Part of Your World (Twisted Tales)(30)

The mermaid blinked at the gull.

Then she began to laugh.

She laughed so hard she began to have trouble breathing. Great, pealing gulps of laughter and air: it felt good to laugh and have it actually come out, not just be a silent recognition of something mildly amusing.

“I…beg your pardon?” Jona said, a trifle offended.

“Oh…it’s just…” She breathed deep, trying to control herself, not wanting to. “I was just sitting here thinking about singing, and how much everyone loved to hear me sing, and how I was celebrated for my voice, and how someone fell in love with me for my voice, and you…” She lost it for a moment again.

Jona turned her head back and forth, trying to get a good look at the mermaid with one eye, then the other. “I mean, well, it was…nice. I just meant that you were going to call over the guards.”

“‘Nice’? You’ve heard better?” Ariel asked, half-joking, half-curious.

Jona opened her beak for a moment, closed it, choosing her words carefully now that it was obvious she had offended. “Your singing is extraordinary; it is epic; it has something in common with the very forces of nature, like the wind and the sea itself.

“If you were to ask me how I felt about it personally, however, I would say I prefer the cries of my own kind, or the mindless trill of a sandpiper, or the sad call of a plover. They’re more accessible.”

Ariel put her hand to her face to stop the next peal of laughter. She snorted instead.

“What?” the bird asked, confused.

“I like you, Jona,” she said, scruffing the bird under her neck. The gull closed her eyes and leaned into it.

“ARIEL! You’re SINGING!”

An explosion of grey and white feathers landed on the beach next to them. As soon as he recovered himself, Scuttle threw his wings around her in a gull-y embrace.

“I am,” she said, stroking his head.

“Oh, it’s so good to hear you,” Scuttle said with a sigh. “It does my old heart…It’s just the best.”

Ariel smiled. There was something specifically beautiful about what he had said: It’s so good to hear you. He didn’t say anything about her singing, just that it was good to hear her voice. He was genuinely pleased just that she had her voice back—whatever she chose to do with it.

This is a friend.

And…wait a second…she didn’t have to just think these thoughts anymore.

“Scuttle,” she said aloud. “It does my heart good to talk to you.”

“You’re so queenly now, listen to you. So noble and regal and genteel and all. So does this change the Big Plan?” Scuttle asked, elbowing her with his wing and giving a conspiratorial wink. “You’re still gonna look for your father, right?”

“Of course. But now…I’ve effectively…alerted…Ursula to my presence. I’m a fool. I should have waited before destroying Ursula’s necklace.”

She shook her head and sighed, picking up the leather band that had held the nautilus. Now a golden bail and a bit of shell were all that was left. For reasons she couldn’t put into words—either aloud or in her head—she wrapped the strap around itself twice and slipped it onto her wrist. Maybe it would remind her to not be so rash in the future.

“I dunno, Ariel,” Scuttle said. “What else would you have done? Left it there? Your voice? That would take the will of a mountain or something. You couldn’t just leave it there with Ursula. No one could have.”

“No, I don’t…suppose I could have. I don’t know.”

“Did you manage to look around at all?” Jona asked. “Maybe get a hint of where she might be hiding him?”

“Only a little. He’s probably in her bedroom…or was in her bedroom. I didn’t see any bottle or anything immediately like what you described when I was there, and now that she knows I’m back she’ll probably hide him someplace else. At least I have an ally in the castle. Maybe even two! There’s a little maid who didn’t reveal me to Ursula—and also Carlotta, who was so nice to me the last time I was human. She’s aware that something happened the day Eric and Vanessa were wed. She also told me that a lot has happened as a result of that day. Ramifications—bad ones—for people besides me and my father.”

“Oh yeah? With Ursula as Vanessa, running the kingdom?” Scuttle asked. “I mean, you hear things as a bird, you know. But it’s hard to tell when humans are happy or unhappy. Especially when you’re just trying to pick through their garbage.”

“What I don’t understand is why Ursula would stay. Married to Eric, I mean. And here.” She indicated all the Dry World with her hands. “What does she want? I thought her only desire was to beat me and get revenge on my father. She did that. This isn’t her home….”

Scuttle shrugged. “I don’t know, Ariel. She’s evil, right? Who knows why she does anything? To make more evil, maybe? Or maybe she just likes it here. Whatever is going on in her crazy head, we gotta take her down, that’s what we gotta do. We’ll eighty-six her, get your dad back, get the prince, and everyone lives happily ever after.”

“I don’t know about all of that,” Ariel said with a smile. “I don’t think I can be responsible for everyone’s happily ever after.” Even my own. Get the prince? It was an intriguing thought, but one for later. Duty first. “…I think it would be difficult to, um, ‘eighty-six’ a princess and a sea witch, especially now that I’ve lost the element of surprise. Let’s focus on getting my father back, and then see what else we can do afterward.”