Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga #2)(15)

But Aran didn’t tell her how. Instead, he sat back in his chair, his dark eyes huge in his careworn face. Then he looked at his wife, who burst into tears.

“Mata-ji, don’t cry! It’s all right!” Neela said. “I’m here now. I’m fine. Everything’s all right.”

“No, it is not,” Sananda said. “I knew something was wrong the moment I saw you in that dreadful outfit. I told your father so as soon as he returned from his meeting. You’re not yourself. Suma told me you actually kept those awful clothes, that you wouldn’t let her throw them away. And you just passed up a platter of pompasoomas. You never say no to a pompasooma!”

Neela gritted her teeth. She took a sweet and put it on her plate. “Forgive me,” she said, humoring her mother. “But I’m a bit distracted, what with everything that’s happened. Actually, no. I’m not distracted. I’m terrified. Here I am, drinking tea, while Abbadon grows stronger. I need to contact Serafina and find out if she made it back to Cerulea.”

“You’ll do no such thing!” Sananda said sharply. She motioned a guard over and sent him to fetch Suma.

“But—” Neela started to say.

“You are not well, my poor daughter. You must rest,” Aran said, a pained expression on his face. “These terrible experiences have undone your mind.”

Neela stared at her father, taken aback. “What are you saying, Pita-ji? My mind is totally fine.”

Aran covered Neela’s hand with his own. “Think of what you just told us. That dreams are real. That make-believe witches exist. That there’s an evil monster in the Southern Sea and a kind terragogg in a palazzo. You need help and you will have it. None but the best. You are not to worry. We will keep it all between ourselves, a secret. No one else will know.”

“Wait a minute,” Neela said, not believing what she was hearing. “You think…You think I’m crazy?”

Hearing distress in her mistress’s voice, Ooda started to inflate.

“No, priyā, not crazy. Your mother and I…we think you’ve had a terrible shock, that’s all,” said Aran soothingly. “Gods only know what you’ve seen. The attack on Cerulea, losing your uncle and aunt, the violence you suffered at the invaders’ hands—these things would have undone anyone. It’s amazing you were able to escape from this terrible Traho and swim back to us from his camp.”

“But I didn’t swim back to you from his camp. I swam back from the Iele’s cave!” Neela said. Loudly.

Aran looked at Sananda. “Rest and quiet,” he said.

“Everything I said was true! Someone is trying to set the monster free. Don’t you see what danger we’re in?” Neela asked, upset.

“Bland food. Soft colors,” Sananda said.

“I have to contact Serafina! Now!” Neela protested, desperation in her voice.

Suma appeared in the doorway. “You sent for me, Your Grace?”

“The princess is unwell. Take her back to her room and see that she is not disturbed.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Suma said. She swam to Neela and took her arm. “Come, Princess.”

“It will be all right. You’ll see,” Sananda told her daughter. “Kiraat, the medica magus, will examine you. Under his care, you’ll return to your senses.”

“No, I won’t!” Neela said. “Because I haven’t left them!”

“Come now, Princess,” Suma soothed. “There’s no need for a fuss.”

“Neela, child, go peacefully. Please,” Sananda said, fresh tears in her eyes. “Don’t make me ask the guards to escort you. No one wants that.”

Neela opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again, seeing that it was futile. The more she disagreed with her parents, the more she confirmed their belief that she’d lost her mind.

“You’re making a terrible mistake,” she said.

Her mother kissed her. Then her father did. Neela did not kiss them back.

Suma led her out of the dining room, clucking over her just as she had when Neela was a child, but Neela barely heard her. Ooda, as round as a full moon now, followed them. As she swam down the long, mirrored hallway to her room, Suma firmly gripping her arm, Neela heard something else.

Something dark. Something low and gurgling.

It sounded like Abbadon laughing.





“DID YOU HEAR THAT?” Neela asked.

“Hear what?” Suma asked.

“Laughter.”

“I’m sure it’s the grooms. The stables are underneath us.”

Neela broke free of Suma’s iron grip and swam to a nearby window. A groom was swimming across the stable yard, leading an unruly hippokamp. He wasn’t laughing.

It was Abbadon, I’m sure of it. But how did I hear him? she wondered uneasily. I didn’t cast an ochi to spy on him and? unlike Ava, I don’t have the gift of vision. Maybe they’re right. Maybe I am going insane.

Suma took Neela’s arm again and pulled her along.

“Let go of me! You’re treating me like a baby!”

“Because you’re acting like one. Come along now. This uncooperative behavior is yet another symptom of your derangement,” Suma said sagely.

“Derangement?!” Neela sputtered. “I’m not deranged!”