“Actually, you can,” Sophia replied. “We can’t afford for you to get sick.”
“Thank you,” Sera said, shrugging into the garment. “I don’t know how Vallerio’s getting his information, but he can’t be allowed to capture Ava and Becca.”
“How do we stop him?” Neela asked.
Sera had an idea. “We’ve got troops now, so let’s use them,” she said. “We don’t have a super trawler to get our soldiers where they need to go, but we can cast velo spells. And enlist the help of whales, too. In a battle of goblins against death riders, I’d back the goblins any day.”
“This is a real long shot. You know that, right?” Yazeed said.
Sera laughed wearily. “What isn’t a long shot, Yaz? I am. You are. This entire camp is. I’m getting used to making long shots work. We’ve got to protect Ava and Becca,” she said.
As Neela and Sophia started to work out how many goblins should be sent to the Mississippi and Cape Horn, Yaz consulted maps to determine the quickest routes.
Sera started out for the munitions cave. Her troops would need crossbows and arrows and she wanted to see how many of each had arrived.
As she swam, worried for her friends but emboldened by her plans, she met the truth head-on. There was no point in waiting for the fickle gods Trykel and Spume to help her. If she wanted the tide to turn, she’d have to turn it herself.
“YOU LOVE HER, don’t you?” Des asked Astrid, his eyes crinkling as he smiled.
Astrid, watching Elskan charge off after a school of herring, laughed. “I guess so. As much as I can love a headstrong, willful, bad-tempered beast.”
“I think that’s why you love her. She’s strong, spirited, and does pretty much as she pleases.” He gave Astrid a sidelong glance. “Kind of like someone else I know.”
Astrid rolled her eyes. She and Des had been traveling together for three days now and they’d developed an easy, teasing way with each other.
And they had plenty to tease about. They’d both almost fallen off when Elskan had bolted out of Ludo’s stable. They’d both been bucked off on several occasions. And Elskan had nipped each of them countless times. Des was missing a few scales on his backside thanks to the orca.
But Des wasn’t just a joker. He was sober and serious when he needed to be, and an exceedingly capable soldier. He knew how to find food or trap it, how to hide all traces of a campsite, and how to cast a superfast camo spell. He knew when schools of haddock or cod were approaching and always made sure he and Astrid got off Elskan when they did so the orca could chase down a meal.
He was sensitive, too. He seemed to know when to give her space to mourn her father. And Astrid did the same for him, allowing him privacy when he became quiet, guessing that he was thinking about his parents.
Nights were the hardest. That was when thoughts and memories crowded in. She and Des would untack Elskan, allow her to hunt—as they’d done just now—and give her a rubdown when she returned. Then they’d set up camp, eat, and sleep.
Except that Astrid usually couldn’t sleep. She’d sit up and watch fish swim to the surface to feed, let a little blue crab crawl up her arm, or gaze at a lion’s mane jellyfish drifting by, all the while thinking about Kolfinn and how Rylka had murdered him. And her heart would ache with sorrow and burn with fury.
She admired Des—he was Des to her now—and respected him, and wished to the gods she could tell him her secret. It was hard to keep trying to hide it. She had to constantly invent excuses to explain why she didn’t songcast an illuminata or a camo spell when they needed one.
But she was afraid to reveal the truth. She knew the day was coming when she’d have to tell him—and Sera, Neela, and everyone else—and she dreaded it. What if Kolfinn had been right? What if no one wanted a mermaid without magic?
“Elskan’s hungry tonight,” Des said now, pulling Astrid out of her thoughts.
“So am I,” Astrid said. “We only have a few bunches of squid eggs left. I hope the foraging’s decent here.”
About half an hour ago, they’d found a large metal shipping container lying on the seafloor broken in two, its colorful but inedible contents spilling out, and had decided to shelter inside it for the night. Sunken containers weren’t uncommon. Rough seas sometimes knocked them off the decks of ships.
Tomorrow morning they’d resume their journey to the Kargjord. Only they were making one stop on the way—at the Qanikkaaq. Sera had asked her to get the black pearl, hoping that Vallerio or Mfeme hadn’t beaten them to it, and Astrid had refused. But that was before Kolfinn had been murdered. Before she’d become an outlaw. Before Des. Before she’d decided to follow the current Vr?ja had set out for her.