Part of Your World

by Liz Braswell

  And with that he spun on his heel and clicked out of the room.

  Eric sighed. It broke his heart to treat Grimsby this way. But I would feel even worse if something happened to him.

  He opened the paper, wondering why the butler thought it was worth his time. It wasn’t even that high an amount—although ludicrous, really, for the shipping of a single package. There were international carriages for that sort of thing now. And all the instructions that were tacked on were absurd:

  KEEP IN THE SHADE AT ALL TIMES; DO NOT ALLOW TO GET TOO HOT; ENSURE THE HOLES IN THE BOX AREN’T BLOCKED SO AIR CAN CIRCULATE; HANDLE CAREFULLY, LIQUID AND GLASS WITHIN…

  Eric blinked.

  He reread the instructions:

  TO BE DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO THE HANDS OF KING OVREL III OF IBRIA, AND NOT A SERVANT OR FOOTMAN. ALSO CONDOLENCES ON THE LOSS OF YOUR EMISSARY, FROM PRINCESS VANESSA.

  Glass…liquid…holes so air could circulate…Vanessa was shipping the King of the Sea out of the castle right under Eric’s nose!

  Grimsby knew. He knew what Eric was looking for—and had found it.

  Good old Grimsby!

  Eric’s first instinct was to call out a princely order to stop the whole thing. He would head to the Office of the Treasurer immediately to do so.

  Then he stopped.

  Vanessa had the whole castle on alert, spying for her. If he did anything and was caught—a very likely possibility—Vanessa would punish Grimsby. Or Max.

  What should he do?

  When the time came she changed in the deep channel between thickets of razor-sharp grass on the northern side of the marsh, farthest from the castle—and its guards. The tide was still coming in, so the water hadn’t been sitting in the muddy marsh for hours, growing still and stinky.

  On cue Jona dropped down from the heavens and settled on the top of a sturdy tuffet.

  Moments later Eric came striding on the path through the grass. He looked lost when he didn’t see her by the boat as he expected.

  “Eric!” she called out quietly.

  “Ariel!” His face broke into a wide smile that warmed her from the inside. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be here!”

  “Have you found him?” she asked eagerly.

  The prince took a deep breath and gripped her shoulders.

  “I did find some polyps—but not your father. Some other prisoners of Vanessa’s. Horrible things, disguised in her cosmetics.”

  Ariel felt the sea inside her retreat into the depths of her soul.

  What a happy ending it could have been—Eric bringing her father; freeing Triton right there, on the marshes…

  But life was complicated.

  Eric saw her wilt and he held her steady.

  “I’m so sorry, Ariel,” he said. “Also…Vanessa knows I know about her.”

  Ariel shook her head at the multiplicity of bad news. “But how did that…?”

  “Long story. Terrible dinner. Actually, great dinner. Just terribly awkward. But there is a little bit of good news.”

  He showed her the receipt.

  “I believe Ursula is trying to sneak your father out of the castle right under my nose…and impress a potential ally at the same time. She’s giving Triton to the king of Ibria as a specimen for his zoo.”

  Ariel looked at the paper, the edge of her lip rising in disgust.

  “A specimen for his zoo?”

  “Yes, and according to a little prying I’ve done on my own, she even told him directly that it was the King of the Sea, transformed. I doubt he believes it, but still. A lovely story for his noble guests.”

  “Can’t you stop this? Grab the, uh, package from her?”

  “Ah…yes…well…Besides knowing that I know who she is, Vanesa also knows I’m helping you. She has threatened to kill Grimsby if she finds evidence of it.”

  “Grimsby?” Ariel cried. “He’s harmless! That monster….”

  “She knows how much he means to me,” Eric said darkly. “That’s her magic. Not real magic. She’s brilliant at finding the thing you love most and threatening to destroy it.”

  Ariel groaned. “I wish I had that insight before I visited her the first time.”

  “Age brings wisdom,” the prince said with a dry smile. “But look, it’s not actually such a bad thing. If I act like normal Eric, like I don’t even know what’s happening with the gift or the mail at all, that makes it far more unlikely that she will suspect anything, or try to stop us.”

  “Good point. So what do we do?”

  It didn’t even cross her mind for a moment to trade Grimsby for her father. Throwing an innocent under Ursula’s chariot for her own gain would make her no better than the sea witch herself.

  “Well, when I said ‘we,’ I really meant ‘you.’ The carriage leaves for Ibria tomorrow. It will stop in the market to pick up other packages for delivery beyond the kingdom at midday and leave from the tavern at one o’clock. You could waylay it with your storm powers and grab your father, and no one would be the wiser! At worst they might think it was the work of a highwayman looking for gold.”

  “I can’t,” Ariel said gently, although she was amused by the image: Queen of the Sea and Highway Robber. “My powers don’t work on land. Only water. Just like hers.”

  “Oh.” Eric’s face fell. His lower lip was stuck out a little. It was a tiny bit childish but terribly endearing. She almost felt bad that her godlike powers had presented this limitation to him.

  “Couldn’t you…stay in the sea…and direct a single, tiny wave or wind to hit it?”

  “It’s not that precise. And it’s less like shooting out a bolt with my trident than encouraging the powers of nature to do something of their own accord. It’s not…neat. But if it’s just one or two men in the carriage, I think I can manage, with some help from my friends.”

  “The seagulls?”

  “Also my…mermaid charms.” She smiled. Too bad Sebastian won’t be there to hear me, singing like a siren. “Trust me, we can do it.”

  “Perfect! By this time tomorrow it will all be over.”

  “And I will have my father back!” Her heart leapt. There was still going to be a happy ending after all.

  “And then we can get rid of Vanessa,” Eric said. “The sooner, the better. She’s far more dangerous than I ever realized.”

  “It’s a plan,” said Ariel. “All we need to do now is carry it through!”

  “Absolutely!”

  “Great!”

  “Good!”

  “Excellent!”

  A moment passed as they smiled at each other.

  Another moment passed, somewhat awkwardly.

  And then a third.

  “…All right, then! Good luck! Hopefully when we next meet you’ll have your father back!” Eric blurted out.

  “Yes! That will be great!” Ariel replied enthusiastically.

  They shook hands and parted.

  I hope Eric feels as stupid as I do, Ariel thought grumpily.

  She entered the town late the next morning, and kept her headscarf close around her.

  The market was different today—different vendors selling entirely different wares. In Atlantica it was always the same people selling the same things to the same people, only a slight variation with the seasons. It’s Red Kelp Festival Day! Oh, it’s the Incredibly Rare and Beautiful Blue-Tipped Anemone Spawning Day! Oh! It’s that guy who makes those little wood carvings of the gods out of shipwreck material!

  Actually, those were pretty great, Ariel allowed. She owned at least a dozen of them.

  Jona flew above her, occasionally landing on a roof when it was convenient. Several dozen gulls circled close by. Ariel hoped they wouldn’t be necessary; she didn’t want to draw attention to the situation. With any luck she could just distract the coachman, maybe sing a sireny tune or two to mesmerize him, then grab the package. And then she could return to her kingdom triumphantly, her father in hand, and it would all be over.

  The carriage pull
ed up behind the tavern precisely at ten. There was only one driver.

  Easy, the Queen of the Sea told herself.

  But the driver was staring at her.

  Leering at her.

  In a strangely familiar way.

  Ariel fell back, suddenly realizing who it was.

  Run! she told herself.

  Somehow she didn’t.

  The door to the carriage creaked open, pushed from inside by the footman—who was the driver’s twin.

  Out stepped Vanessa.

  For just a moment, Ariel saw Ursula. Grinning and sharp-toothed, surrounded by her waving black tentacles. All predator, all evil. Sharks killed to eat. Ursula enjoyed the pain she caused.

  Then the moment was over and the princess of Tirulia stood there, “disguised,” wrapped in a long, flowing shift that made her look like an actor playing a foreign priestess in one of those operas Sebastian conducted from time to time. Her eyes were large and doe-like, but her smile was vicious and exactly the same as the sea witch’s.

  Ariel felt a cold rage settle on her shoulders, and the world narrowed down until it was just the two of them.

  “Were you expecting something from the postman, maybe?” Vanessa purred, in Ursula’s voice. “A package, perhaps?”

  “Very amusing, Ursula. You’re so…funny,” Ariel said, trying not to let her anger show.

  “Thank you. Nice legs, by the way.”

  “Thank you,” Ariel said. “I made them myself.”

  “Oh, yes…you’re ‘Queen of the Sea’ now. With all the powers and privileges thereof. And the trident.” Her eyes flicked greedily over Ariel, looking for some sign of the weapon. “Isn’t it funny…? Your father could have turned you into a human any time he wanted to. But he didn’t. Withholding his abilities so selfishly…trying to keep you locked up at home….”

  “He was trying to protect me,” Ariel said flatly. “It’s not the choice I would have made in his position, but he thought he was doing best.”

  “But you are in his position now,” Vanessa said, eyes wide and innocent. “Are you telling me that if you had a daughter, you would just—let her go?”

  “If I had a daughter I would make sure she had every opportunity to do what she wanted to enrich her life. Sometimes being a good parent means knowing when to let go.”

  “Well, well, isn’t that a thoughtful and mature philosophy,” Vanessa said, looking at her nails. “Never really had the inclination for children myself—except as dessert.”

  Ariel just gave her a look, and it wasn’t one of horror. One of the most tiring aspects of Ursula wasn’t even her villainy; it was her constant bid for attention, for shock value, for turning the conversation back to herself.

  “I believe you took something of mine,” Ursula said.

  “I believe you took something of mine,” Ariel retorted.

  “I believe I traded that from you fairly, in return for something of mine. My magic to help you win your man.”

  “It wasn’t a fair trade. You were preying on my desperation and knew that I would fail.”

  “I believe you were, as they say, of sound mind and body when we made the deal. No one forced you into it and you knew exactly what you were doing.”

  “I was a dumb, innocent girl!” Ariel snapped, disappointing herself.

  You’re a queen now, not that innocent girl. Do not sink to her level. She is beneath you.

  “And it’s been—what? Five or six years since then?” Vanessa asked innocently. “Nothing in the span of a mermaid’s life. The tiniest fraction of a percentage. But I suppose you’re all grown up now?”

  “I have grown,” Ariel said frostily. “And I am queen. And I suspect that if we were to go back and reexamine those three days from all sides, like a god, we would see that you had cheated somehow. Even before you used my own voice and someone else’s body and your magic to steal Eric from me!”

  “There was no noncompete clause,” Vanessa said, almost reasonably. “I never said I couldn’t go after the same lovely human. He is lovely, by the way.”

  Ariel knew the witch was trying to get a rise out of her.

  …and she was succeeding; the mermaid could feel warmth rising to her cheeks.

  “Please. He has no tail or tentacles. I doubt you find him attractive at all. He’s just a pawn in an elaborate game to punish me and my father.”

  “You got me there,” Vanessa sighed dramatically.

  “Thank you. Now give me my father.”

  “He’s not in the carriage, sweetest. He’s not anywhere you can get him. I have other plans for the King of the Sea—none of which involve you or the zoo of the king of Ibria. Both of you fooled…It’s quite delicious, really. The king is getting a gift, a lesser member of my pretty polyps. Not that the stupid human could tell the difference.”

  “Very cleverly done,” Ariel said coldly. “I suppose you have to resort to plain trickery since your powers don’t work on land.”

  “Well, perhaps my magic doesn’t. Not yet,” Vanessa allowed—but a quick twist of fury that came and went like lightning across her face spoke of something that irked her deeply. That definitely merits further investigation later. “But I have other powers, you know. Power over the infinite corruptibility of humans. Power over absolute sacks of gold—which you and I couldn’t care less about, but these people worship more than their gods. Power over life and death in that castle where your darling prince lives.”

  “Ursula. I know Father exiled you from the kingdom, and you wanted revenge on him. But why involve me?”

  “Well, you were a pawn, dear, of course. Another lovely pawn,” Vanessa said with a sensual shrug. “The best way to get at Triton was through his favorite daughter.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Please,” Vanessa interrupted sharply. “The youngest. The prettiest. The one with the beautiful voice. The one who looked the most like his own dead wife. Everybody knows it. Humans do the same thing—have children who are their favorites—but they constantly rail against the habit in their religions and laws. They try so hard to defeat their own base natures. It’s one of many things I find rather attractive about them.”

  Ariel didn’t answer immediately, processing this. She almost wished she still had no voice so she could vamp for time while coming up with the right signs.

  “Is that why you’re still here, causing trouble?” she finally asked. “Because you like the humans you live among?”

  “Well, yes.” Vanessa put a finger to her lips, seriously considering the idea. “They are so rash and easily manipulated and full of feelings and quick to agree to anything—more like a race of children than a real race, if you ask me. You know, I almost understand your fascination with them now. Before, I thought it was because you were just a dumb bored teenager looking for a way to shock your father.”

  Ariel opened her mouth to respond but Vanessa cut her off, coming near. She lowered her head and hunched her shoulders, like Ursula preparing to attack, and Ariel was pretty sure that if there had been shadows in the alley, the one behind her would have shown tentacles waving high, poised to strike.

  “You will never, ever get your father back. You, the merfolk, everyone under the sea—you have all lost the great King Triton forever. And you will lose so much more….That is what you get for exiling Ursula. That is what happens to everyone who crosses her!”

  Ariel said nothing—she just raised an eyebrow, as if to say, Are you done now?

  “And you can just forget about ever getting Eric back, too,” the sea witch added snidely. “Whether or not he remains devoted to me, he is oddly devoted to his people.”

  “It’s not odd,” Ariel responded, a little sadly. “A good ruler—a successful ruler—loves her people and governs at their will. She doesn’t use them up for her own selfish purposes. Someday you might actually learn that, even if you triumph against me now. The humans will not put up with you forever.”

  Vanessa’s face dissolved into another Ursul
a-style snarl.

  “If I catch Eric helping you in any way, Grimsby will die.”

  Ariel almost said, I know this already, but stopped herself just in time.

  She wasn’t a great actress and couldn’t feign last-minute surprise. So she spoke the truth.

  “You’re a monster.”

  Vanessa crossed her arms. “You’re up to something. I can tell. You’re trying to cheat, somehow.”

  “How does that feel?” Ariel asked innocently.

  “If you’re going to play a game of knives, you had better prepare to win,” Vanessa growled. “All you have ever done so far is lose. Lose your voice, lose your prince, lose your father….Don’t for a moment think you have gained the upper hand just because you have a crown now. Content yourself with ruling the merfolk; they are about all you can handle.

  “Go back to the sea, little mermaid. Go back and leave the human world forever. Leave them…to me.”

  She made a suitably dramatic exit, stepping languidly up into her carriage and having Jetsam slam the door and Flotsam whip the horses to move off.

  It was a little bit uncomfortable in the carriage, it being a mail coach and not made for the transporting of royal princesses. Also, there was indeed a large wooden crate for eventual delivery to Ibria, random and delicate polyp within.

  But at least it was dark and cool inside. She pulled down the isinglass shade, which cut the glare further and also amused her: its translucent material was made from the swim bladders of fish. As she ran a finger down its textured surface she grinned at the number of lives given just so she could avoid a headache.

  The coach slowly began to roll off—and Ursula’s smile faded. She had come out on top in their verbal spar…she should have been exultant. She should have celebrated the fact that the stupid mermaid princess—excuse me, queen—had appeared just as she predicted. And did the sea witch ever show her! She had all the cards, all the leverage, and the mermaid had none. Ursula was at the top of her game. There was nothing Ariel could do but swim back to her little home under the waves forever.

  “Stupid minnow,” she said aloud.

  “Ridiculous hussy,” she added a moment later.