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Was she really going to leave? Wouldn’t she want to make the captured pirate her personal slave? Desmond had never encountered such pronounced female indifference before. If only a mermaid could be called a woman.
The branding had indeed turned out to be magical. While the tentacles of the octopus overseers held the young man tightly, Dor tried to cauterize his forehead with the brand, but nothing worked. The brand hissed and dug into Desmond’s skin, but it couldn’t make a mark on him.
“Was he enchanted?” Dor scratched the back of his head with a long tentacle.
“You just don’t know how to do anything, you assholes!” Merediana was angry.
The overseers were afraid of her anger. She must have whipped them more than once herself. By the way, the whip, made of a live sea serpent, looked great in her hand. It coiled around Merediana’s wrist like a bracelet, then it hissed, wriggling in her palm.
And a mermaid like that wants to dump him as a slave on a plantation instead of keeping him for her. Her slave he’d be more willing to be. Desmond could not understand himself. He had never wanted to be anyone’s slave until now, and now the mermaid had waved her purple tail in front of him and made his head spin. Earthly beauties are far from her.
Merediana tightened the reins of seaweed and made the skate swim closer.
“It’s done like this!” Merediana ripped open the shirt on her captive’s chest and placed her hand where his heart should have been beating. Her claws and webbing were suddenly red-hot. Desmond felt his skin burn. A large burn spread across his chest, the mark of a mermaid’s palm.
Oh, my God! Merediana had branded her mark on him. Well, maybe she’ll take him with her after all. The sea queen’s look was unyielding. It’s obvious she wants to punish him for kidnapping an eminent person.
“Let him work hard. Don’t let him chill,” she told Dor.
The monster bowed courteously.
“If I find out you didn’t treat him too harshly…” Merediana squinted, her eyes turning into two red slits. Desmond felt dizzy.
“And if my sisters want him, don’t give him to them. Everyone knows their sympathy for beautiful earthlings.”
Merediana’s character turned out to be very unhealthy. How could such a beautiful woman be so mean! If only he had been warned that the Princess of the Sea was such a nuisance!
“If you want to be my master, you’ll be my slave!” She turned to Desmond.
Desmond laughed.
“Do you think it is fun?”
“All the aristocrats and courtesans and earthly princesses told me that in a streamlined form. Only the mermaid said it directly. You’re honest, but impractical. I’m not a galley slave, I’m not shackled. I can swim back to the surface.”
Not so. Her magical power made him kneel on the sea bottom.
“I could sell you as a galley slave, too, and threaten the captain that I’ll send a storm every time you’re treated too gently.”
“You’re better than the princesses of Earth! They didn’t think of that, just threatened me with war if I didn’t marry them.”
“What do they care about a pirate?”
Desmond wanted to argue that he wasn’t a pirate, or at least he hadn’t always been a pirate, but decided not to say anything. It was better that the mermaid didn’t know that. Or else she would decide to sell him to his family for a large ransom or blackmail the king with such a prisoner. She can’t read minds, apparently. Or can she? Her eyes are too perceptive.
And he thinks she’s better than the princesses of Earth. All princesses are the same bore, Earth or sea.
“Oh, I have forgotten,” Merediana slipped her hand under his arm and pulled out a shining scroll. “You’ve broken a maritime treaty, and even though you have a favorable contract, you’re still liable.”
The glittering scroll stretched into a ribbon in her hands, and the ribbon wrapped around the captive’s wrists and ankles.
“It is so much for shackles!” The mermaid snarled.
The shimmering scroll was indeed able to change its shape and transformed into a kind of shackles. You can’t run far in these shackles. They glow brightly underwater, attracting unnecessary attention.
“He’s shackled like a privileged hostage,” Dor squinted suspiciously.
“It’s only until the trial. Make sure he doesn’t try to escape before the sea king judges him. I’ll try to arrange with my father for the trial to take place as soon as possible.”
“And what happens after the trial?” Desmond felt suddenly unable to speak. Only gurgling bubbles came out of his mouth. Merediana smiled slyly. She must have blocked his speech with her magic.
“Slaves are supposed to be silent,” she said, her crowned head held high and proud. Her purple curls fluttered in the water like a storm.
Desmond stared at her dumbfounded. Would he never see her again? It was unlikely that she would personally appear at the trial. Most likely, the sea king himself and all the underwater executioners would torture and execute him. But Merediana will report to her father and ask that the kidnapper be dealt with severely.
“You will probably meet your former friends and enemies on the plantations. Many pirates and sailors end up here.” Merediana nodded at the shabby shadows bent on the seaweed plantations. They themselves no longer resembled workers, but slouching water monsters. Were they all former pirates and current slaves of the sea kingdom?
An incredibly beautiful newt swam up to Desmond and gave him a stern look.
“Should we sacrifice him to Darunon’s followers right away so that he wouldn’t further annoy your highness?” The triton nodded at the temple behind the plantations, with huge tentacles wrapped around its pillars.
It must have been the temple where Darunon’s so-called followers dwelt. Desmond had heard somewhere that Darunon was a terrifying sea god. His followers were probably monsters, too.
“It is not now, Laor,” Merediana, who was about to leave, turned the seahorse around and looked at the newt in surprise.
“Why aren’t you at the ceremony at the palace? You were supposed to help there.”
Laor tucked the blue strands of hair behind his ears in embarrassment. His ears were real shells. His tail sparkled with emerald scales. Apparently, the newt is an important person at court.
“And someone like you was appointed as an advisor to the sea king!” Merediana arched her elegant eyebrows. “You’d leave the council chamber at a difficult moment and swim after any mermaid!”
“It is not any mermaid, but you.”
Triton frowned guiltily.
Desmond had hoped with all his heart that Laor was Merediana’s brother, but it didn’t seem to be the case. Cassandra had said nothing about the sea king having sons. She only mentioned the names of his daughters.
For some reason, Desmond felt an unbearable hatred at the sight of the handsome Triton. If it weren’t for the shackles, he would have killed him. If only a newt could be killed. He thought sea creatures were immortal. Anyway, morgens are long-lived. Merediana herself has admitted to being well into her late teens. Laor must be her age. They both look about eighteen years old, and they both have eternity under their belts.
“What a pair they’d make!” Dor sighed as he watched Merediana and the newt swim away. “It is too bad the princess has already been promised to marry the ocean prince.”
“What do you say?” Desmond was so excited that he could have broken out of his magical shackles. The octopuses barely held him back. One overseer whipped him with a seaweed scourge. It hurt more than the whip.
Merediana, meanwhile, swam up to the temple and stroked the tentacles of a large kraken that wrapped around all the columns of the structure. Laor followed her. What a lucky fellow! Merediana had not driven him away. She’d just gotten rid of Desmond.
Underwater plantations
The work on the plantations was hard and deadly. The ink-colored algae burned your fingers. He could see why the morgens were reluctant to pick it themselves. Desmond’s palms were burned and abraded after half an hour’s work. The algae were still moving, alive and trying to nibble his fingers. They wrapped themselves around the hands, rubbed against the skin as if they were blades, and could even tear off the hand.
One slave, who had had both arms torn off at the elbow by the seaweed, was seized by the overseers and thrown into the sacrificial well near the temple. There, apparently, the poor man died. Other maimed slaves were attacked by swarms of piranhas and eaten alive.
Desmond recognized an old pirate friend he had met in a tavern on Pion Island. The pirate was a tall, burly man who was nicknamed Black Pike. Even he had been enslaved by the morgens. Wow!
Pike noticed Desmond too, recognized him, and for a moment distracted himself from his work. The naughty algae did not miss the moment. They immediately dug into the wrist of Pike, wrapped a network around his legs, stomach, shoulders, twisted a bundle neck. In a minute only bloody pieces of Pike were left. He was literally crushed and torn apart.
“And so will you if you get distracted again!” The slippery tentacles of the octopus slid down Desmond’s body. They were sticky and nasty. The octopus was groping the pirate as if it was going to eat him alive.
“Leave him alone!” Dor arrived just in time for the octopus to almost crush Desmond. “The princesses will probably want him as their servant. He looks a lot like the pirate their sister ran away with. He is also blue-eyed, also blond. All in all it is a royal type. He’s for royalty.”
“They’ll tear him apart in the first game. Such a full-blooded slave will be wasted,” grumbled the octopus, but he reluctantly let Desmond go.
What kind of games are sea queens playing? Desmond noticed that the octopuses were frightened and no longer looked in his direction. How can you frighten such big guys?
The seaweed, on the other hand, was not to be deterred. They were still trying to bite off Desmond’s fingers or at least tear out his nails.
“Why do sea people need so much seaweed?” Desmond hissed under his breath.
“They use it to weave nets at the ocean’s edge,” whispered a slave nearby. He was gathering seaweed on the same stubble as Desmond.
“Are you here for piracy and kidnapping mermaids, too?”
“No, I’m here for breaking a treaty with the king of the sea. I’m a merchant, trying to keep some of my profits from Seal. It didn’t work out. Now I’m working my ass off.”
“Do you have a name?”
“On land, I was called Tiel. At sea, they don’t remember my name. Everyone here is an equal slave.”
“My name is Desmond.”
“You’re a pirate in disgrace to the king of the sea?”
“I am a corsair.”
“Well, corsairs are sea robbers with noble blood. They’re supposed to honor the treaty.”
“We all get into trouble.”
“That’s right,” Tiel looked at the overseers, who were distracted by the punishment of the other slaves. We can talk a little more, maybe even confer about escape.”
“So did you run into greed?”
“It not exactly,” Til blushed. “I withheld not only the profit from the sea king, but also the girl who was to be sacrificed to the sea. I just couldn’t drown her.”
“I see,” Desmond decided to move on to the hot topic. “Can you escape from here?”
“Are you a wizard?”
“Suppose so,” Desmond was glad Cassandra’s amulet hadn’t been taken from him. The amulet gave him a small amount of magical power. Maybe it would be enough to escape.
“We need to remove the shackles, which are magical, deceive the guards, and then convince the Nephilims to let us go.”
“What are Nephilims?
“That’s what I call the winged heads on the gates of the Underworld, but the mermaids themselves call them something else. Mevellines, I think. Mermaids have exquisite speech and terms of their own. Mermaids and newts are the nobility of the underwater world, and monsters like these,” Tiel nodded at the octopuses, “are common people.”
“We’re the villains, because we have to work,” Desmond felt a painful whiplash on his back. It was one of the overseers who had swum close to him and noticed that he was slacking off.
“Get to work, Earthman! Be quickly!” The octopus’ many eyes flashed with such anger that Desmond thought it best to work hard.
The algae had to be plucked up by the roots and then tied into fancy sheaves. In a fraction of a minute a new algae would grow in place of the plucked ones. The work on the plantations never stopped. You could labor here forever and the land would remain uncultivated.
“I’ll be damned for messing with a mermaid!” Desmond swore through his teeth as the insolent algae pinched his fingers.
The cursing made Desmond a desirable target for punishment. He received whips and whiplashes that caused wounds and burns to blossom on his skin.
“The pirate captain had become a slave. Oh, my!”
Desmond looked back at the voice and spotted his longtime foe. The one-eyed captain of “The Mockingbird” was giving him an unkind look. What a meeting! Spike had become his nemesis when they’d shared the proceeds on Pion. And now the enemy was here. They were both slaves on the same plantation. The black patch from Spike’s eye was gone, and a scorpion had taken up residence in the empty eye socket. It had gnawed so deeply into his eyelid that it seemed like a second eye.
How many more enemies from land could one meet in the sea kingdom! Desmond had a bad feeling. Spike had definitely spotted him and recognized him. For now they both labor under the whips of the overseers. But if the octopuses let their guard down, there would be a fight.
Cassandra’s amulet vibrated on Desmond’s chest like a second heart. The magical thing was sensitive to approaching danger.
Merediana had come to see the work. She behaved with the utmost arrogance. It would seem from the outside that she didn’t know Desmond at all.
“I’ll get out of here, get to land, and get a love elixir so strong she won’t be able to live without me. Cassandra can make such elixirs,” Desmond muttered to himself. He had to have something to comfort himself with.
Cassandra could make a magic elixir, but Cassandra was far away. He needed the potion right here, right now. Desmond was going crazy at the sight of Merediana. She had sent him to work on the seaweed plantations while she rode like an overseer in a shell phaeton pulled by giant crabs. The reins in her hands were made of purple seaweed. Where did such seaweed grow? Desmond had seen endless plantations of blue and green algae, sometimes white. But there was no red.
Merediana was chasing crabs with her whip. So he wasn’t the only one in bondage. Desmond felt the blow of the whip just then. The monster overseers noticed he was distracted from his work again. There was no need to ogle Merediana, but he couldn’t help himself. If you can’t see her, there’s nothing to live for. He was ensnared by her on a deep mental level. The fact that his body was in her physical slavery no longer mattered. Worst of all, his soul remained enslaved. Even if he accomplished a fantastic feat and escaped from the sea kingdom, his heart would remain enslaved to the sea king’s daughter.
How funny! He wanted to ensnare her, but he was ensnared himself. It’s best not to make any deals with supernatural creatures. Any ventures against magical creatures will lead you into a trap.
According to Merediana, a mermaid is a sea deity. She wants to be worshipped, and at the same time Desmond’s heart beat like a caged bird. He could barely keep his cool and weed the seaweed.
Does Merediana see right through him? Was that probably the reason she was looking at him with such disdain? Pirates in love can only elicit laughter and squeamishness from mermaids. What did he expect? Even if on land, his handsome looks made women admire him, in the sea, he’s just food for the fish. It’s full of beautiful newts. Not even angels can match Laor’s beauty alone.
Then why do sea princesses choose Earth guys for their amusement? Maybe they like to torture earthlings.
The monster overlords behaved more and more harshly. Whips made of seaweed, which made the flesh decompose, were whipped incessantly. Slaves mutilated by the whipping were fed to the fish. Instead of an underwater palace, he was in an underwater hell. And he feared he would fall prey to the queens of the sea.
“Why did you anger the mermaids so much that they sent you here?” Dor was suddenly interested in him.
“Do you have to anger them to do that?” Desmond said, risking a whip of seaweed.
“They usually like pirates. The eldest daughter of the sea king, Princess Yasmin, even married a pirate and now lives with him on the islands of the Between Worlds.”
“Is it really?” Desmond stared greedily after Merediana. Maybe he has a chance.
