Ursula laughed. She was extraordinarily pretty, with her long, golden hair and generous build. Ursula didn’t seem to want anything from him, which made her a safe choice… but a sad one too. Maybe he was a fool to wishfor the thrill of danger if it meant he might know the ecstatic heights of love.
Ursula smacked her lips happily. “I think it all depends on what you want. It’s not as though either of us have to make a decision about it today, but still… fun to ponder.”
Arris knew she was talking about a recipe, but the words calmed him.
“We don’t have to make a decision today,” he echoed.
After he left Ursula and the wisp woods, Arris was so deep in thought he almost didn’t hear Heka shouting to him from the pavilion of tropical lagoons.
“Your Highness!”
Through a wooden archway, Arris saw Heka moving through the pale lagoon that was home to the pearl crocodile. All of Heka’s clothes were quite sheer, which put Arris in the awkward position of looking as respectfully as one could while also acknowledging that the fabric, when wet, appeared as if it had been painted onto her curves. He felt a bit like prey in a trap.
Arris walked through the archway. Here, it was warm and humid. He took off his shoes and walked to the sandy riverbank.
“Come swim with me, Your Highness,” Heka shouted.
“I… I am not appropriately dressed, unfortunately!” he called out.
Heka winked. “Who said you needed to be dressed?”
Well. She had a point. Arris grinned as he began unbuttoning his jacket—
“I implore you to cease before I see something that will make me curse my own sight,” said a cold, familiar voice.
Yvlle stood behind him holding a note.
“Your presence has been urgently requested in the pavilion of the tranquility pond,” she said.
Arris frowned and took the note, which appeared hastily written:
THERE IS SOMETHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.
—DEMELZA
19A Distinct Lack of Tranquility
When visitors entered the menagerie, the very first pavilion that greeted them held the tranquility pond. It was the only pavilion that held no beast. Not even fishes swam in the pond. It was also the smallest of the pavilions and hardly more than a domed stone chamber. At regular intervals along the walls, flickering candles softened the darkness. At the center, the pond was long, rectangular and knife slim. The menagerie had been built around the tranquility pond. It had been there for a long time; some said since before Rathe Castle was even built. Perhaps even before Enzo the Fool had ever stepped foot on the Isle of Malys.
No one knew what the tranquility pond did. It was rarely touched. The water had a curiously observant quality to it, an aliveness that, while not malevolent, was uncanny. One could swim in its waters without ever coming to harm. Arris and Yvlle had done so a few times, always daring one another to plunge into the pond. The thing was…
Arris did not remember having done so.
No one did. He could only assume that he had swum in its waters because his clothes were drenched and because Yvlle said she had seen him go under the surface. Perhaps when he swam through its darkness, it had entrusted him with its secrets, knowing that he would never remember how to share them.
All one could take away from touching the pond was a sense of unearthly calm. It lasted only a few moments, but in those moments, that sense of calm could be dangerous. Whoever stepped out of the pool was vulnerable to suggestion. And with the wrong intentions, that could be very bad indeed.
When Arris entered the pavilion, he wondered if Demelza knew of the pond’s history. Or lack thereof. He wondered what she would say to him.
But it was not Demelza who greeted him in the pavilion.
“Hello, sweet prince.”
“We heard of your woes.”
It took a moment for Arris’s eyes to adjust to the tranquility pond’s dimness, but once they did, he recognized Thalassa and Pearl, the siren twins. Their long, magenta hair was pulled back, ornamented with the spines of fish and gilded kelp. The surrounding candlelight flashed gold on their pink scales. They wore slippery black gowns, which blended into the dark. Arris noticed that they kept flexing and unflexing their hands.
“Woes?” he echoed, smiling. “I have neither more nor less than usual.”
