“I am?” Becca said, startled.
“Do you know what the talismans are, Sera? Or where Merrow hid them?” Ava asked.
“No, I don’t know the what or the where. I wish I did. But merls, I think I know the when.”
SERAFINA WAS SO EXCITED, she was talking a million words a minute.
“I’m working on a term conch on Merrow’s Progress,” she said. “I mean I was working on it. Before Cerulea was attacked. I’ve spent hours in the Ostrokon—”
“Wait, Sera, slow down!” Ling said. “What’s a progress?”
Serafina explained. “Ten years after Atlantis was destroyed, Merrow made a journey throughout the waters of the world. She said she was scouting out safe places for the merfolk to live. Her people were thriving and she knew they would need more space than Miromara could offer. She took a handful of her ministers with her and a few servants. It was the only time in her entire reign that she left Miromara.”
“You think she was really hiding the talismans?” said Ava.
“I do.”
“Why wouldn’t she hide them in Miromara?” Astrid asked.
“Too risky. There were always courtiers around. Someone would have seen her,” Serafina said. “As I was saying, Cerulea’s Ostrokon has a large collection of conchs on Merrow’s Progress. I’ve listened to about twenty so far, but there are way more than that. Maybe one of them can tell us exactly where she went. And the most dangerous places she visited. That’s where she would’ve hidden the talismans.”
Astrid gave her a skeptical look. “But Merrow could’ve hidden the talismans anywhere.”
“I know that, Astrid. But it’s something. It’s a start,” Serafina said.
“Merls! Here’s another one!” Ling said, pointing at her letter tiles. “Look!” She’d spelled out three separate words: shokoreth, apateón, and am?gitor.
“Look at what? It’s all nonsense,” Astrid said.
“That’s what I thought, too. But they’re real words—words that Abbadon said. I thought it was just making monster noises. But it’s not. It’s talking. The first word is Arabic, the second Greek, the third Romanian. They all mean the same thing—deceiver.”
“Why would it say the same word over and over again, and in different languages?” Becca asked.
“I don’t know. These words here”—she pointed to another row of tiles—“Daímonas tis Morsa—mean demon of Morsa.”
“Morsa’s an old goddess, right?” Ava said. “No one really talks about her.”
“She’s a seriously dark goddess,” Ling said. “The old myths say she was the scavenger goddess, and took the form of a jackal. It was the job of Horok, the ancient coelecanth god, to carry the souls of the dead to the underworld, and it was Morsa’s job to take away their bodies. But Morsa wanted more power, so she started practicing necromancy. She planned to make an army of the dead and overthrow Neria. Neria found out and was furious. She punished Morsa by giving her the face of death and the body of a serpent. Then she placed a crown of scorpions on her head and banished her.”
“Wow. That’s cold. Moral of the story? Never mess with Neria,” Neela said.
“There was a temple built to Morsa on Atlantis,” Serafina said.
“It might tell us more,” Becca offered. “If only we could get to it.”
“Fat chance. It’s surrounded by Opafago. They’d rip your head off before you got within five leagues of the place,” Astrid said.
“Why is that? I’ve always wondered. Why is it that a bunch of bloodthirsty cannibals was allowed to take over the ruins of Atlantis?” Neela asked.
“Because Merrow forced them into the Barrens of Thira, the waters around Atlantis,” Serafina explained. “The Opafago lived in Miromara and hunted mer. Merrow wanted that stopped, so she used her acqua guerrieri to encircle them and herd them into the Barrens.”
“Merrow didn’t think that one through, did she?” Neela mused. “It’s the most important archaeological site to the mer, but because of the Opafago, we can’t even set fin in it.”
“I thought that, too,” Serafina said. “I thought it was just another one of her unfathomable decrees. Until Vr?ja told us how Atlantis was really destroyed. According to historians, Merrow said she put the Opafago in the waters around Atlantis because she needed somewhere to put them and the ruins were…well, ruins, and useless. But now I think she settled the Opafago there on purpose. To prevent anyone from ever exploring them.”
“In case they learned the truth,” Ava said.
“Exactly. There are clues we need in those ruins, I’m sure of it. If only we could get to them,” Serafina said.