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