“I’m so in,” Ling said.
“Me too,” Becca and Neela said.
“And me,” Ava said. “When do we do it?”
“Now,” Serafina said.
“Where?” Becca asked.
“In the Incantarium. By the waterfire. To make sure Abbadon hears us. Loud and clear.”
“HEY, can I borrow that? Thanks!”
Ling got the halberd away from the guard with a magnitis spell before he even knew what had happened. As he was blinking at his empty hands, she swam into the Incantarium, ducked under the arms of a circling incanta, and stuck the weapon’s axlike blade through the waterfire. Serafina and the others followed her into the room. Baby swam behind them.
“Hey! Hey, blabbermouth! Wake up!” Ling yelled, poking the rippling image of the Carceron.
“Great Neria, what are you doing?” an incanta shouted. “You’ll get yourself killed!”
“It’s a strong possibility,” Ling said. She peered at the Carceron’s gates. There was only darkness behind them. “Hey! Are you listening, you sorry sack of silt?” she shouted. “Then listen to this! We’re doing a bind. A bloodbind. You hear that? I said, a BLOODBIND, monster man! Tell that to your boss!”
She backed away from the waterfire and waited. Serafina felt her heart slamming in her chest. At first there was only silence, but then they could hear a low growl. A few seconds later, something moved in the darkness. An arm shot out from between the bars, and then two more. They pushed through the ochi, through the water, and into the Incantarium. Hands opened like dark, sinister sea flowers; the eyes in the center of their palms stared.
“You watching, son? Keep watching. We’ll see who’s weak.”
Ling swam away from the waterfire and threw the halberd down. The others were waiting for her.
“There you are!” It was Magdalena, breathless. “I’m to lead you out of here and into the tunnel. Baba Vr?ja’s orders. All of us are to go except the incanti. If we hurry, we can make the Dun?rea by nightfall.”
The mermaids ignored her. Serafina pulled her dagger from a pocket.
“Didn’t you hear me?” Magdalena said. “We’ve got to go!”
Serafina held the dagger in her right hand and turned her left palm up. Without flinching, she drew the blade across her flesh. Her blood spiraled through the water. As it did, she sang. Clearly. Loudly. With everything inside her.
Abbadon, your end has come.
This we vow, as chosen ones:
Drop by drop, our blood is binding,
Forever lives and fates entwining.
Abbadon growled menacingly. More hands appeared. Sera knew they could have struck at her easily. But they didn’t. Abbadon wanted to see what the merls were doing. So it could tell its master. Good, Serafina thought.
Neela took the dagger next, and sliced her own palm. Her blood rose in the water. As she covered Serafina’s hand with her own, she sang.
Our spell is strong, and soon our blood
Will turn the tide and stem the flood
Of Orfeo’s evil, dark and dread,
That wakes now from its icy bed.
Becca followed Neela. Abbadon shrieked. It shook the bars of the Carceron.
Together, we’ll find the magic pieces
Belonging to the six who ruled,
Hidden under treacherous waters
After light and darkness dueled.
Ava was next.
These talismans won’t be united
In anger, greed, or deadly rage,
But with boldness, trust, and courage
As we unlock destruction’s cage.
Ling was last. She winced as she gripped the dagger with her bad hand, then cut the palm of her good one. As her blood rose in the water, and she covered Ava’s hand, she sang the end of the bloodbind.
We’ve gathered here from sea and river,
With a purpose brave and true,
We vow to drive an ancient evil
From our home, the vast deep blue.
As the last notes of the songspell rose, the blood of all five mermaids spiraled together into a crimson helix and wrapped itself around their hands. Like the sea pulling the tide back to itself, their flesh summoned the blood’s return. It came, flowing back through the water, back through the wounds. The slashed edges of their palms closed and healed. A scar was left on each hand, a livid reminder that each carried the blood of the others now.
Sera felt that blood inside her. She heard it singing in her veins and thundering through her heart, making her stronger and braver than ever before. Neela, Ling, Becca, Ava—they were more than her friends now, they were her sisters, bloodbound forever.
It wasn’t over, this quest that Vr?ja had given them; it had only just begun. Sera had no idea if any of them would survive the darkness and danger that lay ahead, but she knew they’d give everything they were, and everything they had—even their lives—to defeat the evil in the Southern Sea.