~ Chapter 11 : The Unseen Trap ~

Melody looked up into the eyes of her grandfather. There was happiness there, and sure he was smiling, but the trained eye could see exhaustion wearing the finer lines. Melody ignored it and gave him the biggest hug she was able to manage.

“I’m so glad you’re all right, Melody,” King Triton said.

“Me too, grandfather,” Melody said, pulling away.

“If there’s anything I can do…” he said..

The first words to pop in Melody's head were: I want to stay here longer! But instead, she just smiled and said calmly, “I would like to return here again. One day.”

Aquata gave Melody a little pat on the shoulder. “Under better circumstances, hopefully.”

Melody gave a little giggle. “Yes, hopefully.” She looked at her friends. “Hopefully soon, too.”

“You ready?” King Triton asked.

Never. “As I’ll ever be,” Melody said quietly. She nodded at the small party of friends and family that were all geared up to send her off. Atlantica would have to wait a little longer.

****

The Manta swam, found his hiding place, and waited. Predictable fools, he thought. Then he realised how overly smug his thoughts were, and carefully quieted them. There would be time for gloating later.

But not too much later, he hoped.

****

The tingling was there again. Ariel slowly turned her head, and coughed weakly. The purpose of the cough was more to get someone's attention rather than to clear her throat, but there was no response. There was no one by her bedside. Normally, she wouldn't have minded, but there was the tingling. Something was happening, or was going to happen and...

Sighing heavily, Ariel sunk back into the mattress. There was nothing she could do. She was invalid. Sick. Poisoned. Weak.

After a while, she frowned.

So what if she was sick, poisoned and weak? That had never stopped her before. Sure, she couldn't run around like she used to, but there was definitely something she was supposed to be doing, and it wasn't just lying in bed. She'd rather leave the lying in bed to the oysters.

There was strength in her yet as she sat up. It took her a good portion of a half hour to do that, and another half hour to get to her feet. The whole while she didn't stop to think of why she was getting up, she just knew that she had to. It was just one of those moments. Once she actually got to her feet and wobbled toward the walking stick by the dresser, she decided that perhaps she ought to at least find out why there wasn't anyone waiting by her.

Ariel had just about gotten her hand on the door handle when the actual door swung open, revealing a flushed and harried Carlotta.

"Your Highness!" she squealed, immediately reaching out to help Ariel stand up. "You shouldn't be out of bed! I'm so sorry I wasn't here to--"

"There's something I have to..." Ariel started to say, but she was cut off when Carlotta continued speaking over her.

"His Majesty is having a right row in the throne room, Highness. That Duke de Klin is a nasty piece of work, and he keeps going on and on..." Carlotta paused, suddenly remembering who she was talking to. "Oh, but we needn't worry about that, Highness, and let's get right back to bed."

Ariel gripped Carlotta's sleeve with what little strength she had. "Why is... De Klin... here?"

Carlotta bit her lower lip as she settled Ariel back into her bed. "There's been some talk in the kingdom, Highness. Nothing mean meant by it, of course, they're just concerned about the Princess, what with her been gone for so many days and all those dangers down there..."

Ariel blinked. She'd actually gone looking for them dangers in her youth, and that had turned out pretty well. But then her motherly side pipped up that she'd never actually encourage Melody to do the hairbrained things she'd done for fun, and besides, Melody was far more level-headed than she could ever hope to be and...

A loud wave crash outside the window cut off that train of thought, replacing it with another that went: Hey, I know that wave style anywhere and it's daddy's!

"Carlotta," Ariel wheezed. "Window. Now."

Carlotta was about to argue, but there was a no-nonsense look in Ariel's eyes. And considering that the young queen was being riddled with physical exhaustion that Carlotta couldn't begin to understand, the older woman knew the other meant business. "Yes, Your Highness."

Ariel was carefully assisted to the window, where she leaned heavily against a counter-table to get her bearings. The view outside was of the sea, and sure enough, there was her father, King Triton. And by him was her sister, Aquata, and right behind her was her daughter...

"Princess Melody!" Carlotta cooed, waving.

Melody looked up to the window and waved back. But when she saw her mother, her mouth went into a surprised little O and her hands went up to her face. She looked frightened, right until Ariel managed to move her facial muscles into a happy smile, and only then was Melody able to relax and smile back.

****

"The Queen looks pretty good, considering," Tip said, placing a flipper on Melody's shoulder.

Melody took a sharp inhalation of breath. Her mother did look... Well, actually she looked awful, which was why she'd frozen over in fear the moment she set eyes on her. Pale face, weary eyes, the works... But then Melody remembered the true power of the poison over the body, and just realising that her mother was awake and up was enough to quell her fears. This was her mother, for crying out loud. A fighter to the very... No, she wouldn't go there.

"Yes, considering," Melody finally managed to say.

"Finally," Aquata said, once Grimsby appeared at the doors and started walking towards the shore. "I was thinking we'd have to wait all day."

"Yeah, where's your father?" Jeremy asked.

Melody blinked. "Yeah, where is he? Hi, Grimsby!"

But Grimsby didn't seem to be much in the mood for pleasantries. He looked flushed and tense, and Melody got the feeling that she didn't want to know the reasons for that, but would need to know anyway.

"Your Majesty," Grimsby said, bowing to King Triton. "King Eric is a tad preoccupied at the moment, so I will be acting as liaison for now."

"No need for that," Triton told him. "We have the antidote."

Aquata lifted the vial, just to prove her father's point.

Grimsby started in surprise. "Oh, well, that is good news! And Princess Melody, my, I didn't see you there, what a... Yes, the antidote, my goodness..."

"Ariel has to come down here to take it, though," Aquata said. "It has to be administered by Melody herself."

"Of course," Grimsby said, bowing. "I will see to it immediately."

The small Atlantican party watched him leave with interest. "I wonder what that's all about," Dash wondered aloud. "He seemed awfully upset about something."

"Whatever it is, it can wait," Melody said. "We have to get this antidote to my mother first, and then we can worry about whatever else it's all about."

That 'whatever else' in question was Duke de Klin, who was at that moment in the throne room involved in what was a hair's breath away from becoming an uncivilised debate with King Eric. There were words and accusations exchanged between them, more than a few of which were related to Melody, and Ariel, and the merpeople.

When Ariel, aided by Grimsby and Carlotta, was slowly hobbling down a staircase on her way to meet the Atlantican party, she caught a handful of those words through a crack in the throne room door.

“You claim full responsibility then, do you?” Eric's voice could be heard through the doors.

“Of course!” Duke de Klin was almost yelling. “The people of our kingdom deserve the right to know the truth! We don't know what's happening down there, with the Princess and that mer King--”

“I don't like the way you're referring to His Majesty,” Eric said, still holding on to his self-control.

Ariel placed a hand on Grimsby's arm. “Maybe you should aid Eric in this matter,” she told him. “Carlotta and I will be fine. De Klin has never been so vocal about his beliefs before. And while you're at it, you might as well tell them that the antidote is ready and I'm about to take it.”

Girmsby nodded curtly and rushed off, leaving Ariel to hobble outside, all the while leaning heavily on the very helpful Carlotta.

****

The Manta was there, naturally. From his hiding place behind some strategically placed rocks, he watched as Queen Ariel and her assistant carefully made their way across the sand to the waterfront. This time there were no hugs as young Princess Melody thrust up her hand to immmediately show off the antidote bottle.

His whole body remained still as he waited, though his tail twitched restlessly against the water surface, not that unlike a cat's.

It's all in the timing.

He waited right to the moment when Melody raised the bottle to her mother's lips. It was then that he slid out from his hiding place and burst out into the loudest, most maniacal laughter he could imagine.

"It's him!" "Oh no!" "Look out!"

There were gasps and shrieks as the little gathering of Atlanticans (and humans) saw him. The Manta had very little time before King Triton would come after him with his trident, bless that the toll of the past few days had slowed down his reaction time. But what the Manta was waiting for was that exact moment when Princess Melody turned to look at him, and her eyes flared with unmistakable hatred.

Right then, he knew he'd got her.

The bottle fell from Melody's hands in her distraction — maybe Ariel had drunk enough of the antidote, maybe she hadn't, but that didn't matter. The red-headed troublemaker didn't matter anymore.

The Manta quickly turned to make his exit and as he did, he made out the lady Aquata yelling, "Melody, no!"

He grinned to himself and dived. Let the chase begin.

****

Melody had never swam like this before. Sure, it's not like she'd had much practice with a tail, but if ever there were ever a time when she would fully understand the reason merfolk had tail this would be it. She swam through the water like a little torpedo, fuelled by the angry thumping of her heart.

The Manta would not escape again. Melody would be sure of it.

There was too much noise in her ears -- the rushing water and screaming blood -- that she couldn't hear her family's calls or see how they couldn't keep up with her speed. Her grandfather, the only one fully equipped to handle the Manta, had been left far behind. Aquata had kept on a little longer, but she too hadn't the energy to match an angry teenage mermaid. Tip and Jeremy, the only ones perhaps able to follow her, also had to give up when they lost the trail as the they swerved around coral and schools of fish, and dived through rock formations and more than once changed direction. Soon enough, Melody was alone on the trail of the Manta.

It never crossed her mind that the Manta was almost quadruple her size and could have easily lost her within the first two minutes of the chase. Melody was too busy thinking of other things... Her weakened mother was at the forefront of the all the images in her head, egging her on.

Eventually they came to a quietened part of the ocean. Melody didn't recognise it, but if she did, then she'd have known that it was part of The Wilderness.

There, the Manta suddenly turned round a corner. Melody followed, but he was gone.

Melody stopped, suddenly lost. She turned this way and that, looking for any sign of the Manta, but there wasn't any. She half-turned, wanting to trace her steps a little when a large hand clamped came round her throat.

"Help--" Melody managed to squeak, just before the Manta's strong tail wrapped itself around her, squeezing all the breath out of her lungs.

"Don't bother," said the Manta, his voice mockingly kind. He bent his large body round to look at her with his eerie glowing eyes. "We've travelled too far for any of your companions to follow. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to follow strangers?"

Melody glared at him. Don't you dare talk about my mother, she wanted to say, but she was still struggling for breath.

"So predictable. Even a whole generation later, the little mermaid is still predictable."

Suddenly realising what he was saying, Melody's eyes widened. Stupid stupid stupid!

Seeing the expression of horror on her face, the Manta laughed. Since there was no one else around to hear it, he reserved nothing.

****

Back on the beach, the antidote was working, though not everyone was paying attention to its progress. Ariel was kneeling on the sand, head bowed and eyes shut. Carlotta was crouching on the sand next to her, surprisingly strong arms propping up the young queen and keeping her from falling over.

Ariel knew she had to focus. Everyone in Atlantica knew that she was the headstrong one, but headstrong was not the same as blindly foolish. In her youth, no matter the crisis, Ariel was one of the few Atlanticans who could always be counted on to come up with a plan... It could be a far-fetched plan, but at least she always retained enough sense of mind to come up with one.

So while King Triton (poor daddy, Ariel thought) was berating himself for losing Melody, Ariel calmly thought it out.

"Get back to Atlantica and call out the guards," Triton told Tip, Dash and Jeremy. "Tell them what's happened, and to look for Melody." The young trio took off without a second glance.

"But where would they start looking?" Ariel said. Her voice was level and steady, immediately taking Aquata and Triton's attention. "Where would you start looking, if the Manta has deliberately taken her?"

"I'll ask Attina," said Aquata, nodding. "Ariel... Is the antidote working?"

"A little," said Ariel. "But not fast enough. This is about Melody, isn't it? Something to do with Melody. It was never about me."

Aquata and their father exchanged a look. "I'd suspected something," said Aquata, "at the very beginning. But I wasn't sure. Now, I think I am."

"That means Melody is in danger," Triton said, alarmed.

"No, that means that Melody is important," said Aquata. "And that means that for now she should be unharmed. This isn't a kidnapping of a princess in order to ransom the trident, either... He could have taken anyone at any given time, but he chose Melody."

"It's not his style," Ariel said. She nodded to Carlotta, who eased off a little. "The Manta doesn't do elaborate plans. Believe me, I know."

"So... He's working with someone?" Aquata asked. "But... who?"

"There are a large number of enemies who'd be happy to see Atlantica destroyed," Triton said, once again sounding like a tired old merman. "Take your pick."

****

Melody was silent and still as the Manta tugged her along like a sort of treasure he'd found on the bottom of the ocean floor. She'd tried, initially, to remember the direction that they were going, but soon had to give up as the Wilderness grew thicker and all the rocks and weeds merged together in a common backdrop. All she could tell was that this was a quiet part of the ocean inhabitated by wild sea animals.

Even in her mild fear, Melody wondered if her mother had ever come here.

She probably had.

That made Melody feel a little better, at least.

"Home sweet home," said the Manta, suddenly stopping. "We have a guest!"

Melody looked, but all she saw was a cave that looked just like any other cave. But then, as she watched, a faint glow started at the depths of the cave, swirling like faint lines through the darkness to form something like a...

Melody gasped.

The face had eyes, sort of. And a mouth, sort of. It wasn't a real face, but more like something that could only remember how it had felt like to have a face. If Melody believed in ghosts, she would have thought that the shape that had appeared in the cave's mouth was a ghost.

"Hello, Princess Melody," said the Sorceress. "Pardon me for not curtsying."

"You had my mother poisoned," Melody said simply.

"Yes, I did," said the Sorceress. "The Manta has been a wonderful sport during these past few... What were they? Time moves so differently when you don't have a body, haha."

"Why?"

"Questions, questions!" the Sorceress said, her glowing almost-head bobbing unnaturally in the darkness of the cave's shadows. "And not even interesting questions, at that. For example, you haven't even asked who I am."

Melody bit her lip. "I assume that you're the... sea witch?"

The Sorceress' strange eyes stared at Melody, and then sharp knife-like laughter filled the air. It was a horrible sound, and Melody cringed against it, wishing that her arms were free so that she could cover her ears. Just beneath the laughter she could feel the Manta snickering faintly.

"Oh dear no, I'm not poor unfortunate Ursula," said the Sorceress. "Gifted lady, and we did work together once or twice but dear me, did she have delusions of grandeur. Haha. She's dead, you know. Just so you keep your information correct. I, however, am not, because I cannot die. And it's because I cannot die that your beloved grandfather trapped me in this cave when he was a young merman. No one else remembers me, because they are all young and forgetful."

Suddenly feeling brave, Melody said, "I'll bet my mother knows you."

The Sorceress was silent for a moment. "Yes, but she doesn't count because she abandoned Atlantica."

Melody made a surprised sound, the Sorceress' words striking something painful. "My mother didn't abandon--"

"Of course she did," the Sorceress said, grinning obscenely. "The fair queen Ariel has no idea what's happened to Atlantica since she left, because she doesn't care. She's too worried about her husband and child and all the people who call her Queen even though they're not really her people. The lady Ariel's real people... They're all here. And they've all been left behind by their champion. I don't suppose your mother's told you of the things she did here under the sea when she was younger?"

"A... a little," Melody said hesitantly.

"Then perhaps you have an idea of how important she was to Atlantica," said the Sorceress. "How often she played a role in protecting the kingdom from attackers and unsurpers, mostly due to what many thought of as blind luck. But the lady Ariel doesn't have blind luck... She has very deliberate luck, a gift passed on through the royal merfamily. Her mother's sister had that very same gift, and Atlantican history remembers her as one of the great protectors of the city.

"So," the Sorceress continued, "Can you imagine what it's been like here since Ariel left? What it's been like for King Triton and the Lady Aquata, handling things all by themselves and without the benefit of a carefree mermaid with nothing better to do that patrol the kingdom and keep an eye out for suspicious characters? No... I don't suppose you can. You're been living a comfortable life, haven't you, Princess Melody? All safe and snug with your precious mother who not once thought about her people that she'd left behind."

"It's not like that!" Melody screamed. "Don't talk about my mother like that!"

"I will say it because it's true!" the Sorceress screeched, her enchanted voice unnaturally loud. "And you will see how true it is..."

"Shall we go now, milady?" the Manta asked.

"Yes," the Sorceress said, suddenly sounding hungry. "Bring her here."

"What?!" Melody exclaimed. She struggled against the Manta's tail, but it was no use. She was brought closer to the cave, the Sorceress' strange detached head glowing brighter than before. Two hands, long and glowing, appeared on either side of the Sorceress' head and reached out.

"There is no fighting it," said the Sorceress, her hands reaching for Melody's head.

For a brief moment there was a sensation of painful light. Melody slammed her eyes shut against it, but it seemed to get in everywhere, not just through her eyes. Eventually it faded away, and when Melody opened her eyes again the cave's mouth was empty. The Sorceress' head was gone.

In fact, so had the Manta's tail around her. Melody stretched, appreciating being let go, but when she turned she saw that the Manta was still there, watching her carefully.

"Did it work?" the Manta asked.

Melody meant to ask what on earth he was talking about, but her mouth said instead, "Yes, it worked. We can collect our prize now."
 

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