ISBN 978-5-0062-5763-4

      Создано в интеллектуальной издательской системе Ridero

      Fairies in the garden

      Flora watched from the tower window. The winged ladies in the garden resembled butterflies and bumblebees from afar. Was she seeing double? Her father had forbidden any celebrations. The whole castle is in mourning after the funeral of her mother, who was allegedly driven away by the evil spirits of the fields and forests.

      The Marquise had been too careless in communicating with the creatures of the fields and had even whipped one of them with her whip. Since then, she’s been withering. The healers could do nothing.

      «The fairies killed her,» the maids whispered.

      «What would be the point?»

      «Fairies love luxury. They probably want to get a local feudal lord, and having a wife prevents them.»

      Something told Flora it wasn’t that simple. Sometimes in the portrait gallery, unearthly laughter and music were heard, and ghosts appeared. One of them once bowed to Flora and called her the queen of all magical creatures.

      Well, what kind of queen is she!

      Flora looked around at her long out of fashion blue dress with a short train. There were no black dresses in her closet, so her mourning outfit was peculiar.

      «Do you know that blue is the color of witchcraft?» Someone whispered in her ear. «After all, it merges with the color of night, and all those creatures that dwell in the night and allow people to discover the secrets of forbidden magic arts.»

      Flora looked around. There was no one in her room. There was an unusual silence in the castle, too, and outside in the garden a gentle woman’s laughter was ringing. For some reason it reminded her of the chiming of funeral bells.

      If they were fairies, they must be leaving soon. Not without reason, the village sorceress Zenobia drew protective symbols at the entrances to the castle. The old Marquis paid her a lot for it. Zenobia’s services didn’t come cheap. But her amulets were considered the most effective in the fight against evil.

      Are fairies evil? Flora looked down at their colorful dresses, as if woven from flower petals, their lush hairstyles, and layered wings. The creatures with female bodies and wings resembled fantastic dragonflies. Raphael should have seen them! Flora didn’t understand where her big brother could have gone at a time like this. Rafael kept whining that in the wilderness where they lived there was no one to meet but peasant women, and when the whole garden was full of exquisitely dressed fairies, her brother was not around. Raphael wouldn’t mind flirting with a beautiful fairy.

      Whoa! What is she thinking? Fairies are notorious destroyers of young boys. Rumor has it that winged beauties deliberately seduce young men and lure them into the clutches of giants, into the nests of griffins or into tracts inhabited by evil trolls.

      But would they destroy a girl? Flora felt an unbearable urge to go out into the garden to the fairies, as if someone had called her.

      It would probably be all right if she went down to them. Flora noticed a strange couple among the fairies: a colombina and a jester. Both of them had no wings. They stood frozen in the midst of the general merriment, as if they were wax figures. But they were alive. Columbine looked at Flora with red, angry eyes that glittered like two rubies.

      «And we’ve been waiting for you!» Some elf flew up to Flora and held out his hand.

      Flora recoiled. The elf had mistaken her for someone else.

      «Our master is waiting for you,» he corrected himself. «But don’t worry, we won’t give you away. We’ll find you such a mask that he won’t even recognize you. Let’s go to the masquerade!»

      Many of the fairies in the garden were indeed trying on masks. So they’re going to the masquerade?

      «Did Father really let the fairies and other evil spirits have a masquerade party in the castle? Is it to pay off the fairies? Or else they’ll trample the fields with their night dances? I’ve heard from the servants how much damage they do to the plowmen.»

      The elf didn’t understand her.

      «You must be kidding me,» he scratched the back of his golden-blond head. «This is not the time to play fantasies. We have to go to the dance, and then we’ll play hide-and-seek. By the way, where did you hide your wings?»

      So he thought she was a fairy! Flora looked doubtfully at the silk cape that stretched from the lace standing collar to the train. Such capes had recently become fashionable in Serpentine. Behind them, it was hard to see that she had no wings.

      Flora considered that some fairies who do not soar above the rose bushes, but walk along the paths of the garden, temporarily fold their wings behind their backs as if they were a cape.

      «So the masquerade would take place at the castle?»

      «It is of course not!» The elf laughed infectiously, as if she had said something very funny.

      «Where is it?»

      «It is in the fairies’ residence.»

      Flora had never heard of such a place.

      «Let’s hurry!»

      The elf flapped his wings and flew over the beds of peonies. In flight he resembled a huge golden bumblebee.

      «Do we have to fly there?»

      «It is not necessarily!» The elf jumped onto the bridge that stretched over the garden. It certainly hadn’t been here before. The bridge was blue and airy, as if it had been chipped away from a rainbow. It was a rainbow! Flora gasped as she saw the bridge widen in the distance and become seven-colored. The other end of the bridge was reaching up into the sky.

      Could a rainbow really shine in the starry heavens? In the realm of fairies, anything must be possible.

      «It’s time!» The elf held out his hand to Flora again.

      «Can I step on this bridge? Will it hold me?»

      The elf, silently, grabbed her hand and dragged her onto the bridge, over which the hastening fairies were already hovering in flocks. They were whispering excitedly about something.

      «They don’t know yet that I found you,» the elf whispered in Flora’s ear, putting his arm around her waist. «But soon they will find out, and they will be very disappointed.»

      «Why is it?»

      «It is because their rival will steal the dragon from them again.»

      «What dragon is it?»

      Flora was stunned by the golden light that spilled over the bridge like a dawn. Two huge golden wings almost struck the bridge, but at the last moment they avoided the collision by flapping smoothly over Flora’s head.

      It really is a dragon! Flora didn’t know whether to scream in horror or admiration. The golden dragon was magnificent.

      «Can it breathe fire, too?»

      The elf didn’t hear her question.

      «Wow! The dragon flew right past you! He must have some business with the Marquis.»

      The elf looked discouraged.

      «All right, let’s go to the masquerade! The dragon will probably be there soon, and then the fun will begin.»

      The first masquerade

      The rainbow bridge went behind the clouds. At first it was blue, then multicolored. Flora would have fallen off it if the elf hadn’t supported her.

      One end of the bridge rested against the cloud castle.

      «No,