Part of Your World (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,61

satisfying. "They were known to us—at least in the very earliest days, before the Republic."

"Of course they were," Eric said, rubbing his brow with his palms. "You know what? This would make a real amazing opera on its own. This marriage of mine. A horror opera. A new genre. A man wakes up one day to find he's been spending his whole happily married life with an evil octopus witch."

"Were you happily married?" she asked, curious despite her other concerns. I sound like Jona.

"Mother of God, no," Eric swore. "Actually, it's like many state marriages, I suppose. It could have been worse. We show up for formal functions together, pose for portraits, and spend most of our days and...private time... apart. You know—she runs the kingdom and plans our next military venture, and I write operas everyone loves," he finished disgustedly. He reached into the deep pocket on his jacket, pulled out his ocarina, and glared at the instrument like it had been the sole cause of all his problems.

" You love music," Ariel pomted out. "It's sort of what brought us together. Almost."

"Ariel, I'm a prince. I should be ruling. It's my responsibility. If I had been more.. .awake over the last few years, or less of an idiot, I could have prevented the mess we're in now. You wouldn't understand," he sighed. "I have respomibilities"'

Ariel regarded him with steely amusement.

"Prince Eric, smce my father went missmg and presumed dead, I have taken his place as high ruler of Atlantica. I am its queen. Informally known as Queen of the Sea. All of the sea. This one, at least. Queen. "

Eric looked, quite understandably, dumbfounded. She felt his gaze change, felt him searching for—and fmdmg—signs of a queen where his playful little redheaded girl had been. She drew herself up taller and pointed her chin, not quite unconsciously.

"Oh," Eric said. "Oh. Right. Oh. I should be—I should kneel to you then, shouldn't I? Foreign royalty of a higher station?"

Ariel laughed. The second real laugh smce getting her voice back, and this one was far more burblmg and not brittle at all.

"Oh, Eric, it's a little late for that," she sighed. "But., .you do love music. Of all the things that should upset you about this situation, getting to do what you love shouldn't be one of them. I love music, too. I love singing. Taking that away from me was the cruelest form of torture Ursula could have devised—well, next to making me think I was responsible for my father's death."

Eric smiled bitterly. "She should have taken this away, then," he said, shaking the ocarina. "That would have shown me. She should have kept me from composing and performing and spending all my time with real musicians, and made me rule. That really would have been torture."

"I don't think she was looking to punish or torture vow, specifically," Ariel said delicately. "I think you were just a pawn in her plans."

"Great. Not even a threat. That's me," Eric said with a sigh. "You know, speaking of our joint love of music—remember that song you sang? When you rescued me? I never put it mto the opera. I could never get the ending right. I think I must have drifted into unconsciousness before hearing you finish it."

Eric moved the ocarina slowly to his lips, looking at her for permission. She nodded, and he played.

It was just like when he had played it in the boat, when she had watched him, unobserved. And just like then, the melody trailed off into silence.

But this time she could fmish it.

Even if it wasn't Eric, even if it was Ursula herself playing the piece, Ariel would have continued the tune. The last note had hung there so invitingly, so unfinished, it was a blasphemy against nature to let it drop.

Ariel didn't so much sing as allow the song to come up from her chest, from her heart, from her soul, and let it merely pass through her lips.

Eric grinned m pure delight.

When she came to the end of the refrain she took another Dry World breath, to sing it properly from the beginning. Eric hurriedly put the ocarina back m his mouth and played along. This time he didn't play the tune—out of respect for the origmal artist, he let her smg that alone. Instead he improvised a harmony that was just a touch minor. The mam melody still sounded bold and cheerful, enthusiastically describing the world as young Ariel had seen it. But