Читать книгу Lilophea-3: Queen of the Sea and Princess of the Ocean - Natalie Yacobson - Страница 2

Lilophea was left alone in the azure garden. The paradisiacal place darkened in an instant. It was now as terrifying as hell.

Could the twins have deliberately lied to her, to make her frightened and disgusted? How did it feel to be related to monsters? Probably it is no better than being married to an underwater creature. It’s kind of scary, and you realize that you have to get used to it to survive.

Lirena had one of her tentacles tied with a scrap from Lilophea’s dress. So these girls really had been motionless, wooden statues a short time ago. Lilophea remembered perfectly well the first time she had climbed onto a mermaid ship and torn her dress there.

Could it be that all the other animated statues from the ship would come here, too? Only, perhaps, they would come no longer as guests, but with a declaration of war. They are from the ocean. It seems that it was the creatures from the ocean that the Morgens fought all the time. That’s the reason Seal might have been missing for so long: some powerful enemy was approaching its borders.

«Could you show me the way to the ocean?» Lilophea fiddled with the sun pendant around her neck.

Hearing the question, the sun instantly was alive right in her fingers, rounded her dainty lips, and chanted:

«Don’t!»

So it really is very dangerous in the ocean. Lilophea was more surprised that her fears were confirmed than that the pendant could also give advice, and not just point the right way.

What should she do now? Go back to the palace and rely on the power of the Triton guards and an army of water dragons who would jump off the arches and pillars to protect the queen of the sea from any attack. And an attack from the ocean dwellers might be just around the corner.

To sit at home was humiliating and unpleasant. If the kingdom of the sea was in danger, she must do something. But what?

Lilophea climbed out of the azure garden and swam downstream. The mere sight of the familiar creature on the anchor of the wreck frightened her so much that she almost turned back. But it had no intention to attack, only staring at Lilophea with multiple pairs of multicolored eyes. It was content. On the ship, which, by all appearances, it had recently dragged to the bottom, were gleaming chests of gold coins. Lilophea recalled what Seal had said about the creature. It clings to the anchors of ships, unsuspecting sailors pull it up, and once on board, it attacks them and sinks the ship for its valuable cargo. Such a creature can be called nothing less than a cunning parasite or underwater pirate.

Somehow it was able to see through the bottom to see if there was treasure on board a ship that had passed by. The bottom of the large ship was just visible on the surface. The creature winked at Lilophea with ten eyes, let out a long whistle, and suddenly, out of the blue, someone above ordered to lower the anchor. It is supposed to be thrown out only near the shore for the time of anchorage, but not in the open sea. But the rules were broken. The clever spy hooked himself to the anchor and whizzed off again. He was pulled up. The chain was quickly wound onto the winch above. The creaking sound reached even into the underwater realm. The men on board were unaware that they were pulling their doom from the sea.

Lilophea became curious as to what exactly was going to happen up there, so she decided to watch. Naturally it was from a safe distance. To do so, she had to swim a little away from the ship. This proved difficult. The short anchor chain never reached the bottom, so the ship kept moving forward. Lilophea was too far out. And the sides of the ship were too high. You couldn’t see what was happening on the ship no matter how you jumped out of the water.

«You would have been better off with wings than a tail,» someone scooped Lilofea up from behind and lifted her over the water. What was happening on deck was so terrifying that she wanted to dive right in.

«Hush! Don’t move so much!» A woman’s offended voice sounded.

Lilophea found that she had been helped by the same morgena with snow-white, multi-layered, flower-like wings and white curls. It was the one she had seen once before floating on the sea in a palanquin. This must be the white fairy or the sea fairy. What was her other name?

She had a face in relief, like a morgena. But the patterned wings suggested the legends of snow fairies.

«Your mother has wings!» The white fairy put webbed fingers to her lips. «Don’t say anything! But you could have saved them. Just pull your train!»

Lilophea only now discovered that the fairy was no longer supporting her. Her feet are held on the water by themselves, as on solid ground. Only it was softer and more pleasant to tread on the waves than on land. She moved a little and the train of her dress spread like foam over the surface of the surrounding waves. It was as if the sea was her train! Lilophea tried to do what the fairy had advised her and pull the train. It turned out something like a small storm. Foamy waves rose along with the train. The ship was already sinking. If only she had intervened earlier, it would not have sunk, but the spy would have been thrown from the deck by the tremendous jolt.

«I wish I’d had another doubloon of his profit,» the fairy opened the white marrow fan in vexation. But no! It was not a fan, but one of her webbed hands. There were pairs of hands-one holding the hem of a lace dress that seemed to rise from her own pale skin, one pair correcting her hair, one pair gesturing. All of them had openwork webs that made a normal hand look like a fan. She seemed to have more than five fingers. Standing there with her mouth open and counting was uncomfortable, so Lilophea turned away.

«What would one do with doubloons at sea?» She wondered.

«Have you ever been to a fish market?»

«Yes, in Aquilania. There’s a main square there, and there’s a market.»

«Not the one where they sell the fish, but the one where the fish put out their own goods.»

«I’ve never been there. What interesting things can the fish sell that you can’t get for free on the bottom?»

«Well, the fish scientists offer a large assortment of things you can’t invent without their help.»

The fairy looked greedily at the bloody splash and the wreckage of the ship in the distance.

«You are able to tread the waves, and my wings are tired,» she apologized, and was so. There’s a reason her wings are layered! Even birds don’t fly at that speed.

Her newly discovered ability to walk on water was so unusual that for several minutes Lilophea enjoyed it. The ripple of small waves under her feet tickled her skin pleasantly. It was sheer pleasure! The train, merging with the sea, did not weigh her down or slow her down at all. If one tugged it, the whole surface of the sea would be stirred by the storm.

You could only feel so good in a dream. Dinny Shea flew over the water. Usually these tiny faeries gather in a flock near fishermen’s boats and vigorously offer the fisherman favors if he’ll do their bidding. For example, if he refuses to fish for good. Then they will make him rich. They must have some sort of agreement with the Morgens.

Only she couldn’t see any of the small fishing boats in the vicinity. No one had even had time to lower the lifeboats from the sinking ship. So what were the Dinny Shea looking for here? They glittered like a scattering of stars over the water.

A stroll forward across the surface of the sea made it clear who they were waiting for. The luxurious boat was sailing slowly downstream, uncontrolled by oars or rudder. The same painter in the boat was painting a morgen with a brush in the air. He must have run out of paper. Is it possible to take off and take with you the picture painted on the empty space? Or would such a picture come to life as soon as it was finished?

For some reason the Dinny Shea were wary of hovering directly over the rook, so they hovered in the air at a safe distance.

The painter frowned. Obviously, he was failing to recreate exactly what he intended. But when he caught sight of Lilophea treading the water, surrounded by a trail of foam, he nearly dropped his brush in surprise.

«Don’t move! I’ll paint you!» He shouted from a distance, but Lilophea didn’t want to pause for a pose. So she copied the gesture of the white fairy – elegantly put her fingers to her lips as a sign of silence. Let the artist know that the queen of the sea, walking directly on the water, should not tell anyone, or there will be a storm and the sea will not survive. She straightened her train a little as she passed by, just for showmanship’s sake. The boat shook on the waves so much that it almost flipped over.

White foam flowers bloomed right on the water. Lilophea spotted the body of a drowned woman with a large pearl sprouting right into the flesh in her chest. The sight was beautiful and frightening.

The silhouette of a large merchant caravel loomed in the distance. Was it not headed for Sultanite? Lilothea remembered how easily Seal had carried her aboard the ship. Would she be able to climb onto the caravel? As soon as she moved her train, a wave so high formed under her feet that it swept her directly aboard the caravel. Those on board must have thought she appeared out of thin air. Grant, obviously the master of the caravel, immediately fell to his knees.

«Do us no harm, your majesty!»

He knew unmistakably who she was by the crown. He must have had a road with the Morgens himself. How to sail the seas and feel safe without a non-aggression pact from the underwater inhabitants?

Is this the same Grant that once gave Seal the ring of fire? Or was it the wrong one? Lilophea tried to see if the living pearl was sprouting right in his forehead.

«I’m not going to sink the ship,» she hastened to calm his panic. «All I want is one small favor from you and your crew.»

«Anything you command!»

Grant trembled.

«I must get word to Sultanite. Are you sailing the wrong way?»

«I will change course for your sake,» he hastened to oblige. «It is almost on the way. It is but a little detour.»

«Will you be received at the royal court?»

«I think so. I have good trade relations with the King of Sultanite.»

«Now it is the queen.»

Grant was a little taken aback.

«The king died recently,» Lilophea felt it her duty to explain. «Sultanite is ruled by his daughter Ornella.»

«Didn’t her brothers all die too?» Grant was astonished, but covered his mouth as he noticed her hem splashing frothy sea water all over the deck.

«Apparently matriarchy reigns in the Sultanate. There is a woman on the throne. All the brothers obey her. That’s why you must speak to Ornella in person. You can arrange that.»

«She always comes personally for the silks I bring. Her brothers prefer tobacco and spices.»

«You’re a noble man, and you trade with the Sultanite? It is astonishing!»

«It is better to trade with the Sultanite than to fight. It is a dangerous power!»

«It is good that your caravel is equipped with more cannon,» Lilothea estimated. «If the Griffins attack, that’s the end of the trade, and you can fire every gun in the ship without thinking twice. But if you do manage to get to Ornella, tell her that the underwater queen reminds her that it is not delicate to go to war with blood kin.»

«Is that all?» Grant was relieved. He’d thought he’d have to take a report of the attack on the Sultanite. And such news could get him killed.»

«That’s all!»

«I can send her that message right now. I have a cage of carrier pigeons in my quarters.»

«You’d better give it to her in person.» Lilophea wondered what she could give him to make Ornella understand that these were not empty words. All she had with her was a pair of amber bones and a shell she had found at the bottom. Moralla mentioned that if you want to send people messages, you have to whisper the words right into the hole of the empty shell and, once in the right hands, it will speak itself. Lilophea decided to check it out. She brought the shell to her lips and whispered into it:

«You cannot go to war with your own family!»

The shell, as if mesmerized, immediately emitted something that sounded like a whisper, and a second later the same words echoed from the empty hole. The shell repeated them several times and wouldn’t have stopped if Lilophea hadn’t mocked her:

«The message is only for Ornella!»

It is of no use to the princes to say all this. They are under their sister’s thumb. An exception is the younger Prince Condor. But he’s hardly capable of deciding for himself whether to go to war with Aquilania or not.

«Tell her!» Lilophea placed the glowing shell in the trembling hands of Grant. He was afraid to hold it. «Do not break it! Here’s something for your trouble!»

Lilophea also gave him a pair of amber stones.

Probably it was necessary to put some kind of sea seal on him, so that he did not dare to disobey her orders and accurately fulfill the order, but Lilophea did not know how to do it. She merely ran a damp hand across his swarthy forehead, and something resembling a seal of runes such as those on Seal’s pectoral appeared on his skin all by itself. Grant wrinkled his nose, tried to brush the skin against his forehead, but there was nothing he could do. His gaze became somewhat hypnotized.

«I obey you, Queen of the Seas!» He bowed gracefully and pressed the shell carefully to his chest.

There was a servility and subservience in him. It seemed to be the work of a spell. Lilophea glanced at him to the door of his quarters and slipped back out to sea.

Somewhere far out in the depths of the water came trumpet sounds. They mingled with the murmur of the waves and seemed at times inviting, at times threatening. Such was the sound of the wondrous horn that summons the sea-dwellers to attack the mortals who are vulnerable by the moon by the shores of the sea. All night long they may attack before the sea calls them back. They will leave, but only corpses will remain in the towns near the coast.

Such are the usual rules! But today the horn heralded war between the underwater races. The human tribes scattered along the coasts remained in the background for now.

Lilophea walked farther across the water. Shallow waves lay before her like a blue desert. Everywhere she looked there was nothing but the sea. It was more interesting under water than on the surface. Lilophea was about to dive back in when she noticed a whole flotilla ahead. Dozens of ships hurtled forward at full speed. There were no Sultanite’s flags flying over the unfurled sails, but Lilophea was alarmed all the same. Passing between the ships would be difficult. If she didn’t dive underwater, they might crush her.

She’d barely had time to think about the danger when blue scaly reefs emerged from the sea. They looked like humps on a smooth surface. After a moment it was clear that they were moving, too. They were water dragons!

The sentries on the ships had spotted them too and already panicked, but it was too late. The blue sea dragons appeared in flocks and surrounded the fleet. There was no use shooting them with crossbows, or even cannons. Their azure skin was as impenetrable as magic armor. The dragons, on the other hand, after listening to the chorus of screams, opened their mouths and pounded the flotilla with such a torrent of water that the ships sank. The crackle of splinters and the screams of those drowning were mingled into one cacophony of sounds. The whole fleet was sunk in a matter of minutes. Those that sank more slowly, the dragons circled their blue tails and began crushing them like hazelnut shells. There was a deafening noise from the cracking of the breaking boards.

Lilophea watched the mayhem from a distance. She wondered why the dragons had done that. They hadn’t eaten anyone. They had only amused themselves. Perhaps Seal had told them to destroy one particular fleet. Maybe they were talking about breaking some kind of treaty with the Morgens. After all, as far as Lilophea had learned, no one sailed the sea without making a special pact with them. And all who do not agree with the underwater people, become victims of an attack and eventually drowned, never reaching land from their first voyage. The Morgens have everything under control. In addition, the sunken ships are profitable. How much wealth will sink with the wreckage and become the property of Seal.

One of the water dragons glanced back at Lilophea. In its open mouth could be seen, along with sharp incisors, each the size of a dagger, pearl teeth. Would you think that water creatures could even have teeth made of pearls?

The dragon tilted its horned head, paying homage to the underwater queen, whom, of course, it noticed even from a great distance.

Lilophea even thought that the dragons had sunk the fleet only because it posed a threat to her, strolling carefree on the waves.

Only there was no one else to ask. The dragons soared over the water, nodded their spiky heads at her one by one, and dove into the water, leaving fountains of spray on the surface.