This Drowning Kingdom

Chapter 4

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Ursula and Bullus were waiting for them when they entered the throne room.

Ursula, gripping the Trident in front of her, was smirking as she said, "You're almost late, Heir."

It was almost a gamble, which title she was going to use for Ariel next. Squeezing Althea's hand one last time, she swam forward, holding her chin high, and bowed.

"Your Majesty," she murmured.

"Well, let's not waste any more time, shall we?" Ursula said. She held her hand out toward Bullus, who presented Ursula with a dagger. Gripping the ornate hilt in her hand, Ursula beckoned Ariel closer.

Not daring to look behind her, Ariel approached her aunt, her heart thundering in her chest. She knew what that dagger meant—knew the oath she would soon take.

Ursula gripped Ariel's forearm, holding the dagger above it.

"With your blood, you swear to find and retrieve the Heart of the Ocean for me, Ursula, the Queen of the Seas. You understand that you are to hand over your siren's song, and with this spell, you will only have three months to return to the sea before it becomes permanent."

Ariel nodded.

"In return, I will change Althea, Princess of Atlantica, human, never again to return to the sea."

She nodded again, feeling her sister's gaze on her back.

Ursula lowered her voice. "And with your blood, you understand the price you will pay if you fail me in any way."

Ariel nodded a third time.

"I understand."

At her words, Ursula dragged the dagger against Ariel's arm, and blood spilled into the water between them. Ariel tried not to flinch at the sudden sting of the salt.

"Now," Ursula said, returning the knife to Bullus and gripping the Trident, "sing."

And so Ariel did, her voice filling the throne room. In Ursula's hand, the Trident began to glow, illuminating the room and shining a blinding light in Ariel's eyes. But her song never faltered, even as her aunt began chanting, and an invisible, phantom hand reached its way down her throat.

Ariel threw her head back as that phantom hand took her song—the siren song that had been passed down from her mother, from her mother's mother—and stole it. On instinct, a hand shot toward her throat, but Ariel could only watch with wide eyes as her song—a golden orb floating through the water—disappeared inside the Trident.

And then the pain began.

Her tail erupted in agony, and she screamed, stars flashing in her vision. It was the pain of a thousand knives peeling off her scales, of cutting her tail in two and sewing the two halves closed. She screamed, and if she had died in that moment it would have been a blessing, but soon, her voice was lost to the water. Her tail was gone, replaced by—

Oh, gods. Those were legs, weren't they?

And her breath—

She couldn't breathe.

The thought terrified her, even as a piercing scream—Althea's—echoed through the throne room.

She couldn't breathe, and she was drowning, and—

Ursula's cruel chuckle clattered through her mind as the world went black.

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Everything hurt.

Her arms, her chest, her throat.

Her legs, in particular.

She had legs.

Gods, it was strange just thinking about it.

Ariel groaned, pushing herself up as best she could. She spit sand out of her mouth as she glanced around.

She was on a beach. The water pulled gently at the sand just a few feet from her, a lullaby that Ariel hadn't heard in years. Above her, the sky was showing the first hints of dawn. A seagull's cry pierced the air as it flew out to sea, diving into the dark water before shooting up again.

Ariel moved to stand, but her legs buckled beneath her. Gravity, she thought darkly. She would have to get used to this new feeling, though her legs ached already. In fact, everything ached, as though she had been tied to a crazed dolphin before roughly being thrown onto the sand. She wouldn't be surprised if that's what had happened after she'd passed out, but the thought of Ursula—of Bullus—dragging her unconscious body through the sea... She shuddered.

Though she knew she should move, knew she should try to track down the prince and get aboard his ship, she couldn't make herself leave the ocean's side. She closed her eyes at the wind that kissed her face, relishing the cool breeze in the early summer morning. In that moment, she wished she could stay there forever, breathing in the salty air—no duties, no orders, no aunts or soldiers or rebels. Just her and the sea.

But then Althea's face flashed in her mind—sweet, kind Althea, who didn't deserve to be left down there with Ursula, didn't deserve to grow up wondering if the next day would be her last. At least Ariel had gotten a semblance of a childhood before it was brutally ripped away from her—Althea had gotten nothing.

So Ariel forced herself to stand, forced herself to remain upright, even as gravity tried pulling her back down. She would join this wild chase, get Ursula's necklace, and then Althea...

Althea would be gone.

But she would be safe.

It was that thought that made her take one step, then another, and when she crumpled to her knees she picked herself right back up and, taking step after step, made her way into the kingdom of Nereidia.