Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch by Serena Valentino Read Free Book Online Page A

golden light that surrounded Ariel, ripping her merbody asunder, turning the mermaid into the thing her father hated most: a human.
    A human under the sea.
    It wasn’t Ursula’s concern that the girl could no longer breathe underwater.
She will need to find a way to the surface. Or not.

I t had been several weeks since Pflanze had arrived at Morningstar Castle, and everything she’d heard on the day of her arrival was true. She and Tulip were up in the king’s highest tower, looking down on all of Tulip’s “gentlemen callers,” as Nanny liked to say. There were at least five and forty of them, all waiting for the slightest glimpse of Tulip. The guardsmen had gone out more than once to get the young men to stop fighting with each other, reminding them all that the princess would not care for brutish men who brawled like common drunkards at the local tavern.
    It didn’t seem to help matters. The men kept vying for Tulip’s attention, some of them in more unique ways than others. One of the men, for example, stood out from the rest. He was wearing a sky-blue velvet frock coat with gold embellishments on his lapels and white lace ruffles at his sleeves and cravat. He played a lute decorated with lovely matching ribbons, which he used to compose songs about Tulip’s beauty.
    “Her skin is like honey, her eyes like the sky. Her hair is like sunshine—”
    Tulip slammed the window before she could hear the rest of the song.
    “This is just too much, Nanny! Really! It’s getting rather ludicrous, don’t you think?” she asked, frustrated with the endless parade of suitors.
    “It really is, my dear! What possesses them?” She quickly caught herself and added, “Not that your beauty shouldn’t command such attention, my dear!”
    Tulip sighed. “I wish I knew. It’s like a mania! Something has come over these men and taken hold of their senses! I’d feel sorry for them if it weren’t so…annoying!”
    “I agree, my dear! I think we should call upon Circe!”
    “Call her? How do you suppose we do that?”
    “I have my ways, my dear! You just leave it to old Nanny and Miss Pflanze here.”
    Pflanze gave Nanny a puzzled look and let out an inquisitive meow, wondering what the old woman had in mind.
    “Pflanze? What do you want with her?” Tulip asked. “You get queerer every day, Nanny!” Nanny gave Tulip a kiss on the cheek as she scooped up Pflanze and took her off to their mysterious errand.
    “Come on, my dear girl. I should like your company for a while.”
    I t wasn’t customary by any means for Nanny to be down in the kitchens, searching for this thing or that. And it was clear the chef was rather put out when Nanny suggested he take a nice afternoon walk.
    “You’re looking a little peaky, dear. You really should spend more time in the sun. It will do you some good to get out and about. Perhaps a walk?”
    The chef grumbled, leaving the little cakes he had lined up to decorate sitting on the marble counter, not wanting to argue with Nanny.
    Nanny set out a saucer of heavy cream for Pflanze while she got a few things together. Pflanze knew at once what she was up to. Nanny intended to do a scrying spell. Pflanze had seen her witches do it many times in the years she’d spent with them. She heard Nanny in the pantry muttering to herself while gathering the herbs she needed.
    “Everyone thinks Nanny is a silly old woman, but she knows a trick or two.” Pflanze watched Nanny break an egg into a wooden bowl. It floated on the surface of the water like a strange eye, but that’s what it was, wasn’t it—an eye? A way to see into the world. The sisters had already tried finding Circe that way, but perhaps Nanny’s magic would find her where the sisters’ could not. Pflanze was pleased that she was right about Nanny’s being a witch.
    “That’s right, precious!” Nanny said to Pflanze, who was leisurely drinking her cream. “And I know who you belong to! But never mind that now. They