Fairy Tale Treasure (Book Two: The Road to Ever After)

Chapter Seven

Princess Sarah gawked at the middle-aged mermaid for a minute, stunned by Queen Aquastasia's final statement. Had water seeped in and plugged up her ears? Had bubbles or pressure affected her hearing? Nothing was adding up to her reason's liking. The Pirate King was intended, promised to the Queen of the Mermaids? It couldn't be, simply could not. He had been so detached, so bitter when crossing the Sirens' Shoals.

Perhaps this was why.

"Engaged to the Pirate King," Sarah asked through her stupor. "Why? How?"

The questions followed each other well. The princess saw no way a romantic future could be forged between the sailor and the mermonarch. A common denominator of water was not enough to build a relationship. Not that Sarah was romantically savvy, but she knew a whole lot about warring independence not working well with matrimony; that was the story of her current existence. Other than a sense of personal discipline and flights of tempestuous mood swings, Princess Sarah could not see any similarities that boded fair for this union.

So how had the arrangement come about?

Queen Aquastasia refined her streak of malice with a few rubs of her palms against her fin, almost like a girl flattening the folds of her ballgown. The merwoman blinked her grey eyes very intentionally, willing her hatred down to a low simmer. She was a lady and a queen; Aquastasia would not besmirch those images before a stranger of royal birth. Her lips pursed into a pucker of feminine control. Once her emotions were balanced, she addressed Sarah again.

"The Pirate King and I made an agreement," the queen answered. "I possessed something he desired and vice versa. So, a compromise was forged."

"Then why are you still waiting around for the bridegroom?" Sarah probed deeper. She needed the full story.

The merqueen's purple eyebrow twitched. Her pointer finger tapped on her blue throne once and once again. She was calculating, likely how long she could hold her dignity while relaying the tale of her dealings with the Pirate King. Sarah could see one of Queen Aquastasia's veins spasming beneath the flesh of her wrist. This had to be pretty juicy to get this cold-blooded female trembling.

Queen Aquastasia made her choice. In a smooth dash, she reached out across the blue stone and squeezed a yellow anemone. A bell tinkled somewhere far off in the palace.

Princess Sarah looked at the queen askance. It was written all over the girl's face how intrigued she felt. What are you hiding, Sarah wondered. The queen merely glanced up at the open roof overhead.

Eager, but not urgently, a mermaid swam inside one of the open entrances to the throne room and toward the chamber's center. She was petite, perhaps not fully grown. Her blue hair rode the waves in musical up and down motions. Her little, orange tail bobbed violently without thrashing; it was just the excitement of youth. When she was finally near enough to verify her immaturity of years, Princess Sarah could see this was a merteen.

Princess, actually, for a ruby-studded tiara sat atop the child's royal head. A princess can often recognize another of her sisters in line for leadership. Some destiny, joyful and trying, shines through.

The merprincess curtsied to Queen Aquastasia, bowing her head and laying a hand backwards to her heart. She looked like an innocent ballerina with her pink corset that fluted out as a tutu at her waist. Sarah couldn't help but smile at the cuteness before her.

"Yes, Your Majesty, Queen Aquastasia, ma'am," the younger mermaid said, looking up at the monarch. Queen Aquastasia nodded at the child.