Lilophea-3: Queen of the Sea and Princess of the Ocean. Natalie Yacobson

ask Seal not to touch you again. What is the name of your island?»

      «It is Tropic Circle.»

      Clever! The island is shaped like a circle, and the faces of the supernatural beings carved into the rocks seem to wash over the land in the circle once more. They must be local gods and goddesses.

      «Ask Urun better for us! He is the one who attacks at night most often. He’s the king’s pet, so there’s no use complaining about him. But in case you are closer to Seal than he is.»

      Lilophea noticed a creature galloping along the rocks, very similar to those whose images are carved inside the rocks themselves.

      «Tell me, are only humans living on the island?»

      Harisi was cryptically silent.

      «In any case, I’ll support you in any way I can. I don’t want us Morgens to have the reputation of usurpers and tyrants. My earthly father accustomed me to generosity.»

      She would probably have given up and told her the myths of the island, but a pack of dragons roared in the sky.

      «Sephora had arrived!»

      She must have been attracted by the ring of fire. It was too late to take it off. She should have met Sephora and apologized for accepting it as a gift from the hands of a thief and crook. For some reason Lilophea had no doubt that Grant that Ceal had almost frozen was cheating on everyone and everything. A high title does not always guarantee nobility.

      «I’ll go to her,» Lilophea saw the silver dragon turn into a girl before she landed at the top of the cliff.

      «Don’t!» Harisi tried to restrain her, but Lilophea slipped out of her grasp like flowing water. For a moment she seemed to herself to be made of water. Her body became almost weightless as she climbed the stairs carved into the rocks. Some creepy creature with a beautiful horned head came beneath her feet. It squealed and quickly ducked into a crevasse.

      Sephora waited at the top of the cliff. Her colorful flock of dragons hovered over the cliffs like fireworks.

      Though the island itself was sunny, the sky above the cliffs was gray and gloomy. The mottled bodies of dragons were the only decorations here. They zigzagged across the sky, curling their tails around each other, shooting jets of fire directly into the sea below. It was dangerous to be near them, but how good they were! Red, yellow, purple, orange, green like malachite, and pinkish like corundum. Their scales sparkled like jewel armor. And they all resembled a flock released from a magic box.

      Sephora herself was dressed in brocade and lace, like the ruler of the universe. A long train followed her over the cliff, like a living dragon’s tail. Curls of rich golden hue were arranged in a high hairstyle and intertwined with chains of sapphires and emeralds.

      As soon as Lilophea approached, Sephora opened her dainty lips and exhaled a whole jet of fire into the sea. She managed to fry a large shark that was just surfacing from the waves, grinding its teeth on the critters floating in the clouds.

      One bright scarlet dragon dived down toward the cliff, spotting the water woman, and tried to grab Lilophea with its claws. Defensively, she put her hand with the ring forward. The attacking dragon was immediately struck by such a powerful fire bolt that it flew several meters away and fell into the sea. He survived, but his chest was badly burned.

      «It’s okay. He’ll recover quickly,» Sephora watched the pantomime indifferently. It’s how aristocrats watch a performance in a traveling circus or a floating theater. «Dragons have the ability to heal themselves. Did you know that crafty sorcerers hunt us down and make healing elixirs from our blood and innards?»

      «No, I didn’t know that.»

      «But your father does. He wanted to use the scales of one of my dragons to make an invulnerable armor against morgens, but his knights were not strong enough to wear such armor. He also wanted to make a potion out of a dragon’s liver that would turn two morgens into humans. It didn’t work either. But they vomited a lot afterwards. Now they drink only human blood.»

      «Are they Morena and Lirena?»

      «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