The princess’s hiding place
The ring had tired and fallen asleep. It could easily be removed from her finger now, but Desdemona did not dare. The sleeping pearl glowed in the darkness like a white lantern. She was mumbling something sleepily. Probably tomorrow it would wake up before Desdemona and start singing, but now its voice was barely audible.
“Take me to Lilophea’s room! To my friends!” She whispered.
“Which way is it?”
“It is to the right, then down the corridor to the left, then up the spiral staircase to the top,” the ring began to mutter instructions.
Desdemona reluctantly began to indulge it.
“Well, all right, let’s go!”
Curious as to what kind of friends the ring might have. Desdemona herself was followed by Bersaba. In the darkness of the palace, her eyes sparkled like two predatory gems. Her gait was inaudible.
“It is to the left! Then to the right! Turn into the east gallery!” The ring was giving directions. Either it was an experienced guide who had studied the palace layout well, or it felt the attraction of some magical object and easily guessed the direction. “Go past the fountain with stone dolphins, then there will be lunettes with sculptures of nymphs, and after them a strolling gallery. Follow it to a dead end.”
Bersaba kept up. She seemed to float above the floor rather than tread on it. She had a predatory look about her. Though she kept a respectful distance, Desdemona felt uneasy. She had gone looking for trouble at the call of the magic ring! In the morning it will wake up and declare that all his night instructions were just a dream.
“We’ve reached a dead end!” Desdemona ran into a wall decorated with intricate moldings. “There’s nowhere to go unless you teach me how to walk through walls.”
“Push the spiral-shaped jewelry!” The ring advised.
Desdemona did so. Immediately something creaked in the wall. Either there’s a sliding panel hidden there, or the spiral is actually a door handle. More like the latter. The dead end slid open to reveal a narrow doorway. Desdemona slid into it and slammed the door under the nose of Bersaba.
“It’s a strange passage. More like a hiding place,” she said to the ring.
“That’s because the doors have long since been bricked up.”
“Why is it?”
“People often used to disappear here.”
“What does it mean?” Desdemona was frightened.
“This was Princess Lilophea’s apartment.”
“Oh, that’s it,” said Desdemona. Well, then the first missing person could be the princess herself, who was kidnapped by the waterman. But her jewelry was left behind. Inside the secret room was a real treasure trove. Boxes and caskets were lined up in rows. Gold jewelry, diamond tiaras, rings with semi-precious stones, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, tiaras sparkled in them.
“There are all the gifts of the Water King!” commented the napping ring. Once in Lilophea’s room, it came to life.
“It couldn’t be!” Desdemona began to go through rubies, sapphires, emeralds and along with them suddenly noticed unusual gems with iridescence. There are really no such gems on earth.
Desdemona was afraid to touch the pearl beads. She already knew what the pearls given by the waterman could do. Though the pearls around her own neck had loosened their grip, they were still clinging to her skin.
By the way, jewelry made of large pearls and coral was the most abundant here. Huge chests, shaped like the silhouettes of fairy-tale palaces, were bursting with them.
Desdemona ran her finger along the lid of one such chest. It must have been the shape of some underwater palace.
“Are there castles and palaces in the Underwater Kingdom?” She wondered.
“Look for yourself!” The ring advised her.
What do you mean, see for yourself? Pearl is probably asleep and does not realize that it is a palace on land and not on the seabed.
Nevertheless, the pearl asked cheerfully:
“Take me off your finger and put me in that chest over there, which is full of pearl rings. I want to talk to them.”
“Well, as you wish,” Desdemona complied, and her ears immediately heard the chiming of many-voiced pearl trills. Her wedding ring was communicating with those inside the box. What wonders!
What should she do? Bersaba was at the door. We could stay here for the night. The dusty bed under the blue satin canopy was fit for sleeping. For some reason the beautiful mirror opposite it reflected, instead of an ordinary bed, some fantastic bed inside a giant shell.
The frame of the mirror resembled a wreath of gilded jellyfish, mermaids, and newts. Desdemona touched it and marveled. The reflection inside the mirror immediately changed. It now reflected the sea floor, where the clumsy kraken crawled. Shipwrecks were rotting among the algae plantations. A mermaid was stirring a skeleton tied to an anchor. Chests of gold and barrels full of ancient coins gleamed among the rotten planks of the ship.
