Dragon Ship

«It is to fighting.»

«How warlike you are!» The gray fairy clucked her tongue.

«I need warriors.»

«The mermaids say that you can’t survive on the seas without strength,» the fairy sighed and showed her clawed feet. «I can tear anyone to shreds. In my claws the enemy is like in a meat grinder, but my main talent is in agility and in the ability to whistle a strong wind. My whistle, by the way, can make people deaf or insane. Would you like a demonstration?»

The bat-fairy put the claws of her little fingers in her mouth and prepared to whistle.

«No, you don’t,» Patricia interrupted her. «It’s better to introduce yourself. What’s your name?»

«Nethopurina.»

«You’re from a race of celestials?»

Nethopyrina shifted her triangular eyebrows in puzzlement.

«I’m from the bat fairy caste.»

«Okay, it’s not about bloodline. So, Lady Netopyrina…»

«I haven’t been called Lady since King Opal threw me out of the castle in disgrace.»

«What did you do to him?» Patricia immediately felt good about the fairy.

«I drank the blood of the wrong lady to be executed.»

«And he threw you out for such a small thing? He loves fairies, peri, divas, and especially the night fairies, the blood-drinking fairies.»

«But it is not me. I was out of place.»

«So was I.»

«You ran away. No one threw you out,» Nethopyrina scrutinized Patricia. «I see your line of fate. By the way, you’re being chased.»

«Is it from Opal?»

«No, it is from somewhere else.»

«I haven’t made any more enemies anywhere else.»

Is Nethopyrina a clairvoyant? She’s a little vague in her predictions. More like a fraudulent fortune-teller from Opal Square. King Opal had a good eye. He knew how to tell the real sorcerers from the charlatans.

Patricia remembered the feast hall at Opal’s castle, the poison glasses lined up between the food, the dishes of meat and blood, and the snide laughter of the peri community. Peri are the female variety of evil genies. Outwardly they are beauties, inwardly they are demons. The King of Opal released them from some ancient candlestick, and all of Opal turned into hell.

Patricia remembered sitting at the feast table between giggling peri, and on the platter in front of her was meat left over from the cut corpse of her uncle who had rioted against the king. It was best not to clash with a king who had subjugated an unclean force. But the fateful step had been taken, nothing could be undone.

«The King of Opal wanted to give you up to the dragon,» Netopyrina determined.

«I’ve surrendered to the dragon!» Patricia kicked a barrel of fire wine that had been forgotten on the side of the ship. The packaging was faulty. The fiery liquor ran down the deck. It’s going to burn!

The puddle of fire suddenly turned green and turned into a swamp. How did this happen?

«Is there room for me?» A green hand rested on the side.

Had one of the swamp women crawled in? Patricia didn’t think she’d ever see one of them again.

«The dragon burned my swamp as soon as you left,» she explained, climbing up onto the deck on the smooth side. «So I choose to travel in your company. It’s safer with you.»

«Staying close to me is like sailing on a pirate ship.»

«Well, then I want to join your crew. Who says a swamp fairy can’t be a pirate?»

«Can you fight?»

«I can be useful,» the swamp fairy pointed to the green trail of slime that followed her through the water.

«It is mud,» Patricia said.

«And what is about this one?» Her wing stretched out and touched the water behind the deck. The waves immediately became mire. «I can turn the ground beneath your enemies’ feet or the water beneath their ship into mire.»

Patricia whistled. That’s even better than strength. The Swamp Lady knows how to be useful.

«You better learn to fight with a saber, too.»

«I’ll try, but it’s unnecessary. I don’t need a saber when I have claws.»

A swamp fairy could cut a human throat with them. Patricia turned away.

«I am Zeligena,» the swamp fairy introduced herself.

«Isn’t that the name of a whole race of fairies with goat hooves under their green dresses?» Patricia wondered. She had met such fairies at Opal’s court.

«Maybe so, but in this case it’s a name, it is not a nationality.»

It wouldn’t have occurred to Patricia to say that fairies were divided into races and nationalities.

«All right, stay, Zeligena. Let’s hope you’re not a spy.»

«What do you mean?» Zeligena snorted insolently. «I’m an honest swamp dweller who was defeated by a dragon.»

«I’m angry with him myself,» Patricia noticed a metal tube on the side of the boat. It looked like a spyglass, but it was fancy.

«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.