Dragon Bride

The floor is sprinkled with golden pollen, in which evil pixies circle. The mirrors reflect ladies and gentlemen in ghastly scarlet and black masks, like ghosts, though the room itself is empty. There are no guests. But in the flames of the candles sit tiny fire fairies. They hiss unhappily at the sight of Clement.

The steps of the throne are lined with skulls. There were several skulls in crowns. These are his brothers and his father!

«You are the last, but you are the most valuable!» There is an ominous voice over the hall. «I will get to you in any one piece. Even over the corpse of the one I love. Even through the flames of the strongest dragons. Your life belongs only to me!»

On the throne sits someone dark, he was resembled a monster formed from ashes. The teeth of his crown are so sharp you could cut yourself on them. Red eyes burn rubies in the shadow’s face.

«Come to me yourself?» A dark clawed hand beckons him forward. «Stop to play hide and seek! You were born a hero, but you run from your destiny like a hare. It is time to face your destiny.»

A wave of darkness rushes from the throne. The darkness turns into claws. They slide across Clement’s body, leaving scratches like seals. In reality he cannot bear to fight with a sword; in his dreams the sword is his only defense.

«I need a fifth crowned head, and then I will have the most beautiful and powerful bride in the universe! You want to help me, don’t you? Do you want her to be queen of Aluar and queen of Shai at the same time?»

The darkness’s hypnotizing voice is convincing. The claws of the darkness snatch the sword from him. Clement is ready to put his neck under the blade to join his brothers. But then the mirror on the wall shatters. The reflection of the dragon and Raymonda is seen in the shards that scatter across the hall. The sight of Raymonda lifts the spell of darkness. Clement understands that he is prepared to do some heroic deeds for her.

And that is all. The awakening is painful, like falling from a height. All around is not a hut but a dense forest. As it turned out, he sleeps right on the road and only by some miracle did not fall under some farmer’s cart, carrying hay to town.

«It’s all the invader’s charms! They make his mind wander somewhere far away,» said a familiar female voice.

Even without opening his eyes, he recognized the tenderness of Raymonda’s fingers as they brushed strands of hair away from his forehead. Her fingers had sharp scales on them. He winced. He must be hallucinating! Why would there be scratching hot scales in a maiden’s pampered skin?

«It’s bad enough the enchantments from Shai caught up with him on the road,» answered an unpleasant male voice with a lisp that made his ears hurt. «Think what would happen the next time they caught him unawares on the field and he fell asleep beneath his enemies’ axes.»

«The Shai’s ruler has tapped into it heavily,» Raymonda agreed. «He’s looking for a power source. But he’s not a fighter anyway. I’m disappointed in him, I admit. If he weren’t so handsome, I’d have broken the contract. But I have a weakness for handsome young men.»

«This one is not for burning!» The husky bass warned her defiantly. «For roasting you have his enemy troops. You can do what you want with them. You can burn them on a spit, but the boy is our liberator-to-be.»

«And what if you’re as disappointed in him as I am? He’s not even a knight. He’s just an archer. There’s no sword hidden in his things. I’ve already checked. He’s a very good shot, though. But he’s no better shot than any elf.»

Raymonda’s voice was pleasant, but the bass was like the rattle of twigs snapping in a storm. An owl howled. Clement opened his eyelids cautiously. She had already moved away from him. She looked beautiful in her new silver dress with its lace trim and waistband. But the hunched creature that galloped around her looked more like a living bush of moss, clusters of leaves, and branching horns. This is how the late, frightened travelers describe the wood spirits that attacked them. Could this be the wood spirits? There’s no other name for this creature.

Not that Clement was frightened, but the sight of a woodland creature near a stately elf maiden startled him. What could such an ugly creature have to do with a forest beauty?

The green monster and Raymonda seemed to be formally acquainted.

«Aren’t you ashamed of misleading a boy?» The woodsman interrogated, nodding his disembodied, horned head in Clement’s direction.

«I want to test him.»

«But he’s that… special!» The green creature scratched the back of his head with twiggy fingers.

«I’m starting to wonder if he has a gift. You have to patronize him, like a teenage brother.»

«But he’s got a purpose, that’s for sure.»

Raymonda looked back at Clemente questioningly, and he promptly pretended he was still asleep.

«Is he The Chosen One?» She snorted. «Doesn’t sound like it! He’s handsome but not very strong.»

«But he’s the only one of the four princes who didn’t die. It’s fate!»

«I think he was just lucky.»

«You just want to burn him, just like all the other suitors.»

«It is the groom, not the beggar. And all because he’s supposedly special! But how do you test him for that special gift?» She snapped her fingers together, sending out golden sparks from the tips of her fingernails.

«For now, you have to support him, not test him. He needs a hold, but only until he can shake off the charms of Lord Shai.»

«And then he will know who I am and put me in a cage?»

«What if he can unseal you?»

«It is not likely! The boy is completely naive. Why is it that all the most handsome princes are either tyrants or weak-minded?»

«He’s not weak-minded. He’s just worried that his whole family’s been burned. So don’t show him your talents just yet.»

«Why should I have to be secretive? I always do what I feel comfortable doing.»

Raymonda lit a fire on the ground with a single breath. She didn’t even need the logs. The fire was lit from scratch.

«It is a magical flame!» The creature, composed entirely of moss, horns, and leaves, darted cautiously into the bushes. Clement rubbed his eyes in bewilderment. Had he really just seen a dryad or a fairy? Or was he just imagining it. The forest path was empty, not counting the campfire and the pretty girl. No more creatures of the leaves were around. Raymonda herself could be mistaken for a forest nymph. Maybe she is a nymph. Clement wasn’t sure exactly how nymphs differed from elves and the most common of woodland fairies. The latter seemed to be distinguishable by flowers growing directly in their hair or by their greenish skin. Clement raised himself carefully on his elbows. He did lie down on the tracks left by the wheels of a recent wagon. The tire tracks went deep into the ground, and there seemed to be tiny, shiny pixies in them, like glittering insects. Clement remembered that it was good luck to see pixies. But where would he, a fugitive, find that luck?

Raymonda didn’t see that he was awake. She was dancing around the fire and humming softly.

«The arrangement with the wizard is already in place!But there might not be a wedding,Unless the bridegroom provesHe is worthy of a special bride.How is he better than kings?Sultans, sheikhs and kings?Who’ve all been wooed to me…All have become ashes.The one who survives,The great miracle will be mastered.»

Her feet did not touch the ground. She danced directly over the fire, and her feet did not burn. She took off her beaded slippers. Apparently they were uncomfortable for dancing over the fire. Clement noticed some jewelry on her feet. Or were they scales? They surrounded her heels like armor. He rubbed his eyes again. If that was magic, his uncle didn’t know how. Perhaps Raymonda wasn’t a nymph after all, but an elf princess. Elvish princesses are the best at magic. The magic made up for the song’s lack of rhyme. Raymonda may not be a poet, but she is the greatest sorceress he has seen in his short life.

«Oops!» Clement felt a dry branch crunched under his hand. Raymonda immediately landed and quickly put on her shoes. The fire was instantly almost extinguished. Only a faint orange trickle remained blowing in a column like the silhouette of a genie.

Angry pixies sprang from the pits and flashed in front of Clement’s face like a flock of fireflies.

«They say you owe them compensation for bringing down the earth walls of their new dwelling,» Raymonda translated.

Dwelling?! Those are wheel marks! But Clement didn’t dare argue with the tiny magical creatures. They might cast a spell again! And to break the spell on his own, he was not yet experienced enough. His uncle had never been able to get him to be diligent in his studies.

«Tell them I’ll pay for it when I’m King,» Clement promised.

Strangely enough, the diminutive folk calmed down. Probably because Clement forgot to make it clear to them that it’s not that easy to banish invaders. He might never be king.

Grim Population

The pixies were already having their housewarming party in an empty, cracked jug someone had dropped in the woods. Raymonda had pointed out the place to them. She herself had tamed an owl and spoke to it in the bird’s language. She knows the languages of woodpeckers and quail, even the owl understands her. But he didn’t study very well. He had hoped to inherit the throne and had not heeded his uncle’s advice to chew on the granite of science, that is, the granite of magic. Magic is also a science. Or is it pure magic? Clement was confused. Besides, seeing someone as beautiful as Raymonda made serious thoughts to vanish from his mind. As long as she was near, he thought nothing of the danger of pursuit. And yet Shai’s lord might be peering at him in the magical mirrors right now.

«You’d better not go back to the gamekeeper’s hut,» she advised him. «It’s too risky to live there.»

«Don’t even tell me! I found the bones of a dead gamekeeper in a hole near the house! I wondered what had happened to him.»

Raymonda hummed something dismissively. Clement himself would have guessed there was a gang of outlaws in the woods, but the bones were black as if they’d been burned. Surely they were the marks of dragon fire.

«Let’s walk to town,» Raymonda suggested.

«But it’ll probably be a couple of days’ walk into town!»

«I know shortcuts,» she snapped her fingers, flicking out sparks, and suddenly there was a thin trail of light in the thicket. It was the only bright one in the dark night forest. Something’s wrong here!

Magic! Clement realized. His uncle had told him about the secret paths that were hidden from the eyes of travelers. They could be followed in a matter of hours to the other side of the world. The main thing is not to get lost on them. By the way, only a magical creature can lead them. Even with a magic spell, you won’t be able to find them on your own.

Clement had been convinced from the start that Raymonda was magic. She was too ethereal. Even now she was hovering over the path, not walking on it.

By morning they were at the gates of one of the larger Aluar’s cities. It was certainly not the capital. Surely Raymonda knew he couldn’t return to the capital because of the invaders. After all, the elves knew everything.

The trail disappeared as soon as Raymonda stepped off it. Clément couldn’t believe he’d been so bold as to enter the big city for her. What he wouldn’t do for a pretty girl! Or a beautiful elf! It’s time to stop acting like a rabbit.

«There’s a fair!» Raymonda saw the colorful flags from afar. A sack of beige silk and swan feathers appeared out of nowhere in her hands. She wasn’t going to town for shopping, was she?

She was looking for something in the bag. Some shiny things spilled out of it. Clement helped her gather them up. It was a strange amulet, elves’ doubloons of pure gold with marvelous chasing, and a crown like in his dream. It had been owned by Raymonda, and consisted of spikes, monograms, and claws of gold ripped from the claws of a dead dragon. Clement whistled. What a piece of jewelry! It was too ominous for a lady. It was more befitting a witch.

«Give it back!» Quickly she took it and put it back in her sack.

«Why aren’t you wearing it?»

Raymonda ignored the question. She wore a thin hoop on her forehead, with the insignia of a linked moon and new moon. Only a witch could wear that, too. The moon and new moon, united in one circle, symbolized nighttime sorcery.

As Clement pondered, his companion strode into town. The guards at the gate didn’t notice her hem hovering over the gravel path.

Clement had no choice but to follow her. He noted with horror that most of the guards had been replaced by monsters from Shai. They were a head taller than ordinary people and wore black armor. Their horned helmets looked something like dragon heads.

There was very little of the human population left. Mostly the city was flooded with various supernatural beings. They were all dark, clearly coming from Shai, as were the monstrous warriors.

They did not notice Clement. Only the squads sent specifically after him discerned the prince beneath his simple peasant shirt. They were clearly endowed with clandestine vision. The local monsters paid no attention to the young man.

«This place is full of invaders!» Clement turned around looking for Raymonda, but she was no longer there. He found her after a moment by the colorful tents at the market, where they were selling many beautiful trinkets.

Raymonda had gone out to buy hair ornaments. This surprised Clement. Why would she need wreaths of paper flowers and cheap beads when she had a crown of gold? Are fashionable women greedy creatures? So be it. If he becomes king, he’ll buy her trunks full of ribbons and hairpins. It is as long as she stays with him. Clement peered out into the yonder crowd of rivals, not pursuers. What infatuation does to boys! His father had warned him not to be captivated by windswept women, lest he ruin the kingdom. And it died anyway, caught in the claws of magical invaders.

The heads and disemboweled bodies of those executed on staves made him uneasy. There was the former mayor, the heads of the mint that had already been looted by the monsters, the warriors, and even the merchants whose goods had apparently been taken. Their remains were hung up in bloody pieces on stakes and poles as an admonition to others who had not submitted. The crows did not dare to peck at them. They did not dare to fly close to the monsters of the Shai, who were on patrol on the walls. And he dared to come out here to amuse Raymonda! He’s out of his mind! She’d practically trapped him.

Clement shuddered as he saw the powerful clawed paw through the gaping holes in his armor catch a raven at the meat of an execution and squeeze it, blood spattering on the sidewalk.

At the sight of the blood, some creature on a pole suddenly opened its eyes and appeared alive. He looked like a foolish prophet, dressed in rags and necklaces of bones. Such often wandered the paths leading to the Shai. Into the Shai itself, only a select few were admitted, for some reason needed by the local ruler. The roads were only visible at night or in fog, when everything else is covered by a veil of invisibility. Some daredevils who had studied magic looked for these trails, but Clement’s uncle warned not to venture into them.

«Would you like a prediction of the future?» The creature on the pole grinned. Dirty and shabby it looked like a shabby owl.

«Thank you, but I have no money to pay for it,» said Clement diplomatically. Fortune-tellers usually back off after that answer, but this creature, on the other hand, clung harder.

«I most willingly accept payment in blood.»

«Is it in human blood?» Clement got a bit agitated.

«It is not in dragon blood. It makes everything burn like a match. I don’t want to burn. But you’re not a dragon.»

«No, I’m not.»

«But your friend’s a dragon.»

«No, she’s elf.»

Elves are respected everywhere, but the creature was wary.

«She seems to have roots in both.»

«You’re not just lying to attract a client, are you?»

«It’s nothing. I can give you a prediction for free. It’s not good to charge someone who’s in trouble.»

«I’m not in trouble,» Clement looked back.

«You are not in trouble yet, but you will be soon. It is because of the woman. You shouldn’t be getting married anytime soon.»

«My only living relative doesn’t think so. He can’t wait for me to settle down.»

«He can’t wait for you to burn! I know this family! They’re all supposedly well-intentioned, but it’s all selfishness. Sometimes family gains are too expensive for one of the family members. But marrying a fire monster is too much!»

«What are you talking about? Are all the predictions so vague? Or are they just guesses?»

Clement wanted to tease the crook, but the man wouldn’t listen, eagerly making one prophecy after another.

«Here’s some advice for the future!» He finally uttered. «There’s one truth that you should not forget: the wife is not guilty if the husband is a monster. But remember that the husband is responsible for the black deeds of his wife. Especially it is if he cannot control her. Don’t marry a beauty who will fly off at night to scorch cities. You will be responsible for what she does if you become her husband. The ashes and blood she turns her victims into will also be on your hands.»

How ominous that sounds! Clement shuddered. The creature reminded him of a goose, so disgusting it was. Geeks tend to eat dead things, and thus settle near places of execution and mass graves. Hence such grim prophecies can come from. What can a ghoul say other than death and terror? The ugly creature suddenly rolled its eyes. Its whites glowed red.

«It is danger!» It foretold.

It took Clement a moment to realize that the time to escape was now, not in the distant future. A party of black knights drove through the city gates. Their leader sniffed the air suspiciously, as if it smelled something. Somewhere the roof was smoking, like from a fire. He probably smelled something burning. Clement thought he’d missed it, but the red eyes from beneath his black helmet stared up at him, unerringly searching for him in the crowd. A finger in the black armor of a gauntlet pointed in his direction. The bandleader didn’t say anything out loud, but the heads of all the guards in the city suddenly turned toward Clement.

What a mess, it was all because of Raymonda! Where is she, by the way? Wherever she is, there is nothing she can do. She should be protected, not the other way around.

The black knights began to disperse the people from the fairgrounds in order to reach Clement, who was lost in the thick of the crowd. The motley tents fell under the onslaught of the guards. It was urgent to load the crossbow. The weapon was habitually concealed beneath his clothing. You can’t shoot them all, but you can at least try. Some knight in a helmet with a black cockade was getting close to Clement.

«Leave him alone!» A girl’s high-pitched voice cut through the noise. Raymonda was walking across the square. Sparks flew from beneath the hem of her dress as though she were treading on burning coals.

«He’s mine alone! You mustn’t touch him!» She declared as if her words carried weight here.

The Shai knights were only momentarily deterred by her impertinence. Clement, on the other hand, was so taken aback that several pairs of hands in black armor grabbed him. There was no need to open his mouth to the beauty. But it shocked him too much that the girl had stood up for him. Usually it was the other way around.

She was either cursing or incanting, and suddenly there was a blaze of flame around her feet. In the next instant, Raymonda was gone. In her place, the orange dragon’s enormous, scaly body surged toward the heavens. Its wings had such an enormous sweep that they blew the roofs off the nearby houses. The claws on its hind legs clawed so hard at Shai’s regiment that they fell like toy soldiers.

The most incredible thing was that the dragon had picked up its prey as it flew away. And that prey was Clement himself.

What a way to get out of a fire and into a fire. He felt like a toy in a dragon’s clutch. The city’s spires and turrets were nowhere to be seen. The dragon opened its mouth to let out one last blast of hot flame.

Even a volcanic eruption would not have made such an impression on Clement. The fire spread like an avalanche over the square and the ramparts. The great city turned into a raging sea of fire. Would the black knights burn in it? Or were they immortal?

Clement had no time to think about his enemies, for flying in the dragon’s claws proved far more dangerous than their attack.

Beauty’s claws

The dragon was taking him farther and farther away from the flaming city. Forests, fields, rivers, even entire villages were glimpsed below. And among the usual settlements Clement discerned several fantastical towns with elaborate turrets and the silhouettes of marble fairies on parapets. From above the sculptures seemed alive and moving. The dragon was now descending in flight, now soaring upward as if making zigzags from pursuit and arrows. But there was no chase, no one fired from the towers.

Clement was amazed that the clouds were suddenly close by. He could reach out and touch them, but the dragon held him tightly in its claws and would not let him move.

The mountains loomed up ahead. The dragon would fly over them, but he risked crashing. Was it worth dodging pursuers with swords and spears to be killed by a dragon’s claws?

At the decisive moment, the dragon managed to fly around the mountain ledges. He began to descend in flight. Beyond the mountains stretched a green valley, and beyond was a mottled heath. The dragon suddenly loosened its claws and tossed its prisoner into a lush thicket of purple flowers.

Clement was almost unscathed, save for a few scrapes and a few bruises. The flowers smelled wonderful, and the guards of the Shai were gone, but there was a danger of burning to death. For a dragon had landed nearby and suddenly begun to shrink in size. It felt as if it had been bewitched and forced to change to insignificant size. His uncle was probably wandering around somewhere. Only he could have cast such a spell. He could do nothing to make a mouse the size of a fighting elephant, or make a weed grow into a century-old tree in a few minutes. Clement looked around, but his uncle was nowhere to be found.

The dragon was gone, too. In his place, Raymonda was standing in the middle of the thicket of heather, carelessly shaking off the flowers that had stuck to her dress. It was an idyllic picture! It was except for one «but.» Why were there so many scales on Raymonda’s fingers that hadn’t been there before? And why she has orange claws instead of nails? They look like miniature dragon claws! Clement involuntarily backed away from her, and nearly fell, tripping over a clump of heather.

«So you’re the dragon?!»

He couldn’t get it out of his head. Raymonda was so sweet, so tender, and so scalding! Her hand gripped him and suddenly burned him. The pain was savage!

«Oh, I’m sorry!» Raymonda clearly felt guilty. «I’d forgotten that people can burn themselves. I should have waited until my skin had cooled after the transformation. But I can get you a healing potion. There’s a lovely tree nearby. It can crush you with its roots, but it can cure even a knight’s severe battle wounds.»

«Thank you! But an introduction to a magic tree is unnecessary. I’ve had enough of the dragon.»

Raymonda frowned. «Is that what you call it?»

«It is what it is!» – Clement realized there was no turning back. His feet tangled in a clump of tall heather. Something squeaks and nibbles in the ground beneath the flowers, as if leprechauns have taken up residence there. There’s a belief that if you catch a leprechaun, it will tell you where the pots of gold are buried, but Clement wasn’t busy chasing treasure keepers, who were pouncing on his feet like fleas. He discerned tiny creatures beneath the flowers. Apparently he had stepped into their territory. And they were even more aggressive than pixies.

Raymonda took out her hand mirror and held it to her face.

«It’s a double reflection,» she said aloud. «I didn’t want you to see me looking like this, but I had to. I don’t take threats against me or my friends.»