and cheek, disfiguring the attractive face.

“The dragon was small, the size of an elephant. Not the size for a dragon. But he broke into the palace to rob my treasury, and I got in his way.”

“And now you wish to replenish your treasury at the expense of mine?” Estella merely repeated the words Reason whispered, but the King of Ravelin blushed to his ears.

“I was only sure your father had cast a dragon upon me. Everyone knows he was, um, kin of dragons.”

“This is an insult to my entire dynasty!” Estella echoed Reason again, copying not only the words but the stern tone this time. Even her own knights were afraid of her.

“Forgive me, but there are rumors,” the king of Ravelin hesitated. He obviously felt insecure in the presence of the proud beauty. She contrary to the vicious gossip was also clever.

“Rumor and truth are different things!” Estella struggled to hold the reins of her horse, which was never accustomed to the presence of Reason.

“I assumed you, like many, wanted to make me a sort of marriage proposal, first defeating me in battle so that I would not refuse. You value your manhood so little that you think you can’t get a bride except by force?”

“Actually…” The king of Ravelin shrank back to hide his embarrassment. “You had such a reputation… Well… I wouldn’t dream of asking you to marry me.”

“Am I not beautiful?”

He was embarrassed.

“Or did hearing about how stupid I was make you reject me?”

“Are you stupid?!”

“More like cunning!“One of the advisors whispered. The king shushed them hastily.

“You are very wise, my lady. Let us solve the war by marriage.”

How quickly he changed his mind! But Reason did not let Estella decide for herself whether she wanted to marry or not. The answer it whispered, she repeated:

“No, then you will get my treasury, and what will I get? Is it the absence of sincere love?”

Reason reeled as the king began to swear to her the sincerity of his feelings.

“Tell him about the secret of the king’s treasury. He will understand. Whisper one word.”

“But it’s witchcraft,” Estella recoiled from Reason’s whisper, which burned her ear.

“And so what is it?”

“What if I whisper it myself and turn into a frog?”

“Would I give you a bad advice?” He took offense.

“Who knows?”

“Don’t be too smart! Remember I am your reason. Take my advice!”

The king was worried when he caught the princess muttering something to her. Perhaps he thought he had been too quick to deem her clever.

She leaned so that her lips were close to the king’s ear.

“Demonikum!” Obediently she whispered, repeating after Reason almost letter for letter. Probably not exactly accurate, but the word worked.

The king seemed frightened.

“Demonology of the Aluar’s treasures,” she obediently repeated after Reason. “The spirits are locked away! Hungry demons! Angry angels! The bestiary beside them! A devourer of gold in the treasury! All this waits at home!”

The king recoiled from her as if her breath burned his ear like a dragon’s.

Estella herself was frightened. She could not have had a dragon inside her.

“I was in a hurry to fight you. But if you wish to flee from Aluar, my marriage proposal still stands. Will you leave with me now?”

“How men are captivated by beauty!” Reason snorted. Estella almost repeated after him, but Reason’s claws hastily clamped her mouth shut.

“That’s not for other people’s ears!”

Then don’t say it! Estella was furious with him.

“Tell him they’ll break free and fly after you if you leave! And they will tear his kingdom to shreds, and they will ride on the wreckage with a coven.”

The words, prompted by Reason, were frightened as they would not be frightened of a dragon. By the way, the dragon he had summoned never showed up. But he was no longer needed. King Ravelin’s armies retreated like beaten dogs. They suffered casualties and surrendered. Thanks to Reason for everything. With such a counselor, there’s no need for a fighting dragon in war. It’s not without reason that they say the mind is the most important thing for a man. With intelligence will never be lost!

A dragon from the dungeons

The warriors had already fled, but the king was still reluctant to leave her side. He waited for her to decide in his favor. The thought of taking just one princess from an entire enchanted kingdom did not frighten him.

By the way, Reason on her shoulder was very nervous and unraveled his claws.

“Chase him away!” He insisted, squinting unkindly at the king.

“How is it?”

“I don’t care if you shoot him out of cannon!”

Easy to say, hard to do! The king of Ravelin was somehow convinced that Estella had to be rescued. He even said he’d be willing to take her without a kingdom, and leave the kingdom to the evil spirits who inhabited it.

“A bargain can be struck with the demons,” he explained, pointing to his own burnt face. “You just have to give them something, like a piece of your own skin, or a pint of blood, or in your case, your whole country. You are sweet to me even without a power. Come with me!”

He held out his hand in an expensive gauntlet. How thoughtful! Not long ago he wanted to take her kingdom from her, but he would never dream of marrying her. How the mind changes everything! Or is it beauty? The King said he liked her for both.”

Estella would have said yes, but Reason would not allow it. Reason was worth listening to. She’d learned by now that he never promised anything for nothing. He had indeed helped her in the war. It was dangerous to marry a foreign king without his approval. What if she is being lured into a trap? She must find the delicate words to refuse Again Reason bailed her out, whispering:

“Say your mother is the star fairy Arabellina. For the daughter of a fairy spouse with a physical defect is unacceptable, or else there will be misfortune for both kingdoms: yours and his.”

Estella stupidly repeated after Reason, whom the king did not see, and felt like a puppet, clawed by the strings. Reason clung to her like a tame monkey.

Hearing of the fairy mother’s obstacle, even the King of Ravelin chickened out and turned his horse away.

“So get out of here!” Reason spat fire on the ground. “Don’t go molesting someone else’s property!”

The fiery spit scorched the retreating marshals and the counselor. But they didn’t even dare complain.

“What’s the matter with you?” Estella yanked Reason by the tail. “We have won!”

“We will win when there are no one left in the world but only you and I,” he hissed, his tail around Estella’s neck.

Estella didn’t understand him. It was probably just another sorcerer’s formulation to keep her enemies from returning, but she would not repeat it.

As the enemy army retreated, Reason chuckled angrily for some reason.

The waking dragon appeared after the battle. It suddenly appeared in the sky above the battlefield, where only Estella’s knights remained. Its emerald scales gleamed with the lightest of shades, reflecting the sun’s rays. Its powerful wings raised a hurricane wind. Estella would have marveled at the sight of a real dragon had it not blasted indiscriminately at her own troops. This is what real war is like! Estella felt as if she were in a rain of fire. Not a cannon can compare to an attack by a dragon. Flames rained down from the sky, scorching the earth, the grass, and the people.

“He will burn all the knights! Call it off!”

“It is too late!” Grimly Reason reacted, but muttered another magic word, and the fire immediately ceased.

The dragon, which for some reason reeked not only of fire but also of beer, swooped down, clawed at a dozen warriors, and was gone. He glowed like the dawn and stole people like a fox stealing chickens from the henhouse.

“He didn’t care about goats, sheep, or knights. He might as well choke on his armor!” Reason hissed resentfully.

“But that would leave us without a protector.”

“Who needs a protector who will attack us!”

“Then why did you summon him?”

“I was a fool!”

“So the mind can be a little foolish?”

“It is very much in our case!” Reason was staring dejectedly at the dragon feeding on the knights on the high mountain near the scorched field. No one dared to shoot it. The damage he had done was ignored.

“Is he a drunkard, by any chance?”

“You figured that out all by yourself?”

“He stinks. Or is he just sleeping on beer kegs?”

“Is he just sleeping? He’ll even start to drink moonshine if you put a keg next to him. He started out with fine Aluar’s wine. He’s gone downhill.”

“But he flies high,” she traced the dragon’s flight with a rapt look.

“I mean his moral character. They’ve gone from bad to worse. I went down to his cellar once, and he tried to burn me. He didn’t recognize an old friend. But if I’d brought him some ale and pie, he’d have changed his mind. A glutton and a drinker! That’s what he is. And he’s lazy, too! Get him out of here!”

“He’s a real dragon.”

“So what is it?”

“I’ve always wanted to see a real dragon!”

“There are plenty of dragons! Only we got the worst one!”

“Well, not the worst…” Estella couldn’t take her eyes off the glittering scales, but the dragon ate his food and flew away too quickly.

“He’ll be asleep for another year,” Reason complained. “Oh, I used to think it was only the Princess who was defective, but now the dragon-keeper is defective, too. But you seem to be making amends. Well done for blowing off the king!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have! When he keeps his mask on, he’s handsome.”

“He’s a womanizer and a flatterer! With him you could cry!”

“But you could cry your whole life without him. He’s the first and only fiancé I’ve ever had to chase away. The others ran away.”

“That was before! Now you’ll have lots of suitors.”

“I don’t believe it! Surely this was my only chance for happiness. Fiancés aren’t for me.”

“You’ll have hundreds of them! Thousands! And I’ll deal with them all!” Reason snatched a stiletto from one of the knights beside him and sharpened his claws.

The dragon left deep parched pits in the field from which strange creatures, either dwarves or dwarf-like monsters, were crawling. They shook their skinny black fists in displeasure and protested against the dragon.

“Who were they?” Estella had never seen such bizarre creatures in her life.

“Boggles,” said Reason, sounding reluctant. “I can’t stand them, though they’re better than boogeys.”

“What’s the difference?”

“They’re just as bad, but they’re werewolves, too. They can turn into dogs and attack,” Reason clung to Estella. “Get a grip on your horse!”

One of the boggles, with its weird red hat, galloped right out beneath the horse’s hooves, and the horse bucked.

“Don’t you know how to use spurs?” Reason reprimanded me. “Spur the horse, and let him gallop faster.”

The horse calmed down as soon as the boggle ran past. The knights, who had not seen Reason, spotted the boggles and began to baptize.

“What warriors they are! They’ll run to the temple at the first sign of trouble and leave the Princess alone in the field,” Reason hissed in frustration.

“Aren’t you afraid of boggles? They’re miniature goblins!”

“You got that right. The dragon disturbed them. They would have been slumbering under the battlefield. The blood of fallen warriors fed them. Look how red their hats have turned. They become so red from the blood spilled above, and the boggles themselves sit beneath the soil and laugh at the fighting humans.”

Reason spotted tiny creatures, each no bigger than Estella’s little finger. They were moving in a flock away from one of the dragon-burned pits.

“Hold your horse here!” He commanded Estella.

“What’s that for?”

“Don’t ask! Do it!”

Estella obeyed. Reason jumped down, climbed into the hole, brazenly dispersed a flock of midgets, and came back with a whole pot of gold coins. He threw away the pot of clay and poured the gold into the saddlebag of Estella’s horse.

“Leprechauns always have something to eat!” He explained. “I’ll hide it in a hiding place under the throne.”

“What do we need so much gold for?”

“It is just in case there is a rainy day.”

“Are we so poor that we have to steal from the leprechauns?” She turned her attention to the flock of midgets waving their fists in anger at Reason. He left them nothing but shards of broken pot, and took all the coins for himself. “Shall we give them all back?”

“And what shall we do ourselves when times of famine come?”

“Don’t joke, the country is prospering!”

“That’s for now! With a kindness like yours, it wouldn’t take long for the kingdom to be wasted,” Reason began lecturing her again. You might as well cover your ears for him!

“Promise you’ll never steal again!” Estella asked.

“You’d better tell that to the dragon. He’s probably back in the dungeons, sleeping rough and snacking on guards.”

“So that’s where cellar guards often disappear to. The dragon eats them!”

“And tell him not to drink anymore!” Reason quipped. “If you take away his keg of beer, he’ll be so angry he’ll snack on you.”

“I don’t believe you. They say dragons adore princesses.”

“It doesn’t care if it eats a princess or a man in a chain mail. Take my word for it. When he’s drunk, he doesn’t know the difference. And he’s drunk all the time.”

“All right, all right, I believe you!” Estella spurred her horse, and thought to herself that she would meet her dragon again. She liked him very much. He was beautiful, graceful, scaly, like a huge flying emerald. And what a protector he would be if she were to wean him off his alcoholic beverages.

If Reason were to slander him from the vein, what kind of defender would he be? After all, if the dragon were obedient, with such a strong friend, the princess could rule without reason.

Entertainment

Estella wanted to throw a ball to celebrate the resolution of the war problem. But Reason dissuaded her.

“A ball is too expensive,” he said. — And there will be a great many people there too. A dragon, attracted by the noise, might crawl into the ball and frighten away all the guests.

“Very well, then! I want to see it again!” Estella clapped her hands together in joy. “Let’s hurry up and make the ball so the dragon will come to us, or fly over.”

“You are fool, he will not give you a bouquet of roses, and will die fire so that the entire ballroom will burn!”

“Can he ask a girl to dance? Or does the difference in size prevent us from dancing?”

“He can. But it will be your last dance on fire and ashes.”

“Don’t scare me!”

“Did you see what he did to your knights?”

“But I’m a princess, not a knight.”

“Not everyone is gentle with princesses, either. The dragon is a savage! He won’t woo you.”

Estella scowled like a hurt child. And why should she be the only one to obey Reason in everything? She wanted to do things her own way. But if she did her own way, without listening to Reason, she would be a fool again. How hard it is to live! If you do what you want, you will be called a fool, and if you submit to Reason, you will be deprived of all the fun you want.

“Then there will be no ball!” Estella sighed.

“No, it is of course not. It will cost a great deal of money. Guests from other realms might come, and you’d have to feed and wine them all, and entertain them all to the highest standards. And if you don’t please them with the quality of drinks and refreshments, you can expect another war to be declared.”

“But you have so much gold stashed under the throne? Don’t you have enough for a decent ball?”

Reason clamped a clawed paw over her mouth. “The treasure’s in the hiding place for a special purpose.”

“For what purpose is it?”

Estella struggled to wriggle out of his claws.

“Shall I tell you later?”

“What does it mean?”

“The right time comes. In the meantime, forget about balls, carnivals, masquerades, and feasts.”

“It is except the coronation,” Estella reminded him.

“Yes, the coronation is essential,” said Reason. “We can’t do without it,” Reason sighed. “But we’d better get it over to June or they’ll think you’re May’s queen,” he chuckled.

He chuckled muffled at his own joke. Estella was embarrassed, for even she knew that May queens were usually proclaimed the prettiest peasant women who attended the spring village dances. To be May queen means to be queen for just one day.

“I would set your coronation for the night. Midnight would be the best time.”

“Alas, tradition says you can only be crowned in the morning, no later than noon.”

“But then it won’t be your last coronation,” Reason muttered cryptically to himself, but Estella heard him.

“What do you mean?”

“About your destiny,” he scratched his paws. “I’ll make you the only queen on the planet, and I’ll be your only advisor.”

“Oh, well, that sounds like a fantastic plan, Reason.” Estella grumbled unhappily. She’s already finding Aluar’s crown too heavy for her, and he’s going on about the world.

“You do know there will be a fancy-dress ball after the coronation,” she quipped. “You can’t cancel it. My predecessor, the legendary Queen Raymonda, established the tradition of a masquerade ball after the coronation.”

“She was rumored to be a dragon! You’d better not compare yourself to her, or the people will revolt against you.”

“Why don’t we have the ball now instead of after the coronation? I want to dance.”

“It is absolutely not! We won’t be alone at the ball. You must spend more time in my company if you want to get wise. Let’s keep it simple and for only two people.”

And so he and Reason sat down to play chess. He climbed the board, rearranging the pieces, and resembled a bizarre black monkey. Except that his sharp, werewolf-like claws left deep scratches on the chessboard.

Vines and flower vines wrapped around the chess tower of the castle where the game was played. The smell of honeysuckle and roses was pleasantly invigorating. Estella thought that some butterflies, fluttering in the flowers, and suspiciously resembling pixies, were whispering a warning.

“Is the princess playing with an evil spirit or a demon? We must tell her that she is in danger! But she’s not likely to understand our language. People don’t usually understand us.”

But Estella heard and understood. They must have mistaken Reason for an evil spirit. Should she tell them they were wrong? Or would that be an insult to Reason, who for some reason could not hear them?

He was so engrossed in the game that he didn’t notice anything. He preferred to play with black pieces. Estella got the white chess pieces, which had the privilege of making the first move, but it didn’t help her. She too often lost to Reason. Only once or twice did he let her win. It was only because he was distracted by looking at himself in the wall mirror. He really did look like he’d been dragged out of the furnace like a chimney demon. No wonder why the pixies mistook him for an evil spirit. She didn’t like his appearance herself, but she was used to him. For the sake of achievement, it was worth tolerating his ugliness. If it weren’t for Reason, she wouldn’t even know the rules of chess combat.

“They say it’s a game for the clever!” Estella remarked, rearranging the pieces. “I play it, so I am clever!”

“It is with my help. Don’t you forget! I am your cleverness. Without me you are as without a head,” Reason himself dragged the pieces with both paws and hurt Estella’s white chess pieces with his tail, so that she regularly had to correct them. Playing with him was really the most amusing thing about it.

“And they say I’ve been bewitched, so I’m stupid.”

“They’re comforting you.”

“What do you say?” She almost dropped her queen.

“Don’t ask me every word, like a dummy. Take more of my advice, and you’ll get smarter.”

“It’s that simple?”

“How do you think people learn the wisdom of life?”

“I don’t know. I think they’re born smart.”

Estella tensed. Her head felt like it was a mess. Her mind echoed in her head as if someone was pounding on an invisible door inside her mind with a fist. The healer said it happens to all victims of witchcraft. But Reason assured her otherwise.

“All men listen to wise counsel, and gain wisdom for themselves,” he said. “So with me you are on the right track.”

“But you cause a lot of trouble in the state. The palace has been in turmoil every day since I rescued you from captivity.”

“It’s not my fault. It’s the intrigues of those who envy you. They envy you for having me.”

“Can anyone see you? You said you were invisible?”

“Silly, they sense that you have something in you worthy of envy. People, even when they’re blind, can smell it and get angry. It’s human nature to be jealous.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“That’s because you’re lucky. There’s no one to envy you. Envy isn’t for those born princesses.”

“That’s not true! I have often envied Gisela.”

“She is a duenna!” Reason chuckled nastily. “You’d have been better off turning her over to a convent. She has no business in a palace. She has her nose everywhere.”

“She’s not a chaperone! She’s my tutor.”

“She’s a prude and a jealous woman, and a hunter for a rich husband. If you were a prince instead of a princess, she would have married you long ago, ignoring the age difference.”

“But she’s so elegant and graceful and everyone admires her manners. I don’t know how to behave like that.”

“So I’ll teach you!” Reason finished the game and jumped on Estella’s shoulder. The white chess pieces were lying heavily scratched on the board. “I can’t stand white chess, because white troops have long been my enemies.”

Reason spit ash on the board, and his black spit burned through it. The white ivory pieces cracked in half.

“Was it my winning that upset you?” Estella guessed. It must be nonsense that she won and not her mind.

“You just talked me out of it and I had to give you a head start,” he brushed her off. “And what problems in the state were you talking about when I helped you get through the war without any losses.”

“It is almost without loss of life!” She clarified, remembering the dragon-eaten knights.

“Feeding a dragon doesn’t count as loss,” Reason corrected. “We have to feed him while he guards us.”

“He’d rather eat other men’s food than our own.”

“You’re getting smarter, aren’t you? Next time, we’ll turn him on our enemies. I’ll help him change his orientation from our subjects to outsiders. Let him snack on outsiders. Are all our problems solved now?”

“It is not all! The courtiers have been gossiping about ghosts and evil spirits since you arrived.”

“That’s their problem, not ours.”

“Are you sure?”

“If they’re not right in the head, let them see a physician! You’re not their mother to take care of them.”

“I see! You’ve freed me from my problems.”

Estella was glad that Reason had made things so easy. Suddenly he was no longer a problem, but it was hard to carry on her shoulder.

“You’re not getting off! My shoulder’s stiff, and it’s hard for me.”

“It’ll be even harder without me!” Reason said profoundly. Maybe he was right. Maybe he needs to be close to her head, or else he’ll disappear. And without his advice, it really is hard.

“Come on, my polar star.”

“Where are we going now?”

“Just walk me around the castle. I want to hear who’s talking about what.”

“You mean listen to the news?”

“That’s right!”

He can hear everything from a distance. How does he do that? The talkers stand far away and whisper barely, but he hears everything clearly and even retells some of it.

In the beginning Estella liked the new entertainment, because Reason retold her all the funny gossip about swaggering ladies and their admirers, but gradually she tired of the monotony of the news.

“There’s Lady Frederica plotting against her husband’s sweetheart,” Reason reported. “And that Lady Cassinda ran to the physician in the morning to cure her pimples, but he did not help her. She’s now powdering her rash and whispering nasty things about the doctor to her friends Lady Eden and Lady Fancy. And the Duchess Gloriana is left abandoned by her suitor. These two gentlemen with whom she is whispering now are the bravi, the assassins for hire. She wants to send them to the traitor at night. And these ladies are the ones who are badmouthing everyone who seems more successful than they are. And it’s all high society! Even the demons would behave more decently if you wanted them to drive the humans out and make them your subjects. Is that what you want, by the way?”

Reason clawed nervously at her neck, almost ripping her necklace.

“Do you want demons or not?”

“Let me go!” Estella almost threw him off, and Reason scolded. She had to go with him into the alcove, where no one would see them.

“You’d better take me to the dragon!”

“But he’s dangerous! He’ll burn you!”

“Are demons not dangerous?”

Reason went kind of quiet.

“I don’t want demons, I want to see the dragon,” she insisted, tugging at Reason’s tail.

“It is all right, all right,” Reason struggled to free his tail from her fingernails. “When it gets dark, I’ll take you to the dragon. But not now! Not when it’s midnight and all the servants are asleep. Only that he may burn you, you take the responsibility on yourself.”

Estella nodded happily.

Girlfriend of the dragon

Up close, the dragon was an unpleasant swamp color. It looked emerald only in the sunlight. In the dungeon, lit by smoldering torches, its hide no longer glowed as brightly. Estella was not disappointed. A real dragon is a miracle, no matter what it looks like.

He slept on kegs of beer and completely ignored the princess. He must have been fed up.

“I’ll call him Emerald anyway,” Estella decided aloud, “even though he looks more like a swampy in color.”

“You should call it Ale,” said Reason. “He always responds to the word ale.”

There were plenty of empty ale barrels in the dungeon. Some had been crushed to splinters by the claws of dragons. From the smell, it was clear to this day what their contents were.

“And he likes to drink heady drinks,” Estella concluded bleakly.

“Well, call him Drunkard,” Reason jumped off Estella’s shoulder and began bouncing around the kegs, even trying to pull the corks out of some. He didn’t seem to mind a drink himself. “Fortunately, our dragon had not yet reached the fancy wine cellars in the royal cellar. And it wasn’t because he was lazy. The cellar is a narrow passage, and your daddy’s spell on the door. It’s impossible for a dragon to get in. Otherwise he’d have been nicknamed the Wine Connoisseur a long time ago.”

“It is no more name choices,” she said, staring mesmerized at the green spines on the dragon’s backbone. “I’ll call him Emerald.”

“He’s not really a doggy to give him names.”

“Of course he’s not a little dog. He is my own personal dragon. I have the right to give him a name and an honorary title like chief watchman of the kingdom.”

“You’d better give him the title of sleepyhead. He can sleep for decades.”

Reason poked the dragon on the tip of his ear, but the sleeping monster grumbled drowsily and exhaled a puff of steam from his nostrils.

“He grumbled, as if he were in a laundry, with steaming laundry,” Reason grumbled grudgingly.

“Well, it’s not right in the oven, is it?” Estella realized that the dragon’s mouth was as large as several ovens. Its tongue and saliva must have been fiery. And this monster had been asleep in her dungeons for years, and she didn’t even know anything about it.

“And if he wakes up now, will he burn us, like my knights?”

“Of course not,” Reason said uncertainly. “He doesn’t burn anyone alive when he’s full. Well, not unless it’s fun. Do you know any charms for controlling dragons?”

“What kind of stupid question is that? I’m not a sorceress.”

“So the King didn’t teach you anything,” Reason was visibly disappointed.

“Why did he have to teach me magic? He trained me to be a queen, not a sorceress.”

“You’re a laugh and a sin! You’re the daughter of a sorcerer king, and you can’t do magic,” Reason scowled resentfully. “If you could, you could control a dragon. And the good ale would not go to waste in his fiery belly.”

Reason realized he didn’t have the strength to pull the plugs out of the barrels or unscrew the faucets. He murmured something to the effect that the wine bottles in the nearest cellar would be much better. How he could get one for supper?

Estella didn’t care about Reason’s worries. She could see the dragon’s twisted horns, its scales sparkling in the torches, and its sharp claws, each the size of a spear.

“If you could conjure, you’d take him out to hunt and he’d drink blood, not ale, as a martial dragon should.”

“Is he a battle dragon?”

“King Abraham would feed a non-combat dragon in his cellars. Your father was a shrewd and hoarder,” Reason grudgingly kicked a barrel of ale with his clawed paw. “Had it not been for his provisions, the dragon would not have been a drunkard.”

“Emerald!” Estella called softly and stroked the dragon’s scaly horn.

“Careful! You’ll hurt yourself! The scales are sharper than razor blades and impenetrable to arrows and spears. There is a reason why magicians have long since learned to fashion armor from dragon scales that is resistant to fire. Such armor makes anyone a hero. Once you wear it, not even magical creatures can defeat you. By the way, you have one such armor in your arsenal. When you put it on, you can go to war with evil spirits.”

Reason hastily covered his mouth with his claws. He must have said something unnecessary.

“I’m not going to war with anyone else,” Estella reassured him.

“Of course you aren’t! Why would you want to go to war when you have a martial dragon? If you send it to war, there’ll be no more enemy troops left. As long as he stays awake, he can get to the battlefield in time, long before the other armies march on to our castle. Imagine! Enemies are already ramming the gates, and you can’t get the dragon to wake up.”

Reason laughed evilly. His laughter caused the dragon to wiggle his ears sleepily, as if trying to drive away a pesky gnat.

“Tell you a secret. If you sing a song, a lullaby or something touching, the dragon will wake up.”

“Lullabies usually make you fall asleep.”

“That’s just it! Everything works differently for dragons than it does for humans. They especially like the songs of young innocent maidens. If you want to tame it, you’ll have to become a singer.”

“Let’s try it!” Estella prepared to sing the only song she knew. The girls used to sing it at the spinning wheel.

“The yarn stretches,

My heart is aching

I’m waiting for a beautiful bridegroom,

And there’s nothing but evil around.

I’m waiting for a rider on a horse,

But only black elves are dancing in the hearth.”

The song was a somber one. It was usually sung by spinners at work. Apparently there was a shortage of young men in the villages of Aluar, and there were plenty of bad ones. Estella could see for herself that there were more of them when she discovered colonies of boggles beneath the battlefield.

“Don’t sing!” Reason nimbly jumped up and clamped down on Estella’s mouth. “Not when you want to wake up a dragon for war or hunting.”

“But I want to wake it now,” she protested, and Reason jerked his claws from her mouth. She must have gotten her teeth caught carelessly in them.

“You are wretch!” He hissed and blew on his fingers.

“Who are you talking about?”

“It is a cask of ale, my dear,” Reason brushed her off. “Ale is a bad drink, if a dragon drinks it. Let’s go to the cellar and get some wine. He’s going to wake up and give us a hard time. If we leave, he’ll go back to sleep.”

But the dragon was already awake. One of its yellow eyes flickered reluctantly open.

“Emerald!” Estella exclaimed happily.

“His name is Virgil,” said Reason, correcting her. “That’s what your father once called him. And what his real dragon name is, only his scaly ancestors know.”

“I am so glad you are awake! How handsome and scaly you are! I’ll sing for you again, if you like! I’ll even learn ballads and romances. You like singing, don’t you?”

Estella stroked the dragon, and it rumbled like a big cat.

“Hey, you,” Reason scrambled up the barrels so that the dragon could see him. “Remember me, big boy?”

The dragon hissed at him, but Estella encouraged him.

“Virgil, my dear,” Reason snapped at him, “you ought to loosen up a little, keep watch over the realm. Otherwise you’d be lying on your side.”

The dragon shooed at him, exhaling hot steam again. Reason ducked behind the pile of barrels.

“He’s comfortable here,” Estella said for the dragon.

“My tail stiffened as I sat in the chest,” Reason complained.

How is it that Estella liked the dragon, but not Reason? Maybe dragons prefer silly coquettes.

“Oh, my darling,” she petted him.

“You sound as if you were singing a lullaby to him. He’s a monster, not a baby.”

“He’s so nice and cute.”

“When he shoots sparks at you, you’ll change your mind.”

But the dragon was slow to fire at Estella. Apparently dragons don’t hurt princesses. Not without reason, even the prim Gisela loved tales of love between beautiful girls and dragons. Estella felt almost in love when the dragon encouraged her affectionate touch. She had finally found the friend she had never had in her life. And Reason had managed to pierce the bottom of the barrel with his claws and was now greedily drinking ale straight from the puddle on the floor.

“It was delicious!” He said. “If I’d been locked in a cellar with hops and groceries, I’d rather be in there than with you.”

Estella wasn’t even offended by him. After all, the dragon had made a choice in her favor.

“Don’t be fooled! He liked your jewelry, not you. Dragons love rings and necklaces and things like that.”

“So do you!” She remembered hiding place beneath the throne.

“But I would not pity a maiden merely because she stroked me with her hand in precious rings.”

“You mean you’ve hurt girls?”

“I have even killed…” Reason paused. “Why should you want to know about my past? Think of the dragon. You’re lucky you found fun. Mind your own business.”

Her Reason’s past is no one else’s business, is it? Estella frowned. That doesn’t make sense. Considering, of course, that her Reason had been taken from her by magic, and she’d been trapped in it, anything could have happened to her that she didn’t know about. If the situation is extraordinary, it must be handled differently. It is better not to ask Reason what he himself does not want to tell. He was already ranting about the dragon’s past mischief.

“Last time, the dragon ate a brewer and then wondered why no one else made beer. He even crawled into the kitchen to burn everyone there. Anyway, acted like a serviceable worker who stopped being fed for no reason.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“Of course, you weren’t there yet.”

“Were you?”

It seems strange that her mind was born before hers. Maybe that’s why it got lost in the beginning. Reason chuckled slyly.

“You know too much, you’ll grow old early.”

Estella immediately wanted to look in the mirror. No wrinkles? Mind chuckled something very snidely. She didn’t have a mirror with her; she must have left it on the dressing table in her bedroom. But if she rubbed her dragon scales with her sleeve, they were just as reflective as a mirror. Her face looked fine. There was no sign of aging yet. And she was too young. She wasn’t even twenty. The dragon really liked her. And as everyone knows, dragons only like the youngest and most beautiful girls. An aging lady would not have been to his liking.

As luck would have it, just as she was about to make nice with a dragon, a sentry snuck into the dungeon.

“So long since anyone’s been down here,” Reason muttered as he heard the clatter of his armor, “your song is what got the sentries going. You ought to keep your voice down.”

“So the dragon wouldn’t have heard me! He wouldn’t have woken up.”

The watcher’s helmet was already gleaming in the passage. The dragon moved only the tip of its mighty tail to send the sentry tumbling to his feet. The armor thundered loudly. The halberd flew aside and nearly decapitated Reason. Thankfully, Reason was very agile and bounced off the blade in time.

“It’s like war at home!” He complained, while the dragon had already clawed at the guard and was about to unleash a blast of fire on the unfortunate man.

“No, it is not here! It would set the whole castle on fire! Not, Emerald!” Estella whispered, but the dragon could not hear her. But it was impossible not to hear Reason howling at the top of his lungs. He was waving his clawed paws vigorously, leaping onto the pile of barrels in front of the dragon, and shouting:

“Stop it! You’ll burn another brewer. Who’s going to make you beer?”

The dragon scratched at the back of his head with his claw. Drunkenness was not a hindrance to his quick wits. But he had let the sentry go for nothing. He was no brewer, so he began to panic.

“We must fly away while your guards run about the castle looking for the dragon, and when the clamor dies down we’ll be back.”

Reason was right. Estella herself was terrified of the conflagration that could break out as soon as an armed detachment burst into the dragon’s dungeons. She tried to climb onto the dragon’s back, clinging to the spikes. She did not succeed. She herself only slid down the dragon’s fur. If the dragon hadn’t have held her up by his wingtip, she would have never made it onto his backbone. But there, between the big green spines and the ridge that extended from her head to her back, she sat down comfortably in the saddle.

“Let’s fly! Take me for a ride!” Estella asked, but the dragon did not respond.

“That’s not the way to ask,” Reason jabbed him with a claw, and the dragon sprang away. She barely had time to land on its back.

Reason slid onto the dragon’s ridge like a nimble black flea. There was a broad opening to the outside of the dungeon, but no one could see it because King Abraham’s cloaking spell had obscured it. If Reason hadn’t told her all this, Estella herself wouldn’t have known why they’d found themselves too quickly in the starry night beyond the castle.

The only unpleasant thing was the rattling of the guards’ weapons from behind and the shouting:

“The dragon has kidnapped the princess!”

“The whole henhouse is abuzz,” Reason grumbled grudgingly.

“It is the barracks, not the henhouse,” Estella corrected.

Reason chuckled.

“And I’ll prove to you that the keepers’ barracks is no better than the henhouse, where a cunning fox will wring everybody’s neck in the morning.”

“Do you want to etch a dragon on the soldiers, or do you want to claw them yourself?” For some reason Estella was more afraid of Reason’s claws than she was of dragon fire.

“No. What’s a castle without guards? The neighboring kings would laugh at us. I have a better idea. When we get back, I’ll go to the cellar and pour all the guards some wine that’ll knock out their memory. They’ll think they’ve only dreamt of the princess being kidnapped by a dragon. Besides, there was no kidnapping. You rode the dragon yourself. Did you know that in the old days, riding a dragon was considered a great art?”

“Emerald didn’t kidnap me,” she repeated dumbly, trying to shield her new friend. “But to deprive the Watchers of their memories is despicable. They might forget their families, their duties…”

“And above all, they would forget their pay and rations,” Reason summed up. “We’ll avoid any unnecessary expenditure in the future.”

“Forget wages, that’s all right, but rations…” She squeezed her eyes shut in the strong wind that came from her flight. “People die if you don’t feed them, don’t they?”

“But an army of zombies wouldn’t be as much trouble as it was today. The dead are more docile than the living. True, they rot quickly, but skeletons can serve and fight, too. Believe me!”

Estella was no longer listening to him, but was enjoying her flight. The towns and villages below became so small, as if they were toys. If you ride a flying dragon, it’s as if you are the queen of a toy kingdom. You can’t even see the people below. But the starry skies are very close. It seems as if you could reach up and touch the stars like a bed canopy.

“When we get home, I’m going to order myself a star-colored canopy to resemble the night sky.”

“We could not get back!”

“What do you mean?”

Reason chuckled. Clinging to the twisted horn on top of the dragon, he clearly felt like a flight captain.

“When I fly, I feel like the king of the universe,” he declared. “I wish I had wings of my own.”

“Did you have wings?” Estella wondered. The only thing protruding from his skinny black back seemed to be hump-shaped growths.

Down below she glimpsed the roofs of fanciful castles and fortresses. She’d never seen such architectural marvels before.

“This is no longer Aluar!”

“That’s right! We are already abroad!”

“We’re abroad!”

“What did you want? Do you want to spend your whole life in your own country with a flying dragon?”

“I thought we’d be flying over the Aluar’s countryside and those woods where the Evil One supposedly dwells, but the fairies dance there at night.”

“You can’t even see the fairies from up there. They’re not flying close to the dragon’s mouth, and they’re not that stupid.”

“And I can see them!” Estella saw a bridge in the black clouds, shimmering like the moon. Winged, glowing silhouettes danced across it.

“They were moon fairies!” Reason instantly turned fierce. “They’d take you for their own kind if they saw you. Virgil, turn a little to the left!”

The dragon, oddly enough, obeyed Reason.

“And a little lower in flight! The princess wants to enjoy the view of foreign lands. From behind the clouds she can see little. She’s not as sharp as you.”

It was unclear whether the dragon was seeking to oblige the princess or Reason, but he was on his way down, almost touching the white stone tower of the tall castle.

“Not so low!” Reason howled, but it was too late. Though the dragon had turned on command, it had already knocked down a few towers.

“Let’s move before they cannon fire on us!” Reason raked anxiously around. The towers were crumbling, falling like rocks. Cracks were appearing in the castle walls, and a dragon was flying Estella away.

After a few minutes, Reason managed to reach the right height and speed. He knew how to get his dragon to do what he wanted, though not without effort. It must be hard to control the flight! Reason was out of breath, tugging at the dragon’s horn and then the spike on his ridge.

“That’s a hell of a first time,” he concluded, glancing back at the tremendous pogrom. “Trial and error is our method! And we think we’re smart, too.”

“You’re the smart one, not me. You are the one who is responsible!”

“Actually, I warned you against getting too close to a dragon.”

That’s true. She couldn’t blame Reason for that. She insisted on going to the dragon’s dungeons herself.

“Whose castle did we destroy?”

“Someone’s,” Reason replied indifferently.

“You don’t know exactly.”

“There are many castles in the universe, and they all have their masters.”

“I must know who to apologize to.”

“Don’t be silly! Why denounce yourself to someone like a bully. Unless the owner of the castle was a wizard, like your dearest father, there’s no way he could have sniffed out who had caused the night’s pogrom. You can only use a crystal ball or a magic mirror to identify the culprits if you haven’t seen them in person.”

“If we are unmasked, then the new ruler will move on me with a war. And this time the guilty party is really me.”

“They should at least raise the castle from the ruins before summoning the military forces. Surely everyone there has already been stoned to death. If anyone survived, their thoughts wouldn’t be on war, but on rebuilding. I was once involved in building a castle. If the stones are not carried by the Finodirri, then you can’t build a castle in one night.”

“What are the Finodirri?”

“They are the most faithful and unselfish magical helpers. They don’t charge you anything, and they don’t ask for gratitude, but you must know a secret if you want to manage them. I do know one. I was once summoned by a king to rebuild his castle in a cursed place. No sooner had anyone laid a foundation than the ground turned to swamp. I whistled to the Finodirri. They did it in three days. They didn’t have to be paid, but the king didn’t treat me kindly. He chased me out of the council very quickly. He didn’t like the idea of ghosts screaming from the walls of the new castle and swamp creatures crawling out of cracks in the floor. So I took my revenge on him by summoning the Finodirri again. They beat the king and his regiment to death. And they destroyed the castle. Now the swamp creatures rule there again, but every moonlit night the castle rises from the swamp as a ghost. Do you want to go there and dance with the local ghosts? But, no, tonight is not a moonlit night! Some other time, I think.”

Estella listened to him half-heartedly. What she heard from Reason was like a fairy tale. But the intricate structures below were not a fairy tale. The dragon wasn’t too low, but it wasn’t too high either. She could see everything now. The stone structures below were gradually replaced by fanciful domes that looked like marshmallow slides. Here luxurious gardens stretched right over the rooftops and bridges spanning between the rooftops. And beyond that was a city of various towers connected by passages and bridges.

“This was Orelo, the city of the spirits! Don’t fly over it,” Reason urged the dragon to turn right.

Beyond the valleys and the rivers was a stretch of heavily patterned wooden buildings, like lacework.

“Those are the mansions,” Reason explained. “They are all wooden. If Virgil dies on them once, the whole country of the mansions will be gone in a moment. Fire spreads very quickly through wooden buildings.”

“Is that what it’s called, Terem’s Land?” Estella wondered.

“It is only the part where the nobility live. The poor stay in the huts. And over there is Lukomorye,” Reason pointed a clawed finger forward. “There are not only people there, but also evil spirits.”

But Estella had already spotted people pouring out on the roof of the largest mansions. The dragon had lowered too much. The rider on its back drew the attention of a large crowd.

“It is a princess!” came the shouts from below.

Reason commanded the dragon to hasten its flight. Estella turned back, intrigued.

“Who were these people? Dressed like sorcerers!”

“They are the king’s boyars. It is customary for them to wear fur coats, even in summer.”

“They look like the robes of sorcerers.”

“Well, they can’t do magic like your father here. But the boyars are used to the fact that the most unusual brides come to the royal show. They’ve taken you for a candidate, too. We’d better get away, so they’ll forget about us. What on earth possessed you to fly a dragon! You should have stayed home. There’s so much to do in the country, and you’re just sitting around. Only a bad ruler would put her own pleasures above running the country.”

“I’m not a ruler yet. The coronation is not until the end of May.”

“I hope we don’t have a wedding sooner.”

“Why do you keep whining about the wedding? You chased the only groom away from me yourself.”

“Where you had to banish one, you will have to banish many,” concluded Reason. “Fiancés are like evil. You’ll have to chase them away for the rest of your life.”

“Yes, you do not worry! We’ll officially consider that I am the bride of dragon. The ministers would be frightened if I had a beau like that beside the throne.”

“You’re like a gnat to him and he loves you.” Reason was complaining, and Estella was enjoying her flight. The wind fluttered her hair. Strange lands lay below as clear as the palm of her hand. If the dragon were to blow fire downward, they would be gone. But she is not so cruel. Let them stand. They don’t bother her yet. What Estella liked best was to fly over the sea, where mermaids splashed about, and over the valleys where fairies danced in the moonlight.

“The flight was like a magic dream!” Estella said. “Thank you for taking me to the dungeons and introducing me to the dragon! I owe you so much for that.”

This wasn’t the first time Reason had flown in a dragon, so he wasn’t exactly thrilled. It was barely half past midnight and already he was begging to go home. They didn’t arrive at Aluar until just before dawn. Reason’s legs began to stiffen. When he got off the dragon, he was limping.

“You’re my darling!” Estella stroked the dragon’s ears and hummed a song she had composed herself. She had to do something to thank the dragon for a splendid flight.

“Well, you mewl here, and I’ll go to the cellar for stupefying wine! Now, the guards who saw you and the dragon are asleep, but when they wake up, their memories will be as blank as a sheet of white paper.”

Reason did not make his promise in vain. There was no panic in the morning. But most of the guards looked as if they had fallen under the sorcerer’s power and had become his puppets. Empty wineglasses were lying around the barracks. Even the pixies who wanted to finish their wine felt sick.

“Don’t drink any more, Virgil,” Estella advised the dragon, calling his first name for suggestion. “Or else Reason will get his claws into your head, too.”

The dragon did not understand her. The princess’s singing made him so happy that he couldn’t think of anything to say. Estella, on the other hand, thought about it. In her own head Reason has not run its claws?

Star Fairies

Golden grapes grew on the walls and columns. Estella was dumbfounded when she saw its glow in the darkness of the evening garden. Normally the rockweed and fuchsia bloomed here. There were no grapes in this part of the garden at all.

“Is this a decoration for my coronation?” She looked around for those decorating the garden, but it was empty. Even the gardener and his young helpers were long gone to the servants’ feast. So who had strung the columns with metal vines? Estella touched the tinkling leaves.

“It is pure gold!” She determined.

Where could it have come from? For the treasury was almost empty, not counting the treasury, which could never be opened. Locksmiths, smiths, and even pickpocket thieves, who had been caught by the guards in the square and were good at picking keys, had already been summoned to the gilded doors. No one was able to break open the locked doors. A spell had indeed been cast upon them.

But the night garden blossomed with golden leaves, like an entire treasury. With joy Estella tugged at Reason’s tail.

“Look, we are rich!”

“I don’t think so,” he muttered doubtfully.

“The vines stretch everywhere, and the grapes on them are golden. You see how they shine! It took tons of gold to decorate them like that.”

“Don’t rejoice too soon! It cannot be melted down.”

“Why is it not? It’s not gilding, that’s for sure.”

“The grapes are all gold,” agreed Reason, who somehow didn’t touch the berries. Either he’d run out of room in his cache, or he was afraid of burning his paws, for the gold grapes glittered so brightly.

“Was the gold enchanted?” Estella admired the grapes. “Even if it is some magic trick, I like it better than holiday fireworks.”

“It is a typical Star Fairy’s gift,” Reason determined, squinting unkindly at the glittering golden berries and leaves. “It is very pretty, but you can’t spend them unless the fairy says you can. She won’t give me permission to spend it, because it’s for you.”

“So it’s from my mother?”

“Don’t get excited. Star fairy’s gold is most often a trick.”

“What if it isn’t?”

“Why don’t you check it out? Or better yet, let me do it,” he asked slyly.

“You can if you want.”

Reason rubbed his paws and reached for the largest golden grape. It didn’t burn him or disappear when he plucked it from the vine. Reason was surprised at this himself.

“What a thing! Usually it turns into a simple grape when you pick it: ripe if you had good intentions to spend it, and rotten if you wanted to spend it for evil. But I plucked for our common purposes and won.”

Reason rejoiced and picked more berries, not shunning the golden leaves either.

“Leave it!” Estella was afraid he would cut off all the vines. “They grow so beautiful! You have plenty of gold in the treasury beneath the throne as it is.”

“You can’t cut them all off. New ones will grow.”

Estella didn’t believe it, but Reason was right. New berries grew, just as big and golden.

“I told you it was a gift from a fairy!”

Estella reached out, too, and picked one berry.

“I’m so glad my mother has not forgotten about me. I will keep her gift as a talisman. By the way, do you know why she didn’t come herself?”

“Fairies always abandon their children. You’d have to ask them why.”

“But you could have flown to your daughter’s coronation. It’s once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

“Maybe she already has another husband-king, and she doesn’t want him to know about you. If she’s not even coming to your wedding, that’s just the way it is.”

Estella was upset, but the grapes shone so brightly that the sadness immediately passed. One look at the golden berries and the sadness disappears. Indeed, it is immediately obvious that it is a gift from a fairy.

“And if I’m a fairy’s daughter, why am I not a fairy myself?”

“Your father is mortal. It goes without saying. All mixed marriages are bad luck. Children are born defective.”

“You mean, not fairies?”

“If you were born a fairy, everyone at court would have noticed by now.”

“But at least I could have wings. If my mother is a fairy, she must have wings. Why don’t I have wings?”

“We can’t all be perfect! Children of fairies and mere mortals are often born wingless invalids. But don’t worry. I still love you, even if you are incomplete.”

Reason hugged her neck so tightly that it almost strangled her.

“And Virgil loves me. He doesn’t care that I have no wings, but I would like to have them myself.”

“You’re good without wings.”

“But you say a wingless fairy child is considered a cripple?”

“You’re not the worst case yet. Many fairy children of mortals are born ugly. Imagine if you had horns on your forehead or a tail dragging behind your dress.”

— Does that happen?

“I’ve seen fairy babies like that. They’re all sorcerers, too. They’re all wizards, too, because they get magic from their mothers.

Estella pulled the ermine robe she’d been forced to wear for Coronation Day over the sumptuous purple gown, embroidered with the coat of arms of Aluar at the hem. Reason insisted that the coronation be moved to the evening. The ministers resisted at first, but then suddenly agreed. Though they didn’t see Reason present at the council, he was jumping from Estella’s shoulder to those who objected and whispering something in their ears. After his work, they all forgot their objections.