Between the lines is written in fire
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The sides of the carriage were battered and scratched. The grooms and coachmen had escaped from the stable for some reason. Probably the drunken song of Dandy, who had touched the uncorked bottle of wine, had frightened everyone. No one would be happy that an evil spirit had taken up residence in their cellar or stables.
«You’re going to run away!» Rosamunda rebuked him.
«I’m just preparing a backup in case of an emergency,» Dandy stroked the wine barrels he’d stolen from the cellar.
«There’s no room for me in the carriage, so you’re the only one who can escape in an emergency,» Rosamunda said.
«There are plenty of other carriages,» said Dandy. «There’s enough room for ten queens, not just one.»
«By the way, why didn’t you return the carriage to the carriage barn? You said you’d take care of everything.»
Dandy nearly choked on his wine. And the horses in the stalls bellowed and banged their hooves in a frightened manner.
«These animals smell us like a thunderstorm,» complained Dandy. «They always want to get mad at the sight of me.»
«So why are you sitting in a stable with only animals? By the way, you look like an animal yourself. Take off your camisole and you could easily replace a caged monkey.»
«You’re just joking, Your Majesty.» Dandy smiled radiantly, showing his sharp fangs.
How quickly he was sobered by the veiled threat! Rosamunda hadn’t heard him say «Your Majesty» politely in a long time. It was worth frightening Dandy, and he became kind, even tried to sing dithyrambs to her beauty. But comparing her hair to black fire, her eyebrows to tar, and her lips to rose petals was unoriginal and quite ridiculous.
«Stop sucking up!» Rosamunda cut him off.
Dandy almost dropped the bottle, which he had almost finished. The rest of the wine spilled over the hay on the stable floor.
«All right, I’ll be honest with you, as a counselor should be,» Dandy grimaced, twitched his pointy ears and zigzagged his tail. «Your kingdom is on the verge of destruction.»
«Did the shimmering pixies bring us misfortune?» Rosamunda remembered the spinning wheel and the mysterious chants of the magical creatures. «I’ve heard that fairies, though beautiful, can be evil and bring misfortune upon the heads of people who dare to venture into their habitats.»
Dandy shrugged his narrow shoulders. «There are also good fairies, but very rarely. Mostly they are gamblers, swindlers and lechers. They try to seduce you to get something out of you, or they use cheating techniques mixed with magic. I’ve suffered so much with these fairies! And pixies are like annoying insects. If you leave a bottle of wine open, they’ll swoop down to rob me of my drink.»
Rosamunda watched as he took the cork out of the wine barrel and drank almost all of its contents. How much wine could fit in Dandy’s body? The barrel was almost twice the size of Dandy’s.
«I’m not a drunkard, it’s just an extreme situation,» Dandy excused himself, noticing that the queen was looking at him with great judgment. «Who wouldn’t be frightened into a nervous breakdown by a dragon raid? And when I have a nervous breakdown, I drink without counting bottles.»
«Actually, the dragon raided my land, not yours. I’m the one having a nervous breakdown, but I haven’t had a drop of booze all day.»
«I can only applaud your fortitude. You are the queen for a reason, not me,» Dandy saluted her with a newly uncorked bottle. A man would have been so intoxicated that he would have fallen under the carriage, but Dandy had not lost his temper. His mind was not drunk at all, and he had a sly grin on his cunning face, which made him look like a demon.
«Many crevices, caves, and tracts lead to the Underworld,» he said. «And there it is easy to hide from the dragon’s flames.»
«But I’m not likely to slip down there. As you can see, I’m bigger than you.»
«It’s not a question of size. It’s whether the lords of the Underworld will accept you. There’s already a queen there. The sight of your beauty will make her think you’ve come to take her husband away from her. Even underground, they’ve heard how easily you break hearts.»
«I haven’t broken any, except yours,» said Rosamunda. «You are the most annoying of all my admirers. You’re the one who’s attracted to the counselor’s position, not me.»
«But the dragon was seduced by you! Dragons love a pretty girl!»
«Don’t talk to me about dragons anymore. Since this morning, I’ve become very afraid of them. I had a prosperous kingdom and one dragon swooped in and my country was reduced by a quarter. What happens if he strikes again? In two or three of his raids, I’d have no country at all.»
«You shouldn’t have woken him up!» Dandy said in a philosopher’s tone.
«But it was you who persuaded me to go to the mountains.»
«I didn’t know the dragon would react so violently to your presence.»
«What will happen now?»
«Now he will demand tribute! Or better yet, to sacrifice you to him. Dragons always demand beautiful maidens of noble birth. They have excellent taste in both treasure and maidens. You can’t give them something second-rate. Especially this one! Fool, you could have cope with him.»
He calls his queen a fool! He’s got a nerve! Rosamunda wanted to throw at him the first thing that came to hand, which was a heavy harness.
«I was joking,» Dandy jumped out of the carriage and into the stall. «It is about your foolishness, not about the dragon. He will surely come to demand tribute now, or worse, send someone.»
«Who would a dragon send?»
«It’s best not to scare you beforehand. I’d better get out of here. No advisor can survive long with a queen like you.»
What benefits did he want from her? She can’t be a dragon ruler! And she doesn’t need an advisor to lead her into the jaws of a predator. She should just dive back into the underground crevices. Without him, no one’s going to mess with her head anymore. But she might not be able to get rid of the awakened dragon now.
«Before you disappear, do your wine and escort my knights to the dragon’s lair,» Rosamunda commanded in a firm tone.
The Dandy stammered.
«What will you give me for it?»
«I’ll give you a few more barrels of wine.»
«I can get them myself.»
«And I can have the cellar locked from you.»
The freelancer scratched behind his pointy ear.
«It is all right! I’ll whisper to the head of the party where to go and slip away.»
He fulfilled his promise, deftly jumping on the shoulder of the most valiant knight. He didn’t even realize at first from whom the advice came, but obediently followed Dandy’s instructions. And Rosamunda’s ministers, who saw off the detachment with their eyes, looked in vain among the knights for that foolish guide whom the queen had promised to find.
An ultimatum
The knights did not return. But some junk dealer had brought back their scorched armor and helmets, and at the same time one roasted corpse, on which the letters of a message from the dragon had been burned as if on paper.
«The fire-breathing beast caught me on the mountain road and promised to pardon me if I delivered the message to the queen,» said the junk dealer, who was about to be executed as a sorcerer for aiding the dragon.
He was eventually pardoned but kept under surveillance. The corpse, covered with inscriptions, was not shown to the queen, lest she faint. For some reason, everyone thought that her female heart would break at the sight of a dragon mutilating the most handsome of her knights.
«They only do that out of jealousy!» The maids of honor were murmuring, covering their sly smiles with fans. «What if our queen has really fallen in love with a dragon?»
Rosamunda understood the meaning of their gossip as soon as they brought her the verbatim message read on the corpse’s skin. The dragon demands that the queen be given to him. Not as a sacrifice, but as a wife.
«It’s a joke!» Rosamunda jumped up so violently that she nearly toppled the throne. A nimble creature that looked like an emerald lizard was crawling on the canopy above the throne, but she didn’t even notice it. It looked like a spy.
«It’s an ultimatum, Your Majesty,» stammered the minister who read the message.
«An ultimatum can be given by a king at war with me, but not by a dragon. By the way, he burned one of the fields.»
«It is along with the plowmen and their families,» the First Minister corrected the dragon.
«He attacks like an animal, like a pack of wolves or a bear. Does an animal have the right to make demands? It should be caught and destroyed, so that it does not harm.»
«But that’s what the knights were sent for. They’re gone.»
«Then send others.»
«Others are less prepared to fight the beast,» the First Minister stammered and stuttered with excitement. He couldn’t wait to marry the queen to anyone, even a dragon. He was tired of a woman on the throne. Perhaps he wanted to take her place after the dragon had eaten her. Rosamunda has no living relatives left.
«It is except us,» whispered the strange creatures crawling along the column. Rosamunda quickly turned away from them. Would the others see them? Do they hear them? Everyone is so frightened by the dragon that they don’t pay attention to the little things.
«Does the dragon know that I am a young widow and not an innocent maiden?» Rosamunda asked an insidious question, for everyone knows that dragons prefer virgins. «Had he been warned of this?»
«His demand is clear! He wants you! Perhaps you should say yes.»
«I don’t think you envision a dragon as your king. You’re probably hoping I’ll disappear into his lair forever.»
«No! How could I?» The minister lowered his eyes to the floor in shame so she wouldn’t recognize him as a traitor. «We are all truly loyal to you.»
«It is especially all those who were burned. They could have fought the dragon, but they just gave up. They didn’t even try to run away.»
«If you knew what a dragon attack was, you wouldn’t be talking like this! It’s much worse than a forest fire.»
«I don’t believe the burned body of the knight was sent by the dragon itself. Dragons are animals. They have no intelligence. It’s more likely some evil joker carved the body in letters. Probably it is a savage or a fakir. There aren’t many fools that live in deserted places.»
«It’s definitely dragon fire. It makes the body rot in a peculiar way. The letters on the corpse’s skin turn black before you can read them.»
«And before they’re read, they’re fiery?» Rosamunda recalled with horror the letters from her secret admirer, but the minister ignored her question.
«The dragon gives you one day to think about it. Tomorrow night you will either accept his proposal or he will burn your country.»
That’s the literal message. The dragon is as generous as a king of noble blood. He gives her a full day’s head start. She’ll have time to sleep, and the next day she’ll devise some cunning plan to deceive the dragon.
During the night, Rosamunda dreamed of a girl with many faces. These faces were scattered on the floor like masks. Every single one of them was incredibly beautiful. All cut from living beauties because blood had caked on them. They were all alive. The girl measured them one by one, and was not satisfied with all of them. Until among the masks she found one that was not human. The face cut from the fairy was squirming and whispering something unhappily, but the sorceress put it on over her. This girl could not be anything but a sorceress, for she stole other people’s faces. And they suited her. Except that her hair changed color with them. Then they were light, then dark, then red, then golden, then greenish, like a mermaid. And what is this girl really: brunette, shade, blonde? Do sorceresses have a specific hair color? And what is her face like? Rosamunda saw only living masks.
There was a haunting feeling in the dream that she needed to see the true face of the many-faced girl, or the problem with the dragon would not be solved.
«Look in the mirror,» squeaked someone behind her. It seemed to be some kind of gnome or gnome-like creature. It was short and clawed.
Rosamunda woke up without realizing what the mirror had to do with it.
The dwarf sitting on her bedpost clapped his clawed hands together in joy. «I thought the indecent dragon had put you to sleep for good. But now it is twelve o’clock, and my queen has awakened from his spell. I’m so glad!»
«I wish you’d get out of here!» Rosamunda looked at him in disbelief. There’s trouble where Dandy is.
It’s light outside the window, but suddenly, right now, the red rain of dragon flame is raining down again, hitting the roofs, and the whole country turns into a hot inferno.
How to deal with a dragon? This was not the kind of politics she had counted on when she took over the reins of power. You can still negotiate with humans, but not with the dragon! You can’t even settle a dispute with a dragon with a war. He’ll just burn everyone. The whole army! So what do we do?
«What do you say, Counselor?» She squinted at Dandy.
«About what is it?»
«It is about the dragon, of course. That’s our biggest problem right now.»
«Well, you’re the queen. I’m just an advisor, and not an official one at that.»
«But you took me to the mountains, and we woke the dragon there.»
«It would have woken up anyway.»
Dandy sighed.
«How do you know?»
«We all know him well and have studied his lordly ways.»
«What do you mean? And who are all of us? You mean those sparkling pixies who sang in the cave?»
Dandy sighed again. He seemed about to burst into tears. Rosamunda had never seen him like this before. Usually, he was not discouraged.
«What’s the matter with you? Did one of the courtiers offend you? Well, I’ll punish them!»
«The dragon hurt me!» Dandy sobbed. «He took away all my savings. Said it was a tax on life. And he did the same to other magical creatures.»
«Can dragons speak?»
«Yes, they can! And they can breathe fire! They can roast even a magical creature with their breath!»
«They can write letters with fire, too, can’t they?»
«I never received any letters from them,» Dandy said judiciously. «But I have received threats mixed with sparks. I even got burns.»
He unbuttoned his camisole slightly, revealing orange marks like sparks lodged in greenish skin. He’s a freak! But he acts like a trained monkey. And in his camisole he looks like an aristocrat who’s been turned into a miniature monster by some magician. Dandy’s feet are webbed, and his claws are long. The toes themselves are seven or eight on each foot. A spiked tail curls in zigzags.
Yeah, she’s got herself a nice-looking pet. If he were to march into the parade hall behind the queen and kiss the hand of one of her ladies-in-waiting out of politeness, she would faint.
Ladies are afraid of monsters, even miniature ones. But Rosamunda was suddenly drawn to them. Dandy is a real exotic. A helper from a magical world volunteered to serve a mortal queen. She must be special to have such curiosities rushing to serve her. How else to tame a dragon!
Rosamunda’s mind was scattering. A dragon, of course, is not a man. He could not be seduced. He would probably eat or burn a beautiful woman who came close to him. But she needs to seduce him badly. That’s how we can save on military pay. One dragon is worth a whole army. He’s already proven that. When he raids, everyone runs away or burns. If she had such a gentleman, she could scare all the insolent advisors. She can’t get the ministers under control herself, but a dragon would help. They would all fall down at the sight of a queen with the support of a dragon bodyguard!
«Too bad the dragon is not a man!» Rosamunda voiced her thought. «I know how to seduce men, but I don’t know how to lure a dragon.»
«It is on a beauty!» Dandy said cheerfully. «Offer him the most beautiful lady in the kingdom.»
«I’m the most beautiful here.»
«That’s not good!»
«Why? Can the dragon burn me or eat me?»
«He can take you to his domain, and I can’t go there. I’ll stay here, and I’ll have to rule the country in your absence. Of course, being Viceroy is lucrative, but it would take all my meager charms.»
«You can run a country?» Rosamunda couldn’t imagine her snooty ministers obeying such a crumb. Even though Franth is monstrous, he is still a midget.
But when a minister entered the room, the tiny Dandy made passes with his green paws, waved his curled tail, and the minister bowed to him as if he were a real prince.
«Go away!» said Dandy.
The minister apologized and obediently left.
Wow! Rosamunda looked at her pet with unexpected respect.
«You’re a hypnotist?»
«Too bad you can’t fool a dragon that easily,» Dandy muttered to himself without hearing her. «You can’t give him just any girl. He will demand the most beautiful one, and the rejected one he will simply throw off the cliff and send back to us in dismembered form. And the relics will arrive in an expensive box with some charms.»
«I don’t believe it! The dragon will just eat it.»
«Dragons are not as simple as you think, my queen.»
Rosamunda sighed tiredly.
«I thought you were going to leave me yesterday and hide forever in the Underworld,» she said, recalling her quarrel with Dandy in the stables.
«I thought it would be black ingratitude to abandon my queen. You’d be lost without my advice!»
«It is on the contrary. I think either the Underworld didn’t welcome you, or they didn’t have the wine and hors d’oeuvres you’re addicted to, so you’re here again.»
«And you’re happy to see me. I’m not a dragon!» Dandy said slyly.
Why did he find the comparison to a dragon so amusing?
«Give the dragon the most beautiful lady among your maids of honor and see how loyal the dragon is to you? Maybe he’ll mistake her for a queen and be satisfied.»
The casket with the corpse of the maid of honor
«If only there was a magician here!» Rosamunda lamented. «There isn’t one at all!»
«They flee from a kingdom where the ruler is a wizard,» said Dandy, winking slyly as he chewed a peach from the king’s table. «And here is a witch queen.»
«Are you insulting me on purpose?»
«It’s true! Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I would never submit to an ordinary woman.»
«And you don’t obey me!»
«It is on the contrary, I please you in every way.»
Dandy has an original perception of obedience.
«You should be flogged for being stubborn.»
«Then I’d slip away to the Underworld and never come back.»
«And you give me ultimatums like a dragon!»
«I’m only defending myself.»
«I’m defending myself against you and your insolent advice.»
Rosamunda didn’t realize how used to him she was getting. Why are ladies so keen to keep mischievous animals with them? Her ladies of honor had their own monkeys and parrots, but hers was a little monster from the Underworld. That’s probably where Dandy comes from, since he’s threatening to go back there.
Instead of the queen, of course, the dragon was given a maid of honor, a noble lady named Winona. Pity her, of course. But the dragon needs a sacrifice. Winona’s father was in disgrace, so the ministers chose her. We can’t give the queen to the dragon. Then the country would be orphaned.
But Dandy slyly noted that the throne of the orphaned country will immediately run to the good guys who want to adopt the throne, and the scepter, and the orb.
In general, it was better not to talk to Dandy..
«Are you by any chance a scholar who escaped from some city university?» Rosamunda began to inquire the counselor.
«God forbid!» Dandy was even frightened. «You found yourself a scientist! I do not sit in laboratories for experiments, but in the throne room now your ministers are doing some experiments.»
Dandy was partly right. The maid of honor sacrificed to the dragon had already been brought back. In a coffin-like box! Rosamunda almost fainted when she saw the dismembered corpse inside the large open chest. It looked like a broken marionette. Deep animal scratches stretched across Winona’s deadly pale skin.
The dead head’s eyes opened instantly, barely Rosamunda had entered the hall. The eyelashes, stained at the tips with blood, made a ghastly impression. There were no pupils left in the empty whites of the eyes.
Dandy hastily hid behind Rosamunda’s hem.
«How could this be? She was given to the dragon,» she whispered.
Dandy did not answer. The ministers were also silent. But the dismembered corpse spoke and even sang.
«I’m back! I’m dead! But I’m a little alive inside to bring a message to you,» Winona sang in a sinister, playful tone. «You can’t fool the dragon, Rosamunda! Don’t even try!»
Rosamunda! While she was alive, Winona had never addressed her so familiarly. But apparently death equalizes everyone. The dead Winona had forgotten all about «Your Majesty». Apparently, since her head was separated from her torso, her mind was barely functioning. Or maybe the dragon had cut off her head with its claws to fill it with enchantments. Winona’s bloody lips laughed stupidly. She looked like a doll from hell in her dismembered state.
What a sorcerer that dragon was! Dandy had warned her for a reason. His advice should be heeded for the future.
There was something stuck in Winona’s hair. It was strange why the dragon didn’t remove her hair like a scalp or a fleece. They could have been sold or kept as a trophy. There were claw wounds on her forehead. So the dragon had first thought of the same idea. But for some reason he only scratched her. There were hieroglyphic inscriptions scratched on the skin of the severed arms and legs.
«Get the court astrologer to study them and translate them if he can.»
«I’ll translate them for you,» Dandy volunteered, and jumped into the casket.
«It says here! The dragon will not leave…»
«Get away, dwarf!» Winona hissed.
Dandy put a claw to her forehead, and she shut up, looking at the empty whites of her eyes in the void.
«It says: until you return my wife to me, I will destroy your body, beautiful woman who bears her name from the root of the rose flower.»
«What’s next?» Rosamunda nervously crumpled her lace handkerchief in her hands. «Read it! I want to know everything.»
But Winona’s body burst into flames, as did the paper letters. Sparks rained down on the terrified crowd of courtiers. Some were burned, some swallowed sparks and burned their tongues. Some of the ladies were disfigured by burns. The dead Winona didn’t care whether she burned or not. She was acting as a message. Apparently, parchment or letters on skin and bodies from a dragon burn just like paper.
The remains of the maid of honor were being shunned by everyone. The chest full of ashes was taken to the cemetery. That’s where it belongs.
«The sacrifice was in vain,» sighed the counselors and looked unkindly at the queen.
«So, what shall we do?» Rosamunda roused Dandy, who for some reason none of the ministers called an exotic animal and did not try to put him in a cage.
«Marry you to a dragon!» He muttered sullenly.
«What do you mean?» Rosamunda clenched her fists in anger. «You’re mocking me!»
«I am not! It’s what the dragon wants.»
«To burn me or eat me for dinner!»
«Suddenly he doesn’t want an appetizer, he wants a wife.»
Rosamunda swung her scepter at Dandy.
«Calm down! Where’s your sense of humor?» He squeaked, hiding behind the throne. «I’ll tell you a secret: monsters are really very attracted to beauties, and not at all to eat them.»
«That’s comforting!» Rosamunda said skeptically.
«Don’t you want to fool the dragon by promising him a marriage for the future?»
«That’s clever! But how do you negotiate with a dragon? Who dares approach him when he’s so vicious? Did you see what he did to Lady Winona? He dismembered her with his claws! What if he breathes fire on me as soon as I go to negotiate with him? Should I just send you? You’re agile! If there’s a risk, run away or hide in one of the pits in the Underworld.»
Dandy doesn’t like that idea.
«He won’t listen to me. He needs a lady.»
«He’s already been given one, and he hasn’t expressed much admiration.»
«He needs a lady of his own choosing. It is the chosen one!»