Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4)(74)

“That is hardly news, uncle,” Sera said. She managed to keep her voice even, but a cold dread crept over her.

“No,” he allowed, “but this is: I made Orfeo promise that if something happened to me, he would protect Lucia. And he will. He gave me his word. Abbadon will slaughter you and your friends, and then Orfeo will restore my daughter to the throne. Good-bye, Serafina. Enjoy the view from up there…while you still have it.”

Serafina felt her gorge rise. Only minutes ago, she had remembered the good merman he’d once been. Now all she felt was revulsion for the vicious, unrepetent murderer he’d become.

“Great Neria forgive you, Uncle,” she said, “for I cannot.”

Vallerio’s guards moved to lead him to the wooden block, but he shook them off and swam to it himself. The executioner, a tall, muscular merman in a black hood, had quietly come forward. He was floating by the block now. His curved ax was leaning against it. He offered Vallerio a blindfold, but Vallerio refused it. He bent his tail, like a terragogg might bend his knees, and lowered his head to the block, resting it in the smooth hollow.

The executioner leaned down to him, grasped the collar of his tunic, and tore it open to expose his neck. Sera’s hands tightened on the arms of her throne. She didn’t want to watch this, but she had no choice. Reginas were required to witness the executions of those the high court condemned.

The executioner lifted his ax. He swung it back and forth through the water, picking up speed with each arc, sharpening his focus, priming his aim.

And then, with no further preliminaries, he swung it high above his head. As the fearsome blade began its final descent, Vallerio suddenly tilted his head and raised his eyes to Sera’s.

“Checkmate,” he said, just before the ax came down.





“ONE HUNDRED thousand troops, Sera,” Neela said excitedly. “And more fighters joining us every day!”

She was sketching as she spoke, designing a military jacket. Sera had never gotten to wear the last one Neela had made for her, and now that she was no longer leader of the resistance but the leader of her realm, Neela had decided that a completely new look was in order.

“From Miromara and Matali, Qin and Ondalina,” Neela continued. “From the prison camps that are being liberated—”

“But are the numbers enough, Neela?” Sera asked, her brow knit with worry. “Enough to take on Abbadon? And Orfeo?”

The two mermaids were in Sera’s rooms—her mother’s old chambers—where they often spent their evenings now. Sera was staring out of a window, her arms crossed. Sylvestre was draped over her shoulder. His color had improved. She could see her troops’ camp in the distance, the white of their tents, the glow of their waterfires. Three weeks had passed since the battle for Cerulea had been won. While Sera and Des had been figuring out how to rule their realm, Yazeed, Neela, Becca, and Ling, together with Garstig and the other commanders, had once again been working to provision Sera’s soldiers. They would all leave for the Southern Sea in six days.

“Orfeo’s powerful,” Sera continued. “In ways we know, and in ways we don’t. He has the black pearl. What if he has Nyx’s ruby ring, too? What if…what if he…” She couldn’t bear to voice the thought.

“Killed Ava?” Neela said.

Sera nodded, turning to her. “What if he killed Astrid, too? We haven’t heard from either of them in weeks.”

“Not possible. We’d feel it,” Neela said, looking up from her kelp-parchment sketchbook. “It’s your uncle, isn’t it? And what he said to you.”

“Yeah,” Sera admitted, “it is.”

“Checkmate,” Neela said, rolling her eyes. “Forget him, Sera. He only said it to rattle you.”

“He succeeded.”

“Did he?” Neela said with a smirk. “He’s dead; you’re not. I think that means you won.”

“For now,” Sera said.

Neela rose. She swam to her friend and put an arm around her. “We didn’t come this far to fail.”

Sera nodded. She kissed Neela’s cheek, but inside she was still uneasy. Her uncle’s final words had sewn dark seeds of doubt in her. As Neela sat back down and took up her sketchbook again, Sera thought about how the chessboard had changed.

Neela was right about one thing: she would have a large and loyal force at her back for the journey to the Southern Sea. And Orfeo was now without Vallerio and Portia, his firm allies, but Lucia was still on the loose. She’d escaped from the city, and, seemingly, the realm. There was a large bounty on her head, but no one had so much as glimpsed her. Had Orfeo given her sanctuary?

Sera remembered something that Mahdi had once said about Lucia—that she was like a rockfish, at her most dangerous when you couldn’t see her. Sera had confided her worries to Desiderio, but he told her she wouldn’t have to worry for long; Lucia couldn’t stay hidden forever. They would find her and she would answer for her crimes, just like her father had.

“There! Done!” Neela suddenly said, interrupting Sera’s thoughts. She held her sketchbook out. “Take a look and tell me what you think.”

But before Sera could take the sketchbook, the door to her rooms banged open. Becca was floating in the doorway. Her red curls were corkscrewing loose from the twist at the back of her head. She was grinning from ear to ear.