скачать книгу бесплатно
Some sounds suddenly alerted her. The clinking of metal and quick footsteps! Desdemona didn’t even realize they were suddenly aware, because Moran instantly blew the heads off two people. The corpses fell into the pool, staining it with blood. And some fish-like creatures devoured the dead flesh.
“They are conspirators! They’re like bedbugs! No matter how many of them you take out, they keep coming back,” Moran grumbled. Their axes had wounded him.
“Shall I call for the king’s physician?” Desdemona was worried.
Moran shook his head negatively. It appeared that all he had to do was sink into the water and all his wounds would heal themselves.
“Water heals all our injuries,” Moran braided his tentacles around the edge of the pool
“You were better off in the water. You’re vulnerable on land,” she concluded. That’s probably why there are so many new pools. While he was targeting his injuries in the water, she stroked his hair. They’re softer than silk!
“I held you captive as my queen, and you pity me.”
“I have had time to love you.”
Moran sighed as if it was too late. Somewhere in the distance, a long trumpet sounded over the sea, making my blood run cold.
“It’s Father’s horn,” Moran explained. “When he wants to summon someone or attack the shores, he blows that wonderful horn. He needs me for something.”
“Swim to him!”
“I can’t!” Moran kissed her quickly. “I can’t leave you alone. I don’t want any sea monsters to come to you in my absence.”
Desdemona remembered Alais’s dagger, which she still kept with her.
“I am ready for them,” she said bravely.
“You cannot stand alone. Or do you want me to go somewhere else?”
The only answer he would have had before was, “You are the ruler. We are vassals. You want me, and I have to be here,” but now she wouldn’t have sneered anymore.
One scar didn’t go away even in the water. Moran intercepted her gaze.
“There’s a legend that Lilophea’s youngest son was cut in half with a sword: one human, one watery. The halves fused together.”
“It is monstrous!”
He grinned. How beautiful his face was! What a contrast to the ugliness of his body!
“Am I a monster? Or is the act monstrous? I’m a fairy tale monster. You’re the girl I forced to be my bride by force. Of course you’re unhappy. Or are you finally happy?”
“Are you in pain?”
He didn’t answer.
“Who did it?”
“My own father did it.”
“You mean the water king? But why is it?”
“He didn’t want us children. That’s why my brothers are so angry and sink ships, including your brothers’ ships. My father was obsessed with one object, the Earth princess. For her, he would move mountains and seas for her. It’s hard to live with someone who would do anything for a woman. She’s worth more than a kingdom, more than a lifetime, even if it’s an eternity. And we’re just unwanted fruit.”
“It is not for me,” Desdemona ran her hand over his cheek.
He clawed his webbed hands around her face. She would probably die because of him one day, because he couldn’t live on land, she couldn’t breathe in water. All that remained was to perish together. If he wished to drown her now, she wouldn’t even try to resist. Moran mesmerized her, so much so that she said:
“I love you.”
“Is it now?” He grinned. “When you know we could be harmed by both my kin and attacked by another conspirator?”
“It is now and always!”
Desdemona nestled her lips against his in a long kiss. Even if they cannot be two, they will die together happy. But the one conspirator attacked no more today, and the calling horn was silent over the sea.
The shell game
Livia hung the magic mirror in the partition between the column and the canopy. It didn’t seem to show its magical ability to look wherever you asked it to. Vayra, for example, wouldn’t even realize it was magical unless she wanted to see a certain place when she was near it. One can only hope she’s reasonable. Or she could wish aloud to see distant places while cleaning, in which case the mirror will reveal itself.
Desdemona herself had already had time to ask the spy’s eye to show her everything, even the Blue Islands, where the Morgens and an earthly queen named Adriana had settled.
It was indeed beautiful there. There were pearls instead of berries on the blue branches of the trees, the leaves were blue, and there were pearl rains on the coast. The sand was studded with pearls and coral. The birdsong resembled the voices of sirens.
The mirror could also transmit sounds. It was truly an excellent spy. If Desdemona had close friends or adoring relatives, she could see them without going anywhere.
But should she, if she has no friends, spy on her enemies? And does she have enemies? The spy’s eye is clearly designed to spy on ill-wishers. The Morgens invented it for a reason. Even at the bottom, they wanted to maintain control of the world.
“Your kin from the sea can probably see everything that’s happening to us right now,” Desdemona commented thoughtfully on the power of the mirror.
“I don’t think they’re that interested in us,” Moran rearranged an intricate game of live shells on the lomber table. It was called sea chess. The board was divided into a water field and a land field.
“One person plays on land, the other on water,” Moran explained.
“It would be symbolic if you yourself were not the king of the land.”
“Do you want to play on the water side?”
“Oh, no, I don’t!” Desdemona picked up the black shells symbolizing the earth. As it turned out, there was no need to touch them with one’s hands. All you had to do was give the command (aloud or mentally) and they moved on their own. Moran proved to be a more skillful player. Desdemona’s projectiles were sinking in the blue water fields of the board.
“Let’s play for land,” she suggested after a quarter of an hour. “After all, a land king (even as a Morgen himself) has a duty to protect his islands from the sea.”
Moran didn’t bother to remind her that she herself had never become a priestess of the sea god, but allowed her to play on the water side of the board. It wasn’t proving to be so easy. The blue water projectiles burned up, barely hitting the earth fields.
“How can you win like that?” Desdemona was indignant, shuddering at the sight of another flash of flame as another of her projectiles was trapped and burned.
“The principle here is the same as in ordinary chess. You just don’t know your way around the obstacles.”
Desdemona tried again, but again failed and even burned her palm.
“No, I do not know how to play it,” she gave up.
“It’s simple! Not without reason it is a favorite game at the sea court.”
“The shells are burning, and I’m scared. Sea chess is beautiful, but when you start playing it, you realize it’s more creepy than entertaining.”
“You should see the sands!”
“What is that?”
“It’s a game of the goddess Alais. She invented it to drive kings and warlords mad.”
“It must be a terrible game,” Desdemona agreed. The mention of Alais brought to mind the dragon goddess who roamed the flaming palaces of Tioria.
Desdemona gave a sigh of relief. It was easier to think of it that way. The thought of some deity taking Moran away from her did not please her at all. In the king, she’d finally found the friend she’d never had before. She was also in love with Moran. So just looking at him was already a pleasure. And from talking to him, you could learn a lot of secrets that people don’t even know about.
“Have you ever met forest or heavenly spirits?” She wondered. “What are they like?”
“They are delightful to look at, and quite insidious.”
“Are they more insidious than water spirits?”
“I told you, we all come from the same legion. We all have the same habits.”
“I thought only watermen were malicious enough to sneak up on human ships out of the water and sink them.”
“Don’t feel bad!” – Moran decided that she was still sad about the loss of the “Queen of Aquilania” and took her hand. His webbed skin was cool and pleasant, like the touch of a forest spring.
On top of his sea crown, which grew straight from his skin, he wore the traditional wreath of the King of Aquilania, made of gold and rubies. He looked magnificent now. The ladies of the court sighed languidly at the sight of him, but he preferred to sit in solitude with Desdemona.
Perhaps he was the first king of the entire Aquilanian’s dynasty who, instead of searching for favorites, entertained his queen with games. Today he’s forgotten even the cares of state. And he kept saying that as king he had many urgent matters to attend to. Apparently, burden was placed on the shoulders of Quo and other morgens, crawling on the walls and ceilings of the palace, as on the seabed.
It was not good to get into politics, but Desdemona remembered the wailing of the cook and reported:
“The commoners complain that their husbands are drunk on your generous allowance.”
“What do you mean?” His handsome eyebrows raised in bewilderment.
“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep them busy with some useful work instead of feeding a kingdom of slackers?”
“What useful work can ordinary people do for me?”
Moran stood up and beckoned her to the window.
“Look!” The sea was swarming with Morgens, pulling barrels of wine and pearls from shipwrecks. “Humans can’t do that. They’re weak!”
“But you shouldn’t feed your subjects for nothing.”
“It’s not free.”
“Are you scaring me? You want to make the population entirely marine? Will touching your gold make them all sick like my father?”
“It is enough! You’re not my first minister yet,” he joked.
“I’m your wife, which means I have more rights over you than the first minister.”
Moran grinned, showing that he was still happy to have such a beautiful burden. With his morgen’s claws, he could have easily tamed his wife’s stroppy temper, but he didn’t.
Desdemona is bolder.
“Who is the lady who sits at night on the queen’s throne in my place?”
“Is that of interest to you?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Are you afraid she’ll take some of your jewelry? She loves shiny things, like a magpie. She hoards treasures, hoards stolen or repossessed gold.”
“Don’t scare me! I will not give my jewels, that is, the crown jewels, to a rival.”
Nor my husband, she wanted to add, but was too shy.
“All beauties sin by greed,” Moran joked again.
“It’s a matter of principle, not greed.”
“That’s what Sephora says. That’s why she’s holed up in Tiora, the capital of Tioria. It has the most caches of riches, but the rulers there are cunning. I wonder who’s going to get the better of whom? Did it ever occur to you that dragons have the same instincts as magpies when it comes to shiny things?”
“What does that have to do with dragons? Or is the lady really a dragon?”
Moran faltered.
“I don’t remember telling you about Sephora and who she really is,” he glanced suspiciously at the mirror. “Did it show it?”
Desdemona did not dissuade him. Outside the windows, the midday sun was shining brightly, but suddenly darkness fell, as if a giant had risen from the sea and covered the sky.
“Is it a solar eclipse?” She worried. Being in the dark, in the middle of the day was scary. “They say there is a solar eclipse before the sea god takes the sacrifice.”
But Moran wasn’t alarmed. Wouldn’t he be sorry to lose his wife? True, there was still a belief that before the country sank, there would also be an eclipse of the sun. Somewhere in the heights of the sky there was a roar. Desdemona covered her eyes with her palms.
“It has nothing to do with Darunon,” Moran pulled her hands away from her face. “Look closer! The sun was covered by the shadow of wings.”
Something was flying across the sky, making threatening noises. First it spread darkness, then a glow. All the sentries and archers on the towers had long since been replaced by morgens, so no one raised a panic. The silver dragon was approaching the castle. The shadow of its huge wings covered the towers.
“My chief scout has arrived. Would you like to meet her?”
Moran’s courteous offer came like a slap in the face.
“It is no way!” Desdemona exclaimed.
