Dragon Ship. Natalie Yacobson

not merchant ships. Patricia’s blood-hungry crew easily boarded ships with heavy equipment. One captured ship had an unusual cargo – barrels of lead.

      «What was in them?» Patricia polished her saber and watched as the goblins dragged the barrels to the deck from the sinking ship. «Is it gunpowder? Or is it mercury? Definitely not wine. The packaging is not typical of wine.»

      «It is a fire wine,» one of the goblins replied.

      «No, it isn’t! There is no such thing as a fire wine.»

      Patricia opened one of the barrels and was astonished. Inside the barrel, liquid fire was bubbling.

      «Is this really drinkable?»

      «Yes, it is!» The big goblin snatched the barrel and took a big gulp, then snorted insolently.

      «And you didn’t burn your throat?» Patricia wondered.

      The goblin shook his horned head. Then he clawed at his stomach. His eyes bulged and turned orange, and sparks flickered across his fur. The goblin grinned contentedly. He was enjoying the effects of the fire wine.

      «Do the others drink it too?»

      The goblin nodded.

      «Drunks,» Patricia muttered under her breath. The goblin took no offense. Everyone here liked fiery wine that burned the palate. And this was her team! All monsters! She didn’t know that before.

      Patricia was getting discouraged. The other pirates had taken the treasure, and all they got were barrels of wine. In frustration, she stabbed one of the casks with her dagger.

      «No, don’t tear them off!» The jumpy creature from the hold squeaked, but it was too late. An orange trickle flowed onto the deck.

      «There’s fire in every barrel, not wine!» Patricia was indignant.

      «It’s fire wine,» the Bogles grumbled resentfully. «Don’t you realize that this is the highest kind of wine?»

      «And who drinks such wine? Are they suicides? Are they condemned to execution? It will burn your throat!»

      «Dragons and dragons’ friends drink it,» replied the Bogles.

      «But it will burn our ship. Hurry up and get buckets of water!»

      Are there buckets on board? Patricia didn’t even know. But the flames on deck went out by themselves. Did the ship soak it up?

      «Our house isn’t on fire,» the pixie flipped in the air.

      «It is the ship, not the house!» Patricia corrected her.

      «It doesn’t matter!» The pixies scattered and the goblins began to drink heavily.

      Patricia stepped away from the horde of monsters. They were pouncing on the barrels of fiery liquor. The barrels didn’t even have corks. The goblins were smashing the lids with their paws to get to the contents.

      «Hey, Captain! Look at me? Do I fit in with your crew?» A female voice squeaked from somewhere above.

      Patricia looked around. There was no one around, except for the strange, stiff gargoyles on the sides. They looked like they were about to come to life. Could she have been approached by a ghost? There’s no sign of it, by the way. Are there invisible ghosts?

      «How is about that?» The unfamiliar voice came from above again.

      Patricia raised her head, holding her triangle with one hand. There was no one flying in the sky above the ship. So she couldn’t have been called from the sky.

      «Look here!»

      A beautiful gray head with pointed ears hung down. The eyes on the gray face glittered like amber. A thick cloak covered her narrow shoulders. The lady resembled a dunghill.

      «Do you like hanging upside down?» Patricia asked puzzled.

      «I do!» The lady shook her gray cape and appeared to be a huge bat. She jumped down gracefully and stood in front of Patricia, straightening up to her full height. Its head reached Patricia’s chin.

      «How did you get here? Are you even a fairy or a bat?»

      «I’m both, and I’m both, and I’m both.»

      «What’s the third thing?»

      «I’m a bat fairy, that’s the first two things, and the third, I’m a member of your team.»

      «How come I didn’t notice you before?»

      «Were you too busy enslaving the crew?»

      Enslavement! What’s the word?

      «I recruited them, not enslaved them.»

      «Hmm,» the bat fairy squirmed incredulously.

      «What are your talents?» Patricia looked her over from head to toe. Her feet were two paws with sharp claws that scratched the deck.

      «Are they talents for what?»

      «It is to fighting.»

      «How warlike you are!» The gray fairy clucked her tongue.

      «I need warriors.»

      «The mermaids say that you can’t survive on the seas without strength,» the fairy sighed and showed her clawed feet. «I can tear anyone to shreds. In my claws the enemy is like in a meat grinder, but my main talent is in agility and in the ability to whistle a strong wind. My whistle, by the way, can make people deaf or insane. Would you like a demonstration?»

      The bat-fairy put the claws of her little fingers in her mouth and prepared to whistle.

      «No, you don’t,» Patricia interrupted her. «It’s better to introduce yourself. What’s your name?»

      «Nethopurina.»

      «You’re from a race of celestials?»

      Nethopyrina shifted her triangular eyebrows in puzzlement.

      «I’m from the bat fairy caste.»

      «Okay, it’s not about bloodline. So, Lady Netopyrina…»

      «I haven’t been called Lady since King Opal threw me out of the castle in disgrace.»

      «What did you do to him?» Patricia immediately felt good about the fairy.

      «I drank the blood of the wrong lady to be executed.»

      «And he threw you out for such a small thing? He loves fairies, peri, divas, and especially the night fairies, the blood-drinking fairies.»

      «But it is not me. I was out of place.»

      «So was I.»

      «You ran away. No one threw you out,» Nethopyrina scrutinized Patricia. «I see your line of fate. By the way, you’re being chased.»

      «Is it from Opal?»

      «No, it is from somewhere else.»

      «I haven’t made any more enemies anywhere else.»

      Is Nethopyrina a clairvoyant? She’s a little vague in her predictions. More like a fraudulent fortune-teller from Opal Square. King Opal had a good eye. He knew how to tell the real sorcerers from the charlatans.

      Patricia remembered the feast hall at Opal’s castle, the poison glasses lined up between the food, the dishes of meat and blood, and the snide laughter of the peri community. Peri are the female variety of evil genies. Outwardly they are beauties, inwardly they are demons. The King of Opal released them from some ancient candlestick, and all of Opal turned into hell.

      Patricia remembered sitting at the feast table between giggling peri, and on the platter in front of her was meat left over from the cut corpse of her uncle who had rioted against the king. It was best not to clash with a king who had subjugated an unclean force. But the fateful step had been taken, nothing could be undone.

      «The King of Opal wanted to give you up to the dragon,»