~ Chapter 10 : Falling Into Place ~
Emperor Darga had to admit that Lady Aquata, eldest daughter of King Triton, had guts. She was in the heart of Sharkania, alone with nothing but her ambassadorial sash as protection from creatures that would sooner have her as an appetiser than a guest. Still her face remained calm and professional, and her gaze steady as she approached the Sharkanian throne.
"To what do we owe this visit, Lady Aquata?" Emperor Darga asked after the formalities had been exchanged.
"Your Lordship Emperor Darga, I have come to ask safe passage for some students of the Aquatica Academy of Atlantica that have fallen astray from their travelling party," Aquata said. "They were passing through the eastern side of the Backyard when a seaquake occurred, and three of the students were lost."
"And you believe your… students… have somehow wound up in Sharkania?" Emperor Darga asked.
"It is highly likely, Your Majesty."
They regarded each other. Emperor Darga, one of the most intelligent Sharkanian Lords ever in the history of the sea, and Lady Aquata, one of the most intelligent mermaids ever in the politics of the sea. Neither were fools.
There are no students, Emperor Darga thought. And the clever girl knows perfectly well that I know there are no students. Aaah, politics, what a delicate process it is. He grinned at her. "Very well, Lady Aquata, we have no quarrel with your strays. Should we find them…"
"You mean you have not?" Aquata asked, a slight tilt toward innocence in her voice.
"I would have been informed of any… Atlantican wanderers in the kingdom," Emperor Darga told her. Her eyes… She’s aware of something, watchful of something… But what? "There are no Atlanticans here."
Aquata watched him carefully.
Emperor Darga permitted himself a wry smirk. "Lady Aquata, I assure you—"
He was cut off by a loud trumpeting noise from outside the main hallways of the palace. The double doors slammed open once again, and a Sharkanian guard rushed in. "Your Majesty! There is a family of killer whales passing over the city, sire! They are causing havoc in the main streets!"
"Killer whales?!" Emperor Darga snarled. "They’re way off their travel route!"
"Do we attack, sire?" the guard asked.
"No, no, no attack!" Emperor Darga barked. The guard, along with several Sharkanians, seemed to go cross-eyed from the almost alien order of ‘no attack’ which went against every instinct they had as fierce predators.
Emperor Darga sighed. "Move the people into the city, out of the way of the killer whales. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT attack."
"Are you sure, sire?" the guard asked again uncertainly.
Emperor Darga flashed his teeth. "Are you stupid?! I said don’t attack, so don’t attack!"
"Yes, sire!" the guard said quickly, jumping to attention. Then with a flurry of limbs and tail, he rushed back out to pass along the order.
"Fools," Emperor Darga sighed.
The Lord Chamberlain sidled up to him and said, "But sire… The whales are passing over our territory…"
Emperor Darga hissed. "Shut. Up." Am I surrounded by idiots? Honestly, we can’t afford to fight anything now, not when we have to gather our forces for the attack we’ll mount with the Manta on Atlantica… Speaking of Atlantica…
Emperor Darga turned his head sharply to regard his Atlantican guest. Lady Aquata was still standing there, looking mildly interested in the commotion around her, but otherwise still the same professional political princess that she appeared to be.
"About your strays, we’ll be sure to report their presence, if they are found," the Sharkanian Emperor told her.
Lady Aquata bowed. "Thank you, sire. I would like to ask for your leave now, since I have your word that our students have safe passage."
Emperor Darga raised an eyebrow. "Very well. You have my permission to leave. Your strays will be returned unharmed."
And with that, the princess left, with only Emperor Darga watching her swim away as all the other Sharkanians were busy being all bothered by the family of killer whales which were still wandering around over their city.
Lord Chamberlain appeared beside Emperor again. "Sire, why did you promise her—"
"Ssh!" Emperor Darga snapped. Suddenly he turned to a Sharkanian royal guard that was hovering beside the throne. "You! Gather the rest of the royal guard and find Princess Melody of Atlantica. She is in Sharkania right now, and this whole killer whale business is a diversion, as is Lady Aquata’s presence."
"Yes, sire!" the royal guard barked, and swiftly disappeared.
"The Princess Melody? In Sharkania right now?" Lord Chamberlain breathed.
"Lady Aquata was asking for safe passage for the young princess and her friends," Emperor Darga said, settling back comfortably into his throne. "I gave my word and by the ambassadorial sash I bound to keep it, but unfortunately Lady Aquata said that the Atlanticans she’s looking for are students of the Aquatica Academy. And I believe Princess Melody is definitely not a student of that school, am I right?"
"Oh, brilliant, sire, brilliant!" Lord Chamberlain exclaimed. "That means you don't have to let Princess Melody go if you catch her! You are truly amazing, sire!"
"Of course," Emperor Darga agreed smugly.
*****
Emperor Darga would not have been so smug had he known that despite his knowledge that Melody was in Sharkania, the diversion had worked.
This is what happened in the above scene from Melody's point of view.
"What's Lady Aquata doing here?" Jeremy asked.
"Ssh, let's hear what she's saying," Melody said, creeping closer to the edge of under the table. Her eyes grew round. "She's asking for safe passage for us. I mean, it should be us... right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Jeremy agreed. "Wait... what's all that noise?"
"Trumpets!" Melody gasped. Just then the double doors opened, and the Sharkanian guard appeared to tell Emperor Darga about the family of killer whales above the city.
In that moment, with Emperor Darga's attention diverted to the messenger, Lady Aquata (all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the Emperor) moved her mouth into silent but clearly distinctive words. "Melody. Swim. Now. SWIM. NOW."
"Let's go!" Melody whispered urgently, grabbing Jeremy by the arm. "It's a distraction for us to escape!"
What followed was something of a blur for the mermaid and merboy, but it involved frantic swimming under the tables back toward a still very terrified Dash, a sharp hissing of, "Let's get out of here, Dash, while they're still not paying attention!" as they re-entered their shell compartments, and Dash was more than happy to comply, since his disguise was slowly coming undone.
And Dash swam. By Neptune, he swam. Through the halls of the palace, past bewildered Sharkanians who were holding their weapons but trying to come to terms that their Emperor had told them "to not attack", finally out through some door or the other into the Sharkanian city.
Sure enough, it was chaos outside. Sharkanians are all fiersome predators, but despite all their glory as hunters, they're terribly disorganised as a pack. Abovehead a family of killer whales, near twenty in all, were circling the city with what could possibly be described as curiosity and amusement (at the Sharkanians who were going every instinct in their body by not attacking).
Dash, who was still in a panic, completely ignored the killer whales and the Sharkanians all around him just to find a way out of there. After what seemed like forever he finally reached the edge of the city, and just as he rounded a corner of a large boulder, he came face to face with—
"Blubbermouth!" Tip shrieked, throwing himself directly on top of Dash.
The two large shells that had been holding Melody and Jeremy popped open. Melody blinked a few times. "Tip? Miasma? What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you, of course," Tip said proudly as he took his rightful place on top of Dash's head.
"I asked the family of killer whales for help in creating a distraction so you'd be able to get out of the palace," Miasma said as she helped Jeremy and Melody out of their shells. "They owed me a favour, anyway. And besides, I needed to do this." She gave Melody a knock on the head.
"Ow! What was that for?" Melody squealed.
"For sneaking into the Sharkanian palace," Miasma said matter-of-factly. "You're too much like your mother." At this point Melody was about to ask how Miasma knew her mother, when a shrill call of a killer whale abovehead cut her off and caused her to completely forget that line of thought.
"How did you know we were in the palace, anyway?" Jeremy asked.
"We saw the Manta leave from it," Tip explained. "I guess it'd make sense that Melody – in all her curious glory – would want to check it out."
Melody grinned. "You know me too well. Wait, the Manta. He was meeting the Emperor and we heard—"
"Let's get out of here first," Miasma said sternly. "The Sharkanians won't be occupied for long, and we're supposed to meet up with Aquata at the edge of the reef."
"Atlanticans!" a Sharkanian guard shouted, appearing round the corner. "Get them!" Two more Sharkanian guards appeared behind them, all armed to the teeth, and with teeth.
"Swim!" Miasma barked, although there was hardly any need for her to do so. Melody and her friends took off, and as they were circling the bend, Melody looked back just in time to see Miasma throw something at the three guards. There were shouts and the flailing of limbs, and then the soft self-satisfied chuckle of the elderly medicine mermaid as she swam after the young ones.
"What are you doing watching me?" Miasma snapped. "Get your tail out of here! There'll be more in a minute!"
Melody nodded quickly, then turned back round to follow her friends. Just as she did, she thought she saw a shadow move in the distance. But when she took a second look, the shadow was exactly that — just a shadow, and nothing more. Melody frowned for a moment, then quietly followed the gang to the meeting point with her aunt Aquata.
*****
"So the Manta, working with the Sorceress, is planning to attack Atlantica," Aquata said. With her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrows furrowed in a look of concentration, she looked surprisingly like King Triton. "And he's gotten the Sharkanians on his side." She tapped a finger against her chin. "And then you mentioned this bracelet, and the vision of a human woman talking to you."
The plan had worked perfectly. Melody and Jeremy were safe, the killer whales had happily done their favour and swam off, the Sharkanian royal guard were a few precious minutes too late to capture the wandering princess, and all six of them (Melody, Jeremy, Tip, Dash, Miasma and Aquata) had met up and were swimming steadily back to Atlantica, following a safe route under the coral to stay away from prying eyes. During the travel, Melody, Jeremy and Dash were able to relate everything that had happened to them since they fell into the Great Chasm.
Melody bit her lip. She opened her mouth to ask what it all meant, but suddenly Aquata looked at her with such an intense expression that she gasped inwardly.
"You have to get out of Atlantica," Aquata said softly. "Out of the sea. Back to your father's palace on land."
Melody blinked. "Why?"
"You were lured down here," Aquata said distantly.
"Me? This has nothing to do with me!" Melody shrieked. "My mother is poisoned. Atlantica is going to be attacked! I'm... I'm... I just..."
"Your mother's poisoning was a trick to lure you down here. It was done in conjuction with this attack on Atlantica, and the dream you had and the appearance of this strange woman who gave you the bracelet, although I don't know why." Suddenly Aquata looked at Miasma. "But I have a feeling you do."
Miasma shrugged. "I'm just a medicine mermaid."
"Don't give me that!" Aquata half-screamed. Everyone except Miasma backed away in horrified surprise, having never seen the usually gentle mermaid suddenly burst out.
Miasma smiled. "You burden yourself too much, Lady Aquata. You always have."
Aquata's expression suddenly changed, into something softer and even slightly embarrassed. "Miasma, you are one of the wisest of the merpeople. You know something. I know you do."
"Wisest?" Jeremy asked in surprise. "But I always got the impression that you were banished from Atlantica..."
"It was a mutual agreement some time after Lady Ariel was born," Miasma said matter-of-factly as she plucked a stray piece of weed from her hair. "Between King Triton and myself. He was a paranoid anti-human king, and I was mermaid who knew too much. I would leave Atlantica in peace, but always keep my door open to anyone who needed my services in medicine."
"Grandfather's not anti-human anymore," Melody said softly.
"Perhaps," Miasma said, but not unkindly.
"Stop changing the subject, Miasma," Aquata said.
Miasma shrugged again. "Well, you are right, Aquata, that Melody is at the centre of all this activity. But you are wrong in that you think I know why. Because I don't."
Aquata breathed in slowly, then turned to look at Melody. "Don't argue, Melody. Once we're back in Atlantica, you get packed and get your grandfather to turn you back into a human."
"But my mother's antidote—"
"We have all the ingredients, except a piece of Ariel's hair that is to be picked by you," Aquata said. "So we'll all go up with you to the land and you'll pick the hair which I'll take, and then you'll stay there."
Melody looked at her aunt, and knew that there was no arguing with her.
But why would she want to argue? Melody numbly followed as Aquata ordered all of them to follow her lead back to Atlantica, the confusion once again bubbling inside her. So many questions, not enough answers, and by the little glint in Miasma's eye as Melody looked at her briefly, there were some things that the medicine mermaid had neglected to mention, although Melody was pretty certain that now was not the right time to ask.
I don't want to become human again, the thought arrived in Melody's head, causing a jolt of realisation to shudder her heart. Not yet. Not so soon. Not when I don't know so many things, haven't experienced many things and...
She was being selfish, she knew. If she was the centre of the Manta and Sorceress' plans, then it was her duty to make sure that whatever they were planning couldn't be fulfilled.
As they swam past a large school of fish, Melody asked timidly, "Who's the Sorceress, Aunt Aquata?"
"Just as her name states, a Sorceress," Aquata clipped. "She was trapped by your grandfather in a cave many years ago, even before I was born."
"Trapped in a cave?" Melody said suddenly. "That means you know exactly where she is?"
"No!" Aquata said sternly, raising a firm finger at her niece. "You will have no more part in this. It was my fault that you had to confront the Manta and fell into the Great Chasm, and I will not have you..." Her voice trailed off, and she chuckled suddenly. "Why, I do sound more like my father every day."
Melody grinned weakly.
Aquata sighed, giving her a weary a smile. "For once in your life, Melody, please realise how important you are. It's not the time for heroics. And besides..." She looked up and her blue eyes reflected the golden wonder of the palace in the distance. "We're almost there."
*****
Eric looked up, his eyes meeting the shocked wide ones of Samuel, who was a local baker in the kingdom. The baker gave a little shrug which was not embarrassed enough, in Eric’s opinion.
“That’s nonsense,” Eric said sternly. “How can you question the Atlanticans’ intentions? Queen Ariel is the daughter of their king!”
Samuel tried to lighten the situation with a little laugh. “Your Highness, I meant no ill-will. Of course I believe the Atlanticans are doing their best to find a cure for Her Majesty. I’m just relating what news I’ve heard among the people.”
Eric leaned against a table and raised his head to scan the throne room. It was empty, except for Grimsby who was busy pouring over some documents at one side. Eric had an open-door policy when it came to ruling, and he was always ready to listen to what anyone had to say, even the common baker. Which was basically the reason that Samuel the Baker had made the visit.
“Where did you hear this?” Eric sighed.
“The people have been talking for the past few days,” Samuel said. “I don’t know when it started, but the people were concerned.”
“Thank you,” Eric said, nodding. “Please keep me posted.”
“Aren’t you going to do anything, Your Highness?” Samuel asked, surprised. “We wish to know more. What have the Atlantican messengers been telling you? How is their progress?”
It took a great deal of willpower for Eric to stop himself from snapping at the man, but he just managed it. “I will update everyone later today. Don’t worry. You’re a good man, Samuel.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” Samuel gave a bow, then left the throne room.
Grismby made his way to his king just as Eric sank into the throne with none of the royal flourish that was usually expected of him. The elderly man resisted the urge to cluck his tongue, and instead said, “They mean well, Highness. They are worried for their Queen.”
Eric crossed his hands under his chin and drew his lips together. “I hate this, but I understand why. We’re humans, Grimsby. We don’t know anything about Atlantica, which we cannot visit. Yet the Atlanticans can visit us, and they know a lot about us. Up until the day Ariel came into my life, we didn’t even believe in magic.”
Grimsby nodded. “It was like a fairytale, wasn’t it?”
The little grin that Eric almost made him look like the youthful young man he was ten years ago. “It was, Grim, it was. But you know the strange thing about fairytales? Nobody bothers to ask what happens after they ‘lived happily ever after’.”
“We are here now, Highness.”
“Yes,” Eric said, standing up so he was able to look out the wide window at the other end of the throne room which overlooked the sea. “In that time of magic and wonder, our two worlds truly were united. And then we cut ourselves off again, with the whole Melody – Morgana business. And now, here we are again. For four years there hasn’t been any trouble, but the magic’s wearing off…”
“Remember Duke de Klin,” Grimsby said.
Eric’s scowl reappeared in full force. “Would it be too much to presume that he may have had a hand in helping this particular bit of unrest?”
Grimsby gave a little smile. “Not at all, Highness.”
“Have him brought in. I wish to have a word.”
*****
“Melody’s found out about the Sharkanians,” the Manta reported.
The Sorceress gave an angry little hiss. “That’s not good. By sunset they’ll all have arrived back at Atlantica, and Triton’ll put them all on guard. No matter, in the end they won’t be able to do anything even if they are on guard. However…”
The Manta rolled a small vial between the fingers of his right hand. “That part of the plan will be executed no matter what happens.”
There was a moment of silence at the Sorceress pondered quietly within the depths of her cave. “There’s the matter of whether they’ve figured out what we’re after yet.”
“You mean, besides destroying Atlantica, getting the trident and all that?”
“That’s what everyone wants, of course they know about that,” the Sorceress snapped. “I mean, the how. Do they know how we’re going about it? This Melody…”
“I haven’t made the grave mistake of underestimating her, if that’s what you're thinking,” the Manta said.
“Tut tut, why so defensive, Manta?” the Sorceress chuckled. “I know you’ve been doing your best, and believe me, I’ve seen many an idiot in my time, and you are no idiot. However, there are some things you have yet to learn about our prey.”
“Enlighten me, then,” the Manta said.
“Oh you’ll learn. But basically, they are all fools. That young one, Melody, she may have learnt too much too quickly, but if she’s like her mother, she won’t be able to piece it together just yet, because no one will tell her the important things she’ll need to know. Yes, that’s how those self-righteous Atlanticans and humans think. In order to protect their loved ones, they don’t tell them the whole truth. Bah!”
“Miasma may tell her. She’s one of the few who know,” Manta said.
“Miasma is another fool,” the Sorceress snarled. “Too trusting. I bet she believes in Melody. All of them, mer and humans alike, rely on symbols far more than is healthy for them. They’ve always been that way. That’s why Ariel is so powerful, and why Melody would be an incredible opponent if she were able to tap into that power. Luckily, Morgana has destroyed most of her self-esteem as a princess. That’s at least one thing that idiotic witch managed to do right. Melody still doesn’t understand how important she is, and that’ll play right into our plan.”
“Of course.”