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“She is mother’s friend.”
That sounds more reassuring. Desdemona sighed in relief.
“You can introduce me to fairies,” she agreed, “I’m a little afraid of mermaids.”
“And you can take this mirror away from here,” Moran nodded at the wall. “It’s a spy. If you want to see something, it will show you.”
“Where did it come from? Is it from the water king, too? Or is it from the fairies?”
“These mirrors are only made on the seabed. They’re called spy eyes because they can see everywhere you ask.”
“It’s a useful thing if you want to spy on someone.”
She didn’t mention that she’d already spied on her rival. The mirror showed the beautiful mermaids in the lagoon, and Moran kissed her as if he didn’t need all the beauties of the sea anymore. And neither did the lady of fire.
The idyll was dispelled by Livia, who hung outside the window like a black ghost. Apparently she had climbed up the wall, too. Her duty, after all, was to keep an eye on the queen. It was the duty of Bersaba too. She was still waiting under the door. Moran treated the slave girls as silent bodyguards who could be next to simply be ignored. But Desdemona, for the umpteenth time, felt uncomfortable under the gaze of Livia’s anthracite eyes.
“The spy’s eye must be brought to the Queen’s chambers,” Moran ordered, and Livia nodded understandingly. She flew easily through the window. Her dark webbed hands reached for the mirror. Turns out she knew what that magical thing was called. Curious how many other secrets of the sea kingdom Livia and Bersabe knew.
Surprises
Moran brought her a bouquet. It looks like lily of the valley, only it smells different.
“What are they?”
“Snowdrops are flowers from the land of winter. They bloom right under the melting snow.”
“Where do they come from? All the countries around the sea are hot.”
“I have relatives in the ocean.”
“Even there?”
Moran nodded.
“I was there once. There’s ice and icebergs all around, and even colder kin that freeze everything around them. There are mermaids the size of ships, oceanidas with the beauty of winter queens, warriors and ocean maidens who, when they feel cornered, turn into white-wood statues. You might mistake them for sculptures on the bottom, but they’re really just sleeping. I’ve awakened a couple of them and I’ve come across their gratitude as sharp thorns. We fought, and then we got along. Now we’re friends and allies.”
“Just don’t bring them here,” she sniffed the snowdrops with pleasure. The white flowers in a cocoon of large green leaves were tiny, but they had a marvelous fragrance.
“Put them in water and they’ll never wilt.”
“Are you sure?”
“I guarantee it!”
It was in his power, because the water obeyed him. As it turned out, in addition to water creatures heavenly creatures obeyed him too.
A dragon flew up to the archway. Moran carefully took the scroll from him, trying not to touch the scales. The dragon was wary of touching his hand as well. His hands, though wet, were partially covered with scales, as if he were the son of a dragon rather than a water dragon. Although fish have scales too, don’t they? Desdemona rose from her comfortable bed and walked to the window. The dragon was still hovering behind it. His mouth was hot. It almost burned her face. Now her skin would definitely turn red. How could Moran bear his proximity, he was a water dragon. Fire should be destructive to him, but the dragon listened to him.
“Get rid of him!”
“He’s going to fly away himself.”
Moran was right. The dragon turned and flew toward the horizon.
“You read his mind?”
“Why is it? He’s completed his mission and now he’s flying back.”
“Is it his task?”
“He is a messenger,” Moran unfolded a scroll mottled in orange letters. Are the letters glowing, or is she seeing double? Moran tried not to burn his fingers, holding only the ends of the scroll, untouched by the signatures.
“What is it?”
“It is a threat warning.”
“Who sent it?”
“It is the queen of Tioria.”
“You know the Queen of Tioria?”
“I knew her before she was queen. I even befriended her. It made my brothers laugh.”
“Don’t tell me about these murderers, or I’ll remember you didn’t stop them when they… drowned my brothers.”
“I can’t vouch for them. No one can vouch for them. Even my father can’t control them.”
“You mean the water king?”
Moran looked at her like a naive child. His almond-shaped eyes shimmered with mystery beneath golden lashes. How handsome he was! If only there weren’t tentacles under his robe. But not everyone could be perfect.
“Can the queen of Tioria control everything?”
“That’s not what she writes to me. And she’s no ordinary queen.”
“Then who is she?”
“She is a dragon goddess and a dragon herself.”
“She is a dragon woman.”
“I know her well.”
“What do you have in common with her?”
“What does fire have in common with water?”
“Then what do you want from her? Or does she want from you?”
Well, she’s already jealous. It’s wild jealousy.
She doesn’t think there’s anything to be jealous of, though. She had plenty of gifts and favors. Moran had recently sent her a bouquet of lilies and roses, laced with ribbons and pearls. If it wasn’t held together by charms, she didn’t know how. The gifts were many, but the most important was tenderness. No one had ever been gentle with her, and Moran had been. How can you call him a sea devil after that?
He’s sensitive. He sees all her anxieties without words. He loves only her. Though where else would a monster get a lady? Is it a miracle one agreed to him? It wasn’t. Everyone was after the king with wizard’s flaws. Desdemona made a lot of friends she didn’t even remember. It’s so easy to approach the king through her friendship.
“Do you like only me?”
Moran didn’t play the game.
“I once had a crush on the fire lady, but she didn’t like me. ‘We’re just friends,’ she kept saying. And I was expecting that one day I would see the deity everyone dreams of, and it would heal me. There is a goddess who is mightier than all and more beautiful than all. Once you see her, nothing else makes sense. Alais! I wanted to be her warrior and her chosen one. I thought that if I saw her, I would never think of Sephora again. I waited for her, watched the sun from the water, but she never came. And now you showed up, and I felt better.”
Is that what it is? One ethereal creature is reaching for another. No need for earthly ladies. But he found her.
They’re both wearing crowns. She is in a graceful feminine one, he is in a heavy masculine one. Both crowns are symbols of power, but somehow it feels like only he is the king here, and she is an impostor, wanting to wrest it from a highborn or even a magical lady.
Moran stood at the arched window, unafraid of falling out of it and crashing through the rocks. She knew by now that the octopus-like limbs braiding the window frame were not the tentacles of the monster beside him, but parts of his own body. But she didn’t care.
“I love you!” Desdemona hugged him from behind, running her bare feet over the slimy tails snaking beneath the royal robe.
Should she tell him how beautiful he is, or does he know it himself? He’s a monster, but she thinks he’s beautiful! Everything in the world turned upside down when a king from the sea came to rule the earthlings.
“Do you think I see you as a victim?” Moran felt her heart fluttering like a caged bird.
“I don’t know! Everyone has seen me as a sacrifice since I was chosen to serve the sea god. I heard that if the sacrifice with the chosen girl doesn’t take place, the sea will flood the whole country.”
“Let it drown!”
“You say that about your country?”
“I will flood it myself if you are chosen as the sacrifice.”
“But I thought you chose me to take me personally to the temple for sacrifice.”
She imagined the terrible celebration when a king personally gives his young wife to the sea god for a ritual to ensure the coastal kingdom’s peace and prosperity for many more years. Will she be beheaded with a sickle or cut open alive? Or drowned? Sometimes water is scarier than poison. Dodger had said it right. At the thought of drowning, the shimmering edge of the sea below sent a shiver of fear through her. Eerie images of the ritual came to mind. Desdemona clutched her eyes in horror.
“Tell me, the sea god’s victims become mermaids after he kills them.”
“Where did you get that idea?”
“I dreamed it,” she admitted honestly. No need to be hypocritical. It was as if Moran could see through her mind and was nervous, too.
“Dreams are as fine a line as water. A whole kingdom can hide beneath it.”
“How do you know?”
“So claims a lady who is no stranger to the realm of dreams and its rulers. She says that dreams are a witch’s labyrinth in which one can get lost and never return.”
“I imagine the temple of the sea god to be such a labyrinth.”
“Do not fear him. A queen shouldn’t be afraid of anything.”
But she didn’t feel like a queen.
Flowers and jewels alone were not enough to inspire her with regal majesty.
The chirping of the birds sounded almost musical. It was definitely not the cries of seagulls. In addition, the croaking instantly changed to an almost nightingale-like trill. Desdemona looked around.
Morillas were sitting on the parapets of the towers again. It was a whole flock of them now.
“I’d give you one,” Moran intercepted her gaze, “but they’re too free-spirited. They’d wither in a cage. And if you capture them, there’ll be a great flood. That’s why they’re feared. If sailors see a morilla near a ship, it means the ship will sink within 24 hours.”
“It is cruel!”
“The sea is cruel.”
“But it is beautiful too!” Desdemona cast a glance at Moran from under half-lowered lashes. He can only be compared to the harsh beauty of the sea. He is beautiful and dangerous.
“Let’s play a game!” She found an old ivory chess set.
“It is all right! Strip chess is a popular game in the mortal world. If I win something you take it off, if you win something I take it off.”
She flared up, but agreed. Winning from him wasn’t hard. The undressing game took her by surprise when she realized he had nothing on under his robe. He undressed first, showing off his tentacles and some shiny growths on his forearms that looked like scarlet bracelets.
“Next time we’ll play sea chess. I’m better at it!” Moran pushed the board into one of the newly dug pools. The chessboard sank. But Desdemona wasn’t upset. What caught her eye was the sun pendant with unusual milling around the edges on it around Moran’s neck.
“I feel like I’ve seen this symbol somewhere before.”
“It’s the mark of my goddess!” Moran put his robe back on and carefully hid the pendant. “We are all slaves to Alais. But I want to be your slave.”
It seemed to her that it was the other way around – She is his captive. But he reached for her and all sense of inequality vanished.
“Moran! If I start drowning again…” she remembered the night he had rescued her.
“You think you can drown yourself in my kingdom without my permission? Water is my element! I rule it, not you. No one is allowed to drown themselves in my domain without my permission. Besides, you won’t get rid of me that easily!”
Is he joking or is he serious? Probably it is both.
“You are mine. That’s all!” The corners of his lips parted in a happy smile, and his face was no longer cold.
For fun, he made the mirror show her the lily nymphs.
“They live on the lakes,” he explained. “Their clothes are lily petals that grow from their skin and give off a marvelous fragrance. They are called lilies. The boys dream of them, and I dream of you.”
“And what is about your brothers?”
“For them, to love a girl is to drag her down. In the beginning they were still choosing, but then they split up. Now they drown anyone they think is pretty.”
