When they finished, she asked, “What happened to the black pearl after Feimor died?”
“The maelstrom didn’t say,” Astrid said. “It was too busy trying to kill us.”
Sera nodded thoughtfully, remembering how Vallerio and Portia had spoken of the shadowy he who, they claimed, had the pearl. “If only we could find out for certain. Maybe someone knows who became chieftain after Feimor, and if he inherited the pearl,” she said.
“Um, Sera,” Astrid began, “I know you’re Little Miss Optimistic, but this whole thing has gone from pretty impossible to totally impossible. Feimor was a Viking. He would’ve been buried with the pearl. And even if he wasn’t, even if he passed it down to a relative, that relative was human. Humans live on land. And we don’t have feet.”
A silence descended in the cave. Becca broke it. “Lots of things are impossible,” she said softly. “Until they’re not.”
“That’s true,” Neela said. “We’re not human—but Marco and Elisabetta are. They might be able to find out if the pearl was passed down and if a living human now has it.”
“How, Neela?” Astrid asked. “Marco and Elisabetta…they can only cover so much ground. The pearl could be anywhere on land. With any human. There are hundreds of millions of them.”
“Forget that,” said a voice from behind them.
The mermaid leaning on Garstig’s arm, in the cave’s mouth, was frighteningly thin. She had dark circles under her weary eyes and a pale, haggard face.
“I know who has the pearl,” she said. “And he’s definitely not human.”
“LING!” SERAFINA CRIED.
She swam to her friend and embraced her. It was like hugging a bundle of reeds. Ling started to cough as Sera released her, and couldn’t stop. Her face took on a bluish cast. Just as Sera started to panic, the cough stopped and Ling inhaled a lungful of water.
“Depth sickness,” she said. “And sea wasp poisoning.”
Neela, Becca, and Astrid had swum over, too.
“Some of my fighters found her on the south side of the camp,” said Garstig. “She collapsed there. They brought her to me. Is she a spy?” he asked hopefully.
“No, Garstig, she’s not. Thank you for bringing her here,” Sera said.
Disappointed, the goblin stalked off. Astrid and Becca got Ling to the waterfire and eased her down. Neela brought her a cup of hot sargasso tea. Ling took it gratefully.
“Let me find you some food,” Neela said.
Ling held up a hand, stopping her. “Thank you, Neela, but I need to talk to you all first. Just in case I start coughing again and can’t stop.”
Ling’s eyes, wary and untrusting, took in the unfamiliar faces in the cave. Sera saw her doubt. “They know everything, Ling,” she said. “I trust them completely.”
Ling nodded. She slipped off her backpack, dug inside it, and pulled out the puzzle ball. “Here you go,” she said, handing it to Sera. “Sycorax’s talisman.”
Sera gasped, astonished. She couldn’t believe she was holding yet another of the precious objects. As she’d done with Pyrrha’s coin, she passed it to the others, then put it safely away in her strongbox.
“How did you get it?” she asked, sitting down again.
“I’ll tell you, but before I do, you need to know something.”
Another bout of coughing shook her emaciated frame. She had to sit for a moment after it was over to gather strength before she could continue.
“Ling, do you need to lie down?” Sera asked, scared for her friend.
“No, Sera, I need to speak,” Ling insisted. “What I’ve got to tell you is very important. Rafe Mfeme has the black pearl.”
The brutal terragogg flashed into Sera’s mind. She saw him aboard his ship, the Bedrie?r, trying to haul Ling up in a net.
“Great Neria, he has Morsa’s pearl?” she said.
“Wait, Ling,” Astrid cut in. “I thought you said that the one who has the black pearl isn’t human.”
Ling laughed wearily. “I did.”
“But how can that be?” Astrid asked. “Rafe Mfeme’s definitely a terragogg.”
Ling shook her head. “We had no idea who we were dealing with. Duca Armando didn’t know. Even Vr?ja didn’t.”
Sera’s fins prickled. “Ling, what exactly are you saying?” she asked.
Ling looked at them all in turn. “Rafe Mfeme isn’t human. He’s not even Rafe Mfeme. He’s the most powerful mage who ever lived. Orfeo.”
A SHOCKED SILENCE DESCENDED.
Sera was reeling. From the looks on her companions’ faces, they were, too.
“Orfeo’s here. And he’s very much alive,” Ling said. “He’s the man Sera and I saw in the mirror in Atlantis.”
Sera remembered that horrible face. “I saw him in my room, too, in the palace,” she said quietly.
“He’s the one who wants to free Abbadon,” Ling added. “He’s trying to find the talismans before we do.”
Astrid sat forward. “How do you know this?” she asked, an intensity to her voice that Sera hadn’t heard before. She wondered at it.