Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4)(5)

Orfeo had summoned her. He’d come to her in a mirror, and she knew she would have to go to him the same way. But how? Many of the greatest mages couldn’t travel through mirrors. How was she—a mermaid with no magic, one who couldn’t sing a note—supposed to?

“This is total insanity,” she whispered. “It’s hopeless. Impossible. Suicidal.” She’d been saying these words a lot lately—ever since she’d met Serafina, Neela, Ling, Ava, and Becca in the Iele’s caves.

The six mermaids had been called together by the Iele’s leader, Baba Vr?ja. She was the one who’d told them about the monster in the Southern Sea and said they were the only ones who could defeat it.

After they’d left the Iele, they’d learned that Orfeo had been a healer and the most formidable of the Atlantean mages—the Six Who Ruled. Each of the six had a talisman, a magical object that enhanced their powers. Orfeo’s, a flawless emerald, had been given to him by Eveksion, the god of healing.

Together with his fellow mages, Orfeo had ruled wisely and well and was beloved by his subjects—until his wife, Alma, died. He couldn’t accept her death and had begged Horok, the keeper of the underworld, to return her to him. Horok refused, and Orfeo vowed to take her back. He’d set about creating a monster powerful enough to attack the underworld—Abbadon. Orfeo invoked the death goddess Morsa to aid him in his quest. From her, he gained a new talisman: a flawless black pearl.

When the other five mages—Merrow, Nyx, Sycorax, Navi, and Pyrrha—discovered what Orfeo was doing, they’d tried to stop him. Enraged, he unleashed his monster against them. In the ensuing battle, Abbadon destroyed Atlantis. As its people fled to the water, Merrow beseeched Neria, the sea goddess, to help them. Neria knit the Atlanteans’ legs into tails and gave them the ability to breathe water, saving them.

Though the five mages fought bravely, they couldn’t kill Abbadon, so they’d driven it into the Carceron, the island’s prison. To open the prison’s lock, they’d needed all six of their talismans. Orfeo refused to surrender his; they’d had to kill him to get it. Once Abbadon was imprisoned, Sycorax, with the help of whales, dragged the Carceron to the Southern Sea.

Afterward, Merrow hid the talismans in the most dangerous places in the six water realms to make sure that no one could ever use them to free Abbadon. Then she had all historical records of the monster erased. A new story was told, one in which Atlantis was destroyed by natural causes. Over time, Orfeo’s treachery, his monster, and the talismans were forgotten.

Merrow was sure that she’d done everything necessary to protect her people, but she was wrong.

Because Orfeo had found a way to cheat death. The other mages only thought they had killed him. He’d secreted his soul in Morsa’s black pearl, then bided his time, for centuries, until a fish found the pearl and swallowed it. When a fisherman caught the creature and cleaned it, he discovered the pearl. A Viking chieftain bought the pearl from him, and as the chieftain held it, Orfeo’s soul flowed into his body, taking it over. Alive again, Orfeo began to hunt for the other talismans, eager to unleash his monster.

Orfeo had vowed to take Alma back from Horok, if it took him all eternity. Astrid knew that he was now close to honoring that vow.

The vicious Vallerio was working to conquer all the mer realms and unite their militaries in the service of Orfeo’s quest. With this immense army, and the fearsome Abbadon, Orfeo would finally be able to launch his attack on the underworld. He recognized that the gods themselves would fight him, and that the battle might wreak havoc on not only the underworld, but also the water and land realms. But none of that concerned Orfeo. Once reunited with his wife, he would begin the world anew with whatever was left. The only obstacles in his path were six young mermaids.

Why have you summoned us? Serafina had asked Vr?ja. Why not emperors or admirals or commanders with their soldiers? Why not the waters’ most powerful mages?

Vr?ja had told them that they were the worlds’ most powerful mages; each was a descendant of the Six Who Ruled, and their ancestors’ magic lived on inside them.

Astrid was Orfeo’s descendant. She hadn’t believed the river witch. It was amazing. It was impossible. It was a total joke.

Orfeo was the most powerful mage the world had ever seen. Ever. And Astrid? She couldn’t even cast a basic camo spell without the whalebone pipe Becca had made for her. She’d been able to make magic years ago, when she was a small child, but she’d lost her magic shortly after celebrating at M?nenhonn?r, her realm’s moon festival.

And now she was attempting to find the powerful, immortal Orfeo and take the black pearl from him so that she and the others could combine all the talismans once more, unlock the Carceron, and kill Abbadon. Her. Astrid Kolfinnsdottir. A mermaid with no magic.

“Total insanity,” she whispered again. But she had to do it. She had to find Orfeo, and she had to get the black pearl. She was the only one who could.

Astrid kept moving through M?rk Dal, her eyes sweeping left to right. She swam past a shopwindow containing jars of wrinkled terragogg ears, candied sea cucumbers, and spiced krill; another displayed weapons fashioned from fine Kobold steel; a third had an array of lava globes. She needed a hairdresser’s shop, a jeweler, or a tailor—someplace with a mirror—but she didn’t see one.

A few minutes later, she reached the end of the main current, where the shops gave way to houses. A narrow side current with a few more shops on it snaked off to the right. One store had a sign above its window: SELWIG’S SHIPWRECK SALVAGE.