“Your Grace,” the doctor said, his eyes still on Vallerio, “you must send for the canta magus now.”
Vallerio started to speak, but Serafina didn’t hear his words. They were drowned out by a deafening roar, a sound so big, it felt like the end of the world. The very foundations of the palace shook, sending shock waves up into the water. Serafina was knocked backward. For a few seconds, she couldn’t right herself; then, slowly, her balance came back. She looked up, still dazed, just in time to see a large chunk of the stateroom’s east wall come crashing down. Courtiers screamed as they rushed to get out of the way. Some didn’t make it and were crushed by falling stones. Others were engulfed by flames ignited by lava pouring from broken heating pipes buried inside the walls.
Jani?ari swam to the breach in formation, armed and moving fast. “Ejderha! Ejderha!” they shouted.
No, Serafina thought. It’s impossible.
Grasping the side of her mother’s throne, she pulled herself up.
And then she saw it.
Ejderha.
And she screamed.
A MASSIVE BLACKCLAW DRAGON, her head as big as an orca, stuck her face into the gaping hole she’d made in the wall. She reached an arm through, swiping at Jani?ari with foot-long talons.
The soldiers attacked the beast, but their swords and their spells were useless against the thick scales covering her body, her bronze faceplate, and the stiff frill of spikes around her neck. Mermen wearing black uniforms and goggles sat on her back in an armored howdah, controlling her with a bridle and reins.
The dragon bashed her head against the palace wall and another large chunk of it fell in.
“Stop her! Stop her!” voices screamed.
But there was no stopping her. The stateroom was deep inside the palace. The dragon had already knocked through heavy outer walls to get here. An inner wall would be nothing to her. She would be inside the room in seconds.
“Get the regina to the vaults!” Serafina heard her uncle shout. “The princesses, too! Do it now!”
She knew he meant the treasury vaults underneath the palace, where the realm’s gold was kept. The hallway that led to them was too narrow for a dragon, and the bronze doors enclosing them were a foot thick and heavily enchanted. Food and medical supplies had been stored within them in case of a siege.
Two Jani?ari converged on Neela. Five more rushed to Isabella and tried to lift her. She screamed in pain and struggled against them.
“Mom, stop it. Please. You have to let them take you. You’ll be safe there,” Sera said.
Isabella shook her head. “Lift me onto my throne,” she commanded her guard. “I will not die on the floor.”
Serafina’s heart lurched at her mother’s words. “You’re not dying. We just have to get you to the vaults. We just have to—”
Isabella took Serafina’s face in her bloodied hands. “I’m staying here to face my attackers. You will go to the vaults, Sera. You are regina now, and you must not be taken. Live, my precious child. For me. For Miromara.” She kissed Serafina’s forehead then released her.
“No!” Serafina shrilled. “I won’t go without you. I—”
She was cut off by a rumbling crash as the dragon knocked more of the wall down. The creature pulled her head out of the hole she’d made, and dozens of soldiers, all clad in black, swam inside. Their leader pointed toward the throne.
“There they are! Seize them!” he ordered.
Arrows came through the water. Many of the Jani?ari surrounding the princesses and the regina fell.
“Go! Now!” Isabella shouted.
“I can’t leave you!” Serafina sobbed.
Isabella’s tortured eyes sought Neela’s. “Please…” she said.
Neela nodded. She grabbed Serafina’s hand and yanked her away.
Isabella spotted a dagger next to the corpse of a fallen Jani?ari. She conjured a vortex in the water, and sent the knife hurtling at the invaders’ leader. The dagger hit home, knocking him to the floor. His men came to his aid, but he pushed them away. “Get them!” he gurgled, drowning in his own blood. “Take the princesses to Traho!”
But Sera and Neela were already gone.
NEELA HAD NEVER swum so fast. She was a blur in the water, moving like a marlin, her hand gripping Serafina’s like a vise. But the mermen who’d chased them out of the stateroom were gaining on them.
Serafina, in shock, was deadweight. She was slowing Neela down.
“Come on, Sera, snap out of it!” Neela yelled. “I need you to swim!”
They moved through a hallway that twisted and turned. As they rounded a bend, Neela could see that it ended in a T.
“Which way to the vaults?” she shouted.
“To the right!” Serafina shouted back, rallying.
They turned the corner. Ahead of them, in front of the doors to the vaults, were at least thirty enemy soldiers.
Neela wheeled around and headed for the other end of the T, pulling Serafina after her. As they shot past the mouth of the hallway they’d just swum down, she saw the soldiers who’d chased them from the stateroom.
“There they are!” one of them yelled.