Emerald Sea

by John Ringo

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Rather than follow the coastline all the way around, since it would be two longer edges of a triangle, they cut the chord across deeper water. This was one of the potential attack points, in Herzer's opinion, and he kept a careful eye on the blue depths. But as no attack materialized, he relaxed, only to realize that they were approaching the entrance to the banks.

  A long, narrow passage cut through the banks from the deeps side to the Stream side which was their destination. Most of the passage was up to thirty meters deep and almost a klick across. But at the edge of the deeps it narrowed and shallowed to only a few meters and no more than fifty meters across. Yet, within less than a click from the entrance into the deeps the water had deepened to over two thousand meters.

  The group had reached no more than a hundred meters from the entrance when the sandbar to the northeast erupted in ixchitl.

  There were more of them than had survived the first ambush, at least forty, and they swept around the formation, disdaining their nematocysts to close with the spear-wielding mer-men.

  Most of them disdained their nematocysts, that is, but others swept in, targeting the dragons in particular and Chauncey let out a bellow as a harpoon entered his back. He bellowed past the body of a dead ixchitl, however, and the poison did not seem to affect him as greatly as it did the humans. He turned on his side, wrapping his wings around his body and using the technique of the delphinos to wrap the cord of the harpoon about his body and bring the beast down to where his teeth could sink into it, turning the water around him bright scarlet with its blood.

  But others were swarming on the wyverns and the lesser dragons had to break off to the south, pursued by at least twenty of the great rays. The rays were, in turn, pursued by Joanna.

  The rest of the ixchitl gathered around the mer, trying to strike into the formation past the spears.

  Herzer, Bast and Edmund had released the dragons at the first sign of attack and now formed a reinforcement team at the center of the hemisphere. But the group could not press past the ixchitl, without going under them and risking their nematocysts. By the same token, the ixchitl were finding it impossible to break the line of spears held by the mer-men. It seemed as if it was a stalemate until one of the delphinos squealed a distress cry, pounding his sonar to the southeast, into the deep. Rising out of the deep was a leviathan of tentacles and beak. The kraken had returned.

  "Jason!" Edmund bellowed. "We're going to have to break low and proceed to the second phase. NOW."

  The bottom of the mer burst open like a flower, sweeping up and under the ixchitl to the west, braving their toxic harpoons in the face of the greater threat. The delphinos burst through their formation, doing their best to catch the harpoons, with most of them hanging back by command.

  The mer-women and older males dropped their burdens and broke under the mer-men, swimming as fast as they could for the entrance with the delphinos screening ahead of them, pounding the sand to check for a second ambush of the rays.

  Herzer grabbed Herman as he went past, holding onto the big dolphin's dorsal fin with his prosthetic since there was no way that a landsman could keep up in this fast-paced underwater battle. He heard a scream from his side and looked over to see a harpoon pulsing poison into Elayna's arm.

  His sword swept out without thought and slashed through the cord, then he grabbed one flailing arm and held on. The big dolphin had sensed his movement and slowed to allow him one moment to recover the girl but now accelerated hugely, heading as fast as he could for the shallows. Herzer felt as if both his arms were going to be torn from the sockets but he somehow retained his grip on sword, girl and delphino.

  As the delphino came opposite the shallows on the near side of the entrance he turned to the side sharply and threw Herzer and his burden off into the shallows. Without a word he then sped to the west, following his pod.

  The mer-men, in apparent panic, were now streaming through the entrance to escape the combination of the ixchitl and the kraken. In the same apparent panic they made the same wrong turn in the tricky shallows as the mer-women, and ended up in a small, landlocked bay on the southwest side of the entrance.

  There was no escape. The sides were relatively steep and while they could climb out onto the land they could never struggle over the steep cliffs around them. And the ixchitl controlled the only entrance to the sea. Unless someone came to their succor, the kraken could easily enter the relatively shallow bay and pluck them from the sides.

  All of the ixchitl had followed them into the bay, even the group that had been pursuing the dragons, and the kraken waited at the entrance to the narrows, apparently preferring the deeps to the shallows that might be dangerous to his depth-adjusted design.

  Herzer dragged Elayna farther up the shore, far enough that the kraken could not pull her to her death, and looked across the narrow entrance to the bay. It was almost exactly as he'd remembered it from his reading of the maps and he waved at Edmund, on the far side of the entrance, as he pulled the heavy package off his back.

  "We still lost too many," he called.

  "No plan survives contact with the enemy," Edmund replied. "This one came damned close. At least, it will, if you'll hurry up."

  Herzer unfurled the monomolecular net from his back and took a section of it, whirling it around his head until it had good speed, and hurled it across the entrance.

  At the splash, some of the ixchitl turned towards the sole opening to the bay, but Edmund had already splashed out into thigh-deep water and was scrambling back to the far shore.

  The heavily weighted net quickly sunk to the bottom as Herzer and Edmund pounded the ends into the ground with the stakes they carried.

  The ixchitl began to swim back and forth in the bay, flashing their bellies at each other. One jumped into the air to cross the net but the water on the far side was shallow as well and Herzer waded thigh deep before he spitted it to the sand below with his sword. The adamantite cut through flesh and cartilage, ripping a huge gash in the ixchitl, which was reduced to thrashing in the shallow water.

  Another got a run up and jumped the net into slightly deeper water just as a shadow passed over the pool and Chauncey landed on it with both talons. One bite tore through the head of the ray and it, too, was left quivering as Donal landed next to the feasting wyvern. The latest arrival turned to the bay of penned rays and spread his wings, hissing in hunger and clashing his jaws as if to catch one in the air.

  The kraken, seeing the dragons in water that was just deep enough for it to maneuver, jetted forward but stopped as Joanna landed in the inlet in water that was over her back.

  "Hi," Joanna said. "Wanna play? I like calamari."

  The kraken seemed to consider this for a moment and then jetted backwards in a cloud of black ink.

  "Oh, no you don't," Joanna shouted leaping to the land and then running forward to get up in the air. "I'm hungry, damn it!" she bellowed.

  She pounded her wings, ascending like an elevator and then turned over, pointed at the kraken, which was still, apparently, visible. She folded her wings back and, still accelerating, arrowed into the water like a dart.

  "Commander!" Edmund yelled, but the dragon had already submerged.

  "Well," Herzer said, bending to Elayna, "I guess we get to answer the eternal question."

  "What?" Elayna asked, wincing.

  "In a fight between a sea serpent and a kraken," Herzer said, seriously, "which one wins?"

  * * *

  Joanna had timed the dive perfectly and even as she started to slow in the water her mouth closed over the body of the squid.

  It was the foulest taste she had ever experienced, a combination of ammonia with a hint of long-dead fish. But she bore down and felt something pop in its vitals.

  It wasn't a killing blow, though, and the great kraken writhed in her grip, wrapping a tentacle around her neck and others around her wings, body, its beak tearing at her, searching for something that wasn't invul
nerable wing.

  Joanna's eyes bugged at the pressure from the tentacle and she shifted her grip to its base, ripping it off after a long struggle with the rubbery tissue. She spat the still-writhing tentacle out and bit down again, looking for something vulnerable, ripping at it with her talons, as the jets of the beast churned and they shot into the depths. She could feel the water growing colder and the light change from light blue to dark and then the deepest twilight. The pressure on her lungs was building enormously as she struggled to rip with talon and teeth.

  Commander Gramlich, she thought, her brain growing foggy with the pressure and cold, this was not the smartest thing you have ever done in your life.

  * * *

  "I can't feel my arm," Elayna said, lifting it up from where it lay bonelessly on the sand.

  "Daneh says it's only a paralysis agent," Herzer said. The bonelike harpoon was deeply embedded in her arm, though. "I think we should wait to try to get that out." He took his sword and cut the dangling cord off.

  "Okay," she replied. "Thank you."

  "Don't thank me," Herzer said. "We'd both be dead if it weren't for Herman."

  "Where'd they go?" Elayna asked, sitting up.

  "Down the passage," Herzer said. "They're faster than the ixchitl. It's the orcas that they're worried about, but the orcas weren't going to go into the shallows; they would have been out in the deeps somewhere."

  "So now what?" Elayna asked.

  "Now, we wait for the tide to go out," Herzer said, looking out to sea. "And we count the breakage."

  The breakage had been heavy. Jackson the toolmaker was missing as well as a half a dozen of the mer-men who had given their lives to screen the retreating forces. Two of the mer-women were missing as well. Leaving Donal to hold the entrance, Herzer took Chauncey back into deep water to try to find them and Joanna, who hadn't returned.

  He found one mangled body of a mer-woman, her identity a mystery, and another was found by one of the greatly daring delphino scouts that darted out of the entrance. But no further sign of the mer-folk, or of Joanna, was seen.

  "I can't believe she's dead," Elayna said, when Herzer returned.

  "She might be invulnerable to most harm," Herzer pointed out. "But she can't hold her breath forever."

  "She said she can hold it a long time," Edmund pointed out.

  "It's been nearly an hour," Herzer replied.

  "We've got time," the general replied, looking up at the sun. "It's several more hours to low tide."

  The ixchitl had apparently divined the plan and had been making more rushes at the entrance. But some of the armed mer-men had worked their way over the rocks to the entrance and the delphinos clustered there as well. One ixchitl that worked its way under the net was torn apart by the enraged delphinos even before the dragons could swarm on it. After that Herzer cut stakes and the net was staked all the way across the entrance.

  Still they looked out to sea, hoping to see any sign of a sea serpent's head. The sun was descending in the west and they had virtually given up hope when Chauncey gave a startled cry and flapped his wings.

  Herzer ran up to the shoulder of the ridge that formed the embayment and looked out to the darkening sea. Sure enough, there was a snakelike head slowly making its way back to shore.

  Thirty minutes later Joanna dragged herself up onto shore. Her belly was ripped in numerous places and her back was covered with broad, red welts. But she was alive.

  "Cristo," she muttered, collapsing in a heap. "Remind me not to do that again."

  "So did you escape?" Edmund asked. "Or eat?"

  "Neither," she answered, wearily. "I swear I died. But I know it did. And I didn't eat; have you started serving ixchitl yet?"

  "No," Edmund said, looking at the rapidly shallowing water. "Soon."

  "Good," she said, "wake me up when some's done. I'd like mine medium."

  "The kraken is definitely dead," Edmund pursued.

  "Cracked its brain case with my own teeth," Joanna said, her eyes closed. "Poke me if I lie."

  "And you didn't eat it?" Herzer asked, aghast.

  "Worst stuff I've ever tasted," she answered. "Now, if you please, I vunt to be alun." In moments she was snoring hugely.

  It was after dark before the tide had gone out fully, but Herzer and Bast had gathered quantities of firewood and the water in the bay was lit with red when they and Edmund walked across the sandy bottom.

  The ixchitl were crowded into the narrow stretch of remaining water, their wings flapping as they fought for the remaining breathable liquid, the firelight reflecting from madly churning wings, backs, eyes.

  Herzer stopped as he raised the boarding pike and looked over at the general.

  "Question, sir," he said, lowering the pike as one of the ixchitl rolled an eye upward at him, gill openings on its back flapping in distress. "Is this a violation of the laws of land warfare?"

  "Good question," Edmund said, leaning on his own pike. "They're sentient beings, so they can't be treated like animals. On the other hand, they're not signatory to any agreements with us and they have all participated in their own illegalities. On the gripping hand, we're planning on feeding them to our dragons. And, honestly, I'm thinking of having a couple of wing-steaks myself. What's your feeling, Lieutenant?"

  Herzer looked down at the flapping rays and raised his pike. He thought about the tail of a mer-child lying on the sand of Whale Point Drop. Of Bruce, Jackson and all the others, paralyzed and dying for a breath of water or air. Eaten alive.

  "Kill them all, sir," the lieutenant growled, spearing downward and flipping the wounded ray out of the mass onto the hard, dry sand where it would die like a fish out of water. "God will surely know his own."

  * * *

  "It tastes like . . . scallop," Herzer muttered around a steak the size of a large Porterhouse.

  The band of ixchitl had yielded enough food for the entire party to eat their fill. Cutting along the backbone and peeling back the skin of the wings revealed huge chunks of white, linear sections of meat separated by cartilaginous tissue. The dragons had simply torn into the ixchitl given to them, but Pete had shown how to separate out the steaks and these had been grilled over the fires, using the monomolecular net to keep them away from the flames. The produced meat was succulent and juicy, heavy in fat, and Herzer realized he'd eaten his steak without a pause.

  "Back before replicators," Edmund said, "they would catch rays and chunk them up, selling the meat as scallop meat. When replicators were introduced they used that meat as the template rather than real scallops. Real scallops got called 'bay' scallops. They're sweeter and less chewy."

  "It's still good," Herzer said.

  "You realize that this is cannibalism, right?" Pete said, chewing slowly.

  "For you," Bast said. She had produced a fork from her apparently infinite pouch and was delicately cutting slices from her steak. "I'm an elf. It doesn't count."

  "They're still sentient beings," Jason pointed out.

  "I'm not telling you you have to eat it," Bast said. "In fact, if you're done . . ."

  "No," Jason said, popping a piece into his mouth. "Just wanted to point it out."

  "For me, it helps," Elayna said, chewing on a mouthful of the juicy meat. Her arm was tender and swollen around the harpoon still in it and had been bound up in a sling. But the other more than sufficed for current needs.

  "Why?" Pete asked.

  "The next time we have to fight them, I'll just be thinking about the barbecue afterwards," she said with a feral grin.

  The barrels of water had been recovered but the island hosted a small spring and Herzer had had a chance to drink his fill and wash some of the salt off. All in all, he was feeling better than he had since the first attack on the town.

  "Sentries are detailed, General," he said formally. "I've got the second watch, so I'm for bed."

  The flood tide was making and there was enough room for most of the delphinos to fit in the bay again. The rest, mostly
young males, hovered nervously at the dragon-covered entrance. But the two wyverns were posted by the water and if there was any attack they would be ready.

  "I'd join you," Elayna said, "but out of the water I'm not much fun."

  "If Herzer will carry you, feel free," Bast smiled. "I wouldn't mind a threesome."

  "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?" Herzer asked, holding up his arms.

  "Is that thanks or a plea?" Elayna laughed. "No, you two go. I'm going to stay here by the fire and finish off the rays."

  "Do you want some help with that?" Pete asked.

  "Yes, as a matter of fact," she replied, smiling at him. "I'd love some help."

  "Come along, love," Bast said, pulling Herzer to his feet. "You got plenty of sleep last night."

  Jason watched them as they walked up the hill and winked at Antja. "Care to try it on land?"

  "Not on your life," she said. "General, what happens tomorrow?"

  "I think the ixchitl, if there are any left, aren't going to be a problem anymore," Edmund said. "But the orcas are still unaccounted for."

  "They're not going to go in the shallows," Jason pointed out. "They get beached too easily."

  "So I don't think we have to worry about them until we reach the far side," Edmund replied. "But we shouldn't let our guard down. We're not safe until we're linked back up with the carrier and everyone is safely in your bay. Maybe not even then. I won't be happy until there's a serious guard force down here and a solid defense set up. Then we can start striking back."

  "I look forward to the day," Jason said. "But I've got third watch, so I'm for bed."

  "I'll snuggle with you, but that's all," Antja said, crawling into the darkness. "Understand?"

  "Snuggle," Jason said with a grin. "Right."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  "Mr. Mayerle," Commander Mbeki said, "what are you doing?"

  The engineer was in the process of attaching a small box to the mainmast. It had a brass dial on the front and a winding key on the side, which he proceeded to wind up.

  "Gravitic anomaly detector, sir," the engineer replied. He had finished winding the key and headed for the rear of the ship. "It detects small changes in the gravity as the ship passes over. By taking the punch tapes in them, and comparing them to the course, I think I can figure out a back-up navigational system for when we're under cloudy skies. I thought of it when we were having all that trouble finding the shoals when we were clouded over."