A/N: To my reviewers! I got your messages. (I swear on my honor, on my typing speed, indeed, on my cow [if the occasion comes to get one] that I read them. ;) )
A chapter where Ariel is in her right mind is in the works! I've taken a tiny detour through Adin's head because Ariel's right mind is a complex write, but I can safely say it will be done in a couple of days. Ariel is supposed to be a funny, intelligent sort of character, and putting enough comedy between her and Joe is an exciting prospect. Now I just have to….do it!
Looking forward to hearing from you more, and I am INCREDIBLY pleased to hear from any of you!
Chapter 12 Ezra
"No, your highness, I have no idea where the princess might have been taken. The cecaelia who took her certainly wasn't one of mine."
Ezra met the steel in the High King's wrathful glare with an edge of his own. It was usually so easy to change the king's moods, or ease his mind into submission with the bespelled pendant he kept on his person, but tonight—tonight he had never seen the king so angry. Ezra carefully schooled the smile that threatened to creep over his mouth into a tight line, trying his best to emulate trustworthiness and calm, if not for the King's perception, then for the guards that still surrounded them.
The vast throne room was almost claustrophobic in the darkness of night, its usual grand elegance haunting, which Ezra found quite to his taste. The marble columns looming over the throne cast shadows under High King Triton's eyes that underlined his fatigue, though a spark had returned to them that Ezra had been working so carefully to dull. He tugged on the chain around his neck, urging the black pendant to reach into the High King's mind to no avail. It wasn't working—and this had never happened before.
"My currents can no longer reach her! There has to be some spell involved!" Triton bellowed, clanging the trident on the floor, and shooting sparks toward Ezra's tentacles. Though his accusation was obvious Ezra didn't even bother flinching back. The High King, of all mer, knew the weakness of Ezra's own magic—at least he knew what Ezra allowed. It would be foolish to assume that Ezra had any part to do with the princess's disappearance. He simply had to wait until Triton realized this.
After all, this wasn't the first time he had been on the receiving end of High King Triton's anger, and it wouldn't be the first time he would wriggle out from under it unscathed; however, with a little good fortune, and a little magic, it might just be the last.
Ezra smiled ever so slightly at that thought, turning his face away from the king to avoid provocation.
"A spell that could circumvent the power of your trident, highness?" Ezra drawled, polishing another of the amulets on his chest so as to not draw attention to the one that mattered. If he had to wriggle his way out of this without magic, then so be it. "I highly doubt that."
"Every cecaelia left in this ocean is one of your subjects!" Triton snapped. "My guards say he wasn't much older than the princess! Who is he?"
Ezra bowed his head, hating every moment of reverence he was forced to show this tyrant. Granted, there were only a few thousand cecaelia left that he was aware of, but the High King expected to know them all? By name? The absurdity was almost laughable. "I have been away from my kingdom for some time now, as your trusted vizier, My King. At your request, if I might respectfully remind you."
"Reminding me of my own orders, now?" Triton growled. "Convenient all this, wouldn't you say, Ezra? You've placed yourself within my palace, and the night my daughter considers rejecting your proposed suitor, she disappears? With what looked to all of my guards like one of your men."
Ezra reeled, swallowing a snarl of his own. He of course knew that the princess hadn't been keen on the prince at dinner—anyone with ears would have known that, but that she was considering rejecting him after the engagement was announced was news to him. If there was anything Ezra hated, it was receiving crucial details too late. If Ellian hadn't managed to get the princess to agree out of duty or his evident lack of charm, then he could only assume he'd used one of Ursula's little assistants, but nothing he knew of would make her turn around on her decision so fast. His suspicions piqued, it unfortunately wasn't the time to speculate.
"I was under the impression that the engagement had already been announced, my king," he said through clenched teeth. Of course Ariel had been emotional enough to reject the prince, but it certainly wasn't the wise choice. Losing your strategy again, princess? "The princess rejected the proposal? How can that be?" he said instead.
"And isn't that suspicious as well, Ezra?"
Ezra's eyes widened, noticing that none of the guards in the room dared look his way. It had been years since Triton had been sharp enough to leap to this sort of conclusion—let alone see him enough to accuse him. He placed a hand on the black amulet on his chest, searching for the magic he'd bargained for. It was still there, pulsing and jittering normally under his palm, but if the power was there, then why wasn't it working? Ezra quickly found his control slipping away.
In a tense moment, Triton's grip tightened on the trident, but before he could do anything rash, Chief Pastian entered the room.
"My King!" Pastian announced admirably steady.
By the looks of Pastian's contingent's drooping fins and bedraggled uniforms, they'd been out half the night, and though the distraction had been a welcome one, Ezra wished they'd stayed out longer, if only to delay the news of Princess Ariel's disappearance.
Perhaps, he thought rather wistfully, if they hadn't given up so quickly, then they would have succeeded in tracking her down. Cecalea were fast, to be sure, but stamina wasn't a natural strength. Of course, this wasn't the first of Pastian's incompetencies.
Triton rounded on the force of mermen swimming in stiff formation that collected at his throne's base. In fact, if they were any stiffer, they would make fine replacements for the marble columns.
"Pastian!" Triton barked, momentarily distracted from Ezra. "What news?"
"Since our return, I have gathered the remaining guards from the barracks. We're ready to deploy on search with your permission, my king."
"Permission given," said the king. His anger melted into simple intensity as his attention shifted to Pastian and the evident fatigue of his guards. "Any other news? Do we know nothing of her kidnapper?"
"Ah, well…" Pastian said, looking uncomfortable.
"Speak!"
"During the ball, we arrested a cecaelian who seemed to have objections to the Prince Ellian and Princess Ariel's union. He was escorted out of the event, of course, and presumably down to the lockboxes."
"Why wasn't I informed of this?" the king demanded, voicing the same question that was on Ezra's mind. A cecaelian intruder? Unfortunately, the king was right. That was exactly the sort of thing he should have been aware of. "Bring him to me!"
Pastian shrunk under the order. "Unfortunately, that's not possible, my king. The intruder is no longer in the palace."
"How is that possible? The lockboxes should be inescapable!" Here, Triton shot an accusatory glance at Ezra, who deftly avoided his gaze in favor of glaring at Pastian.
Indeed, how had the prisoner escaped?
"We don't know, my king. The guard who escorted him, presumably to the prisons, has been missing since the initial chase. I've just been informed the cecaelian in question was never incarcerated."
Triton's frustration was starting to boil the water over his crown. "Release a warrant for him too, then."
If it weren't for the discomfort of his own situation, Ezra might have chuckled. There was no doubt in his mind who the guard would have been. It seemed the little guard who let Ariel get away with too much was swimming for his comeuppance—and a good thing, too. It seemed he'd put Ariel in danger now one-too-many times.
"Where is Sebastian?" Triton demanded, seeming to be taking stock of all of the higher players in the palace. Ezra hadn't noticed his absence before, but now that the king mentioned it, the whole conversation had been devoid of the little crab's annoying remarks and egging-on.
Oh, how much more refreshing he'd be as a crab-cake, Ezra pined briefly.
"Still out searching," Pastian reported.
It had been reasonable to return to the palace for more guards to expand their radius, but while Triton was quite lucid, his rage was heating up the water in the throne room, degree by uncomfortable degree.
"Then follow him!" Triton ordered, the picture of the warring king he'd been so many years ago. It was truly impressive how quickly the guards fled the room at his words. "And you, Ezra! Take your guards and join them! Search every shadowy hidey-hole and under every rock! I don't care what force you need to use against the one who took her. Find them. Now!"
Ezra tipped the king an ironic bow, and as the king ordered, summoned his own men from the shadows of the throne room. Although the High King knew they were there, it never failed to amuse the way he jumped when they appeared, and followed their king out of the throne room.
They set a pace slower than needed through the primary corridor, passing through the doors and passageways unobserved. It seemed Pastian had managed to strip every guard down from the unnecessary rabble—right down to the door guard.
"Oh my…" whispered a voice from the curtains in the vast hallway. "How the High King has been angered. You seem to have failed, Ezzzra."
"Go on after Pastian!" Ezra raised a hand to dismiss his men, more forcefully than needed. "Leave me!"
"So touchy…" the voice laughed at him from the window adjacent. Then from under a decorative chair. Then from behind a statue of Triton that decorated the passage, until every nook and shadow was mocking him.
"Nothing about this slows down my plans," Ezra growled to the nearest shadow.
"Doesn't it?" the shadow hissed back. "Precious princess missing. However will you take it now?"
"I'm working on it," he promised darkly, and with that, changed direction to Prince Ellian's rooms.
The door guards outside of Ellian's quarters were among the ones missing to the clutches of Pastian's search, which, knowing Pastian, would be fruitless even if he'd enlisted the whole kingdom. Troton's chief was an easy enough pawn to manipulate, Ezra could have done it without any aid—and often did; however tonight it was pure chance that there would be no guards to overhear this particular conversation.
Ezra's entrance wasn't quiet, but snapping off the door knob evidently wasn't enough to stir the prince. It seemed the young imbecile hadn't seen fit to share the luxury quarters with his escorts, leaving him entirely unprotected. Ellian was arranged in an anatomically impossible position on the sponge bed as gracefully as a wilted piece of seaweed. He made odd whimpering snores, and a stream of drool wafted from his mouth up to a peaked night cap lolling off his head.
Ezra curled a lip. What are you, still a hatchling?
As though sensing they were being watched, Ellian's eel raised its head from its place snuggled on Ellian's pillow.
He had the prince in his tentacles before the eel could so much as bare its teeth.
"What have you done?" Ezra enunciated every syllable by knocking the prince's head against the headboard.
"Why—gah—guards!" Ellian choked out when his eyes managed to focus on what was in front of him.
Ezra blew a stream of hot bubbles into the prince's face through his sneer. "What guards, boy? You've put your own in the service of Triton's barracks like a trusting hatchling fool!"
"Release me, King Ezra," Ellian said with all of the imperial force of a backwater clam. "King Triton's guards will hear you, and then where will you be?"
"Right here to snap your neck," Ezra growled. "Triton's guards are off searching the ocean. Seems you've managed to lose the princess I practically served you in wedding tresses in less than one night."
It took several long, dull moments for Ellian to understand what Ezra was saying. Then, it took another few pregnant pauses, and a whole weighted minute for the fear to register as he realized how completely alone he was with an angry cecaelian king.
"Princess…Princess Ariel? Gone? Where?" he spluttered.
"That's what you're going to tell ME, you irritating little slug!" Ezra threw him back down onto his sheets, where he would have landed on his pet if it hadn't scuttled away under the pillow.
The pet is smarter than his master, Ezra fumed, seizing the prince again.
"I won't ask again! What. Did. You. Do?"
Ellian's mouth gaped like a fish out of water. "I've…well, I suppose I've done a lot of things. I got rid of the eavesdropper the other day—left a squid hook in his side and made it look like a service hunt! One of my masterpieces."
Ezra's eyes widened in horror at his blatant stupidity. "Who, the cecaelian boy? The one that I told you specifically not to worry about?"
Ellian shrugged, trying to seat himself in a more dignified position on the bed, and only mana"You might be comfortable leaving loose ends, but I'm not."
Ezra shook his head. "Truly a horror, but not what I need to know. Tell me what you've done with the princess? Triton says she rejected your proposal. Why was the betrothal announced?"
"I followed your advice." Ellian crossed his arms over his chest, and might have been trying to look stern, or royally overbearing, but only managed to make himself look like a petulant guppy in his floppy sleeping cap. "I went to Ursula to get some insurance that she'd love me, and she gave me a potion to make the princess fall in love with me."
Ezra glared. "My advice to you was to buy some relaxer tonic to make the princess receptive to your nonexistent charm while you made your suit. Don't lie to me! Potions don't make you fall in love. What did she really give you?"
The eel prince shrunk into himself. "The witch gave me something to make her mind fall in love with me completely. It accomplishes the same purpose. I don't see how that's much different."
His jaw fell open. "You purchased a mind-meddle? What in the trenches did that cost—no, don't tell me, I should have wondered where that hideous royal birthmark had gone. And now Ursula can name whatever mer comes her way as the true birth heir of your position. Did you think of that? No?"
Ellian only shrugged and yawned, and Ezra had to fight the very real temptation to knock him into a wall.
"She won't have the time. Once I'm married, the love potion will be permanent and so will my hold be in both kingdoms."
"Losing your position is the least of your worries, boy! You've managed to muddle the mind of the most intelligent tool who ever could have served your kingdom—permanently." Ezra was flabbergasted, and something deep in him felt the loss of Ariel's company in a way he hadn't expected.
Prince Ellian was suggested as a suitor primarily to get Ariel out of the kingdom, to be sure, but at the same time the bright-eyed little princess would have handled Ellian just fine, and even made his kingdom the better for it. She might have been happy—not that that was any of Ezra's concern. Still, the pain pulled at him, and heated his wrath for the eel. If it wouldn't start a war in his future kingdom, he'd snap the idiot's neck here and now.
"I can run my own kingdom," the eel huffed. "The princess would have served her purpose and larked about with the rest of the palace women—and she still will," he said obstinately.
Ezra lost what was left of his control. He snatched Ellian up with one tentacle, and clotheslined him around one of the bedposts as easily as throwing a dishrag. The prince flopped to the floor with a pained grunt. Ezra loomed over him, pinning him to the sharp mosaic tiles and twisting him so that they chafed his scales just-so. Ellian let out a cry of pain, and started to call for his eel when he clamped a tentacle down over his mouth to muffle the sound.
"Your pet is smart enough not to save you," Ezra hissed, seething. Ellian's eyes bulged under the pressure. "Why did the princess run away then, if she was under the influence? Pray. Tell."
The prince looked as though he was trying to say something, and Ezra lifted his tentacle from his mouth just long enough for him to spit it out.
"I don't know why. She was in love with me all evening. Believe me, I know the signs." With that, Ellian gave an almost compulsory flip of his perfect golden hair, managing to knock his night cap off in the process.
He groaned. Getting anything but arrogance out of this boy was like pulling teeth, and suddenly he felt the tiniest bit of remorse for Ariel's experience the prior evening. "Pastian said there was a cecaelia who tried to stop you? Oh, yes, rumors do fly—" Ezra informed him when his eyes widened. "If I were you, I would think harder, and stop omitting crucial information," Ezra said in a way that Ellian seemed to rightly understand as tell-me-or-die-a-horrible-death-here-and-now.
"There was a cecaelia who tried to stop me, but he didn't succeed. I saw him at the sea-witch's brewing. Maybe it's his fault the potion didn't work all the way, or maybe he's taking her away to try to break the effect—I don't know! All I know is, he failed," the prince reported.
It was all Ezra needed to hear, as the pieces of the eel's disastrous actions fell into place.
"An apprentice of the witch came to stop you…did you say you left a hook in the boy you killed? As evidence? On purpose?"
Ellian gave a pained nod.
Ezra moved his face closer to the princes, sure to give him a view of each of his pointed teeth. "What if I told you, young imbecile, that the cecaelian boy you murdered—yes, murdered!—was of no consequence that day because he was the apprentice to the sea-witch you just dealt with. Now, however, he is of great consequence, because the sea witch you dealt with now knows not only your face, but your weaponry, your origin kingdom, and your purpose here in the palace, with enough blackmail to get you thrown into a box for the rest of your miserable existence. That cecaelia who came to collect the princess was hers, and that doesn't tell you anything?"
He lifted his tentacle once more for the prince to speak.
"She wouldn't," the prince scoffed when Ezra removed the tentacle. "She'd only implicate herself!"
"Which is why she won't, and didn't," Ezra felt as though he was having to explain bubbles to barnacles. "She won't go through Triton or his methods at all. You've killed a boy she has raised as a son, young fool! Ursula already has your princess, and if she gets her tentacles on you, there's nothing I can do."
With a final cathartic slam of the prince into the floor, Ezra flew from the room. If Ursula had the princess, then perhaps his plans really were in peril—then again, perhaps this was an opportunity to move them along faster.
Guards nearly all removed from the palace. Princesses all slotted to leave, or already gone…
He pushed the thought of Ariel from his mind. If Ursula had her, then perhaps her curse had already been undone.
Perhaps.
King Ezra ghosted past Adriatta's sleeping form as he moved through his own accomodations, and into the luxurious private wash room. Between the large, sheeted mirrors and the coral commode, a large claw-footed bathtub waited for him, though he rarely used it for cleansing.
"Now you ssssee," the whispering voice he'd sensed following him through the hallways spoke to him from the dark stain in the back of the linen cases.
Ezra tracked the stain's unnatural movement as it shifted under the sheets and towels, making even innocuous bathware seem sinister. He pointedly ignored it. From under tiles, vanity drawers, and among the many perfume bottles his wife never used, he began to produce ingredients, lighting a small flameless fire under the bathtub. His solution needed to be brewed before dawn, and there were mere hours left.
"I had clearly underestimated the dunderheadedness of my pawn. However, I assure you he is not the only pawn, nor is he crucial to our success."
"Our success?" the voice had moved to a shadow behind one of the mirrors, sounding as though it were spitting angrily. "This plan of yours is springing leaks, King Ezra."
"Are you going to come out so we can speak face to face, or will I be brewing this and talking to my spoon?"
The shadow seemed to deliberate a moment before responding.
"The mirror," it said at last.
In one of the sheeted mirrors before him, the image of the sea-devil took form. Her body was a distorted amalgamation of leathery black skin, absorbing any trace of light that came near it, and jagged, bony protrusions like skeletal wings that jutted out from her tail and spine. Instead of hair, the devil's head had a mass of tendrils, twisting and writhing as though they had some sinister agenda of their own. Long, spindly fingers gave the nightmarish impression that she was a moving, living fishing lure—the kind designed for nighttime hunts.
"That's better," Ezra said, carefully avoiding her eyes as he opened vials and slowly pouring them into the heated tub. "Having a nice evening, Echidna?"
"Don't play coy with me, not tonight!" the image in the mirror raged. "The youngest princess is gone. The Aegeans are ripe for an uproar. An eclipse is coming that will undo much of the ocean's magic, and you are not prepared for the chaos. Why do I sense you're about to repeat the mistakes of the first war?"
"I am aware of the eclipse," Ezra said cooly, reaching for a perfume bottle in which he'd smuggled blue-ring toxin. Ariel's predictions had proven useful on more than one occasion—more than he would ever have the chance to tell her, thanks to that eel. He kept his fingers purposefully relaxed on his ladle's handle, but inside was seething. If he'd known earlier that the prince was such a fool, none of this would be happening. Now he was in the precarious position of convincing a sea-devil that his deal was still valid—something that was going to be difficult if his emotions got away from him. "My purpose was to have the princesses out of the palace before the eclipse. I have done it. I might add that I've done it with the added bonus of removing Triton's protection from the bounds of his palace, and even the inner city. As for repeating mistakes of the war…"
Here, Ezra paused to lower the heat burning under the tub's claw-feet. It seemed the "If I had received the Inkthral lance from you as we'd discussed, I'd have taken power much sooner. My people still believe in things as feckle as fate with their prophecies and their scrying."
"The lance was not mine to give, as it belongs to Fate," Echidna scolded, twisting around in the mirror. Though she stayed in view, she was clearly restless, moving from one pane of polished glass to the next. "If an heir of Poseidon were to reveal himself with that lance, your people would follow him, it's true, but the trident is powerful enough to combat it—not that you've managed to seize it yet."
Ezra ignored the barb, and kept his concentration on the stirring. This batch was the most important yet. "Even you believe, then."
"Belief is inconsequential. What others will follow is far more important. Once again, your priorities have become meddled, Ezra."
"My plan is moving forward as it always has. It would move faster, if you hadn't reneged on our deal! What was that with the amulet in the throne room? Why could I not change the king's thoughts!"
The image in the mirror grinned at him nastily.
"The pendant will work in accordance with our deal, Ezra. I am not the one who has reneged. I gave you the pendant, but even with the ear of the king, you have failed to rally your people. I give you the opportunity to make blood ties with every kingdom, and your princess—a mermaid with hardly two decades in this ocean—escapes. I give you poison, and the king still isn't dead!" Echidna's rage grew with every word. "You tell me, Ezra, why the pendant has ceased lending you its power.
"My time limit hasn't yet run out," Ezra said frostily, willing himself to maintain control over the magical boiler. "Restore the pendant, and you'll have your kingdom when I have mine, as promised. Once my people have rallied, the Depths will be yours."
"Sweet promises," Echidna said with a saccharine drip to her tone. "But you've lost the key to your control."
"I'll have it back when you restore the pendant," Ezra all but snapped.
"No…" Echidna enlarged herself to fill all the mirrors, making Ezra nearly drop the stirrer. "You might have married the eldest of Triton's daughters, but until all you won't get the assurance you need to take the throne. The last princess must tie herself to the Ageans, or I foresee your plans will hit quite the snag. The pendant is not the key, Ezra. She is! You've left a loose end."
Ezra's tentacles twitched in annoyance, but beyond that, he was careful not to let his emotion show. Princess Ariel? A liability? The girl was intelligent, to be sure, but she lacked a certain commanding presence that nearly all of her sisters seemed to have been born with. That, and she occasionally lacked tact, as he had been so fond of reminding her. Considering the curse she was allegedly under, unless Ursula was willing to undo her own handiwork—which he now sincerely doubted—she would marry the Aegeans whether or not she was found by the eclipse.
Unless the eclipse undid the curse before then…
He bit down the wonderful, awful realization that the curse might be addled just by outlasting itself, but if it was a mind-muddle, then there was no telling exactly how the magic would be addled.
Ezra realized he was once more wasting time on his personal concerns. If he was to save his people, and bring about justice for the mer-people who so unjustly had taken Atlantis, the next week was crucial, and he could afford no more mistakes or distractions.
"Restore the amulet. I will send our prince off to correct his mistakes. He will find the princess for us, and cut a few corners in the process. A problem that solves itself."
There was a long, sickening pause as Echidna stroked her nightmarish hands through the tendrils on her head, considering the option.
"You expect the foolish prince to actually find the princess?" she said at last. "Even I cannot enter the Depths since it was sealed."
Ezra looked up, a trace of surprise slipping through his facade. "You believe she's going to the Depths? Why?"
Echidna sighed the sigh of a sea-devil running out of patience. "Once more, I do not believe. I know. In fact, she may have the fortune of running into one of my…old friends on her way."
Ezra refused to rise to the bait. After their years of dealing and planning together, he knew Echidna too well to ask for information she would not give. Extinguishing the boiler beneath the tub entirely, Ezra then covered it with a set of sheets from the shelves provided by the kuo-toa. The toxins inside were innocuous on their own—at least to a cecaelia, but once they combined, they would be enough to tip a sick mer over the edge of death, and bring a healthy one very close to it. He sighed. He would have to remember to warn Adriatta not to use this washroom in the morning until he'd collected the amount he needed and cleared away the evidence.
When at last, Echidna had volunteered nothing new, he opted for a more practical approach, swimming to a cabinet and pulling out a light copper sphere, enchanted to never corrode under the corrosive salt-water of the ocean.
"Why not have this friend deliver her to the palace?" Ezra asked innocently, wrapping the sphere in one tentacle.
Echidna only chuckled. "Not that sort of friend, little king. Now…how will you ensure the foolish boy returns successfully?"
"He's going with my personal guard," said Ezra, realizing the full extent of what must be done. If Echidna was warning him that there was even a modicum of possibility that Ariel could undo what he'd been working toward for so long, he would have to make every assurance. Ariel had never been susceptible to his magic, nor his pendant, and though Echidna would never tell him why—not without demanding some sort of price for the information—he didn't want any other unpleasant surprises. "And he's going with this."
Ezra held up the sphere.
When Echidna didn't seem to recognize the object of power in his hand, he elaborated:
"This won't take him to the Depths…as you know, the kingdom is magically untraceable. However; it will take him to Ariel. For a price."
"The little king does learn…" said Echidna, and though he would never call anything she did approving, this might have come close if there were.
"Indeed. For new information, he must give up one of his own memories. His annoying escapades. Bits and pieces of his childhood. The reason he wants to rule in the first place. All gone one by one. I suspect that by the time he reaches the princess, he will be….much changed—or at least, a mer can only hope." Ezra sneered. "The boy really doesn't have much depth to lose. Now." The king looked up, meeting Echidna's eyes for the first time, noting how their eerie glow seemed to track him without moving. "If the plan satisfies you, restore the pendant."
Echidna did nothing. Said nothing. But after a few seconds, Ezra felt a familiar humming warmth return to his chest where the amulet rested. He gave a small, regal bow.
"Marvelous. If you'll excuse me then," he glanced from the mirror to the curdled poison at the bottom of his makeshift cauldron, only just starting to stain the tub walls. "It would seem I'm ready for another visit to the High King."