Lilophea-2: Consort of the Sea King

Lilophea-2: Consort of the Sea King
Natalia Yacobson

Princess Lilophea, kidnapped by a waterman, has become the queen of the seas. Now she can turn into a mermaid and work magic. But there are too many secrets in the underwater kingdom, and the sea king Seal has powerful enemies. Lilophea doesn’t know if Seal loves her or is using her as a pawn in making an alliance with mortals. Someone begins to pursuit Lilophea and assure her that he knows a secret that will change everything.

Lilophea-2: Consort of the Sea King

Natalia Yacobson

Translator Natalia Lilienthal

© Natalia Yacobson, 2023

© Natalia Lilienthal, translation, 2023

ISBN 978-5-0060-2968-2 (т. 2)

ISBN 978-5-0060-2969-9

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

The magic of the underwater harp

A wedding with a waterman! A wedding night alone! What a fate! Is she disappointed or is it a relief that Seal has disappeared for a long time? Who knows what awaits her alone with him. He’s not human after all, though he’s damnably attractive.

Lilophea tried to forget the voice of the rebel imprisoned behind the throne room, but it would not leave her mind.

“You could rule alone…”

It was tempting, as if it still spoke to her. It sounded in her brain, penetrating her consciousness in black and red vapors. If she closed her eyelids, it felt as if the bricked-up doors were about to explode from the negative, furious magic that was building up behind them.

But there had been no explosion that would have brought down the entire underwater palace.

In the underwater kingdom, everything was proceeding at its own pace. Mermaid maids scurried in and out, newts with tridents watched over the entrances and exits, sea dragons on the arches came to life and winked at Lilophea. She truly felt like a queen when one blue underwater dragon suddenly jumped down from somewhere on the arcade and blocked her way, not to attack her, but solely to worship her.

Was he impressed by the peculiar crown on her head, or by the fact that she had finally become Seal’s wife? The important thing is that now everyone here honors her as ruler, bows and pays her homage. Even the mighty patterned pillars, which can actually come to life as sea monsters, no longer hiss after her but respectfully sing hymns. The same change occurred with the golden faces in relief embossed on doors, colonnades, and even walls. No longer did they tease her, but only praised her beauty and virtues with monotonous singing. Apparently, they know how to suck up. Lilophea took a long time to look at the bas-reliefs of various mythical creatures, which came to life before her eyes and also gave her signs of esteem. The little golden morag on the column moved and winked at her slyly. Small multicolored jellyfish swarmed beneath her feet. Some of them had female faces. Gee, if you look closely, they’re pretty cute. Maybe she should take them as maidens. They certainly wouldn’t mind. As queen of the seas, Lilophea was their favorite.

How pleasant to be the queen of the underwater kingdom! She never felt so at ease on land. There were intrigues, spies, rules of etiquette, which could not be broken. Here she was free to do as she pleased, to sail wherever she pleased. All around is honor and respect. It is unlikely the same happiness would be if she married an earthly king or sultan. The sultan had a harem of concubines. She would have to be on pins and needles every day there, even as a sultana. Here, it’s so free and so nice. And there’s magic all around. Lilophea couldn’t tear herself away from the living arches of azure dragons. She could not fear them now. After all, she was their mistress. For the first time in her life, she felt happy. Well, almost happy. After all, Seal was still not coming back. It’s even nicer to be around him. But even without him, she felt at home here, as if this land were a foreign land and the underwater realm a homeland.

Could it be that her marriage to the Water King had had such an effect on her? Her whole outlook suddenly changed dramatically. She began to think like a morgen. Had she thought differently at first? The crown suddenly began to press against her forehead and even seemed to heat up. There was an unpleasant feeling that someone was watching her. Lilophea even turned around to see if anyone was hiding behind the arches or pillars. But there was a whole forest of them. Every shadow that flashed behind them could be a spy. Someone was following her for sure, and it wasn’t dragons guarding her in the guise of arches. The feeling of being followed was so unpleasant that Lilophea decided to return to her chambers. She would surely be alone there.

The crown was still pressing on her forehead, and Lilophea took it off. Exquisite thing! It looks like a miniature palace in the shape of a headband. And the sun with a human face in the middle seems alive. Lilophea found a necklace with the same pendant in the chests and put it around her neck. The pendant in the form of a sun with a woman’s face was appealing in some way. But not the reminder of the land over which the sun warmed. Here under the water it seemed to have fallen from the heavens to the depths.

The symbol was mysterious. One had to close one’s eyes and Lilophea could see the sun falling from the sky beneath the water, burning the water column with fire. The fish and morgens moaned at its approach. This sun has the face of a beautiful girl.

Lilophea opened her eyes. The vision burned her brain so that it felt as hot as a furnace. Somewhere above the gates of an underwater palace or on one of the pediments she had seen the same symbol of large size, but where exactly she could not recall. The sun with a human face seemed to mock her, calling her to go there without knowing where. She wanted to wander through the entire palace, like a labyrinth, until she found a symbol on one of the walls, which was alive and burning even under water.

And what if the call of the sun led her to some creepy tract or hollow or magical dungeon?

That’s it, stop thinking about it! It’s some kind of exquisite witchcraft that takes over the mind and makes you go somewhere against your will in search of something you don’t even understand the meaning of. The sun is alive, it is somewhere here, and it is calling to her.

Lilophea tried to shake off the obsession. Maybe take off the pendant, too, so as not to fall under the power of spells anymore? She didn’t want to take it off. The golden sun gently warmed her skin. It felt good to wear it on her chest. The only discomfort was that its proximity to her body gave rise to strange visions in her mind.

Lilophea was distracted when she noticed things that hadn’t been in her chambers before. Apparently they were wedding gifts. Though who had brought them? There was a heavy wrought iron chest with a dormant figure of a brass mermaid on the lid. As soon as she touched it, the mermaid opened her brass eyes and said something in a language Lilophea cannot understand. It must have been an underwater adverb. Lilophea immediately gave up trying to move the lid off the chest, and the copper figure slipped back into sleep. Next to the chest was a jellyfish-shaped candlestick with glowing snails instead of candles, something like a hookah with a mouthpiece in the form of a water snake, and a gilded harp, whose body was made in the form of a mermaid again, or some sea witch with fins instead of arms and legs, and a whole ball of sea snakes instead of hair. An exquisite piece! The strings are gilt, too. Can one play them?

Only when Lilophea touched a string or two did she hear such high notes that it was frightening. It’s a beautiful sound, but it’s too strong. You could go deaf from it. She wished Lady Moralla were here. There was someone who could play in such a way that her music would scare away even the morgens. Lilophea remembered well that during the Morgens’ invasion of the palace, it was only through the window of Lady Moralla’s music that they were somehow afraid to climb. Perhaps skilful music can paralyze even evil spirits? Or perhaps Lady Moralla was putting some light magic into it. This harp she would certainly have been able to handle. But, alas, it was Lady Moralla that no watery wanted to marry, so she and her musical talents remained on the surface.

“Don’t be a doomsayer! Who knows what will happen!”

The children’s voices sounded so suddenly that Lilophea was taken aback. Who were the newts and morages letting into her chambers? Is anyone but Seal allowed to enter without asking?

She raised her head reluctantly from the lovely harp. Strangely enough, standing beside her were two pageboys, boys about twelve years old in blue livery with bouffants. Is this a dream? Where did the shepherds come from? Lilophea did not immediately see them. They are not children, but half morgens. One boy has the left side of his body like a human, and blue scales and fins growing along the right side. The other, on the contrary, has the right side of his body like a human, and the left side like a fish. One cheek has pale skin like a drowned man, and the other has blue scales. What a miracle! Oddly enough, the shepherds looked pretty, though ominous. The scales gleamed on both halves of their faces as the boys grinned, showing needlepoint teeth. And they had long tongues, like toads.

“Where did you come from? Did Seal send you?

The two negative nods of the head were like reflections of each other.

“Are you from Urun?”

It was a denial again. The fish-boys were twins not only in appearance, but also in gestures, repeating each other minute by minute.

“So why did you come? Who let you in? Who called you?”

“You called us!”

Their answer was baffling. What did they both mean? Lilophea’s gaze fell involuntarily upon the strings of the harp. She had only touched two of them, it seemed, and the two henchmen appeared. And what would happen if the rest of the strings were touched.

“What do you deign?” The voices of the blue henchmen were like underwater echoes in a labyrinthine palace. “Have you any orders? Shall we sink a whole fleet for you? Ravage the coastal villages with the waves? Summon the kind of storm that would tear apart an entire nation?”

Lilophea was speechless with surprise. Half of the children’s human faces expressed absolute innocence at such cruel questions.

“What are we offering our services? You can do it all yourself, after all. You have the harp. We can only instruct you. Tell you which strings to touch to destroy the land world and harm no one underwater.”

They were both already behind her. Their half-fish, half-human mouths pressed against her ears on either side and began whispering such ghastly promises that Lilophea’s nerves failed.

“Go away! Go now!” She shouted at them. “I don’t want you both out of here in a second!”

She saw the look of wild disappointment and even rage flash across their faces, but they swiftly put on a mask of polite indifference.

“It is your command. You are our new Lady and heiress to the throne of the ocean.”

In a moment they were gone, as if two mirrors had been removed. Only ripples twitched in the water where they had stood. One wonders what they meant by such loud titles. They must have been mistaken. She seemed to have become the queen of the seas, not the ocean. Well, what can you take from them? Stupid kids! Half fish, too! Surely those kids must be at least a few hundred years old by now, if not millennia.

Lilophea didn’t want to touch the harp strings again, but somehow it came out on its own. Her fingers ran awkwardly over them, and again the beautiful but crushing music sounded. Lilophea was terrified that the entire underwater palace was about to collapse from her, but nothing of the sort happened. However, the mirror, which habitually showed the surface world, suddenly lit up excitedly, reporting some tragic events on earth. And the face of the morgen, cast on the body of the harp, suddenly became so ominous. The dainty statue’s lips stretched into a malevolent grin. Lilophea felt even creepier. She released the harp from her hands, but it did not fall, but sank smoothly to the console, as if it had been there all along.

“What’s wrong?” Lilophea took the mirror and gasped. It turned out that a flood had just happened. It was in her native Aquilania. The sea had burst its banks with such force that it not only extinguished the coastal fires and overturned all the ships in the port, but also tore down part of the fortress wall. And it happened as soon as she accidentally played the harp. If there is magic in a harp, it is terribly evil. Who would think of presenting it to her at her wedding? Whoever thought of giving it to her at her wedding, and it turns out he meant evil.

“You just don’t know how to use it,” came a squeak from one of the fish henchmen, who was no longer there, or someone else. Lilophea couldn’t believe it was the figure from the harp body that had spoken to her.

“Play softly if you don’t want disasters!”