~ Chapter 14 : Elsewhere ~

If Emperor Darga had been anything but a Sharkanian ruler, he would have probably started crying right about now. There he was, the first Sharkanian Emperor in all of history to enter the Atlantican throne room without all those ridiculous Atlantican soldiers escorting him, and not only that, he could reach out and touch the empty throne without worrying about melodramatic retribution.

Emperor Darga grinned, and chuckled under his breath. Oh if only his dearly departed father could see him now.

The throne was smooth to the touch but definitely old, formed out of unusually-shaped shells which were probably magical in origin but had long lost their glimmer. Emperor Darga could see where King Triton’s – uh, rear end – had spent years resting its shape in the seat.

A soft tinkling sound broke Emperor Darga’s concentration of savouring the moment. He looked down and saw that at one of the corners of the throne room, its tail barely visible above the open chest that it had dove into, was a fish.

Emperor Darga calmly swam up to the fish, making all the non-sound that Sharkanians and their feral twice-removed cousins the sharks were known for, and grabbed the fish’s tail to yank it out from the treasure chest.

The fish’s swarthy face grinned its upside-down grin at him, while pearls and shiny baubles were clutched in its fins. “Hello, Your Majesty.”

“Back outside, with the rest of them,” Darga ordered, tossing the Glowfish away. “Atlantica has to be secured before we can start dividing the spoils.”

“Oh, but Your Majesty…” the Glowfish moaned. “I’ve done all that I can do, providing information on the layout of the city for your attack. I’m no good at all that physical work.”

Emperor Darga carefully gathered up the fallen jewels and placed them back in the chest. “I find that when riches are at stake, even the laziest sea sloth becomes exceedingly good at physical work.”

“Oh, surely no one would miss a few pearls—”

“Out!” Emperor Darga roared, baring his thin sharp teeth in its endless rows.

The Glowfish swam off in a straight line of frantic water. Emperor Darga started to leave the throne room when he looked down and saw that a shiny red diamond had fallen to the floor, where it glowed enticingly. He stared at it for a few more seconds, and then quietly picked it up and palmed it.

No one would notice one missing diamond, surely.

+++

“Do you hear anything?”

Jeremy put a finger to his lips, signalling Dash to be quiet.

Behind them, in the corner farthest from the door, the smaller children were in a surprisingly cooperative little huddle protected by the mermaid girls who had taken up their role as their guardians quite enthusiastically. Some of the boys were hovering around uncertainly, trying to look that they were not in any way frightened.

“There’s movement,” Jeremy reported in a low whisper. He kept his ear close to the solid door, feeling the vibrations rather than hearing actual sound. “It sounds like they’re tapping the floor in straight lines.”

Dash looked as worried as Jeremy felt. “Do you think it’s… them?”

Jeremy drew his mouth in a thin line. “If it were an Atlantican, they’d knock on the door, firmly, five times. The tapping is almost random, like they’re searching. I don’t think it’s one of us.”

“That means they won,” Dash said, voicing the ugly truth. “And they’ve noticed that none of the children are out there.”

Jeremy pulled his ear away from the sealed door and nodded at Coral.

Coral shut her eyes in despair, just briefly, before she quickly fixed on her business face and turned to the rest of the children. “All right, everyone,” she said, to which pairs of little eyes – some brimming with worried tears – turned all their attention on her. “We’re going to have a little journey.”

“To where?” one of the merchildren asked.

A little octopus, who had taken to resting on the top of another mermaid’s head, chimed up, “Is my mommy gonna be there?”

Now if the question had been targeted towards been Jeremy, he would have sputtered and said some stupid lie in the hopes that it would comfort the children, however briefly. But Coral wasn’t the eldest grandchild of King Triton for nothing, so she said in a firm but comfortingly authoritative tone, “I honestly don’t know. Bad folk have come into Atlantica; bad folk that only the grown-ups can deal with. If we stay here, our parents will be too worried about us to take care of the baddies properly. So if we leave, they will have a better chance of saving Atlantica.”

“Atlantica needs saving?” squeaked another little mergirl, voicing the concerns of the rest of the children to whom the idea that Atlantica could ever be in danger was unthinkable.

“Yes, it does,” Coral said. After a long enough pause to let that piece of information sink in, she added, “So will you follow me?”

“I will,” said a young mermaid, one of Coral’s closest friends whose name Jeremy couldn’t remember at the moment.

“I will,” said another, a much younger mergirl who was one of Coral’s cousins.

A reluctant chorus filled the small room, and the heavy line of Coral’s face grew stronger. “All right then.” Coral swam to a panel in the floor, which looked just like any other panel, except that it slid open when Coral hit it in a specific way. It opened to reveal a fortified tunnel within.

“This leads to the salty hills,” Coral told everyone. “I’ll lead the way since I know the path out. All the elders keep track of your wards, and stay close to your buddies. Both of you—” here she pointed at Jeremy and Dash, “will guard our rear.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Dash.

Out they swam through the tunnels that lead away from the Atlantican city, and just after Jeremy shut the hidden panel behind them, an Octopan pressed his head against the floor just outside the secret room, and was satisfied when he didn’t hear a thing.

+++

King Aculeatus of the Octopans was busy gloating. King Triton had been gagged, tied up and chained quite enthusiastically to a pillar while various random enemies of Atlantica that wandered past the open court room would throw something (usually a bad piece of fruit) at him.

“What a day, eh, Triton?” Aculeatus said, feeling another pang of glee in knowing that Triton couldn’t answer. “What a day. For centuries my people have craved this, the fall of Atlantica, and I am deeply honoured that it would happen during my reign.”

The only downside to this was that Triton didn’t look the least bit downcast at this turn of affairs. Aculeatus fancied that without his crown Triton looked like any old broken merman, but Triton, on the other hand, knew full well that being a king meant more than just wearing a crown.

“We have been planning this for months,” said Aculeatus. “I’m sure you’ve been hearing rumours of secret meetings and conspiracies for some time, and now that it’s all in the open, I’m sure all of us can breathe a sigh of relief. Except for you and your people, of course.”

Triton let the words blur out of his hearing; he’d been subjected to quite a lot of gloating in the past hour, and was in no mood for more of the same thing. All he was really thinking about were his family and his people… He hoped that they were safe and unharmed, which was all that really mattered.

Then, of course, there was the thing where Triton had lied to the Manta. He had heard the old story that the Manta had mentioned and he had believed that there was some truth to it, because no one became king of Atlantica without knowing the old histories back to front, along with the numerous prophecies that were littered throughout them.

Namely, the one prophecy that said that Atlantica would fall.

Oh, it had been written, and carefully put out of the way from the public records so to make sure that the wrong eyes would never look upon it. But the Manta had proven, with his words, that someone had seen the prophecy and had done their best to counter Triton’s own efforts to make sure they wouldn’t come true.

“We should declare this a national holiday!” Aculeatus shouted. He leaned against a coral table, the one that Triton had used in the past to sign royal documents. Aculeatus picked up the squid pen on the table and pretended to sign a large document with flourish. “I hereby decree that this will be The Oceanwide No More Atlantica Day!”

Triton resisted the urge to grit his teeth. He really hated villains who gloated too much.

Then, Triton watched as Aculeatus’ eyes turned to look properly at the royal pen he was holding, noticing that it was studded with pearls and jade. After a brief moment of not-really-thinking, Aculeatus nonchalantly put the pen into the discreet little grey bag he had attached to his belt.

No one would notice one missing pen, surely.

+++

Ariel ate her early dinner obediently when it was brought to her, because she realised that she truly was hungry. Carlotta told her that that was a good sign, because if the body craves nourishment that means that it wants to get better.

Eric joined her for a while before he was called away for another meeting. Ariel didn’t mind him not being there because it was a rare occurrence in their years of marriage that Eric was swamped with genuine work that required his kingly presence. What did make Ariel mind was her suspicion that it still had something to do with Duke de Klin, and that her husband was refusing to tell her what it was.

Carlotta eventually came by and took the tray away, leaving Ariel once again to her thoughts.

She looked out the window, where the sunset had turned the sky glorious shades of red and orange that glinted off the sea surface. It made her think of how no one from Atlantica had surfaced to update them on the goings on underwater, and Ariel was starting to get worried. Well, more worried.

She sat there for a long while, watching the sunset weave its colours, until finally even that couldn’t distract her.

“I’ve already had enough food, so I’m fine,” she said to herself. She placed her hand on her neck, just like Carlotta had done, and decided that she was just the right temperature. Then she crawled out of bed and put on a proper dress so she could go out and get a breath of fresh air. A glance at the vanity mirror told her that there was nothing that could be done about her hair on such short notice, so she tied it up in a quick bun and left the room.

Ariel didn’t really know where she was going, only that she really was feeling much better and being stuck in the same room and staring at the walls for another couple of hours waiting for bedtime was not something that she was looking forward to.

There were servants milling about downstairs, all of whom bowed or nodded politely but didn’t comment on her being up and about. Only Carlotta seemed to have the guts to do that, Ariel did love her so for it.

“Where is my husband?” she asked the head steward.

“He is in the meeting room with the Heads,” he answered.

So bothering her husband was out of the question. Ariel decided to go for a stroll, because the chances of Carlotta finding her and marching her back to her room were lower if she were to stay outside.

The gardens were a welcome distraction, especially under the sunset sky. One of Ariel’s favourite things – and since she’d become human there were quite a lot of them – was the feeling of grass beneath her feet. They were as soft as little tuffs of seaweed, but Ariel would never get tired of how ticklish human feet were.

Ariel left her shoes on the stone pavement and walked across the grass, savouring what little peace the moment could give her. Ariel idly thought that maybe this feeling was the same sort of wonder that Melody got from dipping her feet in water, and that line of thought made her worried all over again.

Just then, a voice snapped her out of her thoughts. It was mumbling, faint through the walls of the palace courtyard, but with just enough audible words to cause little alarm bells to ring in Ariel’s head.

“There is… back over there… De Klin has a point,” came through the mumbles.

There was more muttering, and Ariel walked right up to the wall, pressing her ear against it in the hopes that she could hear more of the conversation.

“He’s at the square… talking about…”

The voices moved off and away from the other side of the wall, and Ariel made a frustrated sound. She half-bounded to her shoes, put them on, and made her way along the wall to the small iron gate that stood about halfway across the garden. Through the rungs she could see that the owners of the voices were young men dressed in typical villager’s garb, and they were walking quite pointedly towards the main square of the outside town.

Ariel moved without conscious thought. She yanked at the iron gate a certain way, causing it to pop open – most of the people in and out of the palace thought it was rusted beyond use, but Eric had taught her this little secret quite early on in their marriage. She walked through the iron gate and pushed it shut, then hurried after the young men to the town square.

It wasn’t uncommon for Ariel or Eric to walk the streets, though admittedly they did more of it when in their first few years of marriage. A few heads did turn to look at her, but there was a sort-of hive movement going on as villagers made their way to the town square.

Ariel recognized De Klin’s voice from the first syllable that her ears detected, and it was no surprise to her when she saw that he was standing on a large box in the town square, talking the talk for all to hear.

“They come and go as they please!” he was saying.

Ariel moved towards him, her steps growing steadier from one foot to the next. The people made way for her to pass, some with worry on their faces (for her or for him, Ariel didn’t care), as the malice of the words became clearer.

“And there has been no word from Atlantica!” De Klin said. “They said that our princess would be returned to us this morning, but no! Not only has she disappeared without a trace, but so have the merfolk!”

He hadn’t noticed her yet, but that suited Ariel just fine for now.

“What have they done to our princess?” De Klin asked. “Are they protecting her properly? She is the only princess we have, but they have two dozen—”

People who hadn’t seen Ariel made little gasps and chattering of surprise at this apparent revelation. Those who had seen her were quietly looking at her or each other nervously.

“—so what assurance do they have that our Princess Melody will be cared for? They allowed her to go to Atlantica, when the creature that poisoned her own mother still roams free! Is that Atlantican logic?”

Some people murmured tones of concern, others coughed discreetly.

De Klin still had energy to go on, it seemed. “We don’t know a thing about them!”

“If you want to know anything about the merpeople,” said Ariel, in a firm tone that cut through all background noise in the square, “You only need to ask me.”

De Klin’s eyes darted through the crowd to land on Ariel. There was a brief flash of surprise in his face, but none of the embarrassment that Ariel had been hoping for.

“Your Majesty,” he said, in a tone of voice could’ve oiled hinges. “How marvellous of you to join us. Looking well, I see, isn’t that wonderful.”

“As are you,” said Ariel, gliding through the crowd towards De Klin’s little stage, stepping on to it so that she could look him in the eye. “If you have any questions about Atlantica, the kingdom of my birth, you need only direct them to me.”

“The common people should ask you, who live in your castle?” De Klin asked, eyes wide in false surprise.

Ariel felt a pang of hurt at that, though she tried hard not to show it. “Of course. This is my home now, but Atlantica will always have a special place in my heart as the place I grew up, and I would be more than happy to answer any questions that anyone may have.”

“I’ve heard that Triton can destroy whole mountains with his trident!” someone shouted.

Ariel turned towards the voice. “Who said that?”

“Does it matter who asked it, if the question itself is what’s important?” De Klin asked with an easy shrug. “Is it true?”

Ariel scowled at him. “My father is wonderful, kind-hearted merman—”

“Who has an object of such power in his hands that he could, oh I don’t know, destroy our whole kingdom if he wanted to?” De Klin asked.

“My father, for more years than you can imagine, has kept his peace with land-dwellers even as his people were caught in your nets and snared by your weapons, and our sea bed polluted with your cast-offs,” Ariel said, starting to shake in anger. “If he meant you harm, you wouldn’t have to wonder about it – you’d know.”

The smugness permeated off De Klin’s face. “So he does think so lowly of us, I knew he was capable of such loathing—”

Ariel slapped him. “That is my father you’re talking about.” When she spoke, it was to everyone listening, not just De Klin. “My father who raised me with love and, despite all his beliefs and all his prejudices and all his misgivings with humans, let me leave him to marry the human man that I fell in love with.”

Ariel couldn’t look at De Klin; she couldn’t look at any one. She stepped off the makeshift stage and walked as best as she could away from De Klin, the people flowing around her like a parting wave to let her pass.

She felt something soft wrap around her waist, and she looked down to see a small girl, no older than 6, giving her a hug. Bright brown eyes looked up into her own, and Ariel found herself responding to the warmth in the child’s smile. Then the girl released her hold from Ariel’s waist and gave a little curtsy.

Another woman nearby curtsied as well. Then another. And a man bowed. Then another man. And another woman. The mass moved like a gentle animal, lowering its head in respect to their monarch.

And Ariel, their Queen, walked back to the palace with her head held high.

+++

Lord Frith of the serpentine marauders was lounging about, enjoying the view of an Atlantican city that was utterly devoid of actual Atlanticans. All the merfolk and sea creatures native to the city had been carted away, stuffed into various underground holds (mostly because they’d run out of actual prison cells). In their place were creatures of greed and vice, filling every crack of the city and starting to make themselves at home.

Not that Frith actually liked the city. It was far too shiny for his liking; his kind preferred dark and sensible homes, preferably well tucked away from any glimpse of water-filtered sunlight. He and his people would be returning there soon, once the city was secured and they could divide all the— “My lord,” said one of his faithful minions, gliding up to him with the liquid ease that was born into all serpentines.

“What issssss it?” Lord Frith asked.

“There’ssssss ssssssome dissssssputesssss going on in the treasure vault, milord,” said the serpent.

Frith bristled, a ripple of annoyance flowing over his green scales. As Lord Frith stepped down from his post and made his way to the treasure vault, the minion began hissing a long and detailed report about those Sharkanians, can’t trust them one bit, though they weren’t as bad as the Octopans with all their tentacles, can never tell what they’re up to, etc.

“What’ssssss going on here?” Frith asked once he arrived at the treasure vault. A small congregation had formed there, though judging by the way that arms were being flailed and eyes were twitching, it wasn’t the peaceful sort.

“They’ve been ssssstealin’, Highness!” one of the marauders said.

“Liar!” the Octopan closest to him shouted. “They’ve been stealing. Just look! The chests are half as full as they were before!”

Frith looked at the chests strewn on the floor. Sure enough, although the majority looked untouched, some looked like they’d been mysteriously reduced. Lord Frith pointed a finger at the Octopan.

“Do you ssssssswear that none of your kin have touched the treasure?” Frith asked.

An expression of conflict passed over the Octopan’s face, and Lord Frith was about to call him on it when a loud voice cut him off.

“Don’t ask my people to swear to you,” said Aculeatus, swimming into the room. Two other Octopan minions were quick to follow him; Lord Frith assumed that they had informed Aculeatus about the situation just as Frith’s minion had done so.

“So, you don’t deny the possssssssibility that your Octopansssss have been sssssstealing the Atlantisssss treasure?”

Aculeatus shifted the hold on his spear menacingly, but took care not to actually point it at anyone. “I say that it takes a thief to recognise a thief.”

The serpents all hissed at the insult, but Lord Frith waved them silent. “You ssssspeak ssssssso bluntly, eight-legssssss,” he said. “Look at the boxesssss! They have been tampered with, you cannot deny it!”

Aculeatus glanced at the boxes in the treasure vault briefly. “Doesn’t mean anything.” He waved a hand at the various other creatures that had aligned themselves to the anti-Atlantica alliance but weren’t Octopans or serpents. “Anyone could have dabbed their hands into the treasure without the rest of us noticing.”

“But ssssssso much gone sssssso quickly?” Lord Frith said, disbelieving.

The serpentine leader and the Octopan leader looked at each other. Then, they said in unison, “The Sharkanians!”

The few Sharkanians who were in the room opened the mouths to protest, but noticed that they were outnumbered by the others.

“Find Emperor Darga!” Lord Frith ordered. “We have to get to the bottom of thissssss!”

“Don’t you be pointing your grubby fingers at us!” one of the Sharkanians yelled. He reached out and grabbed a serpent by the tail, pushing him hard against the wall. Before Frith or the serpent could protest, the Sharkanian pulled free the small makeshift belt that was around the serpent’s waist– in response, small gold coins and coloured jewels tinkled down to the floor.

“Aha!” said Aculeatus, satisfied. “It was you snakes that stole it!”

“Was not!” the pinned serpent shouted back. He twisted his thin tail free and used it to pull at the small bag that a Sharkanian closest to him had tied to his dorsal fin. More coins and jewels were released.

“Thieves, all of you, thieves!” Aculeatus roared, and he raised his spear up high in an attacking position—

Causing the little string that tied the little grey bag to his waist to fall slack, and releasing the royal jewelled pen, which fell to the floor.

Lord Frith grinned widely. “You were saying?”

“Snakes!”

“Thieves!”

“Scavengers!”

When Emperor Darga arrived at the treasure vault and saw the fighting that had erupted within, he sighed, took a deep breath, and then shouted: “What’s all this about?!”

Lord Frith and King Aculeatus paused in the motion of trying to strangle each other, and looked at him.

“Darga!” they shouted, and attacked him.

+++

Elsewhere, the Atlantican children had made it out into the open. The tunnels had lead them out clear from Atlantica and the enemies that had overrun it, though it had been difficult for them to turn their backs to the glowing lights and head out towards what Coral had said were the salt hills.

“I hope that Tip is all right,” said Dash, who was guarding the rear of their group with Jeremy.

“I hope that Melody is all right, too” Jeremy said.

The two friends swam in gloomy silence for a while, thinking various thoughts about the friends they’d been separated from. Around them the scenery started to change, though they kept low to the seabed with the foliage all above them so to avoid being seen.

What they didn’t know, however, was that there were Octopans and serpentine marauders swimming out of the city, carefully sweeping the area for signs of escapees. And that no matter how quiet a small travelling troupe tries to be, they would inevitably make more than just background noise.

“Hey, did you hear that?” Dash said, when something rustled not too far behind them.

“No, what?” Jeremy asked.

“I thought I heard…” Dash swam lower to the seabed, feeling the soft sand rustle against his flippers. “I think we better keep a move—”

An Octopan spear struck the ground right in front of his noise.

“Gah!” shouted Dash, flailing backwards in a panic. He looked up in alarm, and saw an Octopan looking straight at him through an opening between the large underwater leaves.

“Swim!” Jeremy hissed, and the children further ahead of them in the party rushed forward in a mess of panic and squeals. He grabbed a nearby rock and threw it as hard as he could at the Octopan. It missed, but when the Octopan started to laugh Dash threw himself – full weight and all – right at the Octopan, causing him to collapse into the greenery and land on the seabed with a painful gasp.

Jeremy raised his head at just about the highest level of the greenery, checking to see if anyone had seen the ruckus, and to his dismay he saw that two other Octopans were swimming straight for them.

Jeremy looked down, and saw that the other children had already made quite a bit of distance in getting away. He was sure that Coral would be able to find a safe hiding spot for all of them, and all she needed was a little time; time that Jeremy and Dash could give them.

Dash and Jeremy exchanged a look of understanding. Dash flexed his flippers, making a satisfying whump-crack sound of preparation. Jeremy picked up the fallen Octopan’s spear, which was a little heavy, but usable.

“Ready?” Jeremy asked.

Dash nodded, his eyes narrowing into determined slits.

They swam out to meet the Octopans with weapons at ready, and in Dash’s case yelling a war cry that went something like, “Let’s get dangerooooooooou—”
 

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