Kitabı oku: «A mermaid and a corsair», sayfa 2

Sleeping mermaid

It began to rain. The slanting jets beat on the sails, but the blood stain on the center sail was not washed away. The seagull’s blood was staining the deck as well. The mermaid’s lips became so bright as if they were stained with blood.

Couldn’t she rip the bird’s head off and drink its blood? The mermaid lies in the chest as if in a coffin. Why does it seem that she drank the bird’s blood?

Desmond found that he could not lift the chest himself and drag it into the cabin. He was strong, but his strength was not enough this time. We’d have to call for helpers. So far, all the pirates were drunk. Drunks are useless. Only the helmsman and the ship’s healer who had treated his wound remained partially sober. Neither of them was fit to help.

Desmond tried again to move the heavy chest. It wouldn’t budge an inch, as if it were embedded in the deck. What to do? You can’t leave a mermaid unattended. We’ll have to keep watch next to the chest. Desmond felt like taking a nap. His eyelids were drooping. From somewhere in the depths of the sea came sounds like a mermaid’s song. Or were they coming from the deck?

The predatory mermaid packs, swimming away, were heaving something about going to sic newts or even a leviathan on the ship. They were probably just intimidating the pirates.

A familiar morgen appeared abruptly on board. A puddle of dark water immediately spread across the deck.

“Did someone tell you we were in trouble?” Desmond wondered. How quickly these sea creatures react to everything.

“I smelled it myself,” the morgen took a quick look at the damage and became enraged. The sight of the sleeping mermaid had stirred a storm of emotions, from anger to worship.

“What’s the matter with you? Would you like some rum to calm you down? It always makes pirates feel better,” Desmond didn’t think that one day he’d have to comfort a ruthless sea monster.

“This is the first time I’ve seen her not in a sea temple or palace,” it hissed.

“And who put her in the chest if not you?”

It was probably a stupid question. The morgen poked his tentacles at the runes on the shell-like walls of the chest. Apparently the rune signs explained everything without words. Cassandra would have understood such an explanation, but Desmond was almost illiterate in magic. He only knew what he had been taught by Cassandra herself and an old court wizarde from Mirid.

“What is her name?” Desmond began to inquire.

“It is none of your business!”

“Yes, it is, if she’s sailing to Opal on my ship.”

“It would be easy for me to sink your ship,” the morgen threatened, his many amber eyes flashing.

“If ‘The Triumphator’ sinks, who will take her to Opal?”

“I’ll drag her to the oncoming ship and hypnotize the captain to be more cooperative than you are,” the morgen immediately found a compromise. Apparently, his powers aren’t in the dozens.

“I doubt there’s a fool enough to bring such a dangerous cargo to Opal, even under hypnosis. She reeks of death. Are you sure she’s alive?”

“She’s asleep!”

It was as if the word “sleeping” meant something magical. Cassandra had told him that the ocean dwellers became dull when they hibernated and were easily mistaken for statues standing upright in the water. But touch a statue like that and it would grab you with its many tentacles. So Desmond never touched the carved figures standing like pillars on the water. The ship always sailed past them without hitting them, even if it came straight at them.

He explained to his pirates that such figures were mile’s poles for morgens, and it was forbidden to touch them. He would not tell the crew directly all of Cassandra’s secrets. Sometimes you can make things up as you go along. Once, an oncoming sculpture winked at Desmond. It was alive, though it seemed carved from white wood.

But the purple mermaid didn’t look like a sculpture at all. The jewels on her were magnificent. If they weren’t attached to her skin, the crew would have tried to take them off and split them up by now.

“Is she asleep under the influence of some magical elixir?” Desmond guessed.

“If you know too much, you’ll grow old,” the morgen said sullenly.

“It’s an Earth proverb,” Desmond caught his eye.

“Sometimes it pays to borrow something even from Earthlings.”

“I thought you morgens were too proud and independent. You’d rather drown an Earthman than imitate him.”

One morgen’s tentacle wrapped around Desmond’s neck.

“Don’t make me angry!”

Desmond didn’t have time to answer. The tentacle bumped into the amulet and burned. Morgen had to let the corsair go.

“So what’s her name? Yasmin? Aisha? Mirelle? Lorelei? Anemone? Mirilla? Etea? Amirana? Elegy? Foletta? Morelia? Serpentina? Korephea?”

“How do you know the names of the sea king’s daughters?” The morgen hissed indignantly. “Surely there must be spies in the Underwater Kingdom. This is outrageous! The man knows the names of the entire list of sea queens!”

“Which one is she?” Desmond insisted.

“She is none of them. You don’t know her name.”

That’s right! He didn’t know it. Unless…

“Her name is Merediana,” Desmond made one last attempt.

It was clear from the morgen’s doomed hiss that he was not mistaken.

“She is Princess Merediana,” the morgen corrected. “She is her underwater highness.”

“She is a future hostage of the King of Opal, who dreams of conquering the seas with magic. What are you going to do with her?”

“Why do you care?”

“I have a right to be curious, because I’m transporting her. And that’s risky! The ship’s already been attacked.”

“If you hadn’t broken the instructions, there wouldn’t have been an attack,” the morgen poked his tentacle at the open lid, tried to close it again, and couldn’t. Even he didn’t have the strength.

“The underwater creatures wouldn’t have smelled it on your board if the top defenses hadn’t been removed.”

Desmond had already realized that himself. Curiosity is a bad thing. That’s what Cassandra was saying. Some newt, supposedly in love with her, had been playing on his shell whistle for a long time, calling Cassandra to go down to the bottom. Cassandra was hesitant, though she was curious to see the underwater world for herself.

Cassandra knew the recipe for a potion that would help her breathe underwater for a couple of hours, but she was still hesitant to follow the newt to the bottom. He might not be so good-natured in the sea and would not let her go back.

Cassandra wouldn’t have advised Desmond to open the chest, but then he wouldn’t have seen Merediana. Seeing her once was better than possessing all the treasures of the sea kingdom.

“Are all princesses of the sea so beautiful?”

“You must have thought her jewelry was beautiful. You pirates are only attracted to expensive things. Alas, they cannot be removed. They’re part of her body. But the King of Opal will reimburse you for their value.”

Desmond would have been better off keeping the mermaid’s chest. Even if she doesn’t wake up, it’s a pleasure to look at her. When she’s around, you feel like you’re in a realm of magic. But something strange is happening on board. A bloodstain is spreading all over the sail. The blood is even visible on the other sails. It’s as cold as an icy desert. A crust of ice stretches across the masts and hoarfrost on the ropes.

“The morgens of the royal family know how to freeze the sea. Didn’t you know that?”

“No, I didn’t,” Desmond shook his head in denial. How could he know such intricacies? He didn’t know the rulers of the sea, and he didn’t gossip about them.

“Merediana must be the eldest of the sea king’s daughters,” Desmond sensed the power emanating from the sleeping mermaid.

“No, she is not the eldest, but the most treacherous.”

“Is she treacherous?” Desmond couldn’t believe it.

“They all have innocent faces, but their souls are black, rotten, magic,” morgen hissed angrily.

Desmond had never even considered that mermaids had souls. All he had seen was Merediana’s body. It reeked of magical currents. Even asleep, she subdued him.

One time he even wanted to throw her overboard and dive into the waves after her. Surely that was her wish, not his. The sleeping mermaid silently tells him what to do.

No, this trick won’t work. He’s in command! A beautiful mermaid can’t woo him. Desmond struggled to muster up the will.

“We’ve got to get her into my quarters.”

“It will be better in the hold. I’ll draw signs on the entrance and on the bottom of the ship to keep her from getting loose.”

“Wait! Then I won’t see her for the rest of the voyage.”

Morgen tapped the deck sympathetically with his tentacles and tried on again to close the chest. He failed again.

“You shouldn’t have opened it! Now we’ll have to move it somewhere else. Otherwise, we’ll all be in trouble.”

“But she’s asleep!”

“You’re so naive! I’ll never mess with a human again!”

Morgen grunted like a nagging old wife. As if someone had forced him to make a deal with the pirate captain! He’d forced himself on him, hadn’t he? And now he’s not happy. Don’t the morgens know how inquisitive people are? The corsair was no exception to the general rule. He opened the chest and it was as if he was addicted to the mermaid. Even people who get used to the narcotic candy called “ette” don’t feel so addicted.

Desmond felt uncomfortable that the morgen was touching the chest with the mermaid. However, the chest was soon empty. The tentacles coiled around Merediana and pulled her out of the chest. It wasn’t easy. The mermaid’s jewelry was stuck to the walls.

The morgen was much better at sorcery than Cassandra. He was able to freeze the water into ice, and from the ice create a container as high as the ceiling of the hold. The container of ice was as clear as glass. Now the mermaid was inside this container.

“Let her sleep!”

“What if the water melts?”

“It will not be,” The morgen drew some symbols of water near the container, which also froze with glittering ice. “Don’t bother her anymore! Suddenly, after a long sleep, she will become the Queen of Opal.”

“Are you kidding?”

The morgen let out either a wrenching laugh or a growl. Desmond felt uneasy.

He looked back as he left the hold. He felt purple webbed fingers touch his shoulder, and Merediana’s voice called to him.

He’s never even heard her voice. How would he know what it sounded like? Maybe mermaids have husky, ugly voices. What if, closer to land, a beautiful mermaid shrank and turned into a wrinkled ugly woman? On the water, these creatures can only pretend to be beautiful and trick people with sorcery.

“You are not even a man, but a pirate,” Desmond remembered the curses he had heard both on land and from enemies defeated at sea. “All you pirates are worse than cattle. You’ll all end up in the noose and die in agony.”

As he locked the hold, he truly felt like the last of the cattle. After all, the princess of the sea was left there alone in the dark, amidst the magical symbols that were probably draining the life out of her.

Should he let her go? But then he’d be killed himself. Everyone knows that mermaids drag sailors to the bottom. Has anyone ever heard of an exception?

In his heart Desmond cherished the hope that he would be the exception and the mermaid would love him instead of drowning him. But mermaids are very dangerous and cruel mistresses of the sea.

Does he really need the love of a mermaid?

Queen of the sea

Desmond couldn’t sleep. He tossed from side to side on the narrow bunk. The mermaid’s song was in his ears. It seemed to emanate from all the walls of the captain’s cabin and even from the low ceiling.

When he closed his eyes, he could see Merediana sitting on a fancy throne of shells.

“Captain! Wake up!” The young man who had entered the cabin shook him by the shoulder.

“What’s the matter? Is it a riot over a mermaid?” Desmond was already awake. He sat up on his bunk. “Is the crew so superstitious they want to throw me overboard with the magic cargo?”

“No, something worse has happened,” the youngster was very shy and hid his eyes.

He can’t be trusted, Desmond’s mind flashed. The ship’s boy was not long ago the Crown Prince’s page in Mirid. He should have brought him along for nothing. The boy, accustomed to the luxury of royal palaces, dreamed of adventure, but being in a sailor’s cabin on a pirate ship might change his mind.

“Do you want to go back to Mirid?”

“No, I’m fine here, but the fleas are biting me,” he flicked a creature off his sleeve that looked more like a tiny scorpion than a flea. “They must have gotten to me from the skipper. But I didn’t come to you about fleas. And I didn’t come to you about a riot.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I found this in the helmsman’s things.”

“You went through the helmsman’s things?”

“I didn’t mean to, but it was like a mermaid’s voice called me and… you know how it is, you hear a song and you do something you didn’t mean to do.”

“It is nonsense!” Desmond was careful to hide the fact that he himself had fallen under the mermaid’s spell. He snatched a piece of paper from the young man’s hands. It turned out to be a wanted notice.

“I didn’t know they were going to catch me and hang me like any pirate!”

“Take a closer look,” insisted the young man. “The reward for you is very high – 1,500 gold coins. That’s a fortune. With it you can buy your own estate with plantations. For an ordinary pirate, you get a hundred gold pieces at most, but no more.”

“So I don’t remember doing anything outrageous to be valued so highly.”

“Or maybe it’s your past. The text at the bottom of the ad says that you’re being rewarded by the Mirid’s government, and that you must be captured alive.”

“You’re so damn literate!” Desmond crumpled up the wanted notice. It looked like the helmsman had turned out to be a spy sent from Mirid. He’d saved him for nothing. The case had almost solved itself when the helmsman had almost died on the voyage. Now he’d have to kill him anyway. Too bad the sea creature’s tentacles didn’t finish the job.

In the morning, we’ll have to see if there’s anyone on board who can replace the helmsman. With the last one injured, it won’t raise suspicion.

“Do you think your father has a reward for your capture?” The young man inquired cautiously.

Desmond could only laugh deafeningly.

“My father put a bounty on my head.”

“But it says you must be caught alive.”

“It’s a figure of speech. Pirates prefer to be caught dead.”

The coins he took from the morgen fell out of the chest on the shelf. The ship must have swayed, so they fell out. The gold glittered dazzlingly.

“It is sea gold!” The young man saw the crests with the kraken, crowns and mermaids. “They’re talismans, not money. You should drill a hole in them, string them on a string and wear them around your neck. They’d make excellent sea magic charms.”

The ship’s boy picked up one coin, and the skin on his palm from contact with the sea gold immediately began to turn blue and rot.

“Ouch!” The kid dropped the coin. “How can you even keep them in your house? Anyone else would have died of seasickness by now. It’s like you’re enchanted!”

It must have been Cassandra’s amulet. Although it seems he took the gold from the morgen long before he got the amulet as a gift.

Desmond followed the young man’s advice and made a necklace out of the coins. It was easy. Someone had already drilled holes in them. All that was left was to string them on a string.

“Didn’t you go down into the hold?” He asked the ubiquitous young man.

“No, the door was locked.”

“Have you heard any suspicious noises from down there?”

“I always hear a song without words, as if the mermaid is humming something under her nose,” admitted the young man. “You say she is in the hold now? Can I see her? I didn’t even see her when they dragged her on deck. There was nothing to see behind the backs of the older pirates.”

“Grab a lantern and let’s go!” Desmond found a shard of mirror in the chest and quickly combed his hair with his fingers. Somehow he was worried about how he would look, as if the sleeping mermaid could see him.

“You’re not as handsome as you were at court, but you still look good,” the young man praised. “You’re not so dapper anymore.”

Desmond could see that he looked bad himself, but once he had been considered the handsomest boy in Mirid. His golden hair had recently been trimmed with a dagger blade, but it was almost shoulder-length again. The ends were curling, and there were no scars on the skin of his face yet. Could a mermaid like him? Earth girls liked him. But what is mermaid flavor? Is it true that mermaids can only like drowned guys? Or was it all a sailor’s fiction?

Desmond threw on a tattered camisole and followed the young man carrying the lantern. The watchmen were asleep that night. This was not usually the case, not even during a feast. Just because it was night didn’t mean the ship couldn’t be attacked. Pirates were not allowed to be careless. Had the mermaid’s presence suppressed their will?

Nothing had changed in the hold. Barrels of rum, ale, and wine, taken from merchant ships that had crossed “The Triumphant’s” path, were piled around. Bales of cloth and spices were piled nearby, to be sold in Pion or Arcades. Only the container with the captured mermaid had changed location. It stretched to the ceiling. The mermaid was no longer lying down, but straightened up to her full height, as if she were floating on ice. In this position she seemed even more beautiful.

“Wow!” The young man whistled. “We have a sea goddess in the hold!”

The wax from the candle in the lantern dripped on the symbols on the floor, left by the morgen, and melted them. The ice inside the vessel immediately began to melt. The mermaid wiggled her fins. She woke up instantly, as if the magical protection that made her sleep had been removed. She was no longer motionless. Her webbed hands pressed against a thin partition that had not yet melted. Desmond even thought it was made of glass, not of ice. Or was it still ice? He ran his fingers along the partition. His fingers immediately felt frosty cold.

The mermaid’s purple hair fluttered in the water like a scarlet storm. The open eyes were iridescent. They flashed alternately with different hues. The pearls growing in her skin also glistened and shimmered with pearlescent hues.

“Merediana!” Desmond whispered breathlessly, as if making a prayer to a goddess. Her eyes mesmerized him.

The mermaid was pounding against the partition, demanding.

“Let me out! Let me out!”

How could he hear her voice through the water? And why hadn’t the top layer of the tank melted? Desmond looked around for something to break it with. He hadn’t brought his saber. There were plenty of boarding hooks in the hold, and a harpoon among them.

“Don’t!” The young man was afraid. “What if she storms when you let her go?”

“We can’t keep her here like a fishbowl.”

“But you used to keep captives from foreign ships, who were sold as slaves in Pion,” the young man said reasonably.

“The mermaid is prettier, and she is magical. You can’t treat her disrespectfully.”

“Do you want to lose the King Opal’s favor? I hear he wants to marry one of the sea queens, perhaps her.”

“The King of Opal wants to marry a mermaid? I doubt it. That sounds more like gossip.”

“But in exchange for her, the King of Opal will give you anything you want. You could ask him to magically alter the Mirid’s Almanac. Then you can get even with all your enemies and reap the benefits. The King of Opal is rumored to be capable of all kinds of magical wonders.”

He didn’t care about the King of Opal. Desmond swung his harpoon and shattered the magic cage. Ice, sharp as glass, shattered into shards. A suspiciously large amount of water spurted to the bottom of the hold, as if a hole had reappeared in the bottom of the ship. The water level was rising.

Merediana shook her purple hair. Up close, she appeared so beautiful it took Desmond’s breath away.

“Just don’t cause a storm to flood my ship,” Desmond asked her. He was no fool, and he knew that the bubbling water was not flooding the hold by accident. It was already up to his shoulders. Cassandra’s amulet glowed alarmingly scarlet. It meant danger was near.

Merediana swam up to Desmond. He couldn’t resist touching her, and his hands slid around her waist and into her sharp scales.

“Who is more valuable: the whole ship or one captain?” Merediana ran her webbed fingers through his hair. “You’re not a typical pirate captain and you won’t drown.”

She noticed the amulet.

“How romantic?!” Merediana tried to rip the amulet from Desmond’s neck, but couldn’t. Her fingers burned from contact with the amulet.

“It is nasty Earth sorceresses!” The sea beauty cursed. Her arms wrapped around Desmond’s shoulders and held him captive. Desmond felt he could not move. All he could do was obey the mermaid. She pulled him with her into the water, and then under the water. A hole formed in the bottom of the ship, out of nowhere. Meredina dived into it, dragging Desmond as if he were a slave on a leash. In her embrace, Desmond could not think clearly. He did not even immediately realize that the mermaid was dragging him as a prisoner to the Underworld.