Читать книгу Dragon Ship - Natalie Yacobson - Страница 12

The setting sun was as warm as dragon fire. The dragon seemed to be flying across the sky above the ship. Patricia stood at the stern and watched the island of Purras disappear over the horizon. The cute little animals wouldn’t go away.

«If one day I live on my own estate, I’ll have a purra,» Patricia said.

Perhaps she should have thrown a coin into the sea, so that one day she could return to the Isle of Purras. There is an omen that if you throw a coin into the water, you will surely return to this place again.

Nethopurina shook off some invisible grit. She brought Patricia back to the deck and noticed a red hair on her wings to shake off.

«Your hair is like fire yarn,» complained the bat fairy. «It seems to be hot like fire.»

«It must have gotten hot in the sun,» Patricia watched the goblins load bags of fruit on board. Zeligena took the role of bookkeeper and wrote down the list of purchases in the ship’s log. She used green swamp sludge instead of ink and a fish bone instead of a quill. The lines came out green.

«How is it that instead of robbing, we started buying?» Patricia wondered.

It is nothing surprising!» The mongrel spread her wings. «The Purras will drive anyone to extremes.»

«Are they magical animals? Can they do any small magic?»

«Of course, they can! There are also human-sized Purras, but they live on other islands. For example, on the island of Shean (which is south of here) lives Princess Leonella, who has surrounded herself with large purras instead of bodyguards. By the way, she doesn’t like the King of Opal either. You should meet her.»

«Will her purras turn on me again?» Patricia felt her purse lighten after landing on Purras’ island.

«Well, pirates rob the ships they meet so they can spend the money on booze and pleasure,» Nethopyrina said diplomatically.

«I thought it was to accumulate more treasure and bury a pirate’s treasure, which can then be dug up at the end of the career and spent on a large estate.»

«You’re a humorist!» Nethopyrina gave Patricia a friendly pat on the shoulder with her wing. «I haven’t seen a single pirate who could save up money for his own farm, let alone an estate.»

«Have you seen many pirates?»

«I’ve been flying over ships for a long time, eavesdropping, peeping. I steal something pirates don’t have well. They usually blame the thefts on each other and don’t suspect the fairies. Pirates have an unstable income, depending on the wealth of the ships they encounter, and an unreliable future. They can always be captured and hanged or sent to feed the fish. Each boarding could be their last, so pirates dump all their booty on Peony Island. There are many taverns there, you can drink and have fun.»

«I’ve heard that there is a slave trade on Peony Island,» Patricia said.

«That too! The pirates have to sell captured prisoners somewhere, but we don’t take prisoners, so we don’t need to go to Peony.»

That’s true. All the prisoners were destroyed by a bloodthirsty ship. It’s impossible to spend a single man on «The Bloodsucker», the ship will drink his blood immediately. The planks of the walls and deck would turn scarlet for a moment, and the man would die. The only exception was Patricia, that’s why she was the captain. And the ship was squeamish about the blood of fairies and magical creatures. Their blood must be poisoned or enchanted. That’s why the fairy in the hold was still unharmed. She was now singing strange songs that sounded like drunken ramblings. Probably one of the goblins gave her rum and the fairy got drunk.

«Everyone drinks from grief,» Nethopyrina nodded. «And for a fairy to be a hostage is a great sorrow. I bet she feels like a moth in a jar.»

«No kidding!» Patricia was nervous, because the scarlet rays of the sunset were beginning to fade behind the horizon.

«You’re so serious! What if I told you about the dancers from Peony? They’re all nagas, serpentine or evil fairies. Their profession is to pick pirates’ pockets. All our colleagues sail from Peony with empty wallets.»

«How come rumors of pirate treasure if it’s all spent on booze and dancers?»

«Do you want to find a pirate treasure?» Nethopyrina clapped her gray eyelashes in surprise.

Patricia didn’t know what to say. Not to admit honestly that she wanted to find an alternative to Medea Shai’s proposal. Patricia hadn’t told either Nethopyrina or Zeligena about the impending deal with the fairy queen yet. And they were her main assistants aboard «The Bloodsucker». Unlike the active fragile fairies, the strong goblins behaved passively. They only knew how to fight, and had no ideas in their heads. Strategists of them were not good. Acting on the principle of «you have the power, you don’t need the brains» does not always lead to the best. And now there was an unhappy murmur on the deck. The motley crew was shaking their fists, saying goodbye to the island disappearing in the distance. There were curses and threats. The goblins were only now coming out of the enchantment of the purras, and they felt screwed.

«Oh, those purras are!» The largest of the goblins complained. «They occupy the whole island and set their own laws on it. You can’t even pick a coconut from a palm tree without their permission. Otherwise they will bite your finger off.»

Since the goblin was blowing on his paw, there was no doubt about the damage caused by the Purras.

«Next time I’ll show them!» The goblin waved his wand menacingly.

«And they will come at you in a pack, and you will not be able to get your paws off their island. But the purras will sell your skin,» said Nethopyrina, snidely.

The goblin immediately fell silent. He was not afraid of the cannon volleys of oncoming ships, but he was afraid of some purras. How could those furry little things frighten such a big guy?

The trolls did not complain about life, because they were not interested in the fruit from the purras’ island. But they had drunk almost all the fire wine from the hold. There were only a few barrels left. Patricia hoped that they would finish it too. Otherwise the whole ship might burst into flames like a match if one of the barrels suddenly cracked.

The bags of fruit were brought to the ship by goblins. They are so strong that they can easily carry even a boulder on their backs.

Patricia noticed a bag of mangoes, kiwis and pineapples that she hadn’t bought.

«I traded it to the Purras,» Zeligena bragged.

«What did you give them for it?»

Zeligena wore no jewelry of any value that the greedy islanders might be tempted by.

«Nothing but a promise and a few smiles,» the swamp fairy boasted.

«Don’t tell me you took it all away from them by scaring them with a musket.»

«It is no way! I don’t scare anyone with a gun. It’s against the law. I could be arrested and executed like a common pirate for walking around with a saber. I’m more subtle than that.»

«And what did you do to scare the Purras?»

«I promised them you’d bring a flood to their island unless they gave you a gift. They’re very afraid of sinking. The Purras don’t like water at all.»

«Did they really take your word for it that I could summon a flood? I didn’t realize the Purras were so naive.»

«The waves told them you were friends with mermaids. A girl who’s friends with mermaids can get the sea maidens to flood an entire country. Besides, you have another swamp fairy in your entourage,» Zeligena pouted smugly. «The proximity of the swamp makes purras sick, too.»

«Don’t make any more promises to anyone that I can’t fulfill. It’s not in my power to summon a storm or create a flood.»

«But you can really make a deal with the mermaids. Even if they can’t flood the whole kingdom for you, they can flood it so much that the inhabitants have to walk knee-deep in water. In such a situation, you can already give any king an ultimatum. To prevent the lower floors of his own palace from sinking, every ruler will make concessions. It’s a pity that the mermaids are now exhausted by the dragon’s attacks and can’t flood all of Opal for you. Otherwise you wouldn’t have to fight the war yourself.»

«What would the mermaids ask in return?» Patricia was wary. She could not believe that the sea maidens could help unselfishly. She herself was ready to save a mermaid only for a thank you, but she didn’t expect a favor in return.

«Well, mermaids aren’t purras. They won’t rob you of everything, but they may ask you to make a blood sacrifice over the sea.

«Is it a bull or a goat?»

«It is a man.»

«That’s horrible!» Patricia was embarrassed.

«For a pirate, killing the enemy is routine. You capture someone and slaughter them over the sea. You’ll have to perform a ritual to make the mermaids realize the sacrifice is meant for them.»

«Has anyone ever done something like that over your swamp?»

Zeligena was now embarrassed.

«One king, defeated in a war, asked the swamp fairies to flood his enemy’s country with mire,» she admitted reluctantly. «I still remember what it was like: a whole army and a whole kingdom went into the swamp. No one ever saw them again.»

«Could you have lured the King of Opal into the swamp?»

«My swamp is gone. The dragon burned it out,» Zeligena reminded her with a resentful look.

«It’s a shame!» Patricia regretted that she would not be able to profit from her acquaintance with the swamp fairy, but Zeligena understood her in her own way.

«Don’t regret it! Otherwise we wouldn’t be on the same ship right now.»

The swamp fairy liked the feeling of being the captain’s assistant. The cabin in which she had taken up residence was slowly turning into a swamp. Even frogs started jumping out of it, but the crew of supernatural creatures didn’t mind. Zeligena would have liked to take the hold and turn it into a swamp, but they were holding a valuable hostage, the fairy from Opal. It was now evening, and the captive fairy was raising a scandal again. Her threats to enchant the whole ship were heard even through the barrier of magical signs drawn at the entrance to the hold.

Patricia thought with horror of the fairy queen who was about to appear. Along with the night would come Medea Shai. What to say to her, Patricia hadn’t decided. Should she try to exchange the hostage for gold and call it a day? Would Medea Shai compromise?

It is unlikely that the queen of fairies will descend from the sky directly onto the deck of a pirate ship. Most likely, she would wait in the captain’s cabin. Her ability to emerge directly from the void was stunning to Patricia. If she could move through space, she would have long ago appeared in the royal bedroom of the Opal palace and tried to kill the king.

What an idea! Patricia had a plan. We should give the Fairy Queen an ultimatum. Let her prove her sincerity by destroying Patricia’s enemy. The Queen of the Fairies should be strong enough to do that.

Medea Shai is able to appear as a black mist in the captain’s quarters, so she can also move to the Opal royal palace in the same way. She could suffocate the king in his sleep and disappear immediately.

Patricia thought about the plan.

«Hey, look!» One of the goblins shrieked. He seemed to be scared out of his wits.

What’s the matter? Patricia didn’t immediately notice what the goblin was pointing at. A nimble white monkey was leaping along the ropes and masts.

«Wow!» Patricia whistled as she realized what was going on.

The nimble purra had sneaked onto the ship and leaped as she wished. The goblins fell into a stupor when they saw the purra. It seems that most of all they wanted to chase her off the ship, but for some reason they did not dare to approach the magical beast. Did the purra hypnotize them and deprive them of their own will?