She’d heard whoops and shouts a few minutes ago, so she knew that Kora and the Askari were back. It had taken Neela and Ooda an entire night to swim from the prison to Nzuri Bonde, but the Askari were faster swimmers and they knew where they were going.
Neela asked a servant where she might find Kora, and the mermaid directed her back to the arena. Ooda, rattled by the Askari, had decided to stay in their room. As Neela approached the arena, she saw that the Askari were seated in a semicircle on the ground, sharing their evening meal. Their camouflage was gone. They’d exchanged their breastplates for finely woven seaflax tunics. The light from their lava lamps played over their powerful bodies and shone in their dark, watchful eyes. Mermaids and mermen made up their ranks. Like their leader, they each wore a white coral armband notched for every Razormouth they’d killed. Some bore deep scars inflicted by the dragons. Neela knew that to these fighters, the scars were badges of honor to be proudly displayed.
Kora was not with her Askari. She was in the center of the arena, silent and alone. Fighting dummies stood on poles near her. As Neela watched, she tail-slapped the stuffing out of one, knocked a second over with a fighting stick, and gutted a third with a spear.
“Did you find the prison?” she asked an Askara, a mermaid named Basra.
Basra nodded. She was lithe and muscular and wore no jewelry except her armband. Like all the others, her black hair was cut close to her skull, to prevent enemies from grabbing hold of it.
There was a loud, guttural cry from the center of the arena. Another dummy fell.
“What’s Kora doing?” Neela asked.
“Thinking,” Basra replied.
“That’s Kora thinking? I can’t imagine what Kora fighting looks like.”
“No,” Basra said dismissively. “You can’t.”
Annoyed by Basra’s curt tone, Neela glared at her. Just then, Kora gave a piercing whistle. The Askari immediately stopped eating and swam to her. Neela followed.
Kora gathered everyone around her, then started drawing in the silty ground with the tip of her fighting stick. She sketched out the sea dragons’ breeding grounds, and the prison.
“You saw them, then,” Neela said to her.
“I saw them, yes. I saw my people…I saw…” Kora said. Her words fell away. She spun around and drove her tail into a dummy, decapitating it.
Remembering the effect the prison had had on her, Neela gave Kora time. She waited silently for her to speak again.
“I owe you an apology,” Kora finally said. “I should never have doubted you. It’s just that—”
“I looked insane. I know…the jersey, the hair, the nails. Anyone who dresses like that must be out of her mind,” she joked.
Kora put her in another headlock, then released her. Neela winced and rubbed her neck, listening as Kora spoke.
“We have two problems here,” she said to the group. “We need to get our people out of a well-defended prison, and Neela needs to get a moonstone currently in the possession of Hagarla, the dragon queen.”
“I don’t suppose we could just ask her nicely for it?” Neela said hopefully.
Kora smiled grimly. “No. We could not.”
“I guess it means a lot to her. It’s been handed down for generations, from queen to queen, right?”
Kora snorted.
“What’s the snort for?” asked Neela.
“We live next to the dragons. We come of age in their domain. We suffer their attacks and sometimes lose our people to them,” Kora said.
Neela nodded, remembering that a dragon had killed Kora’s father.
“The only way to defeat your enemy is to know her,” Kora continued, “and we know the Razormouths. No rising queen would wait for an old queen to die and bequeath her such a treasure. That is not the dragon way. She would kill the old queen and take the treasure. That is the dragon way.”
“So sharing the moonstone’s not an option,” Neela said.
“Hardly. Dragons are envious and greedy. They love things that sparkle or shine and comb shipwrecks for them, rob merchant caravans, even attack villages. They’ll fight over a piece of beach glass, never mind a jewel. A huge mound of treasure is a Razormouth’s greatest pride, and Hagarla lives in a cave filled with loot. She keeps her favorite pieces in a chest and sleeps by it. There is something else we know about dragons,” Kora said. “They’re gluttons. And the thing they like best to eat? Sea whips. They consider them a delicacy, stingers and all.”
“I think I see where you’re going with this,” Neela said excitedly.
“I have a plan. It’s very simple. We lead the dragons from their caves to the prison. After they’ve gobbled down every last sea whip, we draw them off again.”
Neela blinked at her. “Wait a minute, Kora, I thought you said it was simple!”
“It is, in theory. The execution is a little trickier. If it works, though, I will free my people and you will get your moonstone.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Neela asked.
“If it doesn’t,” Kora said with a shrug, “we’re dead.”