«All right, stay, Zeligena. Lets hope youre not a spy.»
«What do you mean?» Zeligena snorted insolently. «Im an honest swamp dweller who was defeated by a dragon.»
«Im angry with him myself,» Patricia noticed a metal tube on the side of the boat. It looked like a spyglass, but it was fancy.
«It is a morgen spyglass!» Netopyrina was surprised. «It must have been left here by the sea people. Or maybe its a gift?»
«You can see the Undersea Kingdom through it,» Zeligenna interjected. «Let me see!»
But Patricia had already looked through the peephole herself and was surprised. The tube showed not the water and the horizon, but the walls of a palace of shells and pyramids of pearls.
«It is beautiful!» Patricia exhaled.
«What? What did you see?» Nethopyrina and Zeligena began to snatch the telescope from her.
«Calm down! Im the captain, not you insolent fairies!»
What do fairies do? They wrestled the telescope from her just as the handsome triton appeared in it. Patricia wanted to look at him again. She wanted to bare her saber to wrestle the telescope away, but the water suddenly smelled foul. Had the dragon struck again?
Patricia glanced at the waves and exhaled in exasperation. Burnt bodies floated in the water, only not human. Maidens with fish tails burned to the color of ash. They were dead mermaids! They turned their faces to the sky like dead fish lying belly up. Slender bodies burned partially or to the bone. The bones, scorched by the fire, were coal-black.
«The dragon burned them! They were burned alive!» One mermaid in the dead pack was almost intact. Only her tail was burned. The blue scales on it were inflamed. But her shoulders, arms, and delightful face were not burned. Over her blue hair, the mermaid wore a kind of crown with pendants of pearls. Her scales were spliced on her stomach and breasts, forming a fancy corset.
Several more lovely mermaids floated out beside her.
«The heavenly fire has passed us by, but weve all got burns,» they complained in unison. «Do something!»
«But what can I do?» Patricia was shocked by their plea for help. It was the mermaids who could sink her ship. Everyone knows theyre sea sorceresses, able to conjure up a storm with their singing. Maybe theyre messing with her. Testing her for strength and wit?
«The dragon is looking for you,» said the mermaid with the crown in her hair. «He is so angry that he burns even sea creatures. This never happened before. It was safe underwater. If we dont turn you over to him, hell burn the whole sea kingdom.»
«Is it one dragon?» Patricia was surprised.
«It is a special dragon!»
«You are the princesses of the sea,» Patricia noticed the thin coral crowns on the heads of the other mermaids.
«We wont give you away,» the blue-haired mermaid slid her webbed hand around Patricias wrist. «Its still you, isnt it? We owe you a debt.»
Its still her! Yes, though its hard to believe, its still her Lady Patricia, the disgraced and outlawed Lady Patricia. But how do the mermaids know her?
«Did the King of Opal send you?»
If hes in charge of peri and genies, he can handle mermaids too. A logical conclusion! But the mermaid was surprised.
«We dont know him.»
«How do you know me?»
«Are you playing games with us again? You need to hide from the dragon, not from us,» said the mermaid, waving her webbed hand, in which large pearls sprouted like rings.
«I know,» Patricia shuddered at the memory of the burning waves, but now she had fire wine on the deck herself, and the crew of monsters drank it happily. The goblins have even begun to yell drunken songs. The shy mermaids were embarrassed.
«What a company you have now!»
Is this really a reprimand! Mermaids are princesses, they cant hear pirate language.
«I will bring discipline on board,» Patricia promised, though she didnt think it was possible.
«Dont overdo the magic, or everyone will fall asleep. When you sing, even dragons fall asleep, so dont sing any more magic songs and dont overdo it,» the mermaid waved her tail and disappeared into the waves.
Or else she has magic! What a joke!
«See you later, my lady!» came from the waves.
Patricia was discouraged. The mermaids had mistaken her for someone else. And she had unwittingly played along. Playing with mermaids is dangerous. Once the deception is exposed, theyll come back and sink the whole ship. If they find their mistress, theyll realize Patricias a liar.
«What a mess weve gotten ourselves into! It is all because of the King of Opal and his insolent peri!»
The goblin nodded at her, though he didnt know what she was talking about.
The phoenix flashed with sparks. So there was a ship on the horizon. Patricia snatched the spyglass from the gawking Netopyrina. It still showed only the sea: tritons, sirens and an underwater palace.
«No kidding! Show me the horizon!»
The telescope reluctantly obeyed, showing the sea hundreds of leagues ahead.
«Closer! A couple leagues away!»
Someone snorted inside the tube like a capricious evil spirit, but obeyed anyway.
«You really are the Lord of the Wicked if they obey you like that,» said the bat fairy.
«Who do you mean?»
«They are the spirits of the waters.»
Patricia swallowed her objections. The gray fairy would not call out that she had been confused with someone else. She mustnt ruin her credibility as captain of the undead. She had an excellent reputation on board so far.
«It is the King of Opals fleet!» Patricia saw the flag through her telescope. «Well, Im going to settle accounts with everyone! Prepare! Were going to fight!»
A sea battle
Trolls, as it turned out, could jump from ship to ship. They didnt even need boarding hooks. The trolls pushed off the sides of the ship with their spread paws. They clawed at their opponents with all their claws and fangs. Each goblin could handle a whole group of opponents at once. The gargoyles from the boards came to life and threw themselves into the battle against other peoples ships. Lean boggles clawed at their opponents legs and shattered their bones. They killed or maimed many. And still the King of Opals fleet won the battle.
«What we have to do?» Patricia thought frantically. «Shouldnt you use bat magic?»
«Thats dangerous!» The mongrel clawed at the board, and wood shavings flew off of it.
«I know its dangerous!»
The swamp fairy was already using her unpretentious swamp magic, trying to turn the sea waves beneath the Opal ships into mire. Her magical powers didnt last much longer. The water turned green, but the sea did not turn to mire.
A fiery ship would have turned the entire sea into flames in no time. Only in that case, Patricias ship would burn too.
The thin mire from the swamp fairy was not enough to swamp other peoples ships.
«All the other swamp fairies from my swamp were burned by the dragon, otherwise wed be dragging all the ships into the mire right now,» the destitute fairy sighed.
Patricia saw the situation differently. If he hadnt burned them all, not even one swamp fairy would have come to her.
«If we lose, Ill drown myself, but I wont go back to Opal!» Patricia was already regretting getting into a fight. It was better to ask one of the fairies or mermaids to summon the mist. Under the veil of mist, the ship could pass by the fleet and go unnoticed.
«It would be better to ask the mermaids for an elixir to breathe underwater,» Netopyrina said judiciously.
«Is there such an elixir?»
«Mermaids have all sorts of wonders in store. I dont even know about many of them. Mermaids will gladly give you an elixir.»
«Why would they?»
«Theyre very fond of you.»
Patricia barely dodged a sword wielded by one of the taller goblins. The sword slipped out of her hands and began slashing at the crew of the alien ship closest to the Bloodsucker.