“Tell Sanni to cut his sea straw, too,” Eyv?r instructed, watching as the groom led Blixt away.
Astrid could hear worry in her mother’s voice, but she heard something else, too, something deeper. What was it? Founder was serious, but Eyv?r had dealt with it before. Neither animal ailments nor arguments were normally enough to upset her.
As Astrid was puzzling over her mother’s odd behavior, Ludo spoke again.
“The boy’s my nephew, Eyv?r. My flesh and blood.”
“I’ll do whatever I can,” Eyv?r said, her voice cracking.
“Whatever you can? That’s not enough! Rylka’s going to execute him without a tribunal and you don’t even care!”
Eyv?r whirled on him, her eyes blazing, her composure gone. “I do care, damn it!” she shouted. “But I happen to have other concerns at the moment! My husband is dying, Ludo!”
“What…” Astrid tried to speak but couldn’t. She squeezed her hands into fists and tried again. “Eyv?r, what did you say?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Ludo looked from mother to daughter, an expression of disbelief on his face. “You haven’t told her? She doesn’t know?” he asked.
Eyv?r looked at the floor.
“You Ondalinians. I’ll never understand you.” Ludo had learned the ways of his adopted realm, but in his heart he was still Miromaran and showed his emotion instead of hiding it. “I’ll leave you,” he said. “Astrid, I’m sorry.”
Astrid didn’t even hear him. Her eyes, wide with shock, were on her mother.
“Kolfinn is very sick, Astrid,” Eyv?r said, when Ludo was gone.
“I-I don’t understand,” Astrid said, completely bewildered. “When I left, he was better.”
“It was a show of strength,” Eyv?r explained. “He wanted everyone to think he was recovering. Especially his enemies. His doctors kept the truth a secret to buy some time.”
Astrid felt as if she was going to come apart. A maelstrom of emotion whirled inside her, its gyre widening. Grief overwhelmed her. Anger, too. This secret should not have been kept—not from her.
“How long does he have?” she asked.
“The poison has damaged his heart. It’s…” Eyv?r’s face crumpled, but she regained control. “Not long.”
“I need to see him,” Astrid demanded. “Now.”
“That’s not a good idea. He’s in the hospital. He’s very weak.”
“He’s my father, Eyv?r!” Astrid shouted. “Can I at least say hello?”
Eyv?r shook her head sorrowfully. “Oh, Astrid,” she said, her voice finally breaking. “It’s not hello. It’s good-bye.”
“A COWRIE FOR YOUR THOUGHTS,” Sophia said.
Sera, who’d been staring up at the pale moon through Miromara’s blue waters, turned to her, a wistful smile on her face.
“I was thinking about a princess,” she said.
“A friend?”
Sera laughed. “Far from it. A shipwreck ghost. An infanta of Spain. Her name was Maria Theresa. She had Merrow’s talisman. She gave it to me. And almost killed me.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted to go home,” Sera said. “She’d haunted her sunken ship for four hundred years. You’d think she would have forgotten the place where she was born, but no.”
“She must’ve missed her palace and the life she’d had there,” Sophia said.
Sera shook her head. “It was the warm winds of her realm that she longed for. Jasmine. Oranges. The blue sky. I didn’t understand then, but I do now. I don’t miss the palace, either. Or my gowns and jewels. But I’ll miss the way the moon shines down on Miromara, the sight of bluefin tuna slicing through the water, and the scent of water apples on the current. So much.”
“You’ll be back, Sera. I know you will,” Sophia said, determination in her voice. “That’s what we’re fighting for. To put the rightful regina back on the throne. To take back our city, and our realm.”
Sera nodded, moved by her friend’s loyalty. “How are they doing?” she asked, nodding at a deserted farmhouse a few yards away.
“They’re packing up the last load. Yazeed started out with the first group of rays. Neela and Silvio are leading the second. I’m taking the third.”
“Any sign of death riders?”
“None.”
“Good,” Sera said, relieved.
Sera, Sophia, and the rest of the Black Fins were in Sargo’s Canyon. With the help of the same manta rays who’d carried the loot away from the palace, they were moving the treasure from its hiding place to the Black Fins’ new headquarters in the Kargjord.
It was a long trip. The rays would stop to rest along the way, but Sera knew it would still be hard going. She knew, too, that getting everyone out of Miromara to a safer place was the right thing to do, but it didn’t make saying good-bye to all the things she loved any easier.
A whistle sounded in the darkness.
“That’s my signal,” said Sophia. “Gotta go.”
She and Sera embraced, and then Sera was alone. She’d told the others she would catch up. There was one last good-bye to say.