“Great! Fabulous! They send their best and wish they could be here. But somebody has to hold down the fort in Uncle Bilaal’s absence.”
“And how are the emperor and empress? And your brother…and Mahdi?”
“Truly excellent. Although I haven’t seen them yet today. We got in around eight last night. I was so tired, I went straight to my room and fell into bed. Everyone else did the same.”
“Neela…”
“Oh! Did I tell you about the last state visit we all made? Ha! It’s such a funny story!” Neela said. She launched into all the details.
Serafina wasn’t really listening, though. “So, um, how’s Mahdi?” she finally broke in.
Neela’s heart sank. Her smile slipped.
Serafina stopped swimming. “What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Neela said brightly. “Mahdi’s fine.”
“He’s fine? My great-aunt Berta is fine. What are you not telling me?”
Neela pulled another sweet from her pocket. “Oh, super yum. Candied flatworm with eelgrass honey. Try it!” she said.
“Neela!”
“Well, he’s probably a little bit different from what you remember,” she said. “I mean, the last time you saw him was two years ago. We’re all different than we were then.”
“Look, I know you’re his cousin,” Serafina said. “But you’re also my friend. You have to tell me the truth.”
Neela sighed. “All right, then—here it is: his royal Mahdiness seems to be going through a phase. At least, that’s what Aunt Ahadi calls it. She blames it all on Yazeed.”
“Your brother? What does he have to do with it?”
“Yaz is a total party boy. Always the one with the lampfish on his head. My parents are at their wits’ end and Aunt Ahadi is furious. She says he’s led Mahdi astray. The two of them are out all the time. It started about a year ago. That’s when they got their ears pierced. Aunt Ahadi went through the roof. She and my mother threatened to beach them for life.”
“That doesn’t sound like the Mahdi I remember,” Serafina said, nervously fiddling with some trim on her dress. “Neels, I have to ask you something else. Lucia said that—”
Neela unwrapped another sweet and bit into it. She made a face. “Yuck. Fermented sea urchin.” She fed it to a passing damselfish.
“—she said that Mahdi has a merlfriend. She said he—” Serafina suddenly stopped speaking.
Neela, busy wiping her fingers on a frond of Caulerpa weed, looked up. That’s when she saw them. Bodies. Of two young mermen. They were stretched out under a huge coral at the back of the courtyard, motionless.
Serafina panicked. “I—I can’t tell if they’re breathing or not. Neela, we have to get help. I think they’re dead!” she said, swimming closer.
Neela panicked too, but for a totally different reason. “No, they’re not dead,” she said under her breath. “But if Aunt Ahadi hears about this, they’re going to wish they were.”
NEELA CAUGHT UP to Serafina and grabbed her arm. “Come on!” she said, trying to pull her away from the mermen. “This is dangerous. We should get the palace guards.”
“But what if they’re hurt or bleeding? We can’t just leave them!”
“Yes, we can. We totally can.”
Serafina broke free of Neela’s grip and swam back to the bodies. “They’re not dead! They’re breathing and…oh. Wow. Didn’t expect that.”
Neela closed her eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose. How could they be so stupid? she wondered. How?
“Um, Neela? It’s Mahdi…”
“…and Yazeed,” Neela said.
She looked down at them. The two merboys were lying on their backs. Mahdi had a purple scarf tied around his head and smudged lipstick kisses on his cheek. A gold hoop dangled from one ear. His black hair was pulled back in a hippokamp’s tail. Yaz was wearing a pair of sparkly earrings. Someone had drawn a smiley face on his chest with lipstick. He had a streak of pink in his cropped black hair, a heavy gold chain around his neck, and a tattoo on his arm. As she continued to stare at them, a large, homely humphead wrasse swam up to Yaz. It nudged his chin. Yaz flung an arm around it, pulled it close, and kissed it. As Mahdi snored on, Yazeed murmured compliments to the fish about her beautiful blond hair.
Neela, livid, gave each boy a hard slap with her tail.
“Ow!” Mahdi cried.
“Dang, merl!” Yaz yelped, letting go of the fish. “All I said was…Neela?” He blinked at his sister.
Mahdi, wincing at the light, said, “Yaz, you squid! Where were you? I was waiting for you. I decided to hang here until you caught up. I must’ve fallen asleep. Why are you always the slowest common denominator?”
“Yazeed, take those stupid earrings off! And sit up, both of you!” Neela scolded. “Serafina’s here.”
Mahdi paled. “What?” he said. “Oh, no.” He sat up. “Serafina? Is that you?”
“Nice to see you, too, Mahdi,” Serafina said.