But Neela didn’t hear her; she was busy undoing her belt. It had a jeweled buckle with a long prong. The buckle had been hidden by the folds of her sari. Baco Goga’s eels had missed it when they’d robbed her.
“Once, when we were little, Yazeed locked Mahdi in a trunk,” Neela said. “Then he lost the key. Aunt Ahadi was beside herself. The royal locksmith came. We watched him. He said locks have pins inside them. All you have to do is push the right ones.”
Stabilizing the prong between her thumb and forefinger, Neela inserted it into the lock on her collar and started twisting. Nothing happened.
“Neels, it’ll never work. You’re a princess, not a safecracker,” Serafina said.
“Thanks for your vote of confidence,” Neela said, adjusting the angle of the prong. She twisted it again, and they all heard a metallic click. Sera glanced nervously at the door, but the sound hadn’t carried to the guard.
“It worked!” Neela said excitedly. She threw the padlock down and pulled her collar off. “Never underestimate the power of accessories!”
“Go, Neela, get out of here!” Serafina said.
“And leave you to Commander Sea Scum?”
“The guard could come in at any moment. You have to go!”
Neela ignored Serafina’s words and focused on her padlock. After a few minutes, she got it open too.
“Work on Thalassa’s. I’ll see if there’s a way out of here,” Serafina said, throwing off her collar. “Maybe one of the tent pegs is loose.”
She started to push on the canvas, hoping they could pull up a section and swim under it. Neela applied herself to Thalassa’s collar. The lock on it was bigger and harder to pick.
“You must go, both of you. Leave me,” Thalassa said.
“We’re not leaving you,” said Neela. “I can do this.”
She pulled the prong out of the lock and held up her hand. Her skin was glowing brightly, as it did when her emotions were running high. She used the blue light it gave off to illuminate the keyhole and saw that a tiny pebble was stuck inside. She dislodged it, then tried again. A few seconds later, Thalassa was free.
“Ha! Yes. We’re so gone,” Neela said, but her triumph was short-lived.
“Shh!” said Thalassa.
They heard the sounds of fins in the water. Someone was coming.
“I can’t find a way out!” Serafina said frantically.
“Put the collars back on! Pretend you’re asleep!” Thalassa hissed.
The three mermaids quickly fumbled their restraints back around their necks and threaded the locks’ hasps through the collars without engaging them. Then they lay on the ground, letting their hair fall over the padlocks.
“Everything good?” a voice asked.
“They were noisy at first, but they’ve quieted down,” the guard at the door replied.
The flap opened. Two guards swam in. One shone a lantern over the mermaids. The other stayed in the doorway. Sera was sure they could hear her heart pounding.
“Getting their beauty sleep,” one guard said.
“They’ll need it,” the other said. “Traho’s getting impatient, and when Traho gets impatient, he stops cutting off fingers and starts cutting off heads.”
The guards laughed and left the tent. One continued on his rounds, the other resumed his position by the door.
The mermaids sat up and removed their collars. “Swim to the top of the tent,” Thalassa said. “Maybe there’s a vent, a hole, something you can rip—”
She was silenced by a short, sharp noise outside the tent, as if a shout had been cut off. It was followed by a soft pattering, like raindrops on sailcloth. Before Sera’s mind could process what the sounds were, the flap was flung open, and a merman swam inside—dragging a guard behind him. The guard’s throat had been cut. He was arching his back, flailing his tail. His eyes, pleading and desperate, found Sera’s. She gasped and backed away.
The merman dragging the guard was tall and bronzed, with short blond hair and a blue tail. He was followed by two more. One had red hair and a green tail. Another gray eyes and a gray tail. They all had daggers in scabbards on their hips.
Neela lunged at the dying guard. She grabbed the sword from his belt and held it out in front of her.
“Get away from us,” she said. Her voice was steady, but her hand was trembling.
“You need to come with us. Right now,” one of the mermen said.
“Who are you?” Neela demanded.
“I’m Blu,” the blond said after a second. “This is Verde and Grigio.”
“Yeah, those are some real convincing names,” Neela said. “Why are you here? What do you want?”
“To get you out of here,” Verde said.
“Who sent you?”
“A friend. We’ll explain later.”
Suddenly shouts were heard from the other end of the camp. Orders were yelled. A rush of fins churned the water.
Grigio swore. “Time to move, kids.”
Neela made her decision. She threw her sword down and swam to the mermen. Thalassa joined her. Sera, her eyes on the dying guard, did not. His lips formed a final word: Please. And then he was gone.
“Let’s go!” Grigio hissed.