Chapter 12 The Bird, the Duck, and the Fish

 Lilet had to use handfuls of magic to get where she wanted. First, she jumped into the river and swam along it, asking fishes to pull her and save her when the current proved to be too strong. Within a few days, she reached the sea. Using her own methods of location, listening to leaves’ whispers, songs of birds and pieces of advice passed by boars, deers, and foxes, she found a small fisherman’s hut just by the sea.

‘Is there anybody here?’, she asked, knocking at the door. 

A little bird approached her and sang:

‘The fisherman and his wife are currently living in a beautiful castle. It’s not far away from here. It’s magnificent and expensive.’

Lilet smiled to herself.

‘And how come the poor fisherman could afford it? His little hut looks like the poorest of the poor.’

‘They say that he found something and this something makes all his wishes come true. But they keep it a secret.’ 

‘Is there a limit to the wishes?’

‘I don’t know. First they lived in this dilapidated hut, then they moved to a big and comfortable house, and then to a beautiful castle.’

‘It seems that they used two of their wishes. You know, little bird, wishes tend to come in threes. What can you tell me about the fisherman and his wife? You seem to know them well.’

‘The fisherman is a humble and hard-working man. He used to wake up before dusk, feed all his animals, go on his fishing boat to the sea and work until his fingers got numb and back started to ache. He deserved what happened to him. He would share his last piece of bread with the poorest of men. I’m happy that he can now live like a king.’

‘And the wife?’

‘The wife had never worked. She always relied on the fisherman. It was her who moved into the hut, it was her who wanted the big comfortable house and it was her who from the house wanted to move into the castle. She’s pretty insatiable. She wants more and more. I wonder how the poor man stands her whims.’

Lilet was deep in her thoughts. The bird ensured her that the fisherman was in possession of what she really needed. But she needed something else to win this thing from the fisherman. 

‘I need a duck!’ she exclaimed and made the bird fly away in fear. 

‘Miss, you are terribly loud! A duck?’

‘Yes, a duck. There’s another legend I’ve been told as a little girl and now it’s time to check whether there’s no smoke without a fire.’

It took her another day to take a step back in her journey and travel south to find a cave. Finally, she found it, and for hours, holding a lantern over her head, she was looking for the duck. Suddenly, she fell and realized that her shoelaces were untied.

‘Damn!’ she swore and kneeled on one knee to tie them up. 

‘Have you come for my gold?’, she heard a woman’s voice. 

She looked down and saw a small sparkling bird with a golden crown on her head.

‘You’re the Golden Duck, aren’t you? Finally! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!’

‘Like everybody else. Haven’t you heard that I give people gold?’

‘Yes, you give them gold coins and then you turn them into stones.’

The duck played with her feathers and laughed.

‘Yes, I tend to be a little bitch. But, understand me, it’s the punishment for my sins.’

‘What sins?’

The duck went back to the underground lake and swam for a while in circles.

‘When I was young, I was pretty spoiled. I had the best dresses, the best horses, I attended the best balls. My father left me a substantial fortune. I enjoyed my life to the fullest. I was rich and beautiful. And then, unexpectedly, this beggar crossed my path and destroyed everything!’

‘Beggar?’, Lilet stood up and approached the lake. 

‘Yes, a cursed beggar. Maybe a witcher. He asked for some of my money, or bread, perhaps for some water, and I didn’t give him anything. Mind you, I was extremely busy, I was preparing for my evening theatre performance. And the next day, he cursed me. He turned me into a duck.’

‘And from that day you also curse other people?’

‘Well, this is the deal. I give them gold coins, endless amounts, really, I’ve lost count. And if they don’t share their wealth with others, they turn into stones. If they shared, I would be turned back into a woman.’

‘No one shares?’

‘It really depends. People are unbelievably strange. Some of them use this money to improve their material situation, but soon you hear that they destroyed their marriage or invested in something really silly and now they have debts. Others don’t even use the money but live as if they had never met the Golden Duck, their biggest fear is being robbed so they keep this money a secret, dug behind some tree. The majority lives in luxury and yes they share, but they don’t share enough, so neither they turn into stones, nor they turn me back into a woman. So, I’m stuck in this forever!’

‘Poor you,’ Lilet expressed some sympathy, ‘So if your situation isn’t about to change any time soon, wouldn’t you like to improve your living conditions a little bit?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Wouldn’t you like to live in a beautiful castle instead of this gloomy cave?’

‘To be honest, I have been thinking about improving my situation a bit, but you see, I cannot spend my money. I can only give it to others to spend.’

‘That’s perfect! And I can take you to the castle and win something else.’ 

The duck was eager for an adventure but travelling with her took longer than expected. She didn’t want to be tired, so they rested longer than necessary. She didn’t want to be hungry, so they dined in inns and slept in rooms, which by magically putting coins into Lilet’s pockets, she paid for to avoid the cold of the night. 

One day, when they approached the castle, she looked at Lilet and frowned.

‘Have you seen yourself recently? You cannot bring me to the castle like that. You don’t look representative!’

Lilet rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t oppose when the duck took her to the dressmaker’s and bought a set of beautiful dresses of the best fabric, which Lilet had never worn and never even seen. 

‘Now! This is what I like. If you had been raised by a mother, you would know how to take care of yourself, being as beautiful as you are.’

‘Instead, I was raised by my grandmother and from an early age prepared to be a witch!’ Lilet laughed. 

But when she looked at herself in the mirror, suddenly the image of Princess Karina in her beautiful blue dress faded, and she had to admit, in the white dress ornamented with white and silver lace, which the duck had bought her, she genuinely looked like a beauty. 

The castle was big and impressive. And there wouldn’t be anything surprising in it, but it wasn’t the castle of a king or a duke, but it was the castle owned by a poor fisherman, who had by now considered the day lucky if he hadn’t gone to sleep hungry. But now, in the castle there was a selection of the greatest wines to drink, the best roasted birds and lambs to eat, the tastiest cakes to try and fruit imported from foreign countries to devour. To the utter surprise of the fisherman, the maintenance of the castle was costly and he was working from dawn till dusk to manage everything and keep the property standing. There were bills and salaries of cooks, maids, tailors, and guards to pay for, service to maintain and numerous rooms to clean and keep warm. His wife was only buying dresses and enjoying her life, eating muffins for breakfast, taking care of her beauty during her lazy afternoons and inviting her friends for evening te-ta-te to boast about her new jewelry. 

The fisherman went up to his castle’s tower and sat on the armchair to rest. 

‘What now?’ he heard a voice behind a small glass bowl.

‘She wants to be a god,’ he laughed, looking at a gold fish swimming inside the bowl, ‘Two days ago she wanted to be a queen, yesterday she wanted to be an emperor, now she wants to be a god. I fear tomorrow.’

‘So is it your wish?’ the fish jumped from the water and jumped back inside as if she was performing a salto.

‘Don’t be silly. Now I see what kind of woman I married. She drives me to ruin. I barely stand on my feet to maintain this level of life. I miss my life as a fisherman, the simple hut, my daily routine. I had far fewer problems. I now see how happy I was and how my life was full.’

‘Dear fisherman, don’t get depressed. You only make her wishes come true. Maybe you should think about yourself. What do you wish for?’

‘A less greedy wife,’ thought the fisherman to himself and left the chamber as there was someone at the gate to the castle. 

‘Yes?’, he opened the gate, as he didn’t get used to the servants doing everything for him.’

Lilet in her white gown, holding the duck under her arm smiled broadly.

‘You must be the owner of this castle! I came to visit!’

‘Are you a friend of my wife?’

The fisherman looked suspiciously at Lilet’s beautiful dress. For many years, his wife had only one friend, an old Henrietta, the neighbour, but now, the more money she had, the more friends she seemed to have. 

‘Not really. I have something which you might be interested in!’

The duck was in the meantime looking around the castle, admiring it’s shiny pavements, tall towers, and cushion-filled rooms. 

‘I like it a lot!’, she said, ‘It reminds me of the castle of my father.’

The fisherman invited Lilet inside and led her to the chamber where his wife was currently admiring her new collection of curtains. 

‘You have a guest!’, he announced.

Lilet entered the chamber and the old woman raised her eyes from the tray of muffins.

‘I wish I had her beauty,’ thought she to herself ‘I wish I had her youth’

Lilet smiled broadly and welcomed the fisherman’s wife.

‘I brought something that you might find interesting,’ she said and presented the duck to the married couple.

‘A duck?’ they stood dumbfounded. 

‘Yes, a duck. But it is a special duck. A Golden Duck. Her owner and protector will never have to worry about money. She can provide endless amounts of gold.’

Lilet gently kicked the duck and all of a sudden a few sacks filled with gold appeared on the floor.

‘She’s like a sack without a bottom.’

‘It could end our financial troubles!’ thought the fisherman to himself.

‘It could buy endless numbers of dresses!’ thought the fisherman’s wife to herself.

‘I like this castle a lot,’ thought the duck to herself and conjured a few sacks more. 

‘What do you want for it?’

‘I want an exchange. I want something which one day you found in your net while fishing. I want something which makes your wishes come true. I want your Golden Fish.’

‘You silly girl, we can ask our fish for such a duck. A duck that gives endless amounts of coins!’

‘That is true, you can make such a wish. But then, you will use your last wish and the fish will no longer serve you. Then I will happily take her with me.’

‘Only one wish??? You didn’t tell me that there are only three wishes!’, the wife was furious.

The fisherman shrugged. He didn’t mention many things to his wife in fear of her rage. 

‘Then this fish is useless. If I have an endless amount of money, I can buy as many things as I want without limits. I can make all my wishes come true. Husband, bring her the fish and let’s take the duck.’

The fisherman came back to his castle’s tower and took the bowl in which the Golden Fish was swimming. 

‘You are about to change the owner,’ he announced, ‘I hope that you will be happier than here.’

Lilet took the fish, and gave the duck to the fisherman's wife. The duck received her own cosy chamber, food and protection, and wanted to talk with Lilet before her return to her homeland. 

‘Thank you, young witch. I hope that you received what you wanted.’

‘Yes, duck. I hope the fish will be able to help us. You could also help us, giving us all the money you have for the army, but then, unable to share, we would change into stones. I will leave all the dresses you bought me and only take this white one I have on me right now. I have a feeling that you may use them and your fate is about to change.’

The moment Lilet left the gates of the fisherman’s castle, fate began playing its part. Was it the character of both the fisherman and his wife that made them use the money in a different way, or was it the fish's last wish for the fisherman, they never knew. But the fisherman’s wife, abundantly spending money all on herself, turned herself in a stone within a week, and the fisherman, cheerfully giving numerous sacks of gold to starving fishermen, who suffered from a particularly hard storm, within the same week managed to turn the duck back into a woman. This woman was happy in his castle and never wanted to leave. The widowed fisherman soon got married to the recovered spoiled princess. And even though she was spoiled, she was moderately spoiled, far less demanding than his wife, and still being able to magically make as much money as she wanted, they lived happily in richness and helped as many as they only could or wanted to help. 

‘And what are your wishes?’ the fish asked on their way back looking at Lilet from the glass bowl.

‘I want us to win this war.’

‘The war is hard, my girl, it takes years sometimes, it consumes people, drives them mad and destroys everything that you, humans, consider precious.’ 

‘I’m not the proponent of this war. I just know that it is inevitable. And my last chance is you. This is my wish. I want us to win this war.’

‘And for yourself? Is there anything you wish for yourself?’

Lilet didn’t answer this last question. But somewhere at the back of her mind was a picture of her in her hut, surrounded by trees, children playing around, and Gwidon coming back with some hunted rabbit for dinner. But she was ashamed to express it, and the fish, even though she had seen it (for she could read in mind), knew that circumstances made some wishes impossible, so she didn’t ask further questions.

Chapter 11 The Gift

 It seemed as though Edwin knew this route by heart. He crossed a river, a forest, and passed a few villages to find a hut, deep in the valley just by the shadow of a hill. It was surrounded by orchard trees, currant bushes, raspberries and strawberries placed thickly in their plots. The house, so vividly remembered wooden hut with ornamented window panes and shutters, painted by so familiar to him hand, stood in the same spot and hadn’t aged a bit. It looked like a souvenir of past times, a postcard from adventures in far away countries, a token kept on the bottom of the securely locked drawer. And those memories came flooding back, all these herbal scents and smells made him remember his first years as a wizard, his first lessons and experiences, and when from a boy he turned into a man. 

All who are old were once young, and Edwin, being in the fall of his life, having retired a few years ago, was also once young, strong and full of hopes. 

He knocked on the door. 

‘Shirah?’ he called, ‘Are you still here?’

What he was expecting to see was an old woman, possibly someone who was heading towards her last final stop, someone wrinkled and worn by time. Instead, the door opened almost a girl.

‘Yes?’

Edwin opened his eyes wide. It was Shirah, the witch who besotted him in his early twenties, being more experienced than him, and let’s be fair, more successful in her magical endeavours. A woman, whom he chased, instead of being chased by others, a witch who never forced him to marry, but after all these years, he actually wouldn’t mind standing with her at the altar.

‘You haven’t aged a bit.’

Shirah smiled with her full wide teeth and welcomed him inside. 

‘I cannot tell this about you, Edwin, the Great Wizard. It seems as though you have focused on entirely different matters. You aged significantly!’

Edwin was amazed at Shirah’s young body, unwrinkled face, jet black hair and full breasts coming from the tightly corseted dress. She looked older than Lilet and Karina, and had different beauty than the two young girls, whom Edwin had the pleasure to observe. Shirah’s beauty was coarser, possibly coming from a different epoch. But this was Edwin’s epoch and he admired it even more so. Her strong eyebrows and distinct nose added to her character, her muscular body and fine teeth made it impossible to believe that she was now about eighty years old. 

‘My trips to China paid off. I learned how to take care of myself, what herbs to use to keep my youth, what lotions and ointments to apply to my skin, what to eat and what lifestyle to keep.’

‘But are you going to die?’

‘Eventually, yes, but not anytime soon.’, she laughed ‘You look like an old sag, my boy. Time wasn’t so merciful to you, I’m afraid.’

Edwin smiled. No one has called him a boy for years. Quite the reverse, he was calling everyone younger than him a boy himself. He even used it when he addressed the king, which both of them learned to accept, because Edwin couldn’t help himself and the king was aware that he himself tended to be immature and silly. 

‘It isn’t my concern at the moment. I need your help. Once, years ago, you gave me the dragon’s egg, which now proved to be useful. I was hoping that you might have something which could be helpful with the war with the Goblins.’

‘War?’ Shirah was suddenly saddened. 

‘Yes, war, I’m afraid.’

She took a jar from her kitchen cupboard, opened it, took a handful of powder and spread it into the fire. She looked at the flames for a while. 

‘Yes, it’s going to be a war. I can see it clearly. You underestimate the power of the opponent. He’s strong. He’s powerful.’

‘Oh, we do estimate it correctly. We look for help anywhere we can. I came to you. I know that you were a far better witch than I was ever a wizard. Over the years, I just got more and more certain about it.’

Shirah smiled.

‘But tell me something about yourself,’ she welcomed him to the table, ‘I will make you a tea.’

‘Can’t you just look into the fire and see? You will have my life given to you on a plate. No questions needed.’

‘But what’s the pleasure in knowing it all? I want to learn it from you. Have you married? Have you got any children? Tell me about your adventures!’

Edwin started from the time they separated, he being given the dragon’s egg, having nothing in his pockets, no money, no weapons, only a few magical lessons that he got from life. He told Shirah about his failed love affairs, about revengeful witches, his deals with the king, years of service, rivalry with his brother, better and worse days, months, and years, and this day when he decided to retire, being tired of it all, fatigued by work and growing weakness of his body. And even though experienced and educated, he forgot one thing, namely, never to take anything from a witch or wizard and consume it. He drank his tea and didn’t realize that during all this time, while he was sipping and talking, his skin lost its elderly spots, his wrinkles disappeared, his white hair returned to their original red colour, his back pain dissolved somewhere and seized, his eyesight improved, his sensed sharpened, and he was again a young boy in his early twenties sitting in front of still young, but more experienced Shirah. 

Suddenly, he stood up and looked into the mirror. 

‘You put a spell on me!’ he exclaimed, amazed at his reflexion. 

‘Don’t get over-excited. I couldn’t do much at your age and state. It will wear off in a week or two. But I wanted to see what I remembered from those times.’

Shirah smiled and it was a different smile as if she had something else in mind and Edwin in his young and strong body was able to read between the lines. 

‘I will try to help you,’ she announced, ‘But I want you to stay with me here until the charm wears off and you go back to your old self.’

‘Stay with you to do what?’

Shirah didn’t answer but started unfastening her corset, and soon, she stood before him naked as God created her and as her skills managed to keep her in her most seductive age. But Edwin wasn’t a naive little boy, he was a man who had seen much and experienced much, been with women of various sorts and ages. He made love to Shirah like a skilled craftsman, grateful for those past years, possibly wanting to somehow win her back and prove that the only woman he ever cared about was actually her, but he had never the courage to admit it. He stayed for a fortnight, adoring the witch all this time, making love to her in her bed, in her garden, by the river and in all strangest and wildest places (which, as an old man, he wouldn’t even try to, but in his young body he was able to do something crazy and uninhibited). For him, it was also a dream come true and he knew that never in his life he would get another chance to experience love, passion, and pleasure of that extent. He looked at Shirah’s youthful face, tasted the juices of her body, felt her tights wrapped around his body, dived into her breasts and carressed her, until she allowed him to enter her again and explode in her with all his energy and vigor. He was to remember these moments like the second volume of a favourite book that helped him survive the worst and soothed him to sleep. 

When he was leaving the hut, aged, just the same as when he entered it two weeks before, he was given a black stone of a plum size.

‘Give it to someone trusted’, Shirah whispered, kissing him on the ear, more intimately than when she greeted him at the beginning, ‘When all else fails, just heat it a bit, it should work.’

Edwin put the gift to the pocket and knew somehow that it was an entirely useless gift, but being sure that Shirah was far cleverer than him, he made sure that he kept it and remembered about its presence. And being given a present far more precious, the presence of her company, he mounted his horse and galloped back to the castle.

Chapter 10 The Dragon

 It was a long way up into the Tatra mountains, where the snow-covered peaks reminded them how small they were despite the grandness of things they dealt with in their professions. Edwin, having seen the mightiness of magic both good and evil, Lilet, dealing with the forces of nature, unexplained and pristine, and Gwidon, having taken part in and since childhood witnessed battles waged by thousands of armed soldiers. But mountains stood still despite the greatest conflicts and survived ages of freezing temperatures, rivers changing its course; even though drilled, crushed, watered and spoilt, they remained strong and awe-inspiring. 

The three sole wanderers made breaks in their travelling routine, they set up fires, ate their packed food and royal bread, drank water from the clean mountain springs, and rested their horses. 

‘Are we sure where we are going?’ Couldn’t you do this trick with the virgin blood? Couldn’t you just locate it?’

‘You cannot locate a dragon,’ Edwin said as if it was common knowledge, ‘Dragons don’t obey the laws of people and the forces of the strongest magic. They don’t come from the world of humans and they don’t deal with matters which we invented or made use of. If he notices that we are looking for him, he can allow us to find him.’

‘Why do you say he? Maybe it is a female? Maybe the dragon is a she?’

‘My dear witch, we aren’t looking for any dragon. We are looking for the same dragon that was here two hundred years ago and the same that was here one thousand years ago. We are looking for a creature that was written into our legends and stories. We have only one dragon in the kingdom, not a colony of dragons, bigger or smaller, female or male.’

Lilet rolled her eyes.

‘What is it with those old wizards that they always usurp the tone of a lecturer?’, she asked, making Gwidon laugh. 

‘Then how are we going to find it? Without your stinking heap it will take weeks, months even. If there’s no magical way we can locate the creature, there’s no way we will cross rivers, climb up mountains or look into the swamps…’

‘I see gaps in your education, boy. Dragons need to have food and water, so climbing up the mountains won’t make any sense for any of us. They are not alligators so swamps and rivers are not our area of interest again. They have wings, my boy! Wings, not fins! And we don’t need to travel much because the household of the dragon has been known for centuries. It has been written in the kingdom’s chronicles since the times when the king’s servants tried to save the kingdom from the beast, because he was eating our cattle, our knights, and our virgins. The reptile was able to kill a group of armed knights, once even a hundred of the best of the best. He tore them to pieces…’

‘Great, and we are going to him in a pack of three…’ this time Gwidon showed his mixed enthusiasm. 

Edwin ignored him and continued his story.

‘The king was hopeless and asked everybody for help. One day a clever shoemaker wanted to trick the dragon and instead of a real sheep presented him with a sheep puppet filled with sulphur. Some say that it exploded in his fiery stomach, tearing the dragon to pieces, others say that afterwards he was so thirsty that he drank so much water that he simply died and was later cut into hundreds of pieces of leather used for shoes, bags, and coats.’

‘And the truth is?’

‘The truth is that he probably had his digestive system disrupted and from the castle moved into the mountains. From the forestmen we know that regularly bears, bizons, and mooses go missing, so he’s probably well and strong. The lifespan of a dragon can be as long as a few thousands years. So even if the legend is true and he was hurt, that might have been a small blow and he recovered.’

‘So how are we going to find him?’

‘We are going to smell him.’ Edwin announced and in any other circumstances that would sound ridiculous but the wizard was known for his stinking experiments, the odour of his magical heap could stay for years, turning the area rotten and uninhabited. Gwidon and Lilet had no other choice but to inhale the air and try to sense something appaling. 

And soon they sensed something, a mixture of sulphur, rotting wood, burnt flesh and something else, something which they hadn’t smelled before, even as children.

‘We are getting closer. These are the dragon’s extrements. Very useful in healing burns and rashes if you’re into natural medicine.’

Gwidon made a face of disgust, Lilet was indifferent as she had seen worse things in her life, far worse medicines she used when she tried to cure her dying grandmother, also a witch, but she couldn’t win the battle with age and time. 

The heaps of extrements were lying everywhere, but they got used to the smell. Edwin from time to time blew into the air a blue powder which alleviated the stench and made the air fresher. Dragon’s extrements looked like those of a cow but ten times bigger and it began to be difficult to move around not to make horses fall into the trap of dragon’s dung.

Pretty quickly they reached the cave. It was surrounded by a meadow of burnt grass and a few broken trees, apparently crushed by the creature’s elephant-like movements. A few trunks were scratched by enormous claws like furniture destroyed by a gigantic cat. 

‘Are we going to walk in?’

‘I wouldn’t if I were you. Let’s stop in front of the lair and wait.’ Edwin set the fire. Gwidon caught a small rabbit and soon the smell of grilled meat filled the meadow and reached the nostrils of another creature. 

They waited for hours and began falling asleep, as no one came and they were tired after the journey. And then, when the undisrupted silence of the place surrounded them and tucked them like a mother’s blanket, he came out of his cage.

The dragon wasn’t in his prime youth, he was missing bits from his wings and some scales on his body, he walked slowly and wobbly, but his appetite remained the same and when he saw three representatives of the humankind he was happy to be offered a take-away dinner right at his place. This hadn’t happened to him for a long time and he was happy to open his mouth and eat the young man for the starter, then the old man for the main course, and finally, the young woman for the dessert. He licked his tongue and was about to take a bite.

‘I wouldn’t do this if I were you,’ Edwin opened his eyes and blew up another powder, this time right into the face of the beast, which made the creature sneeze and shed tears. Gwidon and Lilet jumped to their feet. They have never seen a dragon and, to be honest, they have never seen a creature so big, which made the giants seem fairly small in comparison. They were both shaking with fear, but none of them was willing to admit it and what they were trying to do was to keep appearances and pretend to be cool, calm and collected.

‘I don’t need eyes to eat you, fool. I can just burn you alive and eat. I once ate a hundred armed soldiers. You are not able to defeat me with your weapons.’

‘We are perfectly aware that we are not, dragon. But we are able to defeat you with our tricks.’

‘Another sheep?!’ the creature started to turn around to look for the cause of his past misfortune, ‘Are you going to trick me? Are you going to destroy me from the inside?! How dare you, you little fools!’

‘We do not have such an intention. This is quite fascinating that you are still alive if you ask me. Did it do you harm, that sheep filled the sulphur, did it make you sick?’

The dragon calmed down, sensing some sort of empathy.

‘It was horrible. I had food poisoning for days. Even now I have diarrhea when I’m stressed.’

Lilet and Gwidon tried to contain the laughter. 

‘It’s a pity,’ Edwin was able to show a true interest in the dragon’s problems, ‘The older I get, I tend to be more and more constipated. Even the strongest herbs don’t seem to solve the problem.’

Now the young pair couldn’t help themselves and burst out laughing. 

Edwin and the dragon looked at them and sneered.

‘Young, silly and annoying’, the dragon commented.

Edwin shrugged. 

‘I was pretty the same at their age. We are not going to trick you. We are going to ask you for help.’

‘After what you did to me? Do you take me for a fool?’

‘What was done to you was done because you did harm to our kingdom and you were punished accordingly. But now times are different and we are going to be attacked by the Goblins. I know that you wouldn’t refuse a hearty meal. During the battle you can eat as many of these creatures as you wish.’

‘I thought you would offer me virgins!’

‘I’m afraid there’s a shortage of virgins in our kingdom. But we can offer you something else.’

‘What then? I can eat Goblins without you begging me to do this.’

‘Yes, but by mistake you can eat also our people, and we don’t have enough of them. You need to concsiously make a selection. You can consume, burn, tear or kill only Goblins. The army will be numerous and well-trained. Even for you it might be a hard task.’

‘So what will you offer me for this assistance?’

Edwin returned to his horse. From one of the bags he took something wrapped up in an old blanket. 

‘I can offer you a child.’

The dragon’s eyes shined when he watched Edwin unwrap an egg three times the ostrich egg size and present it to him.

‘And the mother?’

‘Dead in far China. It’s a clean deal. I can offer you something impossible for helping us win the impossible. I can offer you a young dragon which you will raise on your own.’

It was a different look on the dragon’s face, if you could call it a face. A look of vulnerability.

‘Can I watch it?’

Edwin approached the dragon and both Lilet and Edwin wanted to scream that the wizard was doing the silliest thing as he could be eaten by the dragon in an instant. 

But the dragon gently approached Edwin and smelled the egg.

‘It’s real. How old is it?’

‘I cannot be sure, but not more than a few hundred years. You can hatch it.’

The dragon wiggled his tale in some sort of excitement. 

‘I agree on your terms.’

‘Great, we shall call you from the castle when the hour of the battle approaches. The egg will be safe with me. And if it’s taken by the Goblins in the case of our defeat (you never know with these wars), you will have the right to it and can lawfully take it back. Do we have a deal?’

‘Yes,’ the dragon hissed, sneezed, turned around and returned to his lair.

‘How come do you have a dragon’s egg?’ Gwidon was still shocked after the encounter with the dragon. 

‘I got it from a witch. I was young back then and she was an older woman and wanted to seduce me. I was offered a present for, let’s say, sexual pleasures. It’s not that uncommon in China to get dragon’s eggs and she was frequently visiting these areas. After the affair ended, I got an egg. But you cannot do much with the dragon’s egg. It has no magical powers in itself, you cannot break it with any human or magical tool, open it, make a huge bowl of scrambled eggs from it. Even keeping it in the fire won’t destroy it, believe me, I tried for weeks. Only a dragon can hatch it. Once, when I fell into financial difficulties I even tried to sell it, but the offers I got were more than laughable. They offered me more for the snake-leather bag than for this. One man’s trash is another treasure indeed!’

‘Why is it then so ‘impossible’ to him? Can’t he just fly to China and get some eggs from female dragons there?’

‘Gaps in education, again, my boy. I believe that he doesn’t know the language and he is not the youngest representative of his kind. If he managed to seduce another dragon, the egg always stays with the female. The young dragon always stays with the female. Once mothers fulfill their reproductive need they can kill off the male dragon, as he’s no longer necessary. And believe me, female dragons are bigger and stronger than males. To win with a female dragon is literally impossible.’

‘So how come your witch got the egg?’

‘I never learned that. She was dealing with dark magic. Maybe she killed it or tricked it. Or found the creature already dead. I believe that she traded far worse things in China, but I was the one who got the dragon’s egg. And think about it, if it hatches, our kingdom will gain another dragon for the next few thousand years. You never know when it will come in useful. I call it an investment.’

Gwidon was deep in his thoughts.

‘Edwin, you said that the dragon’s story came from legends. Do you mean that all legends are true?’

‘There’s no smoke without a fire, so I believe there’s truth in every single legend ever told. We just sometimes misinterpret their meaning. Or take them too literally. Or not literally enough.’

‘Then, you both, go to the castle and I will catch up after a day or two. I have another idea.’

‘To be honest, I have an idea myself’, Edwin said to himself.

Lilet was also absent-minded. She was recalling tales told by her grandmother before going to sleep. There were some that she really liked and wanted to hear over and over again. There was one in particular which she took to her heart and never managed to forget. 

‘We can separate and meet at the castle.’, she suggested ‘We can help more than by staying together in the pack of three.’

Edwin and Gwidon agreed and soon three horses galloped in three different directions. One went to the mountains, one to the lakes, and one to the deep black wood. 

Chapter 9 Letters

 The king was walking around the chamber (he had moved to another, smaller room in order to avoid the stench of the magical heap) and dictating letters to his royal scribe. 

‘... and for your help, I will offer you the hand of my only daughter, the beautiful Princess Karina and thus the right to the kingdom when I’m gone.’

‘Haven’t you already promised her to knight Gwidon, my King?’

The king coughed. 

‘Times are hard. I need help, people, knights, armies. I give what I can.’

‘And you promise her to all twelve possible princes? Isn’t that quite impossible?’

‘It’s not your task to comment on my decisions and ask questions. I need you to rewrite these letters, give me them to sign and send them as soon as possible. I hope that kings will send the troops immediately.’

The scribe shrugged and did his duty as he was told.

In the meantime, Princess Karina was standing behind the curtain. She waited until the chamber was empty before she headed towards one little room at the top of the castle’s tower.

‘He’s out of his mind!’, she thought to herself, ‘He treats me like a commodity. A thing which he can sell to everybody! It’s unspeakable!’ 

Furious, she stormed into the room and saw Erwin, the Royal Wizard, hunched over an old manuscript and eating a cauliflower soup from a clay bowl. 

‘Wizard! I need a potion!’

Erwin wasn’t quite used to the presence of a woman in his modest room, not to mention the beautiful and irresistible Princess Karina. He was aware of her reputation. He was also aware of how despicable and revolting he was these days. Being a royal wizard had been hard on him, deteriorated his health and made his eyes weak and covered in white. 

‘What potion?’

‘I need a potion which will make women stronger. Physically stronger. I need a lot of it and I need it to be effective.’

‘What would you use it for?’

‘For war, isn’t that obvious? Our knights are currently on the Turkish border, but their women stayed behind at home. I don’t have time to train them, I need something which will make them unbeatable.’

Erwin sensed from the tone of her voice that she made up her mind and there was no discussion on the subject. She didn’t need his consent. He opened his cupboards and began looking for ingredients. 

‘I need you, scribe!’ the princess entered the room of the royal scribe, again not bothering to knock, ‘I need to dictate a letter!’

The scribe was currently finishing rewriting the last of the king’s letters which were about to be sent to neighboring kingdoms.

‘Now!’

He took another piece of parchment and waited, holding his scribbling feather pen, listening with his eyes wide open. 

‘To the Women of the Kingdom, 

For years, you have been taking care of the household, bringing up children, and letting your men fulfill their ambitions and defend their honor on the battlefield. You were never certain whether they would be killed, skinned, beheaded, or would meet on their way someone younger and more beautiful, leaving you heartbroken. You lived in fear of being abandoned and without means to live. You entrusted those who didn’t treat you seriously and had more important matters to take care of. Your fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons were the center of your attention and you put them first. Now you have to think about yourselves. Things have to change. Our kingdom is going to be attacked by the army of Goblins. They want our land, our food, and our most precious possessions. They have their reasons to hate us but we have our reasons to fight back. Should we allow them to destroy everything we built and believed in? Should we allow them to rape us and make us raise their goblin children? Should we watch helplessly as they plunder our kingdom while our men fight with the Turks? We shall not!

We need you more than ever. We will provide weapons, but you are welcome to take with you anything that could be of use in the fight with Goblins. Don’t sit and wait, come!

The Royal Princess, Karina”

‘I need you to rewrite it and send it to towns and villages as soon as possible.’

‘How many times?’

‘Let’s say, one hundred and twenty.’

Karina left the room and left the scribe with a heap of work. It was the first time in the scribe’s life when he thought about a pay-rise but was afraid to ask as his income was regulated by the king. 

‘Why does it taste like cauliflower soup?’

‘I thought I should give it a taste which would be commonly recognized.’

‘And how will I know if it’s working? Should I attack you?’

Erwin covered his head with his arms afraid of being hit by the princess.

‘Wizards!’ Karina rolled her eyes in a disappointed manner, ‘Fine, I will find somebody else.’

She walked out into the corridor and after a while saw a knight.

‘Knight! I need your service!’

‘Yes, Princess. Shall I dust your chamber?’

‘Zachary, it’s you. No, I want you to attack me.’

‘Excuse me?’ 

‘I want you to attack me. Quickly, Zachary, I don’t have time for discussion.’

‘But I cannot attack a princess!’

‘It’s an order, Zachary. If you don’t fulfill an order you are going to be beheaded.’

Knight Zachary opened his eyes and, even though unwillingly, he rushed onto the princess with all his might, sure that he will defeat her in a second. As a matter of fact, he himself within a second was lying, defeated, in his armor, on the ground, heavily bruised and with a headache. 

‘Thank you, Zachary’ the princess clapped her hands to wipe the dust, ‘It’s really working!’

With a genuine smile of satisfaction, she left bruised Zachary alone and rushed to the courtyard.