Lilophea-3: Queen of the Sea and Princess of the Ocean

Clever! The island is shaped like a circle, and the faces of the supernatural beings carved into the rocks seem to wash over the land in the circle once more. They must be local gods and goddesses.

«Ask Urun better for us! He is the one who attacks at night most often. He’s the king’s pet, so there’s no use complaining about him. But in case you are closer to Seal than he is.»

Lilophea noticed a creature galloping along the rocks, very similar to those whose images are carved inside the rocks themselves.

«Tell me, are only humans living on the island?»

Harisi was cryptically silent.

«In any case, I’ll support you in any way I can. I don’t want us Morgens to have the reputation of usurpers and tyrants. My earthly father accustomed me to generosity.»

She would probably have given up and told her the myths of the island, but a pack of dragons roared in the sky.

«Sephora had arrived!»

She must have been attracted by the ring of fire. It was too late to take it off. She should have met Sephora and apologized for accepting it as a gift from the hands of a thief and crook. For some reason Lilophea had no doubt that Grant that Ceal had almost frozen was cheating on everyone and everything. A high title does not always guarantee nobility.

«I’ll go to her,» Lilophea saw the silver dragon turn into a girl before she landed at the top of the cliff.

«Don’t!» Harisi tried to restrain her, but Lilophea slipped out of her grasp like flowing water. For a moment she seemed to herself to be made of water. Her body became almost weightless as she climbed the stairs carved into the rocks. Some creepy creature with a beautiful horned head came beneath her feet. It squealed and quickly ducked into a crevasse.

Sephora waited at the top of the cliff. Her colorful flock of dragons hovered over the cliffs like fireworks.

Though the island itself was sunny, the sky above the cliffs was gray and gloomy. The mottled bodies of dragons were the only decorations here. They zigzagged across the sky, curling their tails around each other, shooting jets of fire directly into the sea below. It was dangerous to be near them, but how good they were! Red, yellow, purple, orange, green like malachite, and pinkish like corundum. Their scales sparkled like jewel armor. And they all resembled a flock released from a magic box.

Sephora herself was dressed in brocade and lace, like the ruler of the universe. A long train followed her over the cliff, like a living dragon’s tail. Curls of rich golden hue were arranged in a high hairstyle and intertwined with chains of sapphires and emeralds.

As soon as Lilophea approached, Sephora opened her dainty lips and exhaled a whole jet of fire into the sea. She managed to fry a large shark that was just surfacing from the waves, grinding its teeth on the critters floating in the clouds.

One bright scarlet dragon dived down toward the cliff, spotting the water woman, and tried to grab Lilophea with its claws. Defensively, she put her hand with the ring forward. The attacking dragon was immediately struck by such a powerful fire bolt that it flew several meters away and fell into the sea. He survived, but his chest was badly burned.

«It’s okay. He’ll recover quickly,» Sephora watched the pantomime indifferently. It’s how aristocrats watch a performance in a traveling circus or a floating theater. «Dragons have the ability to heal themselves. Did you know that crafty sorcerers hunt us down and make healing elixirs from our blood and innards?»

«No, I didn’t know that.»

«But your father does. He wanted to use the scales of one of my dragons to make an invulnerable armor against morgens, but his knights were not strong enough to wear such armor. He also wanted to make a potion out of a dragon’s liver that would turn two morgens into humans. It didn’t work either. But they vomited a lot afterwards. Now they drink only human blood.»

«Are they Morena and Lirena?»

«That’s right!» Sephora turned to her, pulling back her train, which turned out to be a living dragon tail. «You don’t look anything like them, by the way.»

«So they say! Why did you let me burn your dragon? You command them. Couldn’t you have told him not to attack?»

Or did Sephora want a feud?

«Now you know how it works,» she explained, pointing to the ring. It still sparkled where it had touched the dragon’s scales.

It was hard to be around Sephora. She herself was white as ice, but she reeked of flame like a furnace. Besides, her majestic beauty was so overwhelming that one wanted to bow down before her.

Did Sephora want the ring of fire back?

«Is it really yours? Did that nobleman, who reports to my husband, steal it from you?»

«Let’s just say, through repeated machinations, the ring fell into the wrong hands as it was meant to. But all is well now.»

«Shall I give it back to you?»

«Keep it! I want it to be yours. You could use a little fire at the bottom of the sea to warm you up after the cold embrace of the waterman, couldn’t you?»

Sephora arched an eyebrow slyly.

«I’m not complaining!» Lilophea did not go into the explanation that her love for the water king had so clouded her mind that she did not feel the cold.

Sephora read her mind herself.

«I have never understood creatures in love! They become naive and weak. Love is definitely not for me!»

«But one day it may arise without asking your opinion.»

«And a strong sorceress is able to pluck it from your heart like a thorny rose from the root.»

«Even in case you fall in love with that legendary lord you dream of seducing?»

«That is another matter!»

Sephora’s face was as frozen as a statue and unexpressive. It was impossible to tell from her facial expressions how she felt. But she reeked of both flame and anticipation of triumph. How sure of herself she was!

She gave a command in an indecipherable old tongue, and the dragons all flew as one massive mechanism. The multicolored swarm moved farther and farther away, like a fireworks display over the sea. Sephora, too, was about to fly away.

«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.»