“And you all live in one house?” Serafina had asked.
“A very big house,” Ling had said, her smile fading. “All of us but my father. We lost him a year ago. He went out to explore in the Great Abyss, as he loved to do, and he didn’t come back. My mother has barely said two words since he disappeared.”
“I’m so sorry, Ling,” Serafina had said.
“What happened?” Neela had asked.
“I don’t know,” Ling had replied. “The entire village searched for him. For days and days. But he was never found. Maybe he went too deep and something attacked him. Or maybe he blacked out. All I know is that I miss him.”
“It must’ve been hard for your mother to let you go so far away from her,” Serafina had said. “Especially after losing your father.”
“She didn’t exactly let me go. In fact, she didn’t want me to. But the legend of the Iele is very strong in my culture. My grandmother, Wen, is also our clan’s shaman. She’s very wise and a keeper of the clan’s traditions. When I told her my dream, she said I must go. So I went. And here I am,” she said. “I’ve been on the currents for two months. A few days ago, I started to think I was crazy for coming. And then I met you two—”
“—and now you know you are,” Neela had joked.
But Ling hadn’t laughed. “—and I knew I wasn’t. The things you told me about the attack and Traho, the fact that we’ve all had the same dream…the Iele are real. We’ve been called for a reason.”
“Yes, we have. But what is it? That’s the big, scary question,” Sera had said. And then she and Ling, still poring over the map, continued across the shoal.
Neela watched them go, then reluctantly followed, knowing that every stroke they took brought them closer to the answer.
“I don’t like it,” Ling said now, her hands on her hips.
They’d come to the edge of the shoal. It dropped away steeply to a broad seabed that was flat and open and planted with water apples, but all the trees were bare.
“It’s too open. We can be seen.”
“We have no choice,” Serafina said. “According to Ling’s map, we can’t go west toward the coast because the shoals are too high. We’d have to surface near gogg beaches. And we can’t go east into deep water. The current’s too strong there. It’ll push us off course.”
“Let’s make it quick, then,” she said.
The three mermaids set off. They followed the current into the seabed and made their way across it, attuned to movement, listening for the sound of voices or the swish of fins.
Neela kept looking behind them as they swam, expecting to see death riders crest the shoal at any second, but they didn’t. She was just beginning to think they might make it through unnoticed when she heard Ling say, “Uh-oh.”
Directly in their path was a merman holding a hoe. Its edge gleamed sharply, even in the evening light.
Neela looked left and right and saw several other mermen emerge from behind the trees, carrying scythes and pitchforks. They were ragged and thin, and their mouths were set in hard lines. “They don’t seem too pleased to see us,” she said.
“No, they don’t,” Serafina said.
“Get ready,” Ling said. “On my signal, swim straight up.”
“What if they follow us?” Neela asked.
“Hopefully we can lose them. They look like they don’t have much stamina for a chase. Okay, ready? One, two…”
Suddenly the merman with the hoe lowered it and bowed his head. “Long live Serafina, principessa di Miromara!” he shouted.
One by one, the others followed his example. They made fists of their right hands, struck their chests, then saluted.
“Hail, Serafina, principessa di Miromara!”
“Long live the Merrovingia!”
“Death to the tyrant Traho!”
Neela glanced at Sera. The illusio spell she’d cast had worn off again.
The merman holding the hoe swam up to them. He bowed and told them his name was Konstantin. “Forgive us, Principessa. At first we didn’t know who you were. There are death riders in these waters.”
Serafina turned in a circle, looking at all those gathered around her. As she did, the other mermen approached. They took her hand and kissed it. They called on the gods to favor her. They told her their stories in voices that were halting and emotional.
“I was away visiting relatives. When I returned, the village was empty. It’s the next one over. They were gone, all gone…”
“They came at night…”
“Where did they go?”
“Why, Principessa, why did they take my family?”
“Help us find them. Help us, please.”
Serafina, Neela, and Ling learned that the death riders had taken nearly everyone in their village. They’d left only a handful of mermen to work the orchards for them.
“They say your uncle escaped, Principessa. That he’s raising an army of Kobold goblins in the north. Is it true? Have you any word from him?” Konstantin asked hopefully.
Serafina shook her head. “No. Nothing.”