Horizon

by Jenn Reese

  Liu looked behind her, then back at the camera. Her pale head was still bald, but the bundle of wires sticking out the back bobbed like hair as she talked. “Don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick. HydroTek has been overrun. Karl Strand’s forces came to get Fathom, and they destroyed everything else in their path . . . including the Kampii generators. We tried to save them, but we couldn’t. I’m really sorry, Hoku.

  “A few of the Meks escaped into the dome’s tendrils and flooded the passageways to stop Strand’s armies,” Liu said. “I’m joining them as soon as we’re done here. We’ll start rebuilding as soon as we can, but the repairs will take a long time. Several generations for your people, at least, and that’s assuming the Upgraders leave and we can fabricate all the parts we need from the salvaged metal and —”

  Liu stopped herself. “Never mind that now. What’s important is that the Upgraders took Fathom. We set off some sort of security alarm when we tried to extract information from his brain. That’s probably what brought Strand’s army. Either that, or he managed to send a message before we shut off his communications. But we do know where most of the Upgraders are headed next. . . .” She paused. “They’re headed for the Aviars.”

  Calli gasped.

  “Aluna’s sister, Daphine, escaped yesterday. At least, I helped her through the tunnels and saw her dive into the water myself, only I don’t know how far she made it. I guess she could be dead.” Liu’s eyes widened. “I shouldn’t have said that, should I?”

  A clang sounded and Liu’s picture shuddered.

  “Upgraders! I’ve got to go,” Liu said. She looked to her right and hefted a heavy wrench. “Hoku, I’ve made some changes to Zorro. Most important, I sealed him up so he can travel wherever you do — underwater, through the desert, up the mountains . . . He’ll probably outlive us all now.”

  “Thank you,” Hoku whispered, and stroked Zorro’s back.

  “I don’t know what you can do about all of this,” Liu said. “But then, I never thought you’d manage to defeat Fathom, either. I like being awake. If you’ve got another miracle in your pocket, now’s the time to use it.”

  The projected picture disappeared suddenly. The air in front of Zorro’s eyes — so full of sound and motion a moment ago — now felt painfully empty.

  “I’m sure they’re safe,” Hoku said. “Liu is really good with that wrench, and Daphine is smart. She has more common sense than the rest of us Kampii combined.”

  Aluna nodded, but said nothing. Her brow hung heavily over her eyes, her jaw clenched.

  “Skyfeather’s Landing is next,” Calli said. “Strand’s army may already be there.” She started to pace along the water’s edge. “We need to go there right now. We need to help with the fight.”

  “No, we go to the Kampii,” Hoku said. He placed Zorro on his shoulder and stood. “Our people are probably dying already. I have to help them recharge their breathing shells.”

  “But Skyfeather’s Landing is where the fight is,” Calli said. “If we want to stop Karl Strand once and for all, we need to be at the heart of the battle!”

  Hoku kicked the sand. “Our families are down there! So saving the lives of Kampii isn’t important?”

  Calli walked up to him and put her face just centimeters from his. Her nostrils flared. “Of course it’s important. It’s just not more important than saving the lives of Aviars. Or my family.”

  “I didn’t mean —”

  “No, of course not,” Calli said. She waved her hands in the air. “Don’t you see? Maybe Dash was right to leave. We all want to stop Karl Strand, but maybe we need to do it in different ways. You and Aluna need to save your people, and Dash wants to save his. Is it so wrong that I want to save mine, too?”

  Hoku had never seen her like this before. Her cheeks burned with anger, her wings twitched. He felt his own rage rising just as fast, like a wave carrying him higher and higher. “Your people are fighters. They can defend themselves. The Kampii are practically helpless!”

  “The Kampii have chosen ignorance, and that’s not a good enough reason to let my people die,” Calli said coldly. “I’m going to Skyfeather’s Landing — with or without you.”

  CALLI’S RIGHT,” Aluna said quietly. She wasn’t sure if they’d hear her over their own yelling, but both Hoku and Calli stopped to look at her. “Calli, you should go help your mother at Skyfeather’s Landing, and Hoku, you and I should return to the City of Shifting Tides.”

  Hoku crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you two. I thought we were friends. I thought we were a team!”

  “We are a team,” Calli said, her anger dissipating. “But sometimes a team has to split up to accomplish its mission. The Aviars have scouts and strategists and medics and warriors — everyone plays their role in battle. Our roles are just taking us in different directions right now. Dash understood that, and now I do, too.”

  “Besides, it’s not like Calli can join us underwater anyway,” Aluna said. “Hoku, you were the one who said the water pressure would snap her delicate Aviar bones.”

  Hoku dropped his head into his hands and groaned. “It would. Of course it would. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”

  Calli put a hand on his shoulder. “Because you want us to stay together, even when it doesn’t make sense. That’s . . . not a bad thing.”

  Hoku dropped his hands from his face and nodded.

  “When you get home, Calli, turn on Skyfeather’s Landing’s commbox and have someone monitoring it at all times,” Aluna said.

  “I will,” Calli said. “I’ll make sure it’s never turned off again.”

  “Tell High Senator Electra to stay out of trouble,” Aluna added. “Tell her . . . that I’ll be irritated if I have to come rescue her.”

  “And let Senator Niobe know that I’m out of mustard,” Hoku added.

  Calli laughed and bent down so Aluna could hug her without jumping up and balancing on her tail.

  “Wishing you blue skies, sister,” Calli said.

  Aluna dove into the water and swam out to sea, wanting to give Hoku and Calli a moment of privacy to say good-bye. She was still in range when Hoku said, “I’ll miss you,” but after that, she heard nothing.

  When she returned to the beach, Calli was a distant speck of white in the vast expanse of sky. Hoku sat cross-legged on the sand holding Zorro, his face mashed into the animal’s fur.

  She dragged herself over and sat behind him, back to back, like they used to do when they were younglings.

  “Remember when all you used to want was an apprenticeship with Elder Peleke?” Aluna said. “Every time we found a three-clawed crab, that’s what you wished for.”

  Hoku grunted. “What a waste of wishes.”

  “Well, we both know what to use them on now.” Aluna leaned her head back, so it was touching his. “Calli will be okay.”

  “So will Dash and Vachir,” he said. “Now all we need is a beach filled with mutant crabs.”

  She laughed. “Are you ready for this? Are you ready to go home?”

  “No,” he said with a sigh. “But they need us.” He started to stand up when Zorro jumped out of his lap, squealed, and raced toward the tree line. “Zorro, come back here!” Hoku called. It was a direct order, but the animal didn’t so much as slow down.

  Aluna dragged herself up the beach. Sand clung to her wet tail and arms, but she didn’t mind. She’d be back in the ocean soon enough, and such Above World irritations would be forgotten.

  Hoku jogged past her. “There he is! He’s digging.”

  By the time Aluna reached them, Hoku had dropped to his knees beside Zorro and the two of them were pulling sandy earth out of a hole.

  “There’s something buried here,” Hoku said. “A box, maybe? Zorro, dig around the edges, boy.”

  The hole wasn’t big enough for all three of them, so Aluna dropped down to her elbows and watched. Within a few minutes, Hoku lifted a very muddy bu
t familiar object from its hiding place. Even though it was dirty, Aluna could make out hints of silver and pearl.

  “The water safe!” she said.

  “This is Liu’s doing.” Hoku blew sand away from the locking mechanism, entered the combination, and popped open the box. “Karl Strand’s letter, the carved dolphin . . .” He pressed the hidden latch. “Even Sarah Jennings’s secret tech. It’s all here.”

  “Good raccoon,” Aluna said. Was it her imagination, or did the raccoon lift its chin a little higher?

  Hoku closed the water safe and stowed it in his satchel. “Grandma Nani is never going to believe what we found inside.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Aluna said. “Sometimes I think your grandmother knows everything.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Hoku said. “Race you to the water!”

  He ran, his feet kicking sand in every direction, Zorro bouncing on his shoulder. Aluna pulled herself after him with much more speed than he clearly expected. They got to the water at the same time and dove.

  Aluna swam ahead, unable to resist using her tail for as much speed as possible, and circled back every few minutes to make sure that she and Hoku stayed in range. Hoku still had terrible technique, especially with the raccoon creating so much extra drag, but he was taller and stronger now. Faster in the water.

  She counted sharks as they swam, an old childhood game. Most were small, under two meters, and far too smart to attack prey as large as her and Hoku. Even the large ones stayed away from Kampii, especially in this area of the ocean. But soon she lost track of the number.

  “Too many sharks,” Hoku mumbled.

  Normally she’d laugh at him; even one shark was too many for Hoku. But this time, she agreed with him. “They’re heading northwest. Maybe something died and they’re following the blood scent. It must be something huge.”

  “The City of Shifting Tides isn’t that far north,” Hoku said. “But that doesn’t matter, does it? You want to know where the sharks are going.”

  “Am I that obvious?”

  “Only to everyone,” Hoku said. “Go. Follow the sharks. I’ll meet you in the city when you’re done. I need to start work immediately.”

  Aluna swished over and hugged him, careful not to dislodge Zorro from his shoulder. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  Aluna watched Hoku swim off, then found a smiler — a shark with a curved mouth that made it look like it was grinning. She matched the shark’s speed, then calmly grabbed the animal’s dorsal fin with one hand and its pectoral fin with the other. The shark ignored its new parasite and kept on swimming.

  The shark dodged through kelp and around growing columns of coral. Aluna could tell they were approaching the vast reef that hid the City of Shifting Tides, only they weren’t near the city itself. She studied every hermit crab and shiny-blue they passed, letting the ocean soak back into her bones. The number of sharks swimming with them grew, but Aluna still couldn’t see what they were hunting.

  Eventually the smiler changed direction and headed up, toward the sun, and Aluna’s ears filled with noise.

  “No attacks on the south,” a male voice said. “Is the western flank secured? Good. Let me know if that changes.”

  Aluna released her shark and swam up until her head broke the surface of the water.

  Dozens of adult Kampii lay scattered across a kilometer of shallow reef, looking more like a herd of sunning seals than people. A few younglings stood and squatted among them, not yet old enough to have their tails. All around them, the water churned with sharks.

  The Kampii on lookout spotted Aluna immediately. “You! Unless you’re in the hunting party, get back to the reef!”

  “Who’s in charge here?” Aluna asked. “Is it Elder Kapono?” Her stomach twisted as she said her father’s name.

  The lookout snorted. He was young, maybe just twenty, with sun-yellow hair and thin scars covering his arms and tail. “An Elder? Up here? You’ve spent too long in the sun.”

  Aluna couldn’t stop staring at the Kampii. Something about him looked strange. Wrong. What was it? “His necklace,” she whispered. “He’s not wearing a breathing shell!”

  Of course, since Aluna was close enough to hear the lookout, he was close enough to hear her, too.

  “You’ve got a breathing shell.” The lookout’s face no longer held any concern for her safety. “You don’t belong here. Go back down to the city.”

  “No one here has a breathing shell?” Aluna asked.

  “You think we’re up here because it’s fun?” The guard spat into the water. “We don’t have any Elders up here. Not much shelter or food, either. You want a nice sticky bed or a safe place to sleep, then go home.”

  “If there aren’t any Elders, then who’s in charge?” Aluna asked.

  The lookout pointed back along the reef. “You’ll find her over there,” he said. “She used to be the Voice of the Coral Kampii, but now she’s stuck with us.”

  Daphine.

  Aluna closed her eyes and breathed deep, too overwhelmed to even thank the guard. She made herself swim slowly through the shallow water covering the coral reef, careful not to agitate the sharks.

  Daphine sat at the center of a group of Kampii, just like always, but instead of politely accepting compliments from her suitors, she was barking orders. Leadership seemed to run in the family.

  When Daphine saw Aluna, she squealed. Aluna couldn’t keep a grin from spreading across her face. She sped across the reef’s surface and tackled her sister in a hug.

  “Watch the scope,” Daphine said, laughing. “You’ll poke your own eye out with it, if you’re not careful.”

  Aluna refused to let Daphine go. She buried her face in her sister’s stupidly long hair and squeezed. The ocean made almost everything smell the same, but there was something about Daphine’s scent that would always remind Aluna of being a youngling and feeling safe.

  “I missed you, too,” Daphine said. “You were gone so long in the desert, and then when the attack on HydroTek came . . . We were all so worried.”

  Reluctantly, Aluna released her hold on her sister and pulled back. Daphine’s face had once been considered perfect, but Fathom changed all that. He’d replaced her left eye with a scope of black metal that protruded a dozen centimeters from her eye socket. Now Aluna had to work to see anything else: Daphine’s sun-cracked lips, the new scar on her cheek, the frown lines framing her sister’s mouth.

  “You’re wearing a breathing shell,” Aluna said. “I thought if you were up here, it meant your necklace had failed.”

  “Mine still works, but I wasn’t about to abandon all these people, no matter what the Elders ordered me to do.” She traced the tiny seahorse design on the shell with her fingertip. “I still use it when I go down to talk to the Elders, although I don’t know why I bother. They’ve got working necklaces for themselves and their families, and that’s all that seems to matter to them. When Anadar’s breathing shell failed, Father gave him a new one — despite the fact that so many other people were in need. He wouldn’t even tell Anadar where it came from.”

  “So Anadar is still down in the City of Shifting Tides?” Aluna asked. She touched her own necklace, wondering how many minutes or days or weeks she had left. Or maybe it was already depleted and she’d never taste deep ocean again.

  Daphine smiled. “No. Anadar gave the new necklace to a woman so she could stay with her family. He lives up here now, and leads the hunting parties.”

  “Still the same Anadar, then,” Aluna said. She should have known. He was the one who’d taught her how to fight even though it was forbidden. Only her brother could teach her a lesson in selflessness when he wasn’t even here.

  “Yes, he’s the same,” Daphine said, her thoughts obviously swimming in the same direction as Aluna’s. “I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

  “What are you doing?” Aluna asked, her gaze sweeping across the Kampii clustered on the reef. “You can’t protect y
ourselves up here, and you certainly can’t build any kind of shelter. This isn’t a long-term solution.”

  Daphine’s scope whirred and spun as she stared at her people. “We can’t go to the shore, or we’ll be useless. Unless we do it for the younglings who still have legs. At least they have a chance for a life in the Above World.”

  “I’m going down to talk to the Elders,” Aluna said. “Maybe after we’ve told them about the desert and Karl Strand’s growing army, they’ll agree to take action. They should at least be bringing you supplies and helping you stay safe.”

  Daphine put a hand on Aluna’s shoulder. “If you can make the Elders see reason, then I’ll do all your chores for three tides.”

  Aluna laughed. They used to make those sorts of bargains all the time, back before the world fell apart. “And if I can’t, then I’ll let you braid my hair whenever you want.”

  “Deal!” Daphine said. “But you’re getting pearls and shells woven in, too.”

  “I’ll go to the city now, but I’ll be back,” Aluna said. “If the Elders won’t help you, then I will. For what it’s worth.”

  Daphine hugged her. “It’s worth everything.”

  HOKU SWAM into the City of Shifting Tides with his fingers pressed against his breathing shell, convinced it would fail. Is this how the Kampii had been living — terrified that they might start to drown at any moment?

  To stave off his panic, he focused on his surroundings. Anemones grew everywhere, covering the outskirts of the city in a patchwork blanket of brilliant reds, yellows, and purples. Some had been grown in patterns, creating living mosaics depicting Kampii swimming or fighting or singing. Fish snuggled among them, adding movement and surprising sparkle.

  The city was familiar in so many ways, but Hoku felt as if he were seeing it with new eyes. Now he noticed the simple tools the Kampii used for hunting and gathering and the way all their food was eaten raw and without flavoring. Compared to the other LegendaryTek splinters, the Kampii barely used any tech at all.