Lilophea, the Bride of the Sea King. Natalie Yacobson

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СКАЧАТЬ puddle on the malachite table. There was no place for it to come from, for the jug and the basin for her morning bath were in another room. There was water inside the jewels themselves. But how could it have flowed through the hard casket. There was an icy chill coming from the water. It felt like a draught in her chambers, though the day was very hot. All the ladies at court were waving their fans vigorously. Suddenly there was an underwater chill in the princess’ apartments. Lilophea noticed that in a puddle on the table bloomed most real water lily. What a miracle!

      She must send the peacock away on some errand while she looks around and tries on all the pearl adornments.

      “So you are Seneschal,” she smiled at him. “I’ll call you that if you like. Do not present yourself as so to the other courtiers, or you will be confused with the head of the household. He might think you are making fun of him and tease you.”

      “Let him try it,” the peacock hummed haughtily. Apparently, he’d never been chased by a cook’s knife before. But Lilophea had once seen a swan roasted for a feast, and the sight made her sick. How can you make a feast of a beautiful bird? People can be so cruel sometimes.

      “You love waterfowl! You have a good heart! You have a water heart! Come to me! Come into the sea!”

      Who said that? It was certainly not the peacock. His insolent bird voice is not capable of whispering with such inspiration.

      “I’ll tell you what,” Lilophea opened her writing bag. “Take a couple of letters for me.”

      “I’m not a messenger,” the peacock grunted.

      She scribbled a few lines on two sheets of paper, sealed them with the Royal Seal, and handed them to Seneschal. “Here, one is for the cook, let him not cook birds yet, better let him treat the ambassadors with fish and crabs from the local coast.”

      Here the peacock understood her and nodded sternly.

      “It is no birds to eat,” he agreed and clutched the envelope in his beak.

      “Can you find your own way?”

      He nodded again.

      “And the second letter is for my father’s honored guest. He is coming today. He is the famous navigator and privateer. You know what that is.”

      Peacock dropped the envelope on the table for a moment.

      “Capering is legalized piracy, with the profits from the plunder paid to the crown,” he resented. “Capers are sneaky, sneaky fellows, to think of such a thing. Stay away from them.”

      “This fellow’s not bad. He is quite a charming little rascal. His name is Morrin.

      He’s quite handsome. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He’s tall. He prefers to wear green caftans. In his left ear is an earring with an emerald in the shape of a drop.”

      “And you want me to give him a love letter.”

      “It is not a love letter. I want him to do me a favor and find out something for me.”

      “Well, all right,” the peacock took both envelopes in its beak and finally flew away.

      Lilophea waited until his trail had gone cold outside the window, and then she rushed to measure the jewelry. Bracelets, necklaces, rings, beads – she strung a whole row of them on herself. How beautifully the pearls had transformed her outfit. She became like a sea queen. The twisted-frame mirror on the wall even flattered her. It showed not an ordinary princess, but as if a goddess from the depths of the ocean.

      In five minutes Lilophea managed to try on everything but the intricate pearl pendants, with their many pendants and drops that must fall on her forehead. There was only room on her head for one piece of jewelry – a crown. For some reason she liked it best. As soon as the crown of the sea pressed on her forehead again, a succession of visions akin to daydreams came back into her mind. All these dreams were of an underwater kingdom, of water flowing between lilies and of incredible underwater creatures.

      She even closed her eyelids with pleasure. It seemed to her that the mirror had become a waterfall. All she had to do was stretch out her hand and touch the stream. There was something sparkling in the water. They were pebbles of some kind, colorful as a rainbow. The waterfall runs down the rocks and flows into the river. Unusual creatures with green curls and pearls instead of noses float in the river. A tender music spreads over the water flow. The melody is mesmerizing, depriving you of your ability to think straight. Lilothea walks forward and sees the one who is playing. The musician wears a heavy crown with pendants of coral. It is made in the shape of gills. So unusual! He also has gilded wings in his back. They grow straight out of the bluish skin. Or is it the clothes he’s wearing that are azure? She wants to touch him with her hand, but she does not dare. He turns around himself. The musical instrument that made such marvelous sounds turns out to be nothing more than a shell into which he blew like a horn. Out of the shell pours sparkling water. What she thought were wings and crowns are actually gills. They grow right out of his skin. He is not human!

      Lilophea awoke when the blue hand closed around her wrist. The peacock had interfered again.

      “Don’t sleep, silly,” yelled the Seneschal, who had already delivered the letters and returned. “You might not wake up at all.”

      “And I don’t want to!” Why had he plucked her from such a beautiful vision? Yes, it was a little scary, but it felt good, too. How to go back to that dream? The mirror on the wall still reflected a waterfall of iridescent pebbles, but the musician was no longer on the shore. Soon that vision, too, faded like an illusion.

      The peacock was already busily packing the jewels back into the casket.

      “We must throw it all back into the sea!”

      “Don’t dare!” Lilophea shouted at him.

      “You will fall asleep in your wonderful crown and what shall I do? I will be thrown out of the palace or given as a snack to the ambassadors.”

      “You’ll go back to the great sorceress you served.”

      “You know how far it is! And it’s dangerous without an escort. The first privateers like your friend will catch me and sell me into slavery.”

      He complained as a merchant who was anxious to have his goods shipped by sea, or as an old courtier who feared he would set sail for a long journey to see his family far off in the world. And this is all coming from a bird! Seneschal must be repeating, like a parrot, what he has heard from his former masters. He wouldn’t have thought of it himself with his tiny peacock head.

      “Your old mistress must not have loved you too much to try to bring you back. With her great charms, all she could do was wave her magic wand if she missed you.”

      “Oh, what do you know?” The peacock brushed her off.

      Lilophea suspected that he had been taken from his old duty station in a cage and with his beak tied up, because he was boring his mistress with his chatter.

      I wonder how quickly he would bore her herself to the point where she would start begging her father to sell him? Lilophea was usually patient. She wasn’t easily driven out of her mind. But even she was beginning to think about giving the chatterbox СКАЧАТЬ