“It’s my wound. She can smell the blood. We’re chowder,” Sera said.
“We might be able to make it back to the doorway,” Sophia whispered.
As if sensing her intent, the huge dragon scrabbled across the ceiling toward the entrance.
Sera glanced around wildly, searching for a way out. “Soph, look!” she said excitedly. “To the right of the trough!”
“Please don’t tell me it’s another dragon.”
“There’s a crack in the floor! I think we can fit through it!”
Sera slowly swung the illuminata around to her right. Sophia’s eyes followed the light. A section of floor had heaved up—probably, Sera reasoned, from the dragons stomping around on it. The broken pieces had been driven into one another like plates of ice on a polar sea. Two of them didn’t meet entirely, leaving a space that was small, but maybe just big enough for a mermaid to fit through.
“We don’t know what’s down there,” Sophia said.
“We know what’s up here, though. And it’s not good,” Sera said. “Start moving. Nice and slow.”
Sophia did, and Sera followed. They were only a few feet away from the crack when the big dragon hissed. She crouched, ready to spring, and then the sound of voices coming from the stables stopped her. Her head swiveled toward the noise. That was all the two mermaids needed.
“Forget slow!” Sera said. “Hurry, Soph!”
Sophia shot into the crack. Sera was right behind her, still holding her illuminata. She had just enough time to see that they were in some sort of underground room when the big dragon started roaring.
Sera and Sophia peered out of the crack. The death riders, torches blazing, had stopped in the safety of the doorway. The dragon, furious she couldn’t get at them, was shrieking now and flapping her enormous wings.
“I think we’re safe. For the moment,” Sera said. “The death riders won’t come after us unless they want to get eaten.”
She started to swim away from the crack, intending to explore the space they’d swum into, but Sophia stopped her. “First, we need to do something about that hole in your tail. Sit.”
Sera didn’t argue. She sat down, leaned against a wall, and closed her eyes. Sophia untied the blood-soaked bandage and grimaced at the wound. Fresh blood was leaking from it. The spear had torn Sera’s flesh horribly.
“Wow. Gods. This is a mess. So’s your face. You’re as white as a barnacle.”
Sera managed to smile. “Great bedside manner, Soph.”
Shaking her head, Sophia asked Sera for her dagger, cut the sleeves off her own jacket, and used them to fashion a new bandage.
A few minutes later, she said, “There. Done. Hopefully that will do the trick until we get back to HQ.”
“Thanks,” Sera said. The pain was still bad, but the bleeding had slowed.
“Any idea where we are?” Sophia asked, glancing around.
“Not a clue,” Sera replied.
She rose, held up her illuminata, and looked around. The room was hexagonal, and every square inch of it was covered in mosaics. Painted urns stood on the floor. Ancient bronze lava lamps hung from the ceiling.
“I thought you knew everything about the reggia,” Sophia said.
“So did I,” Sera said, her eyes wide, her voice full of wonder. “I’ve listened to every conch there is on this place. And no one—no courtier or minister or historian ever mentioned a room under the stables.”
“Sera…those figures,” said Sophia, pointing to one of the six walls. “They’re not gods. And they’re not mer.”
Sera swam to one of the walls and gazed up at the intricate mosaic of the man who adorned it. “They’re human,” she said, running her fingertips over the man’s sandaled feet.
Each figure had a name above it, written in ancient Mermish. Sera’s pulse quickened as she read them aloud. “Merrow, Nyx, Sycorax, Pyrrha, Navi, Orfeo…the Six Who Ruled. This is a tomb, Soph, only it has no bodies in it. I bet Merrow had this built in memory of her fellow mages.”
Sera knew that Merrow was the only one of the Six who had survived the fall of Atlantis. The other mages’ bodies were never recovered. As her eyes traveled over the figures, she saw that they were all depicted the same way—gazing out at the viewer, left hand at his or her side, right hand raised to chest height, palm up. Resting on each palm was a different object. Sera gasped as she realized what they were.
“Great Neria, it’s all here in this room…” she whispered, trembling with excitement. “The answers I’ve been trying to find ever since I entered the Iele’s caves are right in front of me!”
She and Ling had discovered what three of the six talismans were when they visited the ruins of Atlantis, but they’d had to flee for their lives before learning about the rest. “Sera, check this out,” Sophia said. “Merrow’s holding—”
“—a blue diamond,” Sera said.
“And Navi’s got—”
“—a moonstone.”
“Orfeo’s holding—”
“—a black pearl.”
“How did you know that?” Sophia asked. “You’re not even looking at them.”
Sera didn’t answer. She was still gazing at the figure before her—a regal, dark-skinned man with long black braids and blind eyes.
“Nyx has a ruby ring,” she said out loud, wanting to engrave the image into her memory.
She swam to the next wall. A tall, strongly built woman with long red hair and intense blue eyes stared back at her. “Pyrrha has a gold coin with an image of Neria on it,” she said, her excitement growing.
The mosaic on the next wall featured a slender woman with onyx-black hair and almond-shaped eyes. Sera examined it closely. “Sycorax has a white…is that a puzzle ball? Looks like it has a phoenix on it. Remember that, Sera. You have to remember,” she told herself.
“Hey, Sera?” Sophia said. “What’s going on?”
“We know where they are. I discovered where Merrow hid them thanks to a conch in the Ostrokon. And now we know what they are—all of them. We know, and Rafe Mfeme doesn’t!” Sera said, still staring at Sycorax.
“Um, okay. Which means?” Sophia prompted.
Sera turned to Sophia, her eyes triumphant. “Which means that maybe, just maybe, we actually can do this!”
“WHAT EXACTLY ARE you talking about?” Sophia said, her patience with Seraphina’s cryptic comments wearing thin. “Would you please tell me?”
Sera struggled with herself. Only a handful of mer knew the enormity of the battle they were fighting. It was safer that way. Spies were everywhere.
“You can trust me. With your life. You know that,” Sophia said, as if sensing the reason behind Sera’s hesitation.
It was true. Sophia had proven herself worthy of Sera’s trust outside the Traitors’ Gate. Also, Sera realized, as regina and leader of the Black Fins, she was currently in a compromised position—badly wounded and a long way from safety. There was still a good chance she’d be captured. If that happened, how would she get the information she’d just learned to Neela, Yaz, and the others? She had to rely on Sophia.
Taking a deep breath, Sera started to talk. “Our fight…it’s bigger than Miromara. It’s as big as all the waters of the world and every creature in them,” she said.
While Sophia listened, wide-eyed, Sera explained that the mage Orfeo had created a monster called Abbadon and had used it to destroy Atlantis. Then she told her that she and five others—Neela, Ava, Astrid, Becca, and Ling—had been summoned by Baba Vrăja, the leader of the Iele, a coven of river witches, and had been given the task of destroying the monster.
“Why you?” Sophia asked.
“Because each of us is a descendant of one of the Six Who Ruled,” Sera explained. “We have their magic inside us and it gets stronger when we’re together. Vrăja hoped it would be strong enough to defeat Abbadon.”
“But why did Orfeo create that thing in the first place? Why did he let it destroy Atlantis?”
�
��Because he was angry. And sad. And out of his mind,” Sera said. “His wife, Alma, died, and he couldn’t accept her death. He decided to march on the underworld and take her back, but he needed help, so he went to Morsa, the death goddess. He sacrificed people to her.”
“He did what?” Sophia said, appalled. “We never learned that in school!”
“No, we didn’t,” Sera said ruefully. “Merrow didn’t want anyone to know the truth; she kept it secret. She thought the mer would be safer that way. I can almost see why. I found the temple where the sacrifices were made. I touched the blood, heard the victims’ voices. It was horrible.” She shuddered at the memory.
“Why didn’t anyone stop him?” asked Sophia.
“By the time his fellow Atlanteans found out, it was too late. Morsa, the death goddess, had given Orfeo a talisman—a black pearl—that made him very powerful. Ling and I learned this from a vitrina we met in the ruins of Atlantis. She said that Orfeo beseeched Morsa to share the secrets of immortality with him, and that he somehow used them to create Abbadon. The monster was incredibly powerful. All the other mages could do was kill Orfeo, imprison Abbadon, and then sink it in the Southern Sea.”
“Imprison Abbadon? Not kill it? You mean it’s—”
“—still alive? Yes. But locked away forever. Or so Merrow thought. The prison can only be opened or closed by fitting a certain six talismans into its lock,” Sera said, gesturing at the walls. “The objects that the mages are holding in these mosaics are those talismans. Merrow hid them in different waters to make sure no one could ever use them to free Abbadon. But someone else has been trying to find them. We don’t know who, but we’re trying to stay ahead of him. So far, we’ve found two of the talismans—a blue diamond that belonged to Merrow and a moonstone that Navi owned. When we have them all, we can open the prison and try to kill Abbadon.”
“Hold on, Sera…you’re going to try to kill a monster that the most powerful mages ever couldn’t kill? That’s insane!”
Sera nodded solemnly. “Yeah, it probably is.”
“And just how are you going to do that?”
Sera sighed. “I wish I knew. But, according to the Iele, we have to. Before the shadowy someone frees it.”
Sophia was quiet when Sera finished. She looked like she was in shock. “That is a big fight,” she finally said. “The biggest. I mean, as if trying to defeat your uncle and take back Miromara wasn’t enough.”
Sera was about to agree when a bolt of pain shot up her tail. Wincing, she bit back a cry. The excitement of finding Merrow’s secret rooms and the mosaics they contained had dulled the pain, but now it was coming back with a vengeance.
“What’s wrong?” Sophia asked, worried.
“My tail…” Sera said.
Sophia took her arm. “Sit down, Sera. You need to rest.”
Sera spun away. “No, we’ve got to get going.”
Sophia started to argue, but Sera cut her off. She turned around and looked deeply into her friend’s eyes.
“Soph, I’m still bleeding and the death riders are still out there,” she said. “I told you about the talismans because I trust you, but for another reason, too: if you make it back to HQ and I don’t, you need to tell Neela what we saw here. Promise me. The information can’t die with me.”
Sophia shook her head. “You’re going to tell her yourself, Sera, because you’re going to make it back. I’m going to make you make it,” she said.
“Sophia, listen to me…”
“No, Sera, you listen. They don’t get to do this—Vallerio, Portia, Lucia, Mfeme. They don’t—” Her voice broke. She struggled to regain her composure. “I never told you why I joined the Black Fins. The death riders came to my house. They took my parents. I managed to grab my little brother and hide in our garden. He’s safe now, with friends. But my parents are missing. I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again.”
Sera’s heart ached. “I’m so sorry, Sophia,” she said. She knew the mermaid’s pain all too well. She’d lost her own parents to Vallerio and his death riders. Her brother, Desiderio, was missing.
“They don’t get to hurt mer and tear families apart all for power and gold,” Sophia continued, her expression grim and determined. “I’m a Black Fin because I want to do everything I can to stop them. Which means getting you back to HQ. There’s got to be a way out besides the crack we swam through. Merrow got in and out of here, after all. I know she was powerful, but even she couldn’t swim through stone.”
Sera nodded wearily. “Let’s start looking for it.”
“No, I’m going to look for it. You are going to sit down, close your eyes, and gather your strength.”
Sera protested, but Sophia was firm, so she sat and rested her throbbing tail. Across the room, Merrow’s image gazed down at her, and Sera had the unshakable feeling that her ancestor was helping her.
“Thanks for this,” Sera whispered. “Thanks for the Black Fins and the manta rays. Thanks for getting us into the vaults. And for saving us from the dragons.”
Before she closed her eyes, she thanked her ancestor for one more thing—for the fighter by her side who was brave, loyal, and strong.
For an ally and a friend.
For Sophia.
WITHOUT ANY WARNING, the trawler’s engines stopped. Their deep thrum had been a constant for the past three weeks, and the sudden silence hung ominously in the water.
“Why are we stopping? What’s happening?” a mermaid cried out.
Ling, who’d been sitting down, her tail stretched out in front of her, her back against the cold steel of the ship’s hull, was instantly alert. We’re here. Wherever here is, she thought with a sense of dread. You’ve got one last chance. It’s now or never.
The mermaid who’d cried out spoke again. “Please,” she said, her voice trembling with fear. “Where are they taking us?”
Ling saw that the mermaid was very close by. Two small children clung to her.
“Shut up, will you? You’re making it worse!” a merman yelled.
“Don’t shout at her. She’s scared,” Ling said.
“We’re all scared!” the merman shot back.
“But we’re not all acting like jerks,” said Ling.
The merman lunged at her, but a chain brought him up short.
“Momma, I’m hungry,” one of the mermaid’s children said. “Why did the noise stop? I don’t like this!”
“Shh, it’s okay,” the mermaid soothed. “They’ll bring us some food soon. It’ll be all right.”
But it wouldn’t be. In fact, Ling was sure things were about to go from bad to worse. She needed to escape before that happened. She had to find a way to tell Sera and the others what she’d learned aboard this ship.
There was only one way out, though—through the door that separated the prisoners’ containment area from the rest of the hold. Beyond the door was a water lock. The death riders used it to enter and exit the ship. Ling had watched them operate it when they brought her aboard; she had tried to memorize which buttons they pushed on the control panel. If she could get to it, she might be able to let herself out. But she was shackled to the ship’s hull and the guards had the keys. They wore them on rings secured to their belts with a loop and toggle, right next to their speargun holsters.
She’d tried to steal the keys before. Once by pretending to collapse and fall against a guard. Another time by tugging on a guard’s arm as she begged for food. The guards were wary of prisoners’ tricks, though, and all she ever managed to get for her trouble was a slap.
But now the ship had stopped. Something was going on; she could sense it. Maybe that something would give her the chance she needed.
Ling, together with about three hundred other mer, was imprisoned aboard the Bedrieër, an immense trawler. The vessel’s hold was filled with salt water, but there were so many mer packed into it that the water had become murky and hard to breathe. The prisoners all had iron collars around their necks to prevent them from songcas
ting. Some—the ones the death riders thought troublesome—were chained to the wall. Ling’s time aboard the ship had taken its toll. Her left eye was badly bruised. Her hair was matted. The cast on her arm was dirty, and the once-bright orange patches on her ivory tail were dull.
The Bedrieër belonged to a brutal terragogg named Rafe Iaoro Mfeme. Or so Ling had thought when she’d first been hauled aboard it. She’d entered the waters of Qin and had been making her way home when death riders had surrounded her. After interrogating her on the whereabouts of the talismans—and getting nothing out of her—Mfeme had revealed his true identity.
He was Orfeo, the most powerful mage who’d ever lived.
He’d removed the sunglasses he constantly wore, revealing eyes that were empty, black voids. Ling’s blood had run cold at the sight of them. She’d realized that she’d seen him before—in a mirror in Atlantis. He’d tried to crawl out of it, to come after her and Sera, but Sera had broken the mirror before he could.
“You can’t be Orfeo. It’s impossible,” Ling had whispered. “You’re dead. You’ve been dead for four thousand years!”
Orfeo had laughed. “Anything is possible, Ling, if you want it badly enough.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ling had said.
But as he’d spoken, the rays of the setting sun had glinted off the black pearl he wore around his neck.
The pearl! Ling had thought, remembering that Orfeo’s talisman was a black pearl given to him by Morsa. Had he somehow used it to keep himself alive? That was the moment when Ling had believed him, with all her heart, and terror had gripped her—not for herself, but for her friends. They had no idea who Mfeme really was. Desperate to tell them, she’d tried to cast a convoca, but Orfeo had clamped an iron collar around her neck before she’d sung two words of the spell.
“There’s no need to warn your friends, Ling,” he’d said as he locked the collar. “I’m not going to kill them. Not yet. I want them alive so they can keep searching for the rest of the talismans. I thought Vallerio and his henchmen would have found them by now, but they’ve only obtained one—Merrow’s blue diamond.”
Waterfire Saga, Book Three: Dark Tide: A Deep Blue Novel Page 4