Flotsam and Jetsam watched, dumfounded, for only a second before leaping to defend their mistress, throwing themselves in front of her. Eric grabbed one of them by the arm as he passed, yanking him back around and then smashing him in the face with his fist.
It felt really, really good.
“Father!” he heard Ariel cry.
The little mermaid threw herself at Ursula, grabbing at the ampoule.
The other manservant backhanded her away, a terrible, fleshy-sounding blow that sent Ariel reeling.
Eric launched himself at him, with no real plan besides wanting to feel the thug’s neck being squeezed in his hands. Jetsam （or Flotsam） brought his dagger up to stop him and Eric smashed it aside with his forearm.
Shots rang out from somewhere behind him. Were the guards firing at the crowd? Above the crowd? Were they warning shots? Was there another threat he couldn’t see?
Someone was firing back. Who?
Eric delivered a good blow—considering it was his left hand—into his opponent’s side, but the man was strangely slippery, wiggling and twisting despite his apparent pain, away from Eric’s reach. Out of the corner of his eye the prince could see Flotsam slowly pulling himself up, crawling over to help his brother.
Ariel was rushing the sea witch, trying to grab her father.
“I’ll kill you all!” Ursula screamed. “ALL OF YOU. Humans, mer…”
She smashed the mermaid aside with some of her tentacles.
Others snaked themselves around Eric’s throat.
He flailed his arms, trying to grasp at her face, her neck, anything he could reach—but his arms were too short.
He started to get dizzy as the air was cut off, and the world began to go dark.
She fell to her knees, invisible bells ringing and tolling around her. She had never felt such pain, except when her voice was ripped from her body—and when it was returned. No one had ever dealt a physical blow to her before. She could hear nothing outside the beats of her own heart.
But her father needed her.
Staggering back to her feet, she refused to let the world swim away from her. Chaos was on all sides: people with mouths open like they were screaming, Flounder with his mouth open like he was suffocating. Eric was struggling. Ursula was wounded and looking around anxiously, trying to decide what to do or where to flee. She didn’t move very well in the Dry World, on her own tentacles.
One of which waved slowly in the air and still held her father.
With a scream she could only feel, not hear, Ariel threw herself at Ursula. The ampoule slipped surprisingly easily into the mermaid’s hands—suckers didn’t work very well on dry land. Ariel tumbled to the ground, rolling, her father cradled in her arms.
More shots were fired over her head. Max whimpered and growled; her hearing was slowly returning.
People screamed. Some tried to run away, some huddled, some rushed the soldiers, some rushed the dais. In the back of her distracted mind Ariel noticed that there were some soldiers who didn’t side with the palace guards—they were challenging them and trying to get to Ursula’s side.
“The sea witch!” a familiar old woman’s voice roared. “Get her! She’s got Prince Eric!”
A mad scramble ensued as people rushed the dais. Some soldiers seemed to align themselves against the would-be saviors, aiming their muskets at them. Ariel curled up on the ground, protecting the delicate housing her father was in, like a shell wrapped around a nautilus. Spirals and spirals…
Max and Vareet came to her side and tried to defend her against the chaotic stampede.
“I’m fine! Go help Eric!” Ariel begged. “Where is—oh!”
The prince was struggling, Ursula’s tentacles around his neck. Flotsam was sneaking up behind him, dagger raised.
Suddenly, with a final bit of strength, Eric hurled himself to the side, trying to smash Ursula’s head into the base of the fountain.
Flotsam threw himself into the melee, dagger still at the ready.
“Don’t let her touch the water!” Ariel screamed.
But it was too late. Grabbing the stone basin with her tentacles, Ursula dragged all three of them into the water, where they sank to the bottom.
Ariel leapt up and ran over…but all was still.
A single bubble rose to the surface and then popped.
And then a cloud of blood swirled up through the water, dark and ugly.
“No…” she sobbed.
Flounder leapt up out of the water, which flew from his body in viscous, sparkling red and black drops.
“Eric is all right! Help him out—he’s all tangled and trapped under her body!”