brain. It didn’t belong to the creature. The others couldn’t hear it. Only Gloria heard it. And now she was no longer in a hall where live monstrous game was being gutted, but in a field where winged maidens danced in wreaths of flowers she did not know the names of. Someone from the round dance holds out his hand to her. Instead of fingernails on his hand he has golden leaves.
And that’s it! The vision evaporated. She found herself back in the feast hall, as if she had fallen from heaven to earth. One of the hunters took a sickle instead of a knife. The beast was frightened by the sickle and howled in an uncontrollable voice.
«You have no right to use Alais’s weapon,» it howled. «Only she has the right to torture us with them. There is a law that no one but our leader can punish us.»
But the hunters didn’t care about the law. Suddenly the sickle vibrated in the knight’s hand like a living thing and sank into his shoulder. The blade easily passed through the dense armor and plunged into the flesh. Human blood splattered and mixed with the pool of the monster’s blood on the floor. The knight screamed in pain. This distracted his comrades. The disemboweled monster took advantage of this and twisted away.
Gloria couldn’t believe that it was able to jump off the table with its belly open, losing its guts in the process. By the way, his cut gut from the drops of human blood splashed on it, instantly fused.
«Humans are rare creatures,» the monster muttered, glancing warily at the knights.
Gloria herself was not averse to calling the hunters as knackers. How could anyone torture a living creature, even a monstrous one? She moved out of the way so that it could escape unhindered, but its bloody paw still left an imprint on her train. The clawed paw was like a seal on brocade. Even the most diligent washerwoman couldn’t wash it now. Well, it wouldn’t be her last dress.
The monster winked at her with one glowing red eye and was gone. It didn’t even reach the open window, but climbed up the curtain and then crawled across the ceiling. Crossbows were fired at it, but it only showed its split tongue. It could never be caught again.
A frightened Janet cried. And Gloria couldn’t shake the feeling that the monster was still staring at her from the feasting table. Someone’s hands, covered with sharp golden leaves, were caressing her whole body, leaving scratches. The caress is like torture, but it is worth dying to feel it.
«If my people are uncomfortable with you, then I’m leaving,» the ghost-like woman turned to face the window. Behind her back, translucent snow-white wings were precisely rising. The lush dress looked like a wedding dress and the tiara like a royal tiara. Amaranta, if only it was her, resembled a fairy queen. A glittering train glided behind her through the dark space.
«Amaranta!» Gloria called out and went after her, but Angus grabbed her and pulled her tightly against him.
«How dare you!» Gloria wanted to be outraged, maybe even slap him. He’s so insolent, not even willing to let her go after her cousin. Gloria looked down and gasped. It turns out she had almost stepped through an open window high above the castle wall. She would have crashed. Angus had saved her from certain death.
He wasn’t going to explain to her what had just happened. And she more than needed an explanation.
«You’re not a healer, are you?» Angus asked suddenly. «You don’t know anything about herbs, do you?»
«No,» Gloria watched in horror as her hem soaked up the blood on the floor. There are so many maimed people here. And there doesn’t seem to be a healer in the castle. Angus mumbled something about how he’d wasted his relationship with the healers in the nearest village.
«There are some excellent healers in the village nearby, but they’re all a bit witches,» he lamented. «And if you let witches on your doorstep, you’ll be in a lot of trouble.»
«Why did you hunt such a monstrous creature?» Gloria was outraged. «How could you think you were so brave as to hunt monsters? You should have fought the giants!»
«What do you know of our harsh lands, girl?» Angus was angry about something.
What did she say?
Gloria noticed that the tapestry that stretched across the wall was dripping with knight’s blood. Instead of looking stained, it began to glow strangely. And on a ledge of the wall above the tapestry, some beautiful winged creature that looked like a golden-haired elf with green wings was perched on it. It was eating a pear, obviously stolen, from the dinner table, and laughing quietly, watching the people swarming below. The scene of Angus tearing the tablecloth into bandages and working as a doctor seemed funny to him for some reason. Gloria glared at the elf, and he caught her gaze. His eyes were seven-colored, iridescent and sparkling.
«I told you to bring your sword,» they seemed to inform her.
«There’s an elf!» Gloria wanted to denounce him in front of everyone, but the place where the elf had been sitting was suddenly empty.
«Naturally,» Angus muttered. «This tapestry is all woven by elves. Why are you so surprised?»
«I am!» Gloria saw that the elves were embroidered on the edges of the tapestry in gold thread. Only she didn’t mean an embroidered elf, but a living one. But he was nowhere to be found. But on the intricate tapestry in front of her, dozens of his copies were circling in a round dance and winking slyly.
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