Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, #1)(35)

Serafina laughed bitterly. “Safe? I’m not sure I know what that means anymore, Mr. Blu.”

“Just Blu is fine. And Grigio. And Verde. We don’t swim on ceremony. What’s wrong with your tail?” he asked, pointing at it. “It’s bleeding.”

“Eel bite.”

“You need to wrap it so that there’s pressure against the wound. Otherwise it won’t stop.”

He put his hands under the end of her tail and gently raised her fins, peering at the bite. The eel’s teeth had torn a long, jagged hole in the soft tissue.

“This is a mess,” he said.

Serafina blushed. She wasn’t used to strange mermen touching her tail.

“Um, I’m fine. Really,” she said, trying to pull away from him.

“Sorry, but this is no time for modesty. We can’t have you bleeding into the water with hound sharks after us.” He lowered her fins, then tore a wide strip from the bottom of her gown.

“Hey!”

“You have a first-aid kit that I’m not aware of?”

“No, but—”

“Then this is the best we’ve got,” he said, tearing off two more strips.

He wadded up one strip and packed it against the bite. Then he wound another around her fin, securing the dressing. He worked quickly and expertly. Serafina watched as he carefully wrapped the third strip around the end of her tail, then over the dressing, tying it in such a way that it wouldn’t slip off. His skin was light brown and smooth; his chest and arms were muscular. His hair had streaks of pure gold in it. He glanced up at her once and she saw that his eyes were the same deep blue as his tail. They met her gaze and held it. She looked away before he did, blushing again.

“There,” he said when he’d finished. “It’s not ideal, but it should hold you until we get to the Lagoon.”

“Thank you,” she said.

He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

“Not just for the bandage,” she said. “For saving us. I hope you’ll tell me who you are. When I’m back in Miromara and all of this—”

Blu cut her off. “That’s not going to happen. The city’s in ruins. The invaders control it. The dead are piled up in the squares. They…they can’t even bury them….”

He stopped talking and swallowed. Hard.

“Did you lose someone?”

“My parents,” Blu said tersely.

Serafina instinctively took his hand. “I’m so sorry,” she said, squeezing it.

He squeezed back. “Thanks,” he said softly. “You can’t go back there. Promise me you won’t.”

“I have to go back. It’s my city.”

“Not anymore. It’s Traho’s now. He’s been going through it current by current, interrogating people.”

“What people?”

“Nobles. Courtiers. Servants. Grooms. Anyone who might’ve had contact with you. Anyone he suspected of hiding you. If they didn’t give him information, he had them executed.”

“Those poor people,” Serafina said, heartsick. “They died because of me.”

“No, they died because of Traho,” Blu said firmly.

She looked down and realized she was still holding his hand. What was she doing? He was a total stranger. “I should go. I need to check on Thalassa,” she said awkwardly, then swam off.

Thalassa’s face was still deathly pale. She was sitting very still, with her eyes closed. Neela shook her head in response to Serafina’s unspoken question.

A minute later, Blu joined them. “We can’t stay here much longer,” he said. “We have to—”

“Praedatori!” a voice, harsh and ringing, called from outside the cave. “I have one of yours! Give me the mermaids and I’ll let him live!”

“Praedatori?” Serafina repeated, stunned. She turned to Blu. “You’re outlaws?”

“According to some,” he said.

Serafina remembered Neela telling her that Bilaal had been worried about attacks from the Praedatori during their journey.

“Is that why you helped us? So you can ransom us to the highest bidder?” she asked accusingly. “We trusted you! And you betrayed us!”

“Think about that for a minute,” Blu said. “The highest bidder in this scenario would be Traho, right? We took you from him, remember?”

Sera was still leery. “Then where are you taking us? To your leader? To Kharkarias?”

“Yes,” Blu said.

“What does he want with us?”

“To help you.”

Sera looked into Blu’s eyes, searching for the truth. She wanted to trust him, but she was afraid. She had trusted Zeno Piscor and ended up as Traho’s prisoner.

Grigio appeared. “Trouble. Big-time,” he said.

Blu swam back outside. Serafina and Neela followed him. On the flats below were mermen on hippokamps, carrying torches. In their light, Serafina could see huge gray fish—hound sharks—circling. One of the riders moved forward. He was dragging something behind him. As he swam out in front of the others, Serafina could see what it was. Or rather, who: the merman who’d swum off earlier to lure the hound sharks away.

“Praedatori!” their leader called out. “Bring me the mermaids or I’ll kill the boy!”