Dragon Ship

The dragon’s girlfriend

«I think I remembered something.» Patricia raised her eyes to the king. «I have power too. Many faces mean nothing. One true face is hidden beneath them all, like a mask. If I summon a dragon, it will come and burn down the whole kingdom.»

The Peri were wary, and the king grinned.

«No, he won’t! He has no right to burn Opal. We have a treaty with him.»

– And I’m in love with him. What’s more important? Ask yourself,» Patricia opened her lips and blew fire in the pesky king’s face. How she did it, she couldn’t explain to herself. A dragon’s friend must be able to breathe fire.

The King of Opal didn’t burn entirely, but he was hurt. The Peri were scattered. Backup was rushing for the door. Goblins from the pirate crew burst into the palace. Zeligena and Netopyrina flew ahead of them. Nethopyrina had a luxurious girdle around her waist that she had taken from a defeated peri.

«At last! I thought you had abandoned the captain.»

Before Patricia could rejoice, Zeligena had turned the steps leading to the throne room into a swamp. The goblins were bogged down in them. No one could walk down them and reach the king.

«Stop it!» Patricia shouted.

«I can’t! He’s overwhelming me,» Zeligena pointed her wing at the king.

Even the goblins had a confused look. Instead of the Peri, Divas, and Nagas who had been defending the king, they swooped in to kill each other, as if someone invisible were directing them like puppets.

Patricia realized her folly. Going with magical creatures against a wizard who specialized in subjugating them was foolish. The enemy had managed to disorient her small army of evil spirits in one sitting. Not even a burnt face had stopped him. He couldn’t control Patricia, though. If the true queen of the fairies slumbered within her, it made sense.

Patricia knew where to head. She darted behind the throne room. In the corridor behind it was a secret hall, a crypt where the living remains of queens rotted in niches. Bloodthirsty black roses tightly wrapped the niches, but Patricia immediately spotted the corpse of Queen Esperanza. If only a corpse could be called a moving relic in smoldering attire and jewelry.

«Your Majesty!» Patricia curtsied as a matter of habit, even though it looked silly. She was now in the garb of a pirate, not the dress of a lady. «The dragon ship is approaching Opal’s shores! What do we do?»

«That’s good!» Esperanza, whose face had already turned into a skull adorned with a network of pearl diadem, echoed. Her voice was echoed by all the other queens who had not rested.

«What good is this?» Patricia shouted at them. «You’re dead yourselves and you want everyone else to be dead?»

«The ship will burn evil in Opal. We will all rest in ashes,» explained Queen Esperanza, whose body was already crawling with voracious grave worms. «Fire cleanses from sorcery.»

«It is not dragon fire! The ship was once a living dragon!» Patricia swung her saber away from the flock of black grave pixies circling the queens’ relics.

«I knew Sheor,» Esperanza said with stunned candor. «And you knew him. I bet he’s coming after you. Whatever face you put on, he can smell your soul.»

«So you always knew who I was? You never told me?»

«All of us in Opal are hostages to magic! Set us free!»

«How is it?»

«Call your dragon.»

Patricia closed her eyes and called Edwin in her mind. He would probably come to rescue her. After all, rescue and revenge are different things.

The jewels on the relics of Esperanza and the other queens were like shackles. Patricia gave in to instinct and pulled out the key she’d won from the watermen at sea chess. She remembered that all she had to do was swipe it once on any locks and they would open. The queens’ jewelry broke and crumbled as soon as Patricia touched it with the key. Esperanza’s relics, braided with black roses, tumbled out of the niche. Her bony hand clutched at Patricia as if she wanted to feed on someone else’s life energy.

«Let go!» She demanded.

«Let me drink some of your blood,» Esperanza whispered.

The magic saber struck her, but it could not harm the relics. They were already dead. Someone was rushing into the secret room.

«It was you who summoned the golden dragon!» The King of Opal shouted from the threshold. «Because of you, he mauled my men in the throne room. He used to feast at my house differently. Until you told him to, he wouldn’t let his claws out.»

«Why don’t you go back to the throne room and fight him like a man! Wizard against dragon! It’s a promising battle.»

«No, I will take you away otherwise,» the king rushed to Patricia and wanted to force the Opal queen’s crown on her head. The crown must be equal to magical shackles that would bind her to the king and suck the life out of her like the previous queens. Patricia dodged and pushed the king right into the dead Esperanza’s arms. The skeleton’s bony arms and black roses instantly braided around the king’s body. The other dead women, sensing an opportunity for revenge, also crawled toward the king. Soon, dozens of bony dead hands were clawing at him. The King of Opal screamed, but he couldn’t break free. Edwin, who had rushed into the throne room, must have managed to partially block his power.

Edwin himself did not hesitate to appear. He looked disheveled, but handsome. He had a scar on his cheek from the king’s signet ring. Apparently the wound was a sorcerer’s wound, because it was very slow to heal, even on a dragon.

The King of Opal himself had begun to turn into a skeleton wrapped in black roses. Now his own magical creatures were drinking blood from him.

«I could burn him,» Edwin suggested.

«Don’t! Let him suffer as long as all his dead queens.»

Patricia closed the bars on the niche, inside which the king’s body was writhing in the embrace of black roses. The former great wizard had been defeated. Who would have thought he would turn out to be anything but the greatest wizard? It was fortunate that Edwin was found besides him.

The king’s dead wives stayed with him as if they were wardens and tore him apart. And then nothing could be seen beyond the canopy of tightly twisted black roses.

«So you remembered everything again! For the hundredth body for the hundredth time! Rose! Patricia!» Edwin snatched her out of the embrace of the black roses, which reached for the living girl. «By the way, Leonella has come to your rescue with the remnants of her hovering fleet. A century ago she was your best friend, and you often gossiped about me over flower tea.»

«I think so!» Patricia remembered a table with cups of steaming tea made of chicory, roses and buttercups. It seems they had brought most of the flowers for brewing to the Isle of Purras herself. Leonella listened attentively to her praise of her victory over the dragon, who it turned out could be successfully led around by the nose. How embarrassing! Patricia was ready to die of shame remembering it.

Her nostrils smelled of fumes. The walls of the palace heated up like the walls of a furnace. Orange smoke billowed through the windows.

«Sheor’s coming! He wants you, but I’ll carry you away!»

Edwin spread his wings, but he didn’t turn into a dragon. His wings were as golden as an angel’s and as strong as an angel’s. He picked Patricia up and carried her away from the fire. They flew out of the palace and over the blazing sea. It was now a sea of fire. Even the oars of the flying ships were catching fire. Leonella, standing on the flagship, was visibly nervous. The Purras obeyed her commands. The flying ships managed to pull the water ships out of the sea before they caught fire. The flames touched the shores of Opal and rolled forward like volcanic lava. Patricia felt hot and stuffy as hell.

«I’ll take you to the magical empire, he can’t get there,» Edwin promised.

«Wait! We can’t let him destroy the whole country,» Patricia looked down at the ship igniting the sea. Its proud dragon silhouette looked ominous. Patricia remembered that somewhere under the wooden dragon’s guise lurked the handsome brunet to whom she had sung ballads of love and made absurd promises.

«How can you stop him when even I couldn’t?» Edwin wondered.

«It is simple!» Patricia remembered and sang one of the songs that Sheor liked. The verses flowed like magic spells. They spoke of the fairy queen’s love, of miracles, and of eternal sleep. Usually Sheor fell asleep to these songs. He kept saying that Rose could sing like a real siren and even better. After all, a siren can’t control a dragon, but Rose can. When she had met Sheor on the picturesque tropical shore, she had been called Rose. Now the name and body were different, but the song remained the same. The dragon obeyed her this time too. He fell asleep. The sea ceased to blaze. The fiery sparks disappeared into the water. The silhouette of the wooden dragon suddenly ceased to be a ship. It curled sleepily into a ring and stood in the middle of the sea as a huge reef.

«Let it sleep for centuries to come!» Rose sang the last verse. «He’s in the power of the fairy queen! I’ll have the mermaids keep him asleep.»

Mermaids had always been her friends, but she hadn’t remembered that before. They, on the other hand, remembered and respected her. It was probably because they didn’t have to change bodies while hiding from the dragon. She, on the other hand, was on the run. The reason for the game of hide and seek was revenge out of jealousy. That’s why Edwin didn’t approve of revenge.

«Thank you for coming to save me!» Patricia looked at the reef that looked like a sculpture of a sleeping dragon in the open sea. Instead of a sculptor, it was magic.

«How could I have done otherwise?» Edwin flapped his wings smoothly and carried her back to the palace. Leonella waved to them from the flying ship. Patricia remembered that Leonella loved banquets. Surely she must be counting on a feast after her victory. Her purras are voracious, too. They will demand sweets, tea, fire wine, and fairy fruit for their help in the war, which will do them no harm. It was a blessing that Opal had an abundance of these things.

Zeligena and Netopyrina were already looking at the valuables in the throne room. Patricia’s little purra was picking large diamonds off the back of the throne. What a thief! Patricia smiled as she looked at her.

«For centuries Opal has been ruled by dynasties of wizards,» Edwin summarized, «it’s time for me to take Opal under my dragon wing. Do you want to be queen here?»

«I don’t know. Opal has some bad memories.»

As Patricia passed the royal crypt, she noticed Beatrice still alive. Her sister remained in the crypt behind its magical locks. She clung with pale hands to the bars of windows braided with black roses. A witch’s mist was billowing on the other side of the windows, inside the crypt. As long as Beatrice was locked in, the mist could not seep out. Perhaps not surprisingly, the dead fairy went to sleep in the crypt by morning and got trapped. In addition to Beatrice, a whole flock of pale, moth-like grave fairies had fallen into the trap. Their whitish wings, usually spreading plague, were now beating helplessly against the sarcophagi of deceased kings.

«Don’t leave me! I will mend my ways!» Beatrice wailed, trying to reach Patricia. «Let me out of the crypt. I am a half-fairy, not a dead woman! I don’t have to be cooped up with dead people. Sister! Come here! Unlock the locks with the water key! It fits all locks! Why should you let me go? I promise not to interfere with anything. I might even fly away from Opal forever after the triumphant feast. Just let me go!»

«She wants blood!» Netopyrina explained.

Beatrice, scratching at the locks and bars of the crypt, resembled a white ghost. The bloodsucking roses at the entrance are withered, but they’ll come back to life as soon as there’s a victim. Someone would pass by, hear their whispers, turn toward the crypt, and be caught in the blood-drinking roses and in the arms of the grave fairies that hid behind the half-fairy’s back. Their pale tattered wings wrapped around tombstones and royal sarcophagi. They all resembled dead white roses. They would probably turn into blood-sucking roses eventually. Now Beatrice was another dead rose of the crypt. Even if the grave fairies become her personal army, they won’t be able to escape the crypt. After all, the crypt doors slammed shut as soon as the wizard king lost his power. He would no longer need an army of fairies.

Patricia tried to walk past the crypt sooner and forget about Beatrice. After all, Edwin was right. Beatrice wasn’t even her sister. The other members of Patricia’s aristocratic family scattered to ashes. The Peri’s had scattered. Zeligena was catching and reeducating garden fairies. Goblins and trolls helped her restore order. Medea Shai disappeared without a trace, as if she had never been here. She was afraid to face Edwin again. The dragon had intimidated her badly when he burned her ship.

Patricia’s little purra was the first to reach the royal treasury, and the watermen’s key helped open the locks. The treasures in Opal turned out to be innumerable.

«The dragon’s treasury is even richer,» Edwin boasted, «but I’d give it all to whoever found you.

He drew Patricia to him and kissed her. Though the dragon’s kiss was fiery, it didn’t burn Patricia. It was good that now she wouldn’t need a box of ette to enjoy Edwin’s company. He was better in person than he was in her dreams, and the ex-wife issue was resolved. The ex-wife just wasn’t there. There were many faces of the same Rose.

The Mind appeared on the treasure mountain suddenly. At first Patricia thought he had appeared to take back the ghost fleet, but Mind was busy with something else entirely. He held a large sack in his claws and raked the jewels into it. Patricia marveled. Was she seeing double? Mind already owned all of Ivylor’s treasures. What more could he want?

«It is pest!» Mind muttered. «Damn that Samantha! She’s the reason I have to create a spare treasure room. Who’d have thought the impudent beauty would try to steal my king away from me? Serpin is my wealth, my wages, my dinner, my entertainment, and she wants his love! Bitch! She may not be able to steal the king from me, but she could use a stash of gold. It is just in case!»

The sack was barely full. The Mind vanished as if it never existed. Patricia wiped her eyes. Maybe it was just a dream?

«Let him have it! We won’t be poor!» Edwin pulled Patricia to him again.

«What are we going to do with all this treasure?»

«We’ll rule Opal for now. Then we’ll see. A century from now it will probably start again, and I’ll be looking for you again in a new form, but for now you are mine, and the pirate ship stands idle in a quiet harbor, catching the henchmen of the former Opal king.»

«I’m tired of sailing the seas,» Patricia thought of the sleeping Sheor. He might wake up again if he smelled her sailing.

«Would you like to fly over the sea on a dragon’s back?»

«Are you suggesting that you take me flying?»

«Suppose I am. Your friend Leonella soars on flying ships, your fairy helpers fly on their own wings, and you want to feel the triumph of power over the heavens, soaring into them on the back of a dragon?»

Well, how can you resist! When a charming dragon offers to take you flying, what girl would refuse? Naturally, Patricia said yes.

Author’s Note

Rose and Edwin’s story begins with the book «An Affair with a Dragon.»

The biography of Edwin, who thought he was a mortal prince but turned out to be a dragon is described in the book «Dragon Empire» 3 volumes.

In the book «The Age of the Empress» in 6 volumes tells how Rose tried to wrest power from Edwin began to change appearance.

The books «The Royal Dragon», «The Queen’s Dragon», «Between the Lines Written by Fire», «Masquerades of Fairies», «Capricious princess under the tutelage of a dragon», etc. tell about Rose’s changing appearance.

About Edwin’s parents fire princess Rhiannon and heavenly warrior Madeel tells the book «Rhiannon – Princess of Fire» in 4 volumes.

The books «Magic Lessons» and «Magic Apples» tell about the magician Vincent and his relationship with Edwin.

Also in the Dragon Empire series are the books «Dragon Lady» and «Swan Lake».

The Daughter of the Dawn series of books is about the goddess Alais.

Medea Shai and Tamlane can be read about in the book «Tamlane – Prisoner of the Fairy Queen». Medea Shai also acts in each book of the Prisoners of the Magic Kingdom series. The book about Medea Shai’s first love for the mortal King Conrad is called «One Century is Before the Wedding.»

About the sea king Seal and Princess Lilothea, who became a sea queen tell the books «Lilothea – the bride of the water king» and «Lilothea – wife of the water king». They are part of the cycle «Prisoners of the underwater kingdom» about mermaids and watermen.

On the Mind and Estella tells the book «Princess Simple.» And about how Mind will take away the king Serpin girl named Samantha, will be told in the book «Counselor to the King or Demon Rival», which is being prepared for release.

Beatrice, who is accidentally released from her crypt and falls in love with a visiting prince, will be the subject of the book «The Fairy of Mists.»

You can read articles about all my books for free on the EcoGrad Magazine website under the Eco Literary Page. The column about my books is called Eco-Imperia. The articles have also been published in two separate books, «Essays on My Fantasy» and «Essays on Magic Books».

The girl on the cover is author Natalie Yacobson as Patricia.