«But can he be anyone’s lover?» Flora was surprised. A dragon is not a boy.
«A lot depends on the dragon. All fairies dream of conquering him.»
The elf started whistling some frivolous song about a girl who attracts a dragon magnetically. All the fairies took offense.
«They are as beautiful as flowers!» Flora admired the beauties, from whose backs grew flower or dragonfly wings. One fairy’s wings were seven-colored like a rainbow, another’s were spotted like a butterfly, and a third’s wings resembled a lush flower.
«They are all gossips and schemers!» The elf characterized them.
The fairies’ masks were amazingly varied and imaginative. There were wing-shaped half-masks, and masks with bird beaks or tinkling pendants of beads, and golden plates without slits for eyes and mouths. Can fairies really see through a mask?
Some fairies had masks made entirely of flower petals, others of shells, some of coins, some of singing pearls. The masks on the holders squinted as if alive when the fairies took them away from their faces.
«They were made by the great master Donatello, a disgraced troll. He lives like a hermit and makes masks out of magical materials. This one he made for you.»
The elf pulled a silver mask that squinted, opened its mouth, and flapped its wing-shaped ears.
«Her name is Variable. She can help you take on any appearance you want for a little while.»
Wow! A mask has a name!
Flora was stunned.
Under the bridge was a sheet of water. Was it some kind of lake or even a sea? Right on the water stood a palace that looked like a whole island.
«Almost reached the residence of the fairies,» whistled the elf.
«Wow! Fairies live on the water! Is the palace floating?»
«No, it is of course not.»
«Then it stands on the back of a water giant?»
«The palace is on an island, you are silly!» The mask in Flora’s hands hissed.
Flora was taken aback. Her own mask is swearing at her. More accurately, it’s the elf’s mask, not hers. But it’s still offensive.
«I don’t see the island, I only see the palace,» Flora pouted.
«The palace takes up the whole island,» the elf explained hastily.
The gondolas in which the fairies were riding glided along the water to the palace. Unusual gondoliers, who looked like lanky elves, were rowing with oars.
The bridge, alas, did not run to the palace windows, but stretched past them across the sky.
«There’s no way across!» Flora was frightened. Fairies have wings, but she doesn’t.
The elf put his arm around her waist and lifted her into the air. In a few moments they were both standing on the balcony of the shining palace. Its walls and columns were literally glowing! Wow!
Flora marveled at the fruit trees rooted in the palace floor, the miniature waterfalls flowing from the walls into pools and the tapestries of fresh flowers.
«Don’t yawn like a country bumpkin!» The mask hissed. «You’d better put me on!»
«Won’t you try to dislodge my head from my shoulders and take its place?»
«You’re so clever!» The mask snorted.
«And you’re beautiful!» Flora looked at the mask, which looked like a face taken off some deity.
«Put me on if you don’t want to fall victim to the fairies,» the mask advised.
Flora hesitated. Carrying the mask in her hands and talking to it was much more pleasant than trying it on her face. In case it burned or bit, or tried to stick to her skin and take away Flora’s identity. She’s alive! She’s dangerous to mess with!
«Put it on, don’t be afraid!» The elf-guide urged. «There will be no problems. I guarantee it.»
Should we trust him? Flora was already regretting coming here with him. The prospect of wearing a living mask did not please her at all.
«They’re probably looking for me at home by now.»
«I don’t think so!» The elf winked slyly.
«Why is it not? Can you see what’s going on many miles away?»
«I can hear,» the elf perked his ears. «Your brother is raging and cursing at the servants. And I have no right to divulge your father’s secrets. Everyone in the castle is busy. No one will miss you.»
Flora was disappointed.
«By the way, did you know that one night in the fairies’ residence can be a century? You’ll come home and everyone there is old and dead. You’ll have to come back here again to be alone.»
«Are you kidding me?»
«It is absolutely not!» The elf waved affably at the firebird that sat on a perch under the ceiling and replaced the lamp. «There is a source of eternal youth here somewhere, and there is none on earth. There it is!»
In one fountain, beating straight out of the wall, the water was iridescent.
«A single drop will smooth out wrinkles or heal wounds,» the elf boasted. «Check it out!»
One of Flora’s hands was pricked with thorns of garden roses. The girl dipped her palm into the rainbow fountain. The scratches healed instantly.
«You see! All humans can be healed here, but this is the realm of the fairies. Humans are rarely allowed in. Although once, a mortal king was invited here by a carnation fairy in love. Now all that’s left here is his crown. There it is,» the elf picked up a precious crown of rubies and emeralds from the floor. «The king’s bones had long since been scattered to ashes.»
Flora didn’t like it. It is too ominous. The elf offered her a royal crown to try on, but Flora declined. It was bad luck to try on a crown of dead man, and the king who owned the crown was already dead. She wondered what had happened to him in this palace? Did he stay here for a century before reaching the source of eternal youth? How did that happen? The fairies didn’t let him through?
«It was a futile attempt!» The stone horned face on the wall said.
Flora glanced at her arm and noticed that the scratches had reappeared.
«It is strange!» The elf looked at her skin. «It usually works! You can’t be enchanted, can you? Or sick with the leprosy of the gray trolls? Or are you dead? Only water doesn’t heal the dead.»
The elf felt Flora’s pulse with long, thin fingers. Creeper leaves sprouted in his fingers.
«I’m alive!» Flora wrenched his hand away.
«Your heart beats very slowly, as if someone had forced it artificially.»
«Are you implying that I was dead and some sorcerer brought me back to life?» Flora joked.
She was immediately reminded of a recent incident when she had fainted and spent a long time in unconsciousness. It really was as if she had been dead, and then someone had called her back to the living again.
«Let’s have some fun!» Flora wanted to forget this episode from the past. The present was like a fairy dream, if only there wasn’t danger coming from the fairies. Somehow they looked too predatory.
It wasn’t just the flower fairies that were having fun in the ballrooms. There were also sea fairies, covered with shells, and water fairies, whose trains spread out on the floor with water, and even flaming fire fairies, from whose footsteps on the floor left traces of sparks.
Fairies