Part of Your World (Twisted Tales)(47)
Both Carlotta and Grimsby looked surprised and a little confused. All right, maybe not the time to get into ancient prejudices, Ariel decided. Someday if she stuck around in the Dry World she would set it straight.
“Very well,” Grimsby said carefully, clearing his throat. From the new look in his eye it was obvious he was reevaluating her. She wasn’t the playful, simple girl who couldn’t speak she had been before. She was someone who had things to say, who had goals, plans, opinions.
A woman, perhaps.
“There is little I can do myself, besides, er, keeping an eye out for something that looks like a…polyp in captivity. Which I will absolutely do, of course. But it seems now that spells have been broken, certain truths are becoming apparent, and our kingdom is driven even deeper into war with our enemies, well, something else must be done about this whole matter immediately. And I do not have the authority to decide that. Neither does Carlotta. Ariel, I think you know what you must do.
“You must go talk to Eric.”
Ariel felt her cheeks flame and she looked at the floor—not moving her head, just her eyes. But only for a moment. She quickly regained herself and forced herself to look at the old man. His expression had softened.
“I’m a trifle surprised you didn’t seek him out earlier, on your own,” he said softly. “I don’t know much about magic and undersea kings, but I’m fairly certain the two of you felt something strong for each other….Isn’t that part of the reason you came back? To see him?”
She opened her mouth to disagree…but stopped. The old human was right.
He put a hand on her shoulder, like he might a soldier’s. “You two…began a series of events which wound up involving all of us up in this mess. And I think maybe the two of you can get us out of it. It’s fate, or some such. It feels rather right. Rather Greek. Don’t you think, Carlotta?”
“It’s fated,” the maid agreed. “I don’t know about the Greeks.”
“Anyway, Carlotta was right to bring you to me and I am right in sending you on. Whatever veil has clouded Eric’s thoughts is gone now, and I think he would receive you in the right frame of mind.”
“But how can I see him without Ursula finding out? She has guards and soldiers everywhere!” Ariel spoke the words clearly while her head was muzzy with possibility. “I won’t endanger my father!”
“Eric goes for a walk after dinner,” Grimsby said, straightening himself up. “Along the beach—a long way, north beyond the castle. He walks when he’s not…allowed to get on a boat.”
“I can provide a distraction for the princess,” Carlotta said. “There’s a hatmaker been begging for an audience. Vanessa loves posing and preening….We’ll keep her tied up in bows and feathers for at least a watch.”
“Excellent. It’s a plan,” the butler said, clasping his hands together.
“Thank you, Grimsby,” Ariel said, kissing him on the cheek. “This is all a little…difficult for me. It must be impossible for you.”
“Oh, no, not at all, dear child,” he said, blushing a little. “And think, when this is all over, I shall be able to publish my memoirs about how I helped a mermaid!”
She stood behind an old wreck, the hull of a fishing vessel that had been lost decades before and was then swept far up the marsh during a particularly stormy high tide. Blasted by sand and wind and sea, it now looked like the bones of a whale, its chest facing the sky.
When Ariel and Grimsby were trying to figure out the best place for her to meet Eric, Carlotta mentioned that the boat was a place where many couples, wishing to…speak in private…betook themselves. The thought should have given the mermaid a smile, but now she was overcome by the mood of the place.
The wind picked up and blew tiny whitecaps across tide pools like minnows jumping. Ariel put her hand up, feeling the breeze in her fingers. Things changed much faster up here than they did under the sea.
And yet change came nonetheless; it had been several days now since the height of the spring tide, when the full moon worked with the sun to grant the sea her greatest reach over the land. Now tides were lower and weaker, and would become lower still in the coming week. So too the power of the trident dipped.
Soon she would have to return to the sea.
A movement at the edge of the marsh caught her eye. Eric emerged from behind the stand of trees that blocked the view of the castle—and the view of anyone watching from the castle. His stride was sure and he looked around boldly, but it was with just a frisson of confusion; he had not been told whom he was meeting, only that it was important. He wore his old boots and beige pants, and one of the thick-woven tunics sailors in Tirulia wore on wet and chilly days. A faded blue cap was pulled firmly down on his hair. His ponytail escaped out the back, curling around his left shoulder.
Ariel grasped the bleached wood of the boat at the sight of him. He seemed…so much realer. All those times she had dozed off with visions of the young, handsome prince in her head…and here he was actually coming to meet her. Life was far more detailed than dreams. His neck bent into his collar, his hands were shoved deep into his pockets like he was cold. Something unimaginable in a fantasy.
Ariel looked down at the outfit she wore, just a dress and apron. How cold was it? For humans? Was she dressed inappropriately?