He popped his head out of the hatch again. “Dead ahead and broadside!” he shouted.
“Dead ahead and broadside? But we must be going eighty knots!” Becca exclaimed.
“El’s going to try to jump them. The waves will give us lift. If we make the jump at full speed, we can escape,” Marco yelled.
“And if we don’t make the jump?” Becca yelled back.
Marco didn’t answer right away. Then he turned back to her and said, “We’re dead meat.”
“MARCO, Becca, brace yourselves!” Elisabetta shouted.
Marco sat down sideways in his chair and threw an arm around its back. Becca gripped one side of the tank with both hands. She heard the engines scream as Elisabetta pushed the throttle all the way open.
The Marlin rose straight up the side of a giant roller. The powerful wave caught it, heaved it up its crest, and launched it—straight over Mfeme’s boats. As it crashed back down in the water, its propellors caught and the Marlin shot off.
Marco ran up on the deck. A few seconds later, Becca heard him hooting and laughing.
“Way to go, El!” he whooped.
“What’s happening?” Becca shouted.
Marco jumped back down belowdecks. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes sparkling.
“Mfeme’s two captains tried to follow,” he explained, “but before they could turn themselves around, another roller caught them broadside. It capsized one and flooded the other. They’re sinking!”
Becca went limp with relief. Racing for the boat and then being convinced she was about to die in a fiery wreck had wiped everything from her mind. Now that she could think straight, what Marco had said to her before Elisabetta turned the Marlin into a flying fish came flooding back.
“Marco?”
“Hmm?” he said. He’d walked to the window and was looking out of it now.
“You were going to tell me something earlier. Before Elisabetta shouted for us to get back in the boat. What was it?”
Becca was nervous about what he might say, but she wanted to know. She had to know. If he was feeling what she was feeling, then there was trouble ahead for both of them. Such relationships had been attempted on occasion. They never ended well. Surf and turf, the mer called them. Becca could hear the scornful jokes already.
Marco turned to her. Though he was tanned, Becca saw a flush creep into his cheeks. He ran a hand through his hair. “Earlier? Hmm. I forget,” he said. “Maybe…um…probably that I think we’ll make the Karg soon. Yeah, that was it. In three or four days, tops. Good news, right?” he said, smiling brightly.
Becca nodded. “Very,” she replied, smiling back just as brightly.
She was wrong. Marco didn’t have feelings for her. Thank the gods.
“Well, I…um…I should check on El. Make sure everything’s okay topside.”
“You probably should,” Becca agreed.
He climbed up the ladder and disappeared.
Becca watched him go, feeling relieved.
And foolishly, maddeningly, sad.
LUCIA TOOK A DEEP BREATH, then pressed the carved dolphin on the mantel in her mother’s sitting room. As she did, a secret door to the left of the lavaplace clicked open.
Silently, she thanked the odious Baco Goga for revealing the door, and the network of tunnels it led to. She’d made very good use of them in her mother’s absence.
Holding a lava torch aloft, she swam into the passageway, closed the door, and started down the tunnel. She carried clothing folded over her arm—Mahdi’s clothing. She’d stolen it from his room just today, while he was out. A few trocii slipped into a maid’s hand had bought her access.
She wished she had company for her journey through the tunnels, but now that Bianca was gone, there was no one she could trust with her secret. Guilt, cold and nauseating, clutched at her at the memory of her friend. Lucia had turned her over to Kharis with barely a backward glance. Sometimes, in her nightmares, she still heard Bianca’s screams.
Lucia shook off the guilt. The regina mattered far more than any of her subjects. The ruler’s happiness was of paramount importance to the realm. Surely, in her last moments, Bianca had been glad to know that she’d fulfilled her duty.
“A little fish gone, that’s all. A very little fish. And there are so many more of them in the sea,” Lucia said aloud, pushing all thoughts of Bianca from her mind. She had more important things to focus on now.