And just like that, the war was over! Who would have thought? In most cases, after the leaders have agreed to negotiate, there is no smell of truce, but in the case of a male leader and a female leader. And such a seductive one, too!
Conrad swallowed hard. No one said it was the end of the war. Medea Shai had merely invited him to spend the night in her castle. Her army of black monsters parted, letting the king’s small detachment through. Perhaps she wished to show him some hidden weaponry, which, upon seeing it, he would immediately decide to pay off rather than fight.
Conrad felt himself already surrendered. To follow the beautiful queen into her fortress was the same as surrendering at the mercy of the victor.
The fairies’ queen’s face was as pretty as an adorable child, but her body, with its high breasts and slim waist, looked inexpressibly seductive. She’d dropped her robe for nothing, leaving her in a deep-cut purple gown. Conrad felt the heat in his loins. He had to avert his eyes from her, lest he attack her in the presence of his own knights. He had never been a rapist. His good looks allowed him to get women for nothing.
The sand around the fortress was as black as ash. Probably a dragon had scorched all the land around it. But then why hadn’t the fortress itself been burned?
The ghastly gargoyles and harpies that propped up the vaults of the gate were alive. They grinned angrily at their guest and winked at him. Their snide laughter echoed in his ears even after Conrad had entered the castle.
Why were they so triumphant? Do they think they are winners already? The same creatures were nesting inside the castle. Some of them propped up the vault, some crawled up the columns and played the role of caryatids. They could hang or stand motionless for quite a long time, pretending to be statues, and then they came to life and laughed so hard that it made your blood run cold.
Once in Medea Shai’s castle, you’d better not believe that any objects here can be motionless and soulless. Any pillar or arch can come to life at any moment and attack you with a real monster. There’s no way to feel safe here.
Monsters dangled from the terra-cotta ceilings like giant bats. The doors were shaped like the mouths and heads of monsters. They looked as if they were about to come to life and speak to you.
And these were all the servants of the Fairies’ Queen! How can you call even the most beautiful woman in the world, to whom only monsters obey, the queen of fairies?
There was also luxury in the castle. Purple curtains fluttered over niches. Large floor amphorae of red and black roses exuded a wondrous fragrance. In the middle of one room was a tiered fountain, in which clumps of dark red roses also grew instead of water. Their color was so reminiscent of blood.
It seemed to Conrad that the petals of each rose were opening, repeating the shape of hungry mouths.
«Make yourself at home,» Medea Shai walked forward, rustling the gorgeous silks. Her layered skirts also resembled a rose. A train stretched across the carpet in a blood-red wave. Some keys in the shape of sickles, months, and hearts hung from her belt tinkled melodiously.
There were fairies in the castle besides the monsters. They were all black-winged, black-haired, black-robed, and with gray ashy skin as if they had just climbed out of their graves. Conrad had heard legends of grave fairies, but always thought they were fiction.
The black fairies silently brought various dishes of viands, furnishing the round quartz table with them. Even kings did not have dishes made entirely of gold, but Medea Shai did.
In her abode, Conrad felt not like a guest, but like a temple, where some ancient and bloodthirsty deity was about to crawl from the altar.
«Do you like me?» Medea Shai placed her sword on the table between the trays of figs and grapes. It was good that Conrad did not immediately engage her in a duel. Her sword snapped open, unleashing several even longer, sharper steel-tongue-like blades from a single blade. What if she had pulled such a trick in combat? He would have been dead or maimed by now, in spite of his sturdy armor.
Conrad took a closer look. Is there a hidden spring in the hilt to release the blades? More like a cunning mechanism than magic. But the manticore handle, which instantly came to life and mangled its face, dissuaded Conrad in an instant. The blades could indeed be mistaken for her tongues.
«I like you,» the queen of the fairies said first, before he could answer. «That’s why you’re still alive. But for how long is it?»
«We’re not going to fight at the feast table, are we?» Conrad thought belatedly that the treats might be poisoned. However, he was in for an even worse surprise. Among the vases and trays of fruit and sweets, one dish drenched in blood stood out too sharply. It is not customary to serve fresh meat to guests unless the guests are monsters. The ghastly warriors of Medea Shae certainly don’t eat meat when it’s roasted. And he just didn’t eat fresh. For it is against human nature. A man should not become entangled with fairies, and he became entangled, enchanted by the beauty of a magical woman.
Blood dripped from the platter onto the table. There was a head of a man on the plate. Conrad could scarcely recognize it as the head of one of his generals.
«Ah, pardon!» The hostess made a quick sign to her maids, and they hurriedly removed the dish with the mutilated head. One of the black fairies deliberately or accidentally whipped the king in the face with her wing.
«This dish got here by mistake,» Medea Shai apologized with a charming smile.
«And for whom was this dish intended?» Conrad almost asked. That would have been an unnecessary question, for he had seen for himself the monstrous army of the fairy queen.
«Sit down, help yourself!» Medea Shai poured him some wine. There were no chairs near the table except for her throne, but here some glittering creature crawled up behind him and touched Conrad on the shoulder with a claw. He turned around and saw a pedestal that resembled a coiled snake.
He could not sit on it. He didn’t feel like eating either.
«Why such monsters serve you?» – He went straight to what he was worried about.
«Do you think I have to fight this war alone?»
«That’s not what I mean! Aren’t your subjects supposed to be exclusively elves and fairies?»
«Oh, no,» she even laughed. «Fairies’ Queen is just a title. It means that all magical creatures are subject to me. Fairies are the strongest among us, they form the highest caste, and to rule them is to subjugate them all at once.»
«And I thought monsters were the strongest. They are such giants!»
«People are naive. But I can teach you to see deeper than any man can.»
Corundum sprouted in Medea Shai’s forehead. The skin around it gave the impression of porcelain about to crack under the weight of the stone. But the stone itself resembled a third eye. Is it true that the third eye is all-seeing?
«Do you enjoy my company?»
Conrad nodded.
«Do you want to fight me further?»
«It was you who declared war on me!» He reasonably reminded me.
«I had to lure you to Shai.»
«Where did your kingdom come from? From nothing!»
«Shai exists wherever I wish it to be,» Medea Shai raked her sharp fingernails across the table. The corundum in her forehead seemed to glow with fire.
«You may summon your advisor and the knights to join in the feast. It is not proper to leave them in the vestibule.»
Conrad first made sure that there were no more severed heads on the table among the courses and only then called his retinue.
The two roses, scarlet and white, had been crushed by the hooves of the horses on the battlefield, but in her hands they came to life. One of the monsters picked them up from the bloody field and brought them to her with a bow. Even if you put the flowers in a vase of water, they do not refresh as quickly as from the touch of her hands.
«But these same hands cause rashes, leprosy, pustules, and various infections. Don’t touch her,» whispered the counselor, who had reluctantly joined the feast. He squinted warily at the lady of the castle. «Do not sleep with her! Do not sleep with her, or you will not awake alive! Or worse, you’ll be a cripple. Why do we need a crippled king?»
But Conrad wouldn’t listen. Who could listen to it? Near him was such a beautiful woman. She was not a match for his ailing and stunted bride. The princess of Luan Araminta has gray skin and a gaunt body, but Medea Shai has tall, feminine breasts, a face like a porcelain doll and beautiful wings. It does not matter that they are black. They go very well with the slender waist.
There is a purple blush on her cheeks, like the crust of an apple showing through under a layer of porcelain.
Could she break? It feels like she’s all made of porcelain.
«So touch it, check it out?»
Someone’s voice rang in his brain. Or was it coming from the walls, where bas-reliefs of inhuman faces were carved? Or was it the roses whispering with their hundreds of scarlet mouths? The roses here are so reminiscent of a maiden’s mouth, and sometimes the lips of vampires.
In the presence of the insolent counselor, the feast turned to hell.
