After the swirling darkness, streaked with blurred, unrecognisable images this time as their jewels pulled them fast through the plot dissolved, Siena and James found themselves on a small crescent of a sandy beach stretching nearby a large and busy harbour.

The bright light that flooded them after the darkness hinted that it might be an early afternoon, hours, or rather days after their first stop, but the wind was just as strong as before.

"I'm glad that you suggested we arrive here rather than on the ship in the middle of the night. The wind would make that difficult," James told Siena as he let go of her, and she pushed her necklace, the stone pulsating eerily with its crimson glow, into her tight bodice.

She put a finger on his lips when she noticed they had an audience. The ship docked a few metres away from them wasn't empty; a couple of boys dressed in ragged clothes were looking their way curiously. She hoped that the wind did not carry their words to those curious ears-- anyone, even a couple of mischievous boys, might complicate their quest.

James followed her look, then nodded. "Thanks again," he whispered. With another quick look to the boys who were still watching them after they replaced the book in the bag, straightened their clothes and adjusted each other's hair, he offered Siena his arm, according to the current fashion, instead of taking her by the hand. "I think the wedding..."

Whatever he wanted to say was lost in the clamour of church bells reaching them from the town, distracting the boys, making them finally run from the deck, following the sound.

"The wedding ceremony is finished. There will be a banquet before the Prince's company will board the ship... Let us join them now; it might be easier to blend in with the guests before boarding," he continued, having to almost shout to be heard over the peal of the multitude of bells.

"I think so too," Siena agreed.

She let him lead her across the narrow beach to a short flight of steps roughly carved into a black, damp rock wall covered in patches of green moss, ending level with the cobbled street leading from the harbour into the town. Their eyes were drawn instantly to the place from where the sound of bells was raining down upon the town-- a white, many-towered palace set like a crown on top of a tall, dark cliff.

Siena looked in awe at the wonderful building, stunned by its architecture. Even though the story was supposed to be set in Denmark, she would never have guessed so after seeing this place. Andersen's Denmark was built from fantasy and imbued in magic, a figment of the writer's imagination. There were blooming orange trees growing in white pots along the meandering streets, swaying in the wind, their crowns teeming with exotic, rainbow coloured birds. The town's houses, just like the palace, had rows upon rows of slim white columns, sweeping staircases and vast balconies, the white stone they were made of glimmering in the strong sunshine, the strange architecture perfectly atypical for a country of Northern Europe.

"Beautiful," James muttered as if he read her mind. "The tale abounds in descriptions in some parts and lacks in others, and we weren't really shown this place in the book..."

"But it makes sense that it looks similar to the convent where the Princess was brought up; her parents wouldn't send her too far from home," Siena mused.

James only smiled in reply, wondering whether their own imagination and expectations determined the look of this place, at least in this version of this world.

It took them quite a long time to climb up the hill through the crowded streets but they blended well with the group of people accompanying the Prince, easily recognisable by their more sombre clothes, similar to what James and Siena were wearing, very different from the fashion of the people in this fantastical kingdom. They joined the guests as they followed the Prince and his bride out of the palace's chapel, with the Little Mermaid, dressed in silk and gold, weeping silently, walking behind the couple, carrying the train of the Princess' wedding gown.

If Siena didn't know the story by heart, she would think that the breathtakingly beautiful dumb girl devoted to the Prince was moved to tears by the happiness she felt for the newly wed couple, just like the people gathered around Siena and James whispered. But she knew better, and the thought of how much the girl must be suffering in this moment brought unwelcome tears to her eyes. They needed to act just as cheerfully as the other guests, she reminded herself even as James pulled her closer, as if he could feel her emotions, as if her sadness affected him too.

"We're here to help her," he whispered as they were led to a long table laid for the late wedding lunch, set on the castle's largest balcony overlooking the sea.

Siena nodded, allowing the wind that carried the scent of the sunlit sea and the perfume of the many orange trees covered in delicate blooms, growing in pots placed around the balcony, to distract her. She was starting to feel tired, she wondered how much time they had spent within this story, without sleep...

"We better eat something," James whispered. "No one has noticed that we don't belong so far; let's not raise any suspicions now."

Siena nodded again, accepting a plate he had filled for her, nibbling at the food as she observed the wedding guests, the Prince and his bride, and the Little Mermaid sitting at his other side.

James watched the Prince and the Mermaid, too. He was hoping to find a sign of the real love for her in his behaviour; if he did, then he would try to talk to him. But the man's eyes were on his bride the entire afternoon. He never looked to the Mermaid, not even once, as if he had forgotten her entirely. There was no point in talking then, James concluded, he could hardly talk love for the Little Mermaid into growing within his heart now, if it had never been there.

The sun was about to set when the order to board the ship was given and the company split in half, the Princess's family and courtiers remained on the balcony to watch the ship depart from the harbour deep down, while the Prince's company left for the harbour, with the newly weds in its midst.

The air smelled like summer and honey as they descended the hill, Siena's tired feet stumbling a few times, and she leaned into James gratefully when he wrapped his arm over her shoulders. She shouldn't have drunk the wine they had offered to her at the table, tired as she was, but there had been no way around it. They had to behave just like the other guests.

It took a surprisingly short time for the large company to board the ship and settle on the deck. Soon, the huge vessel jumped into motion as the sailors unfurled its white sails, making them swell and billow, propelling the ship towards its home port.

James and Siena sat a little apart from the other people, afraid that their speech and behaviour would give them away. Observing the preparations for the journey and for the wedding celebration being carried out on the deck in front of them, she leaned her head on his shoulder, feeling tired like never before.

"Sleep, Siena," James muttered, wishing he could let her lay her head on his lap, but it wasn't possible here. "It will be a few hours before anything important happens. Her sisters won't appear before the party is over, and everyone is asleep."

"No," she said. "I don't want to miss anything."

They observed in silence as the Prince and his bride sat on a comfortable couch placed within the opening of the splendid tent erected in the middle of the deck where they would pass the night, watching the musicians playing for them.

"Don't you... don't you think there is a chance that he might change his mind?" Siena spoke again a while later as they watched a group of dancers performing for the Prince, with the Little Mermaid, the most gracious creature Siena has ever seen, in their middle. "She's sublime, ethereal... How can he not love her?"

Music as soft, sweet, and otherworldly as the light of the rising moon accompanied her moves, adding magic to her beauty. The impetuous wind had finally subsided into a favourable breeze, the ship rocked gently on the waves as it moved towards the distant, invisible coast. The night was a fairytale, and the Little Mermaid deserved a happy ending.

James shook his head, watching sailors walking around the deck, lighting colourful lanterns, which added yet more magic to the festive atmosphere. "You know as well as I do that it's not about her beauty. And he loves her in a way, just not in the right way, and not enough. He had always been in love with his Princess, the girl from the convent whom he believed had saved his life."

Siena sighed; she did know that.

The music and dancing continued for hours until the royal couple retreated into the tent whose purple and gold walls billowed in the gentle wind like the white sails above their heads. Most guests left the deck then and walked into their cabins below; only a few people were left like Siena and James to find a place to spend the night on the cushions scattered on the deck. It wasn't a long voyage; the ship would reach the Prince's town at sunrise.

"Here she comes..." James whispered a long while later, even as the Little Mermaid walked out of the tent, convinced that everyone except for the helmsman was asleep, directing her steps to the side of the vessel. She leaned her white arms over the edge towards east, waiting for the first blush of morning, which would bring her death.

Siena and James, who, holding hands, approached her silently from behind, saw her sisters rising from the waves even as she noticed them.

"It doesn't have to end this way," James said in a low voice before the mermaids could speak-- he noticed how the Little Mermaid jumped at seeing the knife one of them reached her as much as as upon hearing his voice.

'I won't kill him,' her eyes seemed to say fiercely, looking between her sisters and Siena and James.

"No, of course not. It would be very wrong, killing him only because he doesn't love you as much as you love him. But we won't let let you become a seafoam," Siena said, choosing her words with care.

'I chose my own destiny, I knew this might happen...' the Little Mermaid sighed, her eyes filling with tears, and Siena realised that she could understand her perfectly even without words.

Siena dabbed at the corners of her own eyes with her sleeve before she took the sea glass vial James pulled out from his bag.

"Here's an antidote of whatever the Sea Witch gave you. Drink it, and you can go back to them," she said, nodding towards the group of mermaids floating in the waves. A couple of them clapped their hands at hearing her words, while others called, "Do it, sister, come back to us, we miss you, our grandmother moans for you and our father too..."

The Little Mermaid took a hesitating step back from them, then rushed towards the tent, and James thought they had lost her. But she only took one last look at her Prince and returned, reaching for the vial Siena had uncorked for her.

She drained it, passed the empty vial back to Siena and bestowed a kiss on her cheek, then jumped off the board, her legs growing back into a long, glimmering fish tail before she disappeared underwater.

Siena, needing to make sure that the girl was safe, leaned so far out beyond the side of the ship that James wrapped his arm over her waist, afraid that she would fall into the waves.

The Mermaid finally reappeared on the surface, waving to them from the midst of her sisters. "I... I can talk again! Thank you!"

Even as the first streaks of the rosy dawn brightened the eastern horizon, the Mermaids vanished into the fathomless sea, singing merrily.

Siena straightened up, her eyes brimming with tears of joy as she turned to James.

"Who are you? What have you done to the Prince's foundling? Help, someone help me!" The unexpected voice piercing the remnants of the night, rousing the people sleeping on the board made Siena who was still still standing precariously close to the edge of the deck, almost fall into the waves.

"We better leave now," James said.

He reached out for her, drawing her close even as he pulled her jewel from beneath her bodice while she wrapped her arms around his waist, hiding her face in his chest, breathing him in.

He smelled of safety and comfort, his scent was the only familiar thing in this strange world, she realised, hoping that they wouldn't be caught, even as the ship's deck dissolved under their feet.