Ursula's Beginning

39. Soon I'll have that little mermaid

Ganeon tried to stay away. But before too long, Ursula had reeled him back in with flattery, seduction, and reminders that she couldn't truly harm his younger brother.

He played the only angle he had: refusing to marry Ursula until they came up with a plan that was acceptable to both of them. And he told himself that by staying close to her, keeping abreast of her ideas and plots, he was ultimately protecting Triton.

To his great relief, Ursula agreed to his condition. She was simply buying time; the truth was she was short on ideas. She couldn't figure out how to incapacitate King Triton without sabotaging herself. And yet, she knew if the king was plunged into deep despair for some reason...say, from losing his beloved wife...it would provide a good pretext for why he could no longer rule.

She knew what to do with Marielle, at least. She simply had to trust that the answer would come regarding Triton.

In the hopes that spying would reveal some options, Ursula kept Flotsam and Jetsam rather busy. They couldn't get too close to His Highness, but Ursula spent hours watching Marielle through their eyes. The ornately decorated rooms she favored provided many hiding spots for the eels.

The downside? Listening to her constant humming and singing as she rocked her babies. Poor sweet children, Ursula thought. How their heads must ache from the constant noise.

The upside was confirmation of the Queen's scheming.

"Ah ah ah!" she'd admonish in a sing-songy voice. "Attina, you keep this up and Adella will be on the throne one day instead of you. I don't care if you arrived two minutes earlier! You're all the same age!" She was constantly teasing her headstrong firstborn daughter in this way as the girls tussled over toys and baubles.

"She pits her triplets against one another already. At three years old!" Ursula told Ganeon. "She wants them to fight over the throne so that she has a pretext for claiming it. It's sickening."

"I don't think you need to watch her anymore," Ganeon replied flatly.

"At least I'm doing something! What are you doing for us?"

Ganeon sighed. "I'm wracking my brain for a solution."

"Leave the solutions to me, Ganeon. Work on your courage instead."

***

Ursula watched Marielle's belly swell through the course of her daily spying. Mere months after the twins' birth, a seventh child was growing inside her.

Her last.

The Queen suddenly took to drawing. Literally overnight, she was possessed by it. She drew and she drew, whistling and humming and serenading herself as she spent day after day at her table. Flotsam and Jetsam could never manage to get a good view of her labors. She would work until she drooped, then roll up her papers and lock them in drawer.

After a couple months of this--the same thing every single day--spying on her was too boring to bear. Ursula gave it up.

The birth of the seventh child was drawing near now. And on a strangely bright morning, Roch the clam delivered a handwritten message from Her Highness, asking Ursula to join her and Triton and Ganeon for dinner.

She passed the day in agony.

When the appointed hour came, Prince Ganeon escorted her into the royal dining room. The foursome ate in near silence. Sebastian peeked his head in twice, then clattered away. It was bizarre. Surreal.

Servants came to clear their dishes. "I'll have the papers now," Marielle said to one, smiling.

"Right away, Your Highness."