Nanny remained calm and gracious in the face of Lucinda’s torments.
“I am remembering more with every moment, my dear, ever since Pflanze came to court. Though truly I think it began when I was in her company while visiting the Beast prince, though I didn’t know it at the time. I suppose I should thank you, sisters, for sending her there to spy.”
Martha and Ruby looked at Pflanze, outraged. “Pflanze! How could you betray our secrets?”
Nanny laughed at the sisters.
“Pflanze didn’t betray you!”
Ruby and Martha were pacing with worry.
“Lucinda, how could you send our cat to the One of Legends? She’s turned her against us!”
Lucinda closed her eyes, willing herself not to strangle her sisters. “How was I supposed to know she was Tulip’s nanny? She didn’t possess her powers! There was no means to track her! For all I knew, she was dead.”
Pflanze was sitting quietly and patiently in front of the enormous solstice tree while the witches argued. The tree towered to the heights of the domed ceiling. She was watching the silver decorations reflect the candlelight and the light casting itself about the room. But her attention was diverted to the debacle of her plans. How could she have thought she could bring these witches together and accomplish anything at all, let alone save Circe’s life?
“What do you mean ‘save Circe’s life’?” asked Lucinda, who was in a frenzy. “What do you mean? Is Circe in danger?” Pflanze breathed in heavily and let her breath out slowly, sighing. She had made a terrible mistake. She had to try to keep her witches from losing their minds; she needed them sane. She needed to show them what had happened. Words could be interrupted, twisted, and misunderstood.
She needed to show her witches; then they would understand. Then they would know.
“Show us what?” The sisters were on their feet again, screaming and clicking their shiny black-pointed boots. “Show us Circe! Show us our sister!” The glass in the domed ceiling was rattling, threatening to shatter, but the sisters didn’t seem to take notice or care.
“Show us Circe!”
“Calm yourselves, please! You’ll have glass raining down on our heads!” Nanny shouted.
The sisters were in a rampant delirium, screaming and ripping the ribbons in their hair. Their ringlets were in tangles and their makeup was smeared from crying.
“Show us our sister! Lucinda, use the mirror!” shouted Martha.
Lucinda snatched Ruby’s purse and took out the enchanted hand mirror.
“Lucinda, we’ve tried summoning her in the mirror! It doesn’t work!” yelled Ruby, but Lucinda wasn’t listening.
“Show us Circe!” Lucinda screamed at her terrified reflection in the mirror.
Nanny snatched the mirror from Lucinda’s shaking hand. “Show us Circe!”
A strange sickly creature appeared in the mirror. It was a horrid greenish gray with deep blackened pits for eyes.
“Damn this mirror to nothingness! Show us our sister!”
“That is your sister, my dears. That creature is Circe.”
The odd sisters sat in disbelief as they looked into their enchanted hand mirror. Their poor dear little sister! How could this creature be their Circe? And why was the One of Legends able to conjure her when they could not?
“I asked Pflanze to bring you here because I’m afraid Ursula is going to break her deal,” Nanny said solemnly.
“What deal?” chimed the sisters as one.
“I don’t think she plans to give Circe back, like she promised you.”
The sisters’ heads cocked to the left in a quick jerk. They seemed to be looking at something very far away, in almost a trancelike state, until Lucinda finally responded. “Give her back? What do you mean give her back?”
“I’m sorry, I assumed you knew.”
“Knew what? What in Hades are we supposed to know?”
“That Ursula took Circe. I thought that’s why you were helping her.”
“No, we called her for help. She said she’d help us find Circe once we destroyed Triton.”
“I see, so you agreed to ruin Ariel and kill Triton for your own pleasure?”
“Not for pleasure! For Circe! Ursula told us her tale and gathered our hate so we could destroy Triton together! In return she was to help us find our sister! Now our hate will rain down on her like a thousand nightmares for betraying us! She will live in baleful agony beyond the end of her days for this!”
Lucinda rose to her feet. Her sisters remained sitting, utterly astounded that Ursula had used them so shamelessly. Clearly Ursula hadn’t been lying about her brother; they had seen the proof of Triton’s treachery in the divination fires.
“Triton truly deserves to die, there was no question, so why this betrayal?” Lucinda screamed. “There was no need to deceive us! I don’t understand. Perhaps Ursula thought we would refuse her. We would have helped no matter, and what if we had refused? Was she going to threaten us with the life of our sister? Blackmail!”
Lucinda was raging with anger, clutching the hand mirror. “Where is Ursula now? Show me the sea witch!”
Vanessa appeared in the mirror. She was on the wedding ship, looking like a maniacal bride. Her pallor was almost ghastly. It was as if her anger was starting to distort her lovely guise and the sea witch was now melding with Vanessa. Ariel was lying on the deck of the ship and Eric was looking on in horror as Vanessa bellowed, “You’re too late! You’re too late!”
Lightning burst from her fingertips, penetrating the sky like the worst of storms, before her true form exploded from her human shell, causing everyone on the ship to scream in horror, as she crawled along the deck like a slithering thing of nightmares toward Eric and the little mermaid.
“She has Ariel!” screamed Ruby. “We’re too late!”
Lucinda clutched the mirror and said, “No. No we’re not!”
She cast her hand at the chamber door, sealing it with her magic so none of the servants would be able to get in. She moved to the center of the room and stood beneath the glass dome. The sky exploded with light as fireworks burst above their heads, raining down upon the dome. Ships had been gathering near Morningstar Castle all evening for the winter solstice, there to pay tribute to the Lighthouse of the Gods with offerings of fire and light. Lucinda recited a new incantation.
“Kill the witch and make her bleed, release our sister, my words you’ll heed!”
Ursula’s brother appeared in the mirror, his face full of wrath. “Let her go!” he yelled at Ursula, who had Ariel in her grasp. Ursula laughed. “Not a chance, Triton! She’s mine now. We made a deal!”
Ursula showed Triton the contract Ariel had signed, and wondered what was going through his mind. Was he frightened for his daughter’s life? Perhaps I should make him watch while I kill his precious child—make him suffer the pain and fear my father felt before his death, the death he said my father deserved!
“Daddy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know!” cried Ariel.
Triton’s anger was growing with each breath, swelling, until he released his rage at Ursula, slamming her into a rock with the power of his trident, trying in vain to break the contract.
“You see! The contract is legal, binding, and completely unbreakable, even for you.”
Then she smiled at him, in that way she knew he hated, the smile that meant she couldn’t wait to see him choke on her hate.
“Of course I was always a girl with an eye for a bargain. The daughter of the great sea king is a very precious commodity.”
And, I daresay, the little sister of the dreaded three is even more so, she thought.
The odd sisters’ anger filled the room like a choking smoke. As much as they hated Triton, they hated Ursula more. How dare she take our little sister! How dare she use her!
“Ursula’s deceived us, Sisters! She has no intention of letting Circe go!” Ruby’s and Martha’s screams were heard in the many kingdoms, but Lucinda remained eerily
calm.
“Quiet, my darlings, we don’t want Ursula to know we’ve learned her secret. She intends to use our Circe against us, as a tool for bargaining, to ensure our help in her future plans. The Dark Fairy was right. We have to stop her.”
The witches again began their chant, which grew louder and more violent as their bodies convulsed and contorted with every word…
“Slice the witch and make her bleed, kill the witch, my words you’ll heed!”
…and they watched Ursula and Triton in their magic mirror.
“But I might be willing to make an exchange for someone even better,” Ursula said.
Triton knew what she wanted. It had never been Ariel; it was him. His power. His soul. This was her vengeance, and part of him felt he deserved it. He had chased his daughter away with his hatred of humans and brought madness upon his sister with his betrayal of her. Yes, this is what I deserve, he thought. He would take his daughter’s place. Ursula’s words rang in his ears as he signed the contract: If I am this foul creature you describe, it’s by your design! Ursula had been right when she said that. He had created this monster and there was nothing he could do to amend it. His regret would mean nothing to her. His words would be like ashes.
At least I will be able to save Ariel. Perhaps she will rule with more compassion than I ever had. The sisters watched and wished they could destroy the king as they had intended. It wasn’t enough that he finally lamented what he had done to his sister. They wanted him to die. It took all their strength to rein in their hate of Triton and focus it on Ursula, so long had they gathered it, cultivated it, and given it life. It took all their might not to succumb to it and kill the tyrant king.
Oh, how they wished Ursula was the friend they had thought she was. They would have loved to take down her brother and put her on the throne. They would have done anything to help their friend. Why the betrayal? It was such a disappointment, seeing Ursula fail in the face of such promise. They had thought she was different. She wanted nothing more than revenge—and power, because she’d spent her life feeling powerless. She’d become the thing her brother accused her of. She had become loathsome.
Fear gripped the witches’ hearts when they saw that Ursula had seized Triton’s crown and trident. This is why the Dark Fairy sent her warning. She knows Ursula’s heart better than we do. And the sisters watched in terror as Ursula grew to prodigious heights.
The madness within her also seemed to grow with an unnerving velocity. Her laugh dominated the many kingdoms as she commanded the sea, bringing forth ships that had long before sunk to the depths. She brought the dead ships to life with the treacherous waves, raving maniacally and claiming the sea as her own.
If there was anything left of the witch the sisters had called “friend,” they couldn’t detect it. Ursula was completely at the mercy of this overwhelming power, and it had driven her quite mad.
The Dark Fairy was right.
Ursula created a maelstrom of twisting splintered ships and used them to attack Ariel and Eric. She was going to kill Ariel. It seemed her plans to be Eric’s bride had been tossed aside like an unwanted plaything, forgotten now with the madness that was swelling inside her.
She’s grown mad with power. Perhaps mad with grief, with the loss of everything she once loved.
Lucinda said the words again, this time resolving to destroy the thing she and her sisters had helped create with their hatred. They were no better than Triton, Lucinda thought, because they had played a part in Ursula’s undoing, as well. It broke Lucinda’s heart and brought her no joy, in spite of the betrayal.
“Kill the witch and make her bleed, release our sister, my words you’ll heed!”
Martha and Ruby were in a panic.
“We can’t kill Ursula! There has to be a way to save her!” screamed Ruby. “If we take the crown and trident, she’ll come back to herself.”
“Yes, this is our fault! Circe was right to be angry with us! We’re always meddling, and our meddling caused this. It will cost Ursula her life!”
Lucinda cast a terrifying gaze at her sisters. “Silence! This is Ursula’s doing, not ours! She would have gotten her hands on the necklace regardless, and she took our sister as insurance that we would help her! She is not the witch we once knew. She’s been overwhelmed by power and greed just like the Wicked Queen, and we shall destroy her for her duplicity!”
The fireworks burst forth from the ships in Morningstar Harbor and exploded overhead, raining on the dome above the witches as Lucinda went on. “This is the only way to free our sister and ensure she will not hate us until the end of her days! Circe would never forgive us for unleashing this power.”
Lucinda looked to the sky through the glass dome, at the storm of sparks cascading down, as the sea raged with a violent purple light. “We have no choice, my sisters. We have to destroy her. Now, say the words with me.”
Lucinda, Ruby, Martha, and the One of Legends gathered their power and sent it out to the many kingdoms so witches far and wide would hear their call. This was not a secret, dark sort of magic. It was a desperate gathering of forces to take down the witch who now had the power to destroy them all.
“You took our sister and our hate, to die at our hands is now your fate!”
The witches screeched, and taking the mirror once again, they said, “Now show us the witch!” Ursula’s image appeared in the enchanted mirror.
“She’s trying to kill Ariel! She’s broken her deal! Kill the witch now, make her suffering real!”
All the witches were in a frenzy, stomping their boots and screaming so loudly the glass dome was again threatening to break. The servants were pounding on the door, trying to get in to see what was the matter, frightened of the loud screams coming from inside the room and the terrible explosions coming from the sea.
“Show us the witch!”
The witches watched as Prince Eric climbed onto one of the resurrected ships. Its bow was splintered and jagged, and the witches knew Ursula’s death was almost upon them.
“Impale the witch and make her bleed, give Eric the power, our words you’ll heed!”
And to their relief, Ursula was violently impaled by the ship’s splintered bow in an explosion of electricity and billowing purple smoke, casting her remains deep into the sea.
The sisters collapsed as they watched the voluminous smoke rising from the sea, knowing they had killed the witch they had once called their friend.
Deep within the ocean, tucked away in Ursula’s garden of lost souls, Circe felt herself become shining and brilliant, like the dazzling golden lights that surrounded her. It was a curious sensation, as if she had never known what it was to feel alive until that moment. Ursula had taken her soul and left her empty shell to wither with the other victims in the sea witch’s garden.
Circe had never contemplated what that would be like, to lose her soul, and she couldn’t have imagined what a deep, penetrating sense of emptiness it would bring, as if nothing but sadness and loneliness remained.
But even that didn’t adequately describe how it had felt.
She supposed it was similar to powerful grief, that wretched emptiness and feeling of despair and helplessness, as if being swallowed by a deep blackened pit that you were unable to crawl out of.
She wondered if that was how the Beast had felt when the curse took away his humanity, and heat rose to her cheeks as shame washed over her. Of course her sisters would say that he had brought it on himself. That she had given him a choice. And that was true. But it hurt her heart to think she had ever managed to cause such pain to another, even if he had deserved it.
As she and the other victims rose out of Ursula’s garden, freed, she saw the ghastly remains of her captor scattered on the ocean floor and knew her sisters were probably nearby. She swam with a mermaid’s tail and cringed when she saw large portions of Ursula’s severed tentacles, feeling an intense guilt for the part she’d had to play in Ursula’s death.
She didn’t unde
rstand why Ursula had betrayed her, and though she was no longer trapped within Ursula’s garden of lost souls, the empty, terrible feeling lingered within her. She just wanted to know why. She had always liked Ursula. She had always been her friend. She would never know why Ursula had betrayed her….
Or would she?
There, glistening on the besmirched and murky ocean floor, lying among Ursula’s remains, was the golden seashell necklace. Circe snatched it in her little hand and made a desperate wish.
She was instantly assaulted by a rage she’d never before experienced. The weight of it was impossible to contain; she felt as if it would consume her. No, that wasn’t right; it felt like something was growing inside her, something too large and too vile for her to contain. She felt as if she would burst and nothing but hate would remain.
It was unbearable, this pain. This anguish. But the hate, and the rage—that was the worst of it. It was like a terrible sickness that wrapped itself around her heart, distorting her mind and filling it with horrific images. Circe’s head was filled with visions she didn’t understand. Terrible, frightful scenes of a man being slaughtered, pulled literally to pieces by an angry mob, trying to keep it away from a young girl. And images of the same young girl standing on a cliff, crying, her heart full of fear and loathing. The pictures kept flashing one to the other in rapid succession. Circe didn’t know what they meant, but she could feel the memories as if they were her own, because she felt herself to be something entirely new, entirely different…alien.
In that moment, she had come to possess the psyche of the sea witch.
She was Ursula.
She was leviathan, her body swelling not only with rage but with strength and girth. She had the power to command the sea and she did so at her pleasure. That power was too much for any witch to bear, even Ursula, and it frightened Circe. She fought not only against herself but against an enormous hate being directed at her. She couldn’t comprehend who had the power to direct such hatred. Who had the power to use her own magic against her? Her mind whirled at the maelstrom of hate that flooded her. She had grown to immeasurable proportions and felt she was impenetrable. Her hate had betrayed her.
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