by avoiding me. Moran is at least half handsome, I’m ugly from top to toe, I mean to the tip of my tail.”
“What are you trying to get out of me? Why are you hitting on me in the first place?”
“It is to flirt with you,” he corrected. “I’ve still got all the sympathy I used to have for pretty ladies when I was a beau to match them.”
“Do you mean to say that you have not yet killed or dragged down a single woman of the earth?”
“I don’t drown pretty women, if that’s what you mean. And I don’t live on the bottom either. Our society has to huddle in the swampy backwaters of human settlements, like the marshes behind the capital’s hot districts. We’re monsters, but we don’t hurt women.”
That’s not what she saw! The gutted corpse of a woman in the rain with a sickle wouldn’t leave her mind. Was the ritual performed by the very society to which Dodger belonged?
“How long have you been like this?” She began to ask cautiously. “Have you learned all the habits of creatures like you? You said you were becoming embittered. Does that imply acts of cruelty?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Dodger stopped the interrogation. “Ever since the king turned his attention to you, all our plans had to change. We couldn’t let him see you, but he did. There was nothing I could do, even though I was hovering nearby. I found you, but he found you too. Unfortunately, he’s stronger than the rest of us. And his power will eventually bring down the whole kingdom.”
“What makes you think that?”
“What do you think? Will the Morgen stay on earth forever?”
“That’s why he came to the country.”
“No, it’s just convenient for you to think that. Because if it turns out he can’t stay on land forever, you’ll be a burden to him. How do you take a wife who can’t breathe underwater to the sea?”
“They say there are remedies that allow you to breathe at depth for a while.”
“It is not for you! Darunon’s chosen victim is unaffected by them. So how are you going to follow the morgen to the bottom?”
There is a remedy! What seemed like a curse to Desdemona suddenly seemed like a blessing. She was able to turn into a mermaid once, so she could do it again.
“Don’t even think about it,” Dodger guessed her thoughts. “The only way you can become a mermaid forever is if you become a priestess of Darunon. If you reject the sea god, you’ll never be a mermaid again.”
“How did you know I could turn into a mermaid?”
Did he spy on her? Then he’s always hiding somewhere in the palace.
“I can see the signs of transformation in your face,” he admitted. “I’m skilled enough in magic to see them. And if I examine your feet, I’m sure there are scaly growths on your feet.”
He’s right about that! Desdemona swallowed hard. The gorgeous golden crown of rubies and emeralds pressed against her forehead. Its heaviness was symbolic. Being queen was proving to be very hard. Even with a monster husband who could solve most problems with force and magic.
Maybe she’d tell him about the Dodger. And then the insolent double-talk would be over. Only Desdemona was not a snitch. She preferred to keep quiet about her strange acquaintance. But he kept prophesying, scaring her to the point of palpitations.
“If you choose Moran, you can never become a mermaid, and if you become a mermaid, you can never be with Moran again.”
“But that amounts to a dead end. Without becoming a mermaid, I won’t be able to live together with Moran. I’d just suffocate underwater.”
“It’s a vicious circle that can be broken, but I don’t know how.”
No one has ever considered her wise, but now that she’s queen, she’ll have to sharpen her wit. How can you rule an entire country without learning the wisdom of life?
Some sounds were heard in the neighboring rooms. Desdemona immediately took advantage of the noise to say goodbye to the annoying guest.
“Go away! Or crawl away! And don’t come here again.”
“Tell him you have a secret lover,” said Dodger.
“Don’t joke! I don’t fall in love with monsters!”
“Who’d believe it, hearing that from a monster’s wife!” caught her on the word sullen guest.
“Moran will think we’re plotting against him if he catches us together, and he’ll execute us both. He can find a way to deal with a creature like you, too, can’t he?”
The Dodger shook his ugly head in denial.
“We are all at an impasse: you and I, Moran and my society. We can’t let Darunon’s chosen victim live, and we can’t let you stay with the king. There is no way out.”
“But then maybe you and your society should drop this whole conundrum and do something else,” Desdemona snapped at him and wanted to walk away. As luck would have it, none of the servants or guards was in a hurry to open the door of the queen’s bedroom to see who she was arguing with. We need to get away from Dodger. He seems insane. Suddenly all his stories about turning into a freak by chance were just his own made-up nonsense. It was hard to believe that he had once been handsome.
Desdemona turned to give him the locket and almost shrieked. A gilded sickle glittered in his black tentacle-like hand. It was most definitely a weapon, not a tool. The handle, mottled with runes, reminded him very much of Alais’s dagger.
“There were nineteen days left until the sacrifice. On the nineteenth sunset, the sickle will be stained with the blood of the nineteenth mermaid!” promised Dodger in a sepulchral tone.
Desdemona felt a prick in her heart and a wild fear. Why should she be so frightened? Was she already a mermaid?
She has two slender legs now. She moves them with ease as she treads the polished parquet. If she’s lucky, they won’t grow into a tail again. Though if they do, she has little in common with Moran. He would be better suited to marry a mermaid.
Desdemona felt under Dodger’s gaze like a fish tossed on the sand. Her nineteenth birthday was exactly nineteen days away.
Cold winds
Moran spoke to the ambassadors in the throne room. These were not spies of the sea king, but the most ordinary of men who began choking on water, barely their speech displeased the king. Moran ignored threats of military attack. It was easy for him to sink another fleet, as he was now sinking the ambassadors, without touching them.
Desdemona lurked behind the column and watched a torrent of salty seawater pour from the mouths of the unfortunates. They were choking. Their skin was turning blue. Moran watched their agony with indifference. He would look on the wreckage of the enemy armada the same way.
He was worth fearing. When necessary, he knows how to be brutal.
It’s best to leave him to deal with the affairs of state alone. The throne room with its huge pool began to frighten her. Desdemona hurried away. At the exit, her maids of honor curtsied before her. She didn’t even know all of them by name. But she could hear them whispering about a prophecy of long ago.
Desdemona herself could see the sky over Aquilania growing darker. The people were expecting the worst storm in the country’s history, when the sea would break its banks and either sink the entire kingdom or retreat, barely spilling the blood of one chosen victim.
In the rational opinion of some, even the blood of hundreds of victims will not pacify the surf. But most people in the island kingdoms that depended on the wrath of the elements were