Kingdom of the Deep

by EJ Altbacker

  “I can and will. The risk is too great. Hokuu can use the disturbance of your wounded forces arriving to pierce our defenses.” Kaleth gave Barkley a dismissive flick of her fins as if the conversation was over and turned to Sledge. “None of this would matter if he and his friends were competent mariners. They didn’t even bruise Hokuu.”

  Sledge became angry. “It wasn’t like we weren’t trying! He ripped through us like a bunch of jelly drifters!”

  Barkley slashed his tail through the water, signaling Sledge to be quiet so he could go on the offensive. “Kaleth, you knew about Hokuu and the threat he represented. You knew and didn’t tell us, isn’t that right? Tell me I’m wrong.”

  “Shut your mouth, dogfish!” Kaleth yelled. “We have been searching for Hokuu even as Gray and Shear have been maintaining peace. The frill is fiendishly smart, so it is beyond difficult to strike at him.” She went on in a quieter voice. “Unfortunately, we did not see this attack against Riptide coming, or we would have been there to meet it snout to snout!”

  “And keeping that secret turned out so well!” said Barkley.

  “You didn’t need to know!” Kaleth roared. Her finja lined up in front of Barkley, ready to tear him apart on her order.

  Barkley was incensed, his tail vibrating in rage. “Didn’t need to know? Our friends are swimming the Sparkle Blue! And by the way, Gray and I are smarter than you think and we’re from these waters. We might notice things that you could overlook. A wise leader uses everyone’s talents to the fullest instead of bossing them around!”

  “You’re questioning my leadership!” the Seazarein thundered. “A dogfish?”

  “Kaleth! Stop that!” Gray objected. “Barkley’s my friend and I don’t appreciate you acting this way!”

  Barkley swam in front of him. “It’s okay, Gray. Yes, Kaleth, I’m a dogfish. Because of that I see things in a different way. A way you’ve obviously never even thought of in your prejudice. And it’s easy to spot a bad leader, like yourself. They don’t listen to anyone because they’re too busy yelling.”

  Kaleth vibrated with anger, but she wasn’t about to prove Barkley right by shouting.

  “I’ll leave for Riptide right away,” Gray told Kaleth, taking a more apologetic tone, “as your representative, of course.”

  Barkley nodded. “I’ll go, too. Not like you want me around here.”

  Kaleth wasn’t persuaded at all. “Neither of you is leaving! You’ll stay here because it’s my will!”

  “That’s ridiculous!” Gray answered. “Am I a prisoner now?”

  “You are not a prisoner,” Takiza told him. “But you are bound by your obligations. You must keep the shivers from fighting because if they do go to war, it will be impossible to enlist them as allies.”

  Gray ground his teeth until he heard one crack but continued listening.

  The Seazarein didn’t approve of Takiza explaining things, but she allowed it. “Mistrust and war favor Hokuu and his allies. If we require other shivers or Tik-Tun’s orcas, and we well might, they will not join us if they themselves are at war. You cannot shirk your responsibility.”

  Gray spoke as evenly as he could, but he wanted to scream. “Okay. If I do that, then you need to figure out a way to stop Hokuu from doing anything else to Riptide.”

  Takiza drifted by the Seazarein. “Agreed. Hokuu would not have revealed himself in this way if it did not serve a purpose. The question we should ask ourselves is why he would risk doing so.”

  The Seazarein calmed, but her tail still pattered right and left in short, heated strokes. “Obviously he exposed himself to free this Velenka, who should have been sent to the Sparkle Blue.” Kaleth looked straight at Gray. “But you showed mercy. Just what does this mako know about me?”

  Gray was shocked. “Nothing! I wouldn’t tell Velenka if the sun was shining!”

  This seemed to soothe the Seazarein. Takiza swished his gauzy fins thoughtfully. “Gray knows well that she is dangerous. But it was common knowledge that we were coming to see you, even though we took a winding current.”

  Barkley shook his head. “Something about this isn’t right. Velenka’s smart, but Hokuu doesn’t need her. No way. There’s something else going on.”

  This time Kaleth didn’t get mad. She ignored Barkley completely and spoke to Takiza. “That could only have been common knowledge if you had chosen to share the reason for the journey with these two.” She gestured at Barkley and Gray. “Are you becoming a fool in your old age, Takiza?”

  The betta gave no sign that he was insulted. Instead, he merely replied, “Apparently so.”

  “Then Tyro save us all,” Kaleth muttered.

  CHAPTER 10

  VELENKA WATCHED AS SWIRLING MIST CIRCLED Hokuu and two massive prehistore makos she assumed were finja. She couldn’t hear anything the frilled shark was saying. The glowing whorls blocked all sound from her ears inside the globe of energy. Apparently she wasn’t a trusted member of his force just yet. This didn’t stop Velenka from trying to read what was coming from Hokuu’s toothy mouth. But in this she failed. She was unfamiliar with frilled sharks before yesterday and couldn’t decipher a thing he was saying.

  After another moment the hazy globe dissolved into the blue waters as if it were never there. She heard his last command. “Go now, and do not fail me.” The two prehistore makos swam off. Hokuu came toward Velenka. His snake-like body wound through the water with a deadly grace that chilled her.

  He can kill me whenever he wants, she thought, fear coursing down her spine. After a moment another thought rose in her mind: So what else is new?

  She had survived the unpredictable moods of the mad emperor Finnivus. And he sent people to the Sparkle Blue on the merest whim. Hokuu was better than that, wasn’t he? Somehow she would find a way to not only survive, but gain power.

  But how?

  “I trust your meeting went well,” Velenka said.

  Hokuu grinned at her, his emerald eyes glittering. “Funny word, trust,” he said. “It’s funny that you should say it, don’t you think?”

  His gaze unnerved Velenka. It was those eyes. They sparkled green, but weren’t pretty. They scared her. She found herself making a conscious effort not to stammer. “Well . . . I’m not laughing.”

  Hokuu chuckled. Ripples of laughter flowed through the length of his muscular body. “Oh, that was so delicious I’d like another helping!”

  Velenka laughed with the frilled shark, but to her own ears it sounded flustered. If Hokuu noticed, he didn’t mention it. “My dear, dear Velenka, what I mean to say is that trust is a current that flows both ways.”

  Velenka racked her brain. What had she done in the short time that they had been together to raise his suspicions? Nothing. In situations like these it was better to plead ignorance. In this case it had the additional bonus of being true.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” she told Hokuu, widening her eyes as if she were shocked that this was even coming up. This reaction worked well on Finnivus.

  But Hokuu wasn’t Finnivus. Impossibly quick, he wrapped her in his coils and squeezed. “Please tell me that you’re not stupid. Are you sure you don’t understand?” All the while the frilled shark’s smile never left his face.

  Velenka found it hard to answer. She was being crushed. “You mean . . . I have to earn your trust.”

  The coils unraveled and she could breathe again. Hokuu stroked her flank with his tail. His hide was silky smooth and felt slippery on her back. A tremor of revulsion went through her body. She disguised this with a coughing fit to hide it.

  “You see?” he said. “That wasn’t so hard. Don’t play me for a fool and we’ll get along famously. After all, I want you to be a valued member of my team!”

  “To do what?” she asked timidly.

  “Why, to establ
ish a new watery world order, of course!” Hokuu said, flicking his tail with a flourish.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t want to make you mad, but really, I don’t understand.”

  “Of course you don’t! No one does except me!”

  Velenka remained silent. She didn’t want to take the chance of angering the frilled shark again.

  He went on, “In ages past, the Big Blue was ruled by prehistores directly descended from Tyro and the First Shiver. Of course my great species of frilled sharks was very important during this. Interestingly, we never evolved from our prehistore form, unlike everyone else. We’re perfect, so why change, hmm? Anyway, when we great sharks ruled, there were no petty disputes and wars like the one that dear, demented emperor of yours fought.”

  “But what does that have to do with anything?” Velenka asked, genuinely baffled.

  “It proves that today’s Big Blue is a mere shadow of the greatness of what once was! But luckily, what was once can be again!” Hokuu smiled and waited for Velenka to comment, but she had no idea what he wanted to hear. “I can bring Fifth Shiver here to take over! It would have already been done if the passage between the oceans hadn’t closed. I have my suspicions on what happened there, by the way, but they aren’t important to you. What’s important is that when I open the new passageway, Fifth Shiver will dominate and then eliminate the ineffective shivers here and the watery world will run smoothly again!”

  Eliminate everyone, Velenka thought. He can’t be serious. He can’t. “But how would you do that?”

  Hokuu’s tail slipped from her flanks and he waved the spiky end from side to side in front of her eyes. “That’s not for you to know yet! And this brings us back to the issue of trust.”

  “It does?”

  The razor-sharp point of Hokuu’s tail hovered an inch away from Velenka’s eye. “You were awfully interested in my conversation. A little too interested. I think you were spying!”

  Velenka gasped. “No, no, I was looking—”

  Hokuu whapped her on the forehead with his tail. Hard. “I need to trust everyone that serves me. If I think that you’re playing games, I’ll eat you alive. Do you understand this simple fact? Nod if you do.”

  Velenka did so as motes of light danced before her eyes from the blow. Then Hokuu slapped her on the flank with a loud crack. “Excellent!” he said, smiling once more. “I knew I could count on you! Now, get ready for some real fun. We’re going to change the world, most likely replacing every fin with someone better!”

  Velenka nodded. “Good plan. And you’ll rule them all, right? Like the Seazarein?”

  “The Seazarein?” Hokuu shook his head. “That young fool should be swimming the Sparkle Blue already. She hides inside the fortress of Fathomir, where I can’t get near her. Not when she has all those finja around. It was blind luck she escaped my plans, and she had no idea until I struck. None. I was even her Aquasidor for a few short weeks before I struck. That’s how stupid she and Bollagan were. If only Drinnok had come up before the passageway closed, then there would be no problems at all.”

  “Drinnok?” Velenka asked, puzzled.

  “He’s royalty and sharkkind, of course,” Hokuu said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Fifth Shiver still follows the ancient ways, so I need a royal to give everyone their swimming orders. But after a while, well, anything’s possible.”

  Velenka found herself interested in the plan within a plan. She was a mako, after all. “So Drinnok will rule, but you’ll guide Drinnok’s fins. Help him . . . for a while.” Velenka thought she had been too forward, but the frilled shark nodded his long snout.

  “Exactly,” Hokuu told her. “Bollagan didn’t understand that in order to swim into the future, you must break with the past. He wants to live in peace with the sharkkind here. But Drinnok is a sharkkind with vision, proved by the fact that he agrees with me. I’ll advise after I free him from the prison of the under-waters. It will all happen very soon.” He looked up toward the chop-chop. The moon shone into the calm water, half full. “Oh, I can’t wait for the moon to fill out. A full moon is beautiful, and that’s when our beautiful, new world will begin. One where we sweep away everything that’s already here.”

  The frilled shark swam away, humming as he did so, his body rising and falling effortlessly with the current.

  A feeling of despair engulfed Velenka.

  Hokuu was mad. Crazier than Finnivus, even.

  And the frilled shark was stronger than an armada of sharks.

  What could she do? Velenka had no idea.

  CHAPTER 11

  “BARKLEY!” GRAY WHISPERED AS LOUD AS HE dared. “Barkley!”

  The dogfish was nowhere to be seen. Gray and Barkley had slipped away to talk privately in the gold-greenie kelp forest of Fathomir, but then a patrol of finja had come looking for them. Gray managed to hide but had lost his friend. He was still numb from the news they’d received from Sledge yesterday. Gray felt guilty at not being there in Riptide’s time of need. He was their leader!

  Was.

  Gray moved carefully through the massive stalks of greenie, making sure not to disturb them as he passed. He used his senses to keep well away from any large electric shadows, which he could feel but not see. They were the finja looking for him. They would find him eventually and Gray could only claim to be lost for so long.

  “Barkley!” he whisper-shouted, trying to locate his friend. Even though the work he was doing as Aquasidor was important, he missed Riptide. He pushed those feelings away to do what needed to be done. Now the homewaters were gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t even leave Fathomir to mourn those that were swimming the Sparkle Blue.

  The Seazarein wasn’t going to let him. That much was clear. He was being followed everywhere. Kaleth said her finja would stop him if he tried to leave, and Gray believed her. But he could hide. Though the guardians were the best mariners he had ever seen, even better than Finnivus’s squaline, Gray’s training had given him enough skill to make himself scarce when he wanted.

  Take that, Shear! he thought.

  Had Barkley left? He was good, but Gray found it hard to believe his friend could outwit the guardians and sprint headlong toward Riptide without being discovered.

  It was then he heard a “psst.” Gray looked around for the source of the noise, which sounded like a small steam vent, but he knew it wasn’t.

  “Down here,” Barkley whispered, so low that only Gray would hear it.

  “What are we going to do?” Gray asked quietly. “As you may have guessed, those finja are pretty good hunters.”

  Barkley moved his snout out from the kelp he was hiding in. He had a few strands of greenie hanging off it. The dogfish shook his head and most of the seaweed drifted away. “Yeah, I know, it looks weird. I got the idea from Takiza. I’m being the greenie.”

  “I want to go with you,” Gray told his friend.

  “There’s no way I can sneak you out,” Barkley answered. “And no, that’s not a fat joke.”

  “I wasn’t even thinking that!” protested Gray.

  His friend’s greenie-covered tail dropped with embarrassment. “Oh, you usually swim straight there.”

  “Not today!”

  “Okay, sorry,” Barkley told Gray. “But the fact is you’re just too big and fat to sneak out of here.” Gray snorted as the dogfish grinned. “You see what I did there?” his friend teased.

  They chuckled for the first time since they’d heard the horrible news.

  “Gray, you may have to listen to Kaleth, but I don’t. What are your orders for me?” Then Barkley dipped his snout in respect—and he wasn’t making fun!

  Gray’s heart swelled. “Obviously, get to Riptide Shiver, wherever they are. Remember, Striiker leads—”

  The dogfish nodded. �
�I know, I know. Be less grating if I disagree.”

  “I mean it, Bark,” Gray said, giving the dogfish a tap to the flank. “If he’s making a bad call, you have to convince him, not argue him to death. He’s not stupid.”

  “Never said he was stupid,” Barkley answered. “And he’s gotten much better at listening to advice from what I heard from the ghostfins. A real leader.”

  Gray nodded. “Bring them here.”

  Barkley fidgeted. “Kaleth was pretty clear . . . .”

  Gray cut his friend off, keeping his voice low. “And in this case I don’t care. Either she provides protection for them, or I’m gone. Even if they send me to the Sparkle Blue, I won’t . . . I won’t be a part of leaving Riptide out there undefended. I can’t make mistakes like I did before.”

  Gray had once left his best friends in the world in Rogue Shiver and joined Goblin Shiver instead. Goblin had spoken stirring words about the need to band together, to protect each other, but it was all an act. He only wanted power. Gray shook his head at the memory. Though things had worked out since then, he’d never fully forgiven himself.

  “Do you think we’re creating another Finnivus in Kaleth?” Barkley asked.

  Gray never considered this. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I hope not. But does a good shark turn away those in need?”

  Takiza’s familiar voice joined the conversation as he drifted between them. “She does when the fate of the entire Big Blue is at stake.”

  “We just saved the darn thing from Finnivus!” Barkley said.

  The betta looked at Barkley and the greenie attached to him. “Not what I meant. And Finnivus only had power enough to be a great tyrant. Hokuu has the potential to bring a mega-armada of prehistores into this world and destroy everything.”

  “Prehistores,” whispered Barkley, his eyes widening. “I was hoping Kaleth was stretching the truth to get Gray to stay.”

  “She did not. Imagine five or ten thousand mariners as large as Gray and some much larger,” Takiza explained. Both Barkley and Gray went silent. “So you can see the Seazarein’s concern.”