“You have a Plan B?”
“No, but I have a Plan Zee. Because never ever have I needed a sugar fix more than I do right now. Murderous lowtide sea scum invaders sure ratchet up the stress levels.” She reached into a pocket in the folds of her sari skirt and pulled out two zee-zees. “Here,” she said, handing one to Serafina. “Candied clam with wakame crunch. So good.”
Serafina smiled wearily. She unwrapped her sweet and ate it. She was glad to have it.
She was even gladder to have Neela.
“GET UP.”
Neela heard the words, but they seemed so far away. She didn’t want to get up. She’d fallen asleep and wanted to stay that way.
“I said, get up!”
She felt a stinging slap on her tail.
“Ow, Sera! What is it?” she mumbled, opening her eyes.
But it wasn’t Serafina who’d slapped her. It was the wiry, eel-like merman who was leaning over her. He was wearing a black sharkskin vest. A row of stiff spikes ran from his forehead to his neck. A lantern glowed nearby.
“Who are you?” Neela cried, scrambling up. “Where’s Serafina?”
The merman swam aside and Neela saw her friend. She was sitting on the floor of the cave, her hands tied behind her and her mouth cruelly gagged.
“Sera!” Neela shouted. She tried to go to her, but was grabbed from behind. Like living ropes, two moray eels threaded themselves through her arms, binding her tightly.
“Let me go!” she shouted, struggling against them.
Another moray, bigger than the rest, swam to her. He wound his thick body around her neck and squeezed. His monstrous face floated only inches from her own. He hissed at her, baring his long, curved teeth. Neela couldn’t breathe.
“Stop struggling and he’ll let go,” the merman said.
Neela, gasping, did as she was told. The moray uncoiled himself and swam to his master.
“Good boy, Tiberius,” the merman crooned.
“What do you want with us?” Neela asked angrily.
The eels binding her arms tightened themselves, making her cry out in pain.
“Easy, my children, easy,” the merman said to the eels. “They’ll fetch a fine price for us, but only if they’re alive.”
“You have to let us go. You don’t know who we are,” Neela said.
The merman smiled darkly. “Baco knows exactly who you are. He also knows that Captain Traho has put a bounty on your heads. Baco Goga is going to be very rich.”
“You can’t do this! We’re going for help. Cerulea’s under attack. It may fall!” Neela said.
“It has fallen, little merl,” he said. “Tsarno has fallen. And every town in between.”
“No!” Neela said. “You’re lying!”
The merman laughed. With his hand, he made a motion of a fish swimming away. “Gone. All gone. As you’re about to be. But first, you must pay Baco rent for staying in his cave.”
He signaled to the morays. They swam to the mermaids and began divesting them of their jewelry. Neela closed her eyes, revolted. She felt them tugging at her necklace, heard their teeth clicking against her earrings, felt their tongues sliding over her fingers, removing her rings. They’d just started on her bracelets when she heard Serafina scream behind her gag.
Neela’s eyes flew open. One of the eels had dropped the necklace he’d taken from Serafina and had thrust his head down the front of her gown to retrieve it. Sera, lashing her tail furiously, caught another eel with her fins, and sent him spinning into a wall. He hit the stone hard and fell to the cave’s floor, motionless. The other eels were on her immediately, snarling. Tiberius sank his teeth into her tail fin. Sera screamed again, and tried to pull away.
“Stop it!” Neela yelled. “Leave her alone!”
Baco swam across the room and grabbed Serafina’s chin. “That was my Claudius!” he hissed furiously, his fingers digging into her flesh. “You’d better be sorry. Are you? Are you sorry?”
Serafina, her eyes huge with fear, nodded.
“You lumpsucker! Take your hands off her!” Neela shouted, struggling against the eels who were still holding her.
“Get me something to shut her up,” Baco ordered. Tiberius brought him a length of sea silk. Baco jammed it into Neela’s mouth and tied it tightly behind her head.
“These two are trouble. I want them gone. Go to Traho right away,” Baco told Tiberius. “Tell him I have what he’s after.”
The moray nodded and swam off.
“Tiberius, wait!” Baco said.
The moray turned. Baco flipped him a doubloon. He caught it in his mouth.
“Give that to Zeno. With my thanks.”