Time to leave. Mel seemed sad. She wanted to give Karl her broach to mark the occasion. She held it out in two of her huge, cucumber like fingers. It was a metal flower of some kind, with a twisted stem, made of green metal. Lee took it from her. The night-hag would be the one carrying it. It was about three inches in diameter – not practical for Karl to wear.

A poker faced, rock skinned giant carried them in a small cabin to a great rowing boat. Lee turned Mel's broach over in her long hands. "Why, it's an anti-dragon charm."

"Not just any giant bling, then?" said Cintia.

"No. She really took a shine to you, Karl, hey?" said Lee.

Karl agreed. It was oddly touching that Mel had thought of him.

The giant rowed them in silence across the ocean before releasing them onto a clifftop and rowing away again. Leevana led Karl and Cintia through a weird, pearly mist and out onto a weather-beaten track that led down to a bustling, human port. After sticking the mannequin-mask back onto her face, she approached a merchant ship to ask if they had any room for passengers.

The captain did an awkward curtsey to the night-hag. Awkward, as he had a wooden leg. "Captain Cod, at yer service, Ma'am," he said.

Although she had a mask on, Karl could see his mother was a little shy and awkward.

"Uh, good morning captain. Is there room on board for my son and I? And Cintia?"

"That there is, Ma'am. One cabin, at starboard."

Lee stammered thanks and they climbed aboard.

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00O00

Unfortunately, the sea proved rough on the first day and Karl did not find his sea legs. He had to sit in the cabin while Leevana tended to him. Cintia came back that evening, flushed and exhilarated after exploring the deck and the rest of the ship. It was so embarrassing. Karl was still too queasy to eat anything heavy, so his mother was spoon-feeding him porridge. Being a sickly boy had never used to worry him, but he still wanted to impress Cintia.

Cintia wrinkled her freckled nose. Leevana had not left Karl's side, so the cabin now smelled strongly of night-hag. Cintia shrugged and then walked over to Karl's bedside. Her freckled cheeks were flushed rosy pink and her eyes were bright. "Feeling better, your highness?"

"Not really," muttered Karl.

She patted his arm. "Oh well. You're bound to find your sea legs soon. It's just learning how." Under the weather though he was, Karl felt a thrill at her touch. Cintia leaned forward to peer at his face, her firm breasts mashing into him. That was more thrilling. She was even more beautiful close up. Her nose so exquisitely formed. She had the kind of beauty that vibrant freckles enhances. "You'll be alright. Remember that afternoon when we went paddling in a ditch? I said you could do it then. We're still the ditch duo." Karl smiled back at her.

Lee was gazing at them, her expression hard to read. Could she sense Karl's thoughts?

That night, Cintia slept soundly in the hammock as Karl lay awake on his bed feeling queasy. His mother sat on the bed beside him, brushing her long, red hair with her favourite ebony hairbrush. Her fiery tresses hung loose around her livid green face, making a weird contrast of bright colours, that almost seemed to glow in the dim light of the cabin.

"Look at her," said Karl looking forlornly at Cintia. "She can sleep through anything." The ship rocked. The sea outside was rough, but Cintia slept like a log. So did Twiggy the broom, but he practically was a log. He lay immobile in the corner.

Leevana stroked his hair. "A first sea voyage can be an ordeal for any human. You'll feel better soon. You got used to flying. You're my brave Prince."

"Remember my first flight? Aila was green with envy, as she would put it."

A small smile played about the night-hag's greyish lips and her blue eyes shone. "Well, Aila can't fly. Not all night-hags can. It's something special to me. I always dreamed of having a son I could take on a flight. A – a way of sharing special moments."

Karl took one of her long, spindly, green hands in both of his. So clammy. It was sort of like clutching a fish. "Flying with you never gave me the sick feeling that the sea does. If we can both fly, it's like I take after you. Like mother like son."

Lee grinned widely at that. Karl wondered to what extent he really did take after her. She had not given birth to him and there wasn't so much as an undertone of green to his skin and he wasn't clammy to the touch. But Karl decided he definitely didn't care about such things.

The night-hag stroked her green cheek with a long finger and gazed pensively into the distance for a moment before speaking again. "I envied mortal women who could have large families when I couldn't. Especially when I visited the market place and they would talk to be about it. The funny things their children did and their progress… I wished I had just one little boy. Even though the ichor in my veins is cold and no child will ever come out of me. I told Ulva and Aila that I had maternal urges and they were baffled. Or rather, Ulva was baffled, and it supplied Aila with material for jokes. 'You want a screaming, pooping bundle of joy, Lee?' And so on. I didn't think anyone would really understand me." She gave a wry smile. "Doesn't that sound angsty? 'No one understands me.'"

Karl held her clammy hand against his cheek. "Sounds totally angsty. But you are unique. Don't change."

She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry. I won't. But my boy's really growing up. It is the mortal way, after all."

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00O00

Fortunately, the sea was calmer the next morning and Leevana took Karl on a walk around the deck, her arm linked in his. She had her mannequin face back on. It was strange that it fooled anyone. Karl didn't think it looked much like a real face.

"Oi! What're you doin'?" This from a crew member. He was shaking his fist at the mast. Karl looked up. Cintia had climbed up the rigging and was clinging to the mast.

"Cintia, please come down now," called Lee, her voice carrying above the wind and the sound of the gulls. She turned to the crew member. "It's alright, Sir. She's with us."

The crew member grumbled and shook his head.

Cintia had soon climbed back down the rigging, her long, red hair dishevelled. "I've already explored the whole ship. There's nothing to do."

Lee smiled with the lips of her mask. "Well perhaps we should take a stroll tonight? The moonlight reveals interesting things."

Cintia flicked a strand of her fiery hair away from her face. "Sounds good. But what do we do until then?"

Back in the cabin Leevana showed them some new carvings she had made out of spare pieces of wood while they were on the ship. These were not painted, but they already had recognisable forms. She had carved them to resemble characters from the pirate story she had read to them when they were in the Land of Giants. She had carved the protagonist, the sea ogre, the sea-hag and the sea dragon. Karl reflected how he had never been able to learn how to carve after all. It was just something he could not do, like that spell for conjuring animated skeletons. And when it came down to it, Lee had been reluctant to let him practice in case he should cut himself.

Cintia gazed at the sea-dragon. "It's a snakey sort of thing, isn't it? How would it move under water?"

"Sort of like an eel," said Lee, making the dragon puppet move in a wormy sort of way.

Cintia gazed at the ogre puppet. "This is one of your really good carvings, like the soldier doll. He looks ferocious. So, he was the character who wanted to snack on Baldar before the hag rescues him?"

"A few ogres have the wrong idea that it's alright to eat other sentient beings," said Lee frowning.

Cintia smirked. "I like the way he said it, in the story. He gives Baldar a fish, and says: "Eat. Get fat. You be dinner soon. When the hag rescued him, it was like the ogre lost his lunch!"

"The story needed more of the hag character," said Karl. Based on his boyhood experiences, Karl thought of a hag character as being a comforting presence. Lee smiled.

"Baldar didn't fancy his chances against the sea-dragon, though," said Cintia. "Or selling himself out to the dragon, either. I suppose the dragon might have killed the pirates if he thought he could get treasure out of it."

"Baldar was not so dishonourable," said Lee. "That would have been Captain Bloodaxe's way of doing things, and Baldar was not like that."

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00O00

That night, the three of them emerged onto the deck, Karl holding his mother's hand and Cintia running ahead up the steps, urging them to be quicker. The sea was calm and the light of the full moon cast a silvery path across its surface. The air was chill and fresh and Karl could taste the salt tang of the sea on his lips.

In her other hand, Lee carried a bucket of fish, which she set down on the deck. Then she gave a sigh and pulled off the mannequin mask, revealing her bright green face underneath.

Cintia leaned over the rail. The gentle breeze rippled her hair. "So, what's new? What're we to see by moonlight?"

"If we're patient, we will see…" said Lee.

There was a splashing below. It looked like large, silvery fish were leaping up and down, but it a slight shock, Karl noticed that these fish had human faces.

"Creepy. You're right, I've never seen anything like that," said Cintia. "What are they? Freaks of nature? Supernatural beings?"

"Supernatural," said Lee. "Now I've bought some regular fish off that nice crewman. Let's see if they'd like to share them, hey?"

"They like eating fish?" said Cintia, looking in the bucket. "How do you know?"

Lee picked up a raw fish and solemnly took a bite out of it. She chewed and swallowed with exaggerated slowness. "If I can eat it myself, so can they." Cintia wrinkled her nose, but giggled at the same time. The night-hag chucked the half-eaten fish into the water and the strange creatures snapped them up.

The ship cut a path through the water. Leevana gazed upwards, the ethereal light of the moon lighting up her green face. "The Moon rises. We may yet see more."

Karl gasped. Now he could see the shimmering outlines of ladies in the water, only their heads and breasts visible. "Hello, beautiful lad, hello," they twittered.

Lee's clammy hand grasped his forearm and the outlines of the ladies shimmer and become ghostly in the moonlight, with huge eyes and bald heads with crests.

"Mermaids," breathed Cintia.

Karl knew about Mermaids already. Leevana certainly knew a lot about them, and stories of mermaids were certainly popular in the human world as well.

The mermaids lifted webbed hands to wave at them.

"Well met, ladies of the sea," said Lee, in her practiced formal tone.

"Well met, indeed, night-hag," said one of the mermaids, the one nearest them, who had been gazing at Karl with huge eyes. Her lipless mouth forming a smile. "And who are you three?"

I am Leevana, and this is my son, Karl, and this is Cintia," began Lee.

"He's Prince Karl, to you, mermaids," said Cintia interrupting.

"Is that a fact, daughter of the land?" said the mermaid. "And how does a human prince come to be in the custody of a night-hag?"

Karl thought he should answer that one. "My father was the King of a great kingdom, but a human monster, named Joe Steel, helped overthrow him and then he killed me family."

"Ahh…" the mermaid gazed at him with unblinking, piercing eyes. "Then I am sorry to hear it. Tell me, did the King have to sacrifice himself so you could escape this Steel?"

"Um, I don't know?" Karl was puzzled.

"I lost my betrothed to another monster. This one a monster of the deep. The sea-dragon. My love cut himself with a spear so that he could draw the dragon away from our pod with the scent of his blood. It tore pieces out of my heart."

"By the Moon, I'm sorry to hear that," said Karl.

"Listen," said the mermaid, "the sea-dragon arises again. And there is an evil spirit abroad. One of the most evil of your kind, Karl. A scourge of the seas."

"Which evil spirit?" said Lee, visibly alarmed.

At that moment there was a shuffling and tapping of wood upon wood and Captain Cod came into view as they turned round.

"The moon sheds a lot of light upon things," he observed.

Lee clapped her hands to her green cheeks. She didn't have her mask on. Karl was uneasy. She wasn't supposed to go about in public without her disguise. What sort of excuse could they give?

"She's seasick," said Cintia quickly. "But she really is human."

"Don't be funny, lass," said Captain Cod. He turned to Lee, and took a draw on his reeking pipe, quite unconcerned. "You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are. I could see clearly even when you had yer mask on. A fine figure of a woman ye are too."

Lee gazed at him, her blue eyes wide, "I – I – sorry, I had no idea you could see through me disguise. I would have thought you wouldn't want a hag on board."

Captain Cod tutted and stumped over to the rails.

At that moment the mermaids clamoured below them. "An evil spirit comes… he comes…"

Karl's heart sank. The shadowy form of a spirit was coalescing above the deck, just like in the old palace. Karl could see the outline of a bald, burly man, with a once elegant personal coat.

The ghost leered at them. "Captain Bloodaxe at your service. As you should know, I take no prisoners." Captain Bloodaxe caught sight of Lee and hissed. "You! Foul creature! It was a hag who took away my ship and crew and saw me rotting in that noisome dungeon! The time of reckoning is now…"