Orfeo was here with her in the Abyss.
Crying out in fear, she turned and bolted away from him—only to be brought up short by the appearance of someone even more terrifying.
Morsa.
The goddess was swimming toward Ling, her serpent’s tail twining in the water, her lipless mouth twisted into a smile. The scorpions wreathing her head raised their venomous stingers.
“Have you brought me a sacrifice, Orfeo?” she asked in a dry, dusty voice. “You are ever my faithful servant.”
Ling screamed. She tried to swim away from Morsa, away from Orfeo, but wherever she went, they were there, reaching for her.
Whimpering, she closed her eyes and curled into a ball, waiting to feel Orfeo’s rough hand clamp down on her, or Morsa’s lethal sting.
But she felt nothing.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. Both Orfeo and Morsa were gone.
“They were never here,” she said to herself. “You’re hallucinating.”
Ling knew she had to ascend. Now. If only she could find a creature that wasn’t a predator, one that could tell her which way to go. She needed help but was afraid to call out for it. What if her pleas summoned another fangtooth…or something worse?
I’m going to die down here, she thought. Totally alone.
Ling thought of Serafina and the others, waiting for her, depending on her. She thought of her father in the prison camp. His hopes were pinned on her, too. She thought of her brothers. Would their village be raided next? Would they be hauled off to a labor camp?
And then she thought of her mother. Not being able to say good-bye to her hurt the most.
Ling had parted from her on bad terms, angry at her silence. But now she realized that the way she felt here in the Abyss—scared, alone, and desperate—was how her mother felt every single day of her life.
Ling valued toughness and strength—in herself and others—but she saw now that even the strong couldn’t be strong all the time. Everyone was frightened or lonely or heartbroken sometimes, and when they were, they needed others to be strong for them.
For the first time, Ling understood.
She took a deep breath, then shouted at the top of her lungs, “Please, is anyone here? Anyone? Can somebody help me? I was looking for a puzzle ball, but now I’m totally lost and I’m sick and I’m scared and I need to get out of here!”
No one answered her.
Not at first.
But then Ling heard something. A few seconds later, she saw something, way below her.
A strange creature, with a slender, spiraling body and thousands of glowing tentacles, rose up from the depths. More creatures, just like the first, followed it.
Ling had seen the things in the night skies, things the goggs called fireworks. These creatures looked like that, like shining bursts of light in the darkness. They spoke as they rose, and their language sounded like music, mysterious and beautiful.
“Look!” the creatures said. “Look! Look! Look!”
I must be hallucinating again, Ling thought.
More creatures came. Their light illuminated the dark water. Ling saw that she was very near the wall.
“Are you real?” Ling asked.
“Look!” the creatures said. “Look! Look!”
Ling did so. Though her head was pounding and she felt sickeningly dizzy, she swam back and forth, searching in cracks and crevices. As her body cried out for oxygen, she dug through silt-filled depressions, waved aside a school of tiny needlenose fish, parted a thicket of ribbon worms. And then, finally, she saw it. It was only a few feet away, resting on a ledge.
A small white ball.
Ling tried to swim to it, but a fit of coughing, painful and harsh, overtook her. She spat out a mouthful of blood. She tried again, and this time she made it, smiling as she picked up the talisman. It was carved of coral and contained spheres within spheres. A phoenix decorated the outermost one.
Closing her hand around the precious object, Ling tried to swim up, but failed. Her strength was gone. Another fit of coughing gripped her. When it subsided, she could barely breathe.
The strange light-filled creatures began to descend again.
“No!” she rasped. “Stay! Please! I need you. I can’t die here. Please help me.”
As the words left her lips, another fangtooth loomed out of the darkness. It was twice as large as the one that had attacked her. Its teeth were six inches long.
Ling closed her eyes and waited for death.
But it didn’t come. The fangtooth swooped down behind her and grabbed hold of her tunic with his fearsome teeth. Ling felt herself being lifted off the ledge and carried upward.
An anglerfish appeared, too. A thin, fleshy stalk protruded from its forehead, and a blue light glowed at the end. It started for the surface, lighting the way, and the fangtooth followed. As they ascended, the tightness in Ling’s chest eased. Her dizziness faded. She gripped the talisman tightly.