"I think you're encouragmg her m this!" Sebastian snapped, aiming an accusmg claw at the fish.
Flounder rolled his eyes.
He's not encouraging, he's helping, Ariel said.
"I could help you more," Sebastian wheedled. "/ can go on land for short periods of time."
You 're needed down here, to act as my representative. And distraction.
"I am not gomg to get in front of a crowd of merfolk and...similar ocean dwellers to tell them that their queen has left them to go off on some ridiculous mission by herself! You want to leave, you have to be brave enough to tell them."
A single sign: No.
She rested a gentle hand on her throat, letting that action speak for itself.
Sebastian wilted. "All right, go. No one has ever been able to stop you from domg anything you wanted anyway—even when it costs you dearly."
For a moment, Ariel felt her old self surface, the urge to grm and plant a kiss on the little crab's back. He was right. She did have a habit of swimming in where angels feared to tread. No one could dissuade her once her mmd was fixed. And it had cost her dearly.
What could it cost her this time?
"Please tell your sisters, at least," Sebastian said with a weary sigh, droppmg off the edge and scooting himself along the ocean floor toward the throne. With some quick kicks and sidewise crabby swimming he landed neatly on the armrest, the proper place for his official position as the queen's deputy. "I cannot imagine dealing with them right now."
Ariel nodded, and then gave him a second nod, eyes lowered: thank you.
And then she swam off so she wouldn't have to see the looks he and Flounder exchanged.
Her sisters were in the Grotto of Delights, swimming about, well, delightedly, attaching little anemones to their hair, fluffing up seaweed fascinators, rummaging through giant seashells of jewels, pearls, and snails. Ariel could barely remember the time before her mother was killed but she was fairly certain that her sisters had been less frantic in their pursuit of pleasure then. Now they drowned their grief m safe, silly things that required little thought and provided constant distraction.
She ran her hand through a shell bowl absently, letting the trinkets slide through her fingers. Mostly they weren't cut or polished the way a human jeweler would treat them: they sparkled here and there out of a chunk of brownish rock. A single crystal might shine like the weapon of a god—but be topped by the lump}- bit where it had been prized out of a geode.
Ariel regarded the stones with fascmation. Of course they were beautiful. Yet she still found the bits and baubles from the human world, made by humans, far more alluring. Why? Why couldn't she be content with the treasures of the sea the way the ocean had made them? What was wrong with them that they had to be altered, or put on something else, or framed, or forced in a bunch onto a necklace, in perfect, unnatural symmetry?
"Oh! Are you commg to the Neap Tide Frolic after all?"
Alana swirled around Ariel, her deep magenta tail almost touching her sister's. Her black hair was styled m intricate ringlets that were caught m a bright red piece of coral, its tiny branches and spines separating the curls into tentacles. The effect was amazing—and not a little terrifying.
Looking around, Ariel realized that her royal sisters were done up more than usual. Once again she had forgotten one of the endless parties, dances, fetes, celebrations, and cyclical observations that made up most of the merpeople's lives.
No, I'm afraid it slipped my mind, she signed.
"Oh, too bad," Alana said, making a perfunctory sad face before swooshing away. The sisters had come to expect her absence and no longer even showed disappointment when she declined.
It hurt a little, Ariel realized.
Attina saw her and came over. Despite their extreme difference in age, she was the one Ariel felt closest to. Even if her big sister didn't fully understand the urge to seek out a human prmce, or to explore the Dry World, or to collect odd bits of human relics, she always treated her little sister as gently as she could—despite how gruff she sounded.
"What's happening?" she asked, swishing her orange tail back and forth. Her hair wasn't done yet; it was obvious she was devoting all her time to helpmg the younger sisters with theirs. The only slightly frumpy brown bun was locked m place by sea urchin spikes. "You look ...concerned. All royal and concerned."
Ariel allowed herself a small smile.
I'm going away for a few day's.
"Royal vacation! Aww yeah! You could use it, clearly. I've been saying for ages now you need to relax and kick back for a bit. Haven't I been saying that? Your skin looks terrible. I'm so glad you—oh. Not a royal vacation, I can see that now"
Attina said all these things quickly, one after another: revelation, opmion, realization. When people could speak aloud, Ariel had realized long ago, they spent words like they were free, wasting them with nonsense.
Her sister frowned. "Where are you going?"
Ariel didn't make a complicated sign. She just used her mdex finger and pointed. Up.
"What?" Attina wrinkled her nose, confused.
Ariel waited for the meaning to sink in.
"Oh, no.''' Her sister shook her head, eyes wide. "You cannot be serious."
Ariel nodded.
"No. Nope. No, you don't," Attina said, crossing her arms. "Not again. We lost Dad when you did that last time. You're not domg it again."
The other sisters felt the tension in the water and swam silently up, watching—hiding—behind the oldest.
Attina—-Ariel didn't spell out the sign; she moved her hand to suggest the robes of a goddess, the sign for Athena, for whom her sister was named. There was an implication of regalness and wisdom; Ariel was appealing to her oldest sister for her best values. Attina, he may still be alive. TJiat is why I am going.
Several of her sisters gasped. Tails lashed. "Nuh-uh," Attina said firmly. Then she whispered: "Really?"
There's a chance. Someone I trust saw him, as Ursula s prisoner.
"Huh," Attina said, crossmg her arms again. "Huh."
"Let her go," said Adella, swinging her ponvtails.
"She needs to go," Andrina, the one closest to Ariel in age, whispered.
"You should go now!" Arista urged, tossing blond hair out of her face. "Get Daddy back!"
Alana and Aquata were silent, looking at their leader, Attina.
"Can t you send someone..." Else, the oldest sister was gomg to say. But she shook her head. "No, I guess you can t." I have to do this, Ariel agreed.
"You sure this isn't just a chance to see your little human prince again?" Alana asked flatly.
Ariel felt her face redden. Her left hand clenched around the trident, her right hand clenched in the water, around nothing, around everything—she could throw foam mto her sister's face and it would become a poisonous, spiky urchin, or a handful of sharp sand, or a thousand little scale mites.
Attina made her lips go all squooshy the way she often did, like a puffer fish before it puffed. She raised a hand to silence Alana. Not now.
Ariel reflected, for a moment, how much communication was m sign, even for those who could speak.
"Fine. Good luck. I hope you brmg Father back," Attina said, perfunctorily. "You can go."