He was drunk in the middle of the day. Hiding her alarm, Coralline introduced herself and Izar, and continued, “We’re looking for the elixir, and a note guided us to you.”
Tang’s gray eyes expanded beneath straggly brows. “Show me the note,” he demanded.
Izar handed it over. Tang’s eyes scanned it, then he said, “Come in.” No sooner had they entered through the door than he looked about surreptitiously outside and slammed the door shut behind them.
It was good she’d decided to work with Izar, even if briefly, Coralline thought. Had she arrived at Tang’s door alone, without a note, he would likely have turned her away. But as she heard the lock click in place behind her, the feeling in her heart was far from relief. Half a dozen empty decanters of wine cluttered the living room floor in the shape of a semicircle. Tang seemed to have been lying among them, for he smelled like a life-sized decanter as he swept past her and Izar. How could such a mess of a merman possibly help them?
Despite her doubts, Coralline felt somewhat appeased to see a bookshelf on the wall; a merman who liked to read was a merman to whom she could relate. She smiled to see that the most prominently displayed book on the shelf was The Universe Demystified by Venant Veritate, her favorite author. Other book spines stated the name Tang Tarpon; he was a writer, much to her surprise. His books included The Case of the Confusing Conch, The Vanished Whelk, The Under-Minister’s Assassination, and Death by Desmarestia. Their names suggested to Coralline that they were murder mysteries. She herself did not read murder mysteries, but she knew that Ecklon enjoyed them; she wondered whether he’d read any of Tang’s books.
Tang staggered into a chair and beckoned them to sit on the settee across from him. It was narrower than Coralline would have liked; her scales touched Izar’s at the hips as they sat down together.
Tang turned the elixir note over and studied the back of the parchment, running his hand over it slowly, deliberately. His thumb paused over the top-left corner; something seemed embossed there. Holding the note up to his nose, he squinted at it. “P&P,” he pronounced softly. Returning the note to his lap, he looked at Coralline and Izar, and continued, “I believe P&P refers to a stationery shop called Printer & Parchment, located in the settlement of Velvet Horn. I know Printer & Parchment because I’ve had a few of my book manuscripts printed there in the past.”
Tang was smarter than he looked, Coralline thought with a flicker of hope. He’d noticed a logo that had slipped both her attention and Izar’s.
“Do you know who wrote the note?” Izar asked Tang. “Is there anyone you can think of whose name starts with the letter O?”
“I’m afraid not, no.”
“Either way, why do you think the note would lead us to you?” Coralline asked.
“Because I found the elixir.”
Coralline gasped. This was so much better than she’d expected. Tang’s words showed that, at the very least, the elixir was not just a legend—it actually existed! And given that he’d found it, who better to guide her to it? Clasping the armrest of the settee, Coralline perched at the edge of her seat and asked breathlessly, “How do you propose we find it—”
With a heave, Tang started sobbing. His face itself appeared to be disintegrating, the lines twisting and turning. “I’m sorry,” he said eventually between hiccups. “I found the elixir for my wife, Charonia.”
Coralline looked about the living room newly, at all the decanters littering the floor. How could any mermaid worth her salt live like this? Coralline would have been willing to bet every shell in her meagre carapace pouch that Tang was a dedicated bachelor.
“Thirty years ago, just a month after our wedding,” Tang continued in a breaking voice, “Charonia was diagnosed with a malignant spinal tumor. Apothecaries said she would die in a matter of weeks. I couldn’t bear the thought of it and decided to find the elixir for her—and I did. I still remember the moment as clearly as if it was three days, rather than three decades, ago: The moment she swallowed the elixir, Charonia glowed brightly, and her tumor simply vanished, like it had never existed. The elixir saved her life, but, as it appears, it could not save our marriage. We were together thirty happy years, but she left me last week for another merman.”
He keeled forward, his head collapsing in his hands, long clumps of hair falling around his face like dead kelp.
How selfish, Coralline thought. Tang risked his life to save Charonia, and she repaid him by leaving him. No wonder he looked so miserable.
Suddenly, a merman’s shadow passed a small window to one side of Tang, a window overlooking an empty alley. Coralline turned to Izar, wondering whether he’d noticed the shadow, too, but he was staring unwaveringly at Tang, a touch of sympathy in the set of his face. Had he recently been betrayed himself? Coralline wondered. But his features hardened before her eyes, and he said, in an expressionless voice, “Where did you find the elixir?”
“I’m afraid Mintaka made me swear to keep her location a secret.”
Izar muttered a series of curses.
Tang scowled at him. Coralline also glowered at him. She tried to warn Izar with her eyes—Tang was doing them a favor by speaking to them, they needed him on their side, Izar should not address Tang like he was a sluggish employee—but Izar was not looking at her.
Coralline turned back to Tang with an apologetic smile. “We really appreciate your speaking to us despite the difficult time,” she said. “We’re trying to find the elixir ourselves. Would you mind our asking you a few questions about it? You can answer those that allow you to remain true to your oath to Mintaka.”
“Fine,” Tang said sullenly.
“Is the elixir made of starlight, as the story The Legend of the Elixir states?”
“Yes.”
“And is it made by Mintaka?”
“Yes.”
“And is it true that the elixir is a blessing that comes accompanied by a curse?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask what your curse was?”
“Mintaka told me: Beware of the serpent.”
“What does that mean?” Izar asked.
“I can’t imagine. I never managed to figure it out.”
“How do you suggest we proceed with our elixir quest?” Coralline said.
“There’s someone who might be able to help you, someone who helped me. Take a look at that scroll.”
He pointed an index finger at a scroll lying on the mantel. Coralline rose and picked it up. Stars sparkled brightly over the parchment, their glitter smooth and indelible. It was an invitation to the Ball of Blue Bottle, taking place in an auditorium called The Cupola. Coralline knew the Ball to be the most prestigious annual event in Meristem—a gathering of its most successful and esteemed people. She sympathized newly with Tang—considering the level of accomplishment he must have had to be invited to the Ball, his fall in life at the loss of his love was all the starker.
“The Ball of Blue Bottle is in three days,” Tang said. “I was planning to attend with Charonia, but, given the current state of affairs”—his gaze roved over the empty decanters—“I won’t be attending. The two of you can take my invitation and attend instead of me. Now, read the back of the parchment.”
Turning it over, Coralline read the one sentence scribbled upon the back: Meet me at the center of The Cupola when the music ends. She looked at Tang quizzically.