«It was alive!» shrieked Fiona.
«Dont worry!» The stranger reassured her. «Anything is better than a fire.»
She might have been right about that, but Fiona didnt want to drown either, nor did she want to fall into the clutches of the sea king. But it didnt take long to worry. The shell swam for a while, and then crawled out of the waves and raced down the rain-soaked path. It glided even faster through the puddles than it did through the waves.
Fiona didnt even dare ask the stranger where they were going.
Sea Witch
Barely had the Sultans castle disappeared from view as the white-haired woman sighed in relief. It was evident that her visit to the square had been difficult. Fiona eyed her companion suspiciously. It was as if she had been carried by the sea. The wagon of the great shell slid first through the rain, then through the shore waves, leaving a swirl of foam around it.
«Thank you for bailing me out,» Fiona murmured, though she feared the stranger was leading her into another trap.
«Thank my dislike of the Sultanits dynasty, not myself,» the companion straightened the folds of her white garment, which rustled like sea foam, and again it seemed that the slender woman was only part of the sea, like a nymph of waves or a naiad.
«Who are you?»
«I am Rokuela.»
Isnt that the name Condor said when he sent for someone? But if she dislikes the whole Sultanits dynasty, why did she answer his call? Something doesnt make sense.
«Im Fiona.»
«Ive already been informed of you. Youre the girl who attracted all the Sultanits princes at once.»
Rockwells white curls fluttered in the wind and resembled a whirlwind of snow. Her face was pleasant, but her cheekbones and forehead, shaped like fluted seashells, were a little alarming. She was probably a sea fairy. Only those could have such peculiarities.
While Fiona pondered, they reached the seashell cottage, erected on a tiny island. All the many hedges, fences and gates near it were made of the bones of sea creatures: fish, fairy morgen and even mermaids. Fiona gasped!
«Dont be so embarrassed!» Rokuela helped her out of the shell, which was left swinging by the shore like a boat.
«This is the sea witchs house!» Fiona was frightened.
«And I am the sea witch!» Rokuela pulled her forward. «Mostly they call me a sea-teller because I can tell fortunes, but thats a nickname.»
«I wont go to the witchs house!» Fiona was seized by superstitious fear.
«What else can you do? If you hold out, youll fall into the claws of griffins. But Im not going to force you anyway.»
Rokuela adjusted her flowing skirts and walked gracefully forward. What else could Fiona do but follow her. And it was scary to find shelter with a witch, and there was nowhere else to go. Its scary to even look at the sky. What if Ornella sends griffins with steel claws after her? The scratches from the cave were still aching.
The rain continued to fall. Fiona discerned threads of pearls in the streams, put her palm up and was surprised to catch not hail, but real pearls.
«Throw them away at once!» Rokuela demanded. «The watermen will be furious if you do not. These pearls are only for their brides. The one who keeps them will be hauled to the bottom.»
Fiona obediently unclenched her palm, tossing the pearls away. They did not fall, but dissolved into the rain.
Unusual blue birds with luxurious tails peeked out of the waves and landed on a pile of bones.
«Theyre sea-birds, morrilla,» Rokuela explained. «They usually fly only in the open sea. If they land on a kingdom, it wont be long before it sinks.»
«I hope they fly to Sultanit!» Fiona quipped, but the proud Morillas were not going there. Their feathers were gleaming with real blue precious stones. One of those birds would be worth a chest full of jewels. Fiona opened her mouth in wonder.
«Dont you dare catch them! The Water King will be furious!» Rokuela warned her.
«I dont!»
«Its not beauty that makes them so useful, its their strength. They ward off the spirits of rain and wind, so one of them always flies with me.»
Rokuela walked to the lodge. Bridges of skulls led to it on many sides, which made the house look like a huge spider, hanging over the sea on its own legs-bridges. On one side was a harmless bridge of shells. It was less intimidating, so Fiona chose it. But here, too, she stumbled upon a mermaid skeleton stuck like an ornament in a railing of shells.
«Whats the matter with you?» Rokuela wondered. «Have you never seen a live mermaid?»
«Ive never even seen a dead one before,» Fiona mesmerized, running her finger over the mermaids bones and stabbing at the sharp incisions. There were no such notches on human ribs. Shed seen human skeletons in abandoned crypts and cemeteries. Morgens skeletons were very different from them. For example, the skull boxes, curled up to the shell-shaped ear area, were definitely those of a sea-dweller.
«And I like to kill them or use them for magic,» Rokuela boasted.
«Wont the Sea King punish you for what you did to them?»
«The Sea King and I have a special arrangement! He doesnt touch me, and I dont touch him. But there was a time of war between me and him»
The mermaid skeleton suddenly came to life and grinned. Fiona cried out. She had no idea that the hedge was alive. The skeletons it was made of seemed dead.
«So you enchanted the morgens and the mermaids?»
«They are only the ones who attacked me first.»
«I thought you killed them.»
«You cant kill them completely. Theyre immortal.»
«Are you?»
Rokuela looked like an immortal creature. She may have looked young, but her gray hair and the ancient wisdom in her eyes made her seem like a very old woman.
«Its a very touchy subject,» she brushed her cheekily aside. «You know youre not supposed to ask a woman her age or her mortality.»
Surely there are many witches who want to be immortal, and that might offend them. Take Ornella, for example. Ask her if shes mortal and youll get a harsh rebuke and a tantrum. Many arrogant women would like to consider them exclusively immortal fairies.
Inside the witchs cottage was even more intimidating. Here were prepared potions of dubious ingredients, hung bundles of black herbs, in bottles instead of models of ships were sharpened rainbow and miniature storm. Its magic! Fiona went to the window to touch a garland of dried starfish. Immediately a flock of aggressive rain spirits ogled at her from the shroud of rain. They hovered over the bridges. Each one was no bigger than a cat, but they had the fury of a lion. One spirit tried to grab hold of Fionas arm and douse her in salt water.
«Close all the windows!» Rokuelas shrill command drew the shutters shut abruptly, but they shut on her command as if the house were a living organism over which the Sea Witch could have no control.
«And dont look out, or the rain spirits will find a way to get in and tear you to pieces!»
«But why is it?» Fiona wondered. What had she done to them?
«Youre a redhead!» She pointed to her disheveled curls as if that explained everything.
«And youre against redheads, too, like Ornella, because all redheads are witches, etc., etc.»
Youd think rain spirits werent witchy creatures themselves!
«Its not about the legend of the red-haired punisher! The strands of your hair are like real fire in color. And the rain spirits hate anything fiery and are bent on destroying it.»
Thats right! She remembered how fiercely they attacked the fire spirits, and they were afraid of them. The rain spirits do have the power to defeat fire.
«And what is the tale of the red-haired punisher? Ive never heard of such a thing!» Fiona looked at the fireplace, somehow full of water and covered by a glass screen. Inside it, as if it were an aquarium, some horrible sea creature languished. A veritable monster! In the various vials on the shelves were also imprisoned water creatures: jellyfish, stingrays, octopuses, and many unimaginable creatures whose names Fiona did not know. In one vial were shimmering real stars, as if Rokuela had managed to pull them down from the heavens.
Fiona tried to uncork the bottle, but the mistress of the lodge stopped her.
«Dont dare!»
«Whats inside? Are they stars?»
«Have you ever heard the stories about the people who let the genies out and paid for their curiosity!»
Fiona didnt want to be lectured, so she obediently put the vial back.
«You can spend the night here!» Rokuela threw a blanket over the narrow thatch bunk. «I have business to run tonight, so I wont be constrained by you. But dont touch anything while Im gone, or therell be more repercussions later than from the war. The power imprisoned in the vials is dangerous.»
«I see!» Fiona made a vow not to touch anything here again. She didnt want to get hurt or unleash a water demon at all.
«Well talk a little while before the rain stops,» the landlady pointed to the chairs and table made from shells. The screen beside them was also covered in shells, like bas-reliefs.
«You could make it rain, but you couldnt make it stop?» Fiona guessed, taking a seat on the rickety shell stool.
«You cant do everything at once. One magic on top of another is too much,» said Rockwell admonishingly. «If you knew more about magic, youd understand.»
«But Im not a witch! Ornella only called me that to send me to the bonfire.»
«Ill look into your past myself if I want to,» Rokuela barked at her and placed an elegant mirror framed in monograms and seashells on the table. «It reveals the past and present very well, but it is not always exact for the future.»
«So you cannot tell a lie,» Fiona summed up. «You know Im just a mill girl, not a witch, not a princess to rival Ornella.»
Rokuela didnt let her finish her sentence.
«You must have some talent!» With the intonation of a seer she proclaimed. «I can see that!»
«Well!» Fiona shrugged hesitantly. «I can do a bit of needlework and cross stitch. I make a good tasty dish from mushrooms I pick in the woods and muffin tarts. Well, and to spin good yarn, besides me, all the peasant women know how to do. So it probably doesnt count as a talent anymore.»
«Were talking about magical talent!» Rokuela interrupted her. «Whats that got to do with embroidery and cooking?»
«Im sorry, but I didnt know about magic.»
«What if you found a dusty old book in the attic of your mill, written in ancient writings, and realized that you could read them, even if you were illiterate? Such books have a habit of calling you by name or you begin to be drawn to them by some irresistible force. You just want to open them, even if they are chained.»
«It is exactly! There was one such book! Found it among old junk and sacks of flour. Probably one of the rich customers had forgotten it. I mistook it for a casket because the binding was decorated with jasper, and thin chains and a lock set around it. I never managed to open it. I exchanged it for a new dress at a box man.»
«You are silly! Youll trade your own head for something. Do you know what treasure youve lost?»
«But the dress was of real silk, like a noblewomans. The butler gave it up for that book.»
«That book could have been your friend and advisor for all eternity. It was a big risk, though,» Rockwell said with a frown. «You cant keep that quiet, either. As a rule, only potential students of the School of Witchcraft could get their hands on such witchcraft volumes. Its a place like a black palace, hidden under a veil of invisibility, where spirits train young wizards. It will cost you your soul, but youll gain eternal youth and power. You can eventually become queen yourself by wresting someone elses throne with the help of charms.»
«Im not Ornella I dont have her ways.»
«Thats right! Ornella would not let such a valuable book out of her claws.»
«Naturally, she would be attracted to jasper. She loves sparkling stones!»
«I dont mean the cost of the binding!» Rokuela was indignant. «Wizards are the richest people in the world, not because they hoard treasure, but because they know how to acquire it by means of charms. Ive known magicians who lost a fortune in a night at the gambling houses, and the next morning they were rich again. It is as if the gold had grown in the palms of their hands.»
«How is that?»
«The book you sold in exchange for silk rags would have told you everything.»
«Told?! Books cant talk.»
«Magical books do. Besides great knowledge, they hold great power. If the mistress of such a book were attacked and tried to drag her to the fire, the nearest houses and mountains would collapse, burying all but you.»
Now, that is really tempting! Unless Rokuela is lying and exaggerating, she could use a magic book. Fiona imagined Ornella telling her guards to drag her out of the mill, and the walls of the building and the windmills collapsing on the heads of the guards.
«To bury her attackers under the rubble and not be hurt» said Fiona dreamily.«That is magic!»
«But it was too late to learn. If you have drunk the magic book, you cannot go to School of Witchcraft no one will be admitted! A book is sent as a guide and a pass. There is no messenger. It finds you, like a bird or a ghost. But when you give it to her, you give up everything.»
Rokuela should never have told her about it. It was more delicate to remain silent. In her mind, Fiona scolded herself. She used to live peacefully in the mill. Now there was nowhere to go. A way to the magic school, invisible to Ornellas guards, would come in handy. It would be the only place to sit out while they looked for you as a witch. And when your graduation date comes, youll come out so strong that youll demolish the entire state of your enemies in a jiffy.
«I wish youd warned me sooner,» Fiona sighed. She doesnt think Ornella will leave a victim behind. Theyll send guards or gryphons after her for sure. She felt sick at the thought of the latter. The clawed jaws alone were worth a scratch a months worth of healing. And what would happen if the birds decided to peck her to death.
«You have a gift of some sort, and its independent of your training,» Rokuela said. «I just cant figure out what it is.»
«I can see ghosts,» said Fiona, recalling the Jokers in the ruins.
«Plenty of people can do that without a magic gift.»
«But those ghosts were bright, not your typical ghosts.»
«Were you able to make them serve you? Did they do some kind of thing you asked them to do, or did they do some kind of errand you wanted them to do? Did they drag you into their circle and share your forbidden secrets?»
Fiona shook her head mournfully. She seemed talentless. And it wouldnt be a bad idea to set ghost jesters to tear Ornella apart. They would have mocked her for a long time before the massacre. Theyre jesters.
«Let me see your hands!» Rokuela looked at her palms. «They are all scratched! Im no chiromancer, but this mark here looks like a line of enrichment Tell me, are you attracted to gold.»
«Do you mean gold?» Fiona thought about it. She wondered if it was worth mentioning that she was magnetically attracted to it by the sight of golden eagle feathers. It had caused so much trouble, hadnt it? It was better not to follow the eagle. Then she wouldnt have met the insensitive Condor, the ravenous princes, and the evil queen.
«Come on!» insisted Rokuela. «Maybe you hear the coins singing, or maybe they jump into your pocket, popping out of other peoples purses. You ought to go around the marketplace and check it out.»
«You shouldnt! Such talent, even if I have it, will not keep me safe from Ornellas griffins.»
«But you can make a fortune and hire your own army for protection, and buy your own fortress, which I will shield with magic.»
«I» Fiona struggled to explain how shed discovered the mound beneath the ruins. «I seem to be attracted only to the gold that is buried in the ground. I see a halo of glow where its buried. It happened to me once or twice by happy coincidence. Or maybe the ghosts of the ruins told me»