Taalik felt as though he would burst. Unable to resist any longer, he opened his mouth, allowing the gills to flare out. Water sprayed from the two openings. The strange, weightless fluid of this place flowed through him, expanding his chest and rounding his segmented back. He let it out with a choking cough. Inhaling again, deeper this time, he felt the power of it. And then he let out a roar that rattled his entire body. His voice sounded so different here, higher pitched and free to skitter away in the wind. There were no waves to muffle him. He screamed his name to announce his arrival, to shake the earth so that even the Queen, in her fortress, would hear.
This shark that lay at his feet did not have a name, save for the one Taalik gave to it. Graydeath did not even understand the concept of a word, how it could rumble from the throat, and swim through the water, or float in the air, before finding purchase in someone else’s mind. The Queen showed Taalik how to do this, in his dreams and now while he was awake.
Taalik gripped the bulging eyeball of the shark and wrenched it free of its socket. He held it aloft and said his name again and again until the blood dripped down his claw.
Taalik towed Graydeath to the site of the battle, where the Juggernauts overwhelmed the few sharks who remained. As Taalik expected, most of them fled when their leader disappeared. Warriors on both sides halted when they saw Graydeath with his jaw gaping, the lifeless fins flapping in the current. Detecting the scent of blood and defeat, the sharks retreated, leaving behind wounded comrades and severed body parts. Taalik immersed himself in the smell of it, the taste of it. The Juggernauts swam in great loops around him in a show of reverence as he placed Graydeath’s corpse on the ocean floor.
Orak rushed to him and immediately went about inspecting Taalik’s wounds, a faithful Prime to the end. She nudged him, forcing him to rest on the ground while she licked the gashes at the base of his tentacle, keeping them free of pathogens so they could heal. Taalik knew not to argue with her. His fourth mate, Nong-wa, attended to Orak’s injury, a bite mark near her left pectoral fin. The three of them watched as the others killed the stragglers from the fleet. Zirsk and Asha ordered the Juggernauts to slice open their bellies. As Taalik promised, some of them released the eggs they had swallowed. After inspecting them, Zirsk and Asha claimed the eggs they knew to be theirs. Two competing piles formed. The others cheered them on, clicking and chirping each time they ripped open a shark. Sometimes, the fish would try to swallow the eggs again as the Sarcops extracted them, unaware that they died in the process.
Nong-wa, help with the eggs, Orak said.
Nong-wa got in a few more licks before swimming over to the others.
Taalik, the First of Us, Orak said. I was afraid you would not return.
I was afraid I would not find you when I did.
These fish cannot kill me.
No, Taalik said.
A shark split open, but yielded no stolen eggs, only a small, undigested fish. The Shoots devoured both.
I must tell you something, Taalik said. I fear the others are not ready to hear.
What is it, my Egg?
I pulled that shark above the waves. The place we cannot go, from which none return.
Orak stopped licking for a second. And yet you returned.
Yes. The shark died. I lived.
Taalik described the enormous weight pinning him down, the thin, tasteless air that he nevertheless could breathe. He talked about the color, the brightness of it. The Queen chose me to break this barrier, he said. The place above the sea holds our destiny.
Lead us there.
We are not ready. Too many would have to be left behind.
That has not stopped us before. He knew she meant the gambit with the eggs.
There is something else, he said. He extended his claw and held out a shiny object. She reached for it with her tentacle.
What is it? she asked.
I do not know. I pulled it from the shark’s fin.
She rubbed her tentacle along the curve of the object, and then gently tapped the sharp end. A tooth? A claw, perhaps?
No. It is some kind of weapon, fashioned from the earth somehow. From the rock.
Who made it?
The monsters from my dream. Enemies of the Queen. They live above the surface. They tortured the shark, and his people. I saw the scars on his hide.
They are at war with the sharks, just like us.
They are at war with everyone, Taalik said. They are more dangerous than the sharks. When the darkness passes over, I see millions of us, piled in the dirt, drying out under the sun. These monsters have hunted us for years. Destroyed our homelands. They hate us as much as they hate her. Many of us will die if we proceed.
Orak returned the object to Taalik. Then we die, she said.
She swam around to face him. Behind her, the Juggernauts held another shark while Zirsk ripped him from his gills to his rear fin. You are the First of Us, Orak said. You gave us meaning and hope. But you cannot take it away. You cannot tell us what to do with it now. You gave us a choice, and we have chosen to follow you.
She continued licking his wounds, ignoring her own injury, as was her way. He wrapped a tentacle around hers, twisting several times until the suckers latched onto one another.
They would have to abandon Cold Trench, he told her. They would not survive another hibernation period, when their enemies were sure to strike. So the Sarcops would move north, following the magnetic beacon at the pole. With luck, they would find a safe haven in the ice.
By then, Zirsk and Asha nursed their respective stacks of eggs. Shoots and Redmouths tugged on the corpses of their prisoners until some of the sharks split in two. Taalik observed in silence. Tomorrow, he would point them toward their future.
Culdesac Page 11
