“How magnificent you are together,” Vr?ja said. “It is just as I’d hoped. It’s more than I’d hoped. Each one of you is strong, yes, but together…oh, together your powers will become even greater. Just as theirs did.”
“Excuse me?” Ling said. “Magnificent? One of your witches just died. The rest of us almost did. That thing nearly got out. If it wasn’t for Astrid, it would have. We weren’t magnificent. We were lucky.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it. Abbadon grows strong, yes. But you will, too—now that you are united,” Vr?ja said.
“I don’t understand,” Serafina said.
“Did you not feel what happened? Did you not feel your strength? You, Serafina, marshalled your troops as cleverly as your great-grandmother, Regina Isolda, did during the War of Reykjanes Ridge. And you,” she pointed at Ling, “you chanted as if you’d been born an incanta. Neela threw light as well as I do. Becca’s deflecto didn’t so much as crack under Abbadon’s blows. Ava saw what it fears, when we, the Iele, have not been able to. And Astrid attacked with the force of ten warriors.”
Serafina looked at the others. From the expressions on their faces, she could see that they had felt something, just as she had. A clarity. A knowing. A new and sudden strength. It had felt so strange to feel so powerful. Disorienting. And a little bit scary. How had it happened? she wondered.
“You will do even more. We will teach you,” Vr?ja said, swimming toward the door. “Come! There is much to do. We will go back to my chambers now. We will—”
“No,” Astrid said, putting her sword back in its scabbard. “I’m not going anywhere. Not until you tell us why you brought us here.”
Vr?ja stopped. She turned, fixing Astrid with her bright black eyes. “To finish what you just began,” she said.
“Finish what? I don’t get it. You want me to cut off more of the monster’s hands?”
“No, child,” she said.
“Good,” Astrid said, looking relieved. “Because that was really tough.”
“I want you to cut off its head.”
ASTRID’S LAUGHTER rang out above the witches’ chanting.
“Cut off its head! That’s a good one, Baba Vr?ja. I mean, did you see that thing? It’s really strong and really mad. If it could have, it would’ve cut off our heads. So really, why did you summon us here?” she asked.
Vr?ja was not laughing.
“Wait, you’re not…You can’t be serious.”
“I’ve never been more serious. You must go to the Southern Sea, where the monster lies imprisoned. Another seeks it for dark purposes. This other has woken it. You must find the monster and kill it before this other can free it. If you do not, the seas, and all in them, will fall to Abbadon.”
Serafina was speechless. They all were. The six mermaids looked at each other in wide-eyed disbelief, then all started talking at once.
“Go to the Southern Sea?” Ling said.
“We’ll freeze to death!” Becca said.
“Kill Abbadon?” Ava said.
“How would we even find him? The Southern Sea is huge!” Neela said.
“This is totally insane,” Astrid said. “I’m out of here.”
As Serafina watched Astrid swim toward the door, lines from her nightmare suddenly came back to her.
Gather now from seas and rivers, Become one mind, one heart, one bond Before the waters, and all creatures in them, Are laid to waste by Abbadon!
And suddenly she knew what she had to do. Just as she had moments ago, when the monster attacked them. She had to keep the group together, no matter what. One mind, one heart, one bond. She couldn’t let anyone leave.
“Astrid, wait,” she said.
Astrid snorted. “Later,” she said.
“You’re afraid,” Serafina said, sensing that the only way to stop her was to challenge her.
She was right. Astrid stopped dead, then turned around, eyes blazing.
“What did you say?”
“I said, you’re afraid. You’re afraid of the story. That’s why you want to leave.”
“Afraid of what story? What are you talking about? You’re as crazy as she is,” Astrid said, nodding at Vr?ja.
Serafina turned to the river witch. “Baba Vr?ja, before you opened the door to this room, you said that what’s inside it had a story,” she said. “And that it would tell us who we are. We need to hear that story. Now.”
Three eyeballs, set in three amber rings, twisted around in their settings and stared at Serafina.
Serafina stared back uneasily.
“You like them?” Vr?ja asked, as she handed her a cup and saucer.
“They’re very, um, unusual,” Sera replied.
Vr?ja had led the mermaids back to her study. She’d invited them all to sit down, and had sent a servant for a pot of tea.
“They’re terragogg eyes,” she said now.
“Did they drown or something?” Neela asked.
“Or something,” Vr?ja said. She smiled and Serafina noticed, for the first time, that her teeth were very sharp. “One dumped oil into my river. Another killed an otter. The third bulldozed trees where osprey nested. They live still—or rather, exist—as cadavru. I use them as sentries.”