Samantha waited a moment. The wolves ran off. The horses they thankfully didn’t touch. An excited neighing could be heard outside. Apparently, werewolves only eat humans.
The girl picked up the shreds left from her sleeve. Maybe as compensation for the torn dress, she could carry away the werewolf jewelry. There was jewelry and oddly shaped keys on the table. Samantha liked the gold-plated key with the heart-shaped head and slipped it into her pocket. It was not theft. It was compensation for emotional distress. She’s been scared to death in here!
There was blood in the bottom of the cup Jessica was drinking from. She should have known it wasn’t red tea. Both green and pink tea are imported to Ivylor too rarely, and they are speculated in such a way that even aristocrats can’t always afford them. Overseas merchants are rare guests in the country. Rumor has it that some powerful spirit scares merchants away from the royal harbor, taking away their goods.
Samantha descended the stairs, walked across the wolf-scratched floor, and stepped out into the courtyard. The neglected garden and the sculpture of the wolf goddess on the fountain began to frighten her.
How could there be so much light in an abandoned manor at night to see everything? Samantha looked around for a lantern, but all that emerged from the thicket was an orange fairy with heat coming from it. Samantha recoiled. The fairy resembled a hovering flame. It was small in size, but it looked like a blazing sun. Being near her was like sitting down by a melted stove.
«Who are you?» Samantha backed up and asked the question spontaneously, even though it was already clear that a fire fairy was hovering next to her.
«I am a fire fairy, of course! Famma…,» the fairy raised her orange eyebrows in amazement. «And you’re a guest who leaves the manor alive? That’s unusual!»
«Have there been other guests here before me?» Samantha marveled at the people walking the wolf’s nest themselves. She guessed it was not surprising if wolves could turn into aristocrats.
The fire fairy nodded vigorously. Her entire body, wings, hair, and skin were glowing with orange light, making the fairy resemble a flying bonfire.
«There were so many of them here! Kennels, woodsmen, woodcutters, masons, roofers, shopkeepers – all their bones are put into my fireplace so that I have something to burn,» boasted the fire fairy.
It was to cover their tracks, you fool! Bones are evidence!»
«Is it evidence?» The fairy frowned. She probably didn’t understand what the word meant. «The royal advisor was looking for some evidence here too.»
«Was the royal advisor in this estate? And did nothing to keep us all safe from werewolves?» Samantha’s righteous anger flared up.
«He threatened to wipe the manor and its inhabitants to powder if we continued to do whatever we wanted,» the fairy recalled.
«So he has a conscience after all! That’s comforting! I’ve heard that the king’s counselor is completely unscrupulous. The travelers must be slandering him. Are you sure you heard everything?»
«I was hiding in the chimney. I could hear every rustle in there.»
Orange lights were coming off the turrets. They flew down and turned into new fire fairies.
«These are my sisters!» Famma waved a flaming hand at them in greeting.
Samantha was not happy about the fairies. It was getting as hot as a furnace next to them. She struggled to slip out of the tight ring of fire fairies that had flocked to the fountain.
«We’re heating and lighting the castle!» They bragged. «Are you going to marry one of the werewolves?»
«Gods forbid! What makes you think that?»
«Otherwise you wouldn’t be left alone in the manor,» Famma concluded.
«I’m leaving now,» Samantha picked up her lush skirts and ran for the exit. The fire fairies followed her in a swarm. Apparently they hadn’t had anyone to talk to for a long time. The werewolf masters were unlikely to talk to the fairies. They were tolerated in the manor only for fire and light.
The wicket door was unlocked. Samantha ran to the horses. They were not too eager to see their mistress. Pegasus was peacefully nibbling on the grass. Naughty, Sleepyhead and Ardent stared at her with empty, lazy eyes.
«Damn it!» Samantha cursed. «Those stupid geldings can’t be moved again!»
The horses did not take offense at her angry words, but the fire fairies fluttered nearby and watched the scene bewildered. For some reason, the horses were not afraid of their fire. Apparently they weren’t afraid to get burned. Samantha noticed that the light touch of the fairies made dry twigs burst into flames and the fence soot.
«I understood correctly that you were going to leave us,» Famma said disappointedly.
«I must leave, or I’ll be nothing but bones when your landlords return!»
This time the fire fairies understood her perfectly and began to help clear the road of dry branches and bushes. It turned out that one fire fairy could easily burn the thorny bushes just by touching them with her wings. All the orange fairies were the size of frail teenagers, and they had more strength than the fire giant. Samantha whistled in surprise. Even her whistle didn’t get the horses to budge.
«You’re taming them wrong!» Famma flew over to the harness with a look of expertise.
«Do you have to burn them to get them to move?» Samantha snorted sarcastically.
«You have to be gentle! You’ll drive them around like a coachman. Horses don’t like that. They don’t need saddles, spurs or bridles.»
«But then they’d go wild!»
«No, they won’t! If you sing to them, they will always please you,» the Fire Fairy sang. Her song was like the hissing of flames, and the horses obediently followed the fairy. Samantha barely had time to climb onto the horses. She held the whip and reins, but the horses obeyed Famma, not her.
«Now you try to sing to them,» suggested the fire fairy.
«I can’t do that! You have to be a fairy to sing like that!»
«Let’s not be prejudiced!» Famma flashed her orange eyes menacingly. «Just sing, that’s all!»
The fairy resembled a flaming torch. She could persuade anyone to become more obedient. If not indulged, she would scorch or even burn. Samantha sang obediently. Strangely enough, the horses obeyed. They trotted forward.
«Then you must sing so they would not be lazy again!» Samantha hoped the fairies would guide her to the capital. It was a brighter ride with them. When the flaming silhouettes flanked the road, there was no fear of ravines or bandits. Besides, if the fairies flew away, the horses would be stubborn again. Samantha was not so naive as to believe that the horses obeyed only her singing. It was not without the fairies’ energy.
Alas, as soon as the sky began to lighten, the fire fairies hurriedly said goodbye and flew back to the manor. Samantha looked at them in despair, but the horses continued to trot forward. Samantha was afraid to let them gallop. She didn’t encourage speeding. You could crash into a milepost. Near her parents’ estate, carriages often crashed. Probably the tops of the poles were badly placed there. The carriages were literally bumping into them. Samantha had once dreamed that the poles were living monsters that caught travelers. Now it seemed to her that the mileposts on the road to Ivilor were ugly goblins.
Good thing her carriage hadn’t run into them. The horses were finally obeying her. The fairies helped her tame them. You should sing while you’re driving the carriage. That’s what the fairies said. It’s silly, but it works. But the carrot didn’t work! Magic works better!
The horses rode on their own, even when Samantha wasn’t singing. If they stalled again, she’d have to sing to them again.
«Thank the fairies for all their advice!» Samantha muttered, moving from the goats into the cozy interior of the carriage. The velvet seat provided a place to sleep, which she did. It was still a full night and half a day’s ride to Ivilor. It would be possible to get some rest. And once she arrived, she would be in competition with the local socialites. Better not even think about that!
Samantha fell into a dream as she had various nightmares. Fairies’ claws were sliding on the wheel of a spinning wheel. Duchess Evangelina was talking to the fairies about something. You couldn’t tell if she was alive or a ghost. Evangelina was extorting from the spinning fairies a special thread that could be used to bind a demon. The fairies charged an unbelievable price, but they wouldn’t give up the job. And then the fairies and Evangelina disappeared. Some evil black creature clawed its way into the royal treasury. It looked suspiciously like the demon Samantha had seen on the road.
«I can’t stand maidens!» It wailed. «They always want to hurt me, poor thing! They’re all so brave as to offend the little ones! As soon as I, a poor little thing, get a favorable position in a new place, they swoop down like flies on honey. Don’t they realize I need a king more than they do? Serpin is my protector, my provider, my employer. And they want to steal him away and deprive me. I’ll kill them all!»
The hoarse voice broke into a furious hiss on the last sentence. Samantha flinched. Could the king really be the demon’s employer? What a demon’s job it was to turn the entire kingdom into a kind of hell!
As the black claws reached for her, Samantha woke up. No demon was there, of course. And the feeling was that he was still sitting in her carriage.
«I think my nerves are shot!» Samantha looked out of the carriage window. The familiar wooded area around the road had been replaced by apiaries. There were no beekeepers, but strange black bees hovered over the black honeycombs.
Samantha rubbed her eyes. What if she was dreaming? Behind the apiaries stretched barren black fields with black weeds and burdock. Suspicious-looking creatures rode through the thickets. Such animals Samantha had never seen in her life. They were not goats, sheep, or dogs. But they had twisted horns, hooves, and black wings like bats. One such creature stared at the carriage. Samantha hurriedly shut the window and sang, urging the horses to gallop faster.
The black, barren fields outside the window, where the evil spirits nested, reminded her of hell. Where could hell come from in Ivilor? Samantha had always thought Hell was underground, not on the surface of the earth. How could it be that a piece of hell had surfaced? It must be another nightmare.
The carriage suddenly stopped. The horses were frightened by a tiny creature that scurried under their hooves. It was the size of a gopher, but it had the aggression of an elephant.
«Look where you’re going!» It hissed angrily at the horses and Samantha.
It seemed to Samantha that the little creature wanted to fight her. For some reason she was afraid of it. Perhaps it was because she had already seen a small, stunted demon fight a tall lady named Evangelina.
The road on which the carriage was traveling lay between black fields. To the left of the road was an unusual scarecrow on a pole. Instead of button eyes, it glittered with two coins, and its pointed black hat resembled a witch’s.
Samantha was interested and stepped toward the scarecrow, almost stepping on another small creature that she mistook for a field mouse.
«Look where you’re going!» The creature hissed angrily and released a stream of red, glistening smoke in the girl’s direction. The smoke made Samantha cough. It seemed to be poisonous. She felt dizzy.
«Look up at the sky and the red spell will dissipate,» a husky male voice advised.
Samantha looked up and gasped. Had the scarecrow really spoken to her?
«The local invaders are like locusts,» the scarecrow suddenly nodded from the pole. It was really alive and moving. «You must know how to defend yourself against their charms. Otherwise you’ll end up like me.»
«Who are you?» Samantha looked obediently up at the sky, and the dizziness immediately disappeared.
«I am a former royal advisor.»
No way! The scarecrow must be playing a joke on her. It was clear from her shabby dress that she was a country girl. Samantha expected to be laughed at in the capital, but she didn’t expect even a scarecrow from the suburbs of Ivilor to tease her.
«You called these things invaders? Why is it?» – Samantha felt silly addressing some scarecrow as «you.»
It is because they occupied the fields of Ivilor, and look what happened to the crops. Since their arrival, there’s been barrenness everywhere. Nothing else will sprout from this land but magical grains and trees.»
«It’s a shame. I love watching the harvest and then separating the grain from the chaff. I would have helped with the farming myself, but my mother forbade me to do simple labor. She thinks ladies are only entitled to embroidery and music.»
«And she’s right!» The scarecrow nodded thoughtfully.
«How is it so?» Samantha didn’t expect the scarecrow to be so prim.
«But no one can see you now, and you can try to plant something in this field.»
«But I don’t have any seeds with me.»
«You dig a hole and put one of your amber earrings in it, and then see what sprouts from it,» the scarecrow’s amber eyes sparkled slyly.
«It is some other time. Thanks for the advice!»
Samantha was already regretting that she had spoken to the strange creature, which had been a scarecrow a minute ago and now looked strangely like a man crucified on a pole. She was not going to sacrifice her earring to please her companion. She had to leave before the creature on the pole demanded something even more absurd from her.
«Don’t be greedy!» The scarecrow said. «I, too, came here because I was greedy. I refused to give my diamond cufflinks to the new royal advisor, and he turned out to be a demon. And now I’m hanging here like a sack of straw! I’m pecked by crows and my arms and legs don’t move as if they were straw. Greed leads to disaster, but generosity, you’ll see, will be rewarded. I’ll let you in on a secret. On this field, even the smallest gemstone will grow a whole tree with gems on its branches.»
«Is it really?» Samantha didn’t believe it. «Tell me, where did those strange creatures come from in the fields? Has hell opened up beneath the fields?»
«The new royal advisor let them in here,» the scarecrow explained kindly.
«The royal advisor is tangling with the evil spirits! I can’t believe it. My mother would say you’re slandering an honorable man.»
«It’s not slander! The king’s new counselor is a demon himself!»
The scarecrow must have been speaking figuratively. Samantha couldn’t believe that the king’s advisor had been turned into a talking scarecrow by magic and replaced by a dexterous demon.
She wouldn’t have believed in talking scarecrows before, but now she saw one right under her nose. What should she believe now?
As Samantha thought, there was a rustle in the sky. Three beauties in black mourning dresses and with black wings descended to the edge of the field, but they did not dare to move forward, although they were obviously curious about what was going on. For some reason they were afraid to fly further over the field.
«They are grave fairies,» said the creature from the pole.
Samantha was surprised. She had heard of grave fairies. They usually lived in graveyards and sang funeral hymns at night. Whoever hears their voice will die soon, so travelers are wary of passing cemetery fences at night. For behind them dwell grave fairies. But what are grave fairies doing in an arable field? Are there corpses beneath the barren field? Otherwise the grave fairies wouldn’t have come here. They only come to graves or funerals, and sometimes to wakes.
The fairies were whispering like conspirators:
«These are the demon’s dead fields. He sows seeds of death or raises the dead to become his dead army,» the black fairies whispered. «One day they will go to war on the world of the living. And then Queen Luciferina will return!»
Samantha shuddered when she heard the name. Wasn’t it derived from Lucifer? If there is a female version of his name, then she guessed so. In this case, only the queen of hell could be called Luciferina. Looking out over the barren field, Samantha was ready to believe that hell was right underneath it. Better get out of here. What if the earth opened up right now?
«Wait, where are you going?» The tiny creature said. It had crawled out of the hole under the pole. «Will you donate us a coin for the advice of the scarecrow?»
«But it was it that gave me the advice, not you. By the way, how many of you are there in this field?»
«There’s a hell of a lot of us here, and if we don’t pretend to let our guard down, no local scarecrow will talk to you.»
«That is going to cost me a little.»
«Wait, I’ll let you in on a secret! If you plant a coin in this field, it will grow into a coin tree.»
Samantha wanted to test it. She found one coin in her pocket. She put it in the claws of the strange creature. It jumped for joy. Probably now its words would be a lie and it would run away, but the creature actually threw the coin on the ground. The coin immediately passed through the ground like a seed thrown into a hole. The ground shook, and the fairies became wary.
Under Samantha’s feet there was a tremor, and cracks ran through the ground. Was a giant about to crawl out of the ground and crush everyone? Instead, a black sprout appeared. It reached upward and grew into a tree.
«But it had no coins!» Samantha thought she’d been fooled. What if the branches were about to grow dragon teeth? But there was a soft clinking sound, and the black branches were covered with gold coins. Samantha didn’t look surprised, but picked as many as she could. Even if the coins turned into clods of earth or leaves along the way, at least she had tried to get rich.
The fairies flew to the tree.
«Stop it! You are thieves!» The inhabitant of the field screamed, but the fairies stripped the whole tree and flew away. Only one coin remained shining on the black branches.
«Perhaps I should share it with you,» Samantha decided. She offered the creature the apron in which she had placed the coins, but it waved it away. Why was it so proud? Had the coins in her hands gotten leprosy, or was the immortal creature afraid that the Earth girl might infect it with mortality?
After a moment, the ringing sounded again, and the tree again gave golden fruit, that is, coins. This is the thing! It is inexhaustible. The dweller of the fields didn’t want to share the gold only with the fairies. Apparently, those cheeky little things had been flying around the field for a long time, looking for an easy profit.
The creature jumped to the top of the tree and began stripping the coins from it, and Samantha hurried back to the carriage. She took off the apron full of coins and tied the ends into a knot, hiding the knot under the seat. Now she had funds for emergencies. Thanks to the black fields and their inhabitants!
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