When you couldn’t speak, you couldn’t say ummmm or errr or use any space-filling noises to indicate thinking or forestall potential embarrassment. All of which would be very nice right now. But queens don’t do that, either.
“I came to find my father,” she answered as truthfully as she could. “Everything else depends on that. We will do all we can to free you from the sea witch, afterward.”
“Yes…about this ‘sea witch.’ Do we have proof that she is indeed a…cecaelia?”
“Cecaelia?” Carlotta interrupted.
“Half human, half octopus,” Grimsby explained. “Like a mermaid, but with tentacles.”
“Half in the form of the gods,” Ariel corrected gently. “We are not humans who are half fish, the way you people always say. We are children of Neptune and are not like you—even half you—at all.”
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.