~ Chapter 13 : Land and Sea, Unequal ~

“And so, Atlantica falls,” the Sorceress said. She clapped her (Melody’s) hands. “I’ve been waiting for centuries for this, and it’s all over in a few minutes. A little anti-climatic, really.”

Inside, Melody was in shock. Her mind was filled with blank numbness as it struggled to understand what she had just seen, and when it finally did, the numbness was overtaken by a mix of horror and sorrow and rage.

You… You WITCH!

The Sorceress cackled. “Never has an accusation been so apt.”

+++

“Something’s happened,” Ariel said, jerking out from the trance-like state she had been in. She was surprised to find that she was lying on her back on the sandy beach, the wide expanse of sky and clouds rolling above her. She didn’t remember having fallen over.

Carlotta’s face appeared in her line of view, her face full of bewilderment and worry. “Highness?” she asked.

Ariel took a few deep breaths, letting the rapid beating of her heart slow down. “That was… different.” There wasn’t anything she could say to explain what had just happened. All she knew was that there had been a magical tug from the ocean – something fierce and desperate like all those times she’d had to fight for something she loved – and she’d automatically given over what strength she’d had to what had called her.

Then suddenly the tug had snapped back like a powerful rubber band, hitting her right in the chest. Ah, so that was when she fell over. But now, as she lay on the sand feeling as though she’d just swam to the eighth sea and back, there was nothing: no call, no tug, just the soft sea waves lapping at her ankles.

Ariel wasn’t sure that that was a good thing.

“Please help me get up,” Ariel said, and Carlotta obliged immediately. “I’m starting to feel better, what do you think?”

Carlotta pressed a hand against Ariel’s forehead, and she nodded reluctantly. “It appears that your fever has gone down a little, Your Highness, but still—”

“Back to palace,” Ariel said, wobbling a little.

Just then Grismby came running out, and he looked a little puzzled that the two women were alone on the beach. “Where is His Majesty?”

“I thought Eric was still in the ballroom with De Klin,” Ariel said.

“Oh, not that Majesty, I meant the sea-faring Majesty,” Grismby said.

“My father had to go off, there was a – a thing,” Ariel said, turning back to the waves worriedly. “Oh, Melody.”

“Princess Melody?” Grimsby asked.

As she walked, Ariel pressed a hand against her heart, which was still beating a little oddly. “Melody’s too much like her parents. And since I am one of her parents, I’m allowed to say that. Come on, I need to talk to Eric.”

Grimsby politely escorted the two women back into the palace. It turned out that they had excellent timing, for right then the double doors of the throne room slammed open to reveal a red-faced Duke De Klin marching out in firm, determined strides. Ariel drew herself up into what she considered her ‘Queen-ly Stance’.

“Your Majesty,” De Klin said as he passed her. Ariel nodded at him briefly and watched him march out. Once he was out of her sight, she hitched up her skirt a little and wobbled the rest of the way into the throne room. Carlotta tried to help her, but she was shooed away.

In the throne room itself, Eric was standing and talking quietly to a few of his advisors. One of them gently redirected his attention to Ariel, and when he did see her he rushed to her side, a hand at her elbow and another on the small of her back.

“Darling, what on earth are you doing up? I’m sorry I couldn’t get out of this, that Duke is really difficult to shut up,” Eric said, his words tripping over each other in a hurry.

“It’s all right, I think the antidote’s working,” Ariel said, finding a little humour in the fact that Eric sounded more tired than she felt. “But it hasn’t quite ended yet.”

“What do you mean?” Eric asked.

“I’m not sure myself, but I’ll try to explain,” Ariel said. She carefully told Eric what had just happened on the beach in quick succinct points, and ended the re-telling with, “So for now all we can hope for is for someone from Atlantica to update us on what’s going on.”

Eric shut his eyes and exhaled. “Oh, Melody.”

Ariel smiled, despite herself. “That’s what I said.”

“And naturally De Klin has perfect timing,” Eric said, carefully steering Ariel back towards her bedroom. He gestured over his shoulder at Grimsby, who nodded and got to the task of informing the advisors that the King would return to the discussion when he was done taking care of another more important matter.

“I heard a little of it,” Ariel confessed. “It was hard not to, what with how loud your voices were.”

Eric looked a little sheepish. “He’s a difficult man.”

“I’m not disagreeing, Eric,” Ariel said gently. “Want to talk about it?”

“You, my dear wife, need your rest,” Eric said, smiling brightly. He reached out a hand and pushed the door open. Ariel saw the topic change for what it was, but didn’t protest as Eric helped her back on the bed and tucked the blankets around her.

“Our daughter is still out there, you do realise that?” Ariel asked. Eric turned his face away, but Ariel still saw the look that passed over his face. “Eric, what is it?”

“That’s one of De Klin’s points,” Eric said, his voice haggard as he forced the words out. “Atlantica is beyond us… Beyond our access and understanding. It’s a world none of us can begin to understand, and that is its greatest strength and weakness in relations with us.”

“What are you talking about?” Ariel asked. “I grew up in Atlantica, I know every inch of it.”

“Yes, but that’s you,” Eric said. “Up until you came into my life, my people had no idea that merfolk existed, let alone lived in a thriving city so close to our own. Atlantica was a myth but it is now fact, and it doesn’t help that we’ve only started to really begin a relationship between our two worlds recently, after that wall was torn down.”

“I don’t understand,” Ariel said.

“Please don’t be angry, Ariel,” Eric said, touching her face. “I love you, and the world that brought you to me. But there are people in my kingdom who don’t trust something they can’t see or touch, and they have found their voice in De Klin. The merfolk have power that they can’t understand, and now this… Melody has been taken from them and is lost in that world, and the worst of it is that we cannot help. Their helplessness only increases their fear.”

Ariel looked down at the bedsheets, only now noticing that her fingers had clenched around the edges of the white cloth. “And fear naturally leads to distrust. And maybe even hate.”

Eric quickly put his arm around his wife. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“But it will, if it hasn’t already,” Ariel said. She released her grip from the bedsheets and slid them around her husband’s shoulders. “Believe it or not, I’ve plenty of experience dealing with people who fear things they don’t understand.” She smiled at him.

Eric smiled at her, and carefully pushed a loose strand of red hair behind an ear. “So I’ve heard.”

“Let me talk to them. Our people,” Ariel said. At Eric’s incredulous look, she added, “Once I’m all better, of course.”

“But Melody…”

Ariel leaned forward, resting her head on the warmth of Eric’s chest. “You’re right. There’s nothing we can do for her right now but hope. And I hope that everything’s all right in Atlantica.”

+++

“Take them away,” the Manta said, waving a hand at the rows and rows of aquatic merfolk that had been tied wrist to tail to fin to whatever available appendage they had. Half of them looked bewildered and disbelieving of what was happening, while the other half looked solemn and kept their heads bowed.

The Manta, of course, cared nothing for any of them except for the former Merking himself. He looked over the fallen Triton, who was still bound tightly by the netting, now with his two wrists and tail tied to each other behind his back.

“I suppose you’re wondering what we plan to do with you,” the Manta said.

Triton just glared at him.

“You had to go and break that crown, didn’t you?” Emperor Darga asked, his raspy voice breaking the Manta’s concentration of staring down Triton. “I liked that crown. It would have been a nice addition to my collection of trophies.”

“Excussssssse me?” cut in Lord Frith, the frilled leader of the serpentine marauders. “Why would you be the one to get Triton’sssssss crown?

“Yeah,” said Aculeatus, leader of the Octopans. “We are just as deserving as you to claim ownership on Triton’s crown.”

“Don’t forget that the trident is gone!” Darga said, his voice rising. “Gone! After all that we went through in breaking Atlantica’s defences, we don’t have the crown or the trident to show for it.”

“Enough!” the Manta said, the resonance of his voice silencing the squabbling. “This is exactly why I destroyed that crown: so that all of you would not fight over it! I hadn’t expected Triton to be so desperate as to destroy the trident as well, but right now I’m starting to think it was a good idea if it would just make all of you stop bickering like silly schoolfish!”

The various leaders muttered and mumbled under their breaths.

The Manta inhaled slowly, recovering from his outburst. “Trident or no trident, Atlantica is ours. Imagine that. Atlantica.”

They swelled with pride, suddenly remembering the truth of the Manta’s words. Atlantica, the mighty city, was theirs.

“Now we must secure the city,” the Manta said. “Everyone has their instructions and we’ve rounded up as many Atlanticans as we can but it there may be those who are still in hiding and possibly plotting to reclaim the city, however unlikely that second option may be.”

“It’s true,” said a Sharkanian warrior. “We have yet to see any of the Atlantican children.”

“There you have it,” said the Manta. “Order your people – minions – followers, whatever, to search every building and uncover all possible hiding places.”

“Do you think there are those that could have escaped?” Aculeatus asked.

“Possible, but unlikely,” said the Manta. “There’s nowhere they can escape to. Atlantica’s allies are too far off to travel without transport or supplies, and none are as powerful as Atlantica itself. Once news get out that Atlantica has fallen, Atlantica’s former friends will be quick to seek new alliances with us, the Axis of Oceania.”

“I thought we agreed not to use that name,” said Emperor Darga. “It doesn’t sound dignified.”

“I like it,” said Lord Frith.

“We’ll debate the name later,” said the Manta. “Right now, this is our priority. We have to make sure Atlantica is ours, right down to the last seashell.”

The various leaders nodded and dispersed to help in the take over, Lord Frith in particular taking pleasure in hissing at the Atlantican prisoners who were being towed away to their prison cells.

“By the way,” Emperor Darga said, half-turning around to look at the Manta, “How did you know that seaquake was going to happen?”

This caught Triton’s attention, and he looked up.

The Manta tilted his head a little to one side, as though he was considering something. “Have you ever heard any Atlantican folktales, Emperor?”

“Can’t say that I have,” Darga said.

“Then suffice to say that it was written long ago that this would happen,” the Manta said. He looked carefully at Darga, his pupil-less eyes glowing brighter than usual. Darga’s facial expression became strangely blank, and then he shook his head, turned and swam away to his minions without a glance back.

“I never believed in that story,” Triton said.

The Manta turned to the fallen sea king and chuckled. “You of all people should know that just because something is an old fish wives’ tail, that doesn’t necessarily make it false. You should have paid more attention, and then you would have known that it was coming.”

+++

Not too far away, hidden underneath fallen Atlantican architecture and holding a certain penguin hostage, was someone who did.

“Lemme go!” Tip wrestled free only to hit his head against a rock. There wasn’t much space where they were hiding underneath the mesh of rock and rubble.

“Keep quiet!” Miasma hissed, grabbing Tip again and this time more firmly holding his beak shut. “They’ll hear you!”

“Mmh-mmh-mmh!” Tip protested.

“Look, I grabbed you because I had to keep you safe for when that ‘quake hit,” Miasma whispered. “As long as we keep low under this – what is this, a roof? – and wait for those fellars to leave, we’ll be able to sneak out from the city.”

“Mmh-mmh!”

“What was that?”

“Mmh!”

“I’m going to let go now, you better keep your voice down,” Miasma warned. She carefully let Tip’s beak go.

“I said I’m claustrophobic!” Tip said, his voice coming out in a low whine. “It’s, uh, pretty cramp in here, lady…”

Miasma clucked her tongue. “Then shut your eyes.”

“That doesn’t help!”

“Gah!” Miasma reached into one of the pockets of the thin makeshift belt she wore around her frail waist. She put her hand into one and her fingers came out covered in what looked like slimy purple paste.

“What’s—” Tip was cut off when Miasma slathered the paste against his beak like an ointment. Tip immediately reached up with his flippers to wipe it off, but it stuck quickly and soon disappeared. “What on earth was that?”

“Just something to make you calm down,” Miasma said.

“Calm down? Calm down? I’m telling ya, lady, I’m gonna do a lot of things, but one thing I ain’t gonna do is… calm… down…” Tip’s eyes glazed over and he sat down on on the sandy floor. “Whoa.”

“Excellent,” Miasma said, satisfied. “Now, we’re going to be a good little penguin and follow the wise old mermaid, aren’t we?”

Tip’s eyes sharpened a little – not completely, but they definitely weren’t as blurry as before – and he made a face at her. “I’ll consider it.”

“Huh,” said Miasma. “Guess it doesn’t work on penguins as well as it does on merpeople. But you do feel better, don’t you?”

“That I do!” Tip agreed cheerfully.

“Keep your voice down,” Miasma hissed.

“That I do,” Tip repeated, this time in a low whisper.

“Okay, so what we’re going to do is lay low for a while, and then we’re going to sneak out of the city. They’ve probably already started searching for anyone who’s in hiding, but if I know bad guys, and I do, then it’ll be quite a while before anyone gets around to clearing up the rubbish and looking down here.”

“That’s a plan,” Tip agreed. “And then what? Once we get out of the city?”

“We’re going to find Princess Melody,” said Miasma.

“My sentiments exactly! Give the woman a prize!” Tip said.

“Hush!”

“Oh, right right,” Tip said, lowering his voice again. “But do you know where to start looking?”

“I have a hunch,” Miasma said carefully. “It might be wrong, but we might as well try it while we can.”

+++

“Move it, mermaid!” an Octopan snarled, poking Aquata in the back with his spear.

Aquata glared at him but reluctantly obeyed. “Where have you taken our king?” she asked.

“None of your business,” the Octopan said. Aquata thought that they had taken her father away either to interrogate him, or to make sure that the rest of the Atlanticans would be scared into obedience before their captors. “Keep moving!” the Octopan barked again.

Aquata ducked her head to follow the line of prisoners that were being pushed into the doorway at the foot of the palace that lead down into the underground store rooms. The store rooms themselves weren’t empty; they were filled with boxes of paste, powders and sea pasta for the palace kitchens. The Atlantican prisoners were forced to weave round the boxes and fill whatever space was available.

Aquata, at least, was tied in a line along with her sisters. Behind her, Adella sneezed.

“Quiet!” an Octopan barked.

“She sneezed, you eight-legged excuse for a freak!” snapped Arista, who was ahead of Aquata in the line.

“What did you say?” another Octopan growled, gliding forward to point his spear at her.

“You heard me,” Arista said, looking at him straight in the eye.

“Shut up!” a serpentine marauder hissed, quickly swimming forward to prevent the Octopan from doing anything foolish. Turning to Arista, he said, “You’re a prisssssoner!”

“That’s Princess prisoner to you, bucko!” Arista said, tossing her head.

Aquata suppressed a smirk and exchanged a half-amused glance with Attina, who was just ahead of Arista in the line and had turned to watch the exchange.

Anyone watching would have said that what Arista did accomplished nothing, but Aquata could see that there was a marked change of atmosphere among the Atlanticans who had been watching. They were no longer in shock and were no longer cowering. Arista had shown an example in refusing to be afraid, so it was just dawning on them that they shouldn’t be either. Not that Aquata could have ever predicted that Arista would be a positive morale-booster.

“Good girl,” Aquata muttered under her breath.

Once the store room was filled, their captors exited it one by one, then slammed the door shut behind them. For a while they could hear faint sounds of grunting behind the door, then of something heavy being moved, presumably to make sure the door couldn’t be opened from the inside.

“Seriously, these knots are way too tight,” Arista said, breaking the silence.

Adella sidled closer to Aquata and tapped her fin. “You wouldn’t happen to know a secret exit out of here, would you?”

“Not all the palace rooms have secret exits,” said Aquata. “Though for now I just hope that they haven’t found the children yet.”

A worried murmur went through the roomful of prisoners.

“Let me think,” Aquata said, sitting on the crate closest to her.

“For a plan?” Arista asked hopefully.

“That too,” Aquata said. She rubbed her tied-up fingers against her eyes. “What a day.”

“Yeah,” Alana said quietly. “I can’t believe daddy destroyed the trident.”

Aquata’s head snapped up to look at her sister, who still looked a little teary-eyed. Aquata took a quick look around the room, noting that now everyone was either resting quietly or talking in small groups and no one was really paying them any attention. She gestured to her sisters to come closer into a small area between the boxes.

“What is it?” Attina asked, once they had gathered together.

Lowering her voice, Aquata said, “Don’t let it out just yet, but daddy didn’t destroy the trident.”

“What?” Arista half-shrieked, careful to keep her voice down.

Aquata smiled. “Trust me, daddy didn’t destroy the trident. If he had destroyed the trident, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Explain,” Andrina demanded.

“The trident’s magic comes from the sea. In fact, in some ways the trident is the sea. So if daddy were to destroy the trident, the sea would be destroyed, too,” Aquata explained. “And I mean the whole sea. So the fact that we’re still here and still breathing, albeit as prisoners, means that the trident still exists.”

“Then where is it?” Attina asked. “We all saw it disappear.”

“Daddy must have hidden it somewhere,” Aquata said. Suddenly she looked sheepish. “There was a chapter about it in that old textbook I was supposed to read, but I wasn’t really paying attention to it.”

Arista made a clucking sound with her tongue. “Bad big sister!”

“I didn’t know it would be important!” Aquata said. “But anyway, just take heart that the trident still exists, meaning that we can still take back Atlantica somehow.”

“Good thing that Manta doesn’t know about this,” Attina said. “If he knew…”

“Yeah, so for now let’s keep it to ourselves,” Aquata said. “We can’t let anyone know just yet, in case they accidentally let it slip to our enemies.”

+++

Far out from Atlantica, but not far enough that the city wasn’t visible, the Sorceress was chuckling. “And such language, princess. Your mother would be shocked. Anyway, the show’s over and it’s time we make a move on. There’s still work to be done!”

What? said Melody. You already have Atlantica.

“Ah, but there’s a little bit more to go,” the Sorceress said. “Besides, I don’t want to live the rest of my life in your body, and for that you should be thankful, hmm?”

The Sorceress looked around with Melody’s young eyes, noting the leftover cracks in the sea floor that marked the seaquake’s handiwork. As the dust and debris settled, it quickly became clear that the lines all converged together at a single spot not too far off in the wilderness.

“That’s our destination,” the Sorceress said happily. “Now to wait for our escort.”

Sure enough, in the distance there was a shadowy figure moving steadily and determinedly straight for them. It soon became clear that it was the Manta, gliding right back to where he had left them.

“All’s clear in the city?” the Sorceress asked him once he arrived.

“A resounding success,” the Manta said, bowing his head in a sign of something – servitude, maybe, Melody couldn’t quite make it out – and then looked in the same direction that the Sorceress had just made out that the seaquake cracks led to. “Shall we?”

“Certainly,” said the Sorceress, placing her (Melody’s) hand on the Manta’s oversized arm and let him lead the way. As they swam, the Sorceress said, “Was there much of a struggle? It looked quite fast from where we were watching.”

“Quick and painful,” agreed the Manta. “For them, anyway.”

The two laughed.

“Oh, and the trident is out of the picture,” the Manta said. “As we captured him, Triton said something and it disappeared.”

The Sorceress looked at the Manta. “I see.”

Both Melody and the Manta immediately noticed the Sorceress’ lack of surprise. The Manta said, “You’d mentioned to me before that the trident would be out of the picture once Atlantica fell, but did you know that it would be Triton’s doing?”

“No,” confessed the Sorceress, “But I’m not surprised. There wasn’t any mention of the fate of the trident in the old books, except that it would be purged from Atlantica just as the city itself is claimed by outsiders. Triton must have desperate for him to choose to sacrifice the most powerful magical item in the entire ocean.”

“Indeed,” the Manta said.

The Sorceress smiled. “He must have known that there was no hope.”

With each word that the Manta and the Sorceress exchanged, the fear in Melody grew. The trident was gone. Atlantica was taken. Her grandfather and all her friends were prisoners, if they had survived the attack.

Melody mentally cleared her head. No, they were alive. She’d know if something happened to anyone she loved — she’d just know.

“So, princess,” the Sorceress said, regaining Melody’s attention. “Since we’re on the way, do you want to listen to a story? I think you’ll find it quite interesting, since it answers some of the questions you were asking earlier.”
 

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