“Killed Ava?” Neela said.
Sera nodded, turning to her. “What if he killed Astrid, too? We haven’t heard from either of them in weeks.”
“Not possible. We’d feel it,” Neela said, looking up from her kelp-parchment sketchbook. “It’s your uncle, isn’t it? And what he said to you.”
“Yeah,” Sera admitted, “it is.”
“Checkmate,” Neela said, rolling her eyes. “Forget him, Sera. He only said it to rattle you.”
“He succeeded.”
“Did he?” Neela said with a smirk. “He’s dead; you’re not. I think that means you won.”
“For now,” Sera said.
Neela rose. She swam to her friend and put an arm around her. “We didn’t come this far to fail.”
Sera nodded. She kissed Neela’s cheek, but inside she was still uneasy. Her uncle’s final words had sewn dark seeds of doubt in her. As Neela sat back down and took up her sketchbook again, Sera thought about how the chessboard had changed.
Neela was right about one thing: she would have a large and loyal force at her back for the journey to the Southern Sea. And Orfeo was now without Vallerio and Portia, his firm allies, but Lucia was still on the loose. She’d escaped from the city, and, seemingly, the realm. There was a large bounty on her head, but no one had so much as glimpsed her. Had Orfeo given her sanctuary?
Sera remembered something that Mahdi had once said about Lucia—that she was like a rockfish, at her most dangerous when you couldn’t see her. Sera had confided her worries to Desiderio, but he told her she wouldn’t have to worry for long; Lucia couldn’t stay hidden forever. They would find her and she would answer for her crimes, just like her father had.
“There! Done!” Neela suddenly said, interrupting Sera’s thoughts. She held her sketchbook out. “Take a look and tell me what you think.”
But before Sera could take the sketchbook, the door to her rooms banged open. Becca was floating in the doorway. Her red curls were corkscrewing loose from the twist at the back of her head. She was grinning from ear to ear.
“Becca? What’s going on?” Sera asked, unused to seeing her practical, serious friend so excited.
“Ready for a bit of good news?” Becca asked.
Sera arched an eyebrow. “Good news? What’s that?” she joked.
Ling stuck her head around the door. “Look who we found!” she said breathlessly.
A mermaid, thin and silt-stained, swam through the doorway.
“Ola, minas. Como vas?”
“AVA!” SERA SHOUTED. She swam to her friend, threw her arms around her, and whirled her around and around in the water.
“I’m so happy you’re safe! I was so worried! Where have you been all this time?”
“In the swamps, and then in a cage, and then on the back currents.”
“A cage?” Sera said, outraged.
“I got the ring, and then Traho got me. He took it. He was going to turn me over to Vallerio, but a friend rescued me. We’ve been making our way to you ever since. Sera, may I introduce another queen? Manon Laveau, the swamp queen of the Mississippi.”
Sera had been so overjoyed to see Ava, she hadn’t noticed that others had swum into the room with her.
Sera bowed to Manon, who returned the gesture.
“I would also like to present Jean Lafitte, Sally Wilkes, and the Countess Esmé,” Ava said.
The ghosts all bowed. Sera’s eyes widened at the sight of them.
Manon saw her fear and laughed. “Don’t you worry, cher. They’re not shipwreck ghosts. They know better than to suck the life out of folks.”
Sera relaxed. “Thank you for saving my friend,” she said, taking Manon’s hand.
“You’re more than welcome, but honestly, it wasn’t no scales off my tail, as they say in the swamp. Ava’s a good soul, and I’m always happy to mess up a bully’s plans, and Traho is one mean bully.”
“He was,” Ling said. “He’s one dead bully now.”
Manon shook her head regretfully. “That’s too bad. My boys will be disappointed. They were fixing to make mincemeat out of him.”
She must’ve brought bodyguards with her, Sera thought. Traho must’ve gotten on their wrong side, too.
“Ava, did you say that Traho had Nyx’s ring?” Becca asked.
Ava nodded sadly. “Baby got it from the Okwa Naholo. We were on our way out of the swamps when Traho found us.”
“Traho probably passed it on to Orfeo,” Sera reasoned, crestfallen to think that Orfeo had two talismans now.
“Speaking of Baby, where is that little beast?” Neela asked.
“Dead,” Ava said sadly. “The death riders killed him.”
“Oh, Ava, no!” Neela cried. “I’m so sorry!”
As Neela, Ling, and Becca comforted Ava, Sera attended to Manon, asking her if she would like something to eat.
“Child, what I would like is somewhere to rest my old bones. It’s a long way from the Mississippi to Miromara. Maybe you have a nice little shack somewhere where a swamp queen could put her fins up?”