Waterfire Saga, Book Three: Dark Tide: A Deep Blue Novel (21 page)

“Maybe it will,” Desiderio said. “But that doesn’t help us. The lock’s on the outside.”

Astrid looked at the door and frowned, thwarted. Of course. The door was never meant to be opened from the inside.

“You could pretend you’re ill,” she suggested. “And tell the guard you need a doctor.”

Desiderio shook his head. “That won’t work, either. Rylka told the guards to starve me to death. They won’t open my cell door again until it’s time to carry my body
out.”

Astrid knew he was right. “I’ve got to show myself then,” she said. “A guard would definitely open the door if he saw me in here. Rylka’s probably promised a big
reward to anyone who captures me. I’ll lure him in—”

“And I’ll attack,” Desiderio started to say, some spirit coming back into his eyes. “I’ll make it look like I’m still shackled—”

“—and grab him when he turns his back,” Astrid finished.

They sat down, tails tucked under them, and hastily sketched a diagram in the silt on the cell floor. Warriors both, they were trained to examine their strategies and look for any
weaknesses.

“A lot can go wrong. It’s a risky plan,” Desiderio said when they’d finished.

“You have a better one?” Astrid asked.

Before he could answer, they heard the sound of tapping again. An hour had passed. The guard was back on his rounds.

“Ready?” Astrid whispered.

Desiderio nodded. He picked up the iron collar and closed it around his neck, wincing as he did. He threaded the padlock through the collar’s hasp, so it would look right to the guard, but
didn’t close it. Then he lay facedown on the floor and became perfectly still.

Astrid took a deep breath. She arranged her face into an expression of fear. It wasn’t hard to do. The tap, when it came, nearly made her jump out of her skin.

“Prisoner 592, show yourself,” the guard droned, peering into the small window.

Astrid swam into view. “The prisoner’s dead. I killed him,” she said. “I’m Astrid Kolfinnsdottir. You’ve got to help me.”

T
HE GUARD HESITATED. Astrid could see indecision in his small, unintelligent eyes. He glanced down the corridor.

If he goes for backup, we’re done for,
she thought. She and Desiderio could overpower one guard, but not several.

“I’ve got currensea on me,” she said, desperate to sway him. She dug in her backpack and pulled out a sharkskin pouch. “A hundred trocii. It’s yours.”

It was a lie—the pouch contained only a few trocii—but it worked. She could read the guard’s intentions on his face. He would take her money, and then he’d turn her over
to Rylka and pocket whatever reward
she’d
offered, too.

The guard nodded at Desiderio. “How did you kill him?” he asked warily.

Astrid hadn’t anticipated that. She thought fast. “I stabbed him in the chest with a dagger,” she said.

“Hand it over.”

Astrid pulled her bone-handled dagger out of her satchel and pushed it through the bars in the door’s small window. The guard took it.

“Now the money.”

Astrid hadn’t seen that coming, either. He wasn’t going to help her. He was going to take her money, leave her in the cell, and fetch Rylka.

“No,” she said. “You open the door and get me out of here, then you get the money.”

“Don’t make me come in there or you’ll be sorry,” the guard threatened.

“We had a deal,” Astrid said.

“The deal is you give me the money. Or else,” the guard said, brandishing his club.

Astrid feigned fear. She backed away from the door to Desiderio’s cot.
Come on…come on,
she silently urged him. Everything depended on getting him inside the cell.

The guard jammed his key into the lock.

Astrid’s pulse quickened. “That’s it,” she said under her breath. “Keep coming, lumpsucker….”

He’d gotten her dagger off her. He believed Desiderio was dead. And he was greedy. With any luck, all those things would blind him to the fact that Desiderio’s chest was moving ever
so slightly.

“Give me the money.
Now
,” the guard said, advancing on Astrid.

Before he even knew what had hit him, Des looped his chain around the guard’s neck and pulled it tight. The guard thrashed his tail. His face turned bright red as he gasped for water.

“Stop struggling or I’ll choke the life out of you,” Desiderio said.

The guard kept fighting. He was bigger than Desiderio, but Des had better leverage. He pulled the chain tighter and the guard’s face deepened to blue.

“Stop,”
Des ordered, and finally the guard gave up. “Hands behind your back.”

Working quickly, he unwound the chain, clapped the iron collar around the guard’s neck, and locked it. He used the laces from Astrid’s vest to bind the guard’s hands and the
merman’s own belt to gag him.

“Let’s go,” he said to Astrid when he finished.

They hurried out of the cell. Des pulled the door closed behind them and locked it, then they sped to the far end of the corridor and the exit gate. They had to try several keys in the
gate’s lock, but soon had it open. They swam through, locked it again, and raced up the tunnel.

“Where does this lead?” Des asked.

“I’m not sure. Back to the hospital, I hope,” Astrid replied.

The tunnel ended at a pair of locked iron doors. Once again they had the right key. Astrid pushed one of the doors open and cautiously peeked out.

She immediately knew where she was. She recognized the antique arms and armor decorating the wall and the quotations from Ondalina’s chief justices incised above the doorways.

“The Hall of Justice,” she said.

“Is that good?”

“It’s not far from the hospital, but we’ll have to be careful.”

Desiderio swam out of the tunnel and joined her.

“We’re lucky it’s nighttime. Usually, the hall’s packed,” Astrid explained. “We just need to find the passageway that leads us to the—”

Her words were cut off by a rumbling noise. It was the sound of voices singing, mer and Fryst—all so low and somber, they sounded as if they were coming from the center of the earth.

“It’s a dirge,” Desiderio said. “Somebody died. Somebody major, judging from the number of lamenters.”

Astrid knew that dirges for heads of state were sung by hundreds. Her whole body went cold. With a terrible dread, she listened for the name of the one being lamented.

“No!” Astrid cried out. “Oh, gods…
no
.”

She was too late. Rylka had gotten to her father before she could. She’d given him a lethal dose of poison.

Astrid tried to swim down the hall, swim away from the tearing pain, but she faltered and caught herself against the wall.

A strong pair of hands lifted her up. “Lean on me,” Desiderio said.

But Astrid pushed him away. She bent double, her chest heaving. The pain was going to overwhelm her if she didn’t find a way to stop it. And she
had
to stop it. Desiderio’s
life—and her own—depended on it. Closing her eyes, she pictured the blue arctic water of Ondalina flowing into her, swirling all around her heart—and hardening into ice. That was
the way she always stopped pain.

But this time it didn’t work.

She straightened. The emotion was too much. Grief and rage tore through her like a hurricane.

“I’m going after Rylka,” she said. “She killed my father and she’s going to pay.”

“Astrid, no. That’s suicide.”

But Astrid didn’t listen. She swam up to a pair of crossed sabers on the wall and yanked one free.

Des swam up to her, holding his hands out. “Astrid, put the sword down,” he said.

“You need to get out of my way, Desiderio,” she said menacingly.

But he didn’t budge. “Earlier tonight, Rylka accused you of poisoning your father. He just
died.
If she finds you, you’ll be charged with murder.”

His words pierced through the hurricane howl inside her. If that were to happen, she realized, even Ragnar couldn’t help her. The law was the law.

“She’ll lock you up in a dungeon cell. Like she did to me,” Desiderio continued. “She’ll turn everyone against you. We can’t stay here. Neither of
us.”

“What are you saying? That I should just turn tail and
leave
? Abandon Ondalina? Do nothing about my father’s death?” she asked, her voice shaking.

Slowly, carefully, Des pushed the tip of Astrid’s sword down. Then he took it from her. Her hands dropped to her sides.

“What I’m saying is this: Your father was a warrior. Your brother is.
You are.
And a good warrior knows when to lose a battle so she can live to fight the war.

Astrid clenched her hands. Her mind started to clear. She remembered the terrible pain Desiderio had been in only hours ago when she told him what had happened to his parents. He’d managed
to put it aside, and she had to do the same.

“We’re going to get out of here now, okay?” he said. “We’re going to go to the Kargjord.”

“The Kargjord? Why?” Astrid asked, alarmed. Everything was happening so fast. Part of her wanted to join the others, but part of her was still scared.

“Because that’s where Sera is. I need to be with her. To help her fight. And so do you. Didn’t you tell me that the witch—Vr
ă
ja—wanted you all
together? Didn’t she say you were stronger that way?”

“Yes, but…”

“But what?”

Astrid couldn’t tell him the truth. He wasn’t Becca. He wouldn’t understand.

“Okay,” she said softly.

“Good. We’re going. So you need to
focus
now, Astrid. Because I don’t know my way around the Citadel and you do.

“Yes. Right.
Focus
,” Astrid said. “We’ve got to swim out of here. As fast as we can.

Desiderio shook his head. “You’re
not
focusing. We can’t just swim out of here. We have no food. No animals. No weapons. Except this old saber. Rylka’s troops
would catch us in no time.”

Astrid nodded. Desiderio was right. They had nothing. Even her sword was gone. Tauno had knocked it out of her hands and she’d forgotten to take her dagger back from the guard in the
dungeons.

“We need hippokamps,” she said. “That’s the most important thing. And I think I know how to get them.”

“How?”

“Your uncle Ludo,” Astrid said. “I was with him earlier today. He was desperate to see you. I know he’d help us.”

“Do you know the way to his house?”

“I do, but it’s a good distance from here.”

“It would be safer if we camoed, then,” said Desiderio. “We need to make ourselves white, blue, and gray. Like the ice.”

“A camo?” Astrid echoed, panicking. “I can’t….I—I…”

“I know. You’re too upset to cast. You’d probably turn yourself orange,” he said. “I’ll do it.”

He took the other saber down from the wall and handed it to her. “It’s better than nothing,” he said. Then he sang a quick canta prax spell and seconds later, they both blended
in perfectly with the walls.

“Ready?” he asked.

Astrid nodded. She set off out of the Hall of Justice for the network of tunnels that would get them to Ludo’s house. Des followed her.

As they swam, she was haunted by images of her father. She remembered how wasted he’d looked in his hospital bed, and she remembered his last words to her.

What we do, we do for Ondalina.

They were different in many ways, she and Kolfinn. But in their love for their realm, they were united. Her father had fought for Ondalina his entire life. He had never stopped. Now, she would
carry on that fight.

Kolfinn was dead. His ways, the old ways, were over.

Astrid was about to set off on a new current, the current that Vr
ă
ja had ordained.

She knew it would be hard.

She knew it would be frightening.

And only the gods knew where it would lead.