She needed a plan, a direction, in case Eric failed.
She ran a hand along the base of Flounder’s dorsal fin. “Nothing is easy. I can’t go back to the castle at all now, although Eric is looking, for me. And I assume Ursula knows I’m back, and has hidden my father someplace better.”
“All those things sound like the exact opposite of easy.”
“I know. Also, why is she keeping my father around at all? You’d think she’d at least want to use him as leverage for bargaining…Like, she would give him to me in return for our never bothering her and Tirulia again.”
“Would you take that trade?” Flounder asked curiously. “And abandon Eric?”
“Well…I think I’ve learned the hard way that there is no fair bargaining with a sea witch. Also, I wouldn’t just be abandoning Eric. I’d be leaving his kingdom to a terrible fate as well. Our worlds should never have collided, and the people of Tirulia are dealing with the results of…”—a rash decision by a lovesick mermaid—“choices I myself made years ago.”
“Fine, but,” her friend said with wry smile, “you still have to come down and check in with His Crustaceanness. And explain all of this to him, too.”
“Fine. Race you?” she asked, darting ahead.
“Hey, wait, no fair!” Flounder squealed, shaking his tail as fast as he could.
“OH, ARIEL, THANK THE THOUSAND SEAS OF THE WORLD YOU ARE BACK. IT HAS BEEN A TERRIBLE NIGHTMARE OF BUREARCRACY SINCE YOU LEFT!”
Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder were alone in the deserted throne room. Ariel had her audience very much to herself.
She opened her mouth.
“YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE THINGS I HAVE HAD TO BEAR.” Sebastian clacked a claw against his foreshell dramatically, turning away from her. His eight walking feet clicked tinnily on the armrest of the throne.
Ariel took a breath and opened her mouth again.
“The constant fighting,” Sebastian continued, “the interminable discussion of rituals. Taxes. The stupid sharks and their stupid sea-grabs. Distributing parts for the Sevarene Rites. And no one knows where the Horn of the Hyperboreans went!”
The little crab collapsed in a heap, more like a molt than a living creature, burying his eyes under his claws.
Ariel and Flounder exchanged an exasperated look.
“Not a moment for me. Not a moment for my music. Not a moment to compose, or prepare a chorus for the Rites,” Sebastian continued feebly. He poked his eyes piteously up through the crack in his claw. “What is a musician to do?”
“Maybe stop whining and be grateful for a chance to serve his kingdom,” Ariel suggested dryly.
Sebastian’s eyes twitched in a crab version of blinking.
“ARIEL! You can TALK!”
Using quick scooting motions, Sebastian swam sideways to plant himself on her chest, pressing his face against her skin. A crab hug.
“Oh, my dear, dear girl. I am so happy for you. I want to shed!”
“Ugh. Please don’t,” Flounder said.
Ariel picked the little crab off her and held him, cupped in her hands, before her face.
“But how did this happen?” he asked, looking around. “And where is your father?”
“It’s…complicated,” Ariel said.
“Ariel!”
Attina was frozen in surprise behind them, staring at her sister. Then with a snap of her tail she was next to and around her, holding her shoulders and looking her all over, as if she would be able to see a physical reason for her change.
“Ariel! I’m so happy for you! How did you…？ Where’s Daddy? Is everything back to normal now?”
“Not…precisely.” Ariel wished she could stay there, basking in her big sister’s good humor and attention. But there were truths to be told.
“Oh,” Attina said, her facing falling. “So…does this means you’re back to assume your responsibilities again? For good this time?”
Ariel thought about the twin meanings of that word: good.
“Why don’t you listen?” she suggested, making her voice lilting, not quite begging, but the sort of come on sound a younger sister would use to wheedle sense out of an older sibling. “I was just about to tell the story.”
“I’m all ears.” Attina crossed her arms and drifted away from her.
Ariel decided to ignore her sister’s tone and just leapt into the tale, starting with Jona and Scuttle’s furious attack on the guards and ending with a slightly censored and greatly abbreviated retelling of the conversation she had with Eric.