Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4)(3)

“The Tower means danger. Not good,” Lafitte said, clucking his tongue. “Not good at all.”

Manon glanced at the seeing stone again. Inside it, the image of Ava was fading. The mermaid had swum deeper into the Spiderlair, too deep for the seeing stone to follow. Another image took its place: the brutal Captain Traho riding with his troops.

They were headed the wrong way; that was something. And even if they found out that the Okwa were in the Spiderlair and not the Blackwater, Ava still had a good head start on them. Then again, they were on hippokamps and she was on fin. They were strong and she was weak. They numbered two hundred and she was only one.

Fear, an emotion Manon Laveau was not accustomed to, wrapped its cold, thin fingers around her heart.

“Please, cher,” she whispered. “Hurry.”





SERAFINA SWAM TO the mouth of the cave, high in the side of a lonely, current-swept bluff, and peered into the black water. “They’re not coming,” she said.

“They are,” Desiderio countered. “They probably took a back current to throw off any trackers. It’s dangerous for the N?kki as well as us.”

Sera nodded, but she wasn’t convinced. While she continued to search the water for movement, the others floated around a waterfire, trying to warm themselves. She’d cast the fire small and weak. The last thing she wanted was to advertise their presence.

Sera, Desiderio, Yazeed, and Ling were in no-mer’s-waters, just over the border of the Meerteufel goblins’ realm. They would have preferred to hold this meeting at their stronghold in the Kargjord, but Guldemar, the Meerteufel chieftain, hated the N?kki—a tribe of arms dealers—and forbade them to enter his realm. Any found in his waters, he’d decreed, were to be shot on sight.

Sera didn’t like the N?kki either and wished she didn’t have to deal with them, but she had no choice. The death riders had just intercepted two weapons shipments. Under an agreement Sera had made with Guldemar, the Meerteufel were to supply the Black Fins with arms. The stolen shipments were the last two that Guldemar owed the resistance, and he’d refused to replace them. The death riders were not his problem, he’d said. He’d met his obligation.

Desperate, Sera had made plans to meet the N?kki here, in the lonely borderwaters of the North Sea. But would they come?

The loss of valuable armaments was bad, but far more troubling to Sera was the fact that the death riders had known when the weapons would be shipped and along what route. It confirmed what she’d suspected—that the Black Fin resistance had a spy in its midst. This traitor had done a great deal of damage to the resistance and was poised to do more. Sera had shared her plan to meet with the N?kki with her inner circle only, hoping to keep it a secret from the spy.

Play the board, not the piece, her mother, Regina Isabella, had advised, comparing the art of ruling to a chess game. Ever since Sera had learned that her uncle Vallerio was the one behind the invasion of Cerulea and her mother’s assassination, she’d been desperately trying to keep herself, and her Black Fins, out of checkmate.

Where are the N?kki? she wondered now, still gazing out at the dark waters. Did something spook them?

“Five more minutes, then we’re out of here,” she announced, returning to the group.

At that moment, the temperature in the cave plummeted and the waterfire burned low. Sera heard a noise behind her. She spun around, her hand on the dagger at her hip, her fighters at her back.

Three figures floated in the cave’s entrance. Their faces were hidden in the silt-covered folds of their hoods. They had long, powerful tails and looked like mer, but Sera knew they weren’t.

“N?kki,” she said silently, releasing her dagger. Shapeshifters. Wary and elusive, they could blend in with a crowd of mer, a school of fish, or a rock face within seconds.

A sickly sweet smell wafted from them, one that made Sera’s stomach clench—the smell of death. It took her back to the invasion of Cerulea and the rotting bodies of her merfolk lying in the ruins.

Instinctively, she touched the ring on her right hand. Mahdi had carved it from a shell for her, as an expression of his love. Thinking of him gave her courage.

“Welcome,” she said, nodding to her visitors.

The N?kki removed their hoods. Under them were mermen’s faces, handsome and fine. Their leader, dark-skinned and amber-eyed, his black hair worn long and loose, extended his hand. Sera took it. His grip was hard. His companions were amber-eyed, too. Their skin was pale. Long blond braids trailed down their backs.

“I’m Serafina, regina di Miromara. I’m grateful to you for coming. I know your journey was a dangerous one.”

“Kova,” the N?kki leader said. He nodded at the others. “Julma and Petos.”

As he spoke, Sera saw that his tongue was black and split at the tip like a snake’s. It unnerved her, but she kept her feelings hidden.

“Sit with us,” she said, gesturing toward the waterfire.

Something glinted darkly on the underside of her hand as she did. She glanced at it, and bit back a gasp. Her palm was streaked with blood. She must’ve cut herself without noticing, but how? On her dagger’s hilt? Hastily, she wiped the blood off on her jacket, hoping no one noticed, then joined the N?kki and the Black Fins around the fire.

Kova settled himself, flanked by Julma and Petos. Ling passed around a box of barnacles and a basket of keel worms. As the N?kki helped themselves, Kova brusquely asked, “What do you need?”