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She sometimes looked back at herself, feeling stupid and foolish for having allowed the Prince to treat her as he had. Well, that will never happen again! she thought as she petted Pflanze. Lately she’d made it her business to learn something of the world. No more fumbling for the right word or giggling rather than taking part in a conversation. She was a new woman, and she’d never been happier.
“Oh, Nanny! It’s my Pflanze!” Tulip squealed.
“I don’t like it, my girl! Not one bit! I won’t have anything from that accursed place in our home!” Pflanze gave Nanny a terrible look. But she knew that Nanny wasn’t like most humans; she saw things others did not. Pflanze wouldn’t be surprised if Tulip’s dear nanny was a witch who had lost her powers and memories long before but had an inkling of magic still within her.
“Nanny, no! It isn’t Pflanze’s fault! And you know very well the castle is no longer enchanted! Circe told us so on her last visit.”
Pflanze’s ears perked up. That was why she had gone there. She was hoping for some news of Circe. She didn’t doubt her witches’ power or ability to find their little sister, and she knew they were in fine company with Ursula, sequestered away with their schemes, potions, and spells. But Pflanze wanted to help, and since Morningstar Castle was the last place Circe had visited before she took to paths unknown, Pflanze thought it was a good place to start.
“I don’t care if he’s married to the sweetest, most angelic girl in the world! I still don’t trust him!” Nanny bellowed, clearly still angry with the Beast prince.
Ignoring her nanny, Tulip turned her attention to her long-lost friend.
“My goodness, Pflanze! How did you get here?” The silent beauty looked at Tulip with her black-rimmed golden eyes but couldn’t answer. Pflanze hoped that Tulip assumed she had been sent to her by someone at the castle. The princess didn’t know Pflanze belonged to the odd sisters, of course, or who the odd sisters were, for that matter. Tulip had always assumed Pflanze lived in the court of the Beast prince (and so she had, for a time, when it suited her mistresses).
“Can’t we keep her, Nanny? You know how much I love her! I’ve often spoken about it.”
Pflanze rubbed her face against Tulip’s and purred.
“I suppose, my dear,” Nanny sighed, unable to deny her Tulip almost anything. “But perhaps we will have Circe take a look at her and make sure she was not sent for evil means!”
“My goodness, Nanny, the way you talk! You’d think Circe was some sort of witch that could do such things!”
“Well, she is, my dear! A truer witch than I have ever met!”
“Nonsense, Nanny! I won’t have that sort of talk! Circe is a dear friend! Like a sister!”
Nanny sighed
. “Well, when she visits next, it wouldn’t hurt to ask what she thinks. Do you know if we’re expecting her soon?”
“She comes as she wishes, but it’s been some time. Last she was here she was trying to explain the virtues of trust and opening up to the idea of falling in love and all that rubbish again. As if I’d marry one of the arrogant fools who have been clamoring at the gates since the return of my beauty and fortune! I’d rather spend my days reading and learning something of the world! Not trapped away in some man’s castle, at his beck and call!”
Nanny smiled at Tulip knowingly. “Well, my dear, that is the last thing I want for you, as well. But perhaps now you will find a young man who loves you not only for your beauty and fortune but for your enchanting mind.”
Tulip wrinkled her nose in distaste, but Nanny continued.
“And if you do, my dear, I wouldn’t be so quick to turn my nose up at him!” Nanny put her hand on Tulip’s cheek tenderly and looked deep into her sky-blue eyes. “I daresay whether you had lost your beauty or not, you would have realized your potential. You forget, Nanny sees into your heart, and she always knew there was an eager mind waiting to be filled with knowledge. Your beauty wasn’t holding you back, my love—you were. I’m so happy you’ve found yourself at last.”
Pflanze thought Nanny was right: her old friend Tulip had rather changed…and she liked it. She had never minded Tulip’s silly, dim-witted nature; she had always found Tulip quite sweet and loved the attention she heaped upon her. But this new Tulip with a sense of self was interesting, and Pflanze could tell she was going to enjoy Tulip’s, and indeed Nanny’s, company more than ever.
Deep within the ocean, below the cliffs of Morningstar Kingdom, was Ursula’s lair. It was fashioned out of the skeletal remains of a horrid sea monster and it glowed with an eerie putrescence. The sea witch was happy to be home with her minions and the comfort of all her things around her. She had recently spent far too much time on land and needed the tranquility of being under the sea. The three sisters had their tasks on land and were working hard at them while Ursula prepared below for her visit from Triton’s youngest daughter. There was only one element of the spell they required:
Ariel’s soul.
Ursula’s pets were swimming about her, having missed their mistress desperately when she was away with Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha. But they were careful not to speak just yet, for they knew she was devising her schemes to trick Ariel. They watched their mistress with a shared enthusiasm, each with a sickly yellow eye glowing in Ursula’s murky domain. Only Ursula knew the true nature of the beasts, but they seemed to inhabit the same mind, making them appear symbiotic in their deviousness.
The slinking creatures sliced through the water and Ursula watched through a mystical bubble in her throne room as Ariel rushed home to Triton. The little mermaid was late for the most important event of her young life—her presentation to the merfolk.
“Yes, hurry home, Princess, we wouldn’t want to miss dear old daddy’s celebration, would we? Celebration indeed! Bah! In my day, we had fantastical feasts when I lived in the palace. And now, look at me…banished and exiled! While he and his flimsy fish folks celebrate! Well, I’ll give them something to celebrate soon enough.
“Flotsam! Jetsam! I want you to keep an extra-close watch on this pretty little daughter of his. She may be the key to Triton’s undoing….”
How Ursula hated being relegated to these paltry dealings since being banished from her brother’s kingdom and sent off into the darkness to usher little exchanges for bits of power. It would have taken an eternity to steal one soul at a time, waiting until she had enough power to destroy Triton. If it hadn’t been for the odd sisters and their dear sister Circe’s returning the shell necklace Triton had previously robbed her of, Ursula wouldn’t be in full possession of her powers.
It played in her favor, however, to let her brother think she was still powerless and alone in the darkness with only her harmless spells—not that they were ever really harmless, mind you, just not as grand as they might have been.
Until now.
