The answer hit her like a rogue wave. “From above,” she said. “Mfeme transported them. In the hold of a trawler.”
The duca nodded. “Three, to be exact. The Bedrie?r, the Sagi-shi, and the Svikari. They were all sighted in Miromaran waters the day of the attack.”
“But that makes no sense,” Neela said. “How could he transport them? The attackers were mer. They can’t just walk up a gangplank.”
“We think he filled the holds of his trawlers with salt water, then lifted the troops aboard in enormous nets. Weaponry was loaded the same way. The sea dragons followed the ships.”
“What was his price?” Serafina asked bitterly. “Mfeme gave Kolfinn speed and stealth. What did Kolfinn give him?”
“Information, we believe,” the duca replied. “Most likely the whereabouts of tuna, cod, and swordfish shoals. Shark. Krill. Seal breeding grounds. Mfeme plunders the sea for any creature of value.”
“But Duca Armando,” Neela said, “why would Kolfinn want to attack Miromara?”
“Dissatisfaction with the terms of the peace treaty between the two realms. Ondalina still resents losing the War of Reykjanes Ridge.”
At that moment, a door opened and a small, stout woman walked in carrying a tray. Spooked, the mermaids dove again.
Armando calmed them when they resurfaced. “This is Filomena, my cook,” he explained.
Filomena set her tray down at the top of the steps. She looked at the mermaids, at Serafina in particular, then turned to the duca and spoke rapidly in Italian.
“Sì, sì,” he said sadly.
“Ah, la povera piccina!” she said, dabbing at her eyes with her apron.
Sera understood Italian, but Filomena spoke so fast, the duca had to translate.
“She asked me if you were Isabella’s daughter. She says you have her manner. Isabella is a great favorite of hers,” he explained.
“My mother comes here?” Serafina asked. “That can’t be. It’s forbidden.”
“Good leaders know when to follow rules and when to break them,” the duca said. “She comes to find out about the doings of the terragoggs and how they might affect her realm.”
Serafina couldn’t believe what he was telling her. Her mother broke the rules? That wasn’t possible. He was lying, trying to gain her trust. But then she recalled something she’d overheard when she was outside Isabella’s presence chamber. Conte Orsino had mentioned that the Praedatori had been sighted near a recently raided village, and Isabella had said: The Praedatori take valuables, not people. They’re a small band of robbers. They don’t have the numbers to raid entire villages. At the time, Sera had wondered at her mother’s dimissive tone. Now she understood it: Isabella knew the Praedatori’s leader, and she knew he and his soldiers would never harm the mer.
The duca was telling the truth.
“Do you have any news of my mother?” Serafina asked, fearful of the answer. “My uncle? My brother?”
“Or my family?” Neela asked.
“There are rumors—and I stress they are only rumors—that your uncle escaped, Serafina. And that he’s heading north to Kobold waters.”
“To the goblins? Why?” Sera asked.
“To raise an army. The Kobold are fearsome fighters, and the mer’s only source of weaponry,” the duca said.
His reasoning made sense to Serafina. The mer depended on the goblin tribes to mine and forge metals for them. The goblins made mer weapons and tools, and cast their currency: gold trocus, silver drupe, and copper cowrie coins. Neria had forbidden the ability to shape metal to the merpeople, so as to prevent them from using magic to create wealth.
“We can at least hope these rumors are true,” the duca said. “Eat now. Please. You must both be famished.”
Serafina looked at Neela and saw her own thoughts mirrored in her friend’s eyes. Can we trust him? The food could be poisoned.
“I understand your concern,” the duca said, as if he had read their minds. He rose, crossed the room, and took an ivory conch from a shelf.
“If you listen, you will hear your mother’s voice,” he said, handing the shell to Serafina.
Sera held it to her ear.
Serafina, my darling daughter, if you are listening to this conch, it means you are in the Praesidio, and I am captured or dead. You must put your faith in the duca now. His family’s relationship with our kind goes back for thousands of years. I trust him with my life, Sera, and with yours. Let him help you. He is the only one who can. I love you, my child. Rule wisely and well….
Serafina lowered the conch, blinking back tears. It was hard to hear her mother’s voice, to know that these echoes in a shell might be all she had left of her.
Neela gently took the shell from her and listened to it, too. When she finished, she put it down on the edge of the pool. “Sera, if he wanted to kill us, he would have by now. I doubt the food is poisoned.”