by Liz Braswell
Well, not that lightly. Ariel had to grind her teeth to stop from reacting. She had forgotten how heavy things were in the Dry World, even supposedly light things, like birds.
They probably made for a very odd sight, strolling from the beach into town: a robed and mostly hooded maid with a seagull balanced on her arm. But there was no one around to see. The houses, churches, markets, and shops were mostly abandoned; everyone had gone early to get a good place to sit or stand for the free show. Ariel walked between the empty buildings, regarding them with mixed feelings.
If they failed, there was a chance she would be dead—or at the very least, a polyp—and never again free to go where she wished, either land or sea.
There was also a chance, if they succeeded, that her father, once returned to full power, would never allow her to come onto land again. He could make it so that no one could become human. Of course, she could always search for another way. But last time that had led to Ursula, and…
Her thoughts spun. There were objects in the window of a shop that she couldn’t quite fathom: possibly candy, possibly gems and crystals. There were so many alien things about this world she still didn’t know. There were so many more things in the rest of the world, both above and below the sea, that were yet to be discovered….
“You okay, Ariel? You seem a little, I dunno, worried or spacey or something,” Scuttle said.
“I just…I was just thinking about past choices and future possibilities.”
“Huh. Deep stuff. Well, the world’s your oyster after today. I can’t wait to see Triton again! You think he’ll give me a medal or something? For helping? For starting this whole thing?”
“I’m sure he will,” she said with a smile. It wasn’t quite a lie. Despite her father’s distaste for all air breathers, she would make sure her friends were properly rewarded.
They caught up with a few stragglers: families gathering small children onto their shoulders, limping soldiers, farmers from holds farther out. Scuttle took off. Ariel hoped he would find and stay close to Jona—who was, somewhat ironically, keeping an eye on Eric and developments at the castle end of things. And to think she was originally supposed to protect the Queen of the Sea!
“My lady!”
Ariel turned to see Argent hurrying down the avenue to catch up with her. Despite her old age it was easy with her long legs. She swung a heavy walking stick in the air enthusiastically—with little need for it, apparently.
“You’re here to see the show?” the apple seller asked with a smile.
“Oh, yes. I promise you, it will be a…show that everyone will remember for years to come.”
“I sense there’s something beneath those words.”
“Today it will be revealed who your princess really is,” Ariel said, feeling mysterious and queenly. “You shall be witness to something amazing. Watch closely, and be ready to tell the story of what you saw.”
“Oh, I can do better than that,” the woman said with a wink. “I’ll ink it, if asked.”
“Yes, I think you’ll find it very inspirational,” Ariel said, thinking about the other sea-themed pictures on the woman’s arms. She was pretty sure there wasn’t an octopus…not yet, anyway.
“Well, I’d better get a front-row seat,” the old woman declared, striding forward. “EXCUSE ME! Old lady coming through! Make way for a grannie.” She handily pushed people aside, forcing her way to the front.
No frail biddy, she.
Ariel also wanted a close view, though not so close that Ursula could pick her out of the crowd. She smiled and slipped sideways and murmured apologies and, yes, flashed a beautiful mermaid smile at large in-the-way boys when she needed to. She succeeded in getting halfway into the main square, about a third of the way back from the stage. A low platform had been erected behind Neptune’s Fountain for the singers to stand on, and stand only. It would be a far less dramatic performance than in the amphitheatre—not much moving around. Ariel felt a little disappointed despite knowing just how ridiculous she was being. But from the way Jona had described the original show, it had sounded like a lot of fun—and she was curious to see how Eric and the humans had re-created her ancient underwater world.
The orchestra was grouped against the wall of the indoor market; their music would echo off its stones and back to the audience. There’s a pun in there somewhere about songs and dolphins and their singing-sight…. But she was too excited to think it through.
On the side of the fountain closest to her and the audience, raised just a smidge higher than the impromptu stage, was a jewel of a box seat, canopied in cloth of gold and purple velvet. A banner even flew from the top. Ariel’s eyes narrowed when she saw the sigil of the black octopus on it.
The sky was blue, the crowd was happy, the air was crisp and fresh. Everything was bright and pretty and happy, and she was caught up in the mood despite the dire reasons for her being there.
It was like attending the markets and fairs when she was a child, when it was all new and everything seemed exciting. Back then she darted everywhere and begged for treats and admired strange merfolk she didn’t know. She missed that and it was nice to recapture it again.
The royal carriage pulled up, the crowd breaking into cheers when Eric stepped out. Ariel hoped they would react poorly when Vanessa emerged, but she was disappointed. The false princess looked stunning. She wore a very modern, highly corseted ocean-blue dress with a half dozen underskirts, and she had jewels and shells intertwined with her hair that looked…almost…tentacle-y. She flashed a sly, toothy smile and the crowd ate it up. No one believed the truth of the opera, but they all loved the idea of a villain modeled on their princess. An antihero.
Flotsam and Jetsam oozed to the sides of the box seat, flanking it.
Vareet was right behind them. She wore a simple, pretty frock and her hair was arranged like her mistress’s, her naturally curly tresses tightly wound around her head with ocean-blue ribbons. But she was very pale. The little girl could tell something was up, or she knew something was about to happen.
Grimsby made his way to the royal seats from a different carriage, gradually and strangely carefully—and then Ariel saw that he was leading Max, who was nearly blind but still wagged his tail, excited to be there.
She thought her heart would break. He had been there when it all started, and Eric obviously wanted to make sure his friend was there when it all ended—no matter how it ended. She felt tears bead up and her heart continued to flutter.
And flutter.
A lot. Scritchily.
Panicked, Ariel put her hand to her chest.
“HEY, WATCH THE FINGERS!” a voice snapped as she touched a strange, hard lump below her clavicle.
“Sebastian?”
The little crab scuttled up so his eyestalks popped up above her neckline. It itched and tickled mightily but the queen restrained herself.
“What…What are you…What…?”
“I couldn’t let you do this all alone,” Sebastian said matter-of-factly. “I have done nothing all this time but rule the sea in your place and worry. I had to do something.”
She carefully reached down her front and unhooked him from the rough wool, then held him up to her face.
“Sebastian…” she said, trying not to smile. Trying to look frowny and fierce.
The crab put a claw over his antennule. “Can’t talk. No oxygen out of the water. I have less than a day before I need to go back. Have to conserve.”
“Well, thank the sea for something,” she said, then kissed him on his carapace and carefully placed him on her shoulder. First a seagull, then I’m hosting a crab. Am I the Queen of the Sea or of random sea creatures?
Back on the dais, Eric was gracefully making sure Vanessa was on his right side, closer to the saltwater fountain. They stood together, every inch a mighty power couple.
“Good people of Tirulia,” he cried. “Thank you for joining me this afternoon. That I could give you this performance fills my hea
rt with no end of gladness….I only wish I could do more for the greatest people in the world!”
The crowd went wild, stamping and hollering.
“No artist can create without an inspiration; no man can work so without a muse. So it is with your prince. Everything I’ve ever done, every piece you’ve ever heard, every tune I’ve ever scribbled in the wee hours as a Mad Prince does, they are all because of one woman, who owns me heart and soul.”
This was met with awwws and cries about the power of love.
Eric looked out at the crowd, but his eyes didn’t find hers. It didn’t matter. Ariel knew he was speaking to her, and she felt her eyes moisten.
He let the moment drag out and then turned dramatically to Vanessa, making a very distinct break between what he had said before and now—but only to those who knew.
“I hereby dedicate La Sirenetta to the most unforgettable princess in the world. For Vanessa, and for Tirulia!”
He took out his ocarina, toasted her with it, and then hurled it into the crowd.
There was a little bit of a scuffle, but it wound up in the chubby hands of a toddler on someone’s shoulder. Everyone cheered madly when she raised it above her head in triumph.
Eric laughed. He bowed and kissed the princess’s hand.
Ariel felt her stomach turn. Despite his vow of silence, Sebastian muttered and clicked angrily.
Vanessa curtsied low, then sashayed forward.
Flotsam and Jetsam were suddenly behind her. They held a chest between them.
“Thank you, Prince Eric,” Vanessa said sweetly—or as sweetly as she could, shouting in Ursula’s voice. More than a few people looked confused. “And thank you, good citizens of Tirulia. Bear with me while I hack and cough through this…the summer cold I had destroyed my lungs.”
Did anyone really buy that?
Sneaking a glance at the people around her, Ariel saw a mix of reactions: surprise, skepticism, and horribly enough, pity.
“Could a princess be any luckier to have found such a prince? Truly, I am honored to be the…inspiration for his art. I have just a couple of words to say before we begin.”
Ariel tensed—the sea witch had to be pushed into the fountain soon. But Vanessa was sort of in front of Eric now, moving diagonally away from where she needed to be. With Flotsam and Jetsam up on the stage with her, it might become even more difficult. Could Eric handle them if they saw their mistress was in trouble?
“First, I would like to thank Lord and Lady Savho, who have generously loaned the government of Tirulia two of their heaviest cargo vessels to fill in while we rebuild our fleet. They are on maneuvers right now, even as we speak, heading toward the open waters….Testing powerful new munitions we plan to use against enemies of the state.”
Ariel felt her heart stop. Ursula’s eyes glittered and she looked carefully out over the crowd—hoping to see a reaction, hoping to catch out the mermaid, hoping to gloat.
“What does she mean? So what? I don’t…” Sebastian whispered.
“She means to blow up Atlantica. She means to do it now, while everyone is at the opera—including me!”
The Queen of the Sea thought quickly. If she ran, she could dive into the water, summon a storm, and possibly stop them in time. But the moon wasn’t in the best phase; it was already taking most of her effort to remain human.
And this might be the only chance they ever had to stop the sea witch. Ariel needed to be there in case something went wrong. Vanessa said heading to open waters. They still had a little time.
Her heart pounding, she decided to stay. For at least a few more minutes.
“Secondly,” Ursula said, looking disappointed as she failed to spot Ariel, “I wish to announce the winners of our special fishing contest—to find the magic blue-and-yellow fish. Unfortunately, and somewhat embarrassingly, the prize goes to my own servants, Flotsam and Jetsam.”
They knelt forward and threw open the top of the chest they held, sickly grins on their faces.
Flounder tried to leap out.
“But that’s—” Sebastian started to cry.
Ariel squeezed his mouth shut with her hand and tried not to cry out herself.
Eric’s eyes practically popped out of his skull. He shook his head desperately, looking for Ariel in the crowd. He had managed to stop the contest, but not Ursula.
The crowd booed. Cries of “Cheaters!” and “It was rigged!” were hurled at the dais. Vanessa deflected them with a cool grin.
“Of course this looks bad. My servants are highly skilled hunters—I mean, fishers. Fishermen. Best of their people.”
As she said this she came forward and seized Flounder violently but securely around his waist. He threw himself back and forth, but behind Vanessa’s weak and skinny little arms was the might of the cecaelia, and she didn’t even flinch.
He screamed silently—his words killed by the atmosphere of the Dry World.
“Flounder,” Ariel whispered. She put her hand to her hair, feeling the trident. If only…
The moment dragged out. The crowd grew impatient and grumbly, but not prone to violence—yet. And Vanessa just stood there calmly, not so much gazing at them as scanning them. Looking for the mermaid.
She was doing all of this just to lure Ariel out into the open.
As much as she hated it, Ariel had to resist her instinct to jump up and rescue him. She would wait.
“My servants are a generous pair of boys,” Vanessa finally continued, sashaying closer to the fountain. With a nonchalance that disgusted Ariel to her core, the sea witch tossed the fish into the fountain, then clapped her hands to clean them of water and scales. Flounder dove deep for a breath then leapt out of the water a few times like an upset goldfish, confused and terrified and trying to figure out where he was.
Ariel breathed a deep sigh of relief. Ursula was keeping him alive for now—probably to use as leverage later.
The crowd was still agitating. The sea witch seemed to gauge them for a moment before coming to a decision.
“My servants have decided to give up the prize to the good people of Tirulia!” she cried.
With skeletal leers, the two eel brothers reached into the bottom of the chest that had held Flounder and pulled up dripping handfuls of gold coins. They flung them into the crowd.
There were immediate cheers—and a few shrieks as the heavy coins struck some in the head and face.
Ariel frowned. That was an unexpected move. The sea witch never cared about the feelings of the commoners, even when she was under the sea. She generally referred to them as riffraff. Her goal had always been to rise far above the masses, as princess, queen, or god. Why did she care what they thought of her now? Why was she trying to buy them off?
Unless it was just to keep the crowd calm and happy for some other reason….
Eric moved toward Vanessa, slipping in between her manservants while she was distracted, enjoying the cheers.
Flotsam and Jetsam were not distracted; they immediately pulled out daggers with their free hands, crossing them in front of the prince.
Most of the crowd didn’t notice this; they were too busy looking for missed coins, arguing with their neighbors, cheering, or watching Vanessa.
Grimsby noticed.
“Prince Eric!” he cried, his thin voice barely carrying over the crowd. He thrust Max’s leash into Vareet’s hands and tried to push his way to the stage. Max howled and barked and lunged forward, also trying to get to the prince.
Ariel put a hand up to cover and protect Sebastian and also started to move forward.
A gull called from overhead. Suddenly, Jona dove like a porpoise right into Flotsam’s face. (Or maybe it was Jetsam. Honestly, Ariel could never tell them apart.) She stabbed her beak into his face like she was spearing an especially truculent fish.
Flotsam (or Jetsam) eerily did not scream—he merely put one hand up to protect his face and very methodically tried to pick the bird off with the other.
Scuttle foll
owed close behind, ripping at Jetsam’s (or Flotsam’s) nose. That eel also didn’t scream; he just knocked the old gull aside with the back of his hand.
Eric threw himself forward, trying to push through.
One of the eels sucker-punched him in the stomach.
The prince doubled over, falling to the floor.
“No!” Ariel cried.
Vanessa was watching all this…and laughing…and then…
Slowly, like a giant ship sinking, she fell over into the fountain.
The splash was enormous.
There were shouts of confusion from the crowd.
“What happened? What happened?” Sebastian demanded from underneath Ariel’s hand.
The mermaid stood on the tips of her toes, trying to get a look.
There, standing at the edge of the platform, panting and exhausted, was Max. Also Vareet, with the empty leash in her hand and a look of triumph on her face.
The dog growled once at the princess he had knocked into the fountain, then wagged his tail and barked happily back at Eric, who was just getting to his knees.
“By the sea,” Ariel whispered, grinning.
“He did it!” Sebastian cried, thrusting a claw into the air. “That little girl and the terrible shaggy dogfish did it!”
Someone screamed.
The crowd grew silent. The Tirulians watched in horror as Ursula emerged from underneath the water, pulling herself up over the side of the fountain with slick black tentacles that glittered in the sun.
“Max!” he gasped. “Good boy.”
Breathing was hard. Jetsam had got him good, up and under his rib. Moving was also hard. The prince gritted his teeth and forced himself upright anyway, leaning hard on his left leg with both his arms. The despicable henchmen had abandoned him to aid their mistress.
Eric gestured Vareet over and used her shoulder to help him the rest of the way up.
He took a deep, painful breath and addressed the crowd.
“Look!” he shouted. “Look at what your princess truly is. Lord Francese, do you see? Savho? Señor Aron? Do you see the creature before you? The one you gave promises to, and gold, and your loyalty? Look, people of Tirulia. Behold not Vanessa, but Ursula, witch of the sea!”
