well?” Lilliana asked politely. As long as they were treating her like a guest, she may as well remember her manners.
“Follow me, and I will send food for you and your horse.” Pierce began swimming off to the side of the castle while the many smaller fish hurried to finish untying Spectrum’s legs quickly. Spectrum kicked his legs free of the last small bits of rope and the fish scattered, glad to be away from the great horse. Lilliana and Spectrum followed the great sailfish past the sandy courtyard to the smooth stones that lay on the east side of the castle. At the end of the path of smooth stones was a large wall; the wall of the city that rose up to the top of the sea. In the darkening water it looked like it reached up into a starless sky.
In the city wall was a cave. There were strands of beautiful sea fans and flowers billowing next to the entrance. Lilliana shivered at the thought of the last cave she was in. There was some sort of sea moss along the edges that made the cave more inviting somehow, and as she went in there were more of the stars on the roof and sides of the cave, but they were larger and brighter. Maybe they seemed that way because the cave was smaller and they were closer. Lilliana swam towards one of the little stars and noticed that it was alive. It looked like a little worm with a bright tail.
“Those are glow worms,” Pierce said. “They are very convenient sources of light and they feed on the bits of bacteria floating in the water. They won’t harm you and they will dim as the night goes on so you can sleep.”
“They’re beautiful. So is your city,” said the princess.
“Thank you,” said Pierce. He swam around Lilliana and Spectrum towards the door and turned back. “I can’t continue calling you Beastie. No one with such good grammar could really be such a beast. What should I call you?”
Lilliana wondered if she should give her real name and identity. Would it help or hurt to be known as royalty here? She decided that honesty was the best way, for now.
“My name is Lilliana, and my horse’s name is Spectrum.”
“What are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, forgive me, but we have only seen a few creatures like you and they were unable to live under the water. Sometimes a ship-dweller will fall off of the great shadows that move above the sea and we have been able to see them, but they are always loud and rather upset. The only citizens allowed around them now are the dolphins. For some reason the ship-dwellers are calmer around them.”
“You should have seen those ship dwellers when me and Pierce went to help them, eh Pierce?” Lance interrupted. “We were waving our swords toward the shallow sea mountain where the ship dwellers can drink air easier, and you’d have thought we were declaring war. Every time we came toward them and jumped toward the mountain, like the dolphins do, they screamed and swam the other way.”
“It did have rather a bad end,” Pierce agreed.
“Bad for them, certainly.”
“Did they drown?” Lilliana asked.
“Is that when they turn all blue?” Lance asked.
“Ship-dwellers, people we call them, can’t breathe water. Their lungs need air and when they fill with water the people die,” Lilliana explained.
“Oh, no they didn’t have time to worry about breathing, they were …”
“That’s enough for now I think Lance,” Pierce said pointedly. “I think we are rather confused as to why you don’t turn blue and yet you look similar to the ship-dwellers.”
“Yea. That and how come you know our language when most of your kind can’t even talk?” Lance added.
“I’m not really sure myself,” began the princess. Lilliana absently combed her fingers through Spectrum’s mane. He was nibbling at the moss by the front of the cave.
“You mean you don’t know what you are?” Pierce asked.
“I am a person or a ship-dweller as you call it,” Lilliana began hesitantly. “My home is actually on the coast of a very large island. I was chased into the ocean and I thought I was going to turn blue like people do. I felt my neck change and I was able to breathe water.”
“That’s different from a ship-dweller,” Lance insisted. “You must be peculiar where you come from.”
“What my brother is trying to say is that you must be very special in your land, right Lance?” Pierce nudged Lance with his sword.
“Yeah, something like special, only weirder. Yeah,” said Lance. “Who was chasing you?”
Lilliana leaned into Spectrum and her horse lifted his head. She felt his gaze on her, and rubbed his neck. “I was riding along the beach, and we saw some strange rocks,” she began.
“Strange?” Pierce asked.
“They were bigger than Spectrum and they looked almost like creatures coming out of the ocean. The Rocks were shiny and black, and they seemed to sprout from the sand around an area of the cliffs that was hollowed out by the sea.”
“Did they have anything on them, these rocks?” Lance asked with a thoughtful look.
“Yes, now that you mention it, they had starfish all over them, and all around the cove. It seemed like the starfish were clustered around the large rocks.”
“Spell Cove,” said both brothers to each other.
“I thought it was just a myth,” Lance said.
“Apparently not,” Pierce replied.
“Did a rock chase you into the sea then?” Lance asked.
“No, it was the witch I think,” Lilliana said.
“You’re not sure of much are you?" Lance said.
“Was she loud and ugly and riding a dragon?” Pierce asked.
“Yes, and she threw curses at me.”
“It could have been Pierce’s girlfriend,” Lance said slyly. “It would be hard to tell the difference between her and any witch.”
Pierce scowled at his brother and turned to Lilliana. “We had heard that the witch of Spell Cove was far away for a long time. If what you say is true, then we will need to let the king know. It’s hard to believe that these dark times could get any worse, but apparently they have.”
“My father sometimes spoke of a witch, but he said she was gone forever,” Lilliana said.
“Witches are hard to kill and difficult to predict. They live long lives and will sometimes disappear for decades, only to return with some horrible new weapon. Legend has it that this witch has been around since the beginning of Star Shadow, and she has always brought trouble,” Pierce explained. “You will be safe inside these walls for as long as you wish to be here.”
“Or until the shrimp runs out,” Lance added, picking a bit of something from his tooth with his fin.
“Really, I am most curious about your language too,” continued Pierce.
Lilliana went back to lacing her fingers through Spectrum’s mane and the horse nibbled at the stars on the wall. They blinked out and wiggled away as his snout touched the wall.
“I was taught many languages by my tutor, and one of them was called Jibbertyfish. I didn’t understand why I was being taught such a strange language, and even my tutor said that it hadn’t been spoken in hundreds of years. When I was on land the words sounded like whispers and glugs, and I couldn’t tell most of the words apart. ‘How do you do?’ sounded like ‘Please eat my shoe’ to me. But when I heard you speaking I recognized the language. I even knew words and phrases that my tutor didn’t teach me. I could understand everything you said without having to try. It was as easy as breathing out and breathing in,” said the princess, remembering her first moments in the water.
“I must say that your grammar is delightfully correct,” Pierce said. “You speak better Icthus than my brother here.”
“So you and Lance are brothers?”
“Twins actually.”
“I got all the looks and the brains,” Lance boasted.
“Oh really?” Pierce said.
“Yep. All you got was stuck-up stuffiness.”
“I beg your pardon!”
>
“Pardon granted. See he needs me.” Lance winked at Lilliana.
“I need you as much as I need a shorter sword and an urchin back,” replied Pierce with a puff of bubbles.
“Don’t get your sail fins ruffled,” Lance continued, and looking back toward the princess he changed the subject. “You must be hungry after putting up with my brother for so long, I know what to bring for your horse, but what do beasties, I mean ship-dwellers, I mean peoples eat?”
“I don’t know. I eat apples and bread at home,” Lilliana said, tentatively thinking of the many types of fish she enjoyed too.
“I’m afraid we don’t have that here,” Pierce said. “We could get you sea fruit called plommes or perhaps you would like something a little meatier like oysters or shrimp?”
Lilliana was relieved to hear a familiar food, but ...,
“Are shrimp and oysters considered citizens? It would seem rather rude to eat some of your kingdom.”
Both of the great fish laughed, making their sails billow like silk.
“We grow them for food,” Pierce explained. “Not all of the citizens of Star Shadow eat kelp you know. Many of us, including the king, need something a little more substantial. I’ll add shrimp and oysters to your menu of horse food. Is there anything else you’d like before I go?”
Lilliana was very hungry. Now that things were calmer her stomach had gotten rowdy. It was beginning to growl so much that it sounded as if it were making up its own language. Still there was something that they said that didn’t quite add up. There was some question she knew she should ask, but her stomach
The Prophecy of Atlantis Page 12