Part of Your World (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,97

What more does she want? Why does she need to destroy everything?"

"She's not a rational being, Ariel. She's like...a walking mouth that's hungry all the time. She sees something and she wants it. So she does everything she can to get it. She wanted revenge on your father and you. She thought she got it, and was content, and moved on to the next thmg—ruling Tirulia. But then you showed up again. To stop her. You're like an annoying gnat she can't slap away."

"I don't know what a 'gnat' is."

"Um...kind of like a remora? Tiny thing that bites you and sucks your blood and irritates you?"

"I'm a parasitic fish that has latched on to her and won't let go," Ariel said flatly, trying not to imagine what the words looked like.

"No, that's not—look, forget the gnat. And the remora. She hates you, maybe just because you remind her of your dad. Weirdly, I don't think she's just jealous of your beauty or youth, which is how it would go in a traditional fairy tale," he added, looking thoughtful. "That's sort of how I made it in my opera, and it's a motive that most people understand. Audiences love that kind of thing; jealousy is simple, it makes sense. But I don't think that's all of what's gomg on here."

Ariel mentally replayed the scene of gomg to talk to Ursula about giving her legs, but from a different perspective—Ursula's. There she was, a pretty, talented mermaid princess with a voice people would kill for, not a care in the world, and a future paved in pearls. And she had basically told the sea witch she was utterly discontented with her lot and wanted to be someone—and somewhere—else entirely.

And there was Ursula, perhaps rightfully exiled from the kingdom, but exiled nonetheless. Aged. Forced to deal with her fate alone. Bitter and resentful. In swims this pretty mermaid...

"Oh, my cod," Ariel said, putting a hand to her head. "What an idiot I was. I didn't even stop to think....She's a witch. ;Hello, could you give me a pair of legs? For close to free? Even though you don't like my father?'"

"Exactly. Then she wins the bet, you lose your voice, she gets your dad, she becomes princess, you swim sadly back down to the bottom of the sea.. .But then you resurface m her life, and you're Queen of the Sea. You manage to get your voice back. You control storms and the heart of the man she is married to...."

"I do?" Ariel asked with delight.

"I'm just telling a story■ here. But yes, obviously. You've become a queen, a woman with a complicated personality. You have hidden depths and a wisdom and intelligence that all went unnoticed before by an idiot prince whose heart couldn't listen to anything his ears couldn't hear."

Ariel felt a little giddy. "I control storms and the heart of a prince. I like that." If she were in the sea she would have been swooning, thrashing her tail and spinning in circles until she was dizzy.

Well, as a girl. Not as queen, not where anyone could have seen her.

Eric smiled. "I think my character would have a song about how he's been caught by a siren and is under her spell."

Ariel made a face. "I'm not a siren. Trust me. I have cousins...distant cousins...We don't get along. But what were you saying? About Ursula?"

"Just that everything she did to you and your father didn't keep you down. You popped up, older, stronger, more powerful than ever. She realizes she didn't beat you enough last time. Now she wants complete victory, which involves wipmg out your home."

"If she wants complete victory, why not kill my father outright?"

"Well, that's the thousand-gold-piece question, isn't it?" Eric said with a frown. "Why bother pretendmg to ship him off to Ibria—why bother keepmg him here at all?"

"She's up to something/' Ariel agreed. "Something involving him. I feel like I started some sort of chain of events in her mind when I reminded her of my existence."

"Well maybe this has somethmg to do with it," the prmce said: pulling out the piece of vellum Vareet had drawn on.

"Oh," Ariel said, taking it. "What a cute...um...walrus."

"It's a bunny ," Eric corrected with great dignity. "You've never seen one. Anyway, it's what's on the back that's important. Ursula's maid risked a lot by letting me 'discover' this...."

Ursula's maid again. Ariel's heart broke a little when she thought of the girl, remainmg silent so the mermaid could sneak