“Father won’t approve, nor will the courtiers.”
“But they won’t hear.”
“I wouldn’t vouch for it. There are too many idle and curious people in the palace.”
“What are they all doing here?”
“Like you; serving someone, paying tribute to someone, asking for something. By the way, you said the island must be conquered. But there are no inhabitants there. So from whom should it be conquered?”
“I didn’t say there were no inhabitants. I only said there are no people there. But in the waters around it… um, how shall I explain it?”
“Are they in the waters?” That’s what intrigued her. “Who could live in the waters?”
“It is not who, but what.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I. That’s the essence of magic. We mortals don’t understand it, and therefore we don’t know how to fight it.”
“What is magic? And where does it come from?”
“Most often it comes from the waters.”
“But the island itself is a piece of land, albeit small.”
“It is not small!” Morrin objected seriously. “It has springs. And by the springs…” He glanced cautiously at the fountain in the form of a mermaid with a pitcher. “I will not fill your pretty head with nonsense, Princess Lilophea. I’ve wrested the island from those freaks. They come out of the water at night. I’ll at least kidnap you and make you an island’s queen.”
“You don’t have to kidnap me. I might agree to it anyway.”
She felt as if someone’s wet fingers closed around her throat and began to choke her. It was hands of water. Water rushed into her mouth and eyes.
“What’s the matter with you?” Morrin shook her.
She wanted to say she was all right, but there was water in her throat. The gallery was deserted. That was why she had arranged to meet Morrin here. No one would see them. And now no healer had answered her call. She had to come to her senses herself. The nausea passed quickly. The invisible fingers stopped choking her, and the coral in her hand felt strangely warm, like coal in a furnace. She felt as if she could open her fingers and her hand would be scorched.
“It is a strange ship!” Lilophea only now noticed the ship in the bay. It resembled a mermaid of wood, with gills on its sides. And pearls glittered in its masts.
“What ship is it? I can’t see anything!” Morrin stared at the horizon in bewilderment.
He must be pretending not to reveal his pirate friends who had illegally docked off the coast, Lilophea decided. She herself had never given away pirates or smugglers. She liked to watch them. And now she liked the ship. It reminded her of a fairy-tale creature, stiff and sailing across the sea on its own. And above it was a bridge of rainbows.
Gifts from the waterman
It was impossible not to attend the reception in honor of the ambassadors from Etar. On her way to the throne room, Lilophea found another unusual thing on the railing of the stairs – a mother-of-pearl box full of large pearls. They shimmered with a pale, dead gleam, and Seneschal kept talking about the drowned women they reminded him of.
“Have you ever seen one in your life?” Lilophea asked bluntly, which made him cover his beak briefly. It’s nice to have a peacock friend, but sometimes he gets tiresome. The large polished pearls in the box were much prettier than the one the caper had given her in the sink. It was as if someone was jealous of that gift and decided to give her something better. But who was it? There was no one at the stairs. It was useless to look around for the giver. And that was what happened every time she found a gift from someone she didn’t know. And lately she was finding them everywhere. In the garden, under the palm trees in the park, on the lawns, in the groves of magnolias, most often by the fountains and springs, but sometimes coral and pearls were brought right into her bedroom. She woke up in the morning and jewelry made of shells and some strange sea stones were lying on the dressing table or right on the pillow. It was a miracle. Lilophea found jewels in the shape of starfish, seahorses, jellyfish, and assorted fish. And one day she noticed that in the gallery someone had paved an entire path of sparkling stones under her feet. They shimmered under her feet in all shades of the rainbow. She had to stoop down to collect them one by one to keep from treading on any one. They shimmered like fireworks.
Even the Seneschal said they were rare and very expensive and should not be thrown back into the sea where they came from. And he had always been against her keeping jewels from an unknown giver.
“I didn’t know there were gems like that in the depths of the sea,” Lilophea said in surprise.
“There’s more than meets the eye,” the peacock muttered, but he didn’t specify what it was. He didn’t like to talk about the underwater world. He wasn’t a water bird, and he couldn’t go to the sea bottom to see all the local wonders with his own eyes. Naturally, he was angry. Lilophea couldn’t breathe underwater either, but she was still curious about all the underwater wonders. If you can’t see everything with your own eyes, you can at least gossip. If mermaids really existed, she would gladly be friends with one to gossip about the underwater kingdom. Of course, if there was such a thing. Even the lore that mermaids could drag her to the bottom didn’t scare her.
Seneschal was much more cautious. Perhaps that was the only reason why he was still not in a cage, but was flying free. A talking peacock would be put in a cage, so in the presence of strangers he pretended to be silent.
Entering the throne room, where the solemn assembly was already taking place, Lilophea was surprised that the peacock became straight as a mute. Not even a squeak. But he obediently sat on her shoulder, pretending to be tame.
Nevertheless some lady wondered why he did not have a golden leash-chain attached to his leg, as tame birds like falcons, parrots and even peacocks in rare cases are supposed to have. And the case of the princess’s personal peacock, of course, was considered rare.
Lilophea hurriedly stepped away from the annoying lady. The seneschal, fortunately, was not heavy at all. Nestled on her shoulder, he resembled a rare piece of jewelry. The stone on his forehead shimmered with iridescent reflections under his colorful tuft, his puffy tail tickled her skin pleasantly, and when it opened it resembled a frieze around a princess’s dress.
“Is he your new admirer?” Her confidant, Morissa, took a lively interest in the peacock. It was the girl’s duty to keep close to the princess at all times, but she often slacked off. And now she was bored at the reception. But she didn’t mind plucking a luxurious feather from the peacock’s tail. The seneschal didn’t even hiss at her. He must have taken a fancy to the pretty brown-haired girl in the canary-yellow dress. Morissa immediately tried to arrange a feather as an adornment for her corsage.
“You have a whole bird, and that is enough for me,” she explained playfully. “By the way, it is a beautiful peacock. What country was it brought from?”
“It speaks!” Lilophea bragged.
“Aren’t you mistaking him for a parrot?” Morissa doubtfully looked at the silent bird.
“It is absolutely not!” Lilophea did not want to look like a liar in the eyes of her friend, so she even touched the peacock by the lush tail. “Come on, Seneschal! Say something!”
But the peacock had a lot of water in its beak.
“I guess he only indulges in conversation with royalty. He doesn’t have the courtesy to talk to a court maid like me anymore.”
Morissa was surprisingly frank when she and the princess were alone. But, like Seneschal,