Ling smiled bitterly. “Because I had the not-so-great pleasure of being a guest aboard his trawler.”
“What happened?” Neela asked.
Ling told them everything, starting with the interrogation aboard the Bedrie?r. She recounted how Mfeme spelled out his full name, RAFE IAORO MFEME, with her letter tiles, then used magic to rearrange them into I AM ORFEO FEAR ME. She described the prison camp, and informed them about the weapons shipments. They were riveted by her reunion with her father, her search for the talisman, and her journey to the Kargjord.
“I planned to go to Miromara,” she said. “But I knew I didn’t have the energy to swim the entire way. So I decided to go through the mirror realm.”
“That was very risky,” Sera scolded.
“It was also very lucky,” Ling said. “Rorrim was busy upsetting a terragogg so I was able to slip down the Hall of Sighs without his seeing me. I found a mirror that led to a room in Cerulea’s palace. A vitrina lived in it. I knew you wouldn’t be in the palace, Sera, but I thought the vitrina might’ve overheard something about where you’d gone.”
“Good thinking,” Becca said.
“I had to flatter her like mad,” Ling continued, “but she finally told me some gossip about Lucia Volnero—I gather she thinks she’s the new regina?”
“Thinks being the operative word,” said Sera, her fins flaring.
Ling nodded. “The vitrina overheard a very unpleasant man named Baco Goga tell Lucia and her mother about your activities. He said he has a spy in your midst.”
Sera looked at Yazeed. “You were right,” she said.
“As soon as I learned that you were in the Karg, I started searching for a mirror that would get me close to it. The vitrina—”
Here Ling started coughing again. Sera told her to take a break and just listen to the others for a while. Ling was happy to hear that Neela had indeed recovered Navi’s moonstone and that Pyrrha’s gold coin had been found, but she was puzzled when Sera told her that they had Merrow’s diamond, too.
“Orfeo told me he has it,” Ling whispered hoarsely.
“He only thinks he does,” said Sera. “The infanta wore a fake in case it was ever stolen from her. That’s what Orfeo has.”
Ling sat back, a smile spreading across her face.
“I still can’t believe he’s alive. How?” Neela asked. “Orfeo died four thousand years ago! How did he just—poof!—reappear?”
Ling shook her head. She took another sip of tea before speaking. “I don’t think he just reappeared. After hearing your stories, I think he’s been around for a very long time.”
“What do you mean?” Sera asked.
“Remember how I told you that Mfeme’s full name—Rafe Iaoro Mfeme—is an anagram for I AM ORFEO FEAR ME?” Ling asked.
There were nods all around.
“So is Feimor Fa Eaemor,” Ling said.
Sera’s heart lurched. “Oh, my gods,” she said in a hushed voice. “Amarrefe Mei Foo…”
“Who’s that?” Becca asked.
“He’s the pirate who tried to get Merrow’s blue diamond from Maria Theresa, the infanta of Spain. His name’s an anagram, too.”
“Holy silt,” Becca said. “So’s Maffeio Aermore. The sea captain who tried to sail into the Williwaw’s cave.”
“There were probably others. Way before Feimor,” Astrid said. “Names that are lost to time.”
“Orfeo never died. He’s been here ever since Atlantis fell, hunting for the talismans,” Sera said, chilled to her very soul.
“But all the histories, all the accounts—they all say he did die. Merrow and the other mages saw him die. They killed him themselves! I’m asking you again, merl…how?” Neela demanded.
“He used the black pearl somehow, together with the secrets of immortality Morsa gleaned from her necromancing,” Ling offered.
“But that still doesn’t answer Neela’s question,” Desiderio said. “It still doesn’t tell us how.”
“The black pearl was the container. It had to be,” Astrid said.
“Container? What do you mean?” Desiderio asked.
“What remains when the body dies?” Astrid asked.
“The soul,” Yazeed said. “Horok carries it to the underworld.”
Astrid nodded. “In what?”
Desiderio snapped his fingers. “A pearl!”
“Exactly,” said Astrid. “Morsa knew how to capture a soul, too, in her black pearl. Isn’t that what Thalia said?”
“That’s correct,” Sera said.
“Orfeo used the goddess’s pearl to hold a soul, too—his own,” Astrid said.
“I think I see where you’re going with this,” Sera said excitedly, impressed that Astrid had put it all together.
“Merrow and the other mages killed Orfeo,” Astrid ventured. “Or so they thought. But as the life ebbed from his body, his soul entered the black pearl. He probably wore it around his neck then, just as he does now.”