Part of Sera still felt like that child, and still longed for the strength and wisdom of her mother. But another, braver part realized that childhood was over and that she’d have to find her own way through this, just as she’d been finding her way ever since she’d fled Cerulea.
When everyone had finished eating, Ava fed the scraps to Baby. Serafina, Neela, and Becca cleared the dishes. Ling took out the letter tiles Lena had given her and started making words with them. Astrid pulled a caballabong ball out of her satchel, and started bouncing it against a wall, keeping up a steady thwak thwak thwak.
Neela cast a songspell to turn up the light in the dining room. Instead of brightening, though, the lava globes promptly dimmed.
“Oops,” she said, looking embarrassed.
“One who keeps the light!” Ling said, in a spooky voice.
“Descended from the great mage Navi!” Becca chimed in.
Serafina restored the light and everyone cracked up, including Neela. But the laughter was short-lived. Neela suddenly lowered her face into her hands, and said, “Oh, gods. It’s not funny. It’s so not. One who keeps the light? Please. What if we find the Carceron and instead of unleashing a frag on Abbadon, I dim the lights?”
“I know,” Ling said, rearranging her letter tiles with her good hand. “I’m worried about the same thing. I mean, how will my great powers of language help defeat the monster? What am I supposed to do? Reason with him?”
“Tell him to use his words,” Neela joked.
Ava, giggling at that, choked on her drink. Her noisy snarf made the others giggle too.
“You could tell him that bullying is totally unacceptable,” Becca suggested.
“Or that he needs to start making good choices,” Sera said.
“Tell Crabby Abby he’s going to sit on the naughty chair if he sinks one more island,” Astrid said, catching her ball.
The other five looked at her, astonished, then they all burst into loud, hysterical laughter and couldn’t stop. Becca laughed so hard, she snorted like a walrus. Serafina wheezed. Ava held her sides. Ling had tears in her eyes. Neela turned sky blue.
“Astrid, you’re funny,” Ling said when the laughter had subsided. “Who knew?”
“Don’t tell anyone,” Astrid said, bouncing her ball again.
“Ah, gatinhas,” Ava said. “How do we do this? Where do we start?”
“Excellent questions,” Becca said.
“How do we find out what the talismans are? And where they are?” Neela asked.
“Before Traho does,” Serafina added.
“Who’s Traho?” Becca asked.
Serafina glanced at Astrid, searching her face for some telltale sign—a twitch, a widening of the eyes—that might betray her knowledge of this merman. But Astrid gave none. Either she truly didn’t know him or she was an excellent actress.
“Traho and the Ondalinians attacked Miromara,” Sera explained.
“I wouldn’t go there if I were you,” Astrid warned.
Sera ignored her. “They captured Neela and me and held us prisoner. Traho knows about the nightmare, the chant, and the Iele. He wanted the names of the other mermaids who’d been summoned. And he wanted to know if any of us had already found any talismans.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I didn’t know what he was talking about. Which didn’t go over well. He threatened to cut my fingers off, so I gave him fake names. Luckily, we escaped before he could check them out.”
“Does Traho know what the talismans are?”
“I think so. If he didn’t, he would have asked me. He only asked where they are.”
“But how could he know what they are? Not even the Iele know that,” Ling said, still concentrating on her letter tiles.
“Good point,” Sera conceded. “But he’s after them, so he must know.”
“Even if we were to find the talismans and get to the Southern Sea before this Traho does, we have no idea how to kill the monster,” Becca said.
“Because it can’t be killed. I’ll say it again: Merrow and her fellow mages couldn’t do it. What makes you think we can?” Astrid asked.
What’s she afraid of? Serafina wondered. She fought Abbadon like a tiger shark. How can someone that tough be afraid of anything?
“It’s not question of can we,” Ling said. “You saw what that thing did to Atlantis. It’ll do it again if it gets out. We have to stop asking ourselves ‘Can we do this?’ and ‘Should we do this?’ There’s only one question we need to ask…how.”
Becca nodded. “Ling’s right,” she said. She pulled out the piece of parchment she’d written notes on earlier and looked it over. “We can’t do anything until we find the talismans.”
“True,” Ava said.
“So we have to backtrack. We have to progress logically from the fall of Atlantis, when the talismans were last used…”
Progress. The word pushed at Serafina’s mind. Why? She turned the word over and over in her head, sensing that it was important somehow, but unable to grasp how it connected to Abbadon, the Carceron, or the talismans.
“…to the rise of Miromara, Merrow’s realm. Then we progress to…”
Progress…Merrow…
“Becca, that’s it!” Serafina shouted. “Her progress—Merrow’s Progress! You’re a genius!”