He pointed to a group of lovely maidens and handsome young men (all with bodies that ended in shining fish-tails) who were swimming gracefully through the water, while two sad-faced men, with wreaths of pale blue flowers in their hair, played a soft, slow melody upon harps. “The Mermen and Mermaids are having a ball,” said the Witch. “And they have induced two of the Necker-folk to play for them. The Necker are the saddest race of elves in the water, for they are always longing for souls to be given them. Even while they play for the gay Mer-people to dance, they are thinking of the souls they have not yet won.” They passed all sorts of queer beasts as they journeyed on. There were not only sea-horses and sea-dogs, but sea-serpents that seemed to have been painted all the colours of the rainbow, and shiny, emerald-green sea-dragons, and one terrible great thing, which seemed to be half asleep, and about which the Witch said that a gentleman called Tennyson had once written a poem. She said that the name of the Thing was the Kraken. So on and on they went, until Dick’s mind had become a sort of vague jumble of queer fishy sights, and it seemed as though he had lived forever at the bottom of the sea. And suddenly he discovered that he was alone! The Old Witch of the Sea had left him, and he was all by himself in the awful dark green depths of the ocean that lay under the Sea of Glass! What had become of his guide? Had she left him on purpose, or had she been called away, in some queer fairy way which he did not understand? Or was it possible that she had indeed brought him to the place where he was to be given the help he had asked? He looked about him on every side, and even up into the green water over his head, but he could not see even a fish! He was utterly alone, this time! Now, at last, everything was quite hopeless. “Dear, dear, dear!” cried a sweet, half-mocking voice beside him. “What is the matter? Why do you look so sad, little mortal boy?” [Illustration] XI _Into the City of the Wicked King_ [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XI _Into the City of the Wicked King_ Dick turned, and saw a very pretty lady, in a green gown that floated about her in the water, and bare feet that lightly pressed the sand. “I want to get to the Red City,” he explained simply. “Well, come along!” said the pretty lady, with a musical little laugh. And she picked him up in her arms and held him close. “Now shut your eyes!” He did as she told him to; and she kissed him lightly. Her lips felt warm, even through the cold water. “Now open your eyes!” she commanded. Dick stared about him. He was no longer at the bottom of the sea, but on solid dry land again, just in front of a big iron gate, with a gray stone wall stretching on either side, and the tops of a number of crimson houses and turrets showing beyond the wall. The pretty lady put Dick down, and laughed again. “Here you are!” she said, “at the very gate of the Red City.”