Читать книгу Simple Princess - Natalie Yacobson - Страница 6

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.