Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4)(25)

How do you greet a psycho killer? she wondered, then decided on the standard approach. “Good morning, Orfeo.”

Orfeo turned, smiling. “Ah, Astrid! Good morning!” he said, straightening. “I trust you slept well?”

“Well enough,” Astrid said guardedly.

“Sargassum fusiforme,” he said, holding up a cutting. “Helpful in combating fin rot. One of my bull sharks has a nasty case of it.”

Astrid was about to ask why he kept bull sharks, one of the ocean’s fiercest predators, then realized she probably didn’t want to know.

Orfeo tucked the cutting into his basket. “I was a healer once,” he explained. “A long time ago. I set bones. Drew infections from wounds. Cooled fevers. Cured all kinds of diseases. Yet I couldn’t save the one person who meant everything to me.”

“Orfeo, I need to know why you brought me here.”

Astrid expected him to try to evade the question again, but he surprised her.

“Because I want to heal you,” he replied.

Astrid felt both frightened and compelled by the prospect. “Heal me? How?”

Orfeo placed his shears in the basket. “Tell me about your voice. Your singing voice. What happened to it?”

Astrid was surprised again. She hadn’t expected a question in response to her own. “I—I lost it when I was little. Right after M?nenhonn?r.”

“What were you doing?”

“The usual things, I guess. Playing with friends. Dancing. Eating M?nenkager,” Astrid replied.

She realized that Orfeo might not know what those were. “They’re little round, iced cakes,” she explained. “They look like the full moon. The baker drops a silver drupe into the batter, then pours the batter into the molds. Whoever gets the coin in her cake has good luck for the coming year.”

Orfeo was listening raptly. “Did you get the coin?”

“No. And I didn’t get any luck, either. Unless you count bad luck,” Astrid said wryly.

“Did anyone get the coin? Any of the other children you were playing with?” Orfeo pressed.

Astrid thought back to the festival. She pictured her brother, Ragnar. Her merlfriends. That lumpsucker Tauno.

“Oddly enough, no,” she finally said. “At least not that I can remember. And I think I would remember. Anyone who gets a coin always makes a big deal out of it.” She wondered why she’d never thought about this before.

“May I feel your throat?” Orfeo asked. His eyes were hidden, as usual, behind his glasses, but the rest of his face had taken on an intense look.

“Why do you want to heal me? What do you want in return?” Astrid asked warily. “Maybe you don’t want to heal me. Maybe you want to choke the life out of me instead. Is that the reason I’m here? So you can kill me? Then there will be only five of us left, and your plan to unleash your pet monster will be that much easier.” Her words were blunt. The time for beating around the coral was over.

As she spoke, a look of pain sliced across Orfeo’s face. “I would never hurt you, Astrid. Never,” he said. “I only want to help you. Can’t you see that, you foolish mermaid?”

For a few seconds, Astrid’s defenses slipped. The longing to sing again was so deep, so desperate, that she pushed her fears aside and with a quick nod, gave her assent. A second later, she felt Orfeo’s hands on her throat. She tried not to flinch as his fingers probed the soft area under her jaw, then worked their way down her neck. She felt him press along the right side of her larynx, then the left. She gasped.

“Painful?” Orfeo asked.

“Very,” Astrid rasped.

“Here?” He gently pressed again.

“Yes!” Astrid cried out, slapping his hand away. She coughed, and a metallic taste filled her mouth.

“Astrid, listen to me. You need to be very brave, and very still. Can you do that?”

“Why?”

“So I can give you your magic back.”

Astrid looked at him uncertainly.

“Trust me, child. You have to trust me.”

Trust you? Are you out of your mind? she was about to shout.

But the words died in her throat, because she found, bewilderingly, that she did trust him. Maybe it was the blood they shared. Maybe it was instinct. Something was telling her that Orfeo meant what he was saying—that he would heal her, if she would let him.

“Okay,” she said in a quavery voice.

Orfeo placed his thumbs on either side of her voice box. He took a steadying breath, then squeezed in and up at the same time.

Astrid screamed. Her body went rigid. She tried to get her breath but couldn’t.

“Cough, Astrid!” Orfeo commanded.

But Astrid barely heard him.

Wrong, I was wrong…oh, gods…he’s killing me! her mind shrieked.

“Cough, Astrid. Now!” Orfeo shouted.

Astrid brought up a thick, choking mass, and spat it out.

“Again!” Orfeo ordered.

Blood filled Astrid’s mouth. She spat it out, but more came. Orfeo was still shouting, but she couldn’t hear him. She was conscious of nothing but pain.

It was a trick. Orfeo had lured her here to kill her. She was his enemy, a mermaid who’d vowed to destroy Abbadon, his creation. Why would he ever want to help her?