water. She felt as though she could fly to the top of the world, reach out her hands and cup a handful of stars. Lilliana laughed with the joy that flowed through her. All her troubles seemed so small in this beautiful room filled with light.
“Lilliana, I have called you. There are things you must do for me,” the voice said.
Lilliana took a step backwards towards the door. She felt the power behind the voice, even though it was still soft.
“Good king, where are you? What do you want?” Lilliana asked.
The light shimmered like morning sunshine on a rippling pool. “You are right to call me King. I am everything and in everything. I am the Light beyond all light. There is nothing that has been made that was made without Me,” said the voice. “You, my child, have been chosen. You are the bringer of light and peace. I have many children who have fought amongst themselves for a long time, and it is time for my Kingdom to be united. It is time for my Kingdom to join together and stand united to face the evil that threatens their souls.”
“I want you to bring peace from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains and down to the darkest depths. I want my people to know Me,” the voice rang out in the light.
“I’m just a child. I don’t know how to do this. How can I battle evil?” Lilliana protested.
“Is a soldier sent to battle unprepared? Is a butterfly sent to fly with no wings? I will give you what you need when the time comes.”
Lilliana felt peace flow over her. “How will I find you when I need you?” she asked. “I feel like I can fly when I’m standing here in this beautiful light, but when I wake up, I’ll still be at the bottom of the ocean.”
“I will always be with you. I will never leave you child. I am yours and you are mine. There is no place on this earth you can travel that I won’t travel with you.”
Lilliana breathed in the mountain air and tasted the sweet water. She knew in her heart that this voice was mightier than any king’s, and she knew that he spoke the truth. “How do I know what to do?” she asked.
“You must only do what is set before you. I have placed you on a path that was fashioned before time. If you follow the truth and walk in the ways of light, the ways of the Morning Star, then you will find your calling. If you choose another way, then the kingdoms will forever be apart.”
“I don’t know if I can do this,” began Lilliana.
“Let your light shine through you. You can do all things through me when I am with you,” said the voice, more like the purr and less like the roar. There was no one around to make the noise. It just seemed to come through the walls and vibrate through the water. Lilliana stood still for a moment and let the sensations of the sounds course through her body. How could she do these things that were so big and beyond her abilities? How could she disobey a voice that was so loving and so mighty? Lilliana didn’t know what was ahead of her tomorrow with the king, and she didn’t even know if she would ever see her own home again, but she knew to the inside of her bones that this voice was the voice of truth. Somehow, she felt that even if she failed and died tomorrow, she would taste the sweet water and breathe the fresh air of this Star again.
“I’m yours,” Lilliana said quietly. “I will do as you wish.”
There was a burst of the brightest light, and then darkness fell in the room. The water flowed salty and cool down the edges of the crystal, and the walls were black and lifeless. There was no cool air, and the grassy smell of the ocean seemed stale and flat compared with the smell of flowers that lingered in her nose. Fear gripped Lilliana as she realized what just happened. She had met with something or someone far greater than a king for he said he owned all the kingdoms. She knew who he must be and her legs quaked. This must have been the Morning Star.
Her heart raced in her chest and her legs felt like jelly. Lilliana felt hot and cold and hollow all at the same time. She looked up to see if the sun was coming up in the east, but it was still dark across the ocean. Perhaps this had all been a dream and she had walked here in her sleep. She must have many more hours before dawn and her appointment with the king. Lilliana rubbed her eyes and stumbled out the door. She opened her gills wide and took in the cool ocean water and allowed her lungs to fill with the air hidden within the water. She looked back at the opening and saw something in the doorway glimmering. It was probably just a glowworm, but she swam towards it anyway.
Lilliana bent down and picked up the small glimmer. It was a crystal in the shape of a star. She held it closer to her face and it glowed and felt warm. There was light in very strange places in this underwater world. Lilliana held the crystal in her hand and made her way back to the cave.
When she entered the cave, Spectrum was still asleep. Lilliana sat on her sponge bed and looked closely at the crystal. It was about the size of the tip of her thumb and it had four large points on it. Between the large points were smaller points that made her think of a blossoming flower with some of the petals still folded. The crystal sparkled with a white light and threw small prisms across her palm. Lilliana held it closer to her face and on a whim sniffed it. Nothing. She had half-hoped it would smell like flowers in the meadow, but it was nothing special, just a crystal like the ones that made the castle. Still, it was beautiful, and this crystal was hers.
Lilliana awoke the next morning to a sound coming from the foot of her bed. It sounded like snuffling, but there couldn’t be any dogs in here. Slowly she sat up and leaned over the side of her bed. A yellow fish about the size of her hand was wiggling with its nose in the corner. It had several spots along its sides and small thorns all over it.
“Excuse me,” said Lilliana.
The snuffling stopped. The fish backed up slowly and looked at Lilliana with one of its eyes.
“Was that fish yours?” came the nasal voice.
Lilliana didn’t like the idea of strangers coming into her home, cave, whatever, while she slept. What if this spotted thing tried to bite her?
“What’s your name?”
“My name! How dare you ask my name!” answered the spotted fish. He faced Lilliana head-on now. Was he getting bigger?
“You were the one eating my fish. I think I can ask who you are.” Lilliana saw Spectrum’s ears prick as he listened to their conversation. It would have been helpful if he had kept the thing out of the cave in the first place.
“You have a point,” said the fish wriggling back into the corner. “Mama always says I assume too much.”
“Is your mom close by?”
“She was eaten by the sharks last month,” the little fish said with tears in his eyes.
“That’s terrible!”
“She-she got them in the end though,” the little fish sobbed. He started wailing in the corner and shaking horribly. Lilliana moved closer to the fish, but he wriggled back to the corner.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me,” the fish cried.
“I just wanted you to feel better.”
“Do you know what it’s like to lose your family to something evil?”
Lilliana thought about the witch chasing her into the ocean. She thought about being captured by armed fish and thrown into a cave.
“I think I do.”
“Do you know what it’s like to be so ugly and strange that none of the other fish in the kingdom want to play with you?”
“How could they think that? You’re cute.”
The fish flushed a pale pink. “When I’m like this it’s good. Sometimes. But the bullies like to make me puff.”
“Um, sorry.” She was still confused. It was too early in the morning for this. “What do you mean by puff?”
“You know. When you say your name you puff. Are those pink things any good?” the fish swam over to Lilliana’s toes.
Lilliana sat up and pulled her feet up under her.
“No. They’re full of poison. It’s a poison so bad you’ll die.” Maybe this rumor wo
uld spread and people would fear her feet. Lilliana smiled.
“Are you the poison goddess? My brother used to say he’d feed me to her when I was bad, but mama said there was no such thing.”
“No, I’m definitely not a poison goddess. I’m Lilliana, and I’m just a girl.”
“Wow. You just said your name and you didn’t puff up.”
“Of course I didn’t. That’s just if you eat poison like my toes.”
“Mitoes? What are mitoes?”
“The pink things you tried to nibble.”
“Those things?” asked the fish, swimming back towards her feet. Lilliana hugged them closer to her.
Spectrum looked up with his eyes fully open now. He stood and shook the sleep out of his mane sending ripples of water over the cave that pushed the little fish to the side.
“Yikes!” yelled the little fish and he blew up to the size of a melon. He was easily four times his original size and his thorns poked out menacingly in all directions. “Don’t eat me!”
“Easy now.” Lilliana tried not to laugh.
“It’s not easy. It’s big!” said the melon as he tried to maneuver his ball-like body towards the window and out of reach of Spectrum.
“He’s my horse and he won’t hurt you.” Lilliana reached a hand to Spectrum’s neck to show the fish.
“If he does eat me he’ll be sorry.” The fish had slowed now and was bobbing slightly.
“He’s not going to eat you. He eats grass and plants.”
Spectrum tossed his head. Lilliana
The Prophecy of Atlantis Page 15