MAHDI BLINKED SILT out of his eyes. His vision was blurry. Voices cried out around him in fear and pain.
He shook his head and sat up. Chunks of stone fell off him as he did. Blood dripped from his cheek. His tail throbbed. He heard shouts and commands in the distance, the sound of dragons roaring.
What happened? he wondered woozily. How did I end up on the floor?
His vision cleared. The pain in his tail intensified. He wanted to get up, to pull away from it, but he couldn’t. He twisted around and saw that a piece of masonry had fallen on his fins. He tried to push it off, but it was too heavy.
He could see a merman on the floor next to him. He was lying on his back, staring up into the water through sightless eyes. A rivulet of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. A mermaid lay a foot beyond him, her body broken.
In a blinding rush, it all came back. Mahdi heard Lucia ordering the guards to seize him, and saw Traho aiming a speargun at him. He heard the deafening roar and the screams. He remembered shouted words: warehouse, munitions. And then a shock wave had rocked the chapel, cracking walls, blowing out the windows, toppling statues.
Traho had fired at him, but the explosion had caused him to miss, and the deadly spear had lodged harmlessly in a wall. And then a section of the chapel’s ceiling had come crashing down, narrowly missing the altar and everyone floating just above it.
Where is he now? Mahdi wondered fearfully, looking around. He was pinned to the floor and helpless. If Traho took aim at him again, he wouldn’t miss.
Lucia, too, had been knocked down. She sat up now, only a yard from Mahdi, and shook off the rubble covering her. Her dress was torn. She had cuts on her hands. She looked around the room, swaying slightly. Her eyes, empty and emotionless, traveled over the destruction and over the injured mer, some begging for help. They came to rest on Mahdi. As they did, the dazed look in them receded and hatred burned in their blue depths.
Mahdi had dropped his speargun when the stone fell on him. It had landed between him and Lucia. They both lunged for it.
Mahdi got to it first, twisting his body painfully to reach it. He pointed it at Lucia.
“Where is she?” he shouted.
Lucia laughed. “It doesn’t matter. You can’t save her.”
“Don’t make this any worse, Lucia. It’s over,” he said, training the gun on her. “Don’t you get that?”
Lucia smiled. “Yes, it is over,” she said. “For you.”
A searing pain tore through him. He dropped the gun and twisted around.
Portia was floating a few yards behind him. A spear from the gun she was holding had grazed him just below his rib cage.
Cursing, she bent down and tried to grab another spear from a dying death rider’s belt, but before she could, Vallerio grabbed her arm and dragged her toward the door.
“Let me go, Vallerio! I want him dead!” Portia protested, struggling to break her husband’s grip.
But Vallerio held her firm. “The palace is under attack. We have to leave now!” he shouted. “Lucia, this way…hurry!”
Mahdi made a last desperate grab for Lucia. He caught her wrist. “Where is she?”
At that instant, another explosion rocked the palace. Mahdi was thrown onto his back again. New cracks opened up along the walls. Ominous groans came from what was left of the ceiling.
When he sat up again, Lucia and her parents were gone.
The explosion had shifted the rock that was pinning him down. Ignoring the wound in his side, Mahdi got his hands under the rock and pushed with all his might. It didn’t budge. He tried again, groaning with effort, and finally it moved just enough that he could pull his fins out from under it. They were ripped and bleeding, but he was free.
Pressing one hand to the wound in his side, he picked up his gun again and swam out of the chapel. Vallerio wouldn’t stay here to defend the palace. He would slink away to hide and regroup. Mahdi knew he had to catch up with them before that could happen.
While he still had a chance of saving Sera.
“BECCA, ABOVE YOU!” Yazeed shouted.
Her head shot up. She fired. The arrow pierced the death rider’s chest. He fell through the water screaming.
The Black Fins had pulled off their impossible plan. They’d cast their transparensea pearls and descended invisibly into the palace and the city. Before the death riders had any idea what was happening, the Black Fins had blown the munitions warehouse, making it impossible for their enemies to arm themselves. Those who were armed when the battle began couldn’t get more rounds. Already many of the Feuerkumpel mercenaries were deserting.
But inside the palace’s stateroom, the battle was still raging. The pearls were wearing off, and casualties on both sides were mounting.