Astrid looked at Sera skeptically. “But I didn’t get the talisman. We don’t have it,” she said.
“Yet,” Sera said. “Maybe there’s still a way. Once you’ve rested up you can tell me what happened, then we’ll figure out the next stroke together. Has anyone heard from Ava or Ling?”
“No,” Becca said, worry creasing her brow. “We were hoping you had.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Garstig shouting at Totschl?ger. The argument over the best way to cook conger eel had escalated.
“I’d better see to this,” Sera said.
Desiderio’s eyes widened in alarm. “Don’t, Sera. Goblins get nasty when they fight. You might get hurt.”
Sera laughed. “Yes, I might,” she said. Then she swam between them, placing a hand on each goblin’s chest. “Stop,” she said. “You need to sort that out with Antonio at the mess hall. We shouldn’t be out here. It’s not safe. Let’s get everyone back to camp.”
The two goblins grumbled, but they followed her orders.
Desiderio looked at her, obviously impressed. “Guess I shouldn’t call you little sister anymore,” he said. “I know grown mermen who won’t get between two angry goblins. I can’t wait to see the camp.”
“I can’t wait to lie down in a soft bed,” Becca said.
“I could use a hot meal,” Astrid added.
“You’ll see most of the camp on our way back in through the north hills. As for the rest…how about a nice hard bed and some roasted conger eel?” Sera asked sardonically.
There were few comforts to be had at camp, but suddenly that didn’t seem to matter. Her brother was here. Her two friends were, too. Vr?ja said they were more powerful when they were together. Sera had sensed that back in the Iele’s caves. She sensed it again now. She felt stronger and more hopeful now than she had in many months.
Maybe the tide was finally beginning to turn.
SERA HAD FORGOTTEN what an excellent waterfire caster Becca was.
She had conjured some crackling flames in the center of the command cave and they were all sitting around them now—Sera, Astrid, Becca, Yazeed, Des, Sophia, and Neela.
Sera smiled as she passed around a bowl of reef olives, remembering Neela’s reaction when Des, Astrid, and Becca had swum into the cave. She’d screamed at the top of her lungs, hugged all three of them until they could barely breathe, and turned the most bright, beautiful shade of blue. She was still glowing now, an hour later.
While Becca had cast the waterfire, everyone else helped scrape together a meal. The goblins were still arguing over the best way to prepare conger eel and Sera predicted it would be quite some time before the issue was settled. All Sera, Neela, and Yaz had to contribute were reef olives and walrus cheese, but Becca had water apples, a marsh melon, and whelk eggs, and Astrid and Des had salted tube worms and silt cherries.
To Sera, it felt like a feast. As they ate, Astrid, Des, and Becca told their stories, and Sera and Neela recounted theirs.
Becca described her trip to Cape Horn, and how she found her talisman and tried to escape the Williwaw—only to have it toss her into some rocks. She said that she had the new duca di Venezia and his sister to thank for saving her.
Sera asked what Marco was like. Her heart still hurt when she thought about Armando, Marco’s father, and how he’d been killed by Rafe Mfeme.
“He and Elisabetta are very kind. And very brave,” Becca said, with gratitude in her voice—and something else. Something Sera couldn’t name at first, but then recognized—love.
It was an odd emotion to feel for a terragogg, but Sera understood. She herself had loved the old duca for his kindness and bravery. Becca, she reasoned, probably had similar feelings for the new duca and his sister.
Then Becca gave her Pyrrha’s gold coin. Sera held it in her hand, feeling its power, and then passed it around. When it was handed back to her, she rose and put it in a strongbox together with Merrow’s blue diamond and Navi’s moonstone. She placed the strongbox in a niche in the command cave’s wall, then cast a camo songspell that made it look as if there was no niche, only smooth cave wall.
As Sera sat down again, Astrid informed them about the death of her father and Commodora Rylka’s treachery. Desiderio described his imprisonment and how Ludo had helped him and Astrid escape on an orca named Elskan.
Astrid actually sounded a little sad when she described how she’d had to command Elskan to go back home once they’d hit the east Atlantic. The waters there were too warm for the orca, but Elskan hadn’t wanted to go. She’d nosed Astrid and cried in her whale language.
Des said, “Elskan wasn’t the only one who cried.”
Astrid scowled. “You’re so wrong; I just had something in my eye.”
Then Astrid and Des related their trip to the maelstrom and how a Viking chieftain named Feimor Fa Eaemor had come to possess the pearl. Sera leaned forward as they spoke, eager to hear every word.