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Youngest Son of the Water King – 2. The queen and the purple mermaids
Natalia Yacobson
A society of nineteen purple mermaids waits in a sea temple for the chosen victim. The young queen is doomed. Neither the goddess of dragons, nor the sea king himself can save her. Only Desdemona’s husband, the prince of the sea kingdom and the current king of Aquilania is ready to challenge the cruel sea god. This fight may cost him his life. The purple queen of mermaids, Darunon’s first victim, has already emerged from the sea and calls Desdemona to her.
Youngest Son of the Water King – 2
The queen and the purple mermaids
Natalia Yacobson
Translator Natalia Lilienthal
© Natalia Yacobson, 2023
© Natalia Lilienthal, translation, 2023
ISBN 978-5-0060-4876-8 (т. 2)
ISBN 978-5-0060-4877-5
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
The princess’s hiding place
The ring had tired and fallen asleep. It could easily be removed from her finger now, but Desdemona did not dare. The sleeping pearl glowed in the darkness like a white lantern. She was mumbling something sleepily. Probably tomorrow it would wake up before Desdemona and start singing, but now its voice was barely audible.
“Take me to Lilophea’s room! To my friends!” She whispered.
“Which way is it?”
“It is to the right, then down the corridor to the left, then up the spiral staircase to the top,” the ring began to mutter instructions.
Desdemona reluctantly began to indulge it.
“Well, all right, let’s go!”
Curious as to what kind of friends the ring might have. Desdemona herself was followed by Bersaba. In the darkness of the palace, her eyes sparkled like two predatory gems. Her gait was inaudible.
“It is to the left! Then to the right! Turn into the east gallery!” The ring was giving directions. Either it was an experienced guide who had studied the palace layout well, or it felt the attraction of some magical object and easily guessed the direction. “Go past the fountain with stone dolphins, then there will be lunettes with sculptures of nymphs, and after them a strolling gallery. Follow it to a dead end.”
Bersaba kept up. She seemed to float above the floor rather than tread on it. She had a predatory look about her. Though she kept a respectful distance, Desdemona felt uneasy. She had gone looking for trouble at the call of the magic ring! In the morning it will wake up and declare that all his night instructions were just a dream.
“We’ve reached a dead end!” Desdemona ran into a wall decorated with intricate moldings. “There’s nowhere to go unless you teach me how to walk through walls.”
“Push the spiral-shaped jewelry!” The ring advised.
Desdemona did so. Immediately something creaked in the wall. Either there’s a sliding panel hidden there, or the spiral is actually a door handle. More like the latter. The dead end slid open to reveal a narrow doorway. Desdemona slid into it and slammed the door under the nose of Bersaba.
“It’s a strange passage. More like a hiding place,” she said to the ring.
“That’s because the doors have long since been bricked up.”
“Why is it?”
“People often used to disappear here.”
“What does it mean?” Desdemona was frightened.
“This was Princess Lilophea’s apartment.”
“Oh, that’s it,” said Desdemona. Well, then the first missing person could be the princess herself, who was kidnapped by the waterman. But her jewelry was left behind. Inside the secret room was a real treasure trove. Boxes and caskets were lined up in rows. Gold jewelry, diamond tiaras, rings with semi-precious stones, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, tiaras sparkled in them.
“There are all the gifts of the Water King!” commented the napping ring. Once in Lilophea’s room, it came to life.
“It couldn’t be!” Desdemona began to go through rubies, sapphires, emeralds and along with them suddenly noticed unusual gems with iridescence. There are really no such gems on earth.
Desdemona was afraid to touch the pearl beads. She already knew what the pearls given by the waterman could do. Though the pearls around her own neck had loosened their grip, they were still clinging to her skin.
By the way, jewelry made of large pearls and coral was the most abundant here. Huge chests, shaped like the silhouettes of fairy-tale palaces, were bursting with them.
Desdemona ran her finger along the lid of one such chest. It must have been the shape of some underwater palace.
“Are there castles and palaces in the Underwater Kingdom?” She wondered.
“Look for yourself!” The ring advised her.
What do you mean, see for yourself? Pearl is probably asleep and does not realize that it is a palace on land and not on the seabed.
Nevertheless, the pearl asked cheerfully:
“Take me off your finger and put me in that chest over there, which is full of pearl rings. I want to talk to them.”
“Well, as you wish,” Desdemona complied, and her ears immediately heard the chiming of many-voiced pearl trills. Her wedding ring was communicating with those inside the box. What wonders!
What should she do? Bersaba was at the door. We could stay here for the night. The dusty bed under the blue satin canopy was fit for sleeping. For some reason the beautiful mirror opposite it reflected, instead of an ordinary bed, some fantastic bed inside a giant shell.
The frame of the mirror resembled a wreath of gilded jellyfish, mermaids, and newts. Desdemona touched it and marveled. The reflection inside the mirror immediately changed. It now reflected the sea floor, where the clumsy kraken crawled. Shipwrecks were rotting among the algae plantations. A mermaid was stirring a skeleton tied to an anchor. Chests of gold and barrels full of ancient coins gleamed among the rotten planks of the ship.
“So this was the Undersea Kingdom?”
As if guessing her thoughts, the mirror winked at her, for a moment taking on the appearance of a fantastic face, something like a young swamp diva with snakes for hair and seashells for cheeks. Could it be a mirror fairy? In the next instant the picture inside the amalgam changed to a magnificent underwater palace with upper galleries that resembled the curves of aqueducts, walls of shells and columns of gold. Tritons with tridents guarded all the entrances, which were at different levels of height. From within, light poured in and music was heard, but the mirror did not linger on one underwater view, but was carried onward through a labyrinth of sandy embankments and blue gardens. There were pyramids of pearls and some unimaginable creatures. And then the mirror suddenly showed a mermaid lagoon. Close up, all the mermaids turned out to be so beautiful that it was impossible not to feel envy.
Desdemona immediately remembered her fears.
“Show my rival!” She asked the mirror.
And it showed the flaming arches of the palace in Tiora, the capital of Tioria. Through them walked a lady in a dress that seemed orange because it was also blazing. But it was originally azure blue. The bodice and the sleeves still retained their former color. The fabric was adorned with pearls – clearly a gift from Moran. The lady herself was as beautiful as a porcelain doll. A wizard must have arranged her golden curls into a hairstyle that no barber could have done. Her train wiggled like a dragon’s tail, and suddenly she turned into a dragon herself.
Desdemona recoiled from the mirror. It seemed to her that the lady within could see her. The gaze of the dragon’s eyes stared straight at her. Those eyes are like two jewels on a girl’s face.
We need to cover the mirror with something! It felt like her rival was about to burst into the room from the looking glass.
There was no blanket, no scarf, not even a rag. There was nothing to cover the mirror with. Then we must order him to look somewhere else.
Look? Is a mirror a looking eye?
“Did you find the spy’s eye?“The king’s pleasant tenor asked.
Desdemona turned around hastily. Moran seemed to have just climbed the wall and entered through the window. The door was definitely not open.
“Do you ever get any sleep?” Desdemona was upset. She was sure Moran was in his royal bedroom.
“I have plenty to do besides sleep,” he said.
“But your ring is sleepy!”
“When I gave it to you, I didn’t think you could so easily conspire with it to take you on excursions while I was distracted by business.”
“You’ll be more careful with your gifts,” Desdemona reached up to brush her neck. The pearls were digging too hard into her skin. Moran noticed it, too, and was not pleased.
“You’re trying to tie me to the throne with pearl chains,” she rebuked. “That’s clever! I am a queen under compulsion. The moment I leave the royal chambers, they dig into my skin.”
“I can’t get them off,” he admitted.
“You can pry them out with a knife.”
“It would be difficult and painful, and they would go under the skin, leaving pitted scars.”
“Then don’t! Let’s just hope they come off on their own.”
“Don’t risk running away from me. It’s not like I’m hurting you. I’m a monster, but I haven’t touched you.”
“Maybe you should have.” Desdemona wrapped her arm around his waist and shuddered, feeling the strangeness of his body. She wished he hadn’t put his tentacles around her throat and started strangling her.
The mirror again showed a quiet pool full of mermaids, her rivals.
Moran’s lips were as cold as frosted glass. His body was even colder. It was like she was hugging an iceberg.
“Drink first!” Moran pulled a blue vial out of thin air. “You’ll be too cold next to a sea creature if this elixir doesn’t warm you from the inside out.”
“And every time I want to hold you?”
“It is until you get used to it.”
“Can you get used to something as magical as you?”
“You get used to anything over the centuries.”
“In centuries, I’ll be dead. It is unless you have the elixir of immortality.”
“I may not have it, but I know someone who does.”
One sip from the vial sent such a pleasant heat through her body as if she were basking in the hot summer sun. Moran’s embrace didn’t seem icy now. No wonder why he favored his dragon friend. If she had a fire raging inside of her, she wouldn’t be cold next to a waterman. But watermen can’t tolerate fire. So how did Moran hook up with the fire lady?
“You found all of my mother’s jewelry boxes,” Moran pulled out a set made of unusual stones that seemed to reflect the waves from a pile of jewelry. “Only sirens have them.”
“Where did Princess of Aquilania get them from? Is it from the water king? Then why didn’t she take them to the bottom with her? Does Lilophea come back here sometimes?
“She used to, but not to this room. I think she’s forgotten about all this jewelry by now. They’re rightfully yours, since you found them here.”
Desdemona took the jewelry from his hands, wanted to try them on, and heard voices. The beads, each of which seemed to contain the sea, were whispering among themselves. Once they were around her neck, they moved like snakes trying to strangle her.
“She is not our mistress!” They hissed unhappily.
“It’s only in the beginning,” Moran said comfortingly. They’ll get used to you in time and even give you new abilities. You’ll be able to understand the whispers of the waves or walk on water, for example.”
The promise was tempting, but she’d had enough of the living pearls.
“No more presents!” Desdemona put the jewelry back. “All gifts from the watermen would not end well.”
She brushed the inflamed skin around the pearls she had recently tried to forge out. The maids of honor were jealous of her new jewelry, enthusiastic about its enormous cost and the beauty of the pearls, not even realizing how burdensome they were.
“They are not gifts, but parasites,” complained Desdemona.
“They wouldn’t have gotten into your skin if you hadn’t traveled too far from the palace.”
“But now I’m here, and they keep coming.”
“They probably suspect you strongly of rebellion and flight.”
“It is too bad you can’t get along with them like you can with a ring.”
“You can scald them and take them off, but it’ll hurt. I’d better get you one of Ariana’s ointments.”
“Who’s Ariana?”
“She is the White Fairy of the Waves. She’s known for her magical tinctures. She’s also known as the sea fairy. She flies above the waves and dives deep to gather herbs for her potions. She has a cure for everything in her arsenal.”
A wave fairy! It sounds mysterious and romantic. Desdemona imagined a delightful creature with wings, floating above the waves and flirting with the sea prince.
“What do sea fairies look like?”
“The same as all fairies,” Moran shrugged. “But they’re not as colorful as the fairies of groves, forests, and gardens.”
“If I’d ever seen garden fairies in my life!” She said indignantly. “In our garden pond lived only hideous divas, as you have seen for yourself. Not one good fairy.”
“Fairies are not kind,” Moran objected. “Ariana, for instance, loves to trap ship captains. But I can always negotiate with her. She has an arsenal of magic potions for her friends.”
“She’s a friend of yours?”
