The Little Mermaid. Chapter Two.

At dawn, the Little Mermaid returned to the bay. The sand lay smooth, marked only by the tracks of gulls. The shore was deserted.
She waited as the sun climbed higher, but no one came.
She returned to the palace and kept her sorrow hidden in silence. Many times she longed to shed tears, but mermaids cannot cry.
The days passed until she could bear it no longer and told her sisters everything.
They comforted her and promised to help her find him.
They swam close to shore, following cliffs and coves. They found the remains of ships the waves had dashed against the merciless rocks.
They searched among the fishermen setting out from the villages, but none resembled the young prince.
At sunset, they reached a great harbor.
Beyond it, on a sweep of stone and gardens, stood a pale building.
It was the palace of the human world.
The Little Mermaid gazed at it for a long time, her heart full of hope.
Now she knew where to swim each night.
The palace seemed to be made of light: pale stone walls, open arches, and stairways descending almost to the water.
A narrow canal flowed in from the sea like a peaceful river.
The Little Mermaid followed it, keeping to the shadows of the docks.
In their boats, fishermen talked as they mended sails.
—Our prince has a good heart. Yesterday he came down to the docks and asked after Mateo, the man wounded in the storm.
—That is just like him. They say a young woman from the temple saved him... A miracle.
The Little Mermaid went a little farther upstream, reaching one of the palace stairways that descended into the water. Night was falling.
From there, she could see a high balcony with a marble railing and curtains stirring in the breeze.
At that very moment, the prince appeared.
He stood gazing out, believing himself alone beneath the moon.
When lanterns were lit in the courtyard, the Little Mermaid slowly withdrew along the canal.
At last, she knew where he lived. And she knew she would return.
As time passed, she came to know humans and understand how different they were. Little by little, the desire to become one of them and live beside the prince filled her heart.
One night, the Little Mermaid sat beside her grandmother beneath the pink willow.
—Grandmother... do humans live forever?
—No, little one. Humans die as well. Their lives are shorter than ours, but they have immortal souls. We live for three hundred years. Afterward, nothing remains of us but foam.
—And what about them? What happens to their souls?
—Their lives are short, but their souls rise above the clouds to discover a heavenly world, just as we discover the surface.
—I... want that. I want a soul that will never fade, so that one day I may go to that world.
I would give all my three hundred years for it!
—Do not think that way, child. Our life is long and good.
—Then can I never go to that world?
—Well... perhaps you could. If a man loved you above all else and a priest blessed your union, a soul would be breathed into you, and you would share in his.
—And if he did not...?
—If he loved another and joined his life to hers, then at sunrise... you would become foam.
The Little Mermaid looked upward, to where the water turned to light.
Without another word, the Little Mermaid made her decision: she would visit the Sea Witch. She had always feared her, but her purpose was firm.
She left the gardens behind and entered a dark region.
The water was warm, and neither flowers nor seaweed grew upon the seabed.
Bubbles rose from cracks in the ground and burst above her.
A forest of sea polyps greeted her, waving their arms like living weeds.
They stretched toward her as if trying in vain to seize her. She saw the remains of many creatures that had perished in their grasp.
She swam through their shadows without stopping.
Farther on, the sea turned a deep green.
Broken anchors and shipwrecked timbers marked the way across the sand. On either side, two immense walls of jagged rock rose like guards along the twisting path.
At the end, the walls met to form a hollow sheltered from the waves.
A dark cave opened in the rock. High above, the Sea Witch hovered, watching her.
Half her body was made of shadow, like black vapor dissolving into the water. She wore a mantle as dark as her lower form, and her skin was as pale as the sand below.
She began to speak without raising her voice. Yet the Little Mermaid heard her perfectly across the distance, as though her words echoed from everywhere at once:
—I know what you seek, daughter of the sea. You want to be rid of your fish tail and have human legs, so you can win the prince's love and gain an immortal soul.
—I can give you legs. You will remain beautiful and keep your light, graceful step, and no one will dance as you do.
—But every time you walk or dance, you will feel as though a thousand knives were piercing your legs.
—No... it does not matter. I am willing to pay any price. I want an immortal soul.
—But remember! You can never become a mermaid again. And unless you win that man's love, becoming his wife and he your husband, you will turn into sea foam.
—I... accept.
—So be it. But in return for the potion that will make you human, you must pay me with the finest thing you possess.
—No creature on land or sea can sing as you do. And so, you will give me your voice.
—But if I give you my voice, what will I have left?
—Your beautiful form, your graceful step, and your eloquent eyes may yet captivate a human heart.
—What is it? Do you no longer love that man so dearly?
—It will not hurt.
For a few moments, she trembled, uncertain what to do. Then she agreed and surrendered her voice to the witch.
The witch swept her arms through the water, and a glass vial filled with clear liquid appeared in the hands of the Little Mermaid, now mute.
—Sit upon the shore and drink it before dawn.
On her way back, the polyps that had frightened her only moments before now drew away, fleeing from what she carried in her hands.
Though her longing to become human urged her onward, she could not keep herself from going near the palace. Her father, her sisters, her beloved grandmother... How deeply she would miss them. But she could not cry.
She took one last look at the distant palace, then swam away toward the surface.
She reached the same marble stairway descending into the water where she had first seen the prince. There, she raised the potion. Out of the water, the glass was so cold that it almost burned her hand.
She opened the vial and drank. It felt as though the edge of a sword had split her fish tail in two.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the bright sky. She tried to rise, but it felt as though a thousand knives were piercing the soles of her feet. It was just as the Sea Witch had warned.
Even so, she smiled.
—Who are you?
A nearby voice asked. The prince was staring at her in wonder.
She looked sadly at him. She could not speak.
—Do not be afraid. Can you stand?
The prince helped her to her feet and took her into his palace.
There, they dressed her in the finest clothes and led her to a hall where other young people were laughing, singing, and dancing.
She knew her voice would have shone above all the others. But since she could not sing, she chose to dance.
Her delicate beauty and the grace of her dancing drew every eye, even the prince's. And though her feet hurt as if she were dancing on knives, she did not stop for a moment.
Everyone was enchanted. The prince called her “his little treasure,” and from that moment on, he always kept her among his dearest companions.