A demon’s rival. Natalie Yacobson

out of the carriage window. The familiar wooded area around the road had been replaced by apiaries. There were no beekeepers, but strange black bees hovered over the black honeycombs.

      Samantha rubbed her eyes. What if she was dreaming? Behind the apiaries stretched barren black fields with black weeds and burdock. Suspicious-looking creatures rode through the thickets. Such animals Samantha had never seen in her life. They were not goats, sheep, or dogs. But they had twisted horns, hooves, and black wings like bats. One such creature stared at the carriage. Samantha hurriedly shut the window and sang, urging the horses to gallop faster.

      The black, barren fields outside the window, where the evil spirits nested, reminded her of hell. Where could hell come from in Ivilor? Samantha had always thought Hell was underground, not on the surface of the earth. How could it be that a piece of hell had surfaced? It must be another nightmare.

      The carriage suddenly stopped. The horses were frightened by a tiny creature that scurried under their hooves. It was the size of a gopher, but it had the aggression of an elephant.

      «Look where you’re going!» It hissed angrily at the horses and Samantha.

      It seemed to Samantha that the little creature wanted to fight her. For some reason she was afraid of it. Perhaps it was because she had already seen a small, stunted demon fight a tall lady named Evangelina.

      The road on which the carriage was traveling lay between black fields. To the left of the road was an unusual scarecrow on a pole. Instead of button eyes, it glittered with two coins, and its pointed black hat resembled a witch’s.

      Samantha was interested and stepped toward the scarecrow, almost stepping on another small creature that she mistook for a field mouse.

      «Look where you’re going!» The creature hissed angrily and released a stream of red, glistening smoke in the girl’s direction. The smoke made Samantha cough. It seemed to be poisonous. She felt dizzy.

      «Look up at the sky and the red spell will dissipate,» a husky male voice advised.

      Samantha looked up and gasped. Had the scarecrow really spoken to her?

      «The local invaders are like locusts,» the scarecrow suddenly nodded from the pole. It was really alive and moving. «You must know how to defend yourself against their charms. Otherwise you’ll end up like me.»

      «Who are you?» Samantha looked obediently up at the sky, and the dizziness immediately disappeared.

      «I am a former royal advisor.»

      No way! The scarecrow must be playing a joke on her. It was clear from her shabby dress that she was a country girl. Samantha expected to be laughed at in the capital, but she didn’t expect even a scarecrow from the suburbs of Ivilor to tease her.

      «You called these things invaders? Why is it?» – Samantha felt silly addressing some scarecrow as «you.»

      It is because they occupied the fields of Ivilor, and look what happened to the crops. Since their arrival, there’s been barrenness everywhere. Nothing else will sprout from this land but magical grains and trees.»

      «It’s a shame. I love watching the harvest and then separating the grain from the chaff. I would have helped with the farming myself, but my mother forbade me to do simple labor. She thinks ladies are only entitled to embroidery and music.»

      «And she’s right!» The scarecrow nodded thoughtfully.

      «How is it so?» Samantha didn’t expect the scarecrow to be so prim.

      «But no one can see you now, and you can try to plant something in this field.»

      «But I don’t have any seeds with me.»

      «You dig a hole and put one of your amber earrings in it, and then see what sprouts from it,» the scarecrow’s amber eyes sparkled slyly.

      «It is some other time. Thanks for the advice!»

      Samantha was already regretting that she had spoken to the strange creature, which had been a scarecrow a minute ago and now looked strangely like a man crucified on a pole. She was not going to sacrifice her earring to please her companion. She had to leave before the creature on the pole demanded something even more absurd from her.

      «Don’t be greedy!» The scarecrow said. «I, too, came here because I was greedy. I refused to give my diamond cufflinks to the new royal advisor, and he turned out to be a demon. And now I’m hanging here like a sack of straw! I’m pecked by crows and my arms and legs don’t move as if they were straw. Greed leads to disaster, but generosity, you’ll see, will be rewarded. I’ll let you in on a secret. On this field, even the smallest gemstone will grow a whole tree with gems on its branches.»

      «Is it really?» Samantha didn’t believe it. «Tell me, where did those strange creatures come from in the fields? Has hell opened up beneath the fields?»

      «The new royal advisor let them in here,» the scarecrow explained kindly.

      «The royal advisor is tangling with the evil spirits! I can’t believe it. My mother would say you’re slandering an honorable man.»

      «It’s not slander! The king’s new counselor is a demon himself!»

      The scarecrow must have been speaking figuratively. Samantha couldn’t believe that the king’s advisor had been turned into a talking scarecrow by magic and replaced by a dexterous demon.

      She wouldn’t have believed in talking scarecrows before, but now she saw one right under her nose. What should she believe now?

      As Samantha thought, there was a rustle in the sky. Three beauties in black mourning dresses and with black wings descended to the edge of the field, but they did not dare to move forward, although they were obviously curious about what was going on. For some reason they were afraid to fly further over the field.

      «They are grave fairies,» said the creature from the pole.

      Samantha was surprised. She had heard of grave fairies. They usually lived in graveyards and sang funeral hymns at night. Whoever hears their voice will die soon, so travelers are wary of passing cemetery fences at night. For behind them dwell grave fairies. But what are grave fairies doing in an arable field? Are there corpses beneath the barren field? Otherwise the grave fairies wouldn’t have come here. They only come to graves or funerals, and sometimes to wakes.

      The fairies were whispering like conspirators:

      «These are the demon’s dead fields. He sows seeds of death or raises the dead to become his dead army,» the black fairies whispered. «One day they will go to war on the world of the living. And then Queen Luciferina will return!»

      Samantha shuddered when she heard the name. Wasn’t it derived from Lucifer? If there is a female version of his name, then she guessed so. In this case, only the queen of hell could be called Luciferina. Looking out over the barren field, Samantha was ready to believe that hell was right underneath it. Better get out of here. What if the earth opened up right now?

      «Wait, where are you going?» The tiny creature said. It had crawled out of the hole under the pole. «Will you donate us a coin for the advice of the scarecrow?»

      «But it was it that gave me the advice, not you. By the way, how many of you are there in this field?»

      «There’s a hell of a lot of us here, and if we don’t pretend to let our guard down, no local scarecrow will talk to you.»

      «That is going to cost me a little.»

      «Wait, I’ll let you in on a secret! If you plant a coin in this field, it will grow into a coin tree.»

      Samantha wanted to test it. She found one coin in her pocket. She put it in the claws of the strange creature. It jumped for joy. Probably now its words would be a lie and it would run away, but the creature actually threw the coin on the ground. The coin immediately passed through the ground like a seed thrown