tentacles of hypnosis.
«You are strong!«The elf praised, reluctantly releasing her hand.
«Am I strong? No one had ever said that about me before.»
She was usually described as graceful and fragile.
«I mean, you are morally strong. That’s what’s valued here.»
Gloria watched his wings flutter in amazement.
«Who are you? And what are you doing in the castle?»
«I live, of course,» the elf smiled disarmingly.
«And who let you in here?»
«It is count Angus, of course.»
«So he knows you’re here?»
«It is not exactly!» The elf was embarrassed. «You see, the thing is, I was brought here a few years ago along with the tapestry.»
«It is nonsense!»
There was no need for harmful fairies to be brought into the castle along with her luggage. The elf looked at her long and hard, and Gloria was embarrassed. He was too handsome to argue with. Why did she have to get into an argument with him? She could have made friends with him right away. Though there is a saying that friendship with elves is dangerous. It is especially for young girls.
«I’m Gloria,» she introduced herself.
«I know! I’ve heard what the knights called you. They’re all very nervous around here. They haven’t liked the company of beautiful ladies since Countess Amaranta attracted otherworldly admirers to the castle. I, on the other hand, long for female company, but the wicked Count banished all his wife’s ladies-in-waiting. You know she had maid of honor like a real queen.
«Amaranta has always been luckier than I have been,» Gloria looked at the elf and the tapestry. It seemed the tapestry was beginning to grow green shoots, as was the elf’s body. It must be magical.
«So you live on the tapestry?»
«It is inside it, to be exact.»
«But inside it is nothing but thread. And underneath it is a smooth wall, no secret passage.»
«There’s a whole state inside it,» the elf glittered his eyes enigmatically. «Look!»
He took Gloria’s hand and made it touch the tapestry’s woven pattern of turrets and fanciful elves’ houses. Gloria immediately felt dizzy. It began to seem to her that she was no longer standing in Angus’s castle, but at the gates of the land of the elves. A golden giant’s talking head was looking down at her and asking her something.
«Stop it! You’re messing with my head!» Gloria wrenched the elf’s hand away. «You’re trying to make me believe there’s something inside the tapestry.»
«Well, not inside it… but through it you can definitely travel far away from here to countries and areas that you humans consider to be off limits. The main thing is that once you’re there, no one realizes you’re only human, or you’re finished.»
Gloria snorted incredulously.
«Traveling through the tapestry is from the realm of fantasy, though it is like a map for a traveler through fairy tale places. Only the forest, the sea, and the nearby kingdom of Ilior are borrowed from the actual map. Everything else is fiction.»
The sea, too, was depicted as somehow strange, full of mermaids and watermen. And there was an inscription embroidered along the coast – the domain of King Seal. What cartographer could think of calling the Sea of Pearls that? And why does the tapestry itself look like a map? Something’s not right. In addition to images of terrain, magical or ordinary, the tapestry featured people and mythical creatures. The largest close-up was of a wedding of some kind. An elf wearing a crown was marrying a fair-haired girl.
«The tapestry changes over time,» the elf commented. «It originally depicted Angus’s wedding.»
«Who wove it?»
«They are Arachnas.»
«What are they?»
«They are fairies’ spiders.»
«Are they fairies? Where have you seen fairies?»
«Yes, everywhere!»
«I don’t believe it!» Gloria bit her tongue, remembering that she hadn’t believed in elves recently either. She saw one with her own eyes. Everything seems incredible until you see and touch it. By the way, she had never been able to touch the elf’s wings. Curious what they felt like?
Gloria dodged and caught the tip of a golden wing. Curiosity would do no good. The elf whipped her fingers painfully with the wing and flew away from her. Now he was hovering a few meters above her head, and Gloria stood below feeling like a bug.
«Come down! It’s hard to talk to someone when they’re hanging like a chandelier from the ceiling.»
«Promise not to pinch!»
«Okay, I didn’t know you were ticklish.»
Can you tickle someone’s wings, though? The elf flapped them gracefully, as if shaking off a mortal’s touch.
«By the way, why did you call me mortal? That was your voice, wasn’t it?»
«Aren’t you mortal?»
«Yes, but you made it sound like an insult.»
«It probably was, if you look at it from the elves’ point of view.»
His eyes sparkled slyly.
«Come on, let’s go for a walk!» The elf beckoned her over to the tapestry.
Did he really think it was possible to go inside it? From somewhere came the sound of jingling bells and clattering hooves, as if a cavalcade was galloping close by, but it was unreal. This is a feast room, not a road. The only horsemen here are woven on tapestry. Surely the sounds are just another obsession.
«I’m not going anywhere with you!» Gloria hurriedly removed the hand that the elf tried to grab behind her back. «You remind me of a crazy person! How can you walk on a tapestry? Only a madman could think of such a thing. I don’t believe you.»
«It is fine!»
The elf flew to the corner of the tapestry and suddenly froze on it with a golden vignette pattern. Gloria gasped in amazement. It seemed to be the same elf she had just talked to, and it seemed to be just a gold embroidered image of him.
The image suddenly came to life and winked at her.
«Are you delighted!»
The elf had already stepped down from the tapestry and was standing next to her.
«How do you do that?»
«It’s not a trick. It’s magic.»
That’s why she couldn’t find him behind the tapestry, though she could hear his voice. The little rascal was inside the tapestry, not behind it.
«So you’re a prisoner of the tapestry?»
«What makes you say that?»
«Are you a spirit inside the tapestry?»
«You are wrong again!»
The elf was toying with her and enjoying her reaction.
«Don’t pull that disappointed face! I didn’t screw you alone. I screwed everyone in this castle. Even Angus thinks I’m just part of the tapestry, and I’m really just a wandering elf.»
«Are there any wandering elves?» Gloria’s only ever met traveling peddlers in her life.
«There are definitely runaways! I’m a fugitive, but sometimes I have to be a lookout.»
«I don’t get it!»
«You don’t need to understand! I don’t