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

was only for camouflage.

      «So you followed me here in rags, pretending to be a beggar or a fortune teller?» Lilophea took the cloak and examined it. Yes, this is the one. «It takes time to compare a lady in a palanquin to a beggar at a wedding.»

      Ariana was not upset that she had been rebuked.

      «I wanted to foretell your bad fortune and keep you away from the Underwater King, but I suddenly realized that he himself will not let you go. So my plan to survive you by deception failed.»

      There was nothing to reply to such straightforwardness. She didn’t want to quarrel with the fairy, so she simply kept silent.

      Lilophea looked around. Ariana had so many birds that could breathe in water. They scurried in and out of the water, running errands. Ariana named each of them by their duties. There were Maid, Chambermaid, Gatekeeper, Messenger. Yes, the Seneschal is definitely from here.

      The Siren bird looked at her guest with royal arrogance. Ariana herself, on the other hand, was trying to be polite. Either she pretended or actually had good manners.

      «I wanted to be a queen of the sea,» she admitted, «because I am the most magnificent creature on water. But Seal did not appreciate my qualities.»

      «You had little to lose by not being queen, or you would have had to put up with a harem of nymphs and mermaids.»

      «Do you really think they’re rivals? How arrogant the earthly aristocrats are! They don’t even know what a disguise is.»

      «I beg your pardon?»

      «It’s all for the Sultan of Etar. He sometimes took a tincture to breathe underwater and descended into the underwater world. Seal felt ashamed that with all his wealth he couldn’t have a harem. Earth women would not live long on the bottom, so they hastily assembled a harem of mermaids. In fact, they do considerable work, but the Sultan will never know about it.»

      «So Seal has never been with them?» Lilophea was relieved.

      «So have I, but when the Sultan comes to visit, I have to go to the court and play the role of one of the chief wives. Nereida does the same.»

      «Is showing off that important?»

      «Seal and the Sultan are almost friends. And in Etar, the ruler’s wealth is determined by the size of his treasury and harem.»

      «Are you also a subject of Seal?»

      «Let’s just say I am one of the few who have managed to remain independent. My magical tinctures can rot the whole sea if I pour them into the waves. And some of the Morgens and the people of the coast depend on my elixirs. My talent has given me the right to sovereignty.»

      Such an answer was to be expected. The sea fairy looked very arrogant. She practiced her magical craft with great pride. She certainly thought of her little island on the back of an outlandish fish as a whole independent state.

      «And whose side would you be on in case of war, say, with the ocean?»

      «I would remain neutral. There’s already a war going on! I hear it,» the white fairy said. «The waves bring me all the news. I love to talk to the waves. They just whisper everything they see, and never ask for an answer. You can ask them about everything that happens in the depths or on the coast, and they will deliver everything in detail.»

      «So says Katharina, a noble captive of the whale. Curiously enough, from the rustling of the waves, both fairy and prisoner can hear about everything that goes on in the world.»

      «You’ll have a chance to escape soon,» Ariana wizened a little over the cube-shaped vessel and drew out a handful of water droplets. In her hands they didn’t clump together, but clung together into a necklace. It didn’t melt, even after Ariana put it around her neck. «Think about what you will choose. Where is the way out of the nets, and where are the nets themselves, in which you are entangled: on land or in the depths?»

      «You speak as if you no longer claim the title of ruler of all the seas.»

      «I have long ago accepted that the throne is not for me. My whole strategy in the war for possession of the king of the sea has failed, and the foolish peacock sent to you failed to inspire fear of the terrible creatures that come from the waves.»

      «After all, it was you who taught Seneschal to sing a song about how dangerous were for mortal girls relations with watermen,» reproached Lilophea.

      The sea fairy did not raise an eyebrow.

      «For mortals, yes, but you’re not a mortal. I didn’t realize it at first. I thought you were born ugly, like the other two.»

      «Morena and Lirena. You mean them?»

      The vial she held in her hand cracked. The blue liquid, which looked like water, spurted out, and burned her fingers badly. The white leaves of her outfit hissed in pain as if they were alive, began to shrivel, covered in ash, even bleeding. The white fairy urgently sought out a jar of some ointment to correct the oversight. She managed to heal the burn, but the leaves growing out of her skin didn’t heal immediately.

      «Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you were born ugly,» the fairy apologized. «I call those who aren’t born the way nature intended, ugly. But that’s the way it is with humans and non-humans. In your case, the anomaly is that you were born normal, human-like. No wings, no thorns. I thought you’d live a little and then die like all humans. But now, I see, I was very wrong about you. Not everything is on the surface. In all your predecessors, you could tell all their abilities at once.»

      «What do you mean?»

      «They are descendants of the union of humans and higher beings.»

      «Did my mother also come from Heaven?» Lilophea recalled the stories of the fall and war of the celestial races in the heights above.

      «She is not from heaven. She is from the depths.»

      «I don’t believe you. Seal says you all lived in the heavens in the beginning. And then there was war.»

      The sea fairy merely jerked her shoulders, and her lacey white wings flapped gracefully.

      «But about the forerunners…» «It was embarrassing to even bring it up. «I was dreaming about twins. They were creepy twins. Two girls who looked exactly the same, but one had a human body, and the other had morgen-like growths all over her body and tentacles under her dress. And then they came to me in real life and began to assure me that they were my own sisters.»

      The white fairy dropped some sort of vial again and cursed quite like the tipsy pirates of Morissa’s company. She must have heard them swear when they passed her islet on their ships, mistaking it for a mirage. Fortunately, this time there was no mishap. The potion in the vial proved harmless. It merely produced a palm tree with blue leaves and blue fruit. They didn’t look like coconuts or bananas. Lilophea reached for one, but the fruit burst, and a blue winged creature emerged.

      «I was saving it for a special occasion,» complained the fairy. «Now I have to make a new one. Everything in my fighting arsenal must be kept in stock.»

      The word «warrior» made Lilophea uneasy.

      «Who are you fighting?»

      «There’s no telling who will attack from the ships that pass by.»

      «They’ll mistake the island for a fata morgana.»

      «Not all of them. Besides, there’s a threat from the sky.»

      «You mean the eagles from Sultanite?»

      The fairy pretended not to understand her, and Lilothea clarified:

      «It is the crowned eagles.»

      Ariana bit her colorless lips sadly.

      «I have recently seduced a dashing pirate captain to protect my home from them,» she