She spun around. "Beggin' your pardon?"
"I want to come with you. I'm the second son, Ari! I don't matter to the country, not like my older brother does! All I'm good for is marrying a depressed princess, but I won't do that! I... please. Please, let me come with you."
The silence stretched on and on. Ariel wanted to say "Yes!" but was afraid of what that might mean. She trusted Christopher, but if a prince went missing, it would spark a manhunt that could bring her family to their doom. She couldn't do that to her parents, nor her sisters. Not even to Hannah-Marie, who...
Hannah-Marie.
That decided it for her. With a kick of her tail, she swam over to him and leaned on the edge of her tank.
"If you're serious about this, then here's what ye have to do."
And they came up with a plan.
Ariel was curled up in her room that night, overthinking her plan and considering everything that could go wrong, as one is apt to do when one is left alone with one's thoughts.
It was, in fact, quite a marvelous story they'd come up with. An incredibly audacious bundle of lies. According to the note Christopher would leave before he disappeared, Ariel (or "Ari") was not only a mermaid princess, but actually a spy, purposefully letting herself be captured to scout out the human's world because the mermaid kingdom of Atlantia was preparing to wage war on the humans. (It was there that they'd both succumb to a fit of laughter at the absurdness of the idea, but Christopher was confident that it would work, asserting that if the neighboring kingdom believed that their king had been cursed to be a beast, his own kingdom would totally believe in a fierce mermaid army. After all, they bought the lies about the sea witch, didn't they?) The rest of their story went like this: "Ari" had experienced a change of heart once she met the prince, and she was confident that if he would join her in her kingdom, the war could be averted. Therefore, etc. etc., everyone is happy, the end.
Of course, there were many things that could go wrong, and one such thing was about to.
Two voices reached her—a man and a woman. She recognized the man's voice immediately. It was Lord Branwyn. It took a minute more to tell who the woman was, but the conversation revealed her identity.
Lord Branwyn sounded horrified. "You want me to do what?"
"Are you deaf or just dull?" the woman snapped, "The mermaid is going to die. Tonight. I will fully reimburse you for any monetary loss you suffer if you agree willingly, and if you do not, I will have her killed anyway."
"But why?" he asked.
"She's ruining my son, luring him in with her siren song—"
"With all due respect, Your Majesty, sirens are bird-wome—"
"I KNOW WHAT A SIREN IS!" The Queen paused, sighed heavily, and spoke again. "Now, tonight we announce my son's engagement to Princess Cassia."
"Tonight? I thought it was years away!"
"Not anymore. The mermaid has changed things. My son must be engaged to the Princess immediately."
"He's not going to go through with it," Lord Branwyn said, "No matter how big a gala you throw."
"He'll do what his father tells him."
"His father likes the mermaid. I think he'd approve their match."
"WHICH IS WHY YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER! She can only breathe air, right? Well, when she falls asleep, have someone hold her under! Do something!"
Ariel, having gone from shocked stillness to a mad frenzy, was rushing around, gathering up her things as silently as possible. Slinging her tail over her shoulders, she set out into the night.
She sped through the empty streets, her bare feet slapping on the pavement. It took her but a few minutes to reach the docks, and there was Christopher.
"Ari! You made it!"
She didn't pause to talk. Instead, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along.
The Mermaid was not far off. Sprinting up the deck, she threw open a hatch and stumbled down the ladder, Christopher falling in after her.
And despite the panic and fear of her flight and the joy of being home, the first thing she did was shout, "Hannah-Marie! Come see what I've got!"
YOU ARE READING
The Little Maid: Tail Not Included
FantasyThis is not the true story. Indeed, it's unlikely we will ever know the true story; it has been lost to time. But this is certainly closer than the stories you have heard before. The story I am going to tell is about a family of pirates, a boy of no...
