Kitabı oku: «Lilophea-3: Queen of the Sea and Princess of the Ocean», sayfa 2

«Beware of your cousin Ornella,» she advised her goodbye.

«Thank you! But the warning was long overdue.»

«No, it isn’t! She’s plotting something against you.»

«Why is it against me? For Ornella, all the women in the world are rivals and competitors. Why does she have a special grudge against me alone?»

«What do you think?» Sephora gracefully moved her golden eyebrows, shaped like wings. «What have you got that she would want almost madly?»

Lilophea wondered.

«Only treasures from the bottom of the sea, but they are not mine, but Seal’s.»

Sephora could hardly contain a chuckle.

«Consider it as you wish!»

The beauty stepped away from Lilophea, dragging a long train of green brocade behind her, turning now and then into a serpent’s tail. Sephora’s slender body was surrounded by a puff of shimmering mist. And now it was no longer the girl but a magnificent silver dragon soaring over the rocks.

Lilophea clutched her cherished ring in case the dragon suddenly shot fire at her, but nothing of the sort happened. Sephora flapped her wings and flew toward the dawn.

The white fairy of the waves

Harisi saw her off with such a sad look, as if she were watching a sacrifice. A queen voluntarily going out to sea might indeed appear suicidal from the outside. But Lilophea knew for certain that she would not drown as soon as she sank beneath the water. She knew for sure now! Not long ago she had doubted it. She wondered what charms might have helped her breathe under water for a short time, but if she really was a descendant of the Oceanids, then she had nothing to fear.

Fear of meeting her kin is the only thing that should grip her. Her kin started a war with her husband.

Once deep in the water, Lilophea listened. She listened for the sound of Seal’s horn nearby. It was quiet. And even the sharks weren’t swinging at her like they did with Sephora’s dragons. Either they sense the queen of the sea in her, or the blood of Oceanids is not something they want to taste.

Is there ordinary human blood inside her? When she hurt herself on the mermaid ship, some murky liquid came out instead of blood.

It seems that her blood used to be red, like all earthlings. Could it be that after sinking to the bottom, she began to change, returning to her normal underwater nature? Would this have happened to any descendant of Oceanids or Morgens who were born of humans and lived on land for a long time and then returned to the water again?

There is one way to check. Lilophea hoped that in case of danger, her fiery ring would strike the hungry shark with lightning as well. A pair of sharks were just swimming nearby, but were in no hurry to attack. Probably the smell of Lilophea did not excite their appetite. But as she beckoned one of the sharks toward her, she willingly swam up, almost joyfully opening her mouth, which was full of sharp teeth. Lilophea touched one of its teeth deliberately to hurt her. From the shallow wound came not blood, but a bluish, watery liquid. Its taste almost made the shark vomit. The ravenous fish shrieked like a battered one and swam away hastily.

Apparently, the taste of oceanids is destructive to sharks. If you eat an oceanid maiden, you will be poisoned.

Lilophea would have liked to question her so-called sisters about many things, but it was frightening to meet them again. She would have to look at them while they talked and try to keep her cool. It was better never to see them again. Even thinking of their ugliness was unpleasant.

As luck would have it, another unpleasant object of observation came into view. A skeleton strapped to the anchor of a shipwreck was staring at her with vacant eyes. The same amulet as the entire Sultanite’s dynasty had on its bony neck dangled limply. How ridiculous that thing looked on him! He was certainly not of Ornella’s family. So why should he wear it?

Lilophea tore the amulet from the skeleton, and the restraints immediately burst. The dead man sprang to life, and the bones began to grow a kind of flesh mixed with slime.

«Thank you, Princess of the Ocean,» he bowed low to her.

«So you’ve been alive all this time?»

«It was no more than a dead man in a coffin,» the creature, which resembled either a morgen or a laird, looked closely at itself. «It was like, when the crew found out I was a werewolf, my sailors drowned me themselves. Don’t become a bird yourself because of that thing.»

His hand was half still of bone and pointed to the amulet.

«You were a privateer in the service of the King of Sultanite? Why else would you have their amulet?» Lilophea asked, but the revived dead man was no longer listening to her. As soon as he discovered he was free again, all interest in his only companion disappeared.

«Well, farewell! Rokuela’s waiting for me,» he paddled toward the gap at the top.

Lilophea wasn’t even sure who he meant. It seemed that all sailors on land had some lover they hurried to on their return from a long voyage. The dead man might have been no exception. Except that his chosen one might have died long ago, or become the wife of another.

Except that he said a very familiar name. Rokuela was the name of a sea fortune teller. So he was in a hurry to see the sorceress for what? Is it for some kind of ritual for complete resurrection? Or was he the man she had loved when she was young and who had died at sea?»

She’ll have to watch her lodge in the observer mirror later. It wasn’t right to peek unceremoniously into someone else’s private affairs, but Lilophea was curious. Besides, she was still holding the amulet. It was the same as her uncle the King’s. It had more feathers. It seemed to be intertwined with strands of someone else’s hair.

«Throw it away or burn it.»

The painfully familiar voice, alternating with a bird’s croak, seemed almost like an obsession at the bottom of the sea.

Lilophea had never expected to see Seneschal here. The peacock swam in a dignified manner, fluttering the tips of its wings. His paws did not resemble those of a fish. He wasn’t an underwater bird, that’s for sure.

«You’re here, aren’t you?» It seemed like a dream to Lilophea. She touched his luxurious tail to be sure.

«I ate a nasty weed that grows on the beach, and gained the ability to breathe underwater for hours,» he boasted. «I am clever. I know how to find such grass. It often grows in the sand. All you have to do is pick it up with your beak. It tastes disgusting. But I did the heroic thing for you. I ate the whole bundle. Now I won’t suffocate.»

«So you missed me?» She petted his crest happily. «Wouldn’t you think so?»

«Well, I haven’t got a heart of stone,» said Seneschal proudly. «I am capable of love and longing, just as humans are.»

«And the watcher’s mirror told me you were happy with Baldwin. I must have agreed. One mermaid says they sometimes lie.»

«No, they don’t!» Seneschal grunted. «I needed someone to take care of me while you were away. So I tried to make myself useful to everyone I could. But I’ll betray them all when you get back to Aquilanía.»

She didn’t want to disappoint Seneschal right away and tell him she wasn’t likely to come back.

«By the way, how did you find me at the bottom of the sea? It’s a big bottom, and I’m not at the palace where I should be.»

«Well, you know, I’m an unusual bird,» boasted the peacock. «And I sing like a siren, and I speak like a man, and I know all the languages of the animals. And also…»

«It is a stone in your forehead!» Lilophea guessed. It glowed in a way that made everything clear. «It’s imbued with some kind of magic.»

«That’s right! You’ve gotten a lot smarter since we parted,» Seneschal flapped his wings, creating fountains of spittle. «It was sad to see you kidnapped by a waterman. I’d say it was the most tragic day of my life when my mistress was taken from me. Now I’ve even begun to understand how grooms feel when a bride is taken away from them right at the altar.»

«Don’t be so dramatic.»

«I didn’t mean to be. There’s a silver lining to everything. I used to be your favorite. Since you’ve been gone, all the attention has been on me as the princess’ only friend. I am spoiled!»

Seneschal breathed underwater, not thinking of the time when the effects of the wonderful herb would wear off.

«It’s a good thing I’ve managed to get a foothold in Aquilanía. I can’t go back to my former benefactors,» Seneschal admitted.

«And who are these former benefactors?»

«They are the White Fairy and the Sea King. At first Ariana was my mistress, and then she lost me to Seal. They played shells (it’s a dice kind of game). I like a chump, watched and gave advice to both of them. Mistress Ariana got mad and purposely lost me to Seal. And he sent me to you with a portion of gifts from the sea. He didn’t need me underwater anyway. I’m not even a water bird, but I’m beautiful. I was a fine gift for a princess.»

Seneschal fluffed up his tail with importance.

«So you were sent here from the start to persuade me to be with the water man, not the Sultan! And you, on the contrary, warned me.»

She thought the opposite.

«I’m honest! I didn’t like being soaked in Seal’s claws, either. My former Mistress, the Sea Fairy, had been nicer to me, and she never sent me to dangerous tasks. She should have lost me to him! And it’s not the first time it’s happened to me. My first mistress also lost me to Ariana. I fly from hand to hand like a bargaining chip!»

«How unlucky you are.»

«That’s right!»

«I certainly wouldn’t have betrayed you to pirates or sold you to merchants, but I was lured under the water myself.»

«It is bad luck to have a foolish mistress,» he agreed. «Your carelessness is reprehensible.»

«You talk like a governess.»

«I could be your tutor and lecture you every day instead of singing songs,» Seneschal eagerly volunteered.

«You don’t have to do that.»

«But you’ve got to be saved from the next mistakes. You will surely make them. That’s why I came back. You can’t leave a naive girl alone.»

«I’m not a girl anymore. I’m the wife of the Sea King now.»

«It won’t be for long. I’ve made arrangements with Morrin. He’ll help you escape to the nearest island. He has a plan.»

«No, you don’t understand! I like him.»

«Who is it? Is it Morrin?»

«No. It is the Water King.»

«Are you joking? He is a tyrant!»

«He…» «Lilophea felt herself blushing, and the water did not cool her flushed cheeks. «Sometimes he’s so gallant. And I find him handsome.»

The peacock almost fainted.

«Don’t joke about that! He has blue skin and coral gills and webbing and pearls growing right in his forehead and a trident that can strike lightning.»

«His eyes are the color of the sea. The features of his face are beautiful. Even the sculptures in the galleries of Aquilania have no such exquisite beauty. He has the golden eyebrows, and the lashes, and the skin the color of ice…»

«Darling, he has bewitched you.»

The peacock was really worried.

«Wake up, Lilophea! He’s the water king! Do you know how many naive girls like you he’s sunk? He’s not a sultan. He doesn’t recruit beauties for his harem. He drags them into the abyss and drowns them by seducing them with sweet talk, like you.»

«But he didn’t drown me.»

«Sweetheart, you live underwater. The fact that you can, as it turns out, breathe in the water is your fault, not his. I swear he didn’t know when he dragged you out to sea that you wouldn’t die in the deep.»

«He said he did.»

«All watermen are big liars and cheats.»

«That’s what you said about privateers. But you liked Morrin.»

«Morrin is a rare exception».

«Probably the sea king is an exception too.»

«You don’t know him,» muttered the peacock resentfully, as if that said it all.

«Well, I’ll get to know him if I’ve been here long enough. By the way, there are so many wonders in the royal palace. Let me show you around!»

«No! Don’t!» Seneschal was frightened out of his wits. «Not to the palace! They will lock me up in a cage on purpose, so that I will drown.»

«There aren’t even cages!»

«But there are wicked mermaids. They’ll pluck my tail feathers.»

«Ow!» The peacock’s eyes went red and rolled up. He frantically began to catch air with his beak, which, of course, was not under the water. The miraculous herb must have worn off. Without thinking, Lilophea picked up Seneschal, forced her own legs to join together as a mermaid’s tail, and sprinted upward with all her might. It didn’t take long to swim. She emerged in the open sea, with no sign of the island or the ships. But there were a number of large circles about the size of shields, sticking out from the water like flat stones. There were many of them.

«What were they?» Lilophea lowered Seneschal onto one of the stones. «It looked like a shell.»

Seneschal still couldn’t come to his senses. Water was pouring out of his beak. Apparently, he almost drowned. He shouldn’t have gone underwater just to see his mistress for a moment.

Lilophea touched the edge of the shell with her fingers. It was as hard as a rock. If she hadn’t been so flat it might have been a reef.

Curiosity got the better of her. Lilophea climbed on top of the shell. The mermaid’s tail became her legs again as she wished to rise. The surface of the shell did not slip beneath her feet. This is astonishing! After all, the shell itself lay in the middle of the sea, washed by the waves.

There’s a whole road of big shells. She wondered if each shell is supported from below by any columns. We’ll have to dive in later and check it out. In the meantime, Lilophea decided to walk along the path of shells that zigzagged through the water.

«Stop it! Don’t go!» It was Seneschal who came to his senses. He panted and howled hysterically. «There is danger!»

«What danger is it? I can’t see anything!»

She had to step over the short distance between the shells. She had to step over the little space between the shells, and it felt as if she were stepping on water boarded warrior shields. But it was not a risky thing to do. After all, if she fell into the water, she still wouldn’t drown.

«There’s a fairy’s mansion up ahead,» Seneschal said in a mournful tone.

«And that’s all!» He was understandable. The peacock did not want to see the fairy again, who had so heartlessly given him up to the Sea King.

«I have much to thank her for. I think I’ll go and see her.»

«Please don’t go!»

But Lilophea boldly moved forward. If it hadn’t been for Ariana, she would never have learned how to use her powers. To know that your train can cause a storm is a great power! Only it is better not to explain all this to Seneschal. He’s frightened enough as it is.

The peacock hovered above the road of shells as he watched the small island of crystal form looming ahead. On it were many white pinnacle-shaped plantings. From afar it looked as if the entire island were made of ivory. Only closer it became clear that it consisted of shells of different shapes and sizes. The shells were piled one on top of another. The tiny hulk itself appeared to be the back of some rare white fish. It moved slowly through the sea like a floating theater. And it housed a marvelous bird house without a single cage. All the birds were free, not chained, not locked up. They flew back and forth like servants.

The sweet, multi-voiced singing of the birds poured over the water. Sometimes human speech was heard in it. Birds could not sing in the language of men, could they? Lilophea knew one peacock that could. He probably wasn’t the only one.

The sea fairy was more like a white fairy because of the color of her hair, skin, and clothes. It was as if she had been bathed in milk, which colored her eyebrows, eyelashes, lips, even her eyes creamy white. The dress, composed of white petals, really grew right out of her skin. The petals themselves moved strangely. One shoulder was bare, but the elbow and wrist were full of floral flounces. White curls flowed from under a silver hoop. She couldn’t call them gray. The fairy’s pupils were blue, but her eye socket was white, too.

There wasn’t much room on her island, because the place was filled with all kinds of tools for making elixirs. There were bundles of seaweed, a mortar to grind small seashells in, and retorts of sorts through which frothy liquid flowed. Not an island, but a kind of marine laboratory! Shell-necks shone at the bottom of the flasks, which they could not burn through. Wise multi-headed fish made talking scarecrows. Ariana experimented as best she could. Her pairs of hands moved incessantly, filling vials and vials with something.

But the wretched cloak, made from a scrap of sail, was clearly not meant for experimentation. It was only for camouflage.

«So you followed me here in rags, pretending to be a beggar or a fortune teller?» Lilophea took the cloak and examined it. Yes, this is the one. «It takes time to compare a lady in a palanquin to a beggar at a wedding.»

Ariana was not upset that she had been rebuked.

«I wanted to foretell your bad fortune and keep you away from the Underwater King, but I suddenly realized that he himself will not let you go. So my plan to survive you by deception failed.»

There was nothing to reply to such straightforwardness. She didn’t want to quarrel with the fairy, so she simply kept silent.

Lilophea looked around. Ariana had so many birds that could breathe in water. They scurried in and out of the water, running errands. Ariana named each of them by their duties. There were Maid, Chambermaid, Gatekeeper, Messenger. Yes, the Seneschal is definitely from here.

The Siren bird looked at her guest with royal arrogance. Ariana herself, on the other hand, was trying to be polite. Either she pretended or actually had good manners.

«I wanted to be a queen of the sea,» she admitted, «because I am the most magnificent creature on water. But Seal did not appreciate my qualities.»

«You had little to lose by not being queen, or you would have had to put up with a harem of nymphs and mermaids.»

«Do you really think they’re rivals? How arrogant the earthly aristocrats are! They don’t even know what a disguise is.»

«I beg your pardon?»

«It’s all for the Sultan of Etar. He sometimes took a tincture to breathe underwater and descended into the underwater world. Seal felt ashamed that with all his wealth he couldn’t have a harem. Earth women would not live long on the bottom, so they hastily assembled a harem of mermaids. In fact, they do considerable work, but the Sultan will never know about it.»

«So Seal has never been with them?» Lilophea was relieved.

«So have I, but when the Sultan comes to visit, I have to go to the court and play the role of one of the chief wives. Nereida does the same.»

«Is showing off that important?»

«Seal and the Sultan are almost friends. And in Etar, the ruler’s wealth is determined by the size of his treasury and harem.»

«Are you also a subject of Seal?»

«Let’s just say I am one of the few who have managed to remain independent. My magical tinctures can rot the whole sea if I pour them into the waves. And some of the Morgens and the people of the coast depend on my elixirs. My talent has given me the right to sovereignty.»

Such an answer was to be expected. The sea fairy looked very arrogant. She practiced her magical craft with great pride. She certainly thought of her little island on the back of an outlandish fish as a whole independent state.

«And whose side would you be on in case of war, say, with the ocean?»

«I would remain neutral. There’s already a war going on! I hear it,» the white fairy said. «The waves bring me all the news. I love to talk to the waves. They just whisper everything they see, and never ask for an answer. You can ask them about everything that happens in the depths or on the coast, and they will deliver everything in detail.»

«So says Katharina, a noble captive of the whale. Curiously enough, from the rustling of the waves, both fairy and prisoner can hear about everything that goes on in the world.»

«You’ll have a chance to escape soon,» Ariana wizened a little over the cube-shaped vessel and drew out a handful of water droplets. In her hands they didn’t clump together, but clung together into a necklace. It didn’t melt, even after Ariana put it around her neck. «Think about what you will choose. Where is the way out of the nets, and where are the nets themselves, in which you are entangled: on land or in the depths?»

«You speak as if you no longer claim the title of ruler of all the seas.»

«I have long ago accepted that the throne is not for me. My whole strategy in the war for possession of the king of the sea has failed, and the foolish peacock sent to you failed to inspire fear of the terrible creatures that come from the waves.»

«After all, it was you who taught Seneschal to sing a song about how dangerous were for mortal girls relations with watermen,» reproached Lilophea.

The sea fairy did not raise an eyebrow.

«For mortals, yes, but you’re not a mortal. I didn’t realize it at first. I thought you were born ugly, like the other two.»

«Morena and Lirena. You mean them?»

The vial she held in her hand cracked. The blue liquid, which looked like water, spurted out, and burned her fingers badly. The white leaves of her outfit hissed in pain as if they were alive, began to shrivel, covered in ash, even bleeding. The white fairy urgently sought out a jar of some ointment to correct the oversight. She managed to heal the burn, but the leaves growing out of her skin didn’t heal immediately.

«Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you were born ugly,» the fairy apologized. «I call those who aren’t born the way nature intended, ugly. But that’s the way it is with humans and non-humans. In your case, the anomaly is that you were born normal, human-like. No wings, no thorns. I thought you’d live a little and then die like all humans. But now, I see, I was very wrong about you. Not everything is on the surface. In all your predecessors, you could tell all their abilities at once.»

«What do you mean?»

«They are descendants of the union of humans and higher beings.»

«Did my mother also come from Heaven?» Lilophea recalled the stories of the fall and war of the celestial races in the heights above.

«She is not from heaven. She is from the depths.»

«I don’t believe you. Seal says you all lived in the heavens in the beginning. And then there was war.»

The sea fairy merely jerked her shoulders, and her lacey white wings flapped gracefully.

«But about the forerunners…» «It was embarrassing to even bring it up. «I was dreaming about twins. They were creepy twins. Two girls who looked exactly the same, but one had a human body, and the other had morgen-like growths all over her body and tentacles under her dress. And then they came to me in real life and began to assure me that they were my own sisters.»

The white fairy dropped some sort of vial again and cursed quite like the tipsy pirates of Morissa’s company. She must have heard them swear when they passed her islet on their ships, mistaking it for a mirage. Fortunately, this time there was no mishap. The potion in the vial proved harmless. It merely produced a palm tree with blue leaves and blue fruit. They didn’t look like coconuts or bananas. Lilophea reached for one, but the fruit burst, and a blue winged creature emerged.

«I was saving it for a special occasion,» complained the fairy. «Now I have to make a new one. Everything in my fighting arsenal must be kept in stock.»

The word «warrior» made Lilophea uneasy.

«Who are you fighting?»

«There’s no telling who will attack from the ships that pass by.»

«They’ll mistake the island for a fata morgana.»

«Not all of them. Besides, there’s a threat from the sky.»

«You mean the eagles from Sultanite?»

The fairy pretended not to understand her, and Lilothea clarified:

«It is the crowned eagles.»

Ariana bit her colorless lips sadly.

«I have recently seduced a dashing pirate captain to protect my home from them,» she admitted. «He had a very fine crew of crossbowmen. They didn’t miss. It worked for a while. Gryphons are enchanted, but you can hurt them if you grease the arrowheads with a solution I made. The gryphons charged and flew away in a hail of arrows, and then their leader found some means of making her feathered armor irresistible. Her flock mauled my pirates and sank their ship. And I was left alone.»

«Perhaps you could find a use for this.» Lilophea gave her the amulet taken from the skeleton.

«You think I have to be an eagle to hold them off, don’t you?» Ariana made a grimace.

«Well, maybe you could make the most of it. You’re a sorceress!»

«And you’re not?»

«I’m a novice and you’re a professional.»

Ariana liked the flattery. She accepted the amulet. Lilophea was relieved when she parted with it. Perhaps it was too evil for her to control on her own.