I’d not gone to him earlier, choosing to ignore him instead, but it was clear he wasn’t going to stop until I spoke to him. I picked up my dressing gown from my bed and strode purposefully out of my room. I’d cried enough tears over him. It was about time he gave me his side of the story. I wanted to look him in the eyes when he told me about the other girl. Anger coursed through me as I left the palace. Anger that I should have been feeling for weeks, but hadn’t been because I’d been spending my time feeling sorry for myself instead.
It was a calm night with a slight breeze. The moonlight made it easier to cross the rocks to get to him. In the distance, to my left, I could see the lights still burning on the ship I’d been on earlier. As a wedding gift, I’d loaned it to Astrid and Hayden so they could go on their honeymoon in it. The plan was for them to spend the night in dock and then set sail at some point tomorrow. They had no set plans. They were just going to sail aimlessly for two weeks, stopping when and where the mood took them. I was envious of their freedom and the fact they were now going to do the very same thing Ari and I had planned to do.
“Erica.” A voice took me away from my thoughts. It was coming from the direction of Ari, but it wasn’t Ari. Screwing up my eyes, I looked harder at the man on the rocks. The man I’d thought was Ari. It wasn’t Ari at all. It was my grandfather.
Disappointment flooded through me, followed closely by fear. My grandfather had no reason to visit me in the middle of the night and even less reason to hide out here by the rocks without coming up to the palace. The servants and guards of the palace all knew him by now and would have helped him up to the palace. He had no reason to be here, not unless there was something wrong.
I scrambled over to him as quickly as I could, trying not to let the disappointment over it not being Ari show.
“What is it, Grandfather? What’s the matter?”
Even in the pale blue moonlight, I could see that he was pale, and it was hardly like he had a lot of color to begin with.
“I have an apology to make to you,” he wheezed. Something was clearly wrong with him. “I didn’t think that it was possible that the sea witch could kill your father from the grave. I still believe that your father died of natural causes, but I shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the idea. Everyone in Havfrue who dealt with her is now sick. It is no coincidence.
I looked at the grayness of his skin, the black circles under his eyes. He looked exactly like my mother had when I left her in her bedroom. She hadn’t drunk too much at all. She was really ill.
“What did the sea witch do for you?” I asked him. I think he knew there was no point trying to hide it. He looked dreadful.
“When I was very young, there was no king or queen in Havfrue. You’ve seen yourself it is not really much more than a city. Officially, we come under the jurisdiction of Trifork, but back then, no one on land even knew of our existence beyond myth and legend. We were safe from the humans, but between ourselves, we fought. There was no leadership. I went to the sea witch and asked her to help make me king. She was a lot younger then, and it was before she got greedy. She helped, but it came at a price. It always did with her.
“She spent the next fifty years interfering. The stronger her magic became, the more annoying she got. A few years after I’d asked for her help, she decided she wanted to rule instead. I think she was annoyed with herself that she’d helped me come to power. She never let me forget it. As you know, I have some magic myself and was able to keep her mostly happy, but I think this sickness is her revenge.”
“What can we do? No one in Trifork knows magic. The closest kingdom to us with magic is Thalia, and that’s hundreds of miles away. I doubt they’d help us anyway. Why would they?”
My grandfather slumped even lower. He wasn’t quite as sick as my mother looked, but he was heading that way.
“You are the queen. Can’t you send some of your men to Thalia and bring someone back to help us? My magic isn’t strong enough.”
I thought back to the last time I’d seen the king and queen of Thalia. They’d come to my fake wedding with Hayden. I couldn’t even remember their names or what they looked like. They were only invited as a courtesy. It was hardly as though we had strong ties with them. I couldn’t even remember exactly what magic they had. Looking down at my grandfather’s drawn face and thinking of my mother upstairs, I knew I had to do something.
“Can you meet me back here first thing tomorrow? I’ll see what I can do.”
A Quest
Back in the palace, I quickly found a guard and asked him to get one of the palace drivers to get a car ready for me. Without waiting for a response, I rushed upstairs and grabbed my dressing gown from my room. Back downstairs, the car was already waiting on the front driveway. I could hear its engine turning over as I ran through the entrance hall in my bare feet.
“I’m going out,” I shouted to the guard on the door as I raced past him. He must have thought it incredibly odd that I was leaving in my pajamas, but I knew that time was of the essence, and I didn’t want to waste it by getting dressed.
“To the dock!” I blurted to the driver. Thankfully, the press was not at the front gate as they usually were when something was happening. They probably were all busy, sorting through the photos they’d managed to get of the wedding party leaving the ship.
The ship was still in dock as I expected it to be. Hayden and Astrid weren’t due to leave for their honeymoon until the next day. My concern was that only Hayden, Astrid, and the crew were left on board and it wasn’t them I needed to see.
To my dismay, the gangplank was already up. All the guests must have left the ship already which meant that Josh had left too. I had no idea where to begin to look for him. As he wasn’t from Trifork, I assumed he must have been in one of the many hotels, but it would have taken me all night to go around to them all.
Just then I heard a giggle, and someone called my name. I turned to see Astrid’s parents getting into a car. “Erica, darling. I thought you’d gone home hours ago. We are just heading home ourselves, do you want a lift?”
I ran over to her, not wanting to shout. Although I couldn’t see any, there were bound to be some reporters lurking, and the last thing I needed was for them to hear who I was looking for.
“Actually, I was wondering if you knew where Joshua Davenport is staying?”
“Oh, yes?” she answered, clearly misunderstanding my reasons for wanting to see him. “If I was twenty years younger...” she added dreamily.
“Huh, thirty’s more like it,” replied Astrid’s father gruffly. “Will you get in the car?”
“I don’t know, darling, but he told me he was planning to have a gamble at the Trifork Casino. Maybe you’ll catch him there.”
“Thank you!” I kissed her cheek hurriedly and rushed back to the car.
“To the Casino.”
I saw the driver raise his eyebrows in the rear view mirror, but he didn’t question me. My only problem now was how I was going to get into one of Trifork’s liveliest nightspots in my pajamas without being seen.
The car pulled up outside the huge golden doors of the casino. The building was almost as magnificent as the palace, albeit on a much smaller scale. I hopped out of the car and pulled the hood of my dressing gown over my head after instructing the driver to wait around the back.
The bouncer at the door immediately stopped me. Of course, he did. The Trifork Casino had a strict dress code which I was sure didn’t include nightwear.
“I need to get inside,” I whispered up to the huge man blocking my entrance. “I’m looking for someone. It’s urgent.”
“I don’t care if you are looking for the queen herself, you can’t go in dressed like that. May I suggest one of the gaming establishments on the other side of town? They may be more your speed.”
I pulled my hood back a little and stepped into the light. “I am the queen herself!”
His face dropped as he realized what he’d said to me. He imm
ediately dropped to his knees and bowed his head. “I’m so sorry Your Majesty.”
A couple of people walking past looked our way. “Please get up. It’s ok,” I said quickly, aware that we were making a scene.
“I need to get inside. It’s urgent. There is someone I really need to speak to.”
The burly guard nodded his head in confusion. I guess having the ruler of the kingdom turn up in the middle of the night in her pajamas wasn’t in the bouncer manual.
“With all due respect ma’am, if you go in like that, the whole of Trifork society will see you. Can I assume that you don’t wish to be seen?”
“No, I don’t want to be seen, but this is an emergency.”
“Right,” He nodded beckoning me to a much smaller less grand door about twenty meters to the right of the glitzy entrance. “This is the staff entrance. Follow me.”
I followed him into a grey corridor. It looked nothing like the interior of the casino I’d seen through the large golden doors of the main entrance, but at least, there was no one else around. He took me to a small room with a number of cheap tables and chairs in it. In the corner, were a number of vending machines.
“Who do you need to see? Can you describe them to me?”
I thought about Josh’s face, his hair, and his unmistakable cool gray eyes, but then I remembered what Hayden said about him being famous.
“Do you know Joshua Davenport?”
The bouncer wiped his forehead, which was pouring with sweat. Being in this position was making him nervous.
“The TV adventurer guy? Yeah. He’s inside. I’ll get him for you. Would you like me to tell him that it’s you who is looking for him?”
“Yes, please.” No point in not telling him. He was going to see soon enough.
I waited for five minutes, feeling more and more frustrated with each passing moment. The tipsiness I’d experienced earlier had now faded, only to be replaced with a dull ache around my temples. I yawned, closing my eyes. I felt so utterly tired. The day felt like it had gone on forever, and by the looks of things, I still had a long time to go until bedtime.
I glanced up at the small plastic clock on the wall which told me that it was actually the next day already. Midnight had passed over two hours ago. No wonder I was tired. I was just wondering if it was possible to get a few minutes napping in by resting my head on the table when Josh walked in. He had a huge smile on his face as he saw what I was wearing.
“Well, well, well, I wasn’t expecting to see your nightwear on our first date, but I’ll take it.”
The bouncer who had led him down here left us alone.
“Do you know how unbelievably rude you are, or are you completely oblivious?” I wondered aloud.
“Hey, I’m only saying what I see. You are the one who turned up at the casino asking to speak to me dressed in little more than her undies.”
“I’m the queen of the kingdom!” I retorted huffily.
“Do you want me to bow again? I think I’m getting good at it!”
I stifled the urge to wring his neck. There were much more important things to discuss, and killing him probably wouldn’t help beyond making me feel any better.
“You know magic, right?” I asked outright. He sat back in his chair and rested his hands on the table between us.
“Nope.”
“Nope?” I asked. “I was told you are famous for it. You said yourself that you were magic.”
He twiddled his thumbs. “I know a lot about magic. I can use magic if I find a magical object. Without such an object I can’t do diddly squat. Don’t tell anyone that, though. I like to maintain an air of mystery for my adoring fans.”
“How on earth do women fall over themselves for you?” I asked him, completely going off topic.
“My rugged charm,” he grinned back at me.
I took a deep breath, remembering why I was here and how urgent it was.
“I need your help...”
“So you didn’t come here to seduce me?”
“No! I most certainly did not!” I wrung my hands together.
“Members of my family are ill. A lot of people are ill, and I think it’s some kind of magical curse or spell. The problem I have is that the person that cast the spell has been dead for months and no one in Trifork has the ability to reverse it. Do you know anything about magic like that?”
He put one of his hands up to his chin and stroked his none existent beard.
“That’s an interesting one, Queenie. You’ve caught my attention. Carry on.”
“I’ve already told you everything,” I replied, trying to keep my temper under control and not admonish him for calling me Queenie.
He gazed at me, leaving an uncomfortable silence between us.
“What?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“No one in Trifork knows magic. I know everything about every magical being in the nine kingdoms, and, therefore, I know you are holding something back.”
I rolled my eyes. “For someone who professes to know everything, you are awfully ignorant. Don’t you read the papers?”
“Not really.”
“My grandfather is a merman. The woman who put the spell on the people who are now sick was a sea witch.”
“Your grandfather is a merman?” He sat forward, and for the first time, he looked genuinely interested. His eyes lit up with excitement.
“You are a quarter mermaid? Wow,” He exhaled sharply.
“Half, actually. My mother is a full mermaid. The sea witch gave her legs when she was younger, and she’s lived on land ever since.”
“In all my travels, I’ve come across a great many beings that most people think are a myth, but I’ve yet to meet a mermaid.”
He looked at me much more closely, his eyes heading southwards to my pajama bottoms.
I don’t have a tail,” I said, pulling my legs under my chair. Do you think you can help me? If you don’t know magic yourself, do you know anyone who does? The closest kingdom I can think of that might be able to help is Thalia.
He shook his head. “The people of Thalia won’t be able to help you. Not in this case. They do know magic, but if the legends of the merpeople are true, land magic won’t help. I’m guessing this sea witch wasn’t a mermaid? Merfolk don’t have the magical ability to cast spells that hang around after death. No, she was something much more powerful.”
I shook my head, remembering the old hag. It was hard to say what she was. She had tentacles for legs and stole body parts from other people.
“Did she look odd? Can you describe her?”
“She was old-looking although she had patches of new skin. She almost looked like a patchwork quilt. Most of her body didn’t even belong to her. She stole my friend’s blonde hair. You saw that yourself. Astrid didn’t start out with green hair.”
“Yes!” Josh stood up and banged his fist on the table. “I knew it! I knew they existed.” He spun around on the spot, caught up in his own little world.
“Knew what existed?”
“She wasn’t a sea witch, she was a beauty siren.”
I raised my eyebrows so high they must have almost touched my hairline.
“I don’t know what a beauty siren is, but there is no way in this world that she was one. She was the strangest, ugliest...thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on. There is no way you could describe her as beautiful.”
Josh sat down again and leaned right across the table.
“No, but the way you described her sounds just like these creatures who are fabled to live in distant lands across the ocean. There has been the odd story of sailors lured to their deaths on the rocks near a small group of islands about five hundred miles south of here. Legend has it that they stay young by taking the body parts of the sailors and craft them into new body parts for themselves. They are almost indestructible and live for hundreds of years. Many people have set out to find them, and almost none have made it back. I told my bosses at the studios that I wanted to do a series out
there, but they wouldn’t let me. They didn’t believe that beauty sirens existed, and now, I know they do.”
Despite what Josh said, I still couldn’t picture the sea witch as a beauty siren.
“Ok, say these beauty sirens exist and say we can find them. Will they be able to reverse this sickness?”
He looked thoughtful for a second. “I don’t know, but I think they are the best chance we’ve got. No land magic will be able to help. Not even the magic in Schnee which is the most powerful magic in all the nine kingdoms. If you can get me a boat, I can get the studio execs on board with it. You being queen will boost the ratings for sure.”
I rubbed my temples, trying to take everything in. I’d woken up yesterday morning feeling excited about an upcoming wedding, and here I was less than twenty-four hours later planning a trip across the ocean with a guy I’d only just met. A guy that was a raving lunatic with no manners whatsoever to boot. Plus he wanted it all to be televised. I was really beginning to regret drinking the champagne now.
Blue Water (A Little Mermaid Reverse Fairytale Book 2) Page 8