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

by Brittany Fichter

  Perhaps you should have thought of that before accepting a marriage invitation. A long silence ensued, filled only by the creaking of the boat and the low roar of the waves gently slapping the ship.

  “They’re starving, Arianna,” he finally said in a low voice. “She promised to send ships full of food and supplies.”

  Arianna whirled around. “And the return of my people could have done nothing to help?”

  “Believe me, I’ve spent hours thinking about that. Many, many hours.” He sighed. “But after what your father said—”

  “And what did he say?”

  Michael frowned. “You didn’t know? Your father contacted me before he left.”

  “I know about the truce.”

  “We spoke of more than just calling a truce.”

  “What?”

  “He said he was taking your people and returning to Gemmaqua. He asked that I stop all assaults on the old city. I can only assume he was thinking of you.” Michael let out a gusty breath. “He then swore to me that he was never coming back. Neither he nor your sister after him nor any other merpeople ever again.”

  Arianna stared at him, openmouthed.

  “Don’t you see?” He leaned against the railing and let his head droop. “It wouldn’t have made a difference. The Sea Crown had sent orders. No one is coming back.”

  For a brief moment, Arianna scanned the water, ready to throw herself into its depths then and there. She would find her father immediately, or better yet, her grandfather, and she would demand that he explain himself. Never was such a final word. For all those months, she’d been sure that someone would eventually come back to bring her home. And when they did, she would show her family that harmony was possible between the Sun Crown and the Sea Crown once again.

  Only the memory of the jellyfish and its manic chase kept her feet on the ship. Her original plan had been to wait for the merpeople escorts. She sighed. She was still stuck.

  A large, warm hand clasped hers. “Arianna?”

  Arianna yanked it away. “You think you deserve an answer from me,” she whispered, determined not to let her voice waver, “when your choice is loud enough for both of us.”

  “Arianna?”

  They turned to see Princess Ines standing at the edge of her cabin steps. Michael’s shoulders sagged.

  “Would you join me in my cabin, please? I have some dress selections I want your opinion on.”

  Chin in the air, Arianna marched away from Michael and toward the princess’s cabin.

  “I’m sorry,” she heard him say just before the princess shut the door behind them.

  The princess seemed completely unaware of Arianna’s somber mood as she flitted over to a luxurious pearl-white divan and threw herself down upon it. She looked up and grinned. “What do you think of my quarters? Very human, wouldn’t you say?”

  Arianna frowned in confusion, but looked around as she was bid. Though not large, the room was well furnished. A wooden vanity was pushed up against a wall with a little wooden chair in front of it. A bed took up a quarter of the room, and the rest of it was stuffed with trunks and chests and odd groupings of furniture. Gowns were everywhere, as were sumptuous pillows and blankets. The vanity had all sorts of perfumes and coloring powders on it, as well as many jeweled pins, earrings, and necklaces. Arianna looked back at the princess, who was still grinning.

  “I suppose it is very . . . human,” Arianna whispered. What an odd thing to ask. Before Arianna could comment any further, however, the princess began to hum.

  A tremor moved through Arianna’s bones. Listening was like swimming into an unexpectedly cold current, and she blinked several times. The room looked just the same as it had moments before, but when Arianna looked back at the princess, there was no Princess Ines to be seen. Though someone was lounging on the divan.

  Arianna gaped. “Aunt?”

  “You think I would just let you disappear?” Renata asked.

  “You . . . you knew where I was this whole time?” Arianna grasped the back of a nearby chair. “And you didn’t come for me? And how did you know I have legs?”

  “Didn’t you enjoy your time on land? It’s what you’ve always wanted! And really, you should know by now that I know everything about you.”

  “Well, yes, but . . . I missed you!” And with that, Arianna threw herself into her aunt’s arms, drinking in the familiar scent of brine and sweet sea grass. Her aunt hugged her back tightly, and it was all Arianna could do not to cry. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered into her aunt’s shoulder.

  “Sweet girl,” Renata whispered, rubbing Arianna’s back. “Sit down and eat something before you pass out.” She pushed Arianna down into the vanity’s chair then turned to pour two cups of tea. She handed Arianna one of the cups and a small plate of frosted tarts.

  “But . . .” Arianna tried to form a coherent sentence, “where did you get the ship? And the crew?”

  Renata gave her a sly smile. “Pirates are cheap these days. With our people retreating into a few compact cloisters all over the world, the pirates have had less opportunity to do their usual damage.”

  They were on a pirate ship? Arianna put her tart down and stared at her aunt. Again, she fumbled for words. “Why did you look so different?”

  “Oh, it’s just a song, Ari.”

  “But that kind of song is forbidden. It’s not natural . . . to us, at least.”

  “When you were born,” Renata said, crossing her long legs and leaning back into her seat, “I immediately knew you were different. I begged your father to let me care for you. And even though your mother wasn’t for it, he let me, seeing as my place as a border Protector had made me better adapted to living closer to the sun. Anyhow, as soon as I heard that you were silent, I knew that you had been given to us as a gift. And in the years since, I have only become more convinced that the Maker designed you to be special.”

  Arianna choked on her tea.

  Renata leaned forward. “Would you believe that I’ve found a way to get us both what we want?”

  “I’m sorry,” Arianna coughed, “but I don’t follow.”

  “I have found a way for you to marry your prince and to end the war with the humans once and for all. And you will get your voice.”

  Arianna dropped her teacup. It shattered at her feet, but she was too confused to do anything about it. “My voice?”

  “I had wanted to wait until plans between you and Michael were a bit more decided, but your grandfather’s passing, which is sure to be soon, has sped things up a bit. With the triton for the taking as soon as he dies, I will gain it and grant you your voice.”

  Arianna tried to stop her head from reeling so she could focus. Her grandfather was dying? “But why didn’t he give it to me earlier if he had the power?” she finally managed to ask. She remembered him trying and failing several times to grant her a voice when she was a child. He’d left angry and defeated every time.

  “Your grandfather never knew you the way I do. And I’m willing to take measures that he was not.” Renata knelt and began to gather the broken teacup, her voice rising as she swept the pieces together. “Maricanta will have its debts paid—a loan from the Sea Crown’s royal treasury, of course—and the merpeople will move back in to protect human seaports once again. I will drive the creatures back into the Deeps with the triton. Your brother-in-law will exterminate the pirates, for I have far more faith in him than I ever did his grandfather, and you will have your voice and your one true love. And our people, most importantly, will never be in danger again.” Renata sat back on her knees and looked up at Arianna beatifically.

  Arianna stared at her, completely unsure of what to say or think. Part of her wanted to believe that her aunt’s plan could work. It seemed perfect, foolproof. And yet, something niggled in the back of her mind. Before she could ask, however, several shouts from above broke through the quiet.

  “Hold on,” Renata said, shaking her head. “I will be right back.”
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  Arianna sat frozen to her spot as Renata stood up, muttering something about dimwitted pirates not being able to carry out a single order correctly. As Renata stomped toward the door, Arianna gasped as the features of her aunt’s face shifted back to those of Princess Ines. When Renata returned a few minutes later, she stopped halfway across the room, her own face returning once again. “You look distressed. What’s wrong?”

  “I just . . . But why the acting? Why not simply tell me what you had planned before?” As the words left her mouth they tasted sour, and Arianna was reminded of her mother’s distrust of Renata, particularly after the charms had failed the humans. Arianna had always written off her mother’s resentment as just that . . . resentment for not getting to raise her own daughter. But now, her mother’s suspicions didn’t seem so misplaced. “I mean,” Arianna licked her dry lips, “if my parents really knew I loved him, why not simply let love take its course?”

  Why would Renata force Michael to choose herself over me?

  “That’s a good question.” Renata sat on her bed, and for the first time that day, looked a bit uncomfortable. “I must admit that I kept your . . . interest in Prince Michael a bit of a secret because I’m afraid his contribution to this arrangement will be a hefty one. Nothing your parents needed to concern themselves with. And completely worth it, I assure you! But it does make the situation a bit delicate.”

  “Delicate? In what way?”

  “I needed an excuse to get you and Michael out on the ocean, and this was the best way I could think to do it. By telling the rest of his family that I would send a boat for them later, I’m saving them from unnecessary entanglement in the situation.”

  Why could she need Michael over the ocean? Arianna could understand being called back herself. But him?

  Renata sighed. “I trust you, Arianna. I’ve never trusted anyone else in my life more, except possibly Angelo.” She paused, then cleared her throat. “But even with your love tethering Michael into place, I’m going to need to keep a close eye on him. You see, that’s how we will ensure the safety of our people. By possessing both the heart and the mind of the Sun Crown.”

  “But charms only work for a few hours or a few days at most! Unless . . . Aunt, you can’t mean it! Such a feat has only been done a few times in history! And they ended badly.”

  Over the years, Arianna’s obsession with the humans had led her to read what she could about them from the city’s limited historical texts. As the waxy leaf pages had to be recopied every so many years, her father kept only a few books, but one such text had caught her eye once when she was sneaking down into her parents’ home. The depth of the water was great enough that she’d nearly passed out trying to smuggle it out of the mansion without anyone seeing. Once she had hidden it up in her tower, however, the dry, ancient words had nearly put her to sleep, until she read of one particular ceremony that had disastrous results. For though the changelings usually survived the transformation from human to merperson, the pain had been described as agonizing. Making the changelings beg for death, the text had read.

  “His mother and brother would never stand for it. They would strip him of his title,” she said in a rush, trying to come up with some way to change her aunt’s mind. “Then what use would he be?”

  “Not if we fill their coffers and keep them happy.”

  “Drina, perhaps, but Lucas would fight!”

  “Would his brother turn down a shipload of weapons and supplies for his troops?” Renata asked in a calm voice, her arms crossed as though she were talking to a petulant child. “Look, Ari, I know you’re loyal to him. But if you hold his heart and if I hold his mind, there will be no question as to the loyalty of the Sun Crown. We will find a way to get your voice and then you and I will make sure the merpeople and humans are safe! What more could we want?”

  “But why me? Why put so much effort into me and my love?”

  She leaned forward and gestured at Arianna’s legs. “I knew,” she whispered, “from the moment you were born that you were the prophesied one—”

  “Again, Aunt, with the prophecy—”

  “And when we find your voice, you will have more power than anyone in the sea, aside from the Sea Crown. And if I am the Sea Crown when that happens, then we can have everything.”

  “But I still don’t understand. You hate pirates. Why hire them to bring us . . . wherever we’re going?”

  “Why bring my own Protectors to do something dangerous when I can just pay my enemy to do it and die for me?”

  Dangerous? Arianna frowned. Who was dangerous? Sure, Michael had brought six guards, but . . .

  It was Michael, Arianna realized, Lucas’s words echoing in her mind. Michael was dangerous.

  In an instant, Arianna was out the door and up the cabin steps to the deck. She looked around wildly for Michael. He was still leaning against the railing looking out over the waves. She ran to him and grabbed his sleeve.

  “Michael!” She panted. “We have to get off this ship!”

  But just as she spoke the words, a familiar face leered at her from beneath a wide-brimmed hat. His eyes were large at first, but then his mouth curved up into a familiar, horrifying grin.

  “Well,” the pirate leered, “I didn’t expect this job to be quite so profitable.”

  34

  No

  Michael turned just in time to draw his sword and block Bras’s attack.

  “Lieutenant!” Michael shouted. In seconds, Michael’s guards surrounded them. Unfortunately, however, his guards were immediately surrounded as well.

  “What did she want?” he cried out as he fought. “Why is Bras working for her?”

  “She’s really my Aunt Renata!” Arianna whispered as loudly as she could.

  “What?”

  “Ines is my aunt!”

  He turned for just long enough to give her a horrified look before the fight consumed him completely.

  “That one is mine!” Bras shouted, gesturing at Arianna with his sword.

  Michael grunted as he thrust his sword harder and faster against the two pirates that had cornered them both. Arianna looked around in dismay as the brown-uniformed men began to break off individually. The pirates were going to pick them off one by one.

  Arianna stayed behind Michael as he fought. He and his men were outnumbered three to one, and though Michael was faring well, his lean muscles showed through his sweat-soaked shirt, and Arianna wondered how much longer he could last against the brawny pirates. Particularly the one in the red coat who was charging toward them, his sword stained red.

  Arianna looked around for a way to help. She glimpsed a weapon lying by itself on the far side of the deck behind her. Darting over, she grabbed it and ran back to Michael. She tried to recall what Lucas had shown her. But her fingers were clumsy, and she couldn’t even get the arrow properly fitted on the bow. As she fumbled with it, one of the pirates managed to pin Michael’s sword down with a short sword and small spiked weapon, while another pirate snapped the blade into two.

  “The one time I forget to bring a knife,” Michael muttered as he backed up, pushing Arianna behind him. Not knowing what else to do, Arianna thrust her weapon into his hands.

  “Really?” he cried, glancing back at her as the men proceeded to push them toward the edge. “This was all you could find?”

  Only then did Arianna remember Michael’s true skill with the bow.

  In her angst over the bow, Arianna had forgotten to check behind her, and her arm was nearly yanked out of place. As Bras was dragging her across the deck she looked back just in time to see Michael draw the bow’s string back. Arianna could hear the string snap as he loosed the arrow.

  And missed.

  Bras laughed and jerked Arianna around to face him. “Some hero you’ve got there.”

  “That’s enough.”

  The din stopped immediately as Renata emerged from the cabin. She glared at one of the burlier men. “I said to keep them quiet, not kill them
all. Who do you suppose we’ll use as leverage if they’re all dead?” Then she turned to Arianna. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said quietly. “I told you, we can be happy!”

  “Hold now, wench!” Bras shook his sword at Renata. “I believe we’ll be taking it from here. Your services are no longer needed.” His eyes moved down her form. “Although, on second thought—”

  Renata closed her eyes. Then she opened her mouth.

  The melody that came from Renata’s throat was a familiar one, the very one, in fact, that resided in Arianna’s conch. But instead of the sweet, comforting tones Arianna knew so well, this lullaby was a haunting one.

  “Michael, cover your ears!” Arianna wrenched herself from Bras’s grasp and threw herself against Michael. She tried to scream. Tried to sing. She wrapped her hands over his ears, but he was too strong. Just seconds into the song, he had pushed her off and stood to face her aunt. His face was almost childlike in its serenity, as was every other face on the ship.

  Another few notes, and he had stepped past Arianna and stalked over to Renata. He grabbed her by the waist and drew her against him.

  Arianna felt sick. “My father will never stand for this!” she whispered as loudly as she could. “They’ll know you’re using the siren song!”

  “When I have the triton, that won’t matter. I will be the law.”

  “You can’t keep him this way forever!”

  “Oh, but we must. Can you imagine what would happen if he awoke and realized fully what you had done to him?”

  “Me?”

  “Once you have your new voice, you will be the one to seal him to his new form.”

  “Never!” Arianna stood and took a step closer to where Michael stood clutching Renata tightly against him. “There has to be another way.”

  “I’ve spent twenty years trying to find an answer,” Renata said. “You’ll not come up with one in the next few days.”

  “And if I don’t do as you demand?” Arianna glared at her aunt, trying not to look as brittle as she felt.