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Nazayun plucked me up between two claws. Lightning crackled from his eyes and hair. “Sever your ties with the pearl, Shiori’anma, or I shall do it for you.”

I clenched my jaw. “The. Pearl. Isn’t. Yours.”

“Very well.” The Dragon King sighed. His eyes and hair raged with lightning. “Then, like the pearl you bear, you shall break.”

Everything happened so fast I scarcely knew I’d been hit.

But then I was flying back, a wave of heat scalding my skin. I assumed I’d turn to dust, to stone, or to sea foam, but everything was awash in green. And I was still breathing. My heart, still pumping. I pressed my cheek against prickly seagrass, and I spat out the sand that coated my teeth.

It appeared an eel had come blasting to my rescue.

At least, it looked like an eel. I couldn’t be sure. My vision was watery, and my heart was still roaring in my ears. All I saw was that long green blob with two red eyes.

Seryu!

Seryu had returned with a battalion of turtles—and my starstroke net!

He charged from the left, and the turtles came from the right. Together, at the same time, they rammed into the Dragon King, the turtles’ tough shells absorbing the impact of Nazayun’s strikes.

I crawled onto my forearms, pressing my forehead to the seagrass as my breath steadied. A turtle the size of a donkey had landed at my side, and it scooped me onto its back. With great haste, we spiraled up, and I craned my neck to see why the creature was in such a rush.

Seryu was fighting his grandfather. And losing.

Nazayun had his claws wrapped around Seryu’s throat, and my friend floundered, like a fish on a hook. His tail had gone slack, his claws making one last swipe at his grandfather’s iron-hard scales before falling to his sides. The starstroke net flagged in his grasp.

I couldn’t simply watch and do nothing. I leaned forward, urging my turtle to swim faster. “We have to help.”

“You shall not intervene,” came a voice from behind. A tentacle hooked around my ankles, dragging me off my turtle and bringing me face to face with Solzaya.

“What are you doing?” I yelled at her. “Nazayun’s killing him!”

“Nazayun will not harm Seryu,” said Solzaya.

“Look at his eyes,” I cried. “Look at both their eyes.”

The Dragon King’s eyes flashed white, wild and pupil-less. As Seryu squirmed in his grandfather’s grip, his scales dulled. The spark in his red eyes was fast fading….

“He’s killing him!”

“Enough!” Solzaya barked. Her octopus covered my mouth with an arm, stifling my cries. Still, I could sense the indecision plaguing her. A muscle twitched in her jaw, and her gold-tipped horns darkened with tension.

But if she meant to act, she had missed her chance.

Seryu’s tail went deathly still, and his whiskers drooped as his head lolled back. In triumph, Nazayun flung him away.

I bit into one of the octopus’s tentacles and screamed, “Seryu!”

With a resounding thump, he landed on the bedrock.

His tail curled up involuntarily, but otherwise he didn’t move. The starstroke net was crumpled in his claw, its ends peeking out through his closed fist. Nazayun’s lackeys descended upon him, trying to pry it away, but they couldn’t open his fingers.

I clenched my fists too, not daring to even move.

The net was sizzling, and Seryu’s brow made a fearsome crease before it went slack.

“Seryu!” I cried out again, my voice echoed by Lady Solzaya this time.

A growl boomed from where he’d landed. Then there came a flash of light, so bright that even Solzaya teetered back. From Seryu emanated an aura of the deepest green.