LITMIR.BIZ

      ISBN 978-5-0060-4876-8 (т. 2)

      ISBN 978-5-0060-4877-5

      Created with Ridero smart publishing system

      The princess’s hiding place

      The ring had tired and fallen asleep. It could easily be removed from her finger now, but Desdemona did not dare. The sleeping pearl glowed in the darkness like a white lantern. She was mumbling something sleepily. Probably tomorrow it would wake up before Desdemona and start singing, but now its voice was barely audible.

      “Take me to Lilophea’s room! To my friends!” She whispered.

      “Which way is it?”

      “It is to the right, then down the corridor to the left, then up the spiral staircase to the top,” the ring began to mutter instructions.

      Desdemona reluctantly began to indulge it.

      “Well, all right, let’s go!”

      Curious as to what kind of friends the ring might have. Desdemona herself was followed by Bersaba. In the darkness of the palace, her eyes sparkled like two predatory gems. Her gait was inaudible.

      “It is to the left! Then to the right! Turn into the east gallery!” The ring was giving directions. Either it was an experienced guide who had studied the palace layout well, or it felt the attraction of some magical object and easily guessed the direction. “Go past the fountain with stone dolphins, then there will be lunettes with sculptures of nymphs, and after them a strolling gallery. Follow it to a dead end.”

      Bersaba kept up. She seemed to float above the floor rather than tread on it. She had a predatory look about her. Though she kept a respectful distance, Desdemona felt uneasy. She had gone looking for trouble at the call of the magic ring! In the morning it will wake up and declare that all his night instructions were just a dream.

      “We’ve reached a dead end!” Desdemona ran into a wall decorated with intricate moldings. “There’s nowhere to go unless you teach me how to walk through walls.”

      “Push the spiral-shaped jewelry!” The ring advised.

      Desdemona did so. Immediately something creaked in the wall. Either there’s a sliding panel hidden there, or the spiral is actually a door handle. More like the latter. The dead end slid open to reveal a narrow doorway. Desdemona slid into it and slammed the door under the nose of Bersaba.

      “It’s a strange passage. More like a hiding place,” she said to the ring.

      “That’s because the doors have long since been bricked up.”

      “Why is it?”

      “People often used to disappear here.”

      “What does it mean?” Desdemona was frightened.

      “This was Princess Lilophea’s apartment.”

      “Oh, that’s it,” said Desdemona. Well, then the first missing person could be the princess herself, who was kidnapped by the waterman. But her jewelry was left behind. Inside the secret room was a real treasure trove. Boxes and caskets were lined up in rows. Gold jewelry, diamond tiaras, rings with semi-precious stones, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, tiaras sparkled in them.

      “There are all the gifts of the Water King!” commented the napping ring. Once in Lilophea’s room, it came to life.

      “It couldn’t be!” Desdemona began to go through rubies, sapphires, emeralds and along with them suddenly noticed unusual gems with iridescence. There are really no such gems on earth.

      Desdemona was afraid to touch the pearl beads. She already knew what the pearls given by the waterman could do. Though the pearls around her own neck had loosened their grip, they were still clinging to her skin.

      By the way, jewelry made of large pearls and coral was the most abundant here. Huge chests, shaped like the silhouettes of fairy-tale palaces, were bursting with them.

      Desdemona ran her finger along the lid of one such chest. It must have been the shape of some underwater palace.

      “Are there castles and palaces in the Underwater Kingdom?” She wondered.

      “Look for yourself!” The ring advised her.

      What do you mean, see for yourself? Pearl is probably asleep and does not realize that it is a palace on land and not on the seabed.

      Nevertheless, the pearl asked cheerfully:

      “Take me off your finger and put me in that chest over there, which is full of pearl rings. I want to talk to them.”

      “Well, as you wish,” Desdemona complied, and her ears immediately heard the chiming of many-voiced pearl trills. Her wedding ring was communicating with those inside the box. What wonders!

      What should she do? Bersaba was at the door. We could stay here for the night. The dusty bed under the blue satin canopy was fit for sleeping. For some reason the beautiful mirror opposite it reflected, instead of an ordinary bed, some fantastic bed inside a giant shell.

      The frame of the mirror resembled a wreath of gilded jellyfish, mermaids, and newts. Desdemona touched it and marveled. The reflection inside the mirror immediately changed. It now reflected the sea floor, where the clumsy kraken crawled. Shipwrecks were rotting among the algae plantations. A mermaid was stirring a skeleton tied to an anchor. Chests of gold and barrels full of ancient coins gleamed among the rotten planks of the ship.

      “So this was the Undersea Kingdom?”

      As if guessing her thoughts, the mirror winked at her, for a moment taking on the appearance of a fantastic face, something like a young swamp diva with snakes for hair and seashells for cheeks. Could it be a mirror fairy? In the next instant the picture inside the amalgam changed to a magnificent underwater palace with upper galleries that resembled the curves of aqueducts, walls of shells and columns of gold. Tritons with tridents guarded all the entrances, which were at different levels of height. From within, light poured in and music was heard, but the mirror did not linger on one underwater view, but was carried onward through a labyrinth of sandy embankments and blue gardens. There were pyramids of pearls and some unimaginable creatures. And then the mirror suddenly showed a mermaid lagoon. Close up, all the mermaids turned out to be so beautiful that it was impossible not to feel envy.

      Desdemona immediately remembered her fears.

      “Show my rival!” She asked the mirror.

      And it showed the flaming arches of the palace in Tiora, the capital of Tioria. Through them walked a lady in a dress that seemed orange because it was also blazing. But it was originally azure blue. The bodice and the sleeves still retained their former color. The fabric was adorned with pearls – clearly a gift from Moran. The lady herself was as beautiful as a porcelain doll. A wizard must have arranged her golden curls into a hairstyle that no barber could have done. Her train wiggled like a dragon’s tail, and suddenly she turned into a dragon herself.

      Desdemona recoiled from the mirror. It seemed to her that the lady within could see her. The gaze of the dragon’s eyes stared straight at her. Those eyes are like two jewels on a girl’s face.

      We need to cover the mirror with something! It felt like her rival was about to burst into the room from the looking glass.

      There was no blanket, no scarf, not even a rag. There was nothing to cover the mirror with. Then we must order him to look somewhere else.

      Look? Is a mirror a looking eye?

      “Did you find the spy’s eye?“The king’s pleasant tenor asked.

      Desdemona turned around hastily. Moran seemed to have just climbed the wall and entered through the window. The door was definitely not open.

      “Do

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