Silent Mermaid: A Retelling of The Little Mermaid (The Classical Kingdoms Collection Book 5)

by Brittany Fichter

  Though she had wavered in her determination as he spoke of the ways she might be tortured, should she be captured by pirates, his threat itself was what had made up Arianna’s mind entirely. If her father wasn’t going to treat her as a member of the family, then she didn’t need to act like one.

  Or at least, that was what she had been telling herself all evening. Even now, she nearly turned back as the moon rippled into view above the surface she was fast approaching. By the time she broke the surface, doubt had nearly killed her determination completely, and she had resolved to simply glance at the party and then scurry home to her aunt in their lonely tower. But then she glimpsed the ball.

  Taking care as she always did to keep the end of her tail in the water, Arianna pulled herself up onto the lower ledge that jutted out just below the Sun Palace’s terrace.

  Despite the dark of twilight, the terrace was nearly as light as day. Dozens of torches stood several feet above the heads of even the tallest people, their flames not only yellow, but also blue, green, pink, and even purple. Tables lined the terrace’s edges, and from the way the guests hovered around them, Arianna could only guess that those tables held all varieties of food. Lalia swore that human food was nothing special. Most of it was so dry it was inedible, she’d complained once to Arianna after a similar event a few years before. But now Arianna was sure her sister was only feeding her own prejudice. There were too many smiling people standing around the tables for the food to be bland or dry.

  The people themselves were stunning. Arianna gawked as men strode around with confident swagger in their steps while the ladies flitted, their fluffy, lacy skirts swishing gracefully from side to side. Arianna stared at the colorful gowns longingly. Merpeople never wore so many clothes. Not only was it unnecessary, cloth hindered swimming significantly. Still, despite the impracticality of the humans’ clothes, as Arianna was sure that they could have been covered adequately with less than half as many clothes, their attire was so very pretty.

  It didn’t take Arianna long to spot her family. Her sister and mother were standing close to her father’s elbows, watching the human merriment with cool, collected eyes. Her father’s scowl was so deep that Arianna first feared he’d seen her watching them. Before she dove back into the water, however, she realized that he was scowling at everyone and everything. The food, the dancing, the children running about underfoot, and especially the Sun Crown himself. At least, Arianna guessed he was the Sun Crown, judging by the oversized golden diadem on his head and the horde of admirers encircling him.

  It took her a moment longer, however, to locate her brother. Rinaldo was chatting animatedly with another young man. When the young man turned, Arianna sucked in a quick breath.

  Prince Michael wore black trousers and a brown doublet that made his olive skin look tan even in the dark of the evening. His curly black hair had been cut more neatly than Arianna had seen in a long time. Arianna smiled to herself as he tugged nervously at the bottom of his jacket. The fitted coat did indeed look restricting. But, oh! The effect of the clothing on his shoulders made her chest tight and her breath catch in her throat.

  His charms clearly weren’t lost on the human girls, either. Arianna’s delight in his appearance quickly disappeared as she noticed a number of them eyeing the prince as well. All too soon, the young men finished their conversation, and Prince Michael turned away and bowed to a young woman nearby. They promptly began to dance.

  Arianna’s annoyance about the forced proximity that human dances required was interrupted by a small splash behind her. She nearly dived back into the water when Rinaldo’s head popped up from the waves. Arianna felt the color drain from her face.

  “And why am I not surprised?” he asked.

  Arianna couldn’t meet his eyes. Instead, she stared at his drenched shirt.

  “Not to worry,” he said, following her gaze. “The charm will dry them as soon as I get out of the water.” He paused for a minute, and Arianna finally dared to sneak a peek up at his face.

  His brow was furrowed, but his mouth was set in a crooked grin. Arianna dared to swallow. Did that mean he wasn’t going to tell their father?

  “I shouldn’t be doing this, but since you’re already here . . .” He bowed his head and removed the fiber string from around his neck. Arianna’s heart beat fast as he handed the little shell to her. “Just a few minutes, then I need to get back.”

  Arianna stared at the charm, still afraid to put it on. It was too good to be true. But her brother only shook his head as he took it back and put it around her neck himself.

  “I really do need to get back. So get on with it.”

  Arianna’s mouth fell open as her tail began to quiver. The trembling grew so strong that it itched, but her discomfort was forgotten as a black skirt began to extend down from the bottom of her camicett. And at the bottom of the skirt appeared two little slippered feet.

  Rinaldo let out a deep laugh as Arianna turned and bolted up to the edge of the terrace. She wondered at how easily her new legs moved. Bending and turning, they moved in directions Arianna had never even considered human legs moving. And every movement felt as natural as swimming. Kneeling behind a bush, Arianna watched the ball from a position she had only ever dreamed of reaching.

  A new dance had begun, and Arianna wished more than ever to give her new legs use. Prince Michael had switched partners. Now he twirled with a girl with hair the color of ebony and skin the color of sand. Keeping perfect time to the music, the prince never once missed a step. Not until he turned and looked out at the ocean, that is. Arianna froze as his eyes swept the horizon. She was sure, if he ever saw her, that those eyes would be able to look inside her soul. At that precise moment, those eyes stopped their sweeping and settled on the bush she hid behind. Was it possible? Did he see her behind the leaves through which she now peered?

  They stayed that way, Arianna holding her breath and the prince staring with a crinkled brow, until his partner said something and he returned those dark eyes to the girl instead. Arianna dared to breathe again when her brother’s voice came from the water behind her.

  “So I see you’ve found Prince Michelangelo.”

  Arianna turned to find Rinaldo’s face twisted into an amused smile.

  “He’s highly sought after, for sure, but not unworthily, as many of his station are. The lad’s a good one. I think the Sun Crown will be far better when he sits on the throne.”

  Arianna turned back to look at the dance floor, and a hollow ache filled her chest. If her father had only listened to her mother then she might be the one dancing with the prince now. She would wear the frilly dress the charm had formed on her—though she would have chosen her blue camicett instead of black—and her skirts would swish and sway gracefully in time to the strange but entrancing music.

  But then, she sighed to herself, what would she have said to him? Nothing, of course. Even the charm couldn’t give her a voice. Her parents had tried that long ago. No, she would have been the silent maiden, laughed at by the human girls and thought dull by all the court boys. The prince himself might even have thought her dimwitted. But no. She shook her head. Prince Michael was too kind for that. And even if he had thought it of her, he would still have asked her to dance. He was good like that, too.

  “I’m loathe to do it,” Rinaldo’s voice had lost its laugh, “but I’m afraid I shall need that back. Father will be missing me soon if I don’t return.”

  Arianna shot one last longing look at the terrace. Her normal view seemed suddenly far away when she returned to her perch at the bottom of the rocks, but at least it was better than being in her tower. As she removed the charm and handed it back to her brother, however, a flash of light off the darkened horizon caught her eye. It glimmered for no more than a second, like a flame extinguished upon the water.

  Rinaldo had slipped the charm back over his neck when Arianna patted his shoulder and pointed to the west where the light was flashing again. He turned, and his eyes
immediately hardened into an expression so fierce it was nearly frightening on his gentle face. “No human ship should be that close to the Deeps. Unless . . .” he let his words trail off. “Stay here,” he muttered, tossing the necklace back at her. Then he plunged beneath the surface.

  It occurred to Arianna that she might put the necklace back on and return to the party, but the look of dread on Rinaldo’s face haunted her, and Arianna could only clutch the charm to her chest as she prayed for him to resurface and tell her it was only a falling star.

  The wait felt like hours, but it could only have been twenty minutes before he was back. She sighed with relief when he rejoined her, but the set of his jaw told Arianna that the flame had certainly not been a star.

  “I want you to go as deep as you can,” he said as he put the charm back on. “Even lower than the tower. Stay there until you can’t possibly stay down any longer.” He began to climb the rocks as soon as his legs were returned to him. Before he could leave her, however, Arianna reached out and grasped his foot. When he turned his expression was grim, but upon meeting her eyes, his face grew soft.

  “I promise, I’ll be careful.” He reached back and squeezed her hand. “Leaving you to your own devices would be a terrible thing.”

  Arianna held on for a moment longer before nodding once and throwing herself down into the waves. He had promised to be careful, she told herself over and over again. That was all she could ask.

  5

  What Strong Girls Do

  Arianna tried to obey her brother’s wishes. But only minutes after reaching the seafloor, she began to feel as though someone were poking her with urchin needles all over, and her head felt as if a manatee were trying to sit on it. Gasping, she pushed herself back up toward the surface, to the sky that now glowed orange. She began swimming back to her tower. It was built into the side of a sea cliff below the Sun Palace. Surely it would be safe enough if she and her aunt covered all of their algae lanterns.

  But she’d only swum a few fathoms before Arianna realized the battle was raging in between her and the tower. The merpeople had been quick, particularly the Protectors. All of them, even her father, had taken off their charms and moved out toward the ship before she had even reached the seafloor. By the time she was on her way back up, their haunting, minor choruses had filled the sea like beams of the sun’s light. Arianna could not imagine what kind of ship had risked sailing so close to the Deeps and then straight over her father’s city. As she drew nearer to the surface, she could hear the voices of her people straining in their warfare.

  The ship above her was neither large nor small, but something had to be wrong. So many merpeople’s songs should have splintered it already. Arianna had seen her father’s guards practice, and the song of a single Protector could burst a fishing boat in one or two minutes. This ship, despite the strongest songs of her people, however, continued to sail right toward her parents’ home and the city that lay below it.

  That was when she realized that there was not just one ship. There were ten.

  Still, the Protectors continued their fight. She could hear her father’s deep baritone voice resonating louder than all of the others, and Rinaldo’s alto song was not far behind. And as long as they sang, she felt confident enough to continue her slow swim to her tower.

  An explosion so loud that it drowned out all of the voices from above brought Arianna to a halt. A strange red light filled the choppy seas above her. Arianna’s stomach nearly heaved as the bodies of mermen and mermaids—their Protectors—began to go limp, drifting with the waves. Arianna wanted to scream.

  Rinaldo’s orders forgotten, she streaked up to the nearest body she could see, a female Protector who floated on the water’s surface, a black contour against the orange-red sky above. Arianna hooked her arm through the woman’s and pulled her down until they were deep enough to be free of the continuous barrage of explosions, songs, and human shouts from above. But a moment of listening to her heart confirmed what Arianna had most feared. The woman was dead.

  Arianna stared at the body, dropping it immediately. Her hands shook and she fought the sudden urge to swim as far away from the body as she could. Somehow, touching the body suddenly seemed even worse than watching the Sorthileige’s transformation of the merman that morning. At least she had never touched him.

  Nothing short of another explosion was able to pull Arianna’s attention back to the surface. Letting the tides take the body, Arianna raced back to the top for the next body she could see, praying the whole time it wasn’t one of her own family. Lalia and Giana were Healers, so they wouldn’t even be at the surface, much to Arianna’s relief. They couldn’t be dead.

  And her second body wasn’t, either. The merman was breathing in slow, shallow sips, but at least he was still alive. Arianna dragged him as deep as she could go and handed him to the first Healer she could find. For by now, Arianna wasn’t the only one darting up to the surface for rescues. Dozens of other merpeople were doing the same, snatching the bodies and dragging them back down to the Healers.

  Arianna quickly grew tired, but it was all manageable until one more song stopped. Arianna paused as she began her ascent once more. No, she begged the Maker. Not that one. Anyone but that one. But as she feverishly pushed herself to the surface, the song did not return.

  Without his song, she couldn’t find him. If Arianna could have screamed, she would have shouted his name until she lost her voice again.

  Some part of her wondered what her father would do to her later if he caught her at the surface during a battle, but she didn’t care, for Rinaldo’s voice was silent.

  She was nearly blinded by another explosion as soon as she broke the surface again, and it took her a moment to find her bearings. Only then did she realize that the first ship wasn’t setting the explosions. The ship itself was exploding. That didn’t seem to daunt the sailors too much, however. Large rowboats floated all over the choppy water. Some of the boats’ occupants were doubled over, their hands covering their ears as they begged for the songs to stop. Some of the men even cried.

  Not all were so affected, though. At least half of the men were still rowing. They called out songs of their own as though to drown out the ringing choruses of the Protectors. Rain began to fall, but whatever was on the ship continued to burn. The flames reminded Arianna of why she had come to the surface in the first place, and she squinted through the rain and smoke.

  She was so distracted that she forgot to watch her back.

  The roll of cloth that was drawn about her mouth tasted sour, and Arianna choked as it was tightened behind her head. She thrashed about, trying to dive back below the waves, but whatever force had gagged her now grabbed her arms as well, and she was lifted out of the water and tossed backward, landing with a sharp crack at the bottom of a rowboat.

  “Quiet now,” a man standing at the back of the boat ordered, his dark eyes glinting orange in the light of the burning ship. “We wouldn’t want you overusing that voice so soon.”

  Arianna tried to push herself back against the side of the boat, but she found that she was already as far back as she could go. A dozen men leered down at her from their benches until the man that had spoken to her barked at them to keep rowing. Arianna tried to move her arms up to untie the rag, but whoever had so expertly tied her gag had also bound her wrists tightly. She tried then to flip her body backward over the side, but her tail wasn’t long enough or strong enough. Instead, her green-blue scales only glowed orange in the fire’s light as she quivered.

  “She’s tryin’ t’scape!” a rower beside her called back as he glared at Arianna. She glared back, particularly at his sand-encrusted beard.

  The man who had addressed Arianna before now walked toward her, leaning heavily to stay upright as the boat tossed and turned in the waves. When he was nearly on top of her, he placed a thin hand beneath her chin. “She’s young.”

  Arianna yanked her chin from his grasp. He didn’t grab it again, but that di
dn’t make his next words any less horrifying.

  “After she talks, she’ll go for a good price in the east. Young, but pretty enough. Sovereign Yanni prefers them so.”

  Arianna heaved her supper all over his boots.

  He made a clucking sound and muttered under his breath. Just as he opened his mouth, however, and his beady black eyes fixed on Arianna again, the boat rocked hard to the left. Arianna was knocked forward into him and they nearly toppled over the boat’s edge. A second jolt to the boat succeeded in smacking the man’s head against its side, much to Arianna’s satisfaction, and she almost managed to pull herself over the tilted boat’s edge until he grabbed her by the fins and held on so tightly that she wanted to cry out.

  “Let her go!”

  Arianna turned to see her brother climb into the boat, his charm dripping as he stood tall once again. The movement of the waves didn’t seem to affect him or his balance as it did everyone else in the boat. Arianna reached out to him, but before he’d taken a step toward her, the man with the dark eyes pushed himself between them, his red coat slapping Arianna’s face as he did. The other men looked back and forth between their leader and the young man who now stood on their boat. Arianna wondered if they could feel his power even when he wasn’t singing. Whatever their reason, they looked nervous as their rowing ceased and their hands moved to their weapons.

  “She’s too young for you,” Rinaldo said in a low voice.

  “Actually, she’s going to make me a good deal of money. I think the pearl farms will be our first stop, wherever those are. Then she’ll take us—”

  “She can’t sing.”

  The man stared at him.

  “She can’t even speak,” Rinaldo continued. “You would get nothing out of her because she has no voice.”

  “A mermaid without a voice.”

  Rinaldo only nodded, but the man laughed.