Waterfire Saga, Book Three: Dark Tide: A Deep Blue Novel (37 page)

Ling was an incredible communicator. If she were still alive, she would have found a way of letting Sera know. Sera told herself, a hundred times a day, that it was time she faced the fact that
Ling was gone. But deep in her heart, she couldn’t let go.
We’re bloodbound, aren’t we?
she told herself.
If Ling died, part of me would die with her. Surely
I’d feel it?

The sound of singing pulled her out of her thoughts.

She’d led the hunting party of about a hundred Meerteufel out in the early evening when sea creatures rose to the surface to feed. The party had moved north of the camp to Skuld’s
Rise, then divided itself into groups of three, fanning out over the hills and shallows. They’d agreed to meet back at the rise two hours later. A goblin named Dreck led the party Sera was
hunting with. The goblins Totschläger and Garstig led the other groups. Totschläger’s band was returning now, singing as they trudged along. Some of them carried thick kelp stalks,
the ends balanced on their shoulders. From the stalks hung their kills.

“Well done,” Sera said approvingly.

Totschläger smiled at her praise, revealing his stumpy, broken teeth, and then the goblins from both groups admired each other’s kills and discussed how best to prepare them. Sera,
meanwhile, wondered where the third group was. The dusk was deepening. It was time to return to camp. She didn’t like to be in the open waters after dark.

“Totschläger, Dreck…where’s Garstig?” she asked.

The goblin leaders looked at each other. Their smiles turned to frowns.

“He should’ve been back by now,” Dreck said.

“He might’ve been ambushed,” Totschläger said. “He’s stupid enough.”

Sera’s fins prickled. She gathered everyone and swam off after Garstig. “Keep your weapons raised,” she ordered.

After only a few minutes, Totschläger picked up the trail. “They came this way,” he said, pointing to footprints in the silt.

They followed the tracks to the edge of a kelp forest and were just about to enter it when they heard voices. Sera quickly signaled the goblins to fall back. They hid behind rocks or flattened
themselves in ditches, their weapons ready.

The noises grew louder. Kelp fronds cracked and snapped as whatever was in the forest moved through it. Sera held up a hand and the soldiers raised their weapons. Sera heard goblin voices coming
from the kelp, and mer voices, too. Had death riders captured Garstig?

The stalks at the edge of the forest shuddered, and then Garstig burst out of them, followed by his troops.

At Sera’s command, Totschläger and the others lowered their weapons.

“Garstig, where
were
you?” she shouted, angry and relieved at the same time. She swam up to him. “We thought you’d been ambushed!”

“Garstig ambushed?” the goblin growled, insulted. “
Never
. Garstig did the ambushing and caught more than eels. We caught spies—three of them. Bring the sea scum
here!” he bellowed.

Three mer, their hands behind their backs, were roughly pushed forward.

“Wow. This is some welcome, Sera,” said one of the spies. She was tall and blond, wearing a sealskin parka and a furious expression.

“Hey, Sera,” said the second spy, a mermaid with red hair and glasses.

“Sera? Is that
you
?” said the third spy, a merman with green eyes and copper-colored hair.

Sera shook her head, so overjoyed she could barely speak. She rushed to her brother and, half laughing, half crying, threw her arms around his neck.

“I hardly recognize you. Where’s the gown and the jewelry, little sister? Where are the conchs you always carried around? Where’s your
hair
?” Desiderio
asked.

“Gone, Des. It’s gone. Everything’s gone. Cerulea. The palace. Mom and Dad—” Her voice broke.

“Shh, Sera. I know, I know,” said Des. “Astrid told me everything.”

Sera held on to her brother for a long moment, eyes closed, their sorrow too deep for words. Then she let him go.

“Astrid…Becca…” Sera said. “I’m so glad you’re safe. So glad you’re
here
.” She pulled both mermaids into a tight embrace.

“Me, too, Sera,” Becca said, emotion in her voice.

“Okay, that’s good. We’re good. I’m good,” Astrid said, clearly unused to public displays of affection.

Sera kissed her cheek. Astrid grimaced. When Sera kissed Becca, she realized their hands were bound. Desiderio’s, too.

“Garstig, cut them loose!” she ordered.

Garstig looked crestfallen. “They’re
not
spies?” he said.

“No, this is my brother, Desiderio. And these are my friends, Astrid Kolfinnsdottir and Becca Quickfin. Des, Astrid, Becca…meet Garstig, Totschläger, Dreck, and their fellow
Meerteufel.”

A collective sigh of unhappiness moved through the goblin troops as Garstig cut the ties around his prisoners’ wrists.

“What’s the matter?” Sera asked, confused.

“Spies are very delicious stuffed with beach plums and roasted,” Garstig explained.

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Astrid said.

“Totschläger and Dreck caught over thirty conger eels between them,” Sera said. “The Meerteufel will feast tonight.”

Garstig’s eyes lit up. “Eels are also delicious stuffed with beach plums,” he said.

Totschläger snorted. “They’re better wrapped with ribbon worms and basted with squid ink.”

As the goblins argued, Sera turned back to her friends. “How did you get here?” she asked.

“Some friends gave me a lift,” Becca said, glancing around. “That part’s a long story. I’ll explain later.” Sera nodded and Becca continued. “They
dropped me off a few leagues west of here. I had to swim down from the surface, and as I did, I saw two other mer swimming toward the camp. I recognized Astrid and caught up with them.”

Sera had to ask them. She had to know.

“Becca, did you…”

She didn’t finish, but she didn’t need to.

“It’s in my pocket,” Becca said, smiling.

Sera almost whooped for joy. “Becs, you’re amazing! That makes three out of six!” she whispered.

She looked at Astrid next, hoping against hope, but Astrid shook her head.

“We got to the maelstrom, Des and I, about eight centuries too late,” she said. “It’s not there anymore.”

Sera’s heart fell. Her feelings must’ve shown on her face, because Astrid brusquely said, “Sorry to let you down.”

“You
didn’t
let me down,” Sera said fiercely, taking her by her shoulders. “You’re here with us, Astrid. We’re the Six now, just like we were meant
to be. And that means the world to me.”

Astrid looked at Sera skeptically. “But I didn’t get the talisman. We don’t have it,” she said.

“Yet,”
Sera said. “Maybe there’s still a way. Once you’ve rested up you can tell me what happened, then we’ll figure out the next stroke together.
Has anyone heard from Ava or Ling?”

“No,” Becca said, worry creasing her brow. “We were hoping you had.”

Their conversation was interrupted by Garstig shouting at Totschläger. The argument over the best way to cook conger eel had escalated.

“I’d better see to this,” Sera said.

Desiderio’s eyes widened in alarm. “Don’t, Sera. Goblins get nasty when they fight. You might get hurt.”

Sera laughed. “Yes, I might,” she said. Then she swam between them, placing a hand on each goblin’s chest. “Stop,” she said. “You need to sort that out with
Antonio at the mess hall. We shouldn’t be out here. It’s not safe. Let’s get everyone back to camp.”

The two goblins grumbled, but they followed her orders.

Desiderio looked at her, obviously impressed. “Guess I shouldn’t call you little sister anymore,” he said. “I know grown mermen who won’t get between two angry
goblins. I can’t wait to see the camp.”

“I can’t wait to lie down in a soft bed,” Becca said.

“I could use a hot meal,” Astrid added.

“You’ll see most of the camp on our way back in through the north hills. As for the rest…how about a nice
hard
bed and some roasted conger eel?” Sera asked
sardonically.

There were few comforts to be had at camp, but suddenly that didn’t seem to matter. Her brother was here. Her two friends were, too. Vr
ă
ja said they were more powerful
when they were together. Sera had sensed that back in the Iele’s caves. She sensed it again now. She felt stronger and more hopeful now than she had in many months.

Maybe the tide was finally beginning to turn.

S
ERA HAD FORGOTTEN what an excellent waterfire caster Becca was.

She had conjured some crackling flames in the center of the command cave and they were all sitting around them now—Sera, Astrid, Becca, Yazeed, Des, Sophia, and Neela.

Sera smiled as she passed around a bowl of reef olives, remembering Neela’s reaction when Des, Astrid, and Becca had swum into the cave. She’d screamed at the top of her lungs,
hugged all three of them until they could barely breathe, and turned the most bright, beautiful shade of blue. She was still glowing now, an hour later.

While Becca had cast the waterfire, everyone else helped scrape together a meal. The goblins were still arguing over the best way to prepare conger eel and Sera predicted it would be quite some
time before the issue was settled. All Sera, Neela, and Yaz had to contribute were reef olives and walrus cheese, but Becca had water apples, a marsh melon, and whelk eggs, and Astrid and Des had
salted tube worms and silt cherries.

To Sera, it felt like a feast. As they ate, Astrid, Des, and Becca told their stories, and Sera and Neela recounted theirs.

Becca described her trip to Cape Horn, and how she found her talisman and tried to escape the Williwaw—only to have it toss her into some rocks. She said that she had the new duca di
Venezia and his sister to thank for saving her.

Sera asked what Marco was like. Her heart still hurt when she thought about Armando, Marco’s father, and how he’d been killed by Rafe Mfeme.

“He and Elisabetta are very kind. And very brave,” Becca said, with gratitude in her voice—and something else. Something Sera couldn’t name at first, but then
recognized—love.

It was an odd emotion to feel for a terragogg, but Sera understood. She herself had loved the old duca for his kindness and bravery. Becca, she reasoned, probably had similar feelings for the
new duca and his sister.

Then Becca gave her Pyrrha’s gold coin. Sera held it in her hand, feeling its power, and then passed it around. When it was handed back to her, she rose and put it in a strongbox together
with Merrow’s blue diamond and Navi’s moonstone. She placed the strongbox in a niche in the command cave’s wall, then cast a camo songspell that made it look as if there was no
niche, only smooth cave wall.

As Sera sat down again, Astrid informed them about the death of her father and Commodora Rylka’s treachery. Desiderio described his imprisonment and how Ludo had helped him and Astrid
escape on an orca named Elskan.

Astrid actually sounded a little sad when she described how she’d had to command Elskan to go back home once they’d hit the east Atlantic. The waters there were too warm for the
orca, but Elskan hadn’t wanted to go. She’d nosed Astrid and cried in her whale language.

Des said, “Elskan wasn’t the only one who cried.”

Astrid scowled. “You’re
so
wrong; I just had something in my eye.”

Then Astrid and Des related their trip to the maelstrom and how a Viking chieftain named Feimor Fa Eaemor had come to possess the pearl. Sera leaned forward as they spoke, eager to hear every
word.

When they finished, she asked, “What happened to the black pearl after Feimor died?”

“The maelstrom didn’t say,” Astrid said. “It was too busy trying to kill us.”

Sera nodded thoughtfully, remembering how Vallerio and Portia had spoken of the shadowy
he
who, they claimed, had the pearl. “If only we could find out for certain. Maybe someone
knows who became chieftain after Feimor, and if he inherited the pearl,” she said.

“Um, Sera,” Astrid began, “I know you’re Little Miss Optimistic, but this whole thing has gone from pretty impossible to totally impossible. Feimor was a Viking. He
would’ve been buried with the pearl. And even if he wasn’t, even if he passed it down to a relative, that relative was
human
. Humans live on
land
. And we don’t
have feet.”

A silence descended in the cave. Becca broke it. “Lots of things are impossible,” she said softly. “Until they’re not.”

“That’s true,” Neela said. “
We’re
not human—but Marco and Elisabetta are. They might be able to find out if the pearl was passed down and if a living
human now has it.”

“How, Neela?” Astrid asked. “Marco and Elisabetta…they can only cover so much ground. The pearl could be
anywhere
on land. With
any
human. There are
hundreds of
millions
of them.”

“Forget that,” said a voice from behind them.

The mermaid leaning on Garstig’s arm, in the cave’s mouth, was frighteningly thin. She had dark circles under her weary eyes and a pale, haggard face.