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bottom and “The Triumphator” was going down. The helm was unattended. The helmsman was clutched by the tentacles of a large octopus. It began to strangle the poor man. Desmond threw his saber and cut off a couple of tentacles. They hissed and crawled across the deck.

      “You are a pirate!” A voice came from over the side.

      Desmond leaned over the side and looked out over the waves. There were swarms of mermaids frolicking below. Their voices sounded like a ghostly chorus. Their slippery blue and green scaled bodies were no match for the purple mermaid he had kidnapped. Truly, she is the princess of the seas. The predatory mermaids with sharp teeth and ears that besieged the ship were no longer admired, but disgusted. Only one of them had something like a diadem shimmering on her head. Apparently, among all the mermaids attacking the ship, she was the only one with a noble nautical background.

      “He’s a corsair, not a pirate,” she corrected her friends.

      “And what’s the difference?” The other mermaids showed claws as sharp as stilettos and jagged elbows. All of them were clearly not princesses, but something like fighting half-fish, ready to ram a ship with their sharp limbs.

      “Corsairs are those who had noble blood in them before they became brigands. Corsairs must have some manners and honor. And pirates are just common, brutal bandits. You can’t negotiate with them, you can only sink them.”

      The mermaid with a diadem on her forehead raised her white eyes at Desmond.

      “You are a man of noble blood. How can you kidnap the princess of the sea? Return her to the sea and forget that she ever existed.”

      The request was made in the tone of an order. The sight of the mermaid made Desmond’s mind go foggy. It must be some kind of hypnosis. Desmond made an effort and averted his eyes.

      The mermaid’s suggestion was pointless. “The Triumphator” was already sinking. He could give the mermaids the Princess or not, the ship will sink anyway. He could try to make a deal, but it wouldn’t be worth it. All pirates will either die in the water or be slaves in the sea kingdom. Too bad the crew got drunk when they should be fighting back. But then again, what can pirates do against mermaid magic? All corsairs, alas, are not magicians. Desmond touched Cassandra’s amulet and recited the short spell she had taught him.

      The holes in the bottom caused by the mermaids’ claws immediately healed, as if the ship were a living creature capable of rapid healing.

      The annoyed mermaids swore with glee and beat the water furiously with their fins. They swooped at the ship again and again, crushing the wooden sides with sharp notches on their arms that resembled gills. The amulet around Desmond’s neck glowed, and the ship self-repaired. All the breaches were filled with fresh wooden planks, as if someone had nailed them over the damaged ones. The mermaids had fallen into despair. No matter how hard they tried to sink “The Triumphator”, they failed.

      “It will soon sink itself,” predicted the mermaid with the diadem. An ominous green mist immediately spread through the water around the ship. It enveloped the ship amorphously, but somehow it could not penetrate on board, as if it was bumping into an invisible barrier.

      “Remember that Shaina has cursed you.”

      And who is Shaina? Desmond didn’t know that.

      “My father cursed me, too, when I ran away from Mirid,” he muttered to himself as he picked up the bloody saber. The blood on it came from the helmsman’s wound, and the severed octopus limbs were water instead of blood. Desmond cursed himself for saving the helmsman and injuring his shoulder. But he could not abandon the poor man, who was being strangled by something that had crawled aboard from the sea. Now this octopus-like creature was trying to push the chest with the purple mermaid overboard. It was unable to do so, although it was working with all its tentacles, of which there were dozens.

      “Get out!” Desmond threatened it with his saber. But it was not the saber that frightened the creature, but the shining amulet around the captain’s neck. It squinted, hissed, and crawled overboard, dropping the chest.

      The glow of Cassandra’s amulet repelled sea creatures. He would have to thank her. Desmond had even intended to give Cassandra a bunch of flowers until he saw the purple mermaid. Things had changed since she’d been dragged aboard. She slept as peacefully as if she were dead, but there was danger from her. And her beauty was enchanting, stripping away will, clouding judgment. Desmond could not think clearly in the presence of the mermaid.

      Even now, while she slept, he felt himself in her power, as if she had kidnapped him, not he her. It appeared that it was possible to be captured by a mermaid even while she slept. But what happens when she wakes up?

      Sleeping mermaid

      It began to rain. The slanting jets beat on the sails, but the blood stain on the center sail was not washed away. The seagull’s blood was staining the deck as well. The mermaid’s lips became so bright as if they were stained with blood.

      Couldn’t she rip the bird’s head off and drink its blood? The mermaid lies in the chest as if in a coffin. Why does it seem that she drank the bird’s blood?

      Desmond found that he could not lift the chest himself and drag it into the cabin. He was strong, but his strength was not enough this time. We’d have to call for helpers. So far, all the pirates were drunk. Drunks are useless. Only the helmsman and the ship’s healer who had treated his wound remained partially sober. Neither of them was fit to help.

      Desmond tried again to move the heavy chest. It wouldn’t budge an inch, as if it were embedded in the deck. What to do? You can’t leave a mermaid unattended. We’ll have to keep watch next to the chest. Desmond felt like taking a nap. His eyelids were drooping. From somewhere in the depths of the sea came sounds like a mermaid’s song. Or were they coming from the deck?

      The predatory mermaid packs, swimming away, were heaving something about going to sic newts or even a leviathan on the ship. They were probably just intimidating the pirates.

      A familiar morgen appeared abruptly on board. A puddle of dark water immediately spread across the deck.

      “Did someone tell you we were in trouble?” Desmond wondered. How quickly these sea creatures react to everything.

      “I smelled it myself,” the morgen took a quick look at the damage and became enraged. The sight of the sleeping mermaid had stirred a storm of emotions, from anger to worship.

      “What’s the matter with you? Would you like some rum to calm you down? It always makes pirates feel better,” Desmond didn’t think that one day he’d have to comfort a ruthless sea monster.

      “This is the first time I’ve seen her not in a sea temple or palace,” it hissed.

      “And who put her in the chest if not you?”

      It was probably a stupid question. The morgen poked his tentacles at the runes on the shell-like walls of the chest. Apparently the rune signs explained everything without words. Cassandra would have understood such an explanation, but Desmond was almost illiterate in magic. He only knew what he had been taught by Cassandra herself and an old court wizarde from Mirid.

      “What is her name?” Desmond began to inquire.

      “It is none of your business!”

      “Yes, it is, if she’s sailing to Opal on my ship.”

      “It would be easy for me to sink your ship,” the morgen threatened, his many amber eyes flashing.

      “If ‘The Triumphator’ sinks, who will take her to Opal?”

      “I’ll drag her to the oncoming ship and hypnotize the captain to be more cooperative than you are,” the morgen immediately found a compromise. Apparently, his powers aren’t in the dozens.

      “I doubt there’s a fool enough to bring such a dangerous cargo to Opal, even under hypnosis. She reeks of death. Are you sure she’s

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