“It doesn’t matter what I believe,” Ling said impatiently. “Don’t you see? All that matters is what the spy believes.”
Understanding dawned on Sera. “I think I see where you’re going with this,” she said, her fins prickling with excitement.
Ling sat forward in her chair. “I’m an omnivoxa,” she said, her eyes sparking with intensity. “My gift is communication. But sometimes, to really communicate, it’s necessary to listen instead of talk. What I’m listening for now is the voice of one who’s hurting.”
“Go on,” Sera said, trying to follow where Ling was leading.
“Pain needs to speak,” Ling continued. “It needs to be heard. If it isn’t let out, it grows inside, pushing out everything bright and good until it’s the only thing left. I know this, Sera. It happened to my mother. She was hurting so badly after my dad disappeared, she turned away from everyone, including me.”
“I didn’t realize that,” Sera said. When Ling had appeared in camp, she’d told them how she’d escaped from a prison camp and found the puzzle ball, but she’d never said anything about her mother.
Ling gave her a rueful smile. “Some things are really hard to talk about, even for an omnivoxa. I was finally able to get through to her, but only after I learned to understand her pain. I bet that the spy’s in pain, too. What he’s doing—lying, deceiving, betraying his friends—it all comes from a dark place. His pain wants to speak, Sera. If I can coax it out, all we have to do is listen.”
Sera remembered Vr?ja telling her, Help Ling break through the silences. Ling had broken through her mother’s silence, and in doing so had gained insight and wisdom. Now she was trying to break through the spy’s silence.
Ling’s plan was dangerous, but allowing the spy to remain at large was more dangerous.
“All right,” Sera finally said. “The puzzle ball is yours.”
She rose and swam to the niche in the cave’s wall where she kept the talismans that she and her friends had found: Sycorax’s puzzle ball, Merrow’s blue diamond, Pyrrha’s coin, and Navi’s moonstone. She undid the songspell that camouflaged the niche, then removed the ball.
The ancient talisman sat heavily in Sera’s hand. A phoenix decorated its surface. It was carved out of white coral and contained spheres within spheres. The spheres had holes in them. To solve the puzzle, one had to make the holes line up to reveal what was in the center of the ball.
Sera gave Ling the precious object.
“Thank you,” Ling said. “For the talisman, and for your trust.”
“Find him,” Sera said. “Please.”
“I will, I promise,” said Ling. And then she swam out of the cave, head down, eyes on the puzzle ball, turning it over in her hands.
Sera watched her go, worry etched on her face. She needs time to put her plan into play, she thought. And we don’t have any.
Eyes still glued to the puzzle ball, Ling bumped—literally—into a merman and a goblin on patrol. Ling excused herself, and the two soldiers asked her what she was doing. They were close enough that Sera could hear their conversation.
“We have a spy in our midst,” Ling solemnly told them.
The merman gripped his crossbow tightly. The goblin swore.
“Serafina’s so desperate to find him,” Ling continued, “that she gave me this….” She held up the puzzle ball.
“What is it?” the goblin asked, peering at the object.
“It’s a powerful, priceless talisman, given to Sycorax, a mage of Atlantis, by the gods,” Ling explained.
The goblin let out a low whistle. The merman’s eyebrows shot up.
“It contains something called the Arrow of Judgment, which can tell the innocent from the guilty,” Ling explained. “If I can solve the puzzle, the arrow will point out the spy.”
“I love puzzles,” the goblin said eagerly. “Let me have a try.”
He used his long claws to turn the inner spheres but couldn’t make them line up.
“Give it to me,” the merman said. But he couldn’t crack the puzzle either.
Ling heaved a worried sigh as he handed the talisman back to her. “I’ve got to get this solved. Can you ask around and find out who’s good with puzzles? Tell them to come to me. Anyone and everyone. Our lives depend on it.”
The soldiers said they would and moved on. Ling went in the other direction. Before the soldiers got very far, they met another pair on patrol and stopped to talk to them. Sera couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she saw them point toward Ling. The second pair hurried off to catch up with her.
She’ll have the whole camp talking about the spy and the Arrow of Judgment by breakfast, Sera thought. Goddess Neria, let that be a good thing.
THE LIQUID SILVER was tensile and bright, almost alive.
It swirled and lapped around Astrid as she picked herself up off the floor of a long, magnificent hallway.