“It’s worth much more than my life, and I would never sell it. It’s powerful, Mahdi. Really powerful. I think it’s the reason I survived the infanta. Its power protected me from her.”
Mahdi gave her a long look. “There are other things—things besides the diamond—that you’re not telling me about, aren’t there?”
“I wanted to tell you. At the safe house. I would have, if the death riders hadn’t raided it.”
“Tell me now.”
Serafina glanced at the teapot. “Could I have a cup of tea first? I’m going to need one.”
Mahdi poured. As he handed Sera a cup of the hot, soothing drink, she started to talk. She told him everything that had happened to her since she and Neela fled the duca’s palazzo. An hour later, she finished.
Mahdi sat back in his chair, dazed. “You could’ve been killed, Sera,” he said. “By death riders. By Rorrim. By Rafe Mfeme. By the Opafago. Why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you let me help you?”
“Hmm, let’s see…because I had no idea you were Blu? Because you never told me?”
“And you think Ondalina’s behind all this? You think Kolfinn’s the one who wants to unlock the monster’s cage?”
“I was sure it was Ondalina until I met Astrid. She was summoned by the Iele too. She fought the monster so courageously and she swore that her father had nothing to do with the attack on Cerulea. But then she left us. She won’t fight with us. And now I don’t know what to think.”
Mahdi digested this. “I don’t know either, Sera, but I do know this: that story you told me about the infanta’s hawk and the fake necklace? That’s some very good news.”
“Why?”
“Because Traho believes the hawk dropped the real necklace. If I can find the fake necklace for him, he’ll have a fake talisman, but he won’t know that. And he—or Kolfinn—will fail if they try to use it to free Abbadon.”
“You’re right. You have to find the fake, Mahdi,” Sera said. She told him exactly where the wreck was, so that he could search north of it. As she finished talking, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Mahdi said.
“You’re awake!” said Coco, swimming into the room with Abelard right on her tail. She hugged Serafina tightly. “Elena wants to know if you’re feeling up to dinner.”
“Is it that late?” Mahdi said, looking out of the window. The waters were dark now.
“Can I tell her you’ll come down?” Coco asked.
Serafina smiled. “Yes, you can.”
As Coco left, Mahdi turned back to Serafina. “I’ll need to leave right after dinner. I have to get back to camp.” He hesitated, then added, “Sera, there’s news of your uncle. Good news, I think.”
“What news? What’s happened?” Sera asked excitedly.
“I don’t want to get your hopes up, but he’s been seen in the waters off Portugal with an army of Kobold at his back.”
“Mahdi, are you serious?”
He nodded and Serafina whooped for joy.
“I also hear that Portia Volnero has left Cerulea for parts unknown.”
“Does anyone know why?” asked Serafina. “Was she a collaborator? Did she side with Traho?”
“It’s possible. And if she was, she might’ve left because she was worried about what would happen when your uncle retakes the city.”
“What about Lucia?” Sera asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her for days. Kind of makes me nervous. She’s like a rockfish—the most dangerous when you can’t see her.”
“Oh, Mahdi, this is such good news. I want to have hope, I can’t help it, but I’m almost afraid to,” Serafina said.
Mahdi’s face grew solemn. “You should be, Sera,” he said quietly.
“Why? What’s wrong?” she asked him.
“When the death riders came to Cerulea, it was an invasion. When Vallerio returns to the city, it will be out-and-out war.” He took her hand again, then said, “No matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you, Sera.”
“Oh, Mahdi,” Sera whispered.
“I’ve loved you since the day I met you. Really met you. In the garden.” He smiled. “When you were listening to a conch and knocked the sea fan down to get my attention.”
“What? I didn’t knock it down! It fell!”
“Uh-huh. Sure it did.”
“Mahdi!” she protested. And then she leaned over and kissed him. Slowly and sweetly. “I love you, too. Always have. Ever since you made Ambassador Akmal knock the sea fan down. To get my attention.”
“Sera,” he said, serious again, “I don’t know what will happen when your uncle tries to re-enter the city. I’m moving people between safe houses. I’m helping Fossegrim and the Black Fins. Traho could find out at any time, and if he does…” He paused for a moment, as if to work up his courage, then all in a rush he continued. “I want us to say our vows to each other.”
Sera blinked at him. “Mahdi, I…I just…I mean, wow. This is sudden.”
“Once I told you that you were my choice. Am I yours?”
“Yes,” Serafina said. “Always.”
“Then let’s do this. Carlo and Elena’s neighbor is a justice of the seas. His name is Rafael. I’ve already talked to him. It won’t be a big-deal state ceremony with you promising the realm a daughter and all of that. In fact, it won’t be much of a ceremony at all. No glittery ring, no fancy dress. It’s hardly what a merl dreams of, I know, but it’s still a Promising. We’ll vow to be together one day. Even though Traho wants to rip us, and everything else, apart. No matter what happens, I want to know that you’re mine, and I want you to know that I’m yours. Always.” He took her hand in his again. “Will you?”
I know why he’s doing this, Serafina thought dully. A war is coming and he doesn’t think he’ll survive it. A pain, familiar now but still terrible, tore through her. Traho had taken everything from her—her family, her people, her realm. And still he wanted more.
Well, this time, he wouldn’t get it.
She would take her vows.
She would take this night and these few precious hours.
She would take this merman for her own.
“Yes, Mahdi,” she said. “I will.”
CARLO ALETA ROJA SMILED. “Time to go,” he said.
He offered Sera his arm, and together they swam out of the farmhouse’s kitchen to its garden. Short and wiry, with graying hair, Carlo had the gnarled hands and stiff movements of one who had wrested his living from a rocky seabed. He and Elena farmed oysters.
“You couldn’t ask for a better night,” he said. “The tide’s high, the waters are calm, and the moon is full.”
Sera tried for a smile.
“Are you all right, Principessa? Are you nervous?”
“Very,” she admitted.
“Just remember,” Carlo said, covering her hand with his own, “no matter how nervous you feel, Rafael feels a thousand times worse!”
Sera laughed. Carlo was right. Sera had overheard Rafael fretting. She’d been on the landing outside her bedroom door, adjusting her dress, and he had been on the lower level of the farmhouse, talking to Elena. Their voices had carried up to her.
“I can’t do this!” Rafael had said. “I’m just a little backwater justice of the seas and they’re royalty! My voice, my powers…they’re not strong enough. Mahdi and Sera need a better songcaster. They need a canta magus. They need—”
Elena cut him off. “What they need is hope. So give them some. They’re two young people in love. Don’t you remember what that feels like? I remember when you met Ana, gods rest her. You couldn’t take your eyes off her.”
“I never did take my eyes off her. Not once in fifty years. She was everything to me,” Rafael said wistfully.
“And Mahdi can’t take his eyes off Sera. They don’t need a canta magus. They have love. It’s enough,” Elena said. “Love’s the greatest magic of all.”
Sera took heart at the memory of those
words. She had already learned that love was hard and demanded sacrifices. Now she knew that it also demanded courage. It was hard to speak betrothal vows to Mahdi when he might be taken away from her at any moment, but she wasn’t going to let fear stop her.
“Are you ready?” Carlo asked. They had reached the garden’s entrance. Like most mer gardens, it was not only fenced, but also roofed. Slender kelp stalks, woven together, discouraged pests from swooping in.
“Yes, I am,” Sera said, squaring her shoulders. “Thank you, Carlo. For swimming me up the aisle. For sheltering me. For everything that you and Elena have done.”
Carlo smiled sadly. “It should be your father at your side tonight, Principessa. He was a good merman.”
Sera nodded, missing both her parents so badly that it hurt. “He’s in my heart,” she said. “And you’re at my side. I’m a lucky merl to have two good mermen with me.”
Carlo kissed Sera’s cheek, then opened the door to the garden. As they swam inside, Sera’s eyes lit up with surprise and delight.
“Oh, how beautiful!” she exclaimed.
Hundreds of moon jellies formed a glowing canopy over the garden. Darting among them were dozens of minnows, their silver scales winking with reflected light. In the garden itself, anemones of all hues bloomed. Mauve stingers—purple jellyfish with long ruffled tentacles—floated like lanterns. Sea roses—flat, fluttery worms—twined themselves into red blossoms, and exotic sea lilies waved their feathery arms. Urchin shells filled with tiny lava globes shone softly atop rocks and corals.
Elena had done all this. Sera was so touched by the gesture that tears came to her eyes.
The setting was enchanting, and Sera loved its every detail, but it was the sight of Mahdi waiting for her at the end of the garden that made her heart swell.
He was wearing a dark blue seaflax jacket, fashionable three decades ago, that he’d borrowed from Carlo. He had not wanted to wear the uniform of the death riders for his betrothal. Elena had smartened the jacket by attaching a bright yellow anemone to one lapel. His dark hair was loose and hanging down his back. His face was solemn, but his warm, brown eyes were smiling. For her.
As Sera smiled back at him, she felt her nervousness disappear. Her worries and fears, too. Death riders were nearby, hunting for a talisman. Traho held Cerulea and would not give it up without a battle. She didn’t know what the future held, or if she and Mahdi would live to find out. And yet, when she looked into his eyes, she felt strong enough to face whatever was coming.
Elena was right: love was enough.
“Sera, you look…” he started to say.
“…soooooo pretty!” Coco chimed in.
Sera laughed. Coco was on Mahdi’s left, wearing a pink dress that had belonged to one of Elena’s grown daughters. Abelard swam in circles around her. Elena was next to them in a pretty blue seaflax dress, her silver hair in a braided coil at the nape of her neck.
Sera herself was dressed in Elena’s own betrothal gown. It was made of palest green sea silk and had fitted three-quarter sleeves, a square neckline, a cinched waist, and a skirt that gracefully skimmed Serafina’s curves. She wore a brilliant blue starfish in her short hair and was holding a bouquet of white and red coral that Elena had gathered for her.
Carlo escorted Sera to Mahdi’s side, then joined his wife. Then the whole tiny betrothal party turned to Rafael, who was floating just behind Mahdi.
Rafael nodded at them all, then started to sing. His voice was not the most robust, but it had warmth to it, and a rustic sincerity that conveyed the emotion of the betrothal vows perfectly.
The sea is still and bathed in light
As we begin these hallowed rites.
With Neria’s help, I now will sing
The sacred vows of Promising.
Sera turned to face Mahdi, as tradition dictated. She raised her right hand and he put the little shell ring he’d once made for her on her ring finger. Then he raised his left hand and she put a gold band, studded with emeralds, on his ring finger. Carlo had given it to Mahdi. He’d found it many years ago in a shipwreck. As Mahdi and Sera pressed their palms together, Rafael wound a rope made of kelp around their wrists and knotted it.
Around your limbs these ropes do wind,
Just as your hearts these vows will bind.
What the goddess joins forever
Is not for mortal mer to sever.
Be sure before you sing your oath,
You truly wish to plight your troth.
These vows of love and faith once spoken
Must forever be unbroken.
Rafael paused here to allow his words to sink in, and to give Mahdi and Sera a chance to change their minds. When he was certain they did not wish to, he continued, looking at Mahdi.
Let no rough waters rend apart
Two who have become one heart.
For love’s not love that can’t withstand
A rogue wave breaking on the sand.
Mahdi responded to Rafael, singing his vows perfectly.
As strong as the pull of the tides,
As strong as the wind and the weather,
My love has the force of ten oceans.
I vow it will keep us together.
Rafael addressed the next verse to Sera.
Love must be constant, not ebb and flow,
Like storms and frets, tides high and low.
For love’s not love if one must force
The beloved one to stay the course.
It was Sera’s turn now. She looked at Mahdi as she sang.
As sure as the seabirds in flight,
As sure as the endless deep blue,
My love is as certain as sunrise.
I vow it will keep us both true.
Rafael sang once again.
Stay heart to heart and hand to hand,
As close as water touching land.
For love’s not love if feelings fade
And hearts grow cold, despite vows made.
Mahdi and Sera sang the next response together.
As long as the pale moon rises,
As long as waves break on the shore,
Our love will go on never-ending.
As the whales in the deep, evermore.
Rafael smiled. He was almost done.
You’ve taken vows, you’ve given rings.
Now comes the end of Promising.
Go forth, be true, be kind and strong.
Live a life both good and long.
But most of all, never forget
It’s what you give, not what you get.
In seas below, or far above,
Be guided, evermore, by love.
The last note of Rafael’s song rose and faded. The rope binding Sera and Mahdi unwound and sank slowly to the seafloor. As it did, Mahdi, overcome by emotion, cupped Sera’s face in his hands and kissed her, and Sera kissed him back, forgetting there were others nearby.
The sound of clapping, however, quickly reminded her. Carlo and Rafael were applauding with gusto. Sera blushed furiously. Elena dabbed at her eyes. Coco made a face.
With the ceremony over, Rafael led Serafina and Mahdi back inside the house. They both had to sign a parchment attesting to the fact that they had indeed spoken their betrothal vows. Carlo and Elena signed afterward, as legal witnesses.
“Now for dinner!” Elena said, when they’d finished. “I’ve kept it warm all this time. Come everyone, let’s eat!”
She led the way to her kitchen, with Coco close on her tail. Mahdi didn’t follow them. Instead, he bent over the parchment-work.
“Aren’t you coming?” Serafina asked him.
“I am,” he said, smiling at her. “I’m just checking that everything’s filled out properly. You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”
Serafina swam to the doorway, then looked back. Mahdi’s smile had disappeared. He was holding up the parchment, scrutinizing it.
“If one of us was to actually marry anyone else now, that marriage would be?
??” he said to Rafael.
“Null and void,” Rafael said. “Why?”
Serafina thought it was the strangest question. Why would Mahdi ask about marrying anyone else? But then, as quickly as it had gone, his smile was back again.
“Just want to make sure you won’t try to steal her from me, sir,” he said.
Sera realized he was only joking. She swam to the kitchen. The sound of Rafael’s laughter followed her. “Ah, son,” he said, “once upon a time, maybe. Back in the day…”
A pretty table awaited Sera in the kitchen, set with Elena’s best shipwreck china and old, burnished silver. There was a vase arranged with colorful sea fans. Bright ribbon worms were wound around them.
“Everything’s so beautiful,” Serafina said, hugging Elena. “Thank you so much.”
Elena flapped a hand at her. “I’m sure it’s much grander at the palace, Principessa,” she said.
“It is, but I like this so much better. No table could ever be as lovely as this one. And no meal could be as special.”
Everyone sat down to eat. Elena’s cooking was delicious and Sera found that she was starving. There were sea lettuces with spicy pink shoal peppers, saltmarsh melons stuffed with beach plums, and the farm’s own oysters glazed with snail slime. Dessert was silt-cherry seafoam.
Serafina’s heart was so full as she looked around the table. The marriage ceremony, which would happen when she came of age at twenty—if she came of age—would be a huge ceremony of state, and would legalize her union with Mahdi. But this night wasn’t about realms and alliances; it was about true love. If only her mother and father could be here, and Mahdi’s parents, too. As if sensing her sadness, Mahdi took her hand. She smiled at him. He was hers now, and she was his.
“I have to go,” he said quietly.
Serafina nodded. She knew he had to get back to his mermen, and to the camp they’d made. He was supposed to be searching for Neria’s Stone. He said his good-byes, thanking Carlo, Elena, and Rafael profusely, and then Sera swam outside with him.