by EJ Altbacker
“That’s dumb!” Barkley exclaimed.
“Your friend is right,” agreed Whalem.
Mari gasped. “Gray, no! We won the battle! Kind of …”
“There is no kind of! I’m not fit to command!” he said, a bit louder than he wanted. “I froze out there! If it weren’t for Takiza, we would all be dead.”
Gray watched as Barkley swished his tail, not making eye contact. At least Barkley knew it was true, though he wouldn’t say it out loud. “Where’s Takiza?” the dogfish asked instead. “If he promises to be there, everyone will be okay with you leading.”
Gray shook his head at his friend. “Don’t you think I asked? We can’t count on him. Apparently he has more important things to do.”
“Whatever the betta is doing is none of our concern,” Whalem said. “You’re our leader. Forget Takiza and concentrate on that.”
“Grinder and Silversun don’t have confidence in me. I can see it in their eyes. They’ll leave if I stay in charge.”
“Well, we’re behind you one hundred percent,” Mari told him.
“You shouldn’t be!” Gray shot back. “Without Hammer and Vortex Shivers, we lose! It’s that simple!” He looked over at the battle-scarred tiger shark. “Whalem—”
“No, son. I’m not up to the task,” the tiger answered before he was asked. It was amazing Whalem could continue to do everything he was doing.
“Enough!” Barkley said. “There is no one else, so deal with it, Gray. This isn’t an assignment in Miss Lamprey’s class you can blow off. Quit feeling sorry for yourself and just do it!”
“I’m glad you have that opinion,” Gray said. “Because I’ve decided to promote you to subcommander. You’re about to be a much more important part of our plans. At least I can do that right.”
Barkley let out a shocked, “Whaaat?!”
Gray felt his anger growing. He knew it was because of the soul-crushing pressure, but he didn’t have time to coddle Barkley. Not today. “You say I should quit whining, well, right back at you! It’s time for you to fin up!” Gray snapped.
Jaunt and Mari were surprised, both by the promotion and Gray’s outburst. Whalem, though, gave Barkley a thoughtful look and nodded.
Barkley sputtered, his tail nervously twitching. “Please, I didn’t mean—”
Gray cut his friend off. “Here’s what you’re going to do: Pick ten of the best mariners we have and train them to sneak around as well as you can. Our scouts are getting caught and killed out there. And they didn’t even realize that Finnivus had sent pups against us in a sneak attack! They need to do better.” Gray nodded at Whalem. “No offense to you.”
“None taken,” Whalem said. “We lost another patrol yesterday, and I do fear the worst. We’re getting slaughtered out there. Any help Barkley can provide would be—”
“This is crazy!” Barkley exclaimed.
“You want me to lead? Well, here’s me leading,” Gray said in a more even tone.
“But—but—no one will listen to me!” Barkley whined. “I’m just a dogfish!”
“You’ve never thought of yourself as ‘just a dogfish,’ Barkley. Now I need you to prove it to others,” Gray told him. “And it will help me, so do it.
“But—”
Gray cut Barkley off. “You have your orders!”
Barkley looked like he was about to burst into tears. The dogfish yelled as he swam away, “You’re doing this out of spite, you fat lumpfish!”
Mari looked at Gray as if he were a type of shark she’d never seen before, which, in fact, he was.
“What?” he asked. “He can do it. I have confidence in him. Just like you all have confidence in me.”
“But we actually do have confidence in you,” Mari said.
“Ask yourself if that matters to Finnivus,” Gray told them as he swam away from the training field. He could feel every eye follow him as he left. How could what was supposed to be a day to honor his friend Lochlan have gone so horribly wrong?
VELENKA WATCHED THE FRENZY AS THE squaline tore through the Riptide scouts that had been captured in the last few days of their relentless swim to the North Atlantis. Though Velenka didn’t mind the blood coloring the waters red, she was happy the armada had stopped. The pace that Finnivus ordered was grueling. The Black Wave would be within striking distance of Gray and his sharkkind within a week.
“Excellent!” cried Finnivus from his position above the floating royal court. “My squaline are invincible!”
Velenka was relieved that the emperor was in a good mood even after the defeat of his surprise attack, although he didn’t call it a defeat. He had raged about Takiza spoiling his fun. But the report that King Lochlan boola Naka Fiji had been sent to the Sparkle Blue by the pup mariners raised the emperor’s spirits immediately. He was so giddy he laughed his high-pitched, tittering cackle for a full hour as everyone watched in mute astonishment.
It was terrifying. The emperor was mad, completely mad.
Finnivus had made a mistake by only sending five hundred mariners in the secondary surprise attack force. The rest were made to guard his royal turtleness in case of a reverse sneak attack. As if Lochlan or Gray would be stupid enough to meet the Indi armada on unfamiliar currents and in the open waters. If the emperor had sent another five hundred of the Black Wave, the war would be over.
Whether I live or die will not be decided in the chaos of a battle, Velenka thought.
Finnivus ate one of the mangled prisoners immediately, not waiting for the royal seasoners to do their work. He stopped in mid-bite and looked over at the sharkkind of the royal court. “Am I to eat alone? Join in! This feast will whet your appetites for when we dine on the mariners of the Golden Rush and their new leader, Gray.” The emperor knew that Gray was the one commanding the revitalized Riptide Shiver from the leaders of his surprise attack force, which had rejoined the main armada.
The royal court ate. Velenka swam over and pretended to eat also. “It’s good, isn’t it?” he asked her.
“Delicious!” she answered while shaking a carcass from side to side. She made sure not to swallow any, though.
That would be bad.
Finnivus became thoughtful and pouty. “My plan would have worked! That frilly little dweller spoiled everything! But he can’t do it every time! No, he can’t! We will attack again, and soon, before he can recover!”
Apparently Finnivus had met Takiza a few times when he was growing up. Indi Shiver had even done a study on the Siamese fighting fish in case they had to fight him one day. Long ago Takiza had power to do almost anything he wanted. But that was no longer the case; the little dweller was getting weaker as he aged. There were reports that when Takiza performed a large magic, such as he did when he led the AuzyAuzy mariners from the Sific to the battle that must not be named, he had to rest for many days afterward.
“They will feel my wrath!” Finnivus said, fever brightness in his eyes. He coughed, and Velenka stopped herself from smiling, lest the emperor see it. “The entire Atlantis will be taught a lesson by me and my Armada of Justice. I will, umm, we will dispense royal justice by sending every sharkkind swimming against me to the Sparkle Blue for disobeying our will!” He laughed again, the high giggle grating up and down Velenka’s spine.
“Your plan was a wonder, Emperor,” she said, smacking her teeth as if she had enjoyed a piece of one of the prisoners.
“Of course! I thought it up!” he said smugly, tapping his tail on the blue whale that was currently underneath him.
Finnivus leaned against the Speakers Rock embedded in the whale’s back. She had asked Tydal the know-it-all court shark how that was done. It seemed that when the blue whales were pups, the area in their backs was eaten away to snugly hold the symbol of Indi Shiver power. The mobile throne was a potent tribute to Indi Shiver’s might and ruthlessness for everyone in the Big Blue to see. It showed that they owned the waters wherever they swam.
Velenka longed to rest herself on the backs of those
whales. She wanted all the fools in the royal court to drive their snouts into the muck whenever she commanded! In time they would. Velenka swore this to herself. She would be empress of the seas!
Finnivus went on: “We knew the Golden Rush would be too sensitive to defend themselves against my pup soldiers! It makes them weak, not being able to do everything that’s necessary to be the greatest emperor there has ever been!”
The emperor turned to the rows of pup mariners, allowed publicly in the court for the first time. They were trying their best to maintain an attention hover as Finnivus shouted, “Isn’t that right, my children?”
The group raggedly dipped their snouts and shouted, “MY LIFE FOR YOU!”
Finnivus preened to the court. “They love me, even more than you do. Perhaps, one day, they will replace you all.” He cackled as those in the court fidgeted in nervous silence, twitching fins and swishing tails. “I—we—are only kidding. But as you can see, my pup mariner force certainly did not opud!” The emperor tittered, and this time everyone joined in.
The pups were under strict guard, of course. The emperor’s plan had been hatched in the weeks after the battle that could not be named. It was this idea that got Finnivus out of his funk after they fled from Riptide to the Indi homewaters. Of course, pups were always taken and trained to be part of Indi’s armada when another shiver was defeated. This was nothing new. But after he got his idea, Finnivus began destroying shivers just to take their pups! This was a new and, Velenka thought, admirable, twist. The emperor gathered the young from all over the Big Blue and had them taught to worship him as if he were the second coming of Tyro.
He couldn’t use Indi Shiver pups for this, of course. That would cause a riot from their parents and the other royals in the court. And these pups weren’t even the sons and daughters of those in the armada. Again, that would probably have gotten Finnivus a bite to the gills. But the pups from the shivers he conquered—they were fair game.
Their parents were sent to the Sparkle Blue and used to feed the armada. Then Finnivus had the younglings taught that he was their protector. He gave them the best of everything. He made them know they were important and vital to the defense of the Indi homewaters and also that the forces against them were the ones who killed their parents.
Finnivus said everything a young and impressionable pup would want to hear. And soon, they were willing to lay down their lives at the emperor’s command. The pups were too young to be actual mariners in anything but name only—and would be ground into paste by a well-trained force—but that wasn’t the point.
Though Velenka herself would not care what age an enemy was—she would kill without hesitation—sharkkind with children did care. In the training battles against other shivers, Velenka saw that the other forces hated fighting the young pups, some of them barely old enough to speak. Especially those who were parents. And who would know to sort a battle fin by parenthood? No one! Their formations became useless! That was when the superbly trained Indi armada would sweep in and destroy them. It was a brilliant and merciless plan.
Velenka decided she could not afford to be any less ruthless and began swimming her own current to be empress of the Big Blue. She watched in satisfaction as Finnivus coughed and paled slightly.
“Take the rest of this away, Tydal!” Finnivus yelled at the brown and yellow epaulette shark. “The Riptide flippers I’m—we—are eating—they do not agree with me!”
“Yes, Your Magnificence!” Tydal said, nosing what was left of the carcass into the court area. Others hovering there finished it with gusto. They loved to feast on the emperor’s scraps. Velenka smiled on the inside as she noted a few more sickened faces in the royal court.
Eat up, she thought. Have your fill.
What Finnivus and the court didn’t know was that they were being poisoned.
Velenka had learned many things in her studies when she was younger. One list she memorized well was the different types of poison greenie. It was rare, this greenie. Velenka went off searching in every area where they stopped for food and finally found a good amount of one particularly toxic variety called revulent. It had been easy to hide in the royal baggage area where Finnivus kept a few comforts from the Indi homewaters such as coral representations of his likeness that he enjoyed looking at and the blooms of sea flowers that he thought were fragrant. Only a little bit of revulent fed to the prisoners poisoned their flesh for a week afterward. Sometimes the prisoners could barely swim! And Finnivus wondered why they defended themselves so poorly.
Velenka only needed them to stay alive long enough to feed the emperor.
“My Magnificence,” Velenka said. “Are you sure you won’t eat some more? You must keep up your strength if you are to defeat those cowards!”
Finnivus nodded. “You’re right. Bring me some of what you’re having.” Velenka dutifully swam over with a large flank in her mouth and placed it before the emperor. He took a tentative bite and grunted in approval. “Yes, this is better.”
With a flick of his royal tail, Finnivus dismissed her and spoke to everyone present. “We didn’t really want our first plan to succeed,” said Finnivus between bites. “It wouldn’t be any fun! No, I must be watching when we crush those traitors! We will be victorious, or my name isn’t Finnivus Victor! Tail stroke by tail stroke we swim ever closer to our destiny!”
Velenka and everyone else cheered loudly.
And every bite the emperor took brought him a tail stroke closer to the Sparkle Blue.
And a tail stroke closer to my own shining future, Velenka thought.
“AGAIN!” TAKIZA YELLED IN THE DARKNESS AND cold at the training fields near the Maw.
Gray sighed and forced himself to go on. He was exhausted, mentally and physically, almost at the breaking point. And still Takiza pressed him. The betta had returned from wherever he had mysteriously gone, without telling Gray anything about it. There was plenty of time for insults, though.
“You are a megalodon, yet you display the strength of an injured anemone!”
Gray struggled in the snug embrace of the greenie harness. This one was the biggest that Takiza had ever woven for him. And it contained a boulder! Not a rock, an actual boulder!
Gray whipped his tail back and forth as he strained to swim through the obstacle course of urchin-spine- sharp coral spires. “Faster, faster!” the betta urged. Gray grunted and huffed, his gills pumping furiously. Takiza swam serenely in front of his left eye. “Miraculous. For once, you haven’t the strength to complain. Perhaps we should always train at this level.”
The new course was so long that Gray despaired and let the boulder hit the seabed with a thump. “I can’t do it,” he gasped. “I just can’t.”
“You can’t? Or is it that you won’t?”
“I can’t! Can-not!” Gray yelled. “I would if I could, but I can’t! And let me guess, here’s the part where you tell me how Lochlan was able to lift a rock three times this size and swim through the course while singing the AuzyAuzy fight song. But I can’t!” Gray felt his body go slack. He had nothing left. “This is pointless. Why are you making me do this?” he whispered to himself.
“We are doing this because you are good for nothing else but lifting heavy rocks.”
Gray chuckled. “I don’t think this is the time for jokes.” He looked up just in time to get a stinging slap to his snout. “Ow! What was that for?”
“It wasn’t a joke. It was an insult, yet you are too dim to understand it as such,” the betta said, dead serious. “You are useless in the battle against Finnivus. Better you spend time here, moving rocks, and let the others fight without you.”
Gray glared and tried to leave before saying something bad to Takiza, but the harness yanked him back. “Okay, I’m done! Get me out of here. I need to get back to the homewaters.”
“For what? Because you are bored? I am not bored. Lift.”
“I don’t want to do this anymore!” Gray shouted. He felt tears coming to his eyes a
nd shook his head side to side as hard as he could to stop them. He felt embarrassed and shamed for some reason.
Takiza slashed his gauzy fins through the water. “You do not want to do many things, Nulo. The list grows longer with each day, even as Finnivus draws nearer.”
Gray strained against the greenie harness. It held him tight. “Which is why we shouldn’t be here! I should be—I should be … should be …”
“Should be—?” asked the betta crossly. “Training to lead a massed formation to victory?”
“For one thing!” Gray shouted. “Yes! Take this harness off, Takiza! Now!”
“I do not believe I will. I think it would be better for your friends to have no leader at all, than be led by you.” Takiza gave him another stinging slap on his snout. It was loud even in the heavy waters of the training field and made a cracking noise that echoed among the coral spires. “I say this because you would fail, wouldn’t you, Nulo? You-would-fail! Say it!”
Gray gasped in physical pain from the words. It felt as if Takiza had released a magic that entered his body and exploded his heart into pieces.
Tears began gushing from Gray’s eyes. “You want me to say it? That’s all I think about day and night! It kills me that I can’t be the leader they need!” he said, fins trembling in utter dejection.
“Then we are agreed,” Takiza said softly in Gray’s ear. “You would fail, so there’s no reason for you to do anything but move a large stone because I tell you to do it.”
Gray felt his anger rising. “Shiro, stop …”
Takiza was eerily calm, drifting in front of Gray. “I will say what I want, and there’s nothing you can do to change that.”
“Shut up!” Gray shouted. “Shut up, now!”
“You cannot stop me, Nulo. I do what I please, just as Finnivus will do as he pleases … with everyone you love.”
