Lilophea-3: Queen of the Sea and Princess of the Ocean

«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?»