Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga #2)(28)

“What’s that noise? What’s happening?” Serafina asked, frightened.

“Death riders,” Aldo said grimly. “Get the hell out of here.”





I sing to you this spell of strength,

To shore you up both breadth and length.

My song your cracks and breaks will heal,

And change your boards from wood to steel.

Keep evil out, keep death away.

Keep all enemies well at bay.

Away to safety, we must speed.

Give us, door, the time we need….





Aldo was casting a robus songspell. Eyes closed, sweat streaming down his face, he was pushing his voice against the safe house door with all his might.

But the death riders were pushing back.

There was terror and confusion as everyone hurried to the basement. Sera had learned that a door there opened onto a network of tunnels that led to another safe house.

“Get out of here, Mahdi!” a voice hissed. It was Gia. “You’re our only link to Traho. If you’re taken, we won’t get any more info on the patrols!”

“What about you and Aldo?” Mahdi shouted, trying to make himself heard above frightened screams and the pounding on the door. “What happens to you when they break through?”

“Don’t worry about us. We’ll make it to the tunnels,” Gia said.

But Sera saw the fear in her eyes. She’s trying to sound convincing for Mahdi’s sake. To get him to leave, she thought. She knows it’s hopeless.

Despite Aldo’s robus, the door—made of shipwreck wood—was splintering under the death riders’ attack.

“Traho’s not getting these people. He’s not,” Sera said aloud. But how could she stop him? She tried to think, but her ears were ringing with the merpeople’s cries and the shrieks of her own fear.

I have to help them, she thought. There must be a way.

And then it happened again—just as it had in the Iele’s caves when Abbadon tried to break through the waterfire: a cold, crystalline clarity descended upon her. It quieted the chaos in her head, focused her mind, and enabled her to play the board, not the piece.

“Forget the tunnels. Here,” she said to Gia, pulling two of the three small, precious chunks of quartz Vr?ja had given her out of her bag. “Transparensea pebbles for you and Aldo. Cast them. Now. Hold the death riders back for as long as you can. When they break the door down, swim upstairs and get out through a window.”

Gia nodded, her eyes alight with renewed courage. “Will do. Thanks, merl. Now go!”

As Sera and Mahdi raced through the house to the basement, they heard a small, frightened sob. They stopped, turned back, and swam to its source. In what had once been the living room, two little merls, no more than a year old, were sitting in a crib, crying.

In the frenzied rush to escape, orphaned children had been left behind. Two merboys were sitting up in their beds, wide-eyed. Another was still lying down, his eyes closed. It was Matteo, the one with the fever.

“Matteo? Can you hear me?” Sera asked, gently shaking him awake.

The merboy opened his eyes. They were glassy and unseeing.

“We can’t leave them here,” Mahdi said, casting an anxious glance back at the hallway.

“Come on, Matteo, don’t be afraid,” Sera coaxed. “We’ve got to go. Put your arms around my neck,”

The merboy did so and Sera lifted him out of his bed. Mahdi hoisted the two merls out of their crib and tucked them under his arms. He roused the other two merboys—Franco and Giancarlo—and told them to follow him because they were going on an adventure. Then he swam for the basement.

Sera was right behind them. Aldo and Gia were still songcasting, but their voices were ragged now, and the sound of battering was deafening.

“What about the upstairs rooms? What if someone’s still up there?” Sera said as they reached the basement door.

“We don’t have time to check. We have to get these kids to safety,” Mahdi said.

The last few inhabitants of the safe house were hurrying into the tunnels. Mahdi shepherded Sera and the children ahead of him, then closed the basement door. It was flimsy, made of worm-ridden wood, and not worth enchanting. The door to the tunnel was made of iron, so spells to strengthen or camouflage it would be useless, as iron repelled magic, but it did have a strong lock. As soon as everyone was inside the passage, Mahdi closed the heavy door and shot the bolt.

“That’ll slow them down,” he said to Sera. Then he turned to the children. “Come on, kids. We’re going to race. First one to the fork in the tunnel wins. On your mark, get set, go!”

Franco and Giancarlo tore off. Sera was next with Matteo. Mahdi brought up the rear with the two tiny merls in his arms. Their group didn’t have any lava torches, but they were able to follow the glow of those being carried by people up ahead.

They swam for about a quarter of an hour, through a tunnel that was dark, narrow, and full of brittle stars and spider crabs. After bearing right at two separate forks, they followed a bend to the left and found themselves in a heavily graffitied section. Within a giant picture of Captain Kidd, a door opened for them.

“You knock on Kidd’s chest four times,” Mahdi explained. “The password is urchin. Just case you ever come here on your own.”