Ling’s screams carried over the water.
“I’m going to try a vortex,” said Sera, desperate to save her friend.
She started to songcast, but struggled to project her voice. In the air, her spell sounded thin and strained. She managed to conjure a water vortex, though, about twelve feet tall. She aimed it at the trawler, hoping to hit it hard broadside and knock the net loose from the winch.
“A waterspout, Mr. Mfeme!” one of the crew shouted, just as the vortex got within a foot of the ship.
As the man’s words rang out, the vortex stopped violently, as if it had hit a wall. The whirling water flattened, then sheeted back into the sea.
“Let me try,” Neela said.
She cast a fragor lux spell using sunrays and threw it at the trawler, hoping to put a hole in it, but the frag exploded uselessly a foot away from the ship.
“A waterspout, and now a sun dog,” Mfeme said. “What very strange weather we’re having.”
As he spoke, he looked over the ship’s railing, into the water, as if he knew they were there. Sera grabbed Neela and pulled her farther into the net’s shadow.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t our songspells working?” Neela whispered.
“I don’t know,” said Sera. “It makes no sense. Terragoggs can’t do or undo magic.” Then the answer hit her. “I bet it’s the ship’s hull! I bet it’s made of iron.”
“What are we going to do? How are we going to free Ling if we can’t use magic?” Neela asked.
Sera had no time to reply.
“RAFE MFEME!” a voice suddenly boomed. The mermaids turned and saw that it had come from another ship, a fast, sleek cigarette boat that had just arrived off the trawler’s starboard bow.
“Rafe Mfeme, this is Captain William Bowen of the vessel Sprite. The Bedrie?r is in direct violation of the Black Sea Treaty. You are not permitted to fish in these waters. The Romanian Coast Guard is en route.”
“It’s the Wave Warriors,” Mfeme growled. “Start the engines.”
“Mr. Mfeme, sir, the Warriors can’t board us, but the coast guard can. We can’t outrun them. Their vessel is lighter and quicker. If they come aboard…if they see what’s in the hold…”
Mfeme cursed the air blue. “I didn’t even want the damned shad! I wanted jellyfish!” He strode over to the winch’s control box and hit a lever. There was a loud, grinding sound as the winch released the net. It fell into the water and disappeared below the surface.
Mfeme faced the Sprite. “What net?” he shouted at Captain Bowen. “You have nothing on me!”
“We got it on tape, Mfeme!” Captain Bowen shouted, holding up a video camera. “You’re headed to court!”
Serafina didn’t stay to hear any more. Neela was already underwater. Sera dove and joined her. Together, they pulled the net open, freeing Ling and the shad. The fish, coughing and gasping, quickly swam away. Ling sank to the seafloor, bruised and bleeding. Her wrist was bent at a sickening angle.
“I’m sorry, Ling,” Serafina said tearfully. “It’s all my fault. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone shoaling. I’m so, so sorry.”
“The gogg’s the one who should be sorry,” Ling said. “He nearly killed me.”
“He’s Rafe Mfeme,” Neela said. “He nearly killed us, too. At the duca’s.”
Serafina remembered what Duca Armando had told them about Mfeme: he was in league with Ondalina, and in his trawlers he’d transported the very troops that had invaded Cerulea.
“Stay with her, Neela. I’ll be right back,” she suddenly said.
“Where are you going?” Neela asked.
“To see what I can learn about Mfeme.”
Serafina sped to the surface and cautiously poked her head up, wary of being seen. But no one was watching the water. Mfeme’s crew had brought the Bedrie?r alongside the Sprite, and Mfeme himself had boarded her. Serafina heard shouts and threats, and then Mfeme ripped the video camera out of the captain’s hands and tossed it overboard. A young man rushed at him. Mfeme threw him overboard, too. As two of the young man’s shipmates tried to haul him back into the boat, Mfeme advanced on a woman, grabbed a cell phone out of her hands, and pitched it into the water.
“You want to follow it?” he shouted at her. Frightened, she backed away from him.
A fast, powerful man, he seemed to be everywhere, all at once. Serafina quickly swam aft and saw him bring a heavy wrench down on the ship-to-shore radio. “I’m warning you, all of you! Stay the hell away from me!” he yelled. He threw the wrench aside, reboarded his ship, and barked orders to depart.
As his crew made ready, Mfeme rested his hands on his ship’s gunwale. “She’s headed for the Dun?rea, Nils,” he said to a crew member. “I want her. Now. Before she gets to the Olt. There are others with her. I want them all.”
Serafina dove. The waters of the harbor were shallow. Neela and Ling were sitting on the seafloor about thirty feet below the ship.