«Thank you!» Flora nodded.
«You should not thank for such news, but run away!» The ash fairy whispered.
«Didn’t the dragon accidentally burn you?» Flora snickered.
«I wouldn’t think so! I was born in ash. You can’t burn me!» The fairy replied smugly.
«But what if he gets his way?»
«You put him up to it!» The ash fairy crawled up the chimney. Surely the blue roses in her hands had long since turned gray. So be it! Flora didn’t need them anyway. Witch roses are nothing but trouble! Drusilla may think otherwise, but she’s not a witch to dabble in such things as a wreath that summons spirits.
«I felt like I was in a nightmare, not a fairy masquerade. And that’s where all my misfortunes began!» Flora complained to herself.
«What is it, mistress?» Charles stood beside her as if he’d sprung up from under the floor. He had replaced his gardener’s attire with an elegant coat.
«It is nothing. What are you doing here?»
«I’m taking you to dinner.»
«I don’t want to walk into the hall with you on my arm. My father will ask where you came from.»
«I’m good at faking it. The Marquis will think I’m his nephew or the son of his friends.»
«That’s the last thing we need!»
«We won’t be exposed,» Charles promised.
Exposure! Wasn’t that what the spirits who surrounded Flora in the corridor were whispering about? What did they mean? No matter how one looked at it, the spirits could see something in the future, even if only in fragments.
Flora reluctantly leaned on Charles’ arm.
«Fine, let everyone think you’re my cousin. Just hide your wings!»
Charles was taken aback by such an impudent request.
«Without wings, I’ll feel like a cripple!»
«You’re going to argue with me! Then I’ll go to dinner without you.»
«All right, I’ll hide them!» Charles folded his wings behind his back so that they resembled a shining hump. «They’d be mistaken for a cloak anyway.»
«Father’s guests are not blind!»
«Humans can be blind to the Elves’ mischief. You’ll see! I’ll demonstrate at the table.»
«Don’t dare!»
«If I want to, mortals don’t notice my wings and mistake me for an ordinary boy.»
«Father’s guests are stargazers and astrologers. They’ll definitely look at your wings.»
«They’re just charlatans.»
Flora agreed with the elf, but she was still cautious. It would have been better to put a short cloak on Charles’s shoulders, but that’s the problem – it’s considered tactless to sit at a dinner in outer clothes. The only excuse is that Charles is a relative from a wild mountain kingdom with its own customs.
«Well, if my father doesn’t remember the names of all my mother’s relatives, then we’ll say you’re my maternal cousin,» Flora glanced out the window and noticed that one fairy was still strolling through the garden. Though it didn’t seem to be a fairy exactly, but some sort of sorceress. Next to her was someone dark and gloomy, like a troll, wearing a fine camisole and a velvet triangle.
«What a strange couple! Did my father invite them?»
«No, they came for the fairies,» Charles looked out of the window.
Flora looked at the beautiful lady who was standing in the garden with the troll. She was a slender, tall blonde. Her blonde curls were arranged in a fancy hairstyle. A luxurious mauve cape completely concealed the lady’s back. Underneath it, it was not visible if the lady had wings.
«Is she a fairy?»
«It is not exactly!» Charles pulled Flora away from the window. «They call her Babette. I don’t think that’s her real name.»
«So you know her?»
«It is in passing.»
«What does that mean?»
«It means we only say hello sometimes when we bump into each other in the mortal world, but we don’t know any secrets about each other.»
«That’s funny! Somehow I think she came to see my father,» Flora couldn’t take her eyes off the lady’s dress. What kind of fabric is it? It’s like a starry sky, but it’s elegant. The lady suddenly looked directly at Flora and whispered something to her ugly companion.
«She has noticed you,» Charles was frightened. «This is not good.»
He dragged Flora more insistently away from the window, but Flora did not give in. Why should she be frightened of some lady? Babette didn’t look like a monster, unlike her companion. He’s the one to be afraid of.
«Her escort is a troll?»
«You’re so clever!» Charles chuckled. «People usually take him for a hunched old man, but Babette lies that he is her elderly husband, whom she married only because of his considerable wealth.»
«So he’s her husband?»
«It is in no way! She’s not crazy enough to marry a troll!»
«Then who is he to her? Is he her beau?»
«He’s more like her servant.»
«Are trolls ever someone’s servants?»
«Sometimes they are. But trolls are always prone to rebellion. I knew a king who made trolls serve him. They fought for him, hauled blocks in the quarries, even mined diamonds in the mines, but one day they got out of control and instead of working they tore the king apart. That was fun!»
«That’s horror, not fun!» Flora objected.
«I saw it with my own eyes! It was fun. I was hovering in the air above the place where the group of trolls attacked the king, and I laughed for a long time. It was so funny! The king was waving his scepter, giving orders, and the trolls were disobeying him. It was a triumph of justice and a lesson for ambitious people. Whoever wants to exploit the trolls will have trolls for dinner.»
«Don’t you realize how monstrous this is?»
Charles shrugged ridiculously.
«I hadn’t thought of that.»
«And you’re telling me this before dinner!»
Charles didn’t even realize that creepy stories about trolls spoiled his appetite.
«You were interested in the troll in the garden, and I remembered something about them.»
«I was interested in a dapper troll in a fancy camisole, not cannibal trolls!»
«Get away from the window!» Charles suddenly got scared.
«You’re not saying that Babette’s troll will eat me too?» Flora joked. But considering what she had just heard, it was better not to let the troll in for dinner. Otherwise it would eat the guests.
The strange couple was still strolling between the blue rose bushes, which seemed black in the darkness. The garden lanterns threw scant patches of light past them. Babette’s partner kept to the shadows, but Babette herself glittered with jewels that could only be compared to a star. Her piercing gaze was still on the window where Flora was looking out.
«It’s too bad she noticed you,» Charles sighed.
«Who is she, anyway, that you’re so afraid of her? I didn’t see her at the fairy masquerade, so she’s not dangerous.»
«Don’t