A mermaid and a corsair. Natalie Yacobson

not even a man, but a pirate,” Desmond remembered the curses he had heard both on land and from enemies defeated at sea. “All you pirates are worse than cattle. You’ll all end up in the noose and die in agony.”

      As he locked the hold, he truly felt like the last of the cattle. After all, the princess of the sea was left there alone in the dark, amidst the magical symbols that were probably draining the life out of her.

      Should he let her go? But then he’d be killed himself. Everyone knows that mermaids drag sailors to the bottom. Has anyone ever heard of an exception?

      In his heart Desmond cherished the hope that he would be the exception and the mermaid would love him instead of drowning him. But mermaids are very dangerous and cruel mistresses of the sea.

      Does he really need the love of a mermaid?

      Queen of the sea

      Desmond couldn’t sleep. He tossed from side to side on the narrow bunk. The mermaid’s song was in his ears. It seemed to emanate from all the walls of the captain’s cabin and even from the low ceiling.

      When he closed his eyes, he could see Merediana sitting on a fancy throne of shells.

      “Captain! Wake up!” The young man who had entered the cabin shook him by the shoulder.

      “What’s the matter? Is it a riot over a mermaid?” Desmond was already awake. He sat up on his bunk. “Is the crew so superstitious they want to throw me overboard with the magic cargo?”

      “No, something worse has happened,” the youngster was very shy and hid his eyes.

      He can’t be trusted, Desmond’s mind flashed. The ship’s boy was not long ago the Crown Prince’s page in Mirid. He should have brought him along for nothing. The boy, accustomed to the luxury of royal palaces, dreamed of adventure, but being in a sailor’s cabin on a pirate ship might change his mind.

      “Do you want to go back to Mirid?”

      “No, I’m fine here, but the fleas are biting me,” he flicked a creature off his sleeve that looked more like a tiny scorpion than a flea. “They must have gotten to me from the skipper. But I didn’t come to you about fleas. And I didn’t come to you about a riot.”

      “Then what do you want?”

      “I found this in the helmsman’s things.”

      “You went through the helmsman’s things?”

      “I didn’t mean to, but it was like a mermaid’s voice called me and… you know how it is, you hear a song and you do something you didn’t mean to do.”

      “It is nonsense!” Desmond was careful to hide the fact that he himself had fallen under the mermaid’s spell. He snatched a piece of paper from the young man’s hands. It turned out to be a wanted notice.

      “I didn’t know they were going to catch me and hang me like any pirate!”

      “Take a closer look,” insisted the young man. “The reward for you is very high – 1,500 gold coins. That’s a fortune. With it you can buy your own estate with plantations. For an ordinary pirate, you get a hundred gold pieces at most, but no more.”

      “So I don’t remember doing anything outrageous to be valued so highly.”

      “Or maybe it’s your past. The text at the bottom of the ad says that you’re being rewarded by the Mirid’s government, and that you must be captured alive.”

      “You’re so damn literate!” Desmond crumpled up the wanted notice. It looked like the helmsman had turned out to be a spy sent from Mirid. He’d saved him for nothing. The case had almost solved itself when the helmsman had almost died on the voyage. Now he’d have to kill him anyway. Too bad the sea creature’s tentacles didn’t finish the job.

      In the morning, we’ll have to see if there’s anyone on board who can replace the helmsman. With the last one injured, it won’t raise suspicion.

      “Do you think your father has a reward for your capture?” The young man inquired cautiously.

      Desmond could only laugh deafeningly.

      “My father put a bounty on my head.”

      “But it says you must be caught alive.”

      “It’s a figure of speech. Pirates prefer to be caught dead.”

      The coins he took from the morgen fell out of the chest on the shelf. The ship must have swayed, so they fell out. The gold glittered dazzlingly.

      “It is sea gold!” The young man saw the crests with the kraken, crowns and mermaids. “They’re talismans, not money. You should drill a hole in them, string them on a string and wear them around your neck. They’d make excellent sea magic charms.”

      The ship’s boy picked up one coin, and the skin on his palm from contact with the sea gold immediately began to turn blue and rot.

      “Ouch!” The kid dropped the coin. “How can you even keep them in your house? Anyone else would have died of seasickness by now. It’s like you’re enchanted!”

      It must have been Cassandra’s amulet. Although it seems he took the gold from the morgen long before he got the amulet as a gift.

      Desmond followed the young man’s advice and made a necklace out of the coins. It was easy. Someone had already drilled holes in them. All that was left was to string them on a string.

      “Didn’t you go down into the hold?” He asked the ubiquitous young man.

      “No, the door was locked.”

      “Have you heard any suspicious noises from down there?”

      “I always hear a song without words, as if the mermaid is humming something under her nose,” admitted the young man. “You say she is in the hold now? Can I see her? I didn’t even see her when they dragged her on deck. There was nothing to see behind the backs of the older pirates.”

      “Grab a lantern and let’s go!” Desmond found a shard of mirror in the chest and quickly combed his hair with his fingers. Somehow he was worried about how he would look, as if the sleeping mermaid could see him.

      “You’re not as handsome as you were at court, but you still look good,” the young man praised. “You’re not so dapper anymore.”

      Desmond could see that he looked bad himself, but once he had been considered the handsomest boy in Mirid. His golden hair had recently been trimmed with a dagger blade, but it was almost shoulder-length again. The ends were curling, and there were no scars on the skin of his face yet. Could a mermaid like him? Earth girls liked him. But what is mermaid flavor? Is it true that mermaids can only like drowned guys? Or was it all a sailor’s fiction?

      Desmond threw on a tattered camisole and followed the young man carrying the lantern. The watchmen were asleep that night. This was not usually the case, not even during a feast. Just because it was night didn’t mean the ship couldn’t be attacked. Pirates were not allowed to be careless. Had the mermaid’s presence suppressed their will?

      Nothing had changed in the hold. Barrels of rum, ale, and wine, taken from merchant ships that had crossed “The Triumphant’s” path, were piled around. Bales of cloth and spices were piled nearby, to be sold in Pion or Arcades. Only the container with the captured mermaid had changed location. It stretched to the ceiling. The mermaid was no longer lying down, but straightened up to her full height, as if she were floating on ice. In this position she seemed even more beautiful.

      “Wow!” The young man whistled. “We have a sea goddess in the hold!”

      The wax from the candle in the lantern dripped on the symbols on the floor, left by the morgen, and melted them. The ice inside the vessel immediately began to melt. The mermaid wiggled her fins. She woke up instantly, as if the magical protection that made her sleep