beating of her heart and the thrumming of the waves against the distant shore. She waited for it all to stop.
What would have happened if she had made it back to the castle? Would her father have sent her on her Onsa if he had known about the witch? Probably not. What would her Onsa have been? She would never know now. Lilliana stretched her hand out to her horse at her side as he lay on the sand. He had stopped bleeding, and the water had washed his wound. She let her body fall completely to the sand and felt the grit slide across her face. The tears that were falling from her eyes would become part of the ocean and would never be hers again. Lilliana felt so cold and alone. Even in death she knew her family would never find her. Her horse was still and cold on the floor beside her and Lilliana gave one last look at the magnificent animal. He was glossy and beautiful even though he lay still. Lilliana squeezed her eyes shut and thought her heart would burst at the sight.
Her heart?
Lilliana opened her eyes. She was still here. She wasn’t dead yet.
Lilliana felt cool, but she also felt somehow better. She lay still and listened closely. Yes, her heart was beating, and she could hear a quiet whooshing sound. She wiggled her fingers. That still worked. She gently kicked her toes. They tingled a little as if they had been asleep for a while. Lilliana was alive, but how? She took a deep breath, but it didn’t feel right. She felt a rush of the water going across her mouth and through her neck to come out behind her ears. Lilliana cautiously put her hands up beside her neck. She could feel a subtle warm current of water coming from her neck. The water was going through her mouth and coming out behind her ears. This was unreal. Lilliana sat down on the sandy bottom and kicked up a cloud of sand.
What was going on? She shouldn’t be alive at the bottom of the sea. She looked up at the surface and could see in the distance a shape thrashing in the waves. The witch must be waiting for her to surface. Maybe the witch was already doing a victory dance over her death. Did the witch curse her to live forever under the sea? Would she ever be able to return home to Atlantis? Home to her family? Lilliana couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from them. She had never been apart from her family for long. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so alone.
Lilliana looked over at her horse. Spectrum had been a new friend, but a loyal one. He had done everything to save her and yet here she was trapped between the deep ocean and a horrible witch. She gazed at his silky mane and his pale rainbow of colors washing over his skin. He had truly been a gift. Her Gift. Lilliana moved closer to the still body of her horse and laid a hand upon his withers. The horse lay cold and still as she knew he would, and yet he seemed so perfect and beautiful too. Lilliana rested her back against his side and put her head in her hands. She needed to think.
The dragon and the witch had appeared just as the tide trapped her in the cove. How did the witch know that she would be out on the beach…alone? No one knew. Even the armed guard thought she was resting in her room before the start of the Onsa. Lilliana thought back to that morning. Nana had given her some exotic berries just that morning. What were they called? Oh yes, dragon berries. Could Nana know the witch? Lilliana couldn’t bear that thought. She loved Nana as much as she loved her parents. And yet she couldn’t help but wonder. Lilliana blocked that thought. Nana would never betray her and she would trust Nana just as she always had. She would trust her completely and absolutely. She would trust her…if she ever saw her again.
Lilliana felt a current ripple her hair from behind. How would she get home now? The witch was above and the ocean was beyond. What creatures were there in the ocean? The current rippled behind her again, only stronger this time. Lilliana felt Spectrum’s body behind her shift in the water and she sat up to see what was causing the disturbance in the ocean. She was too tired to fight anymore. Perhaps a shark would just eat her and she would be done.
Lilliana slowly turned her head and leaned over the side of her horse’s body. There was nothing unusual about the sea. The sky was getting a little darker up above, and Lilliana could tell the storm must be closer. She peered at the sand behind Spectrum and tried to look at the current. There didn’t seem to be anything different, yet she could feel a warm current coming from somewhere. Lilliana sat down and hid behind her horse. Even in his death he was shielding her from the unknown. She put her head against his chest and then she heard it.
Thump-thump. And then again.
Thump-thump.
It was coming from Spectrum’s chest. Lilliana looked at her friend’s face. His eyes were closed and his head was still, but Lilliana could see the current of water moving his mane ever so quietly. She gently lifted the silky hair and saw slender slits with a pale membrane over them. The membrane was thin and glossy and looked like soap bubbles she would blow in the kitchen. Lilliana felt behind her own ears. She had slits too and they felt as if they may be covered. She put a hand beside the horse and felt the steady current of water flowing just above his head. Her heart lifted. She wasn’t alone! She had company, no, she had a friend. Lilliana laughed out loud, threw her arms around her horse’s neck and gave him a big hug. Spectrum was alive!
The horse groaned and blinked his eyes. He opened his eyes and looked confused for a moment, then he jerked and jumped to his feet. The movement was too much for him and he toppled over into the sand.
“Spectrum, you can’t just die and then get up running. You have to sit for a while,” Lilliana insisted.
Spectrum snorted and shook his head as if to say no. The snort sent a cloud of sand up in his face and he sneezed several times. Lilliana laughed again. She had lost everything in the world just a moment ago, and now she felt as if maybe, just maybe, something could go her way.
Spectrum looked up at the surface of the water and Lilliana felt he was asking the same questions she did when she first found herself alive.
“The witch is still up there.” Lilliana pointed to the dark shadow moving in circles above. “I don’t know how long she’ll wait for us.”
Spectrum stood up slowly, placing each hoof firmly in the sand. He nudged Lilliana towards his back.
“You want me to ride you?” said the princess. “Where will we go?”
Spectrum looked at the surface and then out to the open sea. He made the gesture twice, as though he wanted to make certain his ideas were clear.
“The open ocean?” Lilliana asked. “There are sharks, and swordfish, killer whales and maybe even the wicked mermaids! We can’t go there. We don’t know what will happen to us.”
Spectrum raised his eyebrows and looked directly at the princess. This time his next gesture was at the witch.
“I know you think it’s better than facing the witch, but I don’t need any more risks today. I’m the princess and I’m staying right here. When the witch goes away, I’ll go back home. I’ll breathe air and eat food and walk in the castle. Until then I will stay right here.” Lilliana sat down firmly on the sand.
Spectrum looked annoyed and he turned his head as if listening for something. He looked back at the princess and in one smooth movement he picked her up by the back of her dress in his teeth and pushed off the bottom of the ocean floor. Sand again flew up into the princess’s face and she tried to shake it away with her hands. Even as she moved her hands, Spectrum was swimming fluidly away from the witch. He was swimming away from the shore, away from family and away from everything normal Lilliana had ever known.
6. Mermen
Lilliana struggled against her horse’s strong hold. It was no use. He was much bigger, much stronger and much more determined. It was as if Spectrum knew where he was going and how to get there. Lilliana stopped with a sigh that came out more like a burble. She was frustrated, cold and annoyed, but she was no longer lonely.
Spectrum was swimming further and further out to sea. Lilliana watched as the floor of the ocean turned from sand with large r
ocks to groups of plants under the sea. Kelp her father had called it. She noticed that there was a long almost level area of sand before her. There were bits of sunshine coming through the waves, and ahead of her was a deep blue that looked as distant as the sky. This blue didn’t get brighter as it faded into the sunshine. It got darker and deeper the farther shelooked, but maybe that was the effect of the coming storm.
Lilliana looked behind Spectrum and saw a glimmer of light blue that hadn’t been swallowed by the darkness of the storm. The ocean was moving more strongly now and it pushed hard against them as they swam, as if it was trying to take them back to the witch. Lilliana’s skirts felt as heavy as rocks and pulled her down, even as her horse was pulling her forward with his strong strokes. She struggled against the waves.
Those skirts were such a nuisance. They were the reason she sank so fast and so hard. The heavy material twisted around her legs as she tried to swim, and they seemed determined to pull her down to the bottom of the sea. Those skirts would have killed her if she were unable to breathe in the sea.
No, not the skirts. The witch. The witch would have surely killed her if she had not sunk to the bottom of the sea. The witch wanted her to drown in the depths of