In the harbor
Well, why did Nethopyrina have to talk like mermaids! Patricia was tired of everyone seeing her as a forgetful person.
Zeligena didn’t think it was bad luck that some sufferer had just died in her cabin. She had fallen asleep in the middle of her miniature swamp. The quagmire from beneath her cabin door was already creeping over onto the deck and swirling with festoons of green. The goblins couldn’t scrub it off, no matter how hard they tried.
Probably after his ship burned, the admiral had been picked up by other ships from the Opal fleet following him. The King of Opal never sent his warships out sailing one at a time.
Patricia tried to see the ships catching up to him through her telescope, but nothing could be seen in the darkness.
«Give it to me!» Nethopyrina snatched the telescope from the captain’s hands. «I can see perfectly well in the dark.»
She’s a bat!
«Are any ships on the horizon?»
«I can’t see a single one! But I can fly over the sea, take a closer look, and then catch up with our ship.»
«No, you needn’t.» Patricia had grown accustomed to Nethopyrine as a friend, and she was afraid she might not return. She was afraid that the fairy might get caught in some magical snares set over the sea.
Having been sailing for a short time, Patricia realized that the sea was full of magic and various traps. It’s not only enemy ships that can get hurt here. Mermaids and dragons are far more dangerous than an entire fleet of enemies.
In the afternoon, an unfamiliar island loomed on the horizon. It was inhabited by humans, not magical creatures.
«It’s Sandal,» one of the goblins said. «There are good taverns there.»
«Then let’s go to the port,» Patricia decided, noticing how eager the goblins and trolls were to stretch their legs.
In the port they traded all kinds of curiosities, silks and spices. The first stalls to appear were stalls of apples and tangerines. Purra wanted ripe red apples of the best variety. She chose the largest apple and Patricia took out her purse. The hostess must pay for her pet’s menu.
Purra became a skillful sponger. She hopped around the counter and picked out whatever she wanted. The hostess would pay for everything.
«Now I’ve got someone to take the captain’s cut,» Patricia grinned. «I had to have a girlfriend like a Purra. All sailors know how loose Purras are.»
But when the shopping spree was over, the Purra dutifully jumped back onto her owner’s shoulder and wrapped her fluffy tail around her neck.
«I feel like you’re trying to put me on a leash,» she told the Purra. The fed animal squeaked smugly.
As expected, there were many sandalwood trees growing on Sandal. It was a picturesque place, but Patricia wasn’t going to go far from the shore. She only walked around the wharf.
One ship in the harbor had burned down. All that was left of it were charred masts and skeleton. The hulk of the ship towered over the harbor. It made the whole harbor look like a graveyard.
«What happened to that ship?» Patricia stopped the first sailor she saw. «Did the powder kegs explode on it?»
«You guessed wrong, beautiful.»
«Was it burned by a dragon?»
«They say it was!»
«Do dragons often fly over Sandal?»
«Well, the local governor had some sort of agreement with them, but recently the dragons burned down his residence, so it’s time to sail away,» the sailor was hurrying to his ship. I couldn’t ask him anything else.»
«I could see why there were pirate ships in the harbor. If the governor is gone, then there is anarchy on the island,» Patricia concluded.
Patricia asked around a bit more and found out that the burned ship had not burned in the harbor, but directly in the sea.
«It came into the harbor already burning,» said a fishmonger. «Several fishing boats caught fire from it.»
Oyster sellers also saw the burning ship enter the harbor.
«It burned so fast that my ship was only slightly damaged by the fire,» said a silk and spice merchant. Now his ship was being urgently repaired. The carpenters had to patch up the entire rear end and the forecastle.
«Good thing we didn’t meet it on the high seas!» The merchant was optimistic. While his ship was being repaired, he chilled out on the wharf and drank rum mug after mug.
Patricia could have told him about a real ship made of fire that set fire to everything around it but did not burn itself, but she decided not to. Who would believe her? Without seeing the dragon ship with your own eyes, you’d think it was just a legend.
Patricia allowed a few more eager sailors to buy themselves a drink and talk about how they had witnessed the burning ship sailing toward the shore.
«It already had charred bottom and sides, no helmsman or captain, but it floated as if it were being guided by ghosts.»
«Oh, that’s something!» Patricia got drunk on rum and gave the Purra a drink.
No one dared molest a girl followed by a crowd of goblins. People looked around incredulously when the goblins called Patricia captain. One of the goblins had found a charred folder on the burned ship that had somehow survived. Patricia guessed the thing was that the folder was braided in a thin metal mesh and closed with a clasp. The fire didn’t get to the paper or the leather binding underneath.
«It looks like a ship’s log-book,» Patricia determined.
«Do you think it didn’t burn because of the spell on it?» Zeligena asked. She hovered over the pier, festoons of marsh green growing under her feet. People scattered away from the fairy in different directions.
«It is like I’m dirty!» Zeligena wrinkled her nose. «There really is black magic coming from that burned ship!»
«Are you sure?»
«I smell evil!»
«It’s evil that the ship burned down and almost set the whole port on fire.»
«No, it is magical evil,» Zeligena sniffed again at the fumes hanging over the hulk of the ship. «Was it a pirate ship or the ship of some evil wizard? I can’t even tell.»
Patricia wasn’t frightened and took the ship’s log for herself. The covers were ashy, but the pages were partially intact.
«I’ll read it at my leisure. Probably I get some answers.»
No one saw her carry the log away. And even if they had, a girl surrounded by a bunch of goblins wouldn’t have taken it away from her.
Patricia’s crew walked the island until dusk. Goblins and trolls hurried to spend their gold in the local taverns. While Patricia waited for them, she spotted an Opal flag on one newly arrived ship.
«Bring me to the windows of that ship,» she asked Netopyrina. She easily complied. No one can see a bat, even a huge one, in the dark.
Patricia looked through the porthole of the captain’s cabin and recognized familiar faces. The crew was in no hurry to disembark. The captain was arguing about something with the peri, who seemed sleepy and didn’t feel espionage.
«Let’s take revenge on our enemies in small ways!» Patricia decided as Netopyrina brought her back aboard «The Bloodsucker» preparing to set sail.
Besides Netopyrina, there were several other flying creatures in her crew: gargoyles, harpies, and chimeras. It cost them nothing to carry a special gift to the King Opal’s ship. Too bad the goblins had drunk almost all the fire wine. It would have come in handy right about now. It would take dozens of barrels to burn an entire Opal fleet, but a small amount would be enough for one ship.
It’s a good thing there was one barrel left. Patricia had it brought to the Opal ship and pulled the cork. The ship burst into flames like a match, barely Netopyrina had time to get off it. The crew must have mistaken her for a huge bat. Behind the large wings, you couldn’t see the woman’s pretty face.
«It’s done!» Nethopyrina rubbed her palms together contentedly. «It burns so beautifully! It looked like fireworks.»
The hull of the ship exploded. Apparently, the fiery wine poured over the powder barrels and other ammunition.
It’s a petty revenge on the King of Opal, but revenge nonetheless. Patricia watched the fire from a safe distance. Her ship was heading back out to sea. She probably only thought she glimpsed the pale silhouette of a fairy like Beatrice in the harbor. Even if the Lady of the Mists is there, that doesn’t mean she came on an Opal’s ship. Going back to Sandal to check wasn’t something Patricia was going to do.
But the ropes from «The Bloodsucker» darted toward land like snakes and grabbed a few sailors hanging around the pier. The blood-drinking ship attracted the food itself. Patricia wrinkled her nose as another spurt of blood spread across the deck. She had known before that she was sailing on a dangerous magical ship, but she hadn’t realized that the ship could hunt on its own, barely near the shore where humans walked.
Here was a sparkling fairy from the wharf, the ropes didn’t hit her. But the fairy herself was watching the ship sailing away and hissed viciously.
Refusal of sacrifice
Patricia clutched the ship’s logbook to her chest. She had a feeling the logbook was going to be taken away. But by whom was it? Was it by a dragon flying through the sky? Or was it by mermaids floating in the water? So far, neither dragon nor mermaids had appeared.
The metal setting of the ship’s logbook felt pleasantly cold against her skin. Patricia was intrigued by the fact that the journal hadn’t burned. It was as if it contained the kind of information she needed to know. Otherwise the item would not have fallen into her hands. Patricia believed in providence. And Purra was interested in the log-book’s cover. She put a nimble paw behind Patricia’s coat and pulled out the log-book.
«Do you really think you can read it?» Patricia laughed.
Purra deftly opened the clasp on the binding, twisted the entries upside down and back, and scratched the back of her head with her paw in puzzlement. The animal obviously couldn’t read the text.
«I can!» A mermaid with blue hair and a diamond tiara on her head emerged from the water. She held out her webbed hands toward the binding.
Patricia was afraid to give her the ship’s log. In case the mermaid snatched it and dove to the bottom. Of course, it wasn’t good to suspect mermaids of being thieves. So far they hadn’t stolen anything from her.
The mermaid peered into the opened log-book and clapped her eyelashes disconsolately. It seemed she had overestimated her sea powers. Earth literacy was incomprehensible to her.
«It’s not the language of one of the coastal states,» she frowned.
«Do you only know the languages of the coastal kingdoms?» Patricia was surprised that the mermaid was literate at all.
«I also know the sea and ocean languages,» she boasted. «I even understand a little of the language of the fire country of Tioria, because I sometimes argue with the fire fairies who live on its shores.»
Patricia whistled in surprise. Only mermaids could think of learning someone else’s language solely to quarrel with their rivals. Everyone knows that the fire spirits of Tioria were rivals to the waterfowl sorceresses.
«And what is your name?» Patricia asked the mermaid. «Do I know you?»
The mermaid looked up at her in amazement.
«I’ve certainly never seen you before,» Patricia determined.
The mermaid’s dark blue eyes widened even more in amazement.
«What kind of games are you playing with me?» The mermaid was outraged and swished her blue tail so that water splashes flew in all directions. The mermaid’s webbed hand suddenly came across a strange symbol engraved on the metal cover. A silver lightning bolt instantly struck the mermaid’s hand.
«Ah!» The mermaid shrieked. «This is the symbol of Adelaide.»
The mermaid tossed the notebook back to Patricia and dived into the water.
«What a fly had bitten her!» Patricia didn’t know how to explain the strange behavior of the sea maidens. One minute they wanted to be friends, the next they were swimming away. The mermaid swam away from the symbol, which was almost invisible on the metal frame, like the plague.
«It’s a symbol of a failed sacrifice to the sea,» Zeligena said, watching the scene. «Mermaids don’t like it, because it once caused a lot of trouble.»
«Can mermaids get into trouble with anything other than fire?»
«Maybe, but they didn’t know it at first,» Zeligena flapped her green wings nervously. «You see, if a mermaid is caught in a net, the net will break, and if you point a harpoon at a mermaid, it will ricochet back to the one who threw it. Mermaids are talented sorceresses. And there’s nothing to say about sirens. They’ll put anyone to sleep with their singing or cause a storm. I’ve seen Lorelei create floods that inundate an entire country, but I don’t know much about Adelaide.»
«Who’s Adelaide? Is she another daughter of the sea king?»
«No, she’s not a princess or even an aristocrat, just an ordinary girl.»
«Then what’s all the fuss about?»
«It is because of her fortunate refusal to be sacrificed to the sea.»
«And what sacrifice can come from the refusal from sacrifice?»
«If she finds a way to do it, it will bring great tragedies.»
«Are you joking?»
«It was like this,» Zeligena fluttered over the side and began to tell the story, the occasional dust falling from her green fingers and forming into sparkling pictures of what had happened. «It happened long ago in a coastal state, where every decade one victim was chosen to save the whole country from a flood. It was to be a very beautiful girl and completely innocent. She was to be dressed in solemn purple robes, adorned with jewelry and taken to a pentagram drawn on the sand. Everything was very pompous. The pentagram was surrounded by bonfires, the girl, drugged with magical elixirs, was laid on the sand. Then the priests recited prayers to invoke the sea gods and sang chants in chorus. As soon as the fires were extinguished by a wave that swept ashore, it was time to leave the victim alone on the shore. She was either taken by a sea monster or the red priestess-sirens from the temple of the sea god Darunon came to tear her apart. They would emerge from the waves and pounce on the victim.»
«It is curious, but creepy!» Patricia admitted.
«There was a special intent in all this,» Zeligena continued, «but I don’t know where to tip the scales of fate. On the one hand it was the salvation of an entire kingdom. It was one sacrifice to the sea instead of an entire country. What’s more important, one life or thousands? On the other hand, it was a terrible injustice for the victim, especially if the victim was an orphan and had no one to save. Why should she alone die to save a bunch of strangers who quite possibly had treated her unkindly all her life? I know that polite people are rare on the coast. Anyway, Adelaide decided that her ruining her life to save an entire civilization was a grave injustice. It was convenient for the priests of the coast to sacrifice one girl instead of an entire civilization, and it was more convenient for Adelaide to save one herself. To the priests’ disappointment, Adelaide turned out to be a very strong individual. People like her come along once in a million. She was able to summon the sea gods and negotiate with the spirits of the mist. Her main goal was to punish all those who had done her wrong.»
«It was specifically all those who wanted to save their lives by sacrificing hers alone?»
«That’s right! Sometimes one soul is more important to the gods than the souls of the whole world, so the sea flooded the whole country and Adelaide alone survived. You should have seen how terrified the drowning population was when the recent victim hovered over the country, carrying a tail of boiling waves behind her, with red flames burning in her eyes.»
«So if one sea victim slips away, an entire civilization dies?»
«It’s an equal exchange, if one sacrifice was worth an entire country, then you can only snatch it away by flooding the entire country.»
«That’s very cruel!»
«It is no more cruel than walking around with a bloodsucking saber on board and sinking other people’s ships.»
Patricia quickly turned around to see the saber hovering behind her. It was as if the weapon was waiting for a new battle.
«I was forced to become a pirate by the King of Opal!»
«Adelaide was forced to become a sorceress by her coastal people.»
«Why did you tell me about her?» Patricia’s heart ached at the story.
«We’re just approaching the island where Adelaide’s spirit lives.»
Patricia looked at the blackened, rocky shore.
«Maybe there was still a chance of avoiding it.»
But the ship was already heading straight for the shore. It would have to crash into the coastal cliffs.
Witch’s Island
The island was like the black, rotten teeth of a sleeping giant. It seemed that the body of the giant had gone under the water, but his head remained on the surface and frozen by the rock.
«Should we all go ashore?» Patricia was worried when she noticed that the goblins and trolls were hesitant to lower the rafts. «Shouldn’t we go clockwise around the ship?»
Zeligena put her arm around Patricia’s waist and carried her to the shore of the island. It was much more comfortable than demanding the crew to lower the lifeboats. Even the magic crew was frightened of the island. What was so frightening about it? All Patricia saw were ugly, dark rocks.
«It’s enough if the captain alone goes around the island,» Zeligena explained. «But I’m brave, so I’ve decided to accompany you.»
«After I go around the island, will the spirit of its mistress let us sail away?
«There is another option. The captain can sacrifice himself, and then the ship will sail too. We must throw ourselves on a saber near the shore. The mistress of the island will be satisfied, and she’ll let the ship go.»
«I liked the first option better,» Patricia decided judiciously.
«I thought you’d choose the lesser of two evils,» Zeligena flapped her wings approvingly.
The waves near the shore were not the usual blue, but black as tar. The small island seemed to be made of rocks. And the rocks here were unusual, black and pointed to the top, as if they were spears. Black spirits hovered around the rocks. There were a whole army of them.
«Ignore them!» Zeligena advised. «They have no right to touch you unless you try to steal their mistress’s relics from the island. But if you do, they’ll come in packs and bite you to death.»
The black spirits actually displayed sharp teeth that resembled black needles. Gods forbid you feel the bite of those teeth.
«You said Adelaide survived,» Patricia rebuked the storyteller.
«That was centuries ago. Since then, her body had become a relic to which adventurers brought gifts. Adelaide is the local dark saint. She can help or destroy. Her spirit hovers over the island and continues to have an affair with the same sea spirits she conspired with in her lifetime.»
«This is the island of the same sorceress who caused the sinking of the whole country!» Patricia had been lamenting ever since the ship had come ashore.
«And what would be better, that this very country of murderers remain intact and continue to sacrifice more innocent girls to the sea?» Zeligena parried.
«I don’t know! That balance of good and evil is too precarious. I wouldn’t risk tipping the scales in anyone’s favor. Both sides are at fault, but the victim was only defending herself. She didn’t have to sacrifice herself even for the sake of humanity. I probably would have done the same thing, made a deal with the spirits of the sea. Besides, mermaids like me.»
Patricia didn’t want to go far from the ship. She had a bad feeling. «The Bloodsucker» was also making strange squeaks, like groans and grunts. It had intended to pass the shore, but something was magnetically pulling the ship toward the rocks. Naturally, «The Bloodsucker» was not happy. There’s not a single human in sight on the island. There’s nothing for the vampire ship to feed on. The ropes that used to follow the victims are hanging sluggishly from the masts.
«I’ll see if there’s any drinking water on the island,» Patricia caught the hilt of a saber hovering not far from the ship. With a magic saber, even the witch’s island was safe for her.
«Until we go clockwise around the island, Adelaide’s spirit won’t let us out of here,» Zeligena repeated. «So let’s go!»
«What if we go around it counterclockwise?»
«Then we’ll be stuck here forever.»
Patricia snorted unhappily, and the Purra on her shoulder was interested in the pebbles that were lying on the shore.
«Don’t let her pick them up, or the spirits of the island will get attached to us!» Zeligena warned her.
But Purra was not to be deterred. She jumped to the shore and picked up a pebble. The black spirit immediately appeared beside her and kept up.
«What’s your hurry, fair ladies?» The spirit’s voice resembled an echo in a chimney, but its tone was ingratiating. «It’s been a long time since fairies have set foot on our shores! Your visit is such a surprise!»
The dark spirit rubbed his black palms greedily. His claws were frightening. Patricia hoped they were made of black ether, like the spirit’s body, hovering a meter above the coastal sand. The sand was black in places, too. It was a devil’s island!
«My mistress is very fond of fairies,» the spirit continued to cheer.
«What makes you think I’m a fairy?» Patricia thrust her saber forward. «Did you see my wings behind my back?»
The spirit looked at her back, even circled around Patricia.
«Indeed, it is no wings,» he scratched the dark, bald back of his head with a claw. «How can that be? I can smell a fairy inside you.»
The spirit leaned over and sniffed at Patricia.
«Your aura is a mixture of dead human flesh and the scent of fairy magic,» the spirit explained.
It’s probably because she’s been killing sailors a lot. She’s a pirate! How could a pirate do without bloodshed? The odors of blood and dead things clung to her ship and to herself. And the scent of fairy magic could have been present because of her friendship with fairies. So it was much for the spirit’s words. He had merely been misled. However, the spirit was sure that Patricia was a real fairy who was hiding her wings and pretending to be an ordinary girl for some reason.
The clingy spirit ingratiated and complimented her, but the encounter almost ended in tragedy. He tried to lure Patricia to the side of the island where the only way around it was counterclockwise. If Patricia had succumbed to the spirit’s entreaties, she would have been stuck on the island forever.
«Fly away from us,» Patricia begged the spirit. «We want to be alone.»
«The mistress of the island will overhear all your secrets!» The spirit objected.
He would not leave until Patricia took the pebble from the Purra and threw it away. That’s when the spirit had to fly away with a howl. Apparently, the spirit was tied to the stone.
The place was gloomy. Patricia shuddered at the thought of being stuck here for the rest of her life. The caves and grottoes were littered with bones that were clearly the remains of human skeletons. There was even one skull of a supernatural creature underfoot. Patricia picked it up to get a closer look.
«Look what a curiosity I’ve got!» She called out to the lagging Zeligena. «What do you think? How much money would a skull like this fetch in the Arcadian market?»
The Arcadian market was usually used to sell various marvelous things for the local shops of wonders, which were then resold as valuable goods to collectors of magical items. The skull of a magical creature fit the category of magical items. Too bad there was only one! She wished she could find more magic bones and skulls on the island. Then they could be sold in an assortment.
«Drop it! Hurry up!» Zeligena suddenly shrieked and flapped her wings excitedly.
«But why is it? It looks beautiful, like a big shell.»
«It’s a mermaid’s skull!»
«What is it?» Patricia twirled the skull in her hands. Could a big crab or a scorpion be crawling out of it right now? Or maybe there’s a tiny sea monster inside?
Suddenly a blue underwater flower bloomed on the skull. A blue light flashed in the empty eye sockets.
«Are you the bride of the sea king?«A voice came from inside the skull. «Or are you the bride of the sea prince?»
«No, I am not,» Patricia answered honestly.
«Then why did you come to me? I don’t have to help you! I have been lying on this shore for a hundred years, giving advice only to those who are sought by lovers from the bottom of the sea.»
«I’m sorry, I took you by mistake,» Patricia wanted to put the skull back at the foot of the grotto, but it stuck to her hands.
«And your hair is like a flame!» The skull praised. «Watermen like red-haired girls. For a waterman, getting a bride with fire hair is like getting fire. Would you like me to marry you to someone from the sea, like a newt or a morag? And if you are of noble blood, you can be offered as a bride to the sea king’s ministers or even to the sea princes. King Seal himself is married, but he has several single sons.»
«Who are you?» Patricia was more interested in the skull than in its strange suggestions. The voice from the skull was definitely coming from a female. «Are you a mermaid or a sea fairy?»
Who could this unusual shell-shaped skull have come from?
«I’m a water nymph. Or rather, I was one,» the skull looked around the gloomy island in surprise. «Take me to the water!».
The skull’s voice became demanding.
«Don’t dare! – Zeligena warned.
Patricia pondered what to do. Taking the skull of the water creature and putting it back into the waves would be the honorable thing to do. Water creatures’ place was in the water. The magical skull might even thank her somehow if she brought it back. But what if the spirits of the island punish her for it? After all, she’s a guest here and has no right to do whatever she wants.
Patricia was about to put the skull back in the shadow of the grotto where it had lain before, but someone’s pale hands intercepted it. They were as cold as death. Their touch immediately enveloped the skull in a familiar mist.
«Beatrice!» Patricia already knew who she was going to see when she looked up. Hovering above her was a pale fairy, shrouded in a blue mist. Her eyes were empty and glowed like two moons imprisoned in her eyelids.
Beatrice did not utter a word, but pulled the mermaid’s skull toward her. She was very strong. Patricia tried to intercept her hands, but it was impossible. Beatrice’s skin was burning cold. Between her fingers had grown something like lacy webbing. Just touching it left deep wounds on Patricia’s palms. How could a thin openwork skin hurt more than a knife?
While Patricia wondered, Beatrice snatched the skull and instantly flew behind the rocks. The mist that followed her everywhere concealed her figure.
«You helped her find the skull of the water prophetess! Now she will take it to her lord!» Zeligena was frightened. «Everyone knows that water prophetesses become prophetesses if they die on land. Their first prophecy is usually a natural disaster, such as a flood that will avenge all earthlings for them. But after a century, they become kinder and begin to give various predictions: not only bad ones, but also good ones.»
«That skull tried to marry me to a water man!» Patricia grimaced. «The mermaid thought that I wouldn’t shy away even from a fiancé like a morag. You know that morags are sea dragons!»
«And you prefer only sky dragons?»
Patricia wanted to say something harsh, but she bit her tongue. There was one sky dragon she really liked a lot. The only problem was that unlike a water dragon, it could burn her with fire.
Nethopyrina chose not to descend on the gloomy hulk, though with her wings she wouldn’t have to tread on the black sand. Even flying over this island is probably bad for many magical creatures. The closer Patricia got to the center of the island, the more Zeligena complained that she had a headache.
«It’s like this island is draining me of all my strength,» she admitted.
When they reached the huge cave in the center of the island, Zeligena felt sick. It looked like the entrance to a palace. Golden runes glittered along its edges. The signs resembled ornaments. Inside the cave, instead of stalactites and stalagmites, there were piles of strange glittering stones.
«They are gifts from the water spirits,» Zeligena explained, glancing warily at the thieving Purra perched on the captain’s shoulder. «Don’t touch them!»
She was worried for nothing. The stones were impossible to steal. They were attached to the walls, floor and ceiling of the cave. They made the cave look like a jeweled casket, which turned out to be a tomb.
«It seemed to be a crypt!» Patricia noticed a flat stone that looked like a tombstone. On it was a skeleton in a luxurious ceremonial dress. The brocade of the garment was woven with the same runic symbols as those inscribed at the entrance to the cave.
«Is this Adelaide?»
«Hush, don’t say her name or she’ll wake up,» Zeligena warned, but it was too late. The skeleton’s ringed hand moved and encircled Patricia’s wrist.
«After the tragedy in her kingdom, she only had part of her name left. Her name is Ida now!» Some spirit hovering under the ceiling of the cave triumphantly cackled.
The skeleton’s hand suddenly released Patricia’s wrist and dropped to the stone. Red fire flashed in the skeleton’s eye sockets for a moment and then immediately went out. Instead of a skeleton, a beautiful dark-haired girl lay on the stone. She was dead, apparently drowned.
«Why are you looking at her like that?» Zeligena wondered. «If she has signaled you, you might as well ask her for something. Let her drown Opal, which you dislike so much.»
«I only dislike the King of Opal, Opal itself is my homeland. How can I flood my own homeland?»
«Without destroying all of Opal, it is unlikely you will get to the king,» the swamp fairy said judiciously.
«Could Adelaide, or Ida,» Patricia was confused as to what to call the sorceress, «drown one king?»
«If he’s weaker than her, he’ll choke on the water while sitting on his throne in Opal, and no one will be able to help him. Ask her!»
Patricia bent over the body on the stone and suddenly realized she couldn’t utter the request. The dead face seemed to hypnotize her.