«Is it evil to give someone a captured fairy?»
«It depends on what kind of fairy is she,» Netopyrina watched carefully as the goblins brought the prisoner into the hold. «A fairy is a valuable hostage if you want to blackmail the King of Opal.»
«The loss of one fairy wont make him too angry. He has dozens of them.»
«Isnt he violating the rights of the magic emperor?» Zeligena intervened. «It seems that only the lord of the Magic Empire has the right to command fairies.»
«Ive never heard of such a thing,» Patricia admitted.
Both Zeligena and Netopyrina looked at her strangely.
«Well, I wouldnt dare denounce him anyway,» Zeligena grumbled, «the swamp fairies dont have a good relationship with him. Hes become very bitter in the last centuries. In confidence, his wife left him. Wives are always leaving him.»
«Did he have many?»
«How do you say?» Zeligena flapped her green eyelashes nervously.
«And the King of Opal killed his wife himself sacrificed her during a sorcery ritual. I saw it, so I refused to become his next wife.»
Oops! Patricia faltered when she realized she had spoken. She had sworn to several black fairy vampires guarding the royal crypt that she would not tell anyone about Queen Esperanzas skeleton that sometimes moved in the niche. The skeleton is wearing a royal dress and jewelry. Underneath the skeletons skull, there is still a lingering intelligence.
Now the grave fairies will punish her by taking her life. They are capable of taking lives from a distance. Patricia waited for a minute. Her throat didnt constrict, her breath didnt cut off. Her heart didnt stop beating. Did the grave fairies have no power over her? Could it be the magic ship? The crypt fairies cant affect someone in a vacuum of alien magic?
«The fairy is a valuable hostage,» Netopyrina repeated. «If you manage to get her on your side, she will reveal to you your enemys weaknesses.»
«Its impossible to get these creatures on your side!»
«But the King of Opal somehow did. They served another ruler before him.»
Patricia had no idea, though the court fairies themselves sometimes hinted at it. The fairies in Opals court always spoke in riddles. They surrounded the courtiers, hovering over their heads and tormenting them with eerie conversations. There was no escape from the fairies in Opal, for there were more fairies than people.
Patricia wondered if she should abandon her plans for revenge. The sight of the Opal fairy was so unpleasant that she wanted to forget about Opal.
«In a couple of hours, the ships magic will disarm the hostage and you can go down to the hold to question her,» Netopyrina advised.
Patricia tried to delay the unpleasant meeting with the fairy for three to four hours. She really didnt want to talk to the winged pest. Fairies can hypnotize. One look into her eyes and youre gone. If the crew on the ship did not consist of magical creatures, the fairy long ago would have charmed everyone and would have taken command of the crew of lunatics, subject to her will.
«Its about time!» Netopyrina urged. She didnt even need a watch to tell the time. As night approached, she felt a surge of strength, but during the day she grew weaker. Apparently, her mouse nature had its own clockwork mechanism.
«Come on, lets wait a little longer. Let her calm down,» Patricia paced the deck and played with her saber. Swinging a saber was a familiar and simple matter, but dealing with the fairies of Opal was complicated politics. Politics gave Patricia a headache. She didnt know how to negotiate. The last time the King of Opal had negotiated with her, it had turned into a massacre and tragedy. Now Patricia was ashamed to even remember how she had run away from her native shores on a small boat ruled by a dwarf.
«It was a pity that one could not live by physical strength alone, one needed magic and politics. Otherwise the art of swordsmanship would be enough for me» Patricia did not find support from the two fairies. They respected magic more than martial arts.
Well, to hell with them. Fairies have their own mentality. It was time to interrogate the hostage. Zeligena, Netopyrina, and a few goblins descended into the hold with Patricia.
Instead of a lantern, there was a perch with a sleeping firebird at the entrance to the hold. Zeligena had found a real glass lantern somewhere, with a firefly inside instead of a candle.
«We must ask the firebird not to fly close to the barrels of fire wine, or the whole ship will explode,» Patricia thought.
«It wont explode, but the firebird will get drunk,» objected the more experienced Zeligena.
Well, if so
«Where I am?» Patricia looked at the caged fairy, who had already managed to spit out her gag. The ropes used to bind her wrists and ankles were set on fire by the fairy using a spell. She muttered incoherent words to herself, and the ropes caught fire. The fire did not burn the fairys own skin.
«Oh, here we are!» The fairy laughed wickedly, and the sharp pins from the walls darted at Patricia. Patricia was barely able to dodge them. Then the barrels started dancing. Dozens of them rose into the air and began to circle in a circle.
Theres fire wine in them! If it spills, its the end of everyone.
«Stop it!» Patricia demanded.
«What can you do?» The fairy grinned. «You lost your authority as our ruler a long time ago.»
«I never was. If you remember, the King of Opal didnt have time to make me his next queen.»
«I didnt see that,» said the captive fairy defiantly. She tried to break the bars of the cage and failed. The gray bars of enchantment looked fragile, but they were strong.
Patricia looked closely at the fairys face, which was covered with a light web of sequins. They made the fairy appear starry-eyed, only her iridescent eyes giving away that she was of the Nightwalker caste.
Indeed, this fairy was not present at the dinner where Patricia had dared to accept from the king a gift of a black ring, which made all the wearers sick with the black plague.
The fairy hostage had a typical heart-shaped face.
«Are you Riabella? Flotel? Alyssandra?» Patricia couldnt recognize her, but she knew not all the court fairies by name.
«Aleandra,» the fairy corrected, and smiled predatorily again. The teeth beneath her graceful mouth were sharp as needles. It was as if she had a mouth full of needles. You wouldnt envy whoever she bit.
Netopyrina was giving signs that it was time to begin the interrogation, or the captive would gain strength. While the fairy was distracted by the negotiations, the flying wine barrels were slowly falling back down. The fairy didnt have enough concentration to do everything at once. She must have been exhausted as she tried to break free from her captivity.
«Where was the fleet headed?» Patricia began to question her.
«Why do you want to know?» Aleandra was wary.
«It is curious.»
«It wasnt sent for you,» the fairy grinned as if her words were a lie.
«Then who was it sent for?»
«The fleet might have sailed with good intentions.»
«Armed to the teeth?»
«Well, in these times, security is not unreasonable,» the fairy said sullenly. «Theres a war going on. Its everywhere. Only people dont know about it. The Emperor and Empress of the Magic Empire are sharing power. Whos who?»
«What does the King of Opal have to do with this?»
«Ask me what fairies have to do with it?»
«Dont tease me!» Patricia swung her saber in retaliation.
The fairy just laughed insolently. The floor of the hold shook and the glass in the lantern burst. The firefly broke free and flew away.
«Your outfit is strange,» Aleandra gave Patricia an unpleasant look, «as if you were a gypsy or a beggar.»
«I am not a gypsy, but a pirate captain.»