Read Waterfire Saga, Book Three: Dark Tide: A Deep Blue Novel for Free Online

house such destructive creatures.
    As she and Sophia watched, one of the dragons—the biggest one, a female—scented the water. Her head swayed slowly from side to side. Her yellow eyes narrowed to slits. The spiked
frill on her neck stood up.
    “It’s my wound. She can smell the blood. We’re chowder,” Sera said.
    “We might be able to make it back to the doorway,” Sophia whispered.
    As if sensing her intent, the huge dragon scrabbled across the ceiling toward the entrance.
    Sera glanced around wildly, searching for a way out. “Soph, look!” she said excitedly. “To the right of the trough!”
    “Please don’t tell me it’s another dragon.”
    “There’s a crack in the floor! I think we can fit through it!”
    Sera slowly swung the illuminata around to her right. Sophia’s eyes followed the light. A section of floor had heaved up—probably, Sera reasoned, from the dragons stomping around on
it. The broken pieces had been driven into one another like plates of ice on a polar sea. Two of them didn’t meet entirely, leaving a space that was small, but maybe just big enough for a
mermaid to fit through.
    “We don’t know what’s down there,” Sophia said.
    “We know what’s up here, though. And it’s not good,” Sera said. “Start moving. Nice and slow.”
    Sophia did, and Sera followed. They were only a few feet away from the crack when the big dragon hissed. She crouched, ready to spring, and then the sound of voices coming from the stables
stopped her. Her head swiveled toward the noise. That was all the two mermaids needed.
    “Forget slow!” Sera said. “
Hurry
, Soph!”
    Sophia shot into the crack. Sera was right behind her, still holding her illuminata. She had just enough time to see that they were in some sort of underground room when the big dragon started
roaring.
    Sera and Sophia peered out of the crack. The death riders, torches blazing, had stopped in the safety of the doorway. The dragon, furious she couldn’t get at them, was shrieking now and
flapping her enormous wings.
    “I think we’re safe. For the moment,” Sera said. “The death riders won’t come after us unless they want to get eaten.”
    She started to swim away from the crack, intending to explore the space they’d swum into, but Sophia stopped her. “First, we need to do something about that hole in your tail.
Sit.”
    Sera didn’t argue. She sat down, leaned against a wall, and closed her eyes. Sophia untied the blood-soaked bandage and grimaced at the wound. Fresh blood was leaking from it. The spear
had torn Sera’s flesh horribly.
    “Wow. Gods. This is a
mess
. So’s your face. You’re as white as a barnacle.”
    Sera managed to smile. “Great bedside manner, Soph.”
    Shaking her head, Sophia asked Sera for her dagger, cut the sleeves off her own jacket, and used them to fashion a new bandage.
    A few minutes later, she said, “There. Done. Hopefully that will do the trick until we get back to HQ.”
    “Thanks,” Sera said. The pain was still bad, but the bleeding had slowed.
    “Any idea where we are?” Sophia asked, glancing around.
    “Not a clue,” Sera replied.
    She rose, held up her illuminata, and looked around. The room was hexagonal, and every square inch of it was covered in mosaics. Painted urns stood on the floor. Ancient bronze lava lamps hung
from the ceiling.
    “I thought you knew everything about the reggia,” Sophia said.
    “So did I,” Sera said, her eyes wide, her voice full of wonder. “I’ve listened to every conch there is on this place. And no one—no courtier or minister or
historian ever mentioned a room under the stables.”
    “Sera…those figures,” said Sophia, pointing to one of the six walls. “They’re not gods. And they’re not mer.”
    Sera swam to one of the walls and gazed up at the intricate mosaic of the man who adorned it. “They’re human,” she said, running her fingertips over the man’s sandaled
feet.
    Each figure had a name