Serafina nodded.
“That’s why I hang with Lucia. I’m hoping to see something, or hear something, that will help us stop Kolfinn. Can you understand that? Can you forgive me?”
Serafina wanted to tell him no, until she thought of the drunken sergeant in the Lagoon and the dangerous game she’d played with him. She’d done what she had to do to escape. To survive another day. To fight for her people. And she knew she would do it again if she had to.
“Yes, I can,” she said.
Mahdi touched her cheek with the back of his hand. “I don’t want Lucia. I want you. I told you that two years ago and I’m telling you now. I’ve lost my parents. I may lose Matali. I can’t lose you, too. You have to believe me, Sera. Say you do.”
Serafina looked at him then, searching his beautiful dark eyes for the truth. What she saw in them made her believe. “I do, Mahdi.”
And then she was in his arms and his lips were on hers, silently telling her who he was. Hers. Always. And for a moment, there was no safe house, no danger, no grief. All she knew was the heat of his kiss and the feel of his heart beating under her hand.
Mahdi broke the kiss. “I have to go,” he said. “I took a big risk in coming here. But I had to see if you were here.”
Serafina, who’d been clutching his jacket, reluctantly let go of it. “I hate seeing this thing on you,” she said.
“Me too. Sometimes, when I first wake up in the morning, I don’t know where I am. Or who I am,” he said. “This uniform, everything I say, everything I do…It’s all a lie. Only one thing is real and true—my feelings for you.” He kissed her again. “Stay here where it’s safe, Sera. Please. No more trips to the Ostrokon. Promise me.”
“I can’t, Mahdi,” Serafina said. “I have to go back to the Ostrokon. I have to find some conchs there.”
“It’s too dangerous. Traho’s patrols—”
“—aren’t going to stop me. Traho was on my tail all the way to the Freshwaters, but I stayed one stroke ahead of him. I won’t let him catch me,” Sera said, bristling. “I have work to do here, Mahdi. Just like you do.”
“The Freshwaters?” Mahdi said, disbelief in his voice. “Sera, where have you been all this time? What have you been doing?”
Sera was about to reply when a thunderous crash cut her off. It was followed by the sound of splintering wood. The front door shuddered. Shouts and commands came from outside the house.
Mahdi swore. A second later, Aldo came barreling down the hallway. He picked up a heavy board that was propped against the wall and slid it into two brackets on either side of the door, bracing it. “That’ll give us a minute,” he said.
“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 Vrăja 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.”
A merman named Marco hurried them insi
de. “You the last ones?” he asked.
Mahdi nodded and Marco locked the door behind them. Sera found herself in another basement.
“I have a sick child here,” she said, breathing heavily. Carrying Matteo through the tunnels had exhausted her.
Another merman took the child from her and carried him off to the infirmary. Marco told Mahdi and Sera where they could find beds for the other children. As they settled them in, the boy named Franco asked, “Where’s Cira?”
Sera’s stomach knotted. She prayed that Cira was a toy.
“Who’s Cira?” Mahdi asked.
“She’s my friend. Her mama’s not well. She’s going to have a baby. They sleep upstairs.”
“I’m going back,” Sera said.
“No way. It’s suicide. The death riders are in the house by now,” Mahdi said.
“We should have checked the upstairs.”
“What if we had, and the death riders had broken in while we were up there? How would these kids have gotten out?”
“Anyone left in that house will be interrogated by Traho.”
“So will you if his soldiers capture you.”
“A child, Mahdi. A pregnant mermaid and a little child!” Sera’s voice was rising. With fear. And fury.
“If you go back and you’re taken, Traho will make you tell him where this house is and these people.”
“They’re mine, Mahdi. My people,” she shouted. “He can’t have them!”
“Sera…”
But she was already speeding back to the basement.
Let me out. I’m going back to Basalt Street. We left two behind,” she said to Marco.
“That’s a really bad idea,” said Marco.
“Let me out now!” Sera demanded.
Marco gave her a long look, then said, “This door has a peephole. If I see, hear, or smell any soldiers behind you, I’m not opening it. You’re out in the cold, merl.”
Sera nodded. She picked up a lantern lit by glowing moon jellies. Marco opened the door and she swam out of it.
Mahdi was right behind her.
SERA TENSED, ready to throw a frag or whirl a vortex.
“You good to go?” Mahdi whispered.
She nodded. They were back at Basalt Street, in the tunnel, with no idea of what awaited them on the other side of the iron door.
Mahdi pressed his ear to it. He listened for a few seconds, then slowly drew the bolt back. Taking a deep breath, he swung the door open.
The basement was empty.
Sera put her lantern down and cautiously swam inside. She crossed the basement and started for the first floor, but a noise stopped her short. It was the sound of furniture being toppled and smashed.
Mahdi caught up with her. “Death riders. Upstairs,” he said, mouthing the words.
Sera glanced at the rickety wooden door that led out of the basement. It was ajar. Mahdi had closed it when they’d fled. She was sure of it. She touched his hand then pointed at the door. He nodded. He understood what she was trying to say: Someone else is down here.
Sera turned in a slow circle, expecting to see Traho lurking in the shadows, a smile on his face, a speargun in his hand, but he wasn’t there.
Another crash from above froze her in place.
Mahdi, eyes on the door, motioned to her to follow him back inside the tunnel, but she shook her head. “They’re here. Cira and her mother. I know they are,” she whispered. “They’re the ones who left the door open.”
Mahdi held up a finger, indicating that she had one minute.
She moved through the basement like a whirlwind, looking in every corner, behind the lava furnace, around piles of old furniture. Mahdi did the same, keeping a wary eye on the doorway. After a minute had elapsed, he motioned that it was time to go.
Sera nodded, heartsick. Traho must’ve found Cira and her mother. Their risky trip back here had been for nothing. She headed back toward the tunnel.
As she did, a movement caught her eye. An old coral-frame sofa, its sea-silk cushions rotted long ago, had been pushed close—but not all the way—to a wall. The tip of a small green tail fin was sticking out from underneath it. Sera grabbed Mahdi’s arm and pointed.
They swam closer. Cowering in the gap between the sofa and the wall was a mermaid, her belly large and round, holding a trembling little merl. The mother’s eyes widened in fear when she saw Mahdi in his death rider’s uniform. She tightened her grip on her daughter and shrank against the wall.
“It’s okay,” Sera whispered. “He’s not one of them. It’s just a disguise. Come with us. We’ll get you out of here.”
The mother looked from Sera to Mahdi uncertainly. As she did, another crash was heard above their heads.
“Please,” Sera said. “We don’t have much time.”
But the mother, paralyzed by fear, wouldn’t budge.
“Search the basement!” a voice commanded.
Sera recognized that voice. She heard it in her nightmares. “Traho,” she said. “We’ve got to go.”
“Cira,” Mahdi said to the little mer, “your friends are waiting for you. Franco and Giancarlo. They told me you were here. They’re safe and they want you to be safe, too.”
The young mermaid gave Mahdi a brave smile. She took his hand. “Come on, Mama,” she said. “It’s okay.”
Mahdi hurried mother and child into the tunnel. Sera followed. She was about to pull the tunnel door closed when four death riders swam into the basement.
“You, there! Stop!” one of them shouted.
“Call Captain Traho!” another yelled.
One reached for his speargun, holstered at his hip. Two more rushed at Sera. They were both holding lava torches.
Sera realized that they had only seconds in which to live or die. She needed more than canta mirus now; she needed canta malus. She didn’t hesitate. Her voice swooped into a low, dark key as she focused on the glass globes of lava set atop the torches.
Lava hot and lava bright,
Hide us from our enemy’s sight.
Bubble, leap, hiss, and burn.
Make these soldiers quickly turn.
Deadly lava, do you worst.
Through the goblin glass now burst!
Mahdi lunged for Sera just as the last note of the songspell left her lips. He pulled her into the tunnel and yanked the door closed. His quick thinking saved her life.
The explosion was instantaneous. The concussive force was so great, it shook the ground. Sera saw a blinding flash of white light in the crack under the door; she heard the impact of debris as it was flung against the iron, and the bubbling and hissing of lava.
Then she heard nothing at all.
“They’re…” she started to say.
“Yeah, they are,” Mahdi said. “No one could survive a blast like that. I doubt the safe house survived it. My gods, Sera, what was that?”
“Darksong,” Sera replied. “It’s legal if used against an enemy during wartime. I had no choice, Mahdi. It was us or them.”
“I know that. I meant you. When did you learn how to cast such a powerful frag? I know seasoned commanders who couldn’t do what you just did.”
The bloodbind, Sera thought. It gave me Neela’s skills with light and Becca’s with fire. She was about to explain her newfound powers, or try to, when shouts carried through the door.
“More death riders,” Mahdi said tensely. “Traho must’ve had extra troops outside the safe house. Time to go, everyone.”
“Thank you,” Cira’s mother said as they started off. “Thank you for coming back for us.” In the light of Sera’s lantern, her face looked pale and pinched. She was breathing heavily. “I’m Kallista, by the way.”
“Are you okay?” Sera asked.
“I’m in labor.”
“Oh, wow. Oh, boy,” Mahdi said, running his hands through his hair.
“There’s an infirmary in the new safe house. It’s not far from here. Half a league,” Sera said. “Can you make it?”
&nbs
p; Kallista laughed weakly. “Do I have a choice?”
“Sera, you take one of her arms. I’ll take the other. Cira, you stay right on our tails,” said Mahdi.
Sera hoped they could move faster than before since they knew where they were going this time, but that wasn’t the case. The tunnels were too narrow to allow them to swim three abreast. She and Mahdi often had to turn sideways, which slowed them down. She was glad when the first fork appeared ahead of them.
Before they reached it, however, Mahdi stopped abruptly. “Hold up a minute,” he said.
“What is it?” asked Sera.
Then she heard it: the sound of voices. Closing in fast.
“They got through,” said Mahdi. “We’re going to split up at the fork. You three go right and swim as fast as you can to the safe house. I’ll go left and draw them off.”
“Mahdi, no!” Serafina said.
“Go!” he hissed. He fished a moon jelly out of Sera’s lantern to light his way, picked up a rock off the floor, then shot into the opposite tunnel. A second later, Sera heard a scraping sound. He was dragging the rock against the tunnel wall.
“Come on,” Sera said to Cira and Kallista, remembering Marco’s dire warning about not letting her back in if soldiers were on her tail. “We’ve got to swim. Fast.”
They took off up the right-hand tunnel, moving as quickly as they could. A few minutes later, Sera spotted the second turn-off. As they reached it, she heard voices again.
Mahdi’s plan hadn’t worked. The death riders weren’t following him; they were following them.
Sera took Cira by the shoulders. The child couldn’t have been more than eight. “Cira, listen to me. You’ve got to get your mom the rest of the way there, okay? You can do it. I know you can.” She explained how to get inside the safe house, then she scooped another glowing moon jelly out of her lantern and put it in Cira’s hands. “Go!” she hissed.
As Cira and her mother hurried off, Sera swam into the other tunnel. “Help!” she shouted. “We can’t find the safe house! Please! Is anyone there?”
This time, the plan did work. The death riders chased her, not Cira and Kallista.