Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4)(38)

“This’ll never work,” said Jean Lafitte, wringing his hands. “The guards will shout for help. We’ll be caught and thrown in a cage ourselves. And then they’ll hang us from the gallows.”

Manon rolled her eyes. “What do you care if you hang? You’re a ghost!”

“Why’d we come here? This is such a bad idea!” Lafitte fretted.

“You want to leave that poor mermaid to the tender mercies of Captain Traho?” Manon asked.

“Yes, I do. Absolutely,” said Lafitte.

“Shh!” Sally scolded. “They’re almost at the cage.”

Manon and the three ghosts watched as the alligators moved into place. Louis crawled up to the guard in front and growled. The guard, who’d been dozing, jerked awake. His eyes grew as round as moon jellies.

“Holy silt! Vincenzo, there’s a giant gator here!” he whisper-shouted. “How the—”

“There’s one here, too!” the other guard whispered back, as Rene advanced. “Don’t make it mad. Just reach for your speargun…nice and slow, then—”

But before the guards even got their hands on their holsters, Antoine and Gervais struck. Two headless bodies sank to the swamp floor. As the alligators proceeded to feast, Manon moved in. The ghosts trailed her.

“Be careful, Manon! Those gators are feeding! Don’t get in between them!” Lafitte cautioned.

Manon paid him no heed. She tugged one body away from the alligators, then the other, turning them over in the water, searching for the keys to the mermaid’s cage. But they were nowhere to be found.

“How did I miss them?” she whispered.

“Maybe they fell on the ground,” Sally ventured.

Manon flipped her tail fins over the swamp floor, clearing away the silt, but she still didn’t find the keys.

Lafitte bit his nails. “This is taking too long! You haven’t even opened the cage yet. What if someone comes?”

Then one of the alligators burped. It sounded like thunder.

Manon straightened. She put her hands on her hips and gave the creature a look. “Gervais, don’t tell me…you did, didn’t you?”

The alligator started coughing like a cat with a hairball. After a few seconds of heaving, he brought up an iron ring with several skeleton keys on it. Manon wrinkled her nose as she picked it up, shook off the gator spit, then tried one key after another until she found the one that opened the cage’s lock.

All this time, the mermaid inside remained motionless. The only sign that she was alive was the way her rib cage expanded ever so slightly as she breathed.

The swamp queen bent down to her. “Ava? Child, it’s me, Manon. I’ve got Sally, Jean, and Esmé with me. We’ve come to get you out of here.”

“What’s the use?” Ava asked in a small voice.

“Did you get the ruby ring?”

“Yes, but Traho took it from me. I failed.”

Manon gently moved a few of Ava’s braids out of her face. “Oh, Ava, failing’s just failing. It’s not a reason to quit,” she said. “I fail all the time. Why, I failed a hundred times since yesterday. I failed to pack enough food for this trip, I failed in my choice of traveling attire—”

“Manon, we should go. I hear something!” Lafitte whimpered.

“—and I’m failing to keep this whiny pirate quiet,” Manon finished, glaring at him.

She turned back to Ava and took her face in her hands. “Just because you failed today doesn’t mean you’ve failed forever. Falling down doesn’t mean anything. It’s the staying down that does you in.”

Ava rolled onto her back. “It’s over for me. Please, Manon, just go.”

Manon rose. She took a deep breath. “Child, are you dead?”

Ava shook her head.

“Then it’s not over. But it will be if Traho catches us here. Now get up!” Manon said, hauling Ava off the floor. She led her out of the cage, then stopped. “Where’s that little monster of yours?” she asked, looking around for Baby.

“They killed him,” Ava said, tears welling in her eyes. “They didn’t have to. He was only trying to protect me. H-he was so little.”

Manon’s eyes flashed. Her chin jutted.

“Uh-oh,” Lafitte said ominously. “Swamp queen just got angry.”

Manon gave a low whistle, and twenty more alligators came crawling out of the cypresses.

“Pick ’em off, boys,” she said. “Tent by tent. Just don’t get yourselves shot.”

The alligators grinned, then crawled off into the camp.

“Armand!” Manon called out.

The largest alligator turned back to her.

“Catch up when you’re done, you hear? I still need you boys.”

Armand nodded, then swam to catch up with the others.

“You ready?” Manon asked.

“Where are we going?” Ava asked.

“To your friends in the North,” Manon replied. “We’re taking you there, Ava. Since Baby can’t.”

“Wait a minute…the North?” Lafitte said, a look of horror on his face. “You never said anything about going north, Manon Laveau! I hate the North!”

“It’s cold there. There’s snow and ice!” Sally protested.