Topaz
The Sunken Treasure
Prologue I
t would be remembered as the kingdoms’
darkest day. The five royal families of Lemuria stood on the ship’s deck as destruction rained down around them. Cannons boomed, fires burned, the islands they had once ruled were reduced to rubble. It was the day that I – Celestine, the seawitch – had hoped would never come: Obsidian, in all her wickedness, had defeated us. Each king and queen wept as they placed
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their babies in baskets, as I instructed. Parting with their beloved girls was the only way to keep the princesses safe. Each queen removed a ring from her finger and hid it within the folds of her baby’s blanket. Obsidian might rule, but without the five magical Treasures of Lemuria she’d have no real power. And without the rings, she’d be unable to discover where those Treasures were hidden. She hadn’t won. Not yet. As the babies were lowered from the ship into the waves, I cast my spell. Instantly, a circle of calm water and still air surrounded them. “The sea will take them somewhere safe,” I told their sobbing parents. “Somewhere far away from here.” We watched as the five beautiful infants drifted away. Then came a huge explosion as a final
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cannonball hit the ship. We’d saved the babies, but no magic I possessed could save their parents. The ship and everyone on it sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Though the kings and queens were lost, one day the ship would rise and sail again. And those young princesses would return and restore this world to the peaceful place it once was. The saviours of Lemuria. ***
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