A demon’s rival. Natalie Yacobson

from the remote province of Ivilor? Even the mad Princess Florimonda would probably be of more interest to the court.

      «Yes, Samantha,» the king walked around the girl and examined her back as if he were looking for wings.

      «I’m a lady, not a fairy,» Samantha joked.

      «Yes, definitely not a fairy,» the king nodded, «fairies usually have corset lacing bursting from the wings hidden under the fabric.»

      Samantha almost fainted. What a joke the king was making! He embarrassed her. It was one thing to compare her to a violet, for she wore a violet-colored dress, but it was quite another to suspect her of being a fairy.

      «In the province where I live, they catch fairies and cut off their wings,» Samantha remembered the old stories.

      «What a bunch of animals they are!» Serpin was genuinely indignant. «We should send the auditors to them. Let them clean up the mess.»

      A royal emissary was in the province recently. He had persuaded Samantha’s parents to send their daughter to court in search of a powerful groom. If the emissary had not been married, the fussy mother would probably have married Samantha to him without asking her daughter’s consent. For the mother was the main thing that the daughter did not remain an old maid. And the father, always disappeared in the family library, did not worry about anything at all. For some reason, the royal emissary was visiting Samantha’s father. Why, Samantha never understood. It seemed to be about some kind of danger to the young king. It couldn’t have come from a creepy animal climbing around the palace. Or is it from fairies? Apparently, Serpin is familiar with fairies, if fairies exist.

      «Fairies haven’t come to our land for a long time,» Samantha hastened to reassure him.

      «They haven’t come to me for a long time, either,» Serpin grumbled resentfully. «I guess it’s the animals from your province. They frightened all my fairies.»

      An obnoxious giggle sounded from the ceiling. If that was what scared all the fairies away, Samantha wouldn’t be surprised. The sound made her want to run as far away from the king as possible. The giggling voice seemed to follow Serpin.

      «The Mind!» Serpin looked up.

      «What do you mean?» Samantha didn’t understand. «Did I say something unreasonable?»

      The same clawed beast was swinging on the chandelier under the ceiling. A moment later, it was gone. It couldn’t have shown itself to her a second time, could it? Samantha felt as if she were going mad. She had been warned that life at court would be difficult, but not this difficult! She sees little black demons everywhere. They are also favored by the king.

      Serpin blew a kiss to the empty ceiling.

      «Do you see fairies up there?» Samantha marveled.

      «No, do you?» Serpin was embarrassed and gave the girl a disarming smile.

      «Then what’s under the ceiling?»

      «The fairies are no longer there, but they used to come here in droves. Such beauties!»

      Samantha felt a burning jealousy.

      «But something scared them away. Or someone had scared them off. We must ask the Mind who?»

      Laughter came from the ceiling again.

      Samantha didn’t understand the king’s last words.

      «You’re pretty as a fairy, too,» the king complimented her.

      This time a chandelier pendant flew from the ceiling and hit Samantha’s forehead. Now there will be a bruise! The crystal pendant that fell to the floor was covered in blood. Blood flowed from Samantha’s cut temple.

      «The Mind!» The king’s exclamation now sounded like a curse.

      From above, laughter resounded again.

      «What’s up there?»

      «Nothing much,» the king handed her his handkerchief.

      «What a horror!» Samantha rushed to the mirror shimmering in the partition between the draperies. «Is it going to bruise? My bruises don’t last that long! The last time I fell off a horse, I was bruised for more than a month. All the neighbors laughed at me, assuming someone had beaten me.»

      Stop! Her tongue is her enemy! How can she tell the king about her blunders? He’s not her buddy from the village, he’s the real monarch! It doesn’t matter that he looks the same age as the stable boys. He is the king, period! He must be treated with respect.

      «Excuse me for talking,» Samantha looked back at Serpin, but he had already left.

      Somehow she felt sad that he had left her alone so suddenly. They’d been having such a nice conversation. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said too much. There was a reason her mother had hired a teacher of manners, but she had never learned good manners.

      Samantha wiped the blood from her forehead and wondered if the court healer could treat bruises. In the mirror behind her, an eerie black silhouette suddenly appeared. It vanished so quickly that it looked like a play of light and shadow.

      The draperies were covered with intricate symbols in the shape of five-pointed stars, circles, and horns. How like the sorcerer’s symbols Samantha had once seen in a beginner’s magic manual she’d accidentally found on the top shelf of the family library. The symbols looked appropriate there, but where did they come from in the royal palace? Did anyone do magic here? She must have imagined it.

      Her wounded forehead ached unbearably. Who would have thought a chandelier pendant could hurt so badly? The handkerchief was soaked with blood.

      The King was gone, but the handkerchief remained. Samantha unfolded it and noticed the king’s initials embroidered in gold thread in the corner. S.I.R. The first two letters made sense. Samantha could decipher them. The first initial stands for Serpin and the second for Ivilor. So it’s Serpin of lvilor. But where did the letter R come from? Surely it doesn’t belong to the dynasty of Ivilor? Whose initial is it, then?

      The king’s handkerchief

      Now she had a souvenir from the king. Samantha returned to her room and pressed the handkerchief to her lips. Besides blood, it smelled of nice cologne.

      Since it was impossible to get the king himself into her arms, she could take comfort in his handkerchief. It was unlikely that the king would demand back so little as a handkerchief. Samantha can keep it as a memento of a wonderful moment. Being alone with Serpin was so pleasant. Even in the darkness, the young king resembled a ray of sunshine. Only the black monkey spoiled the whole impression.

      Samantha wondered where to hide the handkerchief. It had become something of a relic to her. She hid the bundle of coins in the closet among her dresses. The coins, strangely enough, did not turn into clods of earth, nor into dry leaves. They remained gold coins! So, it is indeed possible to grow gold and jewels in the black fields. Only bread does not grow on them, but a magical tree with coins or diamonds on the branches will grow easily.

      «I hope the demons from the field won’t make me pay for this wealth with my own blood!» Samantha sighed.

      She had already decided that if she didn’t find a suitable suitor, she would spend the coins on a house in the capital of Ivilor or a farm in its suburbs. She didn’t want to go back home to her parents. Her father was a good man, but she could not bear her mother’s whims any longer. If Samantha couldn’t marry favorably, her ambitious mother would reprimand her every day. Therefore, it is better not to spoil her nerves and do not go back to the native estate. Let the dwarf king settle there. He and Samantha’s father would probably become friends and find common topics of conversation at night.

      The coins in the bundle were enough to buy a decent house and live well into old age. And if she went to that marvelous field again, she could get rich. Samantha wished she had planted an amber earring or even a diamond ring in the black