.

hair fluttered in the water like a scarlet storm. The open eyes were iridescent. They flashed alternately with different hues. The pearls growing in her skin also glistened and shimmered with pearlescent hues.

      “Merediana!” Desmond whispered breathlessly, as if making a prayer to a goddess. Her eyes mesmerized him.

      The mermaid was pounding against the partition, demanding.

      “Let me out! Let me out!”

      How could he hear her voice through the water? And why hadn’t the top layer of the tank melted? Desmond looked around for something to break it with. He hadn’t brought his saber. There were plenty of boarding hooks in the hold, and a harpoon among them.

      “Don’t!” The young man was afraid. “What if she storms when you let her go?”

      “We can’t keep her here like a fishbowl.”

      “But you used to keep captives from foreign ships, who were sold as slaves in Pion,” the young man said reasonably.

      “The mermaid is prettier, and she is magical. You can’t treat her disrespectfully.”

      “Do you want to lose the King Opal’s favor? I hear he wants to marry one of the sea queens, perhaps her.”

      “The King of Opal wants to marry a mermaid? I doubt it. That sounds more like gossip.”

      “But in exchange for her, the King of Opal will give you anything you want. You could ask him to magically alter the Mirid’s Almanac. Then you can get even with all your enemies and reap the benefits. The King of Opal is rumored to be capable of all kinds of magical wonders.”

      He didn’t care about the King of Opal. Desmond swung his harpoon and shattered the magic cage. Ice, sharp as glass, shattered into shards. A suspiciously large amount of water spurted to the bottom of the hold, as if a hole had reappeared in the bottom of the ship. The water level was rising.

      Merediana shook her purple hair. Up close, she appeared so beautiful it took Desmond’s breath away.

      “Just don’t cause a storm to flood my ship,” Desmond asked her. He was no fool, and he knew that the bubbling water was not flooding the hold by accident. It was already up to his shoulders. Cassandra’s amulet glowed alarmingly scarlet. It meant danger was near.

      Merediana swam up to Desmond. He couldn’t resist touching her, and his hands slid around her waist and into her sharp scales.

      “Who is more valuable: the whole ship or one captain?” Merediana ran her webbed fingers through his hair. “You’re not a typical pirate captain and you won’t drown.”

      She noticed the amulet.

      “How romantic?!” Merediana tried to rip the amulet from Desmond’s neck, but couldn’t. Her fingers burned from contact with the amulet.

      “It is nasty Earth sorceresses!” The sea beauty cursed. Her arms wrapped around Desmond’s shoulders and held him captive. Desmond felt he could not move. All he could do was obey the mermaid. She pulled him with her into the water, and then under the water. A hole formed in the bottom of the ship, out of nowhere. Meredina dived into it, dragging Desmond as if he were a slave on a leash. In her embrace, Desmond could not think clearly. He did not even immediately realize that the mermaid was dragging him as a prisoner to the Underworld.

      Mermaid’s captive

      It was dark underwater. Then a light glimmered in the distance. Merediana was actively raking the water masses with her fin. Clumps of algae and coral grew all around. The mermaid swam between them as if through a tunnel.

      The swim had been going on for about an hour. Desmond would have to drown. He did not immediately realize that he was living underwater against the laws of nature. People suffocate here. And he’s still alive. Do we have Cassandra’s amulet to thank for that? Or was it the embrace of the Princess of the Sea? Until Merediana releases him, will he not suffocate?

      The mermaid hummed a song on the way about the pleasure of drowning handsome boys.

      “How I love to drag someone handsome to the bottom, hug and kiss him and watch him suffocate and then become a skeleton on the bottom.”

      Is she kidding? Can’t she see that Desmond isn’t drowning?

      Merediana laughed. She pressed her lips against her captive’s for a moment. The kiss brought unexpected pleasure. Desmond was taken aback. Was the mermaid trying to give him artificial respiration or was this a kiss of love?

      “Yes, you won’t drown,” Merediana concluded. “There are strong people. They have a harder time than the weak.”

      On the way they began to meet flocks of motley fish. All of them, seeing Merediana, gave way to her. Even fish are afraid to swim close to her, but Desmond fell into her arms. The mermaid fluttered him like a doll, dragging him behind her, and he could not resist her. His whole body felt as if it were restrained. He was neither alive nor dead. What a trap he’d fallen into! Hadn’t he been warned how dangerous Merediana was!

      The bottom appeared below. Plantations of seaweed stretched across it. In their thickets glimpsed the bones of human skeletons. Were all the drowned men victims of Merediana? Among them there was a chest full of gold. Here was a pirate’s dream of sunken treasure, but there was no way to retrieve it.

      Desmond was a little disappointed in the sea kingdom. Where are the palaces, temples and various wonders? It’s just an ordinary, dreary bottom. It doesn’t look like a fairytale sea kingdom at all.

      There was a surprise ahead. The shining gate, decorated with bas-reliefs in the form of heads of magical creatures, turned out to be the entrance to the real Underwater Kingdom. It turned out that the dreary thickets of seaweed were only the suburbs of the sea paradise. Beyond the gate stretched fabulous underwater gardens and pyramids of pearls.

      Merediana swam up to the golden heads on the gate.

      “I have brought a prisoner, let us both through!”

      The golden faces suddenly came to life and gave the mermaid smirks that made Desmond’s blood run cold.

      “Be careful, Merediana! They look too predatory!” He wanted to warn, but all he got out of his mouth was a gurgle. The water bubbled with bubbles.

      “He is a prisoner! It is another one!” The faces sang out. “You have too many amusements! Leave them outside the gate when you’ve had your fill. Prostitutes are no good to anyone here.”

      “This is a corsair and a mermaid kidnapper! A violator of the law of the sea! He will be judged by the sea king himself, for he has kidnapped the Princess of the Sea.”

      “Wow!” The faces whistled, and winked at Desmond, saying, in their opinion, he is a hero for daring to do such a thing.

      “You don’t know what’s going on the surface!” Merediana was angry. “Are you blind?”

      The eyes of the golden faces were monochrome and golden, but they could not be called sightless. They seemed to see even more than they should.

      “We don’t like to observe the surface. There are bad memories there.”

      “It is not there, but in the sky!”

      “The sky stretches right over the sea. How can you look at the surface and not see it?”

      “I respect your grief, but the fall was a long time ago. Stop moaning and open the gate!”

      The gate creaked reluctantly. Merediana sailed through the narrow gate and dragged Desmond through.

      “Ouch!” one of the faces tried to bite his arm. Desmond was surprised to find that his voice could now be heard under water.

      “They are biters,” Merediana nodded. “I don’t like them, but you can’t swim into the Underworld without their permission.”

      She