Eric's part added an element of complexity: things weren't as simple as they seemed; details and nuances convoluted a bold declaration. It was no less beautiful, m fact, probably more so. Age and wisdom, life and the outside world, observations hitherto unseen.
They fimshed almost together, Eric cutting off his last note before she was done.
A nod to his mortality-? Ariel wondered.
"That was beautiful/' she breathed aloud. Of course she had sung duets with the greatest mer singers, male and female, ones who were hundreds of years older than she with voices trained for as long. Somehow what she had just done with Eric was far more powerful and beautiful. All with no audience except for the sea grass, the water, and the wmd.
And the one seagull who landed ever so delicately on the boat behind them.
"Sorry to interrupt," Jona said. "The skinny grumpy old man at the castle is acting fidgety and skittish—I think about Eric's absence/'
"Thank you, Jona," Ariel said with a sad smile. "Eric, she says that Grimsby is getting nervous about you being out here."
"You can talk to seagulls?" Eric asked, eyes widening. He looked over her shoulder at Jona. "Seagulls can talk?"
"Life outside the human realm of understanding is complicated," Queen Ariel said gently. "For you, seagulls will never talk."
"I disagree," Jona said, a little waspishly. "HEY, FEED ME SOME OF THAT BREAD. "
Eric jumped at the demandy squawk.
"See?" the gull asked triumphantly.
Ariel laughed. "Excellent point, Jona. She's right, though. I have to go. Maintaining this form is beginning to be a little bit of a stram—I have to return to the sea." "Oh, you can do that. Turn back and forth," Eric said quickly. "But you couldn't before. But you can do it now. Because you're queen?" "Something like that," she said, self-consciously pushing a piece of hair back behind the comb that was the trident m disguise. "Right," Eric said, looking into her eyes like he was memorizmg her, like he could make her stay.
"I have to get my father back," she whispered quickly before she could say anything else. "And then we can work on...you, and Ursula."
"Of course, of course," Eric said, noddmg, lookmg back at the castle. "Of course. Please, let me help you. I'll fmd him for you. It's the least I can do."
"He would be in ajar," she said, wincing at the words as she said them. They sounded ridiculous. "Or a tank. And would look like a slimy, weird piece of seaweed or a tube worm." "Just like in my opera," Eric said, nodding, but he looked a little queasy again.
There was a moment of silence between them, each fishing for something to say, to make the moment linger.
"Of course! All right, well, let's make a plan to meet again. Hopefully so I can bring you your father, and if not, at least so I can update you on my progress." Eric said it brightly and seriously, like it was a meeting between him and a shipbuilder, or between her and the tax fish.
"When the tide changes back, and the moon is full," Ariel suggested. "Right back here, by this boat."
"Agreed!"
Eric started to put out his hand to clasp hers, then started to pull it away, then shrugged, then put it back to rest at his side. Did he want to kiss her, instead?
Ariel wanted to kiss him.
But the mood was wrong, weird. It was upbeat and positive: she had a direction and an ally. He had a quest. Two members of royalty had agreed to right past wrongs. None of this was romantic.
None of this fell in line with the smell of the briny wind, or the tumult of the clouds, or the breathy, eternal sound of the waves commg in against solid ground. She took his hand in hers and squeezed. "Agreed," she said gently.
Hopefully, there would be time for other things later.
How epic! He was going to help rescue the King of the Sea!
His heart exploded a little each time his thoughts came close to the idea. All his life he wanted to set sail for adventure: and here it was—right here\ And it was greater than anything he could dream of: greater than discovering a golden city in the deepest jungles of the lands in the west. The kmg of the merfolk, cousm to gods, in Eric's castle., .hidden as a polyp in jar.
All right, that part was a little strange.
But mysterious!
And then of course there was the long's daughter, Ariel.
Who, now that she could