Necklace (Ashurran #2)

Aquamarine, part 1

Throughout Pandeia, the merchants of Marrangha had no equals as seamen. There was not a corner of the earth where their ships loaded with goods wouldn't reach. Many families even lived on their merchant ships. In those families, people were born at sea, lived and died at sea, without setting foot on dry land for years in a row. Since early childhood their children learned how to read the sea like an open book, how to climb the rigging and set sails, how to lay a course – and, of course, how to make a profit.

Landlubbers sometimes looked contemptuously on the seamen, calling them disdainfully 'fish food'. The seafarers, in turn, called them 'land rats'. However, a seaman's trade is truly dangerous. Many of them drowned and became fish food for real. Sometimes not only single ship, but entire fleet could disappear at sea, so that there was not a piece of debris left, nor any other trace of those who had recently lived and breathed.

Once, a Marranian merchant ship, named Verdandi, suffered the same sad fate. A severe autumn storm smashed it on the reefs in the FalkidianSea. No one survived, except for a thirteen-year-old girl named Tal. She managed to cling to a small barrel and stay afloat. However, those who haven't sunk into the sea abyss at once would have to face countless other dangers: cold, hunger, thirst and man-eating sharks. Even large gulls are dangerous – they are rumored to attack shipwreck victims and pluck their eyes out while they are still alive.

Tal was almost paralyzed with fear, but mostly with grief, because her whole family had died before her very eyes: mother, father, her uncles, her sisters with their husbands, and even her nephew who was barely six years old. She couldn't cry, she couldn't pray; all she could do was curse sea dragons which cause storms and the cruel sea itself, because Tal had been an angry girl all her short life. And her anger was so strong that the surging waves seemed to calm down around her, and the storm abated, as if it was a fierce dog which had been berated by its master.

At last dark clouds disappeared, the sun begun to shine, and the sea became smooth and transparent like glass. Tender waves carried the girl to the sandy beach and laid her as gently as her mother's hands would. Only then did she broke into tears and cried herself to sleep.

When Tal woke up, she saw that she was on a tiny barren island, without a single tree or even a bush. At first she felt like losing heart. It seemed Fate gave her only an illusion of hope and immediately took it away. There was no food or water on the island, and it was well away from the trading routes, so one could hardly count on a ship passing by.

But it wasn't in Tal's nature to give way to despair. She stood on the beach, stamped her foot and shouted out loud, "Hey, damn you, sea dragon! If you are not a coward, show yourself and answer for your crimes!"

Suddenly she was answered by a gentle and melodious voice coming from the sea, "I should say that's a common misconception, that the sea dragons send storms to sink ships. In fact, storms and hurricanes are natural phenomena based on the laws of nature and the very existence of the world. And the ships sink because their skippers make mistakes, or simply because such is the fate of mortal men and their imperfect devices. I feel sorry for your loved one, young lady, but that was not my fault that they are dead."

The girl looked, astonished, as a huge head on a long neck rose from the sea, with whiskers and a crown of horns on its forehead. It was a sea dragon, covered with iridescent blue scales. Tal, fearless, looked into his golden eyes and was surprised to see only friendliness, curiosity and intelligence.

"Why then you are hanging about if you had nothing to with the shipwreck?" she asked boldly, trying her best to sound like a stern adult.

The dragon made an elegant gesture with the tip of its tail and answered, "To meet the new Water Sorceress, of course!"