“Oh, silt!” Neela said.
She was still a good twenty feet from the exit. It took two guards to push each massive door closed and they were now hurrying to do so. There was a gap of about thirty inches between the doors and it was narrowing every second. Neela put on a burst of speed and aimed straight for it. She brought her hands together over her head, turned sideways in the water, and shot through it. The doors closed with a boom behind her.
She didn’t look back as she raced through the Emperor’s Courtyard toward the open water. She felt bad about locking Suma in, bad about the worry she knew she’d cause her parents, but they didn’t understand what was happening. Hopefully, when they discovered that everything she’d told them was true, they’d forgive her.
As Neela swam, she heard the subassistant’s voice in her head. Khelefu’s, too. Suma’s. And her parents’. They were all saying the same thing: That is the way things are done! That is the way things have always been done!
Neela knew that if she wanted to find Navi’s talisman and defeat the monster, she would have to bypass the way things are done.
She would have to find a new way of doing things.
Her way.
“AND HOW WAS your stay with us, Miss Singh?”
“Invincible. If I could get the bill? I’m, like, way in a rush, you know?” Neela said, snapping her chewing sponge.
“Right away,” the clerk said, totaling her charges. “One room for one night, room service twice…”
As he continued, Neela glanced nervously at the shiny mica-covered wall behind him. In it she could see a group of Matalin guards. They were still in the street outside. How much longer before they came into the hotel?
“Here we are! It comes to six trocii, five drupes.”
Neela paid him. As she did, the guards came in. One was holding a piece of parchment. She knew her picture was on it. There was no time to swim to an upper floor or cast a transparensea pebble. She would have to front her way out of here. Praying the illusio spell she’d cast would hold, she turned around and sashayed toward the door. She’d changed her messenger bag into a flashy designer bag, her black hair blond again, her blue skin pink, and her nails a sparkly silver. Her black swashbuckler’s outfit was now a long, neon-blue, boyfriend-size caballabong jersey with GO GOA! across the front and the number 2 on the back. A pair of enormous round glasses was perched on her nose. Shiny gold hoops dangled from her ears. The guards were looking for a princess disguised as a swashbuckler. They wouldn’t look twice at a caballabong merl.
As the guards approached, she pretended to talk into a small message conch. “This is, like, totally woeful!” she said. “Could this thing maybe actually work for once in its shabby little life? Hello? Hel-lo? Okay, I think it’s recording now. Hey, merl! Hope you can hear this. Meet me in an hour at the Skinny Manatee for a bubble tea, yah? If you get there first, get me a water apple. Fat free. See you soon. Mwah!”
She swam out of the hotel in a leisurely fashion, as if she had all day. As soon as she turned the corner, though, she spat out her chewing sponge and tore down the current like a marlin. Twenty minutes later she was out of town and in the open water.
“Wow, that was close,” she said, stopping to open her bag and let Ooda out. “Scary. We’re only about half a day from Nzuri Bonde now. Let’s swim the backcurrent all the way. It’s a little bit longer, but safer, I think. We’ll have to push hard. You ready?”
Ooda nodded and they set off. Neela and her pet had spent four days on the currents, staying overnight in hotels, paying her bills with currensea she’d packed. So far, she’d avoided three separate search parties of palace guards, all of whom were sent—she was certain—by her parents to fetch her home.
It was hard staying one stroke ahead of the guards, but oddly, Neela found she was able to think on her fins like never before. She could see what was coming, like Ava could, and then see how to deal with it, like Sera. She remembered what Sera had said about the bloodbind in the conch she’d sent. Sera was certain the vow had given them all bits of each other’s magical abilities.
She must be right, Neela thought. It’s the only thing that explains how I’ve managed to not get myself captured.
She knew she couldn’t afford to get caught. She had to find Navi’s talisman. A few more leagues’ hard swimming and she’d be in Nzuri Bonde, Kandina’s royal village, and that much closer to the moonstone.
Or so she thought.