Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, #1)(44)

Serafina remembered Vr?ja’s sharp talons against her skin. “Yeah, Neela, it is,” she said softly.

Neela was already dressed. Sera shrugged out of her nightclothes, took the blue dress from its hanger, and pulled it over her head. A split second later, she and Neela both heard shouting.

“What’s going on?” Neela asked anxiously.

“I don’t know, but we need to find out,” Serafina said.

The mermaids left Sera’s room. They swam down the hallway, past the canal-side doors, and up to the pool. As they surfaced, they saw the duca, still in his robe and pajamas, shouting orders to a dozen Praedatori. Someone was trying to break down the palazzo doors, he was telling them. They were to take the princesses to safety. The makos were agitated, swimming to and fro. Leery of them, the mermaids hugged the edge of the pool. As they neared the pool’s steps, there was a shattering crash from the floor above, and a scream.

“Filomena?” the duca shouted. “Filomena!”

There was no answer, just the sound of feet on the stone steps. The duca ran to a table, grabbed a small cloth sack that was on it, and threw it to Serafina.

“There’s some currensea in there. Get to a safe house. The Praedatori will help you.”

“Duca Armando, what’s happening?” Serafina said.

“Go! Now! Get out of here!” the duca shouted.

Serafina and Neela were about to dive when four human men rushed into the room. Their leader’s face was obscured by sunglasses and the brim of a baseball cap, but the duca knew him.

“You! How dare you come into my home!” he shouted.

The man was carrying a speargun. As Serafina watched, he aimed it at the duca.

“No!” she screamed.

The man whipped around…and leveled the gun at her.

It happened so fast, she had no time to cast a deflecto spell. Luckily, the duca lunged at the man and grabbed his arm. The gun went off. Trailing a thin, nylon line, the spear hit a wall and fell into the water.

“Get them!” the man shouted. The duca threw a punch at him, but he deflected it, grabbed the duca, and hurled him against a wall. The duca crashed to the floor, motionless. The three other invaders, all armed with spearguns, dove into the pool.

Serafina felt hands on her, pulling her down through the water. It was Blu. Grigio had Neela. The attackers were in pursuit, but at a signal from Blu, high-pitched and piercing, the makos were on them. The sharks were fast, but not fast enough. All three men had time to get shots off. Two silver spears buried themselves deep into two makos, mortally wounding them. The third pierced Grigio’s tail. He was jerked backward by the nylon line. Serafina screamed as he thrashed against it. Blu swam to him, his knife drawn, and sliced through the line. There was a high, thin scream as a mako’s teeth sank into an attacker’s flesh.

“Cover us!” Blu shouted at the other Praedatori as he and Grigio pulled the mermaids down through the pool to the canal doors.

Grigio was about to slide the heavy iron bolt back and open them, when they all heard two deep voices say, “Qui vadit ibi?” Instead of answering, whoever was outside started battering on the doors. “Cavete! Cavete! Interpellatores!” the stone voices shouted. Beware! Intruders!

Grigio risked a quick look through a small barred window to the left of the door. He swore, then turned back to the others. “It’s Traho,” he said grimly.

“Go!” Blu shouted, pushing the mermaids down the hallway.

“Where?” Serafina shouted back.

“Into your room! Lock the door and stay there!”

Neela was already inside Sera’s room when the outside door crashed in and a spear came hurtling through the water. Sera looked back in time to see it hit Blu’s back with a sickening thuk and exit his body under his collarbone. His attacker yanked on the line attached to the spear, pulling the cruel, barbed head into his flesh. Blu thrashed madly against it. He twisted in the water, his knife in his hand, trying to cut the line. All Serafina could see was the blur of his powerful tail, frothing water, and blood.

“Blu! No!” she screamed, swimming back to him.

“Get her out of here!” he yelled.

Grigio shoved Serafina into her room. He handed her his knife. “Take it!” he shouted. “Lock the door!”

Neela pulled the door shut, slid the bolt, and backed away from it. “If Traho got through the outside door, he can get through this one,” she said, her voice shaking.

“Neela, we’ve got to go back out there. We’ve got to help them!” Serafina cried.

“That’s Traho out there, Sera! It’s us he wants. The only way we can help the Praedatori is by getting out of here.”

“How? The window has bars on it!”

“Are they bronze? Can we melt them with a liquesco spell?”

Sera shook her head. “They’re iron.”

“Maybe there’s a door that connects to another room,” Neela said, desperation in her voice. “Maybe there’s a secret passage, a trapdoor to a tunnel, or—”

Her words were cut off by the sound of pounding. Traho’s men were on the other side of the door.

Neela cast a quick robus spell, hoping to shore up the door. “Hurry, Sera, help me pull up the rug!” she cried.

Serafina slipped Grigio’s knife into a deep pocket of her dress. Then she and Neela searched the floor frantically for an outline of a trapdoor, but there was nothing. They heard the sound of splintering wood. Neela’s robus was no match for Traho’s men. They’d be in the room any minute. She whirled around, desperately looking for a way out, but there was nothing. And then her eyes fell on the looking glass.