He’d removed the sunglasses he constantly wore, revealing eyes that were empty, black voids. Ling’s blood had run cold at the sight of them. She’d realized that she’d seen him before—in a mirror in Atlantis. He’d tried to crawl out of it, to come after her and Sera, but Sera had broken the mirror before he could.
“You can’t be Orfeo. It’s impossible,” Ling had whispered. “You’re dead. You’ve been dead for four thousand years!”
Orfeo had laughed. “Anything is possible, Ling, if you want it badly enough.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ling had said.
But as he’d spoken, the rays of the setting sun had glinted off the black pearl he wore around his neck.
The pearl! Ling had thought, remembering that Orfeo’s talisman was a black pearl given to him by Morsa. Had he somehow used it to keep himself alive? That was the moment when Ling had believed him, with all her heart, and terror had gripped her—not for herself, but for her friends. They had no idea who Mfeme really was. Desperate to tell them, she’d tried to cast a convoca, but Orfeo had clamped an iron collar around her neck before she’d sung two words of the spell.
“There’s no need to warn your friends, Ling,” he’d said as he locked the collar. “I’m not going to kill them. Not yet. I want them alive so they can keep searching for the rest of the talismans. I thought Vallerio and his henchmen would have found them by now, but they’ve only obtained one—Merrow’s blue diamond.”
Ling’s heart had filled with bitter defeat. Orfeo had two talismans—Merrow’s and his own. How would she and the other mermaids ever get them away from him?
Orfeo had sat down on the gunwale and looked out over the water. “A few centuries ago, I almost got the blue diamond myself. I was so close, but then the Infanta and her damned hawk…” He’d waved the memory away. “Ah, well. One must be patient. Neela’s found her talisman. Ava and Becca will find theirs, I’m sure. Astrid refuses to even look, but then again”—he’d tapped the black pearl—“she doesn’t need to.”
He had shifted his soulless gaze back to Ling. “And you,” he’d said. “I very much hoped you’d found your talisman, but not to worry. I will. Because there’s a pattern, Ling. I can see it now. Merrow disposed of her talisman on the shores of her own realm. And she put it in a very dangerous place—the hands of a human. She put Navi’s moonstone in her home waters, in the claws of a dragon queen.”
Ling hadn’t wanted to take part in this conversation, but she’d been so upset to learn that Orfeo had two talismans and knew about Neela’s, she hadn’t been able to stop herself.
“How do you know Neela has the moonstone?” she’d blurted.
“Because Hagarla, the dragon queen, is unhappy that her prized possession was stolen. She wants it back and is offering a fortune to the one who brings it to her. A death rider heard of her offer and told Traho. He reported it to me.”
Orfeo had paused to untie the ropes securing Ling to her chair, then he’d continued. “Merrow was such a fool. Always led by her heart,” he’d said. “It makes sense that she would’ve returned our talismans to the waters nearest our original homes. And that means”—he’d leaned on the chair’s arms, bent down, and looked Ling in the eye—“that Sycorax’s talisman, an ancient puzzle ball, is in Qin. And what’s the most hazardous place in Qin?” He’d straightened and clapped his hands. “The Abyss, of course!”
“The Abyss is endless. You’ll never find such a tiny object in such a large area,” Ling had said. She’d seen puzzle balls. They were small, cunningly carved, and contained spheres within spheres. Each sphere had a hole in it. The puzzle was solved when the holes were lined up, allowing one to see the center of the ball and the surprise it contained.
Orfeo had smiled. “You’re right. I, myself, will not find the puzzle ball, but you might. You’ll certainly have every opportunity, where you’re going.”
Was that where the Bedrie?r was headed? Ling had wondered. To the Abyss? Why? What could a trawler do there? Submarines couldn’t plumb those depths. They were too much even for the mer. Ling’s own father, an archaeologist, had died in the Abyss. He’d gone exploring and had never returned. Her family assumed he’d succumbed to depth sickness.
“I’ll take all the talismans, Ling,” Orfeo had continued, his smile hardening. “And Vallerio will take the mer realms. He’ll unite them into one army. He’ll help me free Abbadon, and together we’ll march on the underworld. The gods themselves will fight me, but I’ll win. I’ll take Alma back if I have to destroy the entire world to do it.”
Then he had motioned to two thugs standing nearby. They’d hoisted Ling out of the chair, hauled her off, and thrown her into the hold. Ever since, she’d spent her every waking minute looking for a way to escape.
A thunderous noise ripped her out of her thoughts now. The Bedrie?r was dropping anchor. All around her, prisoners clutched each other, wild with fear.
“What’s happening? Where are we? What are they going to do with us?” panicked voices called out.
The death riders didn’t make them wait long for the answers.