Читать книгу One Century to Marriage. Prisoners of the Magic Kingdom - Natalie Yacobson - Страница 7

Medea Shai stood in the empty armory, gracefully spreading her patterned wings. The guards thought it best to leave as soon as she appeared here. Conrad was happy to see her again. Though she brought waves of darkness with her, to him she was like the black sun.

«I’ve been waiting for you!» He exclaimed from the threshold. «You took your time.»

«But I have sent gifts to all your subjects that will radically change the country.»

Conrad did not detect a note of guile in her tone. Medea Shai paced around the circular holder on which the rarest of weapons was laid out. Her dainty black-nailed fingers slid over the double-edged blades. She’d better not hurt herself!

«You collect swords from Menuel!» Medea Shai was delighted at the sight of his collection. Others were frightened by the hilts in the shape of wings, but she was fascinated by it.

«There are legends that such swords fly into the heart of the enemy, if you send them, even through the country, strongly wishing someone death,» Conrad remembered the fables of arms dealers. «Such a sword will find its prey and plunge into it.»

«It’s not a legend, it’s the truth,» the queen of the fairies interrupted him, almost harshly. «True, there is a spell you must first recite before you can send a sword to seek out your enemy. I can teach you…»

She was silent for a moment, and her brow furrowed in incomprehension. Her wings twitched nervously.

«But why should I teach you anything? You’re mortal, aren’t you? Not even a mundane elf! I always wanted to marry an elves’ king. No more, no less. And now I’ve changed my mind. I don’t believe it.»

She gently brushed a lock of hair from his forehead.

«You were so extraordinary. I didn’t expect a human to have the consciousness of an elf.»

«Was it all because of the armory? Has your opinion of me increased so much because I keep Menuel’s swords in my possession?»

«It’s not an arsenal, it’s a treasure trove.»

Medea Shai manipulated one of the swords in some way, and the steel notched wings flapped like they were alive. The sword hung in the air.

«Who do you want it to kill?» She asked him curtly.

At first Conrad didn’t even believe her.

«Do you mean it?»

«And yourself, what do you think?» Medea Shai flapped her wings sharply and knocked over the sword basket. They scattered across the floor. Their clanging sounded like the echo of a bloodbath.

«I don’t want to hurt anyone since I met you,» Conrad admitted.

Medea Shai frowned. The streams of gloom that flew from the tips of her wings grew thicker.

«It’s strange! I usually bring out the darkest qualities in even the nicest people,» she thought aloud.

«So it’s different with me.»

«But every king has at least one mortal enemy. You name it!»

Well, all right.

«It is King Meron of Arador.»

By naming the name Condor didn’t think he was signing his death warrant. The sword dashed through the open window of the armory and flew over the sleeping city like a big arrow.

«In an hour it will have done the job!» Medea Shai promised.

Her luxurious wings scuffed the walls of armoires and spears stacked in niches. Conrad was again afraid she would hurt herself. With wings like hers, it’s hard to walk around earthly apartments. There’s too little room, and she doesn’t want to fold her wings with a cape behind her back like her fairies do. She is, after all, a queen.

Condor noticed the dark-winged fairies circling above the tallest tower spire.

«They are my retinue,» Medea Shai explained.

«Don’t they want to fly into the castle?»

«They’re more at ease in the heights.»

Conrad didn’t insist. The fairies looked ominous. They seemed to be calling for a storm. Black storm clouds were gathering where they were dancing.

«Will you grace the royal tournament with your presence?» Conrad gestured to the queen of the fairies. Even though she is a magical guest, but we must observe the etiquette. But to enter through the windows instead of the doors, as Medea Shai had already done, was a clear violation of all the rules.

«That is unnecessary!» She shrugged. «I don’t like mortal tournaments. Magic tournaments are more fun.»

«But there aren’t any in Aluar.»

«We shall remedy that,» «Medea Shai levitated off the floor to catch up with Conrad and kissed him. The kiss of a fairies’ queen must make everyone lose their mind. Conrad momentarily forgot what he was about to say. Medea Shae’s lips tasted and smelled of the dark forest, pine and witch berries. Conrad was ready to forget everything and make love to the fairy right now in the armory, among the scattered weapons, regardless of the risk of severe injury. But there was a sharp whistle outside the window. It was the winged sword coming back. It flew back on its own, moving the notches of its hilt like real wings. Its blade was covered in blood. A flap of Arador’s coat of arms clung to its hilt.

«Your opponent is dead!» Medea Shai took the sword, twirled it in her hands, and suddenly licked the blood from the blade. «And he was no longer young, but cunning. It would have been nice to get to know him while he was still alive. I can talk to the dead, too, but it’s not as interesting as talking to the living.»

The sword dropped from her fingers and took its former place in the hollow of its holder. The blood wasn’t caked on it, but disappeared, as if the steel had absorbed it.

«You said it would take an hour for the sword to do its job, and it came back much sooner.»

Medea Shai only grinned wryly. He must have been the one who lost track of time while he was kissing the fairy.

Conrad picked up the sword that had just killed his rival.

«What are you doing?» Medea Shai grew wary.

«It boggles my mind to think that an hour ago it was in the heart of my enemy,» Conrad confessed.

«What surprises me is that this sword does not crave your blood. Ordinarily, if you draw it from its sheath, it would be as thirsty as its proprietor. And it only drinks blood.»

Medea Shai’s slender but incredibly strong fingers slipped over Conrad’s sword-clutching hand.

«I suddenly realized that you were special…» she whispered, and somehow she was frightened. «You’d rather not give Araminta elixirs anymore.»

«Why is it not?»

Medea Shai didn’t want to explain. She stormed out of the armory and into the corridors of the castle like an arrow. The footmen and knights, whom she had knocked down, did not understand what was wrong. It must have seemed to them that a black hurricane had just rushed past them. Conrad hurried after the fairies’ queen. She flew straight to his bride’s chambers. It smelled familiarly of musk, fresh flowers, and medicine. The two horrid creatures were still swarming over Araminta’s bedside, but this time they were no longer medicating her with elixirs, but dressing her cold corpse.

«It is the horror!» Medea Shai folded her wings in a horn.

«You mean her appearance?»

Even the gray faeries, each the size of beetles, crawled away from the bed of relics, expressing distaste.

«I mean her death,» Medea Shai clarified. «She could be raised from the dead, but only the shell would come back to life, not Araminta, who is already dead and accounted for in the records of the Dead Realm. It is too late to bring her back to life.»

«So you’re not happy that I’m free now and can choose a new bride. Don’t you want to be my queen?»

«You are silly! I don’t want to lose you for a century. I could fall out of love with you in a year, let alone a century. Fairies are fickle.»

«I will not live a century,» Conrad laughed at that, and suddenly he realized his mistake.

«Don’t say that for a century!» Medea Shai reached out to kiss him, but the air around him turned cold to ice. The cabinets and tapestries were covered in an icy crust.

Some icy creatures crawled down the corridors and peered through door crevices.

«We must hide from them before they find me,» Medea Shai worried.

«Who are they?»

«They are the guardians of the law of one century before the wedding. But I will try to deceive them.»

But one of the creatures was already looking right at them from a gap that had suddenly formed right in the wall.

«No, I don’t want to go to the castle beyond the clouds! It’s too cold!» Medea Shai cried out, but her silhouette suddenly began to pale, covered in an icy crust.

Conrad tried to grab her, but all he felt was ice. Medea Shai’s fingers managed to press against his chest for a moment.

«The rose sprouted firmly! You will never betray me!» The queen of the fairies exclaimed triumphantly before the dense mist covered her figure for good.

The mist spiraled and vanished, along with all the ice creatures. Only two or three of them crawled around Araminta’s corpse, obviously intent on taking her with them. The two servants of Medea Shai, who had managed to dress the princess in her wedding garb, had also disappeared.

The vial of elixir that had been given to Araminta tipped onto the carpet. The liquid gave off a pungent fume. It looked like poison!

Conrad did not know what to do now. Rose squeezed his heart with steel thorns.

«She’s ours for life,» one icy creature wheezed, running its fingers through Araminta’s tresses. «And this one stays with you! Bury her with honors and wait a century from now. With any luck, the queen will return to you. There are some trials to be passed before the end of the term…»

One icy creature blew on the clock, and it suddenly stopped. One century of waiting appeared to have begun.

Conrad couldn’t think of an hour without the fairy queen, and now he would have to suffer without her for a century! And would he live through the century? What if he is not immortal after all?