Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, #1)(34)

Sera, traumatized, didn’t move.

Blu swam to her. He took her chin in his hand and turned her face to his. “Look at me…look at me, not him.”

Sera met his eyes. “H-he needed help. He reached for me,” she said, her voice breaking.

“And he would have killed you, too, if he was told to,” Blu said. “Traho’s coming. We’ve spooked him, so he won’t wait until tomorrow morning to get his answers. He’ll force you to tell him right now. Right here. And then he’ll kill you. That’s what he’s doing in Cerulea. Either you come with us or you stay with him.”

“Please, child. We have no choice,” Thalassa said.

Sera nodded woodenly. Blu offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her out of the tent and through the blood-dark water.





“FIVE MINUTES,” Verde said, pointing to a cave. “That’s it.”

“She needs more than five minutes! Look at her!” Serafina said. “She can’t breathe!”

“Five minutes.”

The cave was on top of a seamount. Serafina and Neela swam inside. Blu and Grigio followed, each with one of Thalassa’s arms around his neck. They lowered her to the floor, eased her against a wall, then left to keep watch. Thalassa’s face was gray. Her chest was heaving. There was quite a bit of bioluminescent plankton in the cave. Neela sang a quick illuminata and it started to glow.

“Stay with her,” Serafina said to Neela. “I’ll be right back.”

Serafina found Verde hovering at the cave’s mouth, scanning the seabed below for movement. “We shouldn’t have stopped,” he said. “Dawn’s only a few hours away. We need to keep moving while it’s still dark.”

There were five other mermen with him, including Blu and Grigio. One of them shook his head. “Had to, boss. The old lady’s in bad shape.”

“Who are you?” Serafina said. At last there was time to ask.

“Friends,” Verde replied.

“Why are you helping us?”

Verde turned away without answering. He signaled to the others and all but one followed him, fanning out across the face of the seamount. Blu stayed by the cave, a lone sentry.

Serafina sat down in the cave’s mouth. She didn’t know how she was going to get up and swim again in five minutes—or how Thalassa would. She was tired and hungry. The bite on her tail fin was bleeding again. She’d been swimming flat out ever since she’d left Traho’s camp, over an hour ago. They were heading north. Verde had navigated through the night waters.

They’d all only just made it out. An alarm had gone up as they were escaping, and soldiers had spread out in all directions, torches blazing. The mermaids and their mysterious rescuers had swum over a huge coral reef, hiding themselves on the other side. One of the mermen had poked his head up, a pair of binoculars in hand, to see how many were giving chase.

“Forty, at least,” he’d said. “On hippokamps.”

“Quick, give me something. Each of you. A belt, a piece of cloth, anything,” Verde had ordered.

When Thalassa asked why, he tore a sleeve off her gown. Neela quickly gave him her underskirt. Serafina tore off a chunk from her hem. As she did, she heard the sound of baying.

“What is that?” she’d asked, frightened.

“Hound sharks. Big, ugly, and good at tracking,” Verde’d replied, tying the items together. Another merman, tall and rangy with a golden tail, took the bundle.

“They’ll know we’re heading to the Lagoon,” Verde told him. “But they won’t know which current we’re taking. Swim due north with this bundle, then cut over to the Lido inlet. We’ll head west, then loop over on the alta flow to Chioggia. Once we’re in the Lagoon itself, the hounds will lose the scent. Meet us at the palazzo.”

The merman nodded and shot off.

“We’re going to move fast now. Very fast. Keep up,” he’d said to the rest. “If we don’t make Chioggia before Traho’s riders figure out what we’ve done, it’s all over.”

No one had said a word until Thalassa had started to gasp. Serafina begged them to slow down to let her rest, but they wouldn’t. Two of them took her arms and helped her along. They kept moving until she could barely breathe at all, until Serafina had shouted at them to stop.

Serafina stretched now, first her back, then her tail, trying to ease her sore muscles. As she stretched her arms, she looked at her hands. Her beautiful rings had been stolen. All but the little shell heart Mahdi once made for her. Had he survived the attack? Had Yazeed? She wondered if she’d ever see either of them again.

Serafina slid the ring off her finger. It was so simple and innocent that just looking at it hurt. It reminded her of everything she’d lost. Mahdi. Her parents. Cerulea. Her entire life.

“You belong to another Sera, not to me,” she whispered. She threw the ring away, watching as it sank through the water until she couldn’t see it anymore. Then she buried her face in her hands.

A minute later, a voice said, “Are you okay?” It was Blu. He sat down beside her.

“Yeah, I’m great. Never better,” she replied, lowering her hands.

“We’re not so far from the Lagoon now. We’re going to make it. You’ll be safe there.”