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«It is a morgen spyglass!» Netopyrina was surprised. «It must have been left here by the sea people. Or maybe it’s a gift?»
«You can see the Undersea Kingdom through it,» Zeligenna interjected. «Let me see!»
But Patricia had already looked through the peephole herself and was surprised. The tube showed not the water and the horizon, but the walls of a palace of shells and pyramids of pearls.
«It is beautiful!» Patricia exhaled.
«What? What did you see?» Nethopyrina and Zeligena began to snatch the telescope from her.
«Calm down! I’m the captain, not you insolent fairies!»
What do fairies do? They wrestled the telescope from her just as the handsome triton appeared in it. Patricia wanted to look at him again. She wanted to bare her saber to wrestle the telescope away, but the water suddenly smelled foul. Had the dragon struck again?
Patricia glanced at the waves and exhaled in exasperation. Burnt bodies floated in the water, only not human. Maidens with fish tails burned to the color of ash. They were dead mermaids! They turned their faces to the sky like dead fish lying belly up. Slender bodies burned partially or to the bone. The bones, scorched by the fire, were coal-black.
«The dragon burned them! They were burned alive!» One mermaid in the dead pack was almost intact. Only her tail was burned. The blue scales on it were inflamed. But her shoulders, arms, and delightful face were not burned. Over her blue hair, the mermaid wore a kind of crown with pendants of pearls. Her scales were spliced on her stomach and breasts, forming a fancy corset.
Several more lovely mermaids floated out beside her.
«The heavenly fire has passed us by, but we’ve all got burns,» they complained in unison. «Do something!»
«But what can I do?» Patricia was shocked by their plea for help. It was the mermaids who could sink her ship. Everyone knows they’re sea sorceresses, able to conjure up a storm with their singing. Maybe they’re messing with her. Testing her for strength and wit?
«The dragon is looking for you,» said the mermaid with the crown in her hair. «He is so angry that he burns even sea creatures. This never happened before. It was safe underwater. If we don’t turn you over to him, he’ll burn the whole sea kingdom.»
«Is it one dragon?» Patricia was surprised.
«It is a special dragon!»
«You are the princesses of the sea,» Patricia noticed the thin coral crowns on the heads of the other mermaids.
«We won’t give you away,» the blue-haired mermaid slid her webbed hand around Patricia’s wrist. «It’s still you, isn’t it? We owe you a debt.»
It’s still her! Yes, though it’s hard to believe, it’s still her – Lady Patricia, the disgraced and outlawed Lady Patricia. But how do the mermaids know her?
«Did the King of Opal send you?»
If he’s in charge of peri and genies, he can handle mermaids too. A logical conclusion! But the mermaid was surprised.
«We don’t know him.»
«How do you know me?»
«Are you playing games with us again? You need to hide from the dragon, not from us,» said the mermaid, waving her webbed hand, in which large pearls sprouted like rings.
«I know,» Patricia shuddered at the memory of the burning waves, but now she had fire wine on the deck herself, and the crew of monsters drank it happily. The goblins have even begun to yell drunken songs. The shy mermaids were embarrassed.
«What a company you have now!»
Is this really a reprimand! Mermaids are princesses, they can’t hear pirate language.
«I will bring discipline on board,» Patricia promised, though she didn’t think it was possible.
«Don’t overdo the magic, or everyone will fall asleep. When you sing, even dragons fall asleep, so don’t sing any more magic songs and don’t overdo it,» the mermaid waved her tail and disappeared into the waves.
Or else she has magic! What a joke!
«See you later, my lady!» came from the waves.
Patricia was discouraged. The mermaids had mistaken her for someone else. And she had unwittingly played along. Playing with mermaids is dangerous. Once the deception is exposed, they’ll come back and sink the whole ship. If they find their mistress, they’ll realize Patricia’s a liar.
«What a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into! It is all because of the King of Opal and his insolent peri!»
The goblin nodded at her, though he didn’t know what she was talking about.
The phoenix flashed with sparks. So there was a ship on the horizon. Patricia snatched the spyglass from the gawking Netopyrina. It still showed only the sea: tritons, sirens and an underwater palace.
«No kidding! Show me the horizon!»
The telescope reluctantly obeyed, showing the sea hundreds of leagues ahead.
«Closer! A couple leagues away!»
Someone snorted inside the tube like a capricious evil spirit, but obeyed anyway.
«You really are the Lord of the Wicked if they obey you like that,» said the bat fairy.
«Who do you mean?»
«They are the spirits of the waters.»
Patricia swallowed her objections. The gray fairy would not call out that she had been confused with someone else. She mustn’t ruin her credibility as captain of the undead. She had an excellent reputation on board so far.
«It is the King of Opal’s fleet!» Patricia saw the flag through her telescope. «Well, I’m going to settle accounts with everyone! Prepare! We’re going to fight!»
A sea battle
Trolls, as it turned out, could jump from ship to ship. They didn’t even need boarding hooks. The trolls pushed off the sides of the ship with their spread paws. They clawed at their opponents with all their claws and fangs. Each goblin could handle a whole group of opponents at once. The gargoyles from the boards came to life and threw themselves into the battle against other people’s ships. Lean boggles clawed at their opponents’ legs and shattered their bones. They killed or maimed many. And still the King of Opal’s fleet won the battle.
«What we have to do?» Patricia thought frantically. «Shouldn’t you use bat magic?»
«That’s dangerous!» The mongrel clawed at the board, and wood shavings flew off of it.
«I know it’s dangerous!»
The swamp fairy was already using her unpretentious swamp magic, trying to turn the sea waves beneath the Opal ships into mire. Her magical powers didn’t last much longer. The water turned green, but the sea did not turn to mire.
A fiery ship would have turned the entire sea into flames in no time. Only in that case, Patricia’s ship would burn too.
The thin mire from the swamp fairy was not enough to swamp other people’s ships.
«All the other swamp fairies from my swamp were burned by the dragon, otherwise we’d be dragging all the ships into the mire right now,» the destitute fairy sighed.
Patricia saw the situation differently. If he hadn’t burned them all, not even one swamp fairy would have come to her.
«If we lose, I’ll drown myself, but I won’t go back to Opal!» Patricia was already regretting getting into a fight. It was better to ask one of the fairies or mermaids to summon the mist. Under the veil of mist, the ship could pass by the fleet and go unnoticed.
«It would be better to ask the mermaids for an elixir to breathe underwater,» Netopyrina said judiciously.
«Is there such an elixir?»
«Mermaids have all sorts of wonders in store. I don’t even know about many of them. Mermaids will gladly give you an elixir.»
«Why would they?»
«They’re very fond of you.»
Patricia barely dodged a sword wielded by one of the taller goblins. The sword slipped out of her hands and began slashing at the crew of the alien ship closest to the Bloodsucker.
«While you’re thinking, your sword will become a warrior in your place,» she joked.
«Fly back to me!» Patricia commanded, but the sword wouldn’t obey her. Maybe it’s a good thing. It’s more useful in battle. If he wants to fight, let him fight. It’s even more convenient for her. She can save her own energy.
Patricia’s crew only managed to sink a couple of Opal’s ships, and there are dozens more. What kind of valuable cargo are they carrying? The King of Opal probably sent them to war. Their equipment is just perfect for war.
Patricia noticed a magical creature aboard the flagship. It’s probably the reason they can’t use magic to win a battle. Everyone knows how powerful wizard’s work for the King of Opal. The graceful peri in her oriental garb resembled a piece of jewelry rather than a warrior. The wings behind her slender back seemed to be made of multicolored mist. Precious pendants hung from her belt and jingled with every movement, like a dancer’s. Among these pendants were vials containing poison. Surely Patricia knew of Peri’s cunning.
Peri noticed it too and grinned slyly. Patricia would give anything to capture the ethereal creature and teach it a lesson. Is it possible to kill a peri? They’re supposed to be immortal.
The peri walked along the side of the boat, then flew over the deck where the fight was going on. What was she up to?
«There’s another fairy on board besides her,» Netopyrina determined. «She is the one blocking the magic of our ship.»
«Is it just one fairy?»
«We have to get her,» Netopyrina showed her sharp claws. «I’ll interrogate her.»
«We don’t need prisoners. The ship feeds only on the blood of the slain.»
«The only way to capture a magical creature is to take it prisoner, and the ship will be spared.»
«How do we not get captured? Am I seeing double, or is Opal’s fleet multiplying?»
Patricia couldn’t tell if it was magic or optical trickery. Or maybe the black ships growing behind the fleet were ghost ships?
Suddenly, multicolored fins flashed in the water between the ships, and a hypnotizing singing sounded. The mermaids had come to help. If it weren’t for them, Opal’s fleet could not have been sunk. The tailed maidens proved to be aggressive and powerful. They summoned a kraken that encircled the Opal’s ships with all its tentacles. The cocky peri’s face stretched in disappointment. This was a turn of events she had not expected. She herself had barely managed to escape the kraken’s tentacles, and that was only because she could fly.
«As long as you’re on the water, you’re lucky,» the flying peri grinned predatorily. «And what will be not on the water?»
The mermaids were triumphant. Their whole flock swirled around the drowning shipwrecks on the water.
«All the valuables that you have not managed to drag on board, we get!» The mermaid in the most bizarre crown made the stipulation. She is probably the leader of the mermaid pack.
Patricia nodded in agreement. Her sword returned to her. It was a good thing it could fly like a steel bird. The sword had drunk so much blood that it would not fight again. The gargoyles, too, had turned back into fancy brass ornaments on the sides, but if there was a battle again, they would come to life again and rush into battle.
Peri had long since flown away, and the trail of iridescent mist left by her wings still hung over the sea. She would report what had happened to the King of Opal. Well, good! Let him know of the avenger who had recruited a team of foulness, and tremble. They’re equals now. Patricia is no longer a weak little pussycat, but a pirate.
Her monstrous crew was hauling barrels and chests from the sinking flagship. The mermaids were writhing in displeasure.
«All the riches that have sunk are rightfully theirs,» Netopyrina explained. «That is the law of the sea. What sank went to the treasury of the sea king or the sea queens. In this case, they are the Princesses.»
«I thought they were princesses.»
«Do you tell by the crowns?» Netopyrina grinned.
«Well, yes. And you need to determine by the color of the mermaid’s tail?»
«Be quiet, or they will take offense and make a storm to flood us.»
«Why on earth would they want to help me? I didn’t even call them,» Patricia marveled.
«They probably don’t like the King of Opal either. Ever since the dragon burned one of the sea queens, they can’t stand all strong wizards.»
«Is the dragon a strong wizard?»
«Dragons are prone to greed and to magic,» Nethopyrina weighed on her clawed palm a gold coin that had rolled out of a chest brought aboard by a goblin.
Patricia breathed in a full breath of fresh sea air. This is a triumph! She had won! How gratifying is it to watch the goblins working as porters and the sinking ships of the enemy.
Patricia felt very lucky until one goblin hefted a sack glistening from within onto a pile of barrels and chests. Was there really fire in the sack? Or is it a firebird?
«Oh, they have taken a prisoner!» The delighted Netopyrina flapped her wings joyfully.
The bag shone brighter and vibrated.
«The captive fairy is trying to free herself,» said the bog lady.
«Is there really a fairy in the bag?»
«Apparently, there was no cage on the Opal’s ships, so they put her in the sack.»
«Can’t we throw her overboard?»
«It won’t sink.»
«Then what are we going to do with her?» Patricia was as frightened of the fairy as death itself. She knew what fairies were capable of when they served to the King of Opal. If we don’t get rid of the sack, the fairy will enslave the entire crew. She must have a talent for mass hypnosis and could mesmerize the whole crew for a while, fly up behind the wheel of the ship and drive it straight to her employer – the king. And thus all the dashing pirates will be captured by the magician. They could be collected from the deck while still sleepy and taken to the dungeons.
«Interrogate her,» advised Netopyrina. The crew was also waiting for orders.
Patricia did not want to talk to the cunning fairy from Opal, but there was nowhere to go.
A fairy hostage
There was no worse trophy than a fairy. She sang and summoned spells. She had to gag her. The dunghill weaved a cage of gray charms. They’re stronger than iron bars.
Patricia knew that the fairy was an agent of the King of Opal and could contact him from a distance, but Netopyrina blocked her. How useful it is to have a fairy bat of your own!
The captive fairy, on the other hand, was a massive inconvenience. Everything shook and rang near her, and objects flew in the air.
«Stop it! You won’t get free,» Patricia shouted at her.
The fairy gave her a sinister smile that made her blood run cold. The dagger, forgotten by someone, flew into the air and swooped down on Patricia like a bird of steel.
While Patricia fought back, the fairy managed to summon a storm. The ship rocked from side to side.
There was no end to the captive fairy’s mischief. The sharp objects began to attack, the ropes twisted into loops and tried to kill the whole crew, and compasses, maps, and telescopes were dancing in the air. This continued until Zeligena and Netopyrina conspired and began to block the fairy together.
That’s when the captive beauty felt a severe headache. Her iridescent eyes blurred. The large spotted wings that made her look like a butterfly sagged.
«Take her into the hold with the cage and lock her in there,» Netopyrina ordered.
Patricia ignored the fact that the assistant had taken over as captain. To save herself from the fairy’s antics, she could give the ship’s command to the devil for a while.
«Wouldn’t it be better to throw her overboard?» Patricia asked hesitantly.
«She could start a mutiny in the Underwater Kingdom. That would be undiplomatic. The mermaids would remember such evil.»
«Is it evil to give someone a captured fairy?»
«It depends on what kind of fairy is she,» Netopyrina watched carefully as the goblins brought the prisoner into the hold. «A fairy is a valuable hostage if you want to blackmail the King of Opal.»
«The loss of one fairy won’t make him too angry. He has dozens of them.»
«Isn’t he violating the rights of the magic emperor?» Zeligena intervened. «It seems that only the lord of the Magic Empire has the right to command fairies.»
«I’ve never heard of such a thing,» Patricia admitted.
Both Zeligena and Netopyrina looked at her strangely.
«Well, I wouldn’t dare denounce him anyway,» Zeligena grumbled, «the swamp fairies don’t have a good relationship with him. He’s become very bitter in the last centuries. In confidence, his wife left him. Wives are always leaving him.»
«Did he have many?»
«How do you say?» Zeligena flapped her green eyelashes nervously.
«And the King of Opal killed his wife himself – sacrificed her during a sorcery ritual. I saw it, so I refused to become his next wife.»
Oops! Patricia faltered when she realized she had spoken. She had sworn to several black fairy vampires guarding the royal crypt that she would not tell anyone about Queen Esperanza’s skeleton that sometimes moved in the niche. The skeleton is wearing a royal dress and jewelry. Underneath the skeleton’s skull, there is still a lingering intelligence.
Now the grave fairies will punish her by taking her life. They are capable of taking lives from a distance. Patricia waited for a minute. Her throat didn’t constrict, her breath didn’t cut off. Her heart didn’t stop beating. Did the grave fairies have no power over her? Could it be the magic ship? The crypt fairies can’t affect someone in a vacuum of alien magic?
«The fairy is a valuable hostage,» Netopyrina repeated. «If you manage to get her on your side, she will reveal to you your enemy’s weaknesses.»
«It’s impossible to get these creatures on your side!»
«But the King of Opal somehow did. They served another ruler before him.»
Patricia had no idea, though the court fairies themselves sometimes hinted at it. The fairies in Opal’s court always spoke in riddles. They surrounded the courtiers, hovering over their heads and tormenting them with eerie conversations. There was no escape from the fairies in Opal, for there were more fairies than people.
Patricia wondered if she should abandon her plans for revenge. The sight of the Opal fairy was so unpleasant that she wanted to forget about Opal.
«In a couple of hours, the ship’s magic will disarm the hostage and you can go down to the hold to question her,» Netopyrina advised.
Patricia tried to delay the unpleasant meeting with the fairy for three to four hours. She really didn’t want to talk to the winged pest. Fairies can hypnotize. One look into her eyes and you’re gone. If the crew on the ship did not consist of magical creatures, the fairy long ago would have charmed everyone and would have taken command of the crew of lunatics, subject to her will.
«It’s about time!» Netopyrina urged. She didn’t even need a watch to tell the time. As night approached, she felt a surge of strength, but during the day she grew weaker. Apparently, her mouse nature had its own clockwork mechanism.
«Come on, let’s wait a little longer. Let her calm down,» Patricia paced the deck and played with her saber. Swinging a saber was a familiar and simple matter, but dealing with the fairies of Opal was complicated politics. Politics gave Patricia a headache. She didn’t know how to negotiate. The last time the King of Opal had negotiated with her, it had turned into a massacre and tragedy. Now Patricia was ashamed to even remember how she had run away from her native shores on a small boat ruled by a dwarf.
«It was a pity that one could not live by physical strength alone, one needed magic and politics. Otherwise the art of swordsmanship would be enough for me…» Patricia did not find support from the two fairies. They respected magic more than martial arts.
Well, to hell with them. Fairies have their own mentality. It was time to interrogate the hostage. Zeligena, Netopyrina, and a few goblins descended into the hold with Patricia.
Instead of a lantern, there was a perch with a sleeping firebird at the entrance to the hold. Zeligena had found a real glass lantern somewhere, with a firefly inside instead of a candle.
«We must ask the firebird not to fly close to the barrels of fire wine, or the whole ship will explode,» Patricia thought.
«It won’t explode, but the firebird will get drunk,» objected the more experienced Zeligena.
Well, if so…
«Where I am?» Patricia looked at the caged fairy, who had already managed to spit out her gag. The ropes used to bind her wrists and ankles were set on fire by the fairy using a spell. She muttered incoherent words to herself, and the ropes caught fire. The fire did not burn the fairy’s own skin.
«Oh, here we are!» The fairy laughed wickedly, and the sharp pins from the walls darted at Patricia. Patricia was barely able to dodge them. Then the barrels started dancing. Dozens of them rose into the air and began to circle in a circle.
There’s fire wine in them! If it spills, it’s the end of everyone.
«Stop it!» Patricia demanded.
«What can you do?» The fairy grinned. «You lost your authority as our ruler a long time ago.»
«I never was. If you remember, the King of Opal didn’t have time to make me his next queen.»
«I didn’t see that,» said the captive fairy defiantly. She tried to break the bars of the cage and failed. The gray bars of enchantment looked fragile, but they were strong.
Patricia looked closely at the fairy’s face, which was covered with a light web of sequins. They made the fairy appear starry-eyed, only her iridescent eyes giving away that she was of the Nightwalker caste.
Indeed, this fairy was not present at the dinner where Patricia had dared to accept from the king a gift of a black ring, which made all the wearers sick with the black plague.
The fairy hostage had a typical heart-shaped face.
«Are you Riabella? Flotel? Alyssandra?» Patricia couldn’t recognize her, but she knew not all the court fairies by name.
«Aleandra,» the fairy corrected, and smiled predatorily again. The teeth beneath her graceful mouth were sharp as needles. It was as if she had a mouth full of needles. You wouldn’t envy whoever she bit.
Netopyrina was giving signs that it was time to begin the interrogation, or the captive would gain strength. While the fairy was distracted by the negotiations, the flying wine barrels were slowly falling back down. The fairy didn’t have enough concentration to do everything at once. She must have been exhausted as she tried to break free from her captivity.
«Where was the fleet headed?» Patricia began to question her.
«Why do you want to know?» Aleandra was wary.
«It is curious.»
«It wasn’t sent for you,» the fairy grinned as if her words were a lie.
«Then who was it sent for?»
«The fleet might have sailed with good intentions.»
«Armed to the teeth?»
«Well, in these times, security is not unreasonable,» the fairy said sullenly. «There’s a war going on. It’s everywhere. Only people don’t know about it. The Emperor and Empress of the Magic Empire are sharing power. Who’s who?»
«What does the King of Opal have to do with this?»
«Ask me what fairies have to do with it?»
«Don’t tease me!» Patricia swung her saber in retaliation.
The fairy just laughed insolently. The floor of the hold shook and the glass in the lantern burst. The firefly broke free and flew away.
«Your outfit is strange,» Aleandra gave Patricia an unpleasant look, «as if you were a gypsy or a beggar.»
«I am not a gypsy, but a pirate captain.»
«What kind of lady would degrade herself to a man’s profession?»
Patricia felt herself covered in mud under the fairy’s gaze. Fairies are such schemers! One word from them would turn any fame into shame.
«It suits me,» Patricia cut her off.
«You could have been queen.»
«One night of ritual and the next morning you are a skeleton in a crown.»
«At least I wouldn’t have to swing a saber. You could stand in a niche like a palace ornament. The grave fairies would serve you well. I think they recognize you for letting you go. I recognize you too.»
The fairy smiled greedily, as if she had met an old rival who was about to be torn apart.
«And the dragon will come for you!»
Patricia didn’t know what she’d done to the dragon. Maybe she had stolen some magical thing that the dragon had left unattended on the coast or in the mountains. Patricia saw strange marks burned into the sand. They had definitely been left by the dragon’s breath. Maybe she shouldn’t have touched the burned sand. She could have broken some dragon spell by scooping up a handful of that sand.