to get back at me!»
«They promised to turn your magnolias into toads, not smother them with roses,» her maid of honor objected judiciously.
The gardener obediently went to carry out the princess’ orders. Conrad shuddered at the sight of sharp garden shears. Somehow he was sure that cutting roses was the same act of villainy as killing beautiful girls. After all, roses are two slender fairies. He watched with his own eyes as the fairies turned into flowers.
The prickly twigs did not yield to the blades of the scissors. The gardener pushed hard, and the scissors broke.
«Take the axe!» Marianne commanded one of her knights, who shadowed behind her. He obediently rushed to please the princess, and suddenly the whips of roses coiled around his arm. The thorns bit into his skin, piercing the sturdy armor.
Marianne cried out and prudently retreated toward the garden’s exit. And the long twigs of roses, like boas, wrapped around the knight and gardener’s bodies, squeezing them a little, leaving only bloody relics in their grip instead of men. The roses sprouted on the remains of human bodies, as if on soil liberally sprinkled with fertilizer. Instead of two corpses, there were two sprawling rose bushes in the garden.
What a miracle! Conrad watched with his mouth ajar. Roses were suddenly his favorite flowers. They are more powerful than the might of knights! Fighting flowers! Surely they must be from the realm of Shai. He involuntarily remembered that the roses in the fairies’ queen’s castle were capable of drinking blood. But they had not attacked Marianne, even though she had been the one who had initiated the cleansing of the garden. Is it possible to cut roses like weeds! His sister had to be told off. But the princess was on his way, rustling her brocade skirts.
«I hate roses!» She muttered to herself, although her festive beige costume was embroidered with golden roses gracefully inscribed with the coat of arms of Aluar.
«There is witchcraft going on in the garden! Everything in it must be burned!» Marianne demanded.
«And where will the ladies of the court walk?» Conrad protested.
«Evil elves have taken up residence in the garden!» The princess stamped her heels angrily.
«How could you know that?» Conrad himself saw not evil elves, but two beautiful fairies.
«They sent a messenger to me while I occupied the throne in your absence and received ambassadors. When all the earthly ambassadors were gone, a horned creature suddenly grew out of a puddle of spilled wine on the floor. Quite pretty, but very angry. It claimed to be a messenger from the realm of elves.»
«Maybe it lied.»
«No, it didn’t,» Marianne was hiding something. Perhaps she had a conflict with the elves who wanted her attention. Conrad knew what a prude his sister was, and how capricious she was. Now two people were dead in the garden because of her caprice, and she blamed it on some elves.
«I didn’t want the elves on the guest list for the tournament, and they threatened to repay me by destroying my most precious possessions. The company of mischievous elves even began to sing frivolous songs under my windows at night. They keep me awake, and the archers are powerless to drive them away. The arrows do them no harm.»
«Perhaps it is because you have not slept that you are so irritable!»
«The smell of roses makes me ill,» complained Marianne. «It’s so luscious and heavy, like it’s a portent of misfortune.»
Conrad hurriedly wrapped his ermine-embroidered robe around his chest. He couldn’t let Marianne see the thorns in his skin where his heart was.
«So this whole argument is because they’re not invited to the tournament?»
«Yes!»
«So let them in and be done with it.»
«But that’s against the rules! Elves are not men. Their strength is greater than that of men. Our knights can be wounded and even killed, but elves are invulnerable. The contestants will be unequal.»
«Then in the first round let everyone fight only a member of their own race. And in the second, if elves and humans, weighing each other’s possibilities, agree with each other, then let everyone choose an opponent himself. Whichever one wants! Whoever wants, will measure his strength with elves. Whoever chickens out has the right to refuse.»
«To be a knight is worse than to be killed!» Marianne grew indignant. «You would leave Aluar without knights at all if you allowed them to fight the elves.»
«I am going to invite more fairy knights from Shai to the tournament. They’re real monsters in armor. Even immortal elves would be sickened by the sight of them.»
«You are a villain!» Marianne clenched her fists.
«Didn’t you know that before?» Conrad pulled back the hem of his cloak and stalked away. He probably thought the ermine on his cloak came to life and squinted unhappily.
«I’m ashamed that you’re my brother!» Marianne’s angry words caught up with him.
And such scandals have run in their family ever since their parents passed away. Marianne, though younger, had decided to take on the responsibilities of a mother. Conrad tolerated her feisty temper as best he could. Never mind, Marianne would soon marry and leave Aluar for her fiancé’s small principality. To choose her consort-king she did not allow herself. Conrad unsuccessfully proposed one or the other to her. Marianne rejected all suitors: this one is too old, this one is too fat, this one is a tyrant, and this one is weak in character. In the end, she chose her betrothed based on facial beauty, not position. Conrad only had to accept her choice. It was unseemly for a royal sister to become a princess in a tiny mountainous country, but there was nothing to be done. He would have to help her future husband guard the borders against barbarian raids and nomads and demons from the same Shai. He and Queen of Shai are friends and allies now. With her they can negotiate, not fight.
With Marianne, there’s no bargain. She is more stubborn than a skittish young horse. She would never be at odds with the elves. She would make enemies who would come ravaging the Realm with a vengeance. Now she would have to apologize to them. And that’s not going to be easy. Probably some of the elves who sought her favor had already been turned away by her. Conrad noticed a pair of golden roses thrown near the throne. Usually golden roses symbolize elves’ love. Elves in love give such flowers to their chosen ladies. Bad luck for the one who tried to present them to Marianne. She tried to crush the golden flowers, but only cut her fingers.
Conrad picked up one golden rose. It turned out to be cast of pure gold, but it was alive. Its stem continued to grow, searching for a place to take root. In an instant it twisted around the king’s wrist like a bizarre, multi-layered bracelet.
«Oh, no! I’ve had enough of the rose in my heart!» Conrad gently released his hand, and a low sigh was heard from the golden rose.
A bright golden drop splashed onto the floor of the throne room. Where had it come from? A stately figure of a handsome elf with shoulder-length blond hair and a silver hoop on his forehead rose from the golden pool. He bowed to the king with one clenched fist to his heart.
Conrad stared at him in amazement. Such impertinence as to appear in his palace had never before been dared by elves. But Marianne, whom he had carelessly left to rule in his absence, had annoyed everyone. She was probably the reason every young man at Court Aluar had a crush on her. The elf now resembled an unhappy lover. He appeared before the king, fully equipped, with a quiver of arrows at his back, and a green cloak woven with elves’ coats of arms.
«So are you about the tournament?» Forgetting all etiquette, Conrad blurted out. «My sister was overreacting.»
«Lady Marianne is as beautiful as a summer flower, but her temper is hotter than a dragon’s,» the elf said impetuously, and then he blushed with embarrassment. Marianne must have hit him hard.
«She’s