And then she heard another voice—Vr?ja’s. Sera was certain that the river witch had been killed by death riders, but she lived on in Sera’s heart.
Instead of shunning your fear, you must let it speak, Vr?ja had told her. It will give you good counsel.
Sera listened.
The N?kki peddle death, her fear said. But you must learn to sit with death, and his merchants, if you want to defeat your uncle and destroy the evil in the Southern Sea. How many more will die if you take no action?
Sera raised her eyes to Kova’s and, in a voice heavy with dread, said, “We have a deal.”
Kova nodded. “My terms are half up front.”
Sera’s fins flared. She did not take orders from arms-dealing sea scum. “My terms are nothing up front,” she shot back. “When I get my weapons, you get your gold.”
Kova gave her a long look. “How will you get the goods to the Karg? They’ll be in crates roped to hippokamps. My hippokamps. They aren’t part of the deal.”
“That’s my worry,” Sera replied.
Kova snorted. “Yes, it is. That and much more,” he said, rising. Julma and Petos followed his lead. “Give me five days,” he said, thrusting his hand at Sera to seal the deal.
Sera rose, too, and shook it, her eyes locked on his, her grip firm. Kova released her hand and then the three N?kki pulled their hoods over their heads. Seconds later, they were gone.
Sera looked down at her palm, knowing what she would see.
She felt a hand on her back. It was Ling. “It washes off,” she said.
Sera shook her head. “No, Ling,” she said softly. “It doesn’t.”
THE CURRENTS of M?rk Dal were deserted, its shops closed, its homes shuttered against the night. The glow from a handful of sputtering lava globes was all that illuminated the sleeping goblin village in the frigid gray waters of the North Sea.
Astrid Kolfinnsdottir moved silently down the main current, sword drawn, eyes alert for any movement. She was hunting for a mirror.
There were none in the Kargjord, where she’d left her friends, or in the barren waters that surrounded that wasteland. She’d been swimming south for days. M?rk Dal was the first village she’d come across, the first place where she could find what she needed.
Orfeo had summoned her. He’d come to her in a mirror, and she knew she would have to go to him the same way. But how? Many of the greatest mages couldn’t travel through mirrors. How was she—a mermaid with no magic, one who couldn’t sing a note—supposed to?
“This is total insanity,” she whispered. “It’s hopeless. Impossible. Suicidal.” She’d been saying these words a lot lately—ever since she’d met Serafina, Neela, Ling, Ava, and Becca in the Iele’s caves.
The six mermaids had been called together by the Iele’s leader, Baba Vr?ja. She was the one who’d told them about the monster in the Southern Sea and said they were the only ones who could defeat it.
After they’d left the Iele, they’d learned that Orfeo had been a healer and the most formidable of the Atlantean mages—the Six Who Ruled. Each of the six had a talisman, a magical object that enhanced their powers. Orfeo’s, a flawless emerald, had been given to him by Eveksion, the god of healing.
Together with his fellow mages, Orfeo had ruled wisely and well and was beloved by his subjects—until his wife, Alma, died. He couldn’t accept her death and had begged Horok, the keeper of the underworld, to return her to him. Horok refused, and Orfeo vowed to take her back. He’d set about creating a monster powerful enough to attack the underworld—Abbadon. Orfeo invoked the death goddess Morsa to aid him in his quest. From her, he gained a new talisman: a flawless black pearl.
When the other five mages—Merrow, Nyx, Sycorax, Navi, and Pyrrha—discovered what Orfeo was doing, they’d tried to stop him. Enraged, he unleashed his monster against them. In the ensuing battle, Abbadon destroyed Atlantis. As its people fled to the water, Merrow beseeched Neria, the sea goddess, to help them. Neria knit the Atlanteans’ legs into tails and gave them the ability to breathe water, saving them.
Though the five mages fought bravely, they couldn’t kill Abbadon, so they’d driven it into the Carceron, the island’s prison. To open the prison’s lock, they’d needed all six of their talismans. Orfeo refused to surrender his; they’d had to kill him to get it. Once Abbadon was imprisoned, Sycorax, with the help of whales, dragged the Carceron to the Southern Sea.
Afterward, Merrow hid the talismans in the most dangerous places in the six water realms to make sure that no one could ever use them to free Abbadon. Then she had all historical records of the monster erased. A new story was told, one in which Atlantis was destroyed by natural causes. Over time, Orfeo’s treachery, his monster, and the talismans were forgotten.