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The black woman nodded in response. In flowing silk robes and with colored bird feathers in her hair, she looked like an exotic island queen. She probably was. Lilophea noticed that the tips of crude spears and arrows gleamed in the thicket. There’s a whole warrior tribe hiding out there.
«They don’t like morgens here,» Harisi confirmed, «but I remember you were kind to me.»
«Are you in charge here?»
She nodded.
«And you know enough about us to keep us off your island?» Lilophea noted that the tips of the local warriors’ weapons were silver. «When you fled from Sultanite, did you take much silver metal with you? It was a good defense against Seal’s warriors.»
«It is not good enough,» Harisi sighed. «Once he turns his vigilant attention to our island, we are lost. But Sephora is around.»
«Sephora? You mean the dragon goddess? What’s her connection to your island?»
«Oh, it’s a long story,» Harisi wanted to take Lilophea under her arm, but she nearly burned the silver bracelets abundantly strung on her black wrist.
«I’m sorry!» She apologized at once. «I do not wish to insult you, so that you come to our island with your magic harp and flood everyone here.»
«I will not!» Lilophea promised. Perhaps prematurely! The weapon pointed at her still glared from behind the bushes. What a way to welcome guests here!
«So what is it with you and Sephora?»
«Her ring is shining on your hand, too,» said Harisi, her eyes gleaming with envy. «So she has taken you under her wing because of your feud with Ornella.»
«It’s not that Ornella and I are feuding,» Lilofea hesitated, remembering that this very Ornella was now preparing to attack her home kingdom.
«Even after her griffins had started attacking merchant ships from Aquilania and bullying captains to death?»
«I did not know that!»
«Birds put seals on people. It is like the seal of the morgen. The human mind weakens under their influence, yielding to the will of the one who set the seal. Those who resist perish. I saw a handsome young marshal whom Ornella had so branded kill himself to avoid becoming her slave.»
«She was always capricious and spiteful.»
«And she always disliked you.»
«I don’t even know why.»
«You’re a morgen. She doesn’t like all morgens.»
«But why is it? What have they done to her? There’s never been a flood in Sultanite, or I’d know.»
«She’s probably jealous that you keep control of all the ships and little boats that sail on the sea. You take tribute from people and collect sunken treasure from the bottom. And Ornella is very greedy. All she talked about was how rich the underwater king was. She and Sephora were friends, but they also quarreled over greed. Ornella started cheating at dice to win Sepphora some of her treasure. Sepphora caught her at it. That’s when they became enemies. You should have seen the magical tournament that ensued between them after another dice game. The whole sultan’s castle nearly collapsed. The floor, walls, and ceiling were cracked. Sparks were shooting out of the fire. Inside the cramped quarters a dragon against a griffin is a terrible force, but Ornella survived. But my entourage and I managed to escape. Right on the backs of dragons! Sephora called her pack and freed us in spite of Ornella. She easily broke all the magical slave collars and now has custody of us. I’ll tell you honestly, being under the patronage of a dragon goddess is sheer heaven.»
«At least everything worked out well for you,» Lilophea agreed.
She and Harisi walked along the sunny shore. The island was a very picturesque place. But what were the creatures carved into the surface of the rocks? Did they still inhabit the island today?
«There used to be a lot of morgens’ invasion,» Harisi lamented. «And there were pirates. Our simple tribal magic could not withstand their firearms. We were taken prisoners, sold in the markets of Pion, the largest slave marketplace in the land. Your admirer Morrin was going to make us a colony of Aquilania, and make himself viceroy of the island.»
That was something Lilophea could safely object to.
«No, he would be not a viceroy. He was going to make you a separate independent kingdom, and proclaim himself your ruler. He boasted of that. Only first he had to drive out the Morgens, who lay siege to your island at night.»
«That’s right! We all jumped out of the huts we were sleeping in at the sound of the underwater horn and hid in the rocks. But not everyone was able to do it. Many of my tribesmen died from the blows of the steel gills. Even my father, he was the head of the tribe. I’m the head now. And Sephora flies in the clouds above us. I am so afraid of one day do not please her and seeing my people eaten alive again by lizards from the sea.»
«I will ask Seal not to touch you again. What is the name of your island?»
«It is Tropic Circle.»
Clever! The island is shaped like a circle, and the faces of the supernatural beings carved into the rocks seem to wash over the land in the circle once more. They must be local gods and goddesses.
«Ask Urun better for us! He is the one who attacks at night most often. He’s the king’s pet, so there’s no use complaining about him. But in case you are closer to Seal than he is.»
Lilophea noticed a creature galloping along the rocks, very similar to those whose images are carved inside the rocks themselves.
«Tell me, are only humans living on the island?»
Harisi was cryptically silent.
«In any case, I’ll support you in any way I can. I don’t want us Morgens to have the reputation of usurpers and tyrants. My earthly father accustomed me to generosity.»
She would probably have given up and told her the myths of the island, but a pack of dragons roared in the sky.
«Sephora had arrived!»
She must have been attracted by the ring of fire. It was too late to take it off. She should have met Sephora and apologized for accepting it as a gift from the hands of a thief and crook. For some reason Lilophea had no doubt that Grant that Ceal had almost frozen was cheating on everyone and everything. A high title does not always guarantee nobility.
«I’ll go to her,» Lilophea saw the silver dragon turn into a girl before she landed at the top of the cliff.
«Don’t!» Harisi tried to restrain her, but Lilophea slipped out of her grasp like flowing water. For a moment she seemed to herself to be made of water. Her body became almost weightless as she climbed the stairs carved into the rocks. Some creepy creature with a beautiful horned head came beneath her feet. It squealed and quickly ducked into a crevasse.
Sephora waited at the top of the cliff. Her colorful flock of dragons hovered over the cliffs like fireworks.
Though the island itself was sunny, the sky above the cliffs was gray and gloomy. The mottled bodies of dragons were the only decorations here. They zigzagged across the sky, curling their tails around each other, shooting jets of fire directly into the sea below. It was dangerous to be near them, but how good they were! Red, yellow, purple, orange, green like malachite, and pinkish like corundum. Their scales sparkled like jewel armor. And they all resembled a flock released from a magic box.
Sephora herself was dressed in brocade and lace, like the ruler of the universe. A long train followed her over the cliff, like a living dragon’s tail. Curls of rich golden hue were arranged in a high hairstyle and intertwined with chains of sapphires and emeralds.
As soon as Lilophea approached, Sephora opened her dainty lips and exhaled a whole jet of fire into the sea. She managed to fry a large shark that was just surfacing from the waves, grinding its teeth on the critters floating in the clouds.
One bright scarlet dragon dived down toward the cliff, spotting the water woman, and tried to grab Lilophea with its claws. Defensively, she put her hand with the ring forward. The attacking dragon was immediately struck by such a powerful fire bolt that it flew several meters away and fell into the sea. He survived, but his chest was badly burned.
«It’s okay. He’ll recover quickly,» Sephora watched the pantomime indifferently. It’s how aristocrats watch a performance in a traveling circus or a floating theater. «Dragons have the ability to heal themselves. Did you know that crafty sorcerers hunt us down and make healing elixirs from our blood and innards?»
«No, I didn’t know that.»
«But your father does. He wanted to use the scales of one of my dragons to make an invulnerable armor against morgens, but his knights were not strong enough to wear such armor. He also wanted to make a potion out of a dragon’s liver that would turn two morgens into humans. It didn’t work either. But they vomited a lot afterwards. Now they drink only human blood.»
«Are they Morena and Lirena?»
«That’s right!» Sephora turned to her, pulling back her train, which turned out to be a living dragon tail. «You don’t look anything like them, by the way.»
«So they say! Why did you let me burn your dragon? You command them. Couldn’t you have told him not to attack?»
Or did Sephora want a feud?
«Now you know how it works,» she explained, pointing to the ring. It still sparkled where it had touched the dragon’s scales.
It was hard to be around Sephora. She herself was white as ice, but she reeked of flame like a furnace. Besides, her majestic beauty was so overwhelming that one wanted to bow down before her.
Did Sephora want the ring of fire back?
«Is it really yours? Did that nobleman, who reports to my husband, steal it from you?»
«Let’s just say, through repeated machinations, the ring fell into the wrong hands as it was meant to. But all is well now.»
«Shall I give it back to you?»
«Keep it! I want it to be yours. You could use a little fire at the bottom of the sea to warm you up after the cold embrace of the waterman, couldn’t you?»
Sephora arched an eyebrow slyly.
«I’m not complaining!» Lilophea did not go into the explanation that her love for the water king had so clouded her mind that she did not feel the cold.
Sephora read her mind herself.
«I have never understood creatures in love! They become naive and weak. Love is definitely not for me!»
«But one day it may arise without asking your opinion.»
«And a strong sorceress is able to pluck it from your heart like a thorny rose from the root.»
«Even in case you fall in love with that legendary lord you dream of seducing?»
«That is another matter!»
Sephora’s face was as frozen as a statue and unexpressive. It was impossible to tell from her facial expressions how she felt. But she reeked of both flame and anticipation of triumph. How sure of herself she was!
She gave a command in an indecipherable old tongue, and the dragons all flew as one massive mechanism. The multicolored swarm moved farther and farther away, like a fireworks display over the sea. Sephora, too, was about to fly away.
«Beware of your cousin Ornella,» she advised her goodbye.
«Thank you! But the warning was long overdue.»
«No, it isn’t! She’s plotting something against you.»
«Why is it against me? For Ornella, all the women in the world are rivals and competitors. Why does she have a special grudge against me alone?»
«What do you think?» Sephora gracefully moved her golden eyebrows, shaped like wings. «What have you got that she would want almost madly?»
Lilophea wondered.
«Only treasures from the bottom of the sea, but they are not mine, but Seal’s.»
Sephora could hardly contain a chuckle.
«Consider it as you wish!»
The beauty stepped away from Lilophea, dragging a long train of green brocade behind her, turning now and then into a serpent’s tail. Sephora’s slender body was surrounded by a puff of shimmering mist. And now it was no longer the girl but a magnificent silver dragon soaring over the rocks.
Lilophea clutched her cherished ring in case the dragon suddenly shot fire at her, but nothing of the sort happened. Sephora flapped her wings and flew toward the dawn.
The white fairy of the waves
Harisi saw her off with such a sad look, as if she were watching a sacrifice. A queen voluntarily going out to sea might indeed appear suicidal from the outside. But Lilophea knew for certain that she would not drown as soon as she sank beneath the water. She knew for sure now! Not long ago she had doubted it. She wondered what charms might have helped her breathe under water for a short time, but if she really was a descendant of the Oceanids, then she had nothing to fear.
Fear of meeting her kin is the only thing that should grip her. Her kin started a war with her husband.
Once deep in the water, Lilophea listened. She listened for the sound of Seal’s horn nearby. It was quiet. And even the sharks weren’t swinging at her like they did with Sephora’s dragons. Either they sense the queen of the sea in her, or the blood of Oceanids is not something they want to taste.
Is there ordinary human blood inside her? When she hurt herself on the mermaid ship, some murky liquid came out instead of blood.
It seems that her blood used to be red, like all earthlings. Could it be that after sinking to the bottom, she began to change, returning to her normal underwater nature? Would this have happened to any descendant of Oceanids or Morgens who were born of humans and lived on land for a long time and then returned to the water again?
There is one way to check. Lilophea hoped that in case of danger, her fiery ring would strike the hungry shark with lightning as well. A pair of sharks were just swimming nearby, but were in no hurry to attack. Probably the smell of Lilophea did not excite their appetite. But as she beckoned one of the sharks toward her, she willingly swam up, almost joyfully opening her mouth, which was full of sharp teeth. Lilophea touched one of its teeth deliberately to hurt her. From the shallow wound came not blood, but a bluish, watery liquid. Its taste almost made the shark vomit. The ravenous fish shrieked like a battered one and swam away hastily.
Apparently, the taste of oceanids is destructive to sharks. If you eat an oceanid maiden, you will be poisoned.
Lilophea would have liked to question her so-called sisters about many things, but it was frightening to meet them again. She would have to look at them while they talked and try to keep her cool. It was better never to see them again. Even thinking of their ugliness was unpleasant.
As luck would have it, another unpleasant object of observation came into view. A skeleton strapped to the anchor of a shipwreck was staring at her with vacant eyes. The same amulet as the entire Sultanite’s dynasty had on its bony neck dangled limply. How ridiculous that thing looked on him! He was certainly not of Ornella’s family. So why should he wear it?
Lilophea tore the amulet from the skeleton, and the restraints immediately burst. The dead man sprang to life, and the bones began to grow a kind of flesh mixed with slime.
«Thank you, Princess of the Ocean,» he bowed low to her.
«So you’ve been alive all this time?»
«It was no more than a dead man in a coffin,» the creature, which resembled either a morgen or a laird, looked closely at itself. «It was like, when the crew found out I was a werewolf, my sailors drowned me themselves. Don’t become a bird yourself because of that thing.»
His hand was half still of bone and pointed to the amulet.
«You were a privateer in the service of the King of Sultanite? Why else would you have their amulet?» Lilophea asked, but the revived dead man was no longer listening to her. As soon as he discovered he was free again, all interest in his only companion disappeared.
«Well, farewell! Rokuela’s waiting for me,» he paddled toward the gap at the top.
Lilophea wasn’t even sure who he meant. It seemed that all sailors on land had some lover they hurried to on their return from a long voyage. The dead man might have been no exception. Except that his chosen one might have died long ago, or become the wife of another.
Except that he said a very familiar name. Rokuela was the name of a sea fortune teller. So he was in a hurry to see the sorceress for what? Is it for some kind of ritual for complete resurrection? Or was he the man she had loved when she was young and who had died at sea?»
