“What?” Vada frowned. “Why?”

“Errol,” Agnes said. “We can’t leave him.”

Vada’s only answer was a pursing of her lips and an adjustment of the tiller. In almost no time at all, the lights from the port of Arbaz began to spread out over the water, tipping the waves in yellow and orange. Other ships had lights shining through their portholes but it appeared as though the crew of the Maiden’s Wail had not yet returned from the market. The sloop slid silently through the water and Agnes peered over its side.

“Errol?” she called softly, feeling a bit silly. How was he to hear her? She didn’t speak the flashing lights the way Sera did, though she could understand him to a degree—she had discovered that to her delight during the voyage. It must have been Sera’s magic inside her. She was able to sense the intention behind the lights if not the exact words.

“Errol,” she called again, and dipped her fingers into the water, wishing they could light up the way Sera’s did. She tried to get her face as close to the waves as possible. “Errol, please, we’ve got to go, they’ve taken Sera, we’ve got to get her back. If you’re there, if you can hear me or see me or . . .” She let out a growl of frustration. “What do we do, Vada?”

Vada plunged her hand into the water and wriggled it around, making small splashes. “Errol, you beautiful stubborn slippery little creature, you come with us right now, do you hear me? We need to be off, so no hiding or playing tricks or—”

Agnes let out a shriek as Errol’s head popped out of the water, his lights flashing in shades of blue, which Agnes knew meant Sera. He looked from Agnes to Vada and back again, cocking his head.

“She’s not here,” Agnes said, gesturing wildly and hoping the mertag understood. His bulging eyes turned toward the Maiden’s Wail. “Sera isn’t there. We must go get her now. We must get Sera.” She pointed. “In Ithilia. We must all go together, Agnes and Vada and Errol.”

Errol stared at her blankly, then snapped his teeth together and jerked his head in what Agnes took to be a nod. Vada steered the boat back out into the sea, and to Agnes’s profound relief, the mertag swam along beside them. His torso and scales glowed faintly green, filling the water around them with a murky light.

“Won’t your mother be worried?” Agnes asked, realizing they hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to the crew of the Maiden’s Wail.

“She will know where I am once she hears a Byrne has been taken by the Triumvirate,” Vada said. “Besides, I do not think she was expecting me to be staying on the schooner much longer. A daughter must spread her wings at some point.”