like her attire, were like a queen.
«And I’m your aunt. My name is Gloria.»
«I know!» Janet stunned her.
«Did your mother tell you about me? I was a teenager when Amaranta came to live here in Ilior. Our homeland was Aluar, the country across the sea.»
Gloria squatted down to equal Janet’s height and placed the sword on the carpet. Roses from it stretched across the carpet. Yes, it’s like nature’s kingdom in here! Gloria felt not the carpet but the soft meadow beneath her fingers. How like the fairies’ jokes! Janet, too, looked like a dwarf fairy, not a child. Though her face is childlike, her eyes are too wise, too mysterious.
«I see you’re one of ours,» Janet touched Gloria’s cheek with her palm.
«I mean your family,» Gloria said. The child must have meant it.
«It is of us-" Janet shook her head negatively. «It’s rare for one of us to go into the castle. It’s full of iron.»
What kind of fairy tale games does she play? She listened to her father’s tales of evil and decided to play along.
«Why don’t we play charades, or fantasy, or maybe ball?» Gloria suggested, but Janet was already backing away.
Overhead, someone chuckled softly. Gloria looked up. It was no one on the ceiling. The invisible man’s laughter came straight from the void. Could it be imaginary? But the rose-trimmed sword didn’t seem to her. Gloria picked it up, struggling to pull it from the roses that had sprouted on the carpet. If war was coming, the sword was best kept.
Dragon’s tree
There was a war manual in the castle library. Gloria quietly snuck it away. It would probably tell you how to wield a sword. But it was hard to get the roses off the sword. It was like they were stuck to it. And as soon as she pulled them off, they grew back.
«I guess it’s not our destiny to fight! We’ll have to be friends!» A voice sang in the heights.
Gloria looked around. No one was in sight.
No one noticed her stealing the book from the library. She doubted any of the knights would approve of her swordsmanship lessons. In Ilior, there was no question of a girl knowing how to wield a weapon. At home, in Aluar, Gloria had been trained to shoot, but even there fencing was forbidden for women. And she dreamed of learning to swordfight. Of course, it was foolish to worry about self-defense in a castle full of knights, but they didn’t keep Amaranta safe. If someone kidnapped her, all the knights of Angus were powerless to protect her. But if Amaranta had known how to wield a sword, she could have fought back on her own.
Her cousin was a sissy and a dreamer. Gloria grew up more practical. She realized that being able to stand up for her was the most important thing in life.
A lush scarlet rose bloomed again at the tip of the sword. Gloria struggled to tear it off.
«What is the hell?»
«It’s not devilry. It’s magic,» the invisible man’s teasing voice whispered in her ear.
«They are the same thing!» She snapped back, not knowing who she was talking to.
The sword didn’t turn against her anymore, but it didn’t want to obey her. The dragon handle kept slipping out of her fingers. Perhaps it was best to read the martial arts manual carefully before training. Gloria opened the dilapidated book. She wondered if the castle has a magic manual. After all, the sword seemed to be enchanted.
Someone chuckled briefly behind her shoulder, as if catching her thoughts. What a seductive voice! Gloria looked back. Behind her back was the familiar emptiness, but someone’s presence was felt nearby.
«Come to me!» The same voice called out.
– Where are you?»
No answer.
«Well, where to go?» She couldn’t take it anymore.
«It is inside the tapestry!»
What tapestry? She’d only seen trellises and lambrequins. There was a large tapestry with a hunting scene in the hall, and a couple of other tapestries with pastoral scenes in the corridor. So which tapestry is the invisible man hiding behind? Gloria didn’t believe that someone could be lurking inside the tapestry. But behind the tapestry is very convenient to hide, especially if there is a niche in the wall under it.
Gloria went out into the corridor to look at the tapestries. There were at least a dozen of them. One could get confused as to which one to look for.
Voices came from the feast hall again. Angus was arguing with someone again. And that someone was very scandalous. He was smashing dishes, jingling cutlery, clawing at the table. Maybe there’s an animal in there. But the voices were only human, no growling.
«I thought you agreed to let Amaranta go, and now you want her back. That’s insensitive,» said someone sly and arrogant.
«I was under a spell. Now I’m awake.»
«Are you awake?»
Gloria listened. The second voice was unfamiliar to her. It certainly didn’t belong to any of the knights. Curious, who was Angus talking to? Gloria peered into the hall. Angus was standing there alone near a large tapestry.
How strange! Could there be someone hiding behind the tapestry? But the second voice had gone as if it hadn’t even been there.
«Do you need something?» Angus saw her and became alert, as if he’d caught a spy in the act.
«I’m looking for Janet,» Gloria said.
She strode defiantly into the room and looked in every corner, even under the table, before pulling back the edge of the huge, luxurious tapestry with a trembling hand. The tapestry was very beautiful, colorful and covered with intricate designs. It resembled both a map and a painting with many characters. And besides people, it depicted fairies and elves. But behind the tapestry was a void. Gloria gasped in disappointment. She had thought that behind it was a niche where Angus’s mysterious interlocutor was hiding.
«This tapestry was a gift for my wedding to Amaranta!» Angus explained, and laughed as if he had said something very witty.
Gloria felt a chill run down her spine at his sinister laugh. It was the laugh of those who summoned demons into their dwellings.
The tapestry was indeed embroidered with a wedding scene, but not a human one, but an elves’ one.
«Whose gift was it?»
Angus didn’t answer. Maybe he’d lost his mind. How could he forget the name of the person who had given him such an expensive gift for his wedding? The tapestry was probably given by King of Ilior himself. Amaranta loved to flirt with and charm kings. She was a coquette. Her husband, on the other hand, was a grim character. Angus is a tough warrior. What could he be?
On the pretext of looking for Janet, Gloria managed to search the place. The hall was definitely empty. Unless there was a secret passage somewhere. Then we’d have to come back here and look for a sliding panel in the walls. Gloria was familiar with the secret passage system. She herself had spent her entire childhood in the old castle.
«It is another duenna!» Angus grumbled after her.
Good thing Janet didn’t think she was a duenna. Gloria walked on, puzzled. How to explain to the child that she was neither a nanny nor a governess? She was a relative and a friend. Gloria didn’t have much experience in dealing with children. Perhaps she should behave directly to instill confidence in the child. Maybe try reading stories to Janet. The girl’s red-haired head flashed in the castle courtyard. Gloria went there and was stunned.
Janet was playing ball with strange, ugly creatures that seemed to have crawled out of the ground. It looked wild! Janet is a dainty girl, and her friends