The Battle of Riptide

by EJ Altbacker

  It was Barkley. He slowly slid through the wide and thick, blue and brown greenie stalks, almost crawling on the seabed like an octo. How he was able to move so stealthily was beyond her.

  Barkley got under the entranceway to Coral Shiver, but he still didn’t swim. It was a good thing he didn’t. The Indi patrol had doubled back and would have seen him. The dogfish hovered, motionless, and was gently carried into the Coral Shiver homewaters by the mild current.

  When he was safely underneath the canopy of greenie, Mari whispered, “You looked like you were dead, floating like that.”

  Barkley nodded. “And that’s the point. If you stay in sync with the current, you’re harder to spot. It’s a sort of camouflage through movement.”

  Mari was impressed. Barkley was smart that way. He knew he wasn’t the strongest shark in the Big Blue, so he’d learned to use anything he could to his advantage. Barkley could even follow Onyx without being seen by the cagey blacktip. Onyx was one of the best hunters she’d ever seen. Even though he was older and smaller than many sharkkind, he was almost always the first one to strike in a hunt.

  She and Barkley reached the covered area of the Coral Shiver homewaters, and Onyx swam quietly to them. “How’d it go?” he asked Barkley. The dogfish shook his head. Onyx sighed. “Come on. He’s going to want to hear it from you.”

  Onyx led Barkley and Mari to a more secluded area in the homewaters. Everyone was waiting there.

  “How bad?” asked Quickeyes.

  “We can’t swim out of the area without being seen,” Barkley told everyone. “Their patrols are thick, with no gap between them where we’d have the time to leave. And Indi varies their patrols, so there’s no pattern. Or at least, none that I could figure out.”

  Striiker slapped Onyx’s flank. “Then we fight our way out!” he whisper yelled.

  In the past Barkley would have immediately put down the great white’s idea. The dogfish wasn’t usually diplomatic when he thought an idea was a bad one. Now he waited for someone else to do that. Striiker seemed to take having his ideas dismissed by Quickeyes, Sandy, Shell, or even Snork, better than when Barkley did it. “There may be safer options,” Sandy told Quickeyes. “Waiting for the perfect time would be better than getting caught while half of us are still inside.”

  That was true. The same thing that made the homewaters defensible also made it hard to leave all at once—a narrow choke point was the only exit. Mari shuddered to think what the mad Emperor Finnivus would do to those who were captured.

  “Starving as we wait isn’t a great option,” Onyx groused. Striiker agreed, of course, nodding. “The few of us that do go outside can’t bring home enough fish for everyone.”

  “It’s only a matter of time before one of us makes a mistake and tips them off, isn’t it?” Snork said fearfully. “I hope it’s not me.”

  Shell patted the sawfish on his flank. “You’re one of the fins who can hunt quiet. I know you won’t do anything jelly-brained.”

  Snork seemed to gain strength from the bull’s comment. For a shark who didn’t say much, when Shell did speak, his words counted.

  “We’ll starve!” Striiker insisted. “Quickeyes, you have to lead!”

  “And I am.” Quickeyes flicked his angled thresher tail into the sand, causing a muddy cloud to rise. “But we have to figure out a way to move without being eaten. When I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “But—” Striiker stopped speaking when Onyx shook his head.

  “What youse needs is a distraction!” exclaimed a gruff voice.

  Mari was able to find its source and wasn’t surprised. There was only one fish she’d ever met with that accent: Trank. She whirled. “How dare you show your little krillface in here?”

  “Ay, ay—no need for personal insults. I’m here to help.”

  “Like you helped Gray by betraying him?” Striiker said, batting the much smaller fish with his tail.

  Trank recovered from the disturbance caused by the swipe and glared. “Youse got no idea of the pressure Gafin’s under!”

  “He’s the one?” asked Sandy, her voice rising. “This, this—little—” Sandy had been told about the stonefish’s betrayal of Gray. While Trank didn’t seemed worried about any of the other sharks, he backed away from Gray’s mother. Smart fish.

  Quickeyes swam in front of her. “Please, Sandy, don’t get near it. It’s a stonefish.”

  “We should kill it,” said Onyx. “Can’t let it tell Indi where we are.”

  “Quit callin’ me it, sharkkind! An’ like I said, I’m here to help.”

  Quickeyes, as leader, was about to order the stonefish’s death. Barkley saw this and interrupted before he could. “Wait. If Trank’s here, they’ve already found us. Let him talk.”

  “Smart fin, youse are. Found you three days ago. Gafin was deciding what to do.”

  “Sell us out or come here with an offer?” asked Quickeyes.

  Trank shrugged. “Somethin’ like that. Gafin feels bad about double-crossin’ Gray. But he wants youse to know that he knew about the deal youse set up with the Coral Shiver octo clan in case Gray was trapped at Slaggernacks by Velenka and Indi Shiver. There’s nothing he don’t know about dwellers in the Big Blue. And he let that happen—which let Gray escape.”

  Barkley looked to Mari for her opinion. For some reason, she liked it when he did this. “He seems to be telling the truth,” she told him.

  “Wonder of wonders,” Striiker said in his cutting way, getting a stare from Trank.

  Snork shook his toothy bill from side to side. “I still don’t believe him.”

  “Look, Gafin doesn’t like this Finnivus clown fish or his crew. He’d just as soon see ’em go back where they came from.”

  Several of the group laughed in disbelief. “Gee, us too. Are you going to battle their armada?”

  Trank smiled, his little fins moving back and forth. “Fightin’ snout to snout, that not our style, see? But we can give youse a very nice edge.”

  “How helpful of you,” said the amused Quickeyes. “But if you hadn’t noticed, we’re stuck here, starving, and don’t have an army to fight them.”

  “Moving day—that’s in the future,” Trank told everyone. “Like I said, youse needs to figure out a distraction. As far as food, I think youse all can lose a few pounds, but I come bearing gifts—you know, to make up for what happened to Gray.”

  Mari’s mouth began watering before she knew what was happening. Then she saw it—a giant lobster crawling up the rocks near where they were meeting. In its claws were two fat hake fish! And behind that lobster was a giant crab with a couple more fish. And another, and another, forming a line of shellheads marching on the seabed—all bringing food!

  “You know, my opinion is suddenly all turned around on Trank,” Striiker said as he gulped down a tasty haddock. “Still don’t totally trust you, though.”

  “And the beauty of it is you don’t have to just yet,” Trank replied.

  Quickeyes gave the stonefish a stare and clicked his jaws shut a few times before saying anything. “Thank you for the fish. It won’t be forgotten. But we wouldn’t last a minute fighting Finnivus’s armada.”

  Trank nodded. “You’d need an army. So you couldn’t beat them today, but youse never know what tomorrow brings. Or tonight, for that matter.”

  The stonefish turned toward the blackness of the cliff that plunged almost to the Dark Blue. Rising from the dark was a massive hammerhead, followed by another fifty sharks.

  It was when she saw the scars that Mari knew who it was and gasped.

  “Ripper!”

  “AGAIN!” TAKIZA YELLED FROM HIS POSITION BY a large statue in the center of the Atlantean stadium. This was the area that Gray had thought was the landshark version of Speakers Rock. He’d been a bit mis
taken. Takiza told him the large, bowl-like structure was for sports and training. This wide-space place was where landsharks would play games and others could watch. It also made a perfect practice range for Lochlan and Gray, who had grown accustomed to the depths of the Atlantean city of Poseidous. It was much easier for Gray to move and speak now.

  Lochlan smiled wickedly, his golden hue noticeable even at these depths. “Would you like another shot at the title, mate?”

  “Don’t mind if I do,” Gray answered, churning his tail and rushing the giant great white. He couldn’t help but grin back. This was so fun! He was learning so much, even though he was beaten every time. It seemed Lochlan deserved every complimentary thing Takiza had ever said about him. If Gray could learn to be half as good as the great white, he’d be the best fighter in the North Atlantis.

  He rocketed straight at Lochlan, performing Cuttlefish Strikes but was blocked when Lochlan countered the pectoral fin attack with Swordfish Parries. Gray feinted Sunfish Greets the Morn and seamlessly moved into the dorsal attack, Topside Rip. He was learning to proceed smoothly from one move into another, then another, rather than think of each as a single maneuver. When you strung the moves together this way, fighting was more like a dance.

  Unfortunately, Lochlan wasn’t fooled by the fake and was ready with a perfectly executed Orca Bears Down. He drove Gray into the seabed, causing a cloud of silt to muddy the cold water. If there were a way to beat Lochlan in single combat, Gray hadn’t found it.

  “Hold!” said Takiza. “I can take no more! My eyes are pained by your clumsy show. I have other matters to attend to so I will leave for a time. Keep training, for though you are both hopeless, I believe everyone you will fight against is even more pathetic than either of you.” Takiza reminded them they wouldn’t have time to search for food once they entered the waters patrolled by Indi Shiver. Gray got the creeping feeling that the betta was involved in many different weighty things in the Big Blue. But if this fight wasn’t important enough to spend all his time on, how much trouble was the watery world in? It made him feel like a tiny guppy.

  Later, as Gray finished off the last of a large cod, he said, “I thought it was bad to fight on a full stomach.”

  “Never stuff yourself right before a battle,” Lochlan told him. “That’s true enough. But we’ll be swimming hard for a good while, so we need to keep up our strength.” He looked at his third and gave him a nudge. “What’s the matter, Xander?”

  Gray was still getting used to Xander’s unusual appearance—unusual compared to what he thought of as a normal hammerhead. Hammerheads were one of the weirder-looking sharks in the Big Blue with their heads seemingly stuck on the wrong way. Being a scalloped hammerhead, Xander had indentations on his long forehead that made him look as if he were perpetually thinking about something. But in this case, he really was. For a moment, it seemed as though he didn’t want to speak.

  “You know, the Line only works if you tell Loch what your problem is,” Kendra said.

  “I don’t think we should be doing this,” Xander said after a moment. He turned to Gray and added, “Sorry. No disrespect toward you or your cause.”

  Jaunt tail-slapped Xander on the flank. “Since when are you the sorta biter that swims away from a scrumble?”

  “We’re not ready for it,” Xander replied. “I’ve gone over this in my head a dozen times, and it always comes up the same. This is a bad call.”

  “How so?” asked Lochlan. The great white didn’t get angry when challenged the way Goblin would have, or shout Xander down as Striiker most likely would. And Finnivus would have undoubtedly done something horrible. But Lochlan actually wanted to know why his trusted friend thought his idea was bad.

  So this is what a good king is like, Gray thought.

  Xander continued, “We’re not prepared to face off against Indi.”

  Jaunt became incensed. “They deserve what’s coming!”

  “I’m not saying that isn’t true, Jaunt,” Xander answered. “But having truth and goodness on our side is no replacement for a fully loaded armada of our own. The timing is bad.” Loch had mentioned that most of their forces were hiding in the Sific, far away, with only fifty sharkkind here to protect him. The hammerhead now looked to Lochlan. “We need time to get ready. And we can do that as long as Finnivus doesn’t know we exist.”

  Lochlan remained silent for a moment. “You’re right, Xander. But we can’t just turn tail and allow Finnivus free rein to do evil. Sometimes a fin has to swim out and be counted.”

  “If Finnivus finds out you’re alive, he’ll scour the ocean for you! That mariner prime they have is no fool.” Then Xander whispered, “If the numbers are in his favor when we meet, he’ll win.”

  Gray couldn’t hover idly by any longer. “Excuse me,” he began. “I really appreciate you considering helping me. But this is my fight, for my shiver and my family. I’ll do the best I can with what I have. I don’t want you to lose your chance of stopping Finnivus later. It might be the only real chance anyone has.”

  Lochlan bumped flanks with Gray. “Well said, that. But we can’t allow the emperor to tighten his grip here. And we have the element of surprise. By giving him more to think about in the North Atlantis, he’ll have fewer sharkkind available to control the Sific. That’s good for when we make our move there.” He looked at Xander. “I understand if you want to put your strength where you think it’ll do the most good,” Lochlan told him. “Go back to our fins in the Sific. Gather and train them.”

  The group waited for Xander’s reply. Finally, the big hammerhead nodded. “Loch, I’d swim to the bottom of the Dark Blue and fight a prehistore monster for you. If you think this is the right move, I’m with you, flank to flank, mate.”

  Lochlan and Xander slapped fins.

  “What are you flapping your large mouths about this time?” asked Takiza, who once again appeared out of nowhere. “You chatter like sea monkeys.”

  “It seems we’ve decided to help with Gray’s fight!” Lochlan told him in a booming voice.

  “It’s always sensible to do what I tell you to do,” Takiza responded without a hint of sarcasm.

  Jaunt looked over at Gray. “Is he always like this?”

  “Way worse!” he answered.

  Takiza began giving orders. “Lochlan, take your sharkkind over near the Riptide Shiver homewaters and wait. Do not attack before I tell you to. I shall repeat myself, as I did countless times during your training: Do not attack before I say so.”

  “Easier said than done,” remarked Kendra.

  “I know!” Takiza exclaimed. “She is the wisest fish among you! But I have some delicate plans in place, and if you rush in and attack like some foolish rumble fish, you’ll ruin everything.”

  “Would you like to share the reason why?” Lochlan asked, amused.

  Takiza sighed as if he really didn’t want to reveal anything, but then relented. “We have to save someone from Finnivus who won’t want to be saved.”

  Kendra released a frustrated stream of bubbles from her gills. “Do you know how annoying that is? When you say something like that and don’t give any specifics?”

  Takiza was amused by this. “Why, yes, I do!” He grinned. “The shark we need to save is named Whalem, and until a few days ago he was the mariner prime of Finnivus’s armada.”

  “Finnivus stripped Whalem’s rank? He won’t like that. He’s a proud finner,” Xander said with wonder. The AuzyAuzy Line were all familiar with the old tiger. “Maybe we do have a chance.”

  Takiza nodded. “I only hope trusting Barkley and Onyx to sneak inside Indi’s royal court to free him wasn’t a fatal mistake on my part. And theirs, I suppose.”

  If the betta wanted Gray’s total attention, he had definitely succeeded. But the frilly fish wasn’t done. He turned to Gray and said, “Oh, and I need you
to swim down into the Maw to get something for me.”

  “STOP!” BARKLEY WHISPERED JUST LOUD ENOUGH that the light current they crawled against would bring the warning to Onyx and no one else.

  The blacktip settled onto the sandy bottom without stirring a grain of sand. For someone who didn’t normally sneak around, Onyx was very good at it. Neither twitched a muscle as an Indi Shiver patrol circled around the craggy shelf marking the east boundary of the Riptide homewaters and passed above where he and Onyx hid, silent as sea wraiths.

  Barkley resumed moving carefully forward through the greenie, barely a flipper length off the seabed. He shuddered to think what would happen if they were caught and dragged before Finnivus.

  The dogfish knew at a young age he could swim more quietly than most. It was natural that as the bullies around the reef had gotten bigger, he’d gotten better at remaining silent and safely hidden from them. Not everyone could do this. Striiker, for example, was terrible at stalking. He was a great hunter due to his strength and size but could sneak around as well as a human splashing about in the Big Blue.

  Barkley signaled for Onyx to follow. When Barkley and Gray were little, they always thought of Onyx as a humorless curmudgeon. The blacktip ordered shiver sharks this way and that. But they’d never realized that whenever Onyx did speak, those sharks listened because he was usually right. Now, if Barkley had to pick someone for a matter of life and death, after Gray, he would choose Onyx.

  He felt a nip at his tail. Barkley knew Onyx would only do that for a good reason, so he allowed his body to go limp, the tide carrying it slightly. The blacktip eased next to him. “Stay away from Speakers Rock. It’s the royal court, so there’ll be even more guards.”