“Like a shark. I felt the three of you days ago.”
“You’re the one Lena saw, aren’t you?” Neela said. “She told us you’d crossed her patch of the river….But you were ahead of us. How’d you get behind us?”
“I sensed you coming and I didn’t know if that was good or bad. So I ducked out of sight. Let you pass. Felt you out. You”—she nodded in Serafina’s direction—“are Merrow’s daughter. I can tell by the way you got between those ghosts and your friends just now, like a warrior-princess. You”—she nodded at Neela—“you keep the light. I feel it coming from you, as warm as the sun. And you”—she nodded at Ling—“speak all creatures’ tongues. Talk to Baby, will you? Tell him to behave himself.”
Serafina and Neela looked at each other. “One possessed of a prophet’s sight,” they said together.
“Becca makes four, and Ava makes five,” Ling said. “Where’s our sixth?”
“Let’s ask the Iele,” Becca suggested. “Maybe they can tell us.”
“Maybe? Que diabo!” Ava said. “Witches better tell us where the sixth is, and a lot more, too. Think I came all the way over from Macapá to this cold, gloomy, repulsivo river to hear maybe?”
Becca snapped the lid of her traveling case closed. She rose and brushed the mud off her scales. “We should get going,” she said briskly, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “Patrols could be near and we’re still two leagues away, which—by my calculations—should put us there by evening if we swim at a moderate pace and don’t encounter any more ghosts, strong currents, waterfalls, mermen in black uniforms, or—”
There was another snapping sound. And an indignant “Hey!” from Ling.
“Baby, what is wrong with you? Cut it out! She’s a friend, not dinner!” Ava scolded.
Serafina and Neela traded glances. “I think we’d be safer with Traho, the death riders, and Rafe Mfeme all put together than we are with Baby,” Neela whispered.
Serafina laughed. The others set off and she followed at a little bit of distance, watching Neela swim with Ling, and Ava with Becca. She’d taken an immediate liking to colorful, laughing Ava, and was intrigued by Becca, who seemed so organized and efficient.
Death riders were somewhere behind them, and the Iele were somewhere in front of them, and both scared her. But as she watched her oldest friend, and her three new ones, swim ahead of her, she felt surer and stronger about facing what was to come.
Neela turned around. “Sera, what was the next landmark again?” she asked, motioning for her to join them.
Sera swam to catch up, and the five mermaids continued up the Olt. Together.
THE RIVER GREW murkier and colder, the farther the mermaids swam up it.
“We’re close now,” Serafina said, as they put the last two leagues behind them. “We have to be. Two leagues past the Maiden’s Leap—that’s what Vr?ja said. In the waters of the Malacostraca.”
“What’s a Malacostraca?” Neela asked.
“I have no idea.”
Serafina looked around anxiously for any sign of a cave, a doorway—anything that might lead to the Iele. The sun was starting to set. Looking up through the water, Serafina saw a flock of crows pass overhead. Their dark silhouettes seemed ominous to her. She returned her gaze to the waters in front of her, sweeping her eyes left to right, alert for danger. There were hollows in the river’s banks. Creatures darted in and out of them. She felt them watching as she passed and hoped there were no more rotters lurking.
“We’re getting closer every minute, aren’t we?” Neela said. “Please say we are. This river gives me the creeps.”
“We better be,” Ava said. “I feel something now. Coming up behind us. Coming up fast.”
“Great,” Ling said, looking over her shoulder.
“By my calculations, the cave should be right here,” Becca said, glancing around.
“As much as I want to get there,” Neela said, “I don’t want to get there.”
“I know what you mean,” Becca said. “I just can’t believe this. I traveled thousands of miles, on the spur of the moment, all because of a dream. I don’t do things like this. Ever. I told my parents I was checking out a college in the Dun?rea. How could I tell them the truth? ‘Mom, Dad…I’m going to visit some witches. I don’t know for sure where they live, or if they actually exist, or what I’m supposed to do once I find them. But hey, I just have to do it. Don’t ask me why.’ I had to take time off my after-school job as well.”
“Where do you work, mina?” Ava asked.
“In a songpearl shop. As a spellbinder. I take ready-made spells, then heat pearls—Caribbean pinks—in a lava forge until they expand, and insert the spells. We export the pearls all over the world. The shop’s called Baudel’s.”