to be near the sea without a parasol. Now the waves smelled almost like ice. Strange, considering that just off the coast there was still a tropical paradise, oranges and bananas ripening under the blazing sun. Their groves are often called plantations. The owners of such plantations have a good income, selling tons of pineapples and tangerines to merchants from neighboring countries. The markets of Aquilania are bursting with fruits that ripen only in the heat. The inland is always warm, but the coast is cold without a cloak.
“They say the watermen are angry,” Desdemona had often heard. Some vagrant by the shore, whom the Morgens did not touch, assured the maidens of this. He had once been an oyster diver, but now he collected shells and tried to sell them. Sometimes they found pearls in them.
He liked Desdemona. He looked at her in some special way, as if he saw her as the sacrifice that would save everyone. Did he decide to kill her himself to save the country from flooding?
It is a foolish belief that sacrifice will propitiate the gods, but the people, frightened and helpless before the elements, are ready to cherish any hope, even the most absurd. Even if Moran were against it, the people would gather in droves, revolt, and slaughter the queen themselves over the edge of the sea to placate the wrath of the waves that threatened to flood their homes.
The god is unlikely to choose another victim in return. He needs one in particular. He’s not changing his mind. We can only hope that the greatest storm in history, the one everyone’s waiting for, won’t happen and no sacrifice will be required.
“Queen of Aquilania!” She was called by a lady standing in the shadow of a deserted loggia.
No one addressed her that way. It was etiquette not to substitute “Your Majesty” for anything else. But the sea lady in the green dress knew no etiquette. Desdemona gasped, noticing the scales on her forehead and neck, which vignettes covered part of her skin and went below her neckline.
“I am a guest and so are they,” the lady waved her green webbed hand at a group of ladies at the other end of the loggia. They were very dressed up, but the scales on their skin could be seen too.
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