The princess smiled. “Well, not forever,” she amended. “Just long enough to get your legs back under you. We’ll see if the head gardener has any use for you, and in time, you may work to a position in a garden somewhere else. Does that agree with you?”
I nodded vigorously. Anything that allowed me to stay here long enough to get Sienna out agreed with me very much. “Thank you, Princess,” I said, then dared ask, “Will I live here?”
The princess didn’t answer right away as she once more carefully considered the turn her morning had taken. “We’ll start you tomorrow and see where things go from there,” she said sensibly. “You’ll stay in the same room until then.”
Princess Cordelia was one of the few people I’ve ever met who could keep her head about her when it seemed everyone else had lost theirs. I was to learn that, above all else, logic was one of her most steadfast companions. She was trusted with a great many important matters because of it, even though she was younger than her brother and only second in line for the throne. She was also brutally honest because she didn’t have the patience for talking in circles. She was very much like Tatiana in that, though she was usually much kinder.
“I like that room very much, Your Highness,” I said.
The princess smiled and we went back to our tea, awkwardly chatting now and again about insignificant things. We weren’t yet the friends we would become, so I was only worried then about not doing anything to anger her or give me away. I watched her every move very carefully, from the way she held her cup to the way she stirred her tea to the way she bit into and chewed her food, taking notes and mimicking all the while.
We were almost done when we heard voices rising up from below us. The princess purposefully dabbed at her lips then set her napkin on the table. Immediately, a servant jumped forward to pull her chair back. She rose gracefully and walked to the edge of her terrace, leaning slightly over the railing to peer down at the noise beneath.
“My brother,” she told me, half-straightening in a way that indicated I was to come over and look down at the trouble he was causing.
I carefully made my way over to the railing and peeked over the side, clutching the marble tightly in fear that I may flip over and end it all right then. I’d been to the depths of the ocean, so I wouldn’t say I was afraid of heights. However, this feeling of height coupled with distrust in the air that would fail to buoy me was entirely new to me. It would take some time getting used to land heights because of it.
Below us was an enormous terrace that stretched over the water. It looked large enough to host an entire gathering, let alone a princess’s afternoon tea. The floor was translucent in the most wonderful of ways, the clear glass offering a delightful view of the sea beneath it. I wanted to jump down and lay my face against the floor, anything to be closer to the life I’d had to leave behind.
But that wasn’t why I was against the railing now. I tore my eyes from the water and saw, bounding into view, an odd yet most adorable creature with dark fur and soulful black eyes. It stood hunched on two very long legs, barely knee height, and kept its short arms tucked tightly against its torso. The creature jumped and bounced about, then sprang after a stick thrown over its head. I followed the path of the stick to find the prince, who delightedly called after the creature with an accent even thicker than his sister’s, so it wasn’t easy to make out what he said.
“Ah right, Castellano! Good boy!”
I was sure I misheard. The creature didn’t look anything like a boy to me.
“He loves that wallaby,” the princess said beside me. “Picked it up on one of his travels to the outback of some kingdom or other. Claimed it’d be a good pet by keeping the grass cut. Took him three years to train it to do that.”
I quickly framed an image of the creature with the new word I’d learned. Human pets were funny things indeed. The wallaby grabbed the stick and began to chew on it as it turned back toward its master. Even before reaching him, it was intercepted by a slight-looking girl with bright, voluminous red hair, bare feet, and was that—?
“A sister?” I asked the princess.
The princess gave me an indecipherable smile. “She,” she replied, stressing every word, “is the prince’s foundling. She follows him wherever he goes, and I really don’t know why he lets her.”
“Maybe he likes her?” I suggested, perhaps a little too hopefully, watching the wallaby stubbornly cling to the stick Sienna was trying to take back.
“Maybe,” the princess repeated doubtfully. “I may be persuaded to think my brother is fond of her, but not anymore than he is of…that animal of his.”
I bit my tongue before I could protest her having compared my king’s beloved daughter to such an odd creature, as if both were merely a prince’s amusing curiosities. Within the scene below, I saw why Tatiana wanted to get Sienna away from here. I wanted to get her away, too.
How could you do this to yourself and your family? I wanted to yell. What has your time here yielded? What can you show to justify your decisions? What benefit came from the indulgence of your desires? Is this really how you intend to find a soul?
With time, through muted hints and stifled gestures, I would learn about the nature of Princess Cordelia’s derision toward her brother’s foundling, which was significantly different from what all merfolk felt upon seeing Sienna. In short, the princess was a very practical and efficient person, so she couldn’t understand why Sienna did nothing but fawn after a man all day. She regarded this behavior as demeaning to both Sienna and all of humankind because it yielded nothing of benefit. Humans had potential, humans must work hard at that potential, that was the driving force behind the princess’s own life and her overall approach to her elevated position. It was an approach starkly in contrast with the attitude Bestaymor instilled in her granddaughters.
For his part, the prince would prove far more forgiving than his sister, which could be why he let Sienna do whatever made her happy as long as she didn’t interfere with whatever he was up to. He believed in all the things his sister did, but he was also a bit of a dreamer and more of an optimist. Not everything was a rigid, clear equation with a set outcome, sometimes, some things just were. I suspect now he also allowed Sienna to tag along just to spite the princess.
“What’s her name?” I asked, though every part of me really wanted to leap from the railing, wrap my arms around Sienna, and flip her over the terrace back into the sea.
The princess thought a moment. “She must have one, but I don’t know that she’s ever given it. We call her ‘the foundling,’ and she doesn’t seem to mind.”
“She’s said as much, Your Highness?” I asked, only realizing too late how impudent my question was.
The princess let it slide. She was a straightforward person after all, and I would learn how much she valued that trait in others. I warned myself to be more careful, though, as I was still balancing on the rail, as it were.
“She can’t talk,” the princess informed me. “She hasn’t any tongue.”
“Oh,” I said automatically. The next words also slipped out before I could think. “Poor soul.”
Princess Cordelia shrugged beside me. “We tried getting her to write, but she just smiles prettily and stares after Arlando. For all the world she seems as happy as any woman could be. I suppose there is something to be said for that.”
I nodded beside her. What else was there to say? I couldn’t very well explain to her that Sienna was only happy because she was delusional, so completely submerged in her obsession that she couldn’t notice the reality of life around her. Even now, even knowing it was all her own doing, it breaks my heart to think of her, especially like that.
That night, I was invited to dine in the great banquet hall where all nighttime meals, and most celebrations, were held. The room was awhirl with humans, their smells and foods, and I was grateful the princess hadn’t delegated me to the bustling servants’ tables in the large room adjoining the kitchens that first nigh
t. It wasn’t that the servants were in disarray, but everyone had different shifts so there was always someone coming and going at those tables. The guards’ and pages’ tables were no better.
I was allowed to sit among the more important guests, right at the end of the long tables set closer to the royal family. It wasn’t too close to the royal table, but I had a good enough view to see all that occurred there.
King Earwyn and his wife, Queen Edlyn, sat in the center on the raised dais reserved for royalty. Princess Cordelia sat beside her mother, and her brother, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Arlando Leopold Alessandro, sat to his father’s right. From the way he kept leaning forward without moving to talk to anyone, I was sure the wallaby, or perhaps some other pet, was at his feet right under the table. The rest of their table was filled with other richly dressed humans, their finery diminishing as the seats descended closer and closer to mine. What caught my eye most was a presence behind the prince’s shoulder that was neither servant nor guard. From where I sat, I could just see red hair flaming dimly in the shadows, animated blue eyes glistening in the candlelight. If Sienna really was as happy and content with her secondary life as she seemed, then what in the seven seas could I say to persuade her to give it up?
I didn’t want to think on it, there was too much going on, too many new things for me to take in, decipher, and understand. The serving staff descended on the room bearing aloft plates of gleaming red lobsters, so I refocused on the one thing I knew didn’t need much consideration. The servants placed one in front of each person, and as soon as mine appeared, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a lobster I had perhaps swam past that very morning.
My next thought was a resolution to get back home very soon, and I attacked my dinner with gusto.
Much later, after lying awake for what seemed like the entire night, I snuck out of my room, and after much trouble, finally wound my way down through the palace and out the door to the wonderful terrace I’d seen earlier. The palace was quiet and peaceful then, almost everyone was soundly asleep, and the only sound of life came from the occasional scuffing of a guard’s shoe against the floor.
Outside, it was too dark to see much of anything, the ocean itself was just a faint black rhythm in the night. Just being there was enough for me, however. I stretched out on the cool floor and pressed my ear to the glass, listening to the thumping of the waves as they reverberated from the shore and through the very foundation of the palace. If I had to be stranded anywhere as a human, I reluctantly conceded, this was as fine a place as any to be.
I was laying thusly, tucked into a curve of the balustrade where I hoped no one would see my odd behavior, when I heard a series of soft splashes followed by a gentle sigh. Curious, I followed the sound, around the railing, to a set of steps at the end of the terrace leading straight into the sea.
Sitting all the way near the bottom was a white clad figure with thick, distinctive red hair, visible even in the dim moonlight. Moving closer, I saw that both her feet were in the water, which instantly reminded me of the recent pain from when my legs first formed and how I’d also cooled them off in the ocean. I couldn’t imagine how Sienna tolerated the pain day after day, how she could walk, run, and dance when every step surely felt like the stabbing of poisonous urchins under her feet. I couldn’t imagine how she could live with it all and still smile.
I went through the small gate that blocked off the stairs from the rest of the terrace. Quietly, I stepped down until I was just a few paces from the girl I’d been sent to find.
“Princess Sienna,” I whispered.
Her head whipped around instantly, not just because she hadn’t known someone else was there, but surely from the unfamiliar use of her name and title on land. She narrowed her eyes at me in accusation for creeping up on her.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, Your Highness,” I instantly apologized.
She simply glared. I dared to step closer.
“Don’t you recognize me, Princess?” I asked, ducking low so she could see my face, see the truth in my eyes.
She shook her head. I didn’t know then if she was just in denial or actually being truthful. Either way, I won’t deny how sharply it stung. We’d seen each other every day since we were kids. I couldn’t believe that even after all those years of being overlooked she’d so quickly forgotten how I looked.
“Ariel?” I prompted.
Still, she shook her head. This was getting to be quite ridiculous.
“Please don’t pretend, Your Highness,” I begged her. “My parents are noblemen in your father’s court, and I’ve been sent to bring you back. Tatiana’s willing to change the terms of your bargain, if you agree to re—”
The furious shaking of her head stopped me short. I didn’t know if it was still denial or a firm answer that she would not budge from this place.
“Princess, if your father knew of what went on here, how you were treated,” I tried again, but this time she stopped me with a raised hand, close enough to my face to feel as if she’d slapped me.
I instantly ceased talking.
Sienna pointed toward the endless sea and shook a firm finger in my face. She pointed up at the palace then jabbed her finger downward, indicating that she would stay right where she was.
I credited the shock of seeing me there, in human form no less, as the reason why she wouldn’t think rationally. Then again, I shouldn’t have wasted my time. Unless Princess Cordelia had misspoken, Princess Sienna was not rational, even as a human. The very fact that we were both sitting on the steps of a human palace with legs instead of tails was proof of that.
“Your Highness, it’s time to come home,” I said much softer this time.
Sienna didn’t even bother miming a reply.
“Pavo left the sea. Merdom…merfolk won’t speak of you. Bestaymor,” I tried, “Bestaymor is not the same. She doesn’t tell stories anymore.”
Sienna turned and stubbornly sat with her back to me. I sighed, searching in vain for something, anything else to say. How could I reason with someone who’d left all reason behind in the pursuit of a groundless obsession? Already, this was proving a much harder task than anticipated.
I made to leave, but before I could step away, I felt a firm tug, Sienna, on my hand. When she caught my eye, she pointed toward her feet still soaking in the sea then purposely placed a finger over her lips.
That said everything for me. Not only did she know who I was, but she realized that I knew everything about her as well. Now she was quite specifically asking me not to tell anyone of what I’d seen.
If Sienna refused to return home, was I to throw her back into the ocean anyway, drag her down again her will? Or was I supposed to help her on land, and somehow figure out a way to get the prince to see her as more than just a novelty? By which duty was I more strongly bound? To Tatiana? To King Trident? To Sienna, even like this?
I walked away from her shaken and confused, unsure of how on earth I was supposed to save someone so intent on destroying herself.
Hedges
After taking breakfast in my room the next morning, I was brought down to the entrance of the rather extensive palace gardens. The grounds hugged the palace on either side of the glass-bottomed terrace, the sections of flowers and blossoms filled in and surrounded by sprawling green lawns tumbling all the way down to the royal docks on one side and reaching up and around to the main palace entrance on the other. Here and there were fountains commanded by all manner of sea creatures spouting clear water into the marble basins beneath them, many dotted with Castarrean glass that absolutely dazzled in the sun.
The gardens were ruled by Marel, a middle aged man with a head of thick white blond hair and a deep abiding love for landscaping that could lead him to ramble about the specific genus of any given plant and its artistic potential for hours. He was very good at what he did which led to beautiful results, but also excruciatingly large amounts of time spent on tiny details until every leaf and blade was to his
satisfaction.
Marel seemed eager enough to take on a new apprentice, and I fervently prayed I’d do something right to immediately prove my worth. Gardening on land would be slightly different from gardening underwater, and not just because merfolk use magic. Still, after my one-sided conversation with Sienna, I suspected I’d be stuck at the palace longer than desired, and hoped I’d adapt quickly enough. The garden seemed the safest place because it was the most familiar, the most removed from the hustle and bustle of people inside, and something purposeful enough to satisfy Princess Cordelia and earn my keep. I also assumed I’d be least noticed ducking to pull out weeds and dirtying my fingernails in the soft, rich soil.
I, of course, was wrong. Very, very wrong.
After three days of a rather intense, overly thorough tour of the gardens—including the greenhouses, the vegetable patches, the small orchard, and accompanying list of high expectations—Marel finally left me on the fourth day with a small packet of seeds and instructions to plant them in a hexagonal pattern in a particular section that first needed uprooting. Having sensed enough of the type of man I was working for, I spent well over four hours plotting the perfect hexagon for the small packet of seeds that shouldn’t have taken more than half an hour to nestle in their new home. My job complete, my face smudged, sweat trickling down my back, I went to find Marel.
Marel tittered over the hexagon for a good ten minutes at least, before allowing, “Yes, well, that isn’t very bad at all, is it?”
“Um, no, sir.”
Another packet of seeds. “Exactly duplicate the hexagon in this patch.”
“Yes, sir.”
That took another four hours.
“Yes, well, that’s just a start,” Marel cautioned, though he had little criticism to add when examining the mirrored pattern in the falling dusk.
The next morning, we meticulously measured the hexagons to ensure they were of equal proportions. Finally, by late morning, Marel thrust a pair of garden shears into my dirt-stained hands.
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