Youngest Son of the Water King – 2. The queen and the purple mermaids

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.