Astrid nodded, fighting to hold back tears. “It was the only way to stop him.”
“But he still meant something to you.”
“Yes, he did. He gave me my magic back. I’ll never forget it. Or him.”
When her emotion finally subsided, Astrid released Sera and hugged the others.
“Good acting job, merl,” Neela said admiringly. “You had me fooled.”
“Me, too,” Sera admitted. “I should have known you would never go over to Orfeo’s side, though. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
Astrid shook her head. “I needed you to doubt me,” she said. “The whole performance had to be convincing. If Orfeo doubted that I was on his side, I never would’ve gotten near the talismans.”
“I could sense your intention, mina,” Ava said. “I saw your heart. It was shining like the sun. I could feel the courage in it. Coco’s, too.”
“I wanted to stop you,” Sera said to Astrid. “Ava’s the reason I didn’t. She held me back, or I might’ve blown the whole thing.”
Ava smiled proudly.
“Coco was in on it, too?” Becca asked. She’d joined the others. Her waterfire was still burning.
“Yes,” Astrid said. “Orfeo gets mer to do what he wants by threatening to hurt those they love. When the fighting started, I told him there was a child that you all cared for, and that she was probably in the camp. Orfeo told me to find her. I did. Coco knew who I was, and as soon as I told her about my plan, she was in. I tied her up and brought her to the clearing. Orfeo never suspected a thing. She’s very brave.”
“Where is she now?” Neela asked.
“Hiding in a sea cave just east of the camp. She told me about the cave, and I instructed her to stay there with the talismans until I came for her. After both Orfeo and Abbadon were dead.”
“One down, one to go,” Neela said.
All six mermaids looked at the Carceron. Becca’s waterfire was burning low. In a moment, it would be out. The gate was still hanging ajar. A silence fell over them.
Sera was the first to break it. “This is it, merls. This is why Vrăja summoned us. Why we hunted for the talismans. Why we’re here.”
“Can we do this?” Neela asked.
“Like we have a choice?” Ling said.
“We can do this,” Sera said decisively. “Together.” She turned to Ava. “You thought the gods went silent on you, Ava, but they didn’t. You have the answer you’ve spent your whole life searching for. You’ve always had it. The gods didn’t take your sight just so you could survive the Okwa Naholo; they took it so you’d develop another kind of vision—the kind that lets you see deep down inside someone. If you hadn’t seen inside Astrid just now, who knows what would have happened. When we get inside the Carceron, turn that vision on the monster, daughter of Nyx, and tell us what you see.”
Ava nodded. A determined smile graced her lips.
Sera turned to Ling next. “Ling, Abbadon is surely the noisiest monster ever made. It howls and screams and spews rage. There must be a reason for that rage, and I think it lies not in the monster’s words, but in the silences between them. You’ve broken through other impossible silences, daughter of Sycorax, and you can break through this one. I know you can.”
“Becca,” Sera said, putting her hands on her friend’s shoulders, “you’re the most practical, most strategic thinker of us all. Because of you, we have the right weapons loaded with the right ammo, we have warm clothing, and the right number of tents. If anyone will be able to guess the monster’s next move, it will be you. Daughter of Pyrrha, help us forge our way through the Carceron.”
Sera moved to Neela and took her hands. Neela’s bioluminescent skin had turned sky blue. “Our shining star. Our moon and sun,” she said to her best friend. “You kept me going when I’d lost everything. You keep us going now. You lift our spirits and our hopes. We’re about to swim into the heart of darkness. Daughter of Navi, keep the light before us. Please.”
And then there was only Astrid. Sera looked into her eyes and was silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, Sera’s voice was full of feeling. “You were my enemy when we first met back in the Iele’s caves. Now you’re my friend. We were both afraid—of each other, of ourselves. Now we’ve learned to make fear our ally, to listen to it. I’m listening now, Astrid, and it’s telling me that the greatest mage who ever lived created Abbadon and that it’s so powerful, that one of us, or all of us, might not come back out of the Carceron. But it’s also telling me that we’ve got the daughter of Orfeo at our side. If anyone can understand his creation, it’s you. And if you can understand it, you might be able to defeat it.”
Sera held her hands out. Everyone else did, too. As soon as the last hands had been clasped and the circle closed, Sera felt it—a rush of power as strong and unstoppable as a tidal wave. She looked at her friends, at the brave, stubborn, hopeful mermaids beside her. She remembered Mahdi and Desiderio back home in Miromara, and her heart swelled with love.
She let her eyes linger on each of their faces. Then she took a deep breath and said, “It’s time.”
The six mermaids released one another’s hands and swam to the gate.
Yazeed was there, his tail bandaged. Styg and Rök were with him. “Let us come with you,” he said.
Sera shook her head. “No, Yaz. It started with us; it finishes with us.”
Steeling herself for the biggest battle of her life, she swam inside the prison.
A SCHOOL OF ICEFISH, scaleless and silvery, drifted by the six mermaids as they made their way across the open corridor behind the prison’s high exterior wall.
“This was called the Death Run,” Sera said, gesturing to the passage. “According to the conchs I listened to about Atlantis, there were guards with crossbows patrolling on top of the walls. If a prisoner escaped from his cell, he still had to make it across the Death Run. But no one ever did.”
“I wonder if we’ll make it across the Death Run,” said Astrid.
“The cellblocks are behind that,” Sera continued, pointing to the prison’s inner wall “They were built like a labyrinth to confuse any escapees. Guards used a series of levers to shift the hallways and staircases every day.”
“Abbadon could be anywhere in there,” said Becca.
“There’s a courtyard in the center of the cellblocks where the prisoners could exercise. It has a domed ceiling made of thick panels of glass set into metal frames. If I were an enraged homicidal monster, I’d try to lure us there,” Sera said.
“Why?” Ava asked.
“Easier to kill us. More room,” Becca said.
Sera nodded.
“So, I guess that’s where we’re headed,” Neela said with a sigh. “Because why stop swimming straight into the jaws of death now?”
“Any idea how to get inside?” Ling asked.
“The entrance is there,” Sera said, pointing at an arched doorway. “We’ll have to figure out the way to the courtyard once we’re inside.”
The six friends all cast illuminatas as they swam through the doorway. Becca hooked arms with Ava.
“If we’re going to defeat Abbadon, we have to find its weak spot,” Sera said, leading the way down a dark, narrow hall. “Astrid, did Orfeo tell you anything about Abbadon while you were with him?”
“Like how to kill it?” Astrid asked, sardonically. “No. He kept me busy practicing songspells pretty much nonstop.”
“While I was Lucia’s prisoner—” Sera began.
“Wait…what?” Astrid said.
“I’ll give you the details later, but I spent some time in Alítheia’s den—”
“Miromara’s big scary bronze spider?” Astrid asked. “The same who I saw clanking through the camp?”
“That’s her,” Sera said. “She told me that Abbadon’s made of immortal souls.”
“Immortal souls. As in, can’t die. Ever. Which means there is no weak spot,” Astrid said. She sighed. “Is it too late to change my mind about this?�
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“Abbadon is so powerful. If only we knew where its strength comes from, we might be able to block it,” Becca said.
The mermaids fell quiet as the cells loomed into view. Their doors were made of iron bars sunk deep into the stone walls. Large padlocks secured them. The illuminatas did little to dispel the gloom.
“Maybe the souls give Abbadon its power,” Ava said, resuming the conversation.
“And a talisman,” Ling added.
“But it doesn’t have a talisman. There are only six,” Neela countered. “The black pearl’s still on Orfeo, and Coco has the other five.”
“No, there was one more,” Ling reminded them. “Orfeo had a talisman before he had the black pearl.”
“The emerald!” Becca exclaimed.
“Exactly,” Ling said. “When Sera and I were in Atlantis, we talked to a vitrina. She told us that Orfeo destroyed his original talisman—an emerald given to him by Eveksion, the god of healing. He ground it up and put it into the wine of the people he sacrificed to make them healthy and strong.”
“But he didn’t destroy it. He couldn’t have,” Becca said. “The talismans are gifts from the gods and can’t be destroyed. He only changed its form.”
“So, Abbadon’s not only immortal, it’s powered by a talisman?” Astrid said in disbelief. “We’re chum, merls.”
She was at the front of the group, swimming backward as she talked, when suddenly a hand shot through the bars of a cell. Fingers wrapped themselves around her neck.
Astrid’s eyes widened in terror, a gasp escaped her. It felt as if those icy fingers had wrapped themselves around her heart.
“Hey, get away from her!” Neela cried.
She raced to Astrid and pried the fingers off her neck. As she was pulled clear of the cell door, Astrid could see a face pressed to the bars, framed by a mop of shaggy hair, frosted by ice. Dark eyes burned with malevolence. A vicious grin revealed a mouthful of rotten teeth.
“What is that thing?” she rasped, rubbing her neck.
“A ghost,” Sera replied. “The Carceron was in use right up to the destruction of Atlantis. There would have been prisoners in the cells when Merrow and the others herded Abbadon inside.”
“So they…they would’ve—” Ava started to say.
“Drowned,” Sera finished. “When Atlantis sank.”
“Wow. This just gets better and better,” Astrid said.
More faces appeared at cell doors. Astrid drew her sword.
A ghost saw it and chuckled deep in his throat. “What are you going to do, mermaid? Kill me?”
“Stay clear of the cells,” Sera ordered her friends. “Swim in the center of the corridor. Becs, keep a tight grip on Ava.”
As the mermaids swam past cell after cell, the ghosts inside called to them, trying to get them to come close, promising them that they would soon become ghosts, too. Looking up ahead, Astrid could see that the corridor ended in a T. She was relieved when they finally reached the end of it.
“Which way, Sera?” she asked.
“To the left, I think.”
“Um, nope. Not happening,” Astrid said, pointing down the hall.
Three ghostly men stood there. Their chests were bare, and they wore wrap skirts of linen pleated in the front, leather belts, heavy bronze bracelets, and menacing expressions.
“Guards,” Sera said. “This way,” she ordered. She darted to the right, then stopped dead. Another group was blocking the way.
As Astrid tried to figure out what to do, both sets of guards walked toward the mermaids, forcing them back to the center of the T.
“We’ll have to swim back the way we came,” she said.
But before they could, the guards on the left grabbed hold of a massive iron lever jutting from the wall. They threw their weight on it, pulling it down.
There was a deep groaning sound, and then the heavy scrape of stone against stone. The entire prison seemed to shake. Cracks appeared in the floor, and the corridor the mermaids had just swum down rose, forcing the mermaids up with it. The guards disappeared from view. With a booming thunk, the moving corridor slotted into its new position, and instead of staring at a stone wall, the mermaids found themselves looking down a new passageway.
“What happened?” Ava asked.
“The guards shifted the hallway. They’re driving us farther into the labyrinth,” Sera explained.
Astrid peered into the murky waters ahead. There were more cells, with more ghosts inside them, but no free-roaming guards.
“We’ve got to be on the lookout,” Becca said. “Ava, you’re going in the middle. Everyone else form a circle around her.”
The group made its way down the new corridor, and two more, before running into guards again. Just as before, the guards pulled a lever, but this time they lowered the corridor.
“They’re herding us,” Sera said. “Toward the courtyard.”
“Becca was right,” Ling said. “Abbadon wants to get us into an open space. So it’s easier to kill us.”
“And we still have no idea how to kill it,” Sera said.
“We better come up with something fast,” Neela said. She pointed ahead with her sword. A wide doorway yawned ahead of them. Light poured in from it. “There’s the courtyard.”
THE SIX MERMAIDS swam up to the doorway cautiously, weapons raised. When they reached it, everyone but Ava looked around, their eyes scanning the high walls, the remains of a fountain, hills of ice, but they saw nothing.
“It’s got to be here,” Sera whispered. “It led us here.”
Then they heard it: a short, sharp sound, like a shot. It sounded like ice cracking. Or glass.
Astrid looked up. “Great Neria,” she whispered. The others followed her gaze.
Abbadon clung to the glass ceiling with two of its hands; more were thrust out into the water, the eyes in the palms staring. Its sightless head hung down, scenting the water. Its body, the color of a shadow glazed red, was tensed and ready to spring.
“I’m the one who’s supposed to know how to undo this thing?” Astrid said. “Then we’re doomed. Because I don’t have the first clue.”
“We can do this, merls. Don’t lose your nerve,” Neela said bravely, glowing bright blue. “We can bring it to that monster.”
“Ava, anything?” Sera asked.
“I’m trying,” Ava said, “but it’s blocking me.”
“Becs—”
Becca was a stroke ahead of her. “Sera, you get out in front of it with me,” she said. “Astrid, take the back. Ling, you and Neela take the sides. Ava, stay here in the doorway, and keep focusing. We need to see inside it.”
At that very second, Abbadon sprang. It was so fast, the mermaids had no time to react. Its slashing claws caught Ling and sent her spinning. She hit a wall and sank to the floor with a deep gash in her right side. Blood poured out of it and her ribs showed whitely through her torn flesh.
This is how we’re all going out—fast and bloody, Sera thought grimly. Unless Ava can get a glimpse inside it. And Astrid can use what she sees to kill it.
“Hey! Hey, lumpsucker! Over here,” Astrid shouted, trying to draw the monster off Ling.
She swam close to Abbadon and jabbed it with her sword. It wheeled around instantly, and Astrid was nearly slashed herself, but the few seconds of distraction Astrid provided gave Sera time to grab Ling and get her underneath an overhang of ice.
Sera took off her jacket. “Press this against the wound,” she told her, then she swam back to help the others.
They took up the positions Becca had devised and began to harry the creature with songspells.
Neela launched a frag. It hit Abbadon in the back but did little more than enrage it.
Becca tried to encircle it with waterfire, but it deftly eluded the flames and backhanded her into an ice hill. As she struggled to get up, Astrid hurled a stilo.
Her spell hit home, tearing a chunk out of the monster’s shoulder. It roared and came after her.
She defended herself with her sword, slicing into one of its hands. It nearly grabbed her with its other hands, but Sera threw up a water wall and blocked it.
The mermaids kept at it, battling Abbadon with everything thing they had, but only managed to inflict small injuries.
Astrid, ducking Abbadon’s hands again, swam close to Sera now.
“We’re getting our tail fins kicked!” she shouted.
“It’s going to wear us down and crush us! And then it’ll get out of here! What if it breaks through the waterfire you cast over Orfeo and takes his pearl? What if Orfeo’s soul jumps into Abbadon?” Sera shouted back.
Before Astrid could respond, the monster charged, forcing them to dart off in opposite directions.
Come on! Figure this out! Astrid yelled at herself, terrified by the idea of Abbadon escaping.
She was Orfeo’s descendant. She was the one who’d spent time with him, who knew how he thought. But as hard as she tried, she still couldn’t figure out a way to kill his monster.
Abbadon charged her again, forcing her close to the doorway and Ava. Astrid took shelter there for a moment, pausing to catch her breath.
“You okay, Ava?” she asked, turning to look at her.
Heavy silver tears were brimming in Ava’s eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Astrid asked, alarmed. “Are you hurt?”
Ava shook her head. “I can see them,” she said in a choked voice. “I can see the souls. There are so many of them, Astrid, and they’re all in terrible pain. They want to be free. For four thousand years, they’ve wanted to be free.”
As Ava spoke, Abbadon backed Becca into an ice hill.
“No way!” Astrid shouted, streaking off.
She swung her sword with all her might, right into the monster’s leg. The blade bit deeply. Abbadon roared, spun around, and lunged at her. Astrid launched herself up, somersaulted over the monster’s head, and landed near the overhang where Ling was sheltering. Abbadon lunged again. Astrid shot under the overhang. The monster’s hands closed on water.
Astrid leaned against the back of the ice hill, panting. She looked at Ling. Her eyes were closed. She was very pale. Blood from her wound was seeping through the makeshift bandage.
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