The Prophecy of Atlantis

was so loud she couldn’t hear her thoughts.

  “I would like to know more about your king and what will happen tomorrow,” Lilliana began, thinking of all the advice Pierce had told her when he had gone into the castle ahead of her. “I don’t know your customs, like which things to eat, and I don’t want to insult anyone accidentally. Could you help me learn court manners?”

  “I’d be happy to help,” Lance said. “I’ll eat with the prisoner, I mean Lifliauns here, and you can go to court and eat with His Royal Highness,” Lance said looking at his brother.

  “You just want to avoid facing the king,” Pierce said.

  “True, but the beast, I mean Lilliponds, will be much more comfortable tomorrow if I help her.”

  “I’ll consider it,” said the other fish, swishing his tail back and forth thoughtfully.

  “Yes!”

  “But if the king blames even one bit of that prank on me, I’ll tie sea slugs to your tail fins,” Pierce said.

  “It’s a deal!”

  “And, promise you will give Lilliana all the correct information.”

  “What else would I do?” Lance asked innocently.

  “Lance, promise me that you will help her. She may be more important than we know,” Pierce said firmly.

  “Just a little fun?”

  “Remember who I’m talking with tonight?”

  “Oh all right. I’ll be disgustingly good and boring. I’ll suck up all the fun and pretend that I’m you,” Lance said with a pout as they both headed to the exit.

  “That’s encouraging,” Pierce said, “Lilliana, we’ll be back shortly with your meal. Feel free to look around your cottage, but keep your horse from nibbling on the glow worms. They can have some nasty side effects if eaten.”

  Spectrum looked up quizzically as the sailfish swam away towards the glowing yellow castle. He spit out a mouthful of glowing worms and filled his cheeks with ocean water.

  9. Dinner

  Lilliana breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the two brothers swim to the castle. Their words were much sharper than their swords, and she was thankful. Well their swords were sharp as well, but they didn’t seem to want to use them against her. If there was anyone who was like a friend in this strange new world, it had to be the two sailfish.

  “Well Spectrum, this has turned into quite a day,” Lilliana said as they swam back inside the cave. The glow worms brightened up the room as if they were lighting the way just for them. Lilliana couldn’t help but smile as she noticed that the lights moved away from Spectrum’s snout when he lifted his head to investigate closer.

  There were several shelves along the wall of varying heights. The lowest was very wide and formed a semi-circle at the back of the cave. It was covered with soft yellow sponges moving slightly in the water. Higher along the wall were much smaller shelves. One had sea grasses swaying back and forth while another had bright red coral. There was a collection of shells and pearls of various sizes around a smooth glass on the wall. Lilliana moved closer.

  The glass shone with the same twinkling stars like the worms, and inside was a strange face. The girl had brown tangles of hair flowing all around her face and big green eyes with a shocked expression. Lilliana held her breath and peered closer to the window. The mermaid peered closer too. Lilliana turned her cheek to one side, and as she watched the other girl turn her head in just the same way she realized this was her reflection. She no longer looked like the bright princess on the coast. She looked wild and untamed. Like a mermaid. Lilliana checked to be sure her fingers weren’t webbed and then she ran her fingers through her hair trying to twist bits of it back into a braid of sorts. She pulled down her tunic and tucked it into her pants.

  “Grand. Just grand. I have to meet with the king in his castle tomorrow, and I look like this? No introductions, no entourage, just me and my wild hair. In front of a king!” Spectrum looked up at her with a mouthful of sea grass. There was a small crab crawling on the torn tufts of grass and up the horse’s nostril. Spectrum shook the crab off his nose and bent his head for more of the grass just outside the door.

  Lilliana smiled. “I’m not sure if I have proper manners here, but at least I don’t toss my crabs.”

  Lilliana sank onto the bed of sponges and absently picked up a pearl. It was as large as an egg, but round and perfect. She held the pearl over her head and gazed at the colorful sheen of its surface.

  “What type of a man, or a fish, is king over this place? He has fish who can talk and mermen to avoid, not mentioning ships and fishermen. But he has pearls and jewels scattered about too,” Lilliana said to herself.

  She wandered over to the window and watched the various creatures swimming around the castle. The many small schools of fish had disappeared with the light, but now there were larger fish and a few eels that swam in ones or twos silhouetted against the glow of the castle. Lilliana watched as a pod of dolphins rose to the surface above the castle. They swam in a loose circle nudging each other with their snouts as they traveled up above the highest spire of the palace.

  Lilliana heard voices from the front of the cave and realized that Lance must be back. She jumped up from the bed of sponges, still uncertain whether she should be sitting on any sea creature. The pearl dropped from her lap and bounced along the floor as she hurried to the entrance. Spectrum was already out in the courtyard and Lance was at the door.

  “The chef didn’t know what type of horse food and other things you’d want, so he gave you lots of foods,” Lance said as he brought in two large covered trays.

  “I’m sure I’ll like whatever he has prepared,” Lilliana replied as she picked up the lid from the first tray she came to. On it she found sliced fruits and grasses with arranged in swirling patterns along the tray. Round, red slices of fruit were along the edge with some sort of purple grape inside of those. There was a swirl of twisted green sea grass with a bed of glittering eggs in the middle. In the center were plump beans that looked like green beans from home.

  “Were you able to find food for my horse?” Lilliana asked as she picked up a red fruit and took a bite. It was all she could do not to sweep the contents of the whole tray into her mouth at once. The red fruit was juicy and sweet and it was so good to have something that wasn’t salt running down her throat. Lilliana grabbed three more and picked some of the eggs off of the grass.

  “Horse food is easy,” Lance said glancing nervously out the window. “Your horse has an eager appetite.”

  “What do you mean by eager?” Lilliana barely looked up as she fingered her way past green beans and plucked several purple marbles and plopped them into her mouth. She carried the tray over to the bed of sponges and sat while Lance continued.

  “When we were almost here we saw the doorway, but not the horse. He came swimming from behind the wall faster than Pierce with juicy gossip and all the fish dropped the bucket. They were swimming over each other to get away, but Spectrum chased them and caught one of the fish by its tail and then flipped it over his head. Horses aren’t supposed to eat fish. Then he cornered a bunch of fish between the rock and the wall before he wheeled around, snickered and started eating from the mess of food on the ground. The fish were so scared that I think they lost half their scales. Once he was distracted by the food, we were able to bring your dinner to the door.” Lance offered Lilliana the second tray.

  She took off the cover and gasped at the delicious array before her eyes. There were shrimp and flame scallops circling the edges of the huge tray and oysters on the half shell in between.

  “This looks amazing,” Lilliana said as she took several shrimp from the edges and Lance surreptitiously moved his fins out of the way.

  “Is that horse always so forceful?” Lance asked.

  “I think so,” Lilliana said. “I really don’t know him that well. He was just given to me today.”

  Lance’s eyes grew wide. “Did this gifter like you?
” He glanced out the window as he spoke.

  “He was a gift from my father,” Lilliana said as she licked spicy red sauce off of her oyster then swallowed the meat. “Today is my birthday, and he was given to me this morning.” Lilliana wasn’t certain if she should mention her birthday, and the castle. Since the fish were against the witch, as was her father, maybe it was all right, but she thought she’d wait until later to tell them that she was a princess.

  “I always have to share my birthday with Mister Know-it-all. That’s the problem with being a twin. At least I try to make the most of it. Do you have brothers or sisters?”

  “I’m an only child, but I have several cousins.” Lilliana was slowing down after her fourteenth oyster. She went back to the shrimp.

  “You’re lucky. Brothers and sisters are a pain in the gills.”

  Lilliana giggled.

  “I try to have a great birthday by holding to my favorite traditions,” Lance said.

  “What do fish do on birthdays?”

  “The usual. We invite other schools over, go for a swim, and hunt for food together.” Lance settled closer to the floor and folded his fins. “My favorite tradition is to pull a prank on my dear bother, I mean brother, every year. I spend the whole year thinking of something fun and unexpected to surprise him with.”

  “Does he enjoy your surprises?”

  “Not nearly as much as I do. One year I put