Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch (13 page)

“Daddy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know!” cried Ariel.

Triton’s anger was growing with each breath, swelling, until he released his rage at Ursula, slamming her into a rock with the power of his trident, trying in vain to break the contract.

“You see! The contract is legal, binding, and completely unbreakable, even for you.”

Then she smiled at him, in that way she knew he hated, the smile that meant she couldn’t wait to see him choke on her hate.

“Of course I was always a girl with an eye for a bargain. The daughter of the great sea king is a very precious commodity.”

And, I daresay, the little sister of the dreaded three is even more so,
she thought.

The odd sisters’ anger filled the room like a choking smoke. As much as they hated Triton, they hated Ursula more.
How dare she take our little sister! How dare she use her!

“Ursula’s deceived us, Sisters! She has no intention of letting Circe go!” Ruby’s and Martha’s screams were heard in the many kingdoms, but Lucinda remained eerily calm.

“Quiet, my darlings, we don’t want Ursula to know we’ve learned her secret. She intends to use our Circe against us, as a tool for bargaining, to ensure our help in her future plans. The Dark Fairy was right. We have to stop her.”

The witches again began their chant, which grew louder and more violent as their bodies convulsed and contorted with every word…

“Slice the witch and make her bleed, kill the witch, my words you’ll heed!”

…and they watched Ursula and Triton in their magic mirror.

“But I might be willing to make an exchange for someone even better,” Ursula said.

Triton knew what she wanted. It had never been Ariel; it was
him
. His power. His soul. This was her vengeance, and part of him felt he deserved it. He had chased his daughter away with his hatred of humans and brought madness upon his sister with his betrayal of her.
Yes, this is what I deserve,
he thought. He would take his daughter’s place. Ursula’s words rang in his ears as he signed the contract:
If I am this foul creature you describe, it’s by your design!
Ursula had been right when she said that. He had created this monster and there was nothing he could do to amend it. His regret would mean nothing to her. His words would be like ashes.

At least I will be able to save Ariel.
Perhaps she will rule with more compassion than I ever had.
The sisters watched and wished they could destroy the king as they had intended. It wasn’t enough that he finally lamented what he had done to his sister. They wanted him to die. It took all their strength to rein in their hate of Triton and focus it on Ursula, so long had they gathered it, cultivated it, and given it life. It took all their might not to succumb to it and kill the tyrant king.

Oh,
how
they wished Ursula was the friend they had thought she was. They would have loved to take down her brother and put her on the throne. They would have done anything to help their friend. Why the betrayal? It was such a disappointment, seeing Ursula fail in the face of such promise. They had thought she was different. She wanted nothing more than revenge—and power, because she’d spent her life feeling powerless. She’d become the thing her brother accused her of. She had become loathsome.

Fear gripped the witches’ hearts when they saw that Ursula had seized Triton’s crown and trident.
This is why the Dark Fairy sent her warning.
She knows Ursula’s heart better than we do.
And the sisters watched in terror as Ursula grew to prodigious heights.

The madness within her also seemed to grow with an unnerving velocity. Her laugh dominated the many kingdoms as she commanded the sea, bringing forth ships that had long before sunk to the depths. She brought the dead ships to life with the treacherous waves, raving maniacally and claiming the sea as her own.

If there was anything left of the witch the sisters had called “friend,” they couldn’t detect it. Ursula was completely at the mercy of this overwhelming power, and it had driven her quite mad.

The Dark Fairy was right.

Ursula created a maelstrom of twisting splintered ships and used them to attack Ariel and Eric. She was going to kill Ariel. It seemed her plans to be Eric’s bride had been tossed aside like an unwanted plaything, forgotten now with the madness that was swelling inside her.

She’s grown mad with power. Perhaps mad with grief, with the loss of everything she once loved.

Lucinda said the words again, this time resolving to destroy the thing she and her sisters had helped create with their hatred. They were no better than Triton, Lucinda thought, because they had played a part in Ursula’s undoing, as well. It broke Lucinda’s heart and brought her no joy, in spite of the betrayal.

“Kill the witch and make her bleed, release our sister, my words you’ll heed!”

Martha and Ruby were in a panic.

“We can’t kill Ursula! There has to be a way to save her!” screamed Ruby. “If we take the crown and trident, she’ll come back to herself.”

“Yes, this is our fault! Circe was right to be angry with us! We’re always meddling, and our meddling caused this. It will cost Ursula her life!”

Lucinda cast a terrifying gaze at her sisters. “Silence! This is Ursula’s doing, not ours! She would have gotten her hands on the necklace regardless, and she took our sister as insurance that we would help her! She is not the witch we once knew. She’s been overwhelmed by power and greed just like the Wicked Queen, and we shall destroy her for her duplicity!”

The fireworks burst forth from the ships in Morningstar Harbor and exploded overhead, raining on the dome above the witches as Lucinda went on. “This is the only way to free our sister and ensure she will not hate us until the end of her days! Circe would never forgive us for unleashing this power.”

Lucinda looked to the sky through the glass dome, at the storm of sparks cascading down, as the sea raged with a violent purple light. “We have no choice, my sisters. We have to destroy her. Now, say the words with me.”

Lucinda, Ruby, Martha, and the One of Legends gathered their power and sent it out to the many kingdoms so witches far and wide would hear their call. This was not a secret, dark sort of magic. It was a desperate gathering of forces to take down the witch who now had the power to destroy them all.

“You took our sister and our hate, to die at our hands is now your fate!”

The witches screeched, and taking the mirror once again, they said, “Now show us the witch!” Ursula’s image appeared in the enchanted mirror.

“She’s trying to kill Ariel! She’s broken her deal! Kill the witch now, make her suffering real!”

All the witches were in a frenzy, stomping their boots and screaming so loudly the glass dome was again threatening to break. The servants were pounding on the door, trying to get in to see what was the matter, frightened of the loud screams coming from inside the room and the terrible explosions coming from the sea.

“Show us the witch!”

The witches watched as Prince Eric climbed onto one of the resurrected ships. Its bow was splintered and jagged, and the witches knew Ursula’s death was almost upon them.

“Impale the witch and make her bleed, give Eric the power, our words you’ll heed!”

And to their relief, Ursula was violently impaled by the ship’s splintered bow in an explosion of electricity and billowing purple smoke, casting her remains deep into the sea.

The sisters collapsed as they watched the voluminous smoke rising from the sea, knowing they had killed the witch they had once called their friend.

D
eep within the ocean, tucked away in Ursula’s garden of lost souls, Circe felt herself become shining and brilliant, like the dazzling golden lights that surrounded her. It was a curious sensation, as if she had never known what it was to feel alive until that moment. Ursula had taken her soul and left her empty shell to wither with the other victims in the sea witch’s garden.

Circe had never contemplated what that would be like, to lose her soul, and she couldn’t have imagined what a deep, penetrating sense of emptiness it would bring, as if nothing but sadness and loneliness remained.

But even that didn’t adequately describe how it had felt.

She supposed it was similar to powerful grief, that wretched emptiness and feeling of despair and helplessness, as if being swallowed by a deep blackened pit that you were unable to crawl out of.

She wondered if that was how the Beast had felt when the curse took away his humanity, and heat rose to her cheeks as shame washed over her. Of course her sisters would say that he had brought it on himself. That she had given him a choice. And that was true. But it hurt her heart to think she had ever managed to cause such pain to another, even if he had deserved it.

As she and the other victims rose out of Ursula’s garden, freed, she saw the ghastly remains of her captor scattered on the ocean floor and knew her sisters were probably nearby. She swam with a mermaid’s tail and cringed when she saw large portions of Ursula’s severed tentacles, feeling an intense guilt for the part she’d had to play in Ursula’s death.

She didn’t understand why Ursula had betrayed her, and though she was no longer trapped within Ursula’s garden of lost souls, the empty, terrible feeling lingered within her. She just wanted to know why. She had always liked Ursula. She had always been her friend. She would never know why Ursula had betrayed her….

Or would she?

There, glistening on the besmirched and murky ocean floor, lying among Ursula’s remains, was the golden seashell necklace. Circe snatched it in her little hand and made a desperate wish.

She was instantly assaulted by a rage she’d never before experienced. The weight of it was impossible to contain; she felt as if it would consume her. No, that wasn’t right; it felt like something was growing inside her, something too large and too vile for her to contain. She felt as if she would burst and nothing but hate would remain.

It was unbearable, this pain. This anguish. But the hate, and the rage—that was the worst of it. It was like a terrible sickness that wrapped itself around her heart, distorting her mind and filling it with horrific images. Circe’s head was filled with visions she didn’t understand. Terrible, frightful scenes of a man being slaughtered, pulled literally to pieces by an angry mob, trying to keep it away from a young girl. And images of the same young girl standing on a cliff, crying, her heart full of fear and loathing. The pictures kept flashing one to the other in rapid succession. Circe didn’t know what they meant, but she could feel the memories as if they were her own, because she felt herself to be something entirely new, entirely different…alien.

In that moment, she had come to possess the psyche of the sea witch.

She
was
Ursula.

She was leviathan, her body swelling not only with rage but with strength and girth. She had the power to command the sea and she did so at her pleasure. That power was too much for any witch to bear, even Ursula, and it frightened Circe. She fought not only against herself but against an enormous hate being directed at her. She couldn’t comprehend who had the power to direct such hatred. Who had the power to use her own magic against her? Her mind whirled at the maelstrom of hate that flooded her. She had grown to immeasurable proportions and felt she was impenetrable. Her hate had betrayed her.

Circe saw into the sea witch’s heart. She was foul. She was ugly. She was monstrous and loathsome. She was everything her brother said of her, and everything the Dark Fairy foresaw. And the sea witch had known she deserved that end. She had known it the moment before she died. She had betrayed the odd sisters, her dear friends for this…for this power and for revenge. A power that was destroying her. A power she couldn’t control. She had no will of her own. The seething hate had taken possession of her. It was its own creature, and she had no will to command it.

She had been dead before Eric took her life.

Circe pealed a frightful scream so loud and so terrible she thought the force of it would rip her throat.

She was herself again, but diminished, not only from her ordeal but from seeing into Ursula’s heart in the sea witch’s final moments.

When she reached the surface, she could see purple and black billowing smoke rising from the ocean like a menacing cloud of ruin, filling the sky and blackening the ships that had been docked near Morningstar Castle. Ursula’s remains had floated to the surface and mingled with the sea foam, turning it a putrid grayish black. Her hate seemed to linger even after her death.

The Lighthouse of the Gods stood shining in exquisite brilliance, however, as if refusing to be diminished by the foul smoke of decay. As Circe stepped out of the waves and onto land, it was comforting to have feet again and to feel the sand beneath them. She felt her sisters were near, and rushed to the castle in a panic, because she knew there was something horribly wrong.

She didn’t bother with the guardsmen at the gate and simply willed them to let her in. Mr. Hudson greeted her at the door with a panic-stricken look. He was pale and his eyes were full of terror.