And now no healer had answered her call. She had to come to her senses herself. The nausea passed quickly. The invisible fingers stopped choking her, and the coral in her hand felt strangely warm, like coal in a furnace. She felt as if she could open her fingers and her hand would be scorched.
“It is a strange ship!” Lilophea only now noticed the ship in the bay. It resembled a mermaid of wood, with gills on its sides. And pearls glittered in its masts.
“What ship is it? I can’t see anything!” Morrin stared at the horizon in bewilderment.
He must be pretending not to reveal his pirate friends who had illegally docked off the coast, Lilophea decided. She herself had never given away pirates or smugglers. She liked to watch them. And now she liked the ship. It reminded her of a fairy-tale creature, stiff and sailing across the sea on its own. And above it was a bridge of rainbows.
Gifts from the waterman
It was impossible not to attend the reception in honor of the ambassadors from Etar. On her way to the throne room, Lilophea found another unusual thing on the railing of the stairs – a mother-of-pearl box full of large pearls. They shimmered with a pale, dead gleam, and Seneschal kept talking about the drowned women they reminded him of.
“Have you ever seen one in your life?” Lilophea asked bluntly, which made him cover his beak briefly. It’s nice to have a peacock friend, but sometimes he gets tiresome. The large polished pearls in the box were much prettier than the one the caper had given her in the sink. It was as if someone was jealous of that gift and decided to give her something better. But who was it? There was no one at the stairs. It was useless to look around for the giver. And that was what happened every time she found a gift from someone she didn’t know. And lately she was finding them everywhere. In the garden, under the palm trees in the park, on the lawns, in the groves of magnolias, most often by the fountains and springs, but sometimes coral and pearls were brought right into her bedroom. She woke up in the morning and jewelry made of shells and some strange sea stones were lying on the dressing table or right on the pillow. It was a miracle. Lilophea found jewels in the shape of starfish, seahorses, jellyfish, and assorted fish. And one day she noticed that in the gallery someone had paved an entire path of sparkling stones under her feet. They shimmered under her feet in all shades of the rainbow. She had to stoop down to collect them one by one to keep from treading on any one. They shimmered like fireworks.
Even the Seneschal said they were rare and very expensive and should not be thrown back into the sea where they came from. And he had always been against her keeping jewels from an unknown giver.
“I didn’t know there were gems like that in the depths of the sea,” Lilophea said in surprise.
“There’s more than meets the eye,” the peacock muttered, but he didn’t specify what it was. He didn’t like to talk about the underwater world. He wasn’t a water bird, and he couldn’t go to the sea bottom to see all the local wonders with his own eyes. Naturally, he was angry. Lilophea couldn’t breathe underwater either, but she was still curious about all the underwater wonders. If you can’t see everything with your own eyes, you can at least gossip. If mermaids really existed, she would gladly be friends with one to gossip about the underwater kingdom. Of course, if there was such a thing. Even the lore that mermaids could drag her to the bottom didn’t scare her.
Seneschal was much more cautious. Perhaps that was the only reason why he was still not in a cage, but was flying free. A talking peacock would be put in a cage, so in the presence of strangers he pretended to be silent.
Entering the throne room, where the solemn assembly was already taking place, Lilophea was surprised that the peacock became straight as a mute. Not even a squeak. But he obediently sat on her shoulder, pretending to be tame.
Nevertheless some lady wondered why he did not have a golden leash-chain attached to his leg, as tame birds like falcons, parrots and even peacocks in rare cases are supposed to have. And the case of the princess’s personal peacock, of course, was considered rare.
Lilophea hurriedly stepped away from the annoying lady. The seneschal, fortunately, was not heavy at all. Nestled on her shoulder, he resembled a rare piece of jewelry. The stone on his forehead shimmered with iridescent reflections under his colorful tuft, his puffy tail tickled her skin pleasantly, and when it opened it resembled a frieze around a princess’s dress.
“Is he your new admirer?” Her confidant, Morissa, took a lively interest in the peacock. It was the girl’s duty to keep close to the princess at all times, but she often slacked off. And now she was bored at the reception. But she didn’t mind plucking a luxurious feather from the peacock’s tail. The seneschal didn’t even hiss at her. He must have taken a fancy to the pretty brown-haired girl in the canary-yellow dress. Morissa immediately tried to arrange a feather as an adornment for her corsage.
“You have a whole bird, and that is enough for me,” she explained playfully. “By the way, it is a beautiful peacock. What country was it brought from?”
“It speaks!” Lilophea bragged.
“Aren’t you mistaking him for a parrot?” Morissa doubtfully looked at the silent bird.
“It is absolutely not!” Lilophea did not want to look like a liar in the eyes of her friend, so she even touched the peacock by the lush tail. “Come on, Seneschal! Say something!”
But the peacock had a lot of water in its beak.
“I guess he only indulges in conversation with royalty. He doesn’t have the courtesy to talk to a court maid like me anymore.”
Morissa was surprisingly frank when she and the princess were alone. But, like Seneschal, her rudeness wore off as soon as anyone else came along.
Her widowed father left his daughter at court without a dowry. So the beautiful Morissa would probably have to spend her life as a maid of honor, unless her looks and pedigree were more important to someone than her financial situation. Lilophea had heard rumors that Morissa’s father liked to gamble, so the family was constantly short of money.
Morissa was not discouraged. Secretly she ran on dates with the capers. Until it ended in trouble, so Lilophea too was not afraid to watch their ships from the shore, but still did not come close. What’s the worst that could happen? The worst thing would be if people back home found out how she was enjoying her leisure time.
For Morissa, it was all right, even if she was suddenly kidnapped and taken across the ocean. Still, she had almost nothing to lose.
“Look at the way he’s staring at you,” Morissa pointed to one of the lavishly turbaned Eastern ambassadors. He was actually staring at them. “He wanted to kidnap you from here.”
“They are ambassadors from Etar.”
“What crooked swords and feathered turbans they wear,” Morissa said as if she had not heard her. “And the trousers are of expensive silks. And what ornaments! If it is so rich in Etar, I shall pretend to be you and go to the harem instead of you.”
“It is right now! Let’s swap roles.”
“We’ll just have to find a wizard who can change our faces as well,” said Morissa playfully grinning.
Meanwhile, the ambassador was staring at the princess so intently that it seemed as if he was trying to capture her
