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.
Black fairies
«Danu hates Amaranta,» was a voice through the dream. «There was a time when Danu was a great elves’ goddess, but a mortal girl came from across the sea and took away her first place. Now there was trouble!»
Gloria lifted her head from the pillow on the sofa where she had fallen asleep sitting up. For a moment it seemed to her that the same horned creature was standing near the sofa and making signs to her.
The girl instantly jumped up and grabbed the sword lying next to the sofa, but the strange creature was no longer there. It must have been a vision.
Gloria felt a pain in her back. Her whole body ached. Maybe she should try lying on a bed of roses and hope the thorns wouldn’t sting her.
The same golden lady Gloria had let out of the tower slipped past the boudoir.
«Hey, wait!» Gloria went after her. «Who are you? And why did you come in here without asking me?»
That’s a silly question to ask someone whose door you’ve broken open with a lock pick. Gloria embarrassed, remembering this piquant detail, but the lady had already turned around and looked at her with one-toned golden eyes on an all-golden face. Gloria aghast even the eyelashes and lips on it were gold. But what was more amazing was that this face was copying her. The lady appeared to be her twin.
«Oh, the horror is it!» Gloria covered her mouth with her hand, remembering that twins appear to doomed people shortly before death. That’s the popular belief.
Taking advantage of her confusion, the lady quickly disappeared. Now she could not be found in the labyrinth of castle passages.
«Maybe I was imagining things,» Gloria tried to comfort herself. «I’m too young to die.»
The sword in her hand vibrated strangely, as if it were a steel bird trying to break free and fly away.
There was something viscous and slippery beneath her feet. Gloria glanced at the floor. There were flowers growing on it again. So the carpet of roses was definitely not a dream. There it was under her feet again. Only the roses were suddenly black.
Are there black roses? Gloria accidentally struck one of them with the tip of her sword. A red juice oozed from the severed petal, very much like blood.
«Medea Shai is here,» someone whispered in her ear. «Leave while you’re still in one piece.»
The voice was clearly male and familiar.
«Fior?» Gloria looked around for the elf. «It’s your jokes again!»
One of the black roses suddenly began to grow in size until it stretched to the ceiling. And now it was no longer a rose, but a fairy in a black dress and with black wings. She indifferently flew past Gloria, hitting her with her scarf. Gloria gasped. Her skin burned as if it had been struck with a hot iron. If even fairy scarves burn like fire, what would happen if a fairy scratched you or attacked you?
Gloria followed the fairy, even though it was reckless. Roses tangled under her feet, keeping her from walking. There were already several black fairies hovering around the castle. They were probably midnight fairies. Gloria had heard of them as a child, but didn’t think she’d ever see one.
There was a whole pack of black fairies. Where did they come from? It seemed like there wasn’t a single one. Now it’s night, and there are at least a hundred of them in the castle. How did they get through the narrow windows? Or did they come through some other way?
Gloria watched with her mouth ajar in amazement as the fairies hovered above the floor, climbing over cabinets and cupboards, going through some papers in the castle master’s study. It finally dawned on her. They were looking for something!
What they’re looking for is probably very valuable to them. The fairies looked nervous.
«The queen won’t forgive us if we don’t find the treaty,» one of the fairies whispered to the others. The black wings rustled so noisily that Gloria could barely make out the words.
The fairies obviously hadn’t found what they needed and became aggressive. Silver goblets and heavy seals flew down from the shelves. Sentries came running to the noise. The fairies dealt with them instantly. As soon as the black-winged beauties touched the bodies in chain mail, the sentries began to rot before their eyes. Their skin turned black, shriveled, dried to the bone. And now they are no longer sentries, but pathetic rotten relics lying on the floor, with black roses blooming over them.
«An invasion of fairies is a disaster,» whispered Fiore’s voice from somewhere above. «Hide from them in a niche. They don’t look in the niches because they are afraid they will