“Yes,” Serafina said. “Always.”
“Then let’s do this. Carlo and Elena’s neighbor is a justice of the seas. His name is Rafael. I’ve already talked to him. It won’t be a big-deal state ceremony with you promising the realm a daughter and all of that. In fact, it won’t be much of a ceremony at all. No glittery ring, no fancy dress. It’s hardly what a merl dreams of, I know, but it’s still a Promising. We’ll vow to be together one day. Even though Traho wants to rip us, and everything else, apart. No matter what happens, I want to know that you’re mine, and I want you to know that I’m yours. Always.” He took her hand in his again. “Will you?”
I know why he’s doing this, Serafina thought dully. A war is coming and he doesn’t think he’ll survive it. A pain, familiar now but still terrible, tore through her. Traho had taken everything from her—her family, her people, her realm. And still he wanted more.
Well, this time, he wouldn’t get it.
She would take her vows.
She would take this night and these few precious hours.
She would take this merman for her own.
“Yes, Mahdi,” she said. “I will.”
CARLO ALETA ROJA SMILED. “Time to go,” he said.
He offered Sera his arm, and together they swam out of the farmhouse’s kitchen to its garden. Short and wiry, with graying hair, Carlo had the gnarled hands and stiff movements of one who had wrested his living from a rocky seabed. He and Elena farmed oysters.
“You couldn’t ask for a better night,” he said. “The tide’s high, the waters are calm, and the moon is full.”
Sera tried for a smile.
“Are you all right, Principessa? Are you nervous?”
“Very,” she admitted.
“Just remember,” Carlo said, covering her hand with his own, “no matter how nervous you feel, Rafael feels a thousand times worse!”
Sera laughed. Carlo was right. Sera had overheard Rafael fretting. She’d been on the landing outside her bedroom door, adjusting her dress, and he had been on the lower level of the farmhouse, talking to Elena. Their voices had carried up to her.
“I can’t do this!” Rafael had said. “I’m just a little backwater justice of the seas and they’re royalty! My voice, my powers…they’re not strong enough. Mahdi and Sera need a better songcaster. They need a canta magus. They need—”
Elena cut him off. “What they need is hope. So give them some. They’re two young people in love. Don’t you remember what that feels like? I remember when you met Ana, gods rest her. You couldn’t take your eyes off her.”
“I never did take my eyes off her. Not once in fifty years. She was everything to me,” Rafael said wistfully.
“And Mahdi can’t take his eyes off Sera. They don’t need a canta magus. They have love. It’s enough,” Elena said. “Love’s the greatest magic of all.”
Sera took heart at the memory of those words. She had already learned that love was hard and demanded sacrifices. Now she knew that it also demanded courage. It was hard to speak betrothal vows to Mahdi when he might be taken away from her at any moment, but she wasn’t going to let fear stop her.
“Are you ready?” Carlo asked. They had reached the garden’s entrance. Like most mer gardens, it was not only fenced, but also roofed. Slender kelp stalks, woven together, discouraged pests from swooping in.
“Yes, I am,” Sera said, squaring her shoulders. “Thank you, Carlo. For swimming me up the aisle. For sheltering me. For everything that you and Elena have done.”
Carlo smiled sadly. “It should be your father at your side tonight, Principessa. He was a good merman.”
Sera nodded, missing both her parents so badly that it hurt. “He’s in my heart,” she said. “And you’re at my side. I’m a lucky merl to have two good mermen with me.”
Carlo kissed Sera’s cheek, then opened the door to the garden. As they swam inside, Sera’s eyes lit up with surprise and delight.
“Oh, how beautiful!” she exclaimed.
Hundreds of moon jellies formed a glowing canopy over the garden. Darting among them were dozens of minnows, their silver scales winking with reflected light. In the garden itself, anemones of all hues bloomed. Mauve stingers—purple jellyfish with long ruffled tentacles—floated like lanterns. Sea roses—flat, fluttery worms—twined themselves into red blossoms, and exotic sea lilies waved their feathery arms. Urchin shells filled with tiny lava globes shone softly atop rocks and corals.
Elena had done all this. Sera was so touched by the gesture that tears came to her eyes.