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Читать книгу: «Amaranta’s Tapestry», страница 3
The elf from the tapestry
It was hard to wait for everyone to leave the hall. Gloria wanted to examine the tapestry alone. It wasn’t until hours later that the hall emptied. Some gamekeeper had brought Angus an urgent message, and all the knights prepared to leave. Are they really going hunting again? And who were they going to hunt? Were they demons in the thicket? The disemboweled creature proved that demons can’t be killed, but apparently the warriors are empty-headed. They focus on physical strength, not wisdom.
Janet ran off to tear dragon apples and picked a whole bucket. Her fingers didn’t burn on the hot peel.
«It’s for self-defense,» she explained when Gloria caught her. «Dragon fruit is as good as a grenade. If the black fairies raid the castle, you can throw a dragon apple at them and they’ll explode.»
«Do you mean fairies?» Gloria shivered skeptically. She’d never seen a fairy in her life and never expected to meet one. Since the child believed in fairy tales, let her. It was commendable that Janet was looking for a means to defend herself. Gloria herself also grabbed her sword first and then went to catch the elf hiding on the tapestry.
There was no one behind the tapestry. No one was sitting or even hovering on top of it either. Probably the elf flew away after the knights?
Someone crept up behind her and pulled Gloria’s hair. She swung her sword blindly and seemed to hit someone. There was laughter instead of screams. It was unnatural, like coins clinking on the floor.
«Have you come to tear the tapestry?» A voice asked suspiciously, laughing.
«No,» Gloria would never have thought of that. The tapestry was gorgeous.
«All right, then!»
The speaker was in front of her face, not behind her back as it had first appeared. It was as if he had detached himself from the tapestry. Gloria stared and couldn’t believe her eyes. There was a real elf in front of her! Like in a fairy tale! He was dressed in all green. Green shoots grow from his caftan and even from his skin. On his golden curls he wears a green beret of leaves. Behind his back, thin golden wings glisten.
Wings! Gloria wanted to touch them. She reached out her hand, but the elf deftly intercepted it and brought it to her lips.
«I love courting young ladies!» He kissed her palm and then looked her straight in the eye. Gloria instantly fell under hypnosis. At first the elf’s eyes were as green as a spring meadow, and then they began to shimmer with seven shades of the rainbow.
It seemed to Gloria that the two of them were dancing on the rainbow. And then the rainbows multiplied, as if they were divergent bridges spanning the sky. Her feet slip. The elf was with her in flight. And then someone grim emerges.
Gloria struggled to wrench her consciousness from the tenacious tentacles of hypnosis.
«You are strong!«The elf praised, reluctantly releasing her hand.
«Am I strong? No one had ever said that about me before.»
She was usually described as graceful and fragile.
«I mean, you are morally strong. That’s what’s valued here.»
Gloria watched his wings flutter in amazement.
«Who are you? And what are you doing in the castle?»
«I live, of course,» the elf smiled disarmingly.
«And who let you in here?»
«It is count Angus, of course.»
«So he knows you’re here?»
«It is not exactly!» The elf was embarrassed. «You see, the thing is, I was brought here a few years ago along with the tapestry.»
«It is nonsense!»
There was no need for harmful fairies to be brought into the castle along with her luggage. The elf looked at her long and hard, and Gloria was embarrassed. He was too handsome to argue with. Why did she have to get into an argument with him? She could have made friends with him right away. Though there is a saying that friendship with elves is dangerous. It is especially for young girls.
«I’m Gloria,» she introduced herself.
«I know! I’ve heard what the knights called you. They’re all very nervous around here. They haven’t liked the company of beautiful ladies since Countess Amaranta attracted otherworldly admirers to the castle. I, on the other hand, long for female company, but the wicked Count banished all his wife’s ladies-in-waiting. You know she had maid of honor like a real queen.
«Amaranta has always been luckier than I have been,» Gloria looked at the elf and the tapestry. It seemed the tapestry was beginning to grow green shoots, as was the elf’s body. It must be magical.
«So you live on the tapestry?»
«It is inside it, to be exact.»
«But inside it is nothing but thread. And underneath it is a smooth wall, no secret passage.»
«There’s a whole state inside it,» the elf glittered his eyes enigmatically. «Look!»
He took Gloria’s hand and made it touch the tapestry’s woven pattern of turrets and fanciful elves’ houses. Gloria immediately felt dizzy. It began to seem to her that she was no longer standing in Angus’s castle, but at the gates of the land of the elves. A golden giant’s talking head was looking down at her and asking her something.
«Stop it! You’re messing with my head!» Gloria wrenched the elf’s hand away. «You’re trying to make me believe there’s something inside the tapestry.»
«Well, not inside it… but through it you can definitely travel far away from here to countries and areas that you humans consider to be off limits. The main thing is that once you’re there, no one realizes you’re only human, or you’re finished.»
Gloria snorted incredulously.
«Traveling through the tapestry is from the realm of fantasy, though it is like a map for a traveler through fairy tale places. Only the forest, the sea, and the nearby kingdom of Ilior are borrowed from the actual map. Everything else is fiction.»
The sea, too, was depicted as somehow strange, full of mermaids and watermen. And there was an inscription embroidered along the coast – the domain of King Seal. What cartographer could think of calling the Sea of Pearls that? And why does the tapestry itself look like a map? Something’s not right. In addition to images of terrain, magical or ordinary, the tapestry featured people and mythical creatures. The largest close-up was of a wedding of some kind. An elf wearing a crown was marrying a fair-haired girl.
«The tapestry changes over time,» the elf commented. «It originally depicted Angus’s wedding.»
«Who wove it?»
«They are Arachnas.»
«What are they?»
«They are fairies’ spiders.»
«Are they fairies? Where have you seen fairies?»
«Yes, everywhere!»
«I don’t believe it!» Gloria bit her tongue, remembering that she hadn’t believed in elves recently either. She saw one with her own eyes. Everything seems incredible until you see and touch it. By the way, she had never been able to touch the elf’s wings. Curious what they felt like?
Gloria dodged and caught the tip of a golden wing. Curiosity would do no good. The elf whipped her fingers painfully with the wing and flew away from her. Now he was hovering a few meters above her head, and Gloria stood below feeling like a bug.
«Come down! It’s hard to talk to someone when they’re hanging like a chandelier from the ceiling.»
«Promise not to pinch!»
«Okay, I didn’t know you were ticklish.»
Can you tickle someone’s wings, though? The elf flapped them gracefully, as if shaking off a mortal’s touch.
«By the way, why did you call me mortal? That was your voice, wasn’t it?»
«Aren’t you mortal?»
«Yes, but you made it sound like an insult.»
«It probably was, if you look at it from the elves’ point of view.»
His eyes sparkled slyly.
«Come on, let’s go for a walk!» The elf beckoned her over to the tapestry.
Did he really think it was possible to go inside it? From somewhere came the sound of jingling bells and clattering hooves, as if a cavalcade was galloping close by, but it was unreal. This is a feast room, not a road. The only horsemen here are woven on tapestry. Surely the sounds are just another obsession.
«I’m not going anywhere with you!» Gloria hurriedly removed the hand that the elf tried to grab behind her back. «You remind me of a crazy person! How can you walk on a tapestry? Only a madman could think of such a thing. I don’t believe you.»
«It is fine!»
The elf flew to the corner of the tapestry and suddenly froze on it with a golden vignette pattern. Gloria gasped in amazement. It seemed to be the same elf she had just talked to, and it seemed to be just a gold embroidered image of him.
The image suddenly came to life and winked at her.
«Are you delighted!»
The elf had already stepped down from the tapestry and was standing next to her.
«How do you do that?»
«It’s not a trick. It’s magic.»
That’s why she couldn’t find him behind the tapestry, though she could hear his voice. The little rascal was inside the tapestry, not behind it.
«So you’re a prisoner of the tapestry?»
«What makes you say that?»
«Are you a spirit inside the tapestry?»
«You are wrong again!»
The elf was toying with her and enjoying her reaction.
«Don’t pull that disappointed face! I didn’t screw you alone. I screwed everyone in this castle. Even Angus thinks I’m just part of the tapestry, and I’m really just a wandering elf.»
«Are there any wandering elves?» Gloria’s only ever met traveling peddlers in her life.
«There are definitely runaways! I’m a fugitive, but sometimes I have to be a lookout.»
«I don’t get it!»
«You don’t need to understand! I don’t need to understand with the ladies. I love to play with them, but not many survive after playing with elves.»
«I’m not just a lady! I’m a lady knight!» Gloria belligerently raised her sword, on which a lush scarlet rose bloomed again.
«Ah, old buddy!» The elf stroked the blade of the sword as if shaking hands with an old friend. The sword didn’t hurt him. I guess elves can’t be hurt. Or can they, but the sword doesn’t? Gloria was confused. She knew so little about elves that she was confused. Were there possible in the castle library some encyclopedia about the secrets and habits of the elves? But such reference books were unlikely to exist. If some scholar had compiled them, he must have cheated and invented them. After all, elves are unpredictable people. You’ll never understand them. Do they understand themselves?
Gloria understood one thing. It’s useless to threaten an elf with a sword.
«Aren’t you afraid of death?»
«I’m immortal!»
«Aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?»
«If you’d been in the fairy queen’s dungeons, you wouldn’t be afraid of anything.»
«Are you speaking in riddles?»
«So let’s change the subject to a more understandable one,» the elf flew around Gloria and touched her hair. «It’s like red gold thread. And you’re red yourself, like an autumn fairy. But you’re prettier than fairies.»
«Is there anyone prettier than a fairy?»
«Well, it turns out they are!»
«I am Lady Gloria!» She introduced herself again, emphasizing the word «lady» rather than «fairy,» and wanted to curtsy, but changed her mind. First of all, it was uncomfortable to curtsy with a sword, and secondly, the elf could hardly bow to her, hanging in the air, but he managed to do it.
«And I am Fior! I used to be called the Wind Messenger because I delivered love letters from the castle of the Elf King to the castle of the Fairy Queen. They had to be carried at the speed of the wind.»
«Did the Elf King and the Fairy Queen have an affair?» Gloria was keenly interested. Well, how not to believe in fairies, if the case takes such an interesting turn.
«It is sort of! But love played a third role in it. The first place was the benefit from the merger of the two kingdoms. I flew with the song to the queen and was seduced by her sweet promises. I decided to defect. I wish I’d never thought of it.»
Fior took out a harmonica in the shape of a golden caterpillar with a heart and played. The beautiful melody was enchanting. Everything swam before her eyes. The floor became a carpet of roses again.
«Enough! You’re bewitching me!»
Fior stopped playing immediately.
«Look!» He pointed to the tapestry. «It’s a gift from a lovesick elf king to the wife of a mortal earl.»
«I thought it was a wedding present for the Earl.»
«That was the original plan! The elf king and the mortal earl became friends. Then the friendship was cruelly betrayed. It was all because of a woman. Where there’s a woman, there’s war.»
Isn’t she the one he’s mocking? She’ll learn to fight and show all the elves where it’s at! Fiore’s so arrogant.
«You’re smirking at me like I’m walking into a trap.»
«Aren’t you? Look at the tapestry.»
«It looks like a map.»
«That’s right! There’s an elves’ castle! And that black patterned palace is the fairies’ castle! And here’s the trolls’ domain! And these are the magical forests!» The elf poked his golden fingernails into one and another section of the map. «And here is a grove of moon fairies. Do you want to dance there?»
«And how do we get there?»
«It is very simple. It is through the tapestry.»
«It’s also a portal?»
«Let’s go!» The elf grabbed her arm.
«No, I don’t think so,» Gloria pulled away. «I don’t want to get sucked into some creepy place.»
«You’re scary!»
«I’m careful!»
«If you want to be a knight, it’s not their policy to be cautious.»
Gloria didn’t say a word. It was not for him to tell her how to become a knight. The elf himself can’t fight, only fly back and forth. He could only be used as a messenger. He’ll lose a battle unless he flies away before it starts. But he’s very nice to look at.
«You’re special! Not like all the girls before you.»
«What girls do you mean?»
«There were a lot of them: peasants who delivered milk and fruit to the castle, maids, governesses, ladies who came to visit.»
«But why is there none left?»
«And once the young Countess brought with her a whole retinue of young maidens,» the elf recalled self-consciously.
«So where did they all go? Did Angus send them all away?»
«Only the ones he could save. Or rather, he thinks he did.»
«From what did he save them?»
The elf smiled slyly.
«I have a feeling you’re not going to be as easy to deal with as they are. You’re very suspicious and unnatural for a mortal girl, as if you weren’t even human at all, but a cunning fairy. Are you trying to seduce me, poor man?»
He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her off the floor, and danced her through the air across the hall. Gloria gasped. Spinning through the ceiling, almost hitting the ceiling with her head, was not her style.»
«Let me go!» She insisted, and was silenced when she met Fior’s eyes. They shimmered and shimmered like rainbows. She had never seen such beautiful eyes in anyone.
«Another elf tried to recruit you before me, and you were nicer to him,» Fior said resentfully.
«How do you know?»
«I watch everything from the top of the tower roofs. Sometimes my wings get stiff from sitting near the tapestry, and I fly around the castle. You know elves have dragon sight. I saw you flirting with Elar on the road.»
«He came on to me. It was like you are now. At least you’re not wearing a mask. He didn’t even take his mask off.»
– Elar doesn’t wear masks. He’s an elf.
«Yes, he does!»
Gloria felt victorious, but Fior only laughed. Apparently he knew something she didn’t.
The sword remained hanging in the air, not falling to the floor when Gloria released the hilt. As if he wouldn’t lunge at them with the point. He knows how to attack on his own, after all.
«If you want to learn how to wield it, you’ll have to ask me for help. I’m the only one who can handle enchanted swords. I can give you swordsmanship lessons.»
«I can teach myself!» Gloria said proudly, and the sword swung nimbly against her own throat. How indomitable!
«It’s already tried to kill you!»
«Weren’t you directing it at that moment?»
«You are clever!» The elf pulled the blade of his sword away from her throat. «I don’t understand why a beautiful girl needs to wield a sword. You can do more with a smile than a long fight.»
Gloria wanted to give him a furious rebuke, but realized in time that the elf was trying to compliment her. He found her beautiful! A blush flooded her cheeks.
«I, too, can do better with charms than with stabbing weapons,» the elf threw a handful of something shiny in Gloria’s direction. He’s trying to cast a spell on her!
«Stop it!»
«How else am I supposed to seduce you?»
«You can’t. I didn’t come here for romance. I came here to solve a family problem.»
«But every girl who sets foot in enchanted territory must be seduced by an elf. Otherwise, Dagda’s cauldron will run dry and we’ll all starve.»
«What cauldron is it? And who is Dagda?» Gloria remembered Angus saying that name to scare the strangers away from her. It had a stronger effect on them than a sword. The whole company scattered. Apparently, sometimes a spell is a more powerful weapon than a sword.
But the sword in her hands is magical! To handle it, you need magic lessons from an elf in addition to dexterity and strength.
«All right, you can teach me,» she graciously allowed.
«And what do I get in return?» The elf decided to bargain.
«What do you want?»
«Let’s start with a kiss!»
The elf brazenly fell to her lips. The kiss was sweeter than honey. But Gloria felt shame and anxiety. It wasn’t a boy, it was an elf! To kiss an elf was to betray the humans. Gloria pushed him away.
«I don’t give advances.»
The elf took offense.
«First train me, and then there will be payment,» she softened.
After flying over the hall, it was nice to feel the hard floor under her feet. Negotiating with the elf was unexpectedly difficult. As soon as someone approached the entrance to the hall, the elf instantly disappeared into the tapestry as if he had never existed. The conversation was not over.
A carpet of roses
Time passed and the elf did not return. How could she make him reappear? For some reason, Gloria ached to see him again. What was so special about him, this elf? Only that he was an elf. A real one!
Gloria paced around the tapestry until her behavior was considered strange. Knights and servants began whispering about her as if she were crazy. Their words were ear-splitting, even though they were standing far away from her. How could it be that she could hear quiet speech at a great distance? Her hearing had not been so sharp before. Had the elf infected her with magic?
Could magic be infected? Gloria frowned. She didn’t know much about magic, and she wasn’t interested in the magical arts. But the promise to teach her how to fight professionally stuck in her mind.
Anyway, the elf promised and disappeared. There was a reason they say all elves were liars. Maybe he was deliberately trying to tease her, when he noticed that she wanted to learn how to wield a sword.
Gloria struggled to find her way to her own bedroom. It was spacious, with a large boudoir and dressing room. It looked like Amaranta’s former quarters. Even her things were still here. Gloria recognized her combs and tiara stacked on the dressing table.
But her biggest surprise was in the bedroom, where everything smelled like a garden. The bed was braided with red roses. The canopy had become a flower garden. The smell was intoxicating. Gloria didn’t mind the roses, but the thorns hurt. For some reason, the only roses in her room were red.
«It’s because of passion,» was a whispered voice to Gloria. «There was only passion here.»
Gloria listened. It was like a whole chorus whispering.
«It’s not a bed, it’s a needlepoint,» she complained as she examined the bed. All the roses had very sharp thorns. But are there roses without thorns? What had she hoped for? The sight of thorns broke the idyll. The bed of paradise was unfit for sleep.
So what to do? Sleep on the floor? Or try to pick roses? There were a lot of them. If you scrub the bed of them like weeds, it’ll take all night. Maybe cut the roses with a sword?
The sword wouldn’t cut them off. The blade only slid along the stems, which didn’t even leave a scratch. Gloria despaired. Should she ask for other quarters? Everyone had already gone to bed. And she didn’t want to break through the closed doors of the castle herself. She didn’t own the place, after all.
«Lie down! Don’t be afraid!» Someone said. «The thorns only hurt outsiders. And you’re Amaranta’s cousin.»
Gloria turned around nervously. She could tell from the tone of the voice that a young man was speaking. He shouldn’t be in her bedroom. But the bedroom was empty.
What the hell is going on? Why was she hearing voices in empty rooms? Gloria never decided to lie down on the spiked bed. Better to sleep on the floor. The couches and sofas in the boudoir were too narrow for a full-length sleeper.
Why should she bother? There are plenty of uninhabited towers in the castle. No one would even notice that she’d broken through the door of one of them. Gloria secretly hid a lock pick in her luggage. What could it be good for? Well, it finally came in handy.
She walked down the corridor, spotted a spiral staircase leading to a tall tower. The tower’s oak door was locked. The doorknob was covered in cobwebs. The keyhole was covered in a strange yellowish mold. Not even a lock pick could open the lock. Gloria was about to look for another tower when suddenly a voice above her ear whispered.
«Just press your palm against the door and say, «I am the elf’s lover, I need your help.»
What a joke! Or fantasy? Naturally no one was standing behind Gloria’s back, but she decided to try her luck, put her palm to the door and stupidly repeated:
«I am the elf’s lover, I need your help.»
It was silly to talk to a door, that is, to an inanimate object. Only a magician or a madman could do that. Gloria felt like a prankster and laughed at herself, but the keyhole suddenly shone brightly. The door opened. The interior of the tower was far from luxurious and very dark. Gloria was afraid to go in. What if it was some kind of magic trap? Was it a joke of the elves, for example? Probably they wanted to lock her in this tower forever, and no one would hear her screams.
Out of caution, Gloria backed away, but a golden light suddenly flashed inside. It drew nearer and formed itself into a figure. And there on the threshold stood a slender lady who seemed to be all gold.
«Good evening, or good night,» said Gloria, stammering. «I didn’t know you lived here. I’m sorry to intrude! I thought there were no women in the castle at all.»
Did the cunning Angus have a mistress living here? Or is it some mad relative who’s been kept locked up on purpose? The lady was behaving strangely. She looked like a golden ghost. Without answering Gloria, she walked past with a look of regal dignity. Her cape whipped Gloria’s shoulder, leaving scratches on her shoulder as if she had stepped on something metal rather than cloth.
Gloria stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded. While she stood there pondering, the tower door slammed itself shut. So be it! Sleeping in such a mysterious tower was risky anyway.
Gloria went down the spiral staircase. There was no sign of the golden lady. But maybe now, in the night, the elf would sprout again from the tapestry in the great hall. Gloria hurried there. Her feet were tangled in something. Had weeds sprouted in the castle floor? In ruins, weeds often sprouted between the stones, but Angus’s castle had not yet become a ruin. The abundance of dust made her sneeze.
Gloria looked up to see where her feet had caught. It turned out that two roses had sprouted in the floor. Wow! How did they manage to take root here? Even in Aluar’s gardens it was difficult to graft some varieties of roses, but in Angus’ castle they could grow in the stones. Miracles, indeed!
The miracles had only just begun. As soon as she closed her eyes, a marvelous fragrance hit her nostrils. Some thin voices squeaked something into her ears in an incomprehensible language. Gloria felt her feet treading on something soft. The floor below was not a floor, but a carpet of roses. Was such a thing possible? Or was she dreaming? Gloria pinched herself just in case.
She remembered exactly that it was night, but dawn was shining all around. The castle walls had disappeared. A meadow of roses stretched all around. She had never seen a whole meadow of roses in her life. The flowers grew so tightly together that they looked like a carpet. There was no grass to be seen at all.
Gloria walked boldly forward. Stepping through the roses was very pleasant. Some rainbow-colored insects were circling near her face.
«Gloria!» Someone called from afar. The voice was beautiful, feminine and sinister. A slender figure crowned with golden horns flashed in the distance.
«The tribes of the goddess Danu await the chosen one,» Gloria heard. «Start a war against your cousin. The Elf Queen must be punished! She’s an impostor!»
This is absurd! The words sounded to Gloria like a ridiculous set of phrases. It must be some kind of riddle. Gloria loved solving riddles. She moved swiftly forward to get closer and closer to the stranger, but the farther she walked, the more the horned silhouette receded.
Gloria must have walked a mile by now. The roses beneath her feet grew thicker and thicker. The stems, like living snakes, clung to her ankles.
«You’re here!» The stranger in the golden mask reappeared in front of her as if from the ground. «The sun has not yet set. Dagda’s cauldron is still cold. You’re too early. Or have you come to fight me?»
The question threw Gloria off balance. Yes, she wanted to learn to fight, but she didn’t want to fight him. Fighting was out of the question for now. Instead of resorting to weapons, his hand gently wrapped around Gloria’s waist.
«You’re in my territory,» Elar whispered. «You wanted to see me so badly that you crossed the border without asking? That’s a dangerous step.»
Gloria didn’t know if she should justify herself by saying that she had been in the meadow of roses by accident. Elar was so gallant and so handsome, and though his face was not visible under the mask, it must be very handsome. She reached out her hand to tear off his mask, and then suddenly she was smelled with heat, as if from the mouth of a dragon. The sunny day over the meadow was instantly darkened by the clouds in the sky.
«Let me out!» An unpleasant voice shrieked as if from the ground, and the clawing of claws could be heard. It was as if something alive and monstrous was buried beneath the meadow.
Gloria didn’t have time to remove the mask from Elar. Though he held her in his arms, he suddenly vanished like a ghost. The carpet of roses beneath her feet was no longer there either. Gloria stood on the floor of the familiar castle.
She squatted down and scrutinized the floorboards. No roses poked through between them. Not one, not two. Not even any rose petals lying anywhere. Had she begun to hallucinate like the mad cousin of the Aluar king? Gloria shuddered at the thought that she, too, would be locked in a prison tower if she claimed to see ghosts that no one else could see but her.
Someone was watching Gloria closely from around the corner. Janet was standing there, tearing an already tattered rag doll with her fingernails. Janet’s fingers were doing the work, and her eyes were watching Gloria.
«Why aren’t you in bed at this hour? Go to bed!» Gloria tried to hide her embarrassment at being caught groping the floor.
But Janet didn’t laugh at her adult relative’s antics.
«Don’t believe them!» She said clearly and disappeared into the dark hallway.
Here we go! Janet sees ghosts, too. Gloria should have been glad she had a witness. Instead, she felt creepy for some reason.
