Surprise.
Realization.
Suspicion.
Their moment of glowering silence was interrupted by voices down the hall:
“Where did she go?”
“Did you see her?”
“You check downstairs, I’ll check this floor.”
They would be upon her in a moment.
Carlotta reached out and threw open a small door: a broom closet, its edges cleverly concealed in the overly ornate golden moldings.
She raised an eyebrow at Ariel.
The mermaid decided, for no reason she could logically explain beyond the past kindness shown her, to trust the scowling woman.
She dove in, trying not to wince as the door was slammed behind her. A cloud of dust rose from the brooms and rags and other cleaning implements. A distinct odor of mold and dry rot assailed her nose.
She tried not to sneeze, holding her face and nose with both hands, pressing her palms into her cheeks.
Queen of the Sea, she thought. Look at me now.
Voices outside the closet, muffled but loud:
“Carlotta—have you seen a maid? She wasn’t authorized to be upstairs, and…”
“Oh, you don’t mean the pale one, about yea high, skinny as a bean?” Carlotta sounded exasperated and very, very believable.
“Yes, with the blue skirts…”
“Blast that girl. She’s new. Not gifted with much besides her girlish figure, I don’t mind saying. You know, up here.”
Ariel frowned despite knowing it was a lie. She could practically see Carlotta tapping her head in illustration.
“I told her the wash was for Lord Francese’s manservant, not the lord himself. And then she disappeared. Should have known.”
“There is a problem of security in the castle, Carlotta. The spies…”
“If that girl’s a spy, I’m the pope,” Carlotta snorted. “She’s just a pretty dumb thing from the country. I’ll give her a good talking to when I find her and lock her in her room without supper.”
At this, the guard laughed. “You’ve never withheld a meal from anyone—or anything—in your life. You’ll probably scold her and then force five rolls on her to fatten her up. But you’ve got to talk to her. Princess Vanessa…”
“Say no more. It will be resolved, or she will go.”
“Thank you, Carlotta. I’ll inform my men.”
Ariel waited for the clicking footsteps to fade, then waited some more.
Just when she thought it might be safe to open the door a crack, it was thrown wide open. A serious, annoyed-looking Carlotta filled the entire frame and blocked most of the light.
“Come with me,” she ordered, in a tone she had never used on Ariel before.
The Queen of the Sea meekly obeyed.
They went through the ballroom, over the beautiful inlaid floor covered in meaningless brown and golden curlicues. Ariel wondered what it would be like to glide over the slippery polished boards, music swirling around her. She had only danced with Eric once, on a cobbled plaza to an amateur violinist, but even that had been incredible.
The ceiling was a frescoed masterpiece: a sky with little fluffy clouds at the edges, winged putti peeping out among them. Giant glazed windows let in sea light, sparkling off the water as well as from the sky. Circling very deliberately was a single white gull, who managed to keep her head pointed at the castle wherever she was in her revolutions. Jona.
Carlotta hurried on through the great room into a white corridor at the end and pulled Ariel into a small space lined with benches and tables. It looked like a staging area for servants to plate hors d’oeuvres and wine before bringing them out to hot and thirsty dancers, very much like at the palace in Atlantica—but this one had a ceiling, and the tables were all at one level. Under the sea, you could swim to whatever height you needed. How limited humans are…
But she didn’t have time to ponder such things. Carlotta stood in front of her, arms crossed.
“It’s you!”
Ariel nodded and shrugged. Well, obviously.
“Where have you been?” Carlotta demanded. “Where did you go?”
The mermaid winced. How could she explain?
“Eric loved you. You two would have been so happy together…” the maid continued accusingly. Ariel wondered if she had been spying on them any of the times they almost kissed. “And then you just…disappeared! And he married that horrible, horrible Vanessa, and now she’s ruining the kingdom and he’s…he’s not the prince he was. Not the boy he was. That boy’s gone. Where did you go?”