Dame Dragon. Natalia Yacobson

nodded courteously to the dryad, but she turned away in annoyance. Apparently she found him no less of a nuisance than the lady who inflamed everything.

      “I once saw an entire beech burned by her touch.”

      “So you were spying on her?” I wanted to grab him by the scruff of the neck and give him a good shake.

      “Well, just a little,” he confessed. “I spy on everyone in this forest. There’s no other way to make money if it isn’t from the occasional sheep that stray here.”

      “Could it be dragons?”

      “Don’t get any ideas. I’m not asking you for anything,” he hastily backed, clearly afraid I’d blow fire at him and burn him on the spot. The idea was tempting, but I held back.

      “If you find out anything about her or where she is, come running to me immediately. You won’t regret it. I’ll reward you handsomely.”

      “Is it not with what you burn?”

      “It is gold or jewelry.”

      “I have enough of that. And I can always get more at the expense of the fools who get lost in the wilderness. You know, the ones I’ve helped get lost.”

      “Then I’ll repay you with some benefits. It is maybe a year’s tax exemption.”

      He didn’t even bother saying that he didn’t like to come out of the woods and nodded eagerly.

      “I’m at your service, monsignor. I’ll be waiting for her! It is right here!”

      He left ten fingernail impressions on the bark. The name Sephora was scratched out, surrounded by a frame in the shape of a dragon’s wings.

      Night dreams

      I dreamed I was playing chess with a friend I never had, the king of some magical realm. I had never known such a thing in all eternity. But in the dream we were good comrades. And the chess before us was very unusual; not black and white, as is the custom, but red and white. Rudolfa would have been outraged at the sight of such a violation (she was a chess fairy and observed etiquette in everything). Thankfully, she was not the one watching my dream. The dream was beautiful, but for some reason it made me feel sick. In the dream I somehow realized I was dreaming and wanted to wake up. The friend imposed on me by the rules of the dream was very unpleasant, though attractive. Even his crown resembled the horns of the devil. From it, a living, moving shadow lay on the wall, making faces at me. Could the devil dwell inside the king’s crown, grasp the ruler’s forehead with steel claws, and enter his brain to terrorize his country through him? Anything is possible in a dream!

      Here we are sitting at the same table, molded in the shape of a goblin hunched beneath us. I am the lord of the magical people. He is the king of the land beneath our windows, or the king of dreams.

      “You are the king, and I am also the king,” he remarked between games. “Our friendship is understandable and appropriate. It is no matter how different categories of peoples we belong to. But it is natural for two rulers to be friends.”

      “It’s also natural for them to fight,” I quipped. “In my memory, kings prefer the latter.

      He saw my joke and grinned radiantly. Do his teeth look like pearls, or is it just me?

      “Would you like to fight me?”

      “We are already at war,” I nodded at the chessboard. This was a war, too. It was a special kind of battle. Only we didn’t fight with our intellect, like in the game. The chess pieces themselves were doing the fighting for us. They were alive and moving. I would even call them aggressive.

      My partner played red. And this is the color of fire. My color!

      “Let’s switch!”

      “Why is it?”

      “I’m the dragon, not you.”

      “Are you sure about that, handsome?”

      Why is it that everyone keeps pointing out my good looks and not my dragon strength? Even that horned king of dreams has begun to tease me about my handsome face! And now I’m going to die and show him how I can burn his dream kingdom to the ground. It is except I couldn’t breathe fire in my dream. Probably because it’s a dream and my charms don’t work here. My partner, on the other hand, was demonstrating his strength as best he could. Power emanated from him in black vapors. Perhaps outside the dream he would have been weak, but not here. In the dream, his power seemed unlimited. How sharp his claws were, scratching the board to the ground! And he’s dressed in red and white like a jester.

      “Let’s switch anyway,” I insisted. The red pieces on the board twitched at once, either approving my desire to play for them or protesting against it.

      “But the game was already in progress. It’s too late to change.”

      “Then stop playing,” I released my claws. “I command.”

      That usually worked for everyone. Whoever he is, I’m in charge of all magical creatures.

      “This isn’t going to work. One of us has to drop out at the end of the game.”

      “Why is that?”

      “We’re the two rulers and the lady is only one.”

      I heard the lady’s footsteps and the rustle of her robes, but somehow not in the castle, but on the bridge spanning from the window to the clouds. But there was a dragon floating outside the window instead of the lady.