Roses on Fire ~ The Tale of Roses and Thorns 2.
Chapter 9 ~ The Water Nymphs

Two weeks later they reached the Ocean. The last two weeks were misery for Ivelle. She didn’t talk to Cirillo, and he didn’t talk to her. The relationship between Cirillo and Adrastos were even worse than before, and what’s more, Cirillo was angry with Áedh too.

The place where they stopped was called Arenae Aurum, or the Gold Beach. When they arrived there Ivelle understood why. The sand was shining so brightly it indeed looked gold, and the leaves of the surrounding bushes were of a shade of gold too.

Cirillo got off his horse and walked up to the water immediately. When he was ankle-deep in the water he crouched and started murmuring something in latin. When he finished, he stood up and waited. Minutes passed by and nothing happened. Ivelle started having doubts whether the nymph heard him or not, when a figure started rising from the water. It was a man. He was tall with sea blue hair and eyes, and with seaweed-like clothes. He had a crown on his head, made of shells and pearls. Behind him two other figures rose from the water. A girl, not older than 16 and a man. They had the same hair- and eye colour, and wore the same clothes, but the man had a spear in his hand.

“What do you want, Prince Cirillo from the Kingdom of Etalia?” asked the man with the crown.

“I came here to ask for your help. We have to get to the forgotten lands, as safe and as fast as possible.” he bowed slightly.

The man looked at everyone on by one.

“Prince Áedh from the Kingdom of Drauri. Lady Ivelle, daughter of Lord Gavril and Lady Tanith.” when he looked at Adrastos he narrowed his eye “Prince Adrastos from the Empire of Nendawin. And Delroy, the servant of the Dark King. Why should my people help you?”

“We are looking for a weapon that can defeat the Dark King.”

“Why should my King believe you? Twenty-two years ago you told us, that the Dark Blade was destroyed, but now, the Dark King leads his army with it.” said the other man.

“We thought it was destroyed -”

“I don’t care about your excuses.” said the man with the crown “I’ll help you, because I don’t see any other way, we could defeat the Dark King. ” he turned to the girl behind him “Marilla will lead you.” the girl bowed slightly while the two man disappeared into the water.

“Let the horses go, they can’t come.” said Marilla simply.

They unharnessed their horses, and let them go. Ivelle noticed that something was odd with Adrastos and Delroy. They changed strange looks. Finally, Adrastos walked up to the Nymph and talked a few words with her. Marilla nodded slightly and walked up to the see. She reached out her hand and murmured in a language that was unknown for Ivelle. Slowly something round started rising from the water and formed into a portal.

“Come.” she said and stepped through.

They followed her one by one. This portal was different from the others. It was more like stepping through a hole. As they stepped through they arrived to a shore. They stood on a circular stone platform which was surrounded by seven other, each was connected to the central one with a narrow stone bridge. Marilla let them to another platform and as soon as they arrived there another portal appeared. Marilla stepped through it and so did the others.

They arrived to a beach at the feet of green hills. The sky was clear and vivid blue, and the sun was shining brightly. Ivelle took a deep breath and enjoyed the sunshine.

“I brought you here, my work is done.” she turned to Delroy “You may come with me.” Delroy nodded, bowed slightly towards Adrastos and left with Marilla.

“What’s going on here?” demanded Cirillo.

“I gave another job to Delroy.” said Adrastos simply.

“Let me guess, you sent him to your brother.”

“Not exactly. The less you know, the better, Cousin.” he said turning away.

“You betrayed us!” shouted Cirillo. Adrastos took a deep breath and turned to face Cirillo.

“You’re such a drama queen. Delroy’s just doing a little spy work for me.”

“Let’s go we have no time to spare.” said Áedh and started his way towards the hills.

“Do we even know where we are?” asked Ivelle from Adrastos.

Adrastos looked at the sky. Ivelle followed his gaze and saw a beautiful blue bird. Its feathers were long and of the different shades of blue.

“Yes, we do.” he answered still looking at the bird “That’s a sea phoenix. It lives only in one place.”

“Which is?”

“The Coast. A kingdom in the Forgotten Lands.”

“I feel like I need a little bit of enlightenment.” Adrastos wanted to answer, but Áedh cut him off.

“I think you should lead us. You know this place best.” Adrastos just simply nodded.

“Come, Ivelle, I’ll tell you everything during the journey.”