Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, #1)(28)

Neela and Serafina each held one between the palms of their hands. A second later, they were invisible.

“Come on!” Neela said, opening a window.

She couldn’t see Serafina, so she felt around in the water for her, got hold of her arm, and pushed her out through the opening. Her own tail fin had just cleared the sill when the door came crashing in.





“I CAN’T GO ANY FARTHER. I have to rest. Just for a few minutes,” Serafina said.

She and Neela had been swimming fast for over an hour through dark waters and were almost three leagues west of Cerulea, heading for the fortress at Tsarno. A sputtering lava torch, picked up on the edges of the city, was their only source of light.

“We’ve got to keep moving,” Neela said, looking around warily. “You’re shimmering, Sera. The pearls are wearing off. Come on.”

“I will. I just need a minute,” Serafina said. She was exhausted. She sat down on a rock, leaned over, and vomited.

Painful spasms racked her body until there was nothing left inside her. Nothing but the images of the arrow burying itself in her mother’s side. Of her father’s body sinking through the water. Of the dragon tearing through the palace wall.

“Here,” Neela said, handing her a kelp leaf.

Serafina took it and wiped her mouth. A tiny octopus, spooked by their movements, shot out from the seaweed and swam off. As she watched him, she thought of Sylvestre. She’d left him sleeping on her bed when she’d departed for the Dokimí. She had no idea if he was dead or alive. She had no idea what had happened to Tavia. To the ladies of her court. Or even of her mother’s final fate.

Neela sat down next to Sera and put an arm around her. Sera leaned her head on Neela’s shoulder. Some of the numbness she’d felt was wearing off and she realized she owed her friend a great deal.

“We’d be prisoners right now if it wasn’t for you,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me until we’re in Tsarno,” Neela said. “Who are they? Who did this?”

“Ondalina. That’s what my uncle said. He was worried this would happen. He wanted my mother to declare war on Admiral Kolfinn. I wasn’t supposed to know, but I overheard them talking.”

“Why would Kolfinn do such a thing?” Neela asked.

“I don’t know,” Serafina said. “All I know is that he broke the permutavi without any explanation. And now hundreds are dead. My father. Maybe my mother. We don’t know where Ahadi and Bilaal are. Or Mahdi and Yaz.”

Neela uttered a stifled cry.

“What is it?” Sera asked.

“Oh, Sera. One of the last things I said to my brother was that he was a tube worm,” Neela said, tears shimmering in her eyes. “It might be the last thing I ever say to him.”

“It might be the last thing you ever say to anyone,” a deep voice rumbled, making both mermaids jump up. “You’re bait if you stay here. Soldiers rode through earlier. Mermen in black uniforms.”

“W-who are you?” Neela stammered.

“Where are you? Serafina said, peering through the gloom.

“They’re asking about two princesses. That would be you, I assume. They’re asking everyone they see, which is why they didn’t ask me.”

A small movement close to where they’d been sitting caught the mermaids’ attention. It was a merman who looked like a scorpion fish. With his spots and bands of color, and the weedy frills of skin on his face, he was perfectly camouflaged against the algae-covered stone he was sitting on.

Just then, they all heard something, faint and faraway. It sounded like fins churning the water.

The merman rose from his rock, the better to listen. “Hippokamps. Probably the same patrol,” he said tersely. “They’re coming this way.”

“We’ve got to hide,” Neela said.

“There’s an abandoned eel cave about a hundred yards north of here. You’ll see the wreck of a blue fishing boat. The cave’s another ten yards past it. Swim fast and you’ll make it.”

“Thank you. I don’t even know your name,” Serafina said. His kindness heartened her. It was good to know there were still merpeople who cared, allies who would help her.

“Zeno. Zeno Piscor.”

“Thank you, Zeno. We won’t forget this.”

Zeno flapped a fin at her. He settled himself back on his rock, eyes open, watching the waters. Serafina and Neela swam fast. The sound of hippokamps grew louder.

“Where’s the blue boat?” Neela asked anxiously, a few minutes later. “It should be here. Did we miss it?”

Serafina spotted it. She led the way to the eel cave. Its entry was littered with the bones of its former occupant’s meals. The cave itself was narrow and dark, with a low ceiling. A minute later, they heard hippokamps and mermen. Neela, who was carrying the lava torch, quickly buried it in the silt.

“Why are we stopping, Captain Traho?” a voice called out. “We searched this area on the way out.”

“To rest the animals,” came the reply.

Serafina heard the mermen dismount. They were very close. “There’s a cave here!” one shouted.

Her heart pounding, Serafina looked at Neela.

“It’s empty. We checked it before,” another soldier said.