by EJ Altbacker
“Did anyone else feel that barrier we crossed through before the whirlpool started? That was probably the trigger for the trap,” Barkley said.
Leilani slapped her tail against a rock in frustration. “I should have put it together!”
Gray shook his head. “We were swimming too fast to stop.”
Leilani turned to them all. “No, before that! The reason that the flashing light was in the exact opposite place it should have been is because it’s being reflected! That’s why the current was so smooth. Hokuu used his power to still the waters and reflect the bright glow of his powers.”
“Very good!” shouted Hokuu from behind them.
Gray and everyone else turned.
The frilled shark flicked his spiked tail back and forth, smiling. “Oh, she’s a keeper, Graynoldus. I mean, she would be if my friends weren’t so hungry from their journey!”
The sharkkind of Fifth Shiver swam up from behind the frilled shark, and Gray’s heart sank. Even though there were only about twenty of them, all were immense. Every one was a prehistore and much more mature than he was. Their hides were tough and thick, their teeth curved and sharp. Gray could tell from the way they swam that these sharks were the best of the best, battle-tested and ferocious.
There was no way his small group could hope to fend them off.
“Defensive positions!” yelled Shear. “Protect the Seazarein!”
One megalodon moved in front of everyone else. He was fifteen feet longer than Gray and a good deal thicker. “This is the Seazarein? This shark defeated your plans and kept us imprisoned? He’s only a pup!”
Hokuu hissed into the huge megalodon’s ear. “Yes, that is Graynoldus’s son. He’s the one who wants to keep you in the dark to be crushed when the Underwaters cave in. Strike quickly, King Drinnok, or he will surely slay you all!”
Gray swam forward, incensed. “That’s not true, King Drinnok! I didn’t even know about you until a few months ago!”
“Lies,” Hokuu spat. “He lies every time he speaks! He’ll never allow Fifth Shiver to live in the Big Blue! He wants you to stay underneath him until the Big Blue’s floor falls onto your heads!”
“I swear by my father that’s not true, King Drinnok!” Gray said. “We do not have to fight. There’s plenty of room for everyone. Please, let’s talk.”
This gave Drinnok pause, until everyone heard:
“ATTAAAAACK!”
Five hundred AuzyAuzy mariners swept out from the side of a mountain range and straight at Drinnok and his prehistore mariners.
“See?” Hokuu shouted with glee. “He was delaying to gain time for his allies to arrive and destroy you!”
“NO! That’s not true!” cried Gray as the lead sharkkind from the AuzyAuzy formation crashed into the prehistores.
“You will die for this!” shouted Drinnok. “I swear that by my father!”
The huge megalodon streaked forward to attack. Shear and three of his guardians rammed the giant prehistore, barely giving Gray enough time to dodge Drinnok’s snapping jaws, which came together in a thundering crash.
Barkley skidded into Gray’s flank. “We’ve got to go!” he yelled. Gray didn’t want to leave. He knew he could make everything better if he could calm things down.
But then the megalodons blasted into the main AuzyAuzy formation, smashing through it and sending many sharkkind to the Sparkle Blue with ripping teeth and spine-shattering snout rams. Everything was chaos.
Still, he had to try!
“Stop!” Gray shouted to the AuzyAuzy mariners. “This is a mistake! I can end this! Stop fighting!” But there was no way to slow the frenzied battle.
“You don’t give the give the orders around here, pup!” Hokuu yelled as he released a concentrated ball of power that zoomed toward Gray and Barkley.
There was no way to dodge it. There wasn’t enough time to do anything.
Gray wondered what it would feel like to die.
But Mari flashed in front of them the instant before the bolt would have struck.
Her body was vaporized into nothingness.
“NOOOO!” roared Gray.
“Every single time!” Hokuu spat in disappointment. “Why won’t you die?” The frilled shark sped forward and released a gout of green acid from his mouth.
A bright flash of power incinerated it. Hokuu was confused until he was blasted backward by another bolt of power.
It was Takiza!
The betta zipped in front of Gray and Barkley and shouted, “Flee, you fools!”
Takiza gathered power to fight with the frilled shark but Hokuu shouted, “Not today, Nulo! But soon! Very soon!”
The frilled shark whooshed away leaving a trail of bubbles.
“Mari!” Gray yelled as Leilani joined them. “Mari!”
“She’s gone!” Barkley yelled in his ear over the din of the brutal fighting that continued all around him.
A megalodon came at Gray as he hovered in shock and indecision. Was Mari really gone?
Takiza touched the giant prehistore with a fin flick and paralyzed him. The megalodon crashed into the rocks behind them. “I said GO!” shouted the betta. “Shear, take them!”
With a flick of Takiza’s tail Gray, Barkley, and Leilani were pushed a hundred yards away from the immediate fighting. Shear and his guardians rammed Gray to prevent him from turning back. “We must withdraw!” the tiger finja shouted in his ear. “It’s a slaughter!”
Their retreat to the AuzyAuzy homewaters was dark and cold.
THE FUNERAL WAS A SOMBER AND FORMAL affair. It was one level below the funerals of kings and queens and done after a special ceremony for the mariners that had been killed. Kendra had called for homewaters-wide attendance and bestowed the title of Loyal and Courageous Friend of AuzyAuzy Shiver on Mari. Gray thought this was well deserved but the honor, and everything else, tasted like ash in his mouth.
He was also angry at Kendra. She had saved their lives with her mariners but also caused the entire mess by ordering them followed. She’d wanted to make sure they were safe. Yet doing that, and then attacking when Hokuu and Drinnok threatened, had cost Gray a chance to solve the problem peacefully. He knew he shouldn’t feel this way but couldn’t help it.
There was no way to undo what had been done.
There was no way to bring Mari back.
The entire AuzyAuzy armada was arranged in two lines fifty sharks long, each facing the other with a swimming path down the middle. Every other AuzyAuzy mariner was stacked in rows of fifty directly above the first two rows facing each other. This formed a canyon of sharkkind whose heights stretched from the seabed toward the chop-chop. The path in between led to the Speakers Rock where Gray, Kendra, and other friends of Mari hovered. Behind the mariners, thousands of shiver sharks and dwellers watched. A school of humpbacks filled the waters with mournful whale song as a young thresher symbolizing Mari swam down the path formed by the AuzyAuzy armada.
Shear’s face was set like rock as he and the other guardians hovered by Gray. Takiza’s expression was neutral but Gray could sense the betta was hiding his true emotions. Jaunt and Leilani cried freely. Barkley tried not to do the same but was losing that battle.
Gray felt his body clench. He would love to howl in grief. But he was the Seazarein and had to be strong. The young thresher swimming down the path represented a new life taking the place of the one that had been lost. That may have all been true, but for Gray no one could ever take Mari’s place. The thresher picked up speed and zoomed straight up toward the sun and the chop-chop. It was supposed to signify Mari’s passing from the Big Blue to the Sparkle Blue and it was beautiful.
But Mari’s swim to the Sparkle Blue hadn’t been anything like it! Gray trembled with anger and ground his teeth until one snapped off with a kkrk! Mari was burned
to nothing by Hokuu! His vision turned red. All Gray could think about was biting into Hokuu’s gills and ripping his head off.
One day he would. One day . . .
Suddenly Gray noticed the humpbacks had stopped singing and the only sound was the light current whisking past his ears. Everyone was looking at him. Kendra gently tapped him on the flank, her eyes filled with understanding. “Are you all right?” she whispered.
“Far from it,” he croaked. Gray had completely forgotten that he was supposed to speak.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Kendra told him. “Mari would understand.”
Gray shook his head. “No, I have to.” He swam directly over the Speakers Rock of the AuzyAuzy homewaters. It was rare that anyone but the leader of the shiver got to speak from here. Kendra had told Gray that he could have done it today even if he hadn’t the Seazarein. The whitetip was a good friend.
Gray took a deep breath and let it out, calming himself. He wouldn’t rage about Hokuu here. He wouldn’t turn this into a speech about vengeance because knew that Mari would have never wanted that. Not ever.
“Many of you AuzyAuzy mariners knew Mari because she trained and fought with us against Finnivus. Even though she was a fine mariner, Mari didn’t send anyone to the Sparkle Blue during the battle against Indi Shiver’s Black Wave armada. Instead she was one of the sharks who saved our wounded from a cold and lonely death as they spiraled toward the Deep Blue of the Maw. On a day that most of us would like to forget because of the terrible things we had to do, Mari shined. She came through it clean.”
Gray surveyed the gathered sharkkind and continued, “Not many of you know this, but Mari is the only reason I’m in front of you today. My friend Barkley and I met her in the open waters. We were just pups and had never swum farther than a mile from our reef. She was with others who I got to know well afterward: Striiker, Shell, and Snork. Barkley and I were alone and scared and facing these four sharkkind who we didn’t know. Neither group trusted the other, and after a short and tense conversation, we were about to go our separate ways. It was Mari who said, ‘Wait. Don’t go. Why don’t we swim together?’ She brought us together and helped us understand one another. She made us a shiver, and more than that, friends. That was Mari. She was special.”
Gray took a moment to compose himself. His eyes were welling up. In a matter of moments, he wouldn’t be able to speak. “We’ve all been taught that when our loved ones go to the Sparkle Blue, it’s a joyous time, not a sad one. And I’ll try to be happy for Mari and not sad for me. But I can’t help but feel that the Big Blue is . . . a little less bright today because she’s gone. Thank you all for being here. She would have appreciated it very much.”
Gray swam off Speakers Rock without making eye contact with Kendra, Barkley, or anyone else. He went down the path formed by the AuzyAuzy mariners as fast as he could without seeming like he was madly swimming away.
But there was no way around it. He was.
Gray had lost another one of his best friends and it felt like he would die.
Though he had duties as the Seazarein, he needed to be alone.
Just for a moment.
VELENKA WAS IN A FOUL MOOD. SHE HAD BEEN dragged by Takiza and a few others to the AuzyAuzy homewaters against her will after the betta received a quickfin message from Gray. Takiza said she would be safer with them but Velenka knew he wanted to keep an eye on her. He didn’t have to worry that she was going to make a break for it. With Hokuu sending assassins her way, she was content to be guarded by the Riptide mariners.
She watched as the mariners were dismissed and the rest of the shiver sharks and dwellers who had watched the funeral left. AuzyAuzy had increased the size of their mariner force since it had been savaged by Finnivus and the Black Wave armada. They were understandably worried about being attacked again. Now their mariners numbered almost a double horde, or two thousand sharkkind. It turned out to be a wise decision. Velenka had heard that AuzyAuzy had gone out with five hundred sharks against the megalodons from the Underwaters and lost one and a half droves. One hundred and fifty mariners would greet Mari in the Sparkle Blue.
Velenka was annoyed that she felt bad about Mari’s passing. They had been rivals and even enemies since they were members of Goblin Shiver. Mari and the sneaky little dogfish, Barkley, had captured her trying to flee the Battle of the Maw. The thresher had been the one to show her mercy. Velenka doubted she herself would have done the same, given the opportunity. And Mari had been one of her only visitors when she was imprisoned in the Riptide homewaters. True, most of the time the thresher was digging for information, but their conversations had relieved some of her boredom.
Being so nice was probably an act, Velenka thought. No one was as noble as Gray had made Mari out to be. You didn’t live long in the Big Blue if you were a softie. Velenka gnashed her teeth together hard after a sniffle escaped her nose.
Are you going to cry, you fool? she thought. Weakling!
“Beautiful, wasn’t it?” asked a spinner shark, interrupting Velenka’s thoughts. “I’m Leilani. I don’t recognize you.”
“That because I’m not from around here,” Velenka answered.
“Where are you from?” Leilani asked. Her question seemed innocent but Velenka saw great intelligence in the spinner’s eyes. Who was this Leilani and why was she so interested in her history?
“You’ve probably never heard of it,” Velenka answered. “And yes, the ceremony was beautiful. Mari got herself a great send-off to the Sparkle Blue.”
“You don’t seem so broken up about it,” the spinner declared. “Why is that? Don’t you feel anything? You knew Mari, didn’t you?”
Velenka swished her tail, acting unconcerned. It was best to seem relaxed when being questioned. “I did know her, but we weren’t close. How is it that you feel so much? I saw you bawling like a pup and you couldn’t have known her for more than a few days, right?”
Leilani shifted her position so she was looking straight at Velenka, now taking her measure. “The time I did know her I could tell that she had a kind soul. I’ve found you can tell a lot about a shark in a short period if you know what to look for, Velenka.”
“And here I thought you were just another mourner, Leilani, but you know my name,” she said. “It seems our meeting wasn’t so random after all.”
Leilani’s eyes bored into Velenka, her act dropped. “Takiza made sure to inform Kendra and several others that you were here. After all, you swam with Finnivus and the Black Wave.”
“I was forced to do that,” Velenka answered automatically.
“Please, stop,” Leilani told her. “Just know that Kendra isn’t Gray. She won’t hesitate to order an execution if she finds you’re allied with Hokuu.”
Velenka swished her tail and remained at ease. “I guess it’s a good thing he’s trying to kill me, then.”
They stared at each other until Barkley slid into their view. “Well, this looks cozy. Are you two all right?”
“Couldn’t be better!” Velenka answered in a faux happy tone. “I’ve got Leilani the junior spyfish interrogating me. That’s what you are, isn’t it?” She smiled at Barkley. “Makes me feel right at home.”
Leilani’s tail moved in short strokes, her temper coming through. “I meant no harm and of course, and I’m not here officially. I was curious to see if the stories I heard about Velenka being a demon fish were true. Turns out they are.”
“Enough!” Barkley said, slashing his tail. “This isn’t the time. Not here, not now.”
“Fine by me,” Velenka said, staring down Leilani.
The spinner met the gaze. “Me too.”
Snork swam over to the group. He was clueless about what was happening, of course. “I wish Striiker could have come. He wanted to be here, but there’s too much to do. It’s so sad about Mari. I’m going to
miss her but she’s swimming in the Sparkle Blue with Shell. Who knows? Maybe she’ll meet my parents and say hi for me.”
Velenka marveled that the sawfish had lived for this long in the open ocean. It didn’t seem possible. He didn’t possess an ounce of guile or cunning. He swam about smiling and clueless every single time she saw him.
“That’s a nice thought, Snork,” Barkley said. “It’s the kind of thought everyone should have today. Right?”
The spinner shark ended her staring contest with Velenka. “Yes, it is. I’m going to leave so I can focus better on having those thoughts.”
“You do that,” Velenka commented as she left. Barkley gave her a look. “What? Can’t you see I’m broken up and don’t know what I’m saying? Please, give me a little current to swim in today of all days.”
With that Velenka left, her mind a jumble of unwanted thoughts. If the AuzyAuzy Eyes and Ears were getting reports about her then the other great shivers probably had the same information. This was troubling. It would limit where Velenka could hide if she chose to escape. For all its vastness, the Big Blue was getting smaller each day for her. Soon there would be no place to hide without an enemy shark’s teeth ripping at her gills.
I need to find a better current, Velenka thought. I need to change my life. But how?
HOKUU WATCHED AS DRINNOK GAZED AT THE sun shining into the water from above. He and the other prehistores of Fifth Shiver had never seen sunlight before. When it had risen this morning, some went into a panic until their king calmed them. Most of the other prehistores from his shiver were hunting now but Drinnok had stayed with a wounded friend who had lost half of his right fin and hadn’t stopped bleeding. That had attracted a few would-be predators who soon discovered that they were actually the ones on today’s menu.
“I heard reports from Bollagan’s scouts so I knew to expect brightness,” Drinnok said of the sun. “But I didn’t expect daylight to be so . . . beautiful.”
Hokuu curled his tail and pointed toward the chop-chop. “The sun shines for you, King Drinnok, and your holy mission to remake this ocean.”
