A mermaid and a corsair. Natalie Yacobson

So Desmond never touched the carved figures standing like pillars on the water. The ship always sailed past them without hitting them, even if it came straight at them.

      He explained to his pirates that such figures were mile’s poles for morgens, and it was forbidden to touch them. He would not tell the crew directly all of Cassandra’s secrets. Sometimes you can make things up as you go along. Once, an oncoming sculpture winked at Desmond. It was alive, though it seemed carved from white wood.

      But the purple mermaid didn’t look like a sculpture at all. The jewels on her were magnificent. If they weren’t attached to her skin, the crew would have tried to take them off and split them up by now.

      “Is she asleep under the influence of some magical elixir?” Desmond guessed.

      “If you know too much, you’ll grow old,” the morgen said sullenly.

      “It’s an Earth proverb,” Desmond caught his eye.

      “Sometimes it pays to borrow something even from Earthlings.”

      “I thought you morgens were too proud and independent. You’d rather drown an Earthman than imitate him.”

      One morgen’s tentacle wrapped around Desmond’s neck.

      “Don’t make me angry!”

      Desmond didn’t have time to answer. The tentacle bumped into the amulet and burned. Morgen had to let the corsair go.

      “So what’s her name? Yasmin? Aisha? Mirelle? Lorelei? Anemone? Mirilla? Etea? Amirana? Elegy? Foletta? Morelia? Serpentina? Korephea?”

      “How do you know the names of the sea king’s daughters?” The morgen hissed indignantly. “Surely there must be spies in the Underwater Kingdom. This is outrageous! The man knows the names of the entire list of sea queens!”

      “Which one is she?” Desmond insisted.

      “She is none of them. You don’t know her name.”

      That’s right! He didn’t know it. Unless…

      “Her name is Merediana,” Desmond made one last attempt.

      It was clear from the morgen’s doomed hiss that he was not mistaken.

      “She is Princess Merediana,” the morgen corrected. “She is her underwater highness.”

      “She is a future hostage of the King of Opal, who dreams of conquering the seas with magic. What are you going to do with her?”

      “Why do you care?”

      “I have a right to be curious, because I’m transporting her. And that’s risky! The ship’s already been attacked.”

      “If you hadn’t broken the instructions, there wouldn’t have been an attack,” the morgen poked his tentacle at the open lid, tried to close it again, and couldn’t. Even he didn’t have the strength.

      “The underwater creatures wouldn’t have smelled it on your board if the top defenses hadn’t been removed.”

      Desmond had already realized that himself. Curiosity is a bad thing. That’s what Cassandra was saying. Some newt, supposedly in love with her, had been playing on his shell whistle for a long time, calling Cassandra to go down to the bottom. Cassandra was hesitant, though she was curious to see the underwater world for herself.

      Cassandra knew the recipe for a potion that would help her breathe underwater for a couple of hours, but she was still hesitant to follow the newt to the bottom. He might not be so good-natured in the sea and would not let her go back.

      Cassandra wouldn’t have advised Desmond to open the chest, but then he wouldn’t have seen Merediana. Seeing her once was better than possessing all the treasures of the sea kingdom.

      “Are all princesses of the sea so beautiful?”

      “You must have thought her jewelry was beautiful. You pirates are only attracted to expensive things. Alas, they cannot be removed. They’re part of her body. But the King of Opal will reimburse you for their value.”

      Desmond would have been better off keeping the mermaid’s chest. Even if she doesn’t wake up, it’s a pleasure to look at her. When she’s around, you feel like you’re in a realm of magic. But something strange is happening on board. A bloodstain is spreading all over the sail. The blood is even visible on the other sails. It’s as cold as an icy desert. A crust of ice stretches across the masts and hoarfrost on the ropes.

      “The morgens of the royal family know how to freeze the sea. Didn’t you know that?”

      “No, I didn’t,” Desmond shook his head in denial. How could he know such intricacies? He didn’t know the rulers of the sea, and he didn’t gossip about them.

      “Merediana must be the eldest of the sea king’s daughters,” Desmond sensed the power emanating from the sleeping mermaid.

      “No, she is not the eldest, but the most treacherous.”

      “Is she treacherous?” Desmond couldn’t believe it.

      “They all have innocent faces, but their souls are black, rotten, magic,” morgen hissed angrily.

      Desmond had never even considered that mermaids had souls. All he had seen was Merediana’s body. It reeked of magical currents. Even asleep, she subdued him.

      One time he even wanted to throw her overboard and dive into the waves after her. Surely that was her wish, not his. The sleeping mermaid silently tells him what to do.

      No, this trick won’t work. He’s in command! A beautiful mermaid can’t woo him. Desmond struggled to muster up the will.

      “We’ve got to get her into my quarters.”

      “It will be better in the hold. I’ll draw signs on the entrance and on the bottom of the ship to keep her from getting loose.”

      “Wait! Then I won’t see her for the rest of the voyage.”

      Morgen tapped the deck sympathetically with his tentacles and tried on again to close the chest. He failed again.

      “You shouldn’t have opened it! Now we’ll have to move it somewhere else. Otherwise, we’ll all be in trouble.”

      “But she’s asleep!”

      “You’re so naive! I’ll never mess with a human again!”

      Morgen grunted like a nagging old wife. As if someone had forced him to make a deal with the pirate captain! He’d forced himself on him, hadn’t he? And now he’s not happy. Don’t the morgens know how inquisitive people are? The corsair was no exception to the general rule. He opened the chest and it was as if he was addicted to the mermaid. Even people who get used to the narcotic candy called “ette” don’t feel so addicted.

      Desmond felt uncomfortable that the morgen was touching the chest with the mermaid. However, the chest was soon empty. The tentacles coiled around Merediana and pulled her out of the chest. It wasn’t easy. The mermaid’s jewelry was stuck to the walls.

      The morgen was much better at sorcery than Cassandra. He was able to freeze the water into ice, and from the ice create a container as high as the ceiling of the hold. The container of ice was as clear as glass. Now the mermaid was inside this container.

      “Let her sleep!”

      “What if the water melts?”

      “It will not be,” The morgen drew some symbols of water near the container, which also froze with glittering ice. “Don’t bother her anymore! Suddenly, after a long sleep, she will become the Queen of Opal.”

      “Are you kidding?”

      The morgen let out either a wrenching laugh or a growl. Desmond felt uneasy.

      He looked back as he left the hold. He felt purple webbed fingers touch his shoulder, and Merediana’s voice called to him.

      He’s