by EJ Altbacker
Barkley snorted. “Velenka wants a promotion. If she tags Sledge and Peen she gets it.”
“Not likely,” Striiker said.
“How are my boys doing?” asked Grinder.
Barkley smiled. He had almost forgotten that Sledge and Peen, were originally from Hammer Shiver. “They both made squad leader a while ago,” he told the hammerhead.
Barkley saw a glint of pride bloom in Grinder’s eye. “I guess putting them with you was the right call.”
“Yeah,” Barkley answered. He thought he saw some disturbance in the kelp, but then it calmed. The current sometimes gusted. It could have been nothing. “So what could you two armada leaders possibly want to ask a dogfish?”
“You’ve studied the different armada stacks—you know about them, right?” asked Striiker.
“I know the theories behind the formations. But you’ve seen me as a mariner,” Barkley said. “It wasn’t pretty.”
Grinder gave him a tap on the flank. “That was before you invented a whole new type of superscout. Now we value your opinion.”
“Fine, go on.”
Striker did. “Hammerheads are heavy sharkkind that usually get stacked on the lower levels along with great whites and bulls. Grinder says we should put them somewhere else since they lost a couple times.”
The hammerhead glowered at Striiker. “It wasn’t just losing. They blasted through us like a swarm of krill. We gotta put our hammers somewhere else, someplace they’ll matter.”
“They’re best on the bottom,” Striiker said. “I’ve got a hundred thousand years of battle lore behind what I’m saying. If they were better on top or in the middle, we would know because someone would have done it already.”
Grinder bumped Striiker. “If we leave them on the bottom, we’ll lose. Guaranteed.”
Striiker raised his voice “If we put them anywhere else, we swim the Sparkle Blue even faster!”
Then both sharks looked at Barkley.
“So, I’m supposed to decide between two losing strategies?” They nodded. “I pick neither.”
“For the sake of this conversation, ya gotta pick one,” the great white said.
Grinder flicked his tail. “Yeah, choose.”
Barkley stared into the greenie. Something was definitely happening about a hundred yards to his left. “You need to think up something different. Something that has a chance of winning. Gray won’t accept anything less and neither should you.”
Striiker was about to argue but Grinder gave him a poke to the flank. “He’s right. We’re fighting about how to reorganize the levels in the stack. To win, we gotta think bigger.”
The great white became more thoughtful. “Like a whole new type of armada? A whole new way of formation fighting?”
“Can it be done?” Grinder asked, in awe of the idea. “All those great mariner primes, generals, diamondhead leaders—they never did it.”
Barkley looked at the two sharks. “But they didn’t have to. They weren’t fighting an armada made up of mosasaurs and frills.”
“You’ve definitely given us something to think about,” Striiker said.
The two sharks left, talking rapidly to one another.
Barkley turned to the kelp field and saw Sledge and Peen swimming toward him.
Neither was happy.
But behind them, Velenka was positively beaming. She looped around and around in a victory swim. “Who’s the shark? I’m the shark! Who’s the shark? Oh yeah, it’s me!”
“Oh, come on!” Barkley muttered.
CHAPTER 4
SINCE THE DESTRUCTION OF THE COMBINED AuzyAuzy, Hammer, and Vortex armada, the horde swam wherever they pleased in the South Sific. The shiver Grimkahn was attacking today didn’t even know how to get into a formation. They definitely weren’t trained mariners. Their homewaters were beautiful, though. Complex and colorful brain coral grew everywhere, creating a stunning area teeming with dwellers and small fish. Food was abundant and predators few. These sharkkind had lived here for thousands of years. They probably never had a need to train.
Until today.
And now it was too late simply because Grimkahn and his jurassics were here and hungry.
The toughest of their mariners swam out to fight—if you could call it that—and were eaten. Others were so terrified by the sight of the giant mosasaurs, they turned and zoomed away screaming. But the frilled sharks had cut off any way to escape. Blood wafted onto the current in a pleasing way. A few minutes later the only sound in their homewaters was the satisfied munching of the victors devouring the vanquished.
Another shiver destroyed.
“HOKUU!” yelled Grimkahn as he ripped a flank from a large thresher shark. “Come here!”
“Yes, my king,” Hokuu said, dipping his snout only a little. How he hated bowing before anyone. But he needed Grimkahn. The king had the absolute loyalty of the mosasaurs, and due to their many victories since they emerged from the Underwaters, he had earned the respect of the frilled sharks as well.
This made Hokuu angry. He was the one who made sure the frilled sharks were included in the new watery world order. But these frills knew Grimkahn as a king. They respected his power. And now he was giving them victory after victory.
But that current wouldn’t last forever.
Once Grimkahn had conquered the Big Blue, Hokuu planned to take control. The mosasaur king would sadly die in a tragic accident and the jurassics would turn to Hokuu for leadership. All these thoughts flashed through Hokuu’s head as Grimkhan made him wait like a fool as he stretched his massive, clawed flipper, digging it into the seabed and tearing up swaths of brain coral as he ate.
The mosasaur swallowed a smaller carcass whole and chewed thoroughly before speaking. “This is taking too much time. I grow tired of crushing these puny shivers. I want the Seazarein!”
“You made the decision to deny Gray allies by sending them to the Sparkle Blue, by way of your bellies,” Hokuu said. “I know sharkkind aren’t that tasty, but the plan is working.”
“Your plan,” Grimkahn said, eyeing Hokuu. “I wanted to swim to Fathomir and fight Gray. Or reduce it to rubble.”
“Not even I have the power to do that,” Hokuu said. “Fathomir is a strong point.”
“No one is stronger than me!” Grimkahn yelled.
“Of course, my king,” Hokuu said, dipping his snout once more. “But if we attack the fortress, Gray’s allies can come at us from behind.”
“So?”
Hokuu coughed, gathering his thoughts before trying to make the delicate point. Because that would be stupid was what he wanted to say. “Fighting in every direction at once, even with your new formation, has less chance of working than if we face them in open waters. He will come out, eventually.”
“I don’t want to wait for eventually!” Grimkahn pressed. “I want him now! Show me that I was wise to appoint you as my first in Line.”
Hokuu nodded. The mosasaur had stumbled onto a good point. It wouldn’t do to let Gray pick the spot of their battle when it occurred. He had shown some small skill in the past at trickery, especially during the Battle of the Spine. “The Seazarein doesn’t know where we’re attacking next,” Hokuu noted, thinking.
“Of course he doesn’t know!” Grimkahn said. “As soon as you told me of those quickfins carrying messages back and forth, I tasked my fastest frilled sharks to eat any they saw leaving any area we entered. The Seazarein is blind!”
“Then maybe it is time for him to see a bit more.”
Grimkahn swished his tail. “Go on.”
“Gray is foolishly compassionate. He cares about fins he doesn’t even know. The way to attack the pretender is through his soft heart,” Hokuu said. He could feel his eyes glittering as everything came into focus. It was perfect!
Grimkahn understood. “I’ll give him a c
hance to save someone. Someone sweet, innocent, and defenseless. Yes, this might work. You’ve earned your keep, Hokuu. For today. Now go.”
Hokuu studied the mosasaur before leaving, bowing one more time. He was surprised the mosasaur king figured out what he meant so quickly. The king wasn’t stupid. Rash sometimes, but definitely not stupid. Hokuu would have to remember that when it came time to kill him.
CHAPTER 5
“CONCENTRATE!” TAKIZA GRUMBLED. “YOUR mind wanders like a drunken sea cow!”
Gray didn’t answer. He had learned over many, many training hours that most of the time Takiza didn’t want one. Besides, shar-kata was hard enough without trying to carry on a conversation. And the betta did enough talking for both of them. “The power of the tides and currents do not merely wash past those who live in the oceans. Each fin and dweller is a part of it, their tail strokes and heartbeats add to the energy. Everyone is a part of this relationship. You are a part of it. . . .”
Gray let Takiza’s words mix with the current and pretty soon didn’t hear anything at all. Whenever he was free from his Seazarein duties, Takiza insisted on instructing him on how to increase his shar-kata powers. Unfortunately, there never seemed to be enough time. Trying to plan the attack against Grimkahn’s forces took up much of Gray’s day. Worse, it was mentally exhausting, so when they did get to train, he couldn’t do very much.
He was all right at the first part, what Gray named calling the sparkles. He reached his mind out as if looking for sharks or dwellers in the area. Magnifying this, Gray could see the motes of power. There were millions and millions of them. More than anyone could count.
When these merged with Gray they gave him a boost of power. If he forced the matter, tried to will them to come, the sparkles stubbornly resisted. But if he relaxed and became one with them, they swooped over so fast it was hard to believe.
This Gray could do readily. He could gather power from the water.
He just couldn’t use it very well.
“Good,” said the betta. “Now swim the course.”
He hesitated and Takiza cracked him with a gauzy fin on the snout. “Swim!”
Gray had speed-swum over to these training fields, not the ones in the Dark Blue by the Maw, but a different area in a less active section of the northern fire waters. What would have taken a week to travel normally took only a half hour using shar-kata. Gray was proud that he had been able to do this by himself.
But that had been a straight-line swim in clear waters.
Now he was being asked to go through an obstacle course a hundred miles long filled with razor-sharp coral spires. Shar-kata wasn’t magic. If he didn’t turn away from a thick coral formation or mountainside, he wouldn’t go through it. Gray would splatter himself into it.
“I am still waiting,” Takiza said. The betta had regained some of his previous sarcasm during their last few training sessions. It wasn’t helping.
“Yes,” Gray replied. “Your usual patient self, I see. Shiro—”
Crack! Takiza gave him another stinging snout slap.
“Oww!” Gray couldn’t help yelping, but didn’t lose the power he had gathered.
Takiza noticed. He had probably planned it. “Very good. See? You can concentrate! What do you want to ask?”
“I’m afraid I’ll smash into one of those very solid coral pillars and kill myself.”
“Then do not do that,” the betta said, exasperated. “Begin!” Gray sighed. Just as he was thinking, Takiza would probably save me if I was going to hurt myself, his master added, “And don’t expect me to guard you from your mistakes. I’m old and not as quick as I once was.”
“The turns are so sharp,” Gray said as he eyed the pylons. If he were to swim it at normal speed, there would be a good two or three tail strokes between each. More than enough time to adjust and angle his way through.
But using the speed of shar-kata . . .
Takiza tapped him on the snout again, but gently. The betta remained at ease and stuck like a barnacle on Gray’s side through the entire training session, the better to critique Gray’s every move. “Remember, turning is the same as swimming in a straight path.”
“That makes no sense.”
“No, it is so simple that you believe it to be complicated,” Takiza said. “You can go straight with shar-kata, yes?”
“Yes,” Gray answered.
“But your tail is not pushing you, even though you continue to wave it about as if calling for more seasoned fish. But it does nothing. That is why turning is the same as swimming a straight path.”
Gray didn’t want to continue the maddening conversation. The goal of this exercise was to teach him to move as Takiza and Hokuu did. They seemed to disappear, jittering left and right, and could stop on an urchin spine. For a shark without shar-kata to fight one that used it, a trip to the Sparkle Blue was almost always the end.
The last two times Gray had tried this exercise, he zoomed forward toward the first spire but had stopped to avoid crashing. He wasn’t able to turn. This time he would get it right.
With a deep breath, Gray thought himself forward. Everything slowed down as if he was in battle, and he crossed the hundred yards of water in an eye blink.
. . . Turning is the same as swimming in a straight path . . .
It totally made sense!
What did it matter which direction he willed himself?
Straight, curved, zigzag—he could go anywhere he wanted!
Gray zoomed through the obstacle course. It was easy to zigzag his way through once he understood. He was moving with the speed of thought. What had been a cramped two or three tail stroke space to him before was a yawning chasm when Gray moved with his mind.
“Yes, yes!” he heard Takiza exclaim. “Turn around and do it again.”
Gray whipped back and forth through the course ten times without a scratch. “Turning is the same as going straight, but in a curved way! Totally get it now. You’re right, so simple!”
“Excellent.” Takiza detached from Gray and gathered his own shar-kata energy. “Now, defend yourself! And remember, this is also the same, but in an entirely different way.”
“Wait—what?”
Takiza released a ball of bright red energy and it hit Gray, stinging him so badly he thought he was on fire.
“Oww!” he yelled. “Let me get ready!”
“Hokuu will not wait for you to catch your breath,” Takiza answered. The betta sped to the side and fired another bolt of energy.
Gray moved himself a good fifty feet and the next shot missed. “Ha!” he yelled triumphantly.
Takiza was behind him, though. There was a sizzling sensation as Gray got tagged again. “What?” the betta asked innocently. “I thought I heard you say something.”
“Not fair!” Gray said as he zipped away, then back so he could face Takiza. The betta continued to hurl different types of energy. He threw bolts that boiled the water as they passed, ones that forked and spread like lightning, and others that exploded.
Gray put up a shield and blocked the attacks he couldn’t avoid. Takiza nodded his approval, but after three hits by the betta the shield fell apart. Gray was jolted twice in quick succession.
It really hurt!
Gray gathered his own ball of energy and fired.
Miss.
“Again! Concentrate!” commanded Takiza.
They exchanged bolts, but Gray’s weren’t as strong as his master’s. That wouldn’t do, especially in a fight against Hokuu. He drew the sparkles inside him and thought about making them more powerful.
Then something happened.
The energy inside Gray multiplied many times until he felt like he would burst. His vision dimmed and he saw a different type of light. Not clean and white like the energy of the waters. This one was different, more like flashes and gl
obs of color.
“NO! NO! NO!” yelled Takiza.
Gray fired and the betta dodged. The blistering energy blew a path through the thick coral forest. Once it was out of him, Gray’s vision returned to normal and he didn’t see the multi-colored lights.
“Wow!” Gray shouted. “Did you see that? How did I do that?”
“By almost killing yourself!” Takiza shook his head.
Gray stopped. “What? How?”
“You mixed you own life force with the energy of the oceans,” the betta said. “Yes, it’s powerful, but it can easily stop your heart. Did you notice the colored lights?
All of a sudden it hit Gray. “That’s the Sparkle Blue.”
Takiza nodded solemnly. “Correct.”
“Great. I have Grimkahn and Hokuu after me and I almost do the job for them.” Gray sighed. “I’m a jelly-headed, chowder-brained idiot.”
“No,” Takiza said, shaking his head. “You are the best student I have had in my long life. But that alone will not save you against a mosasaur. Though you cannot beat him without shar-kata, Gray, you must still keep in mind your limits. Until now you were physically the strongest in all the Big Blue and could solve problems by ramming them with your very thick head. That is no longer true. If you do not master shar-kata, I fear for the seven seas.”
They trained for hours afterward. Gray’s strikes got stronger and stronger and he avoided mixing his own life force with the energy of the tides. He was even able to launch attacks while he maintained a shield, for which he got another rare compliment.
But still, it didn’t feel like he had enough power to beat Grimkahn. Or any mosasaur.
They were just too big and strong.
And then there was Hokuu, the most powerful shar-kata master the world had ever known.
When they were done, Gray’s swim back to Fathomir was fast but depressing.
CHAPTER 6
THE SUN HAD DISAPPEARED BY THE TIME Gray returned to Fathomir. Though he had eaten a little—a haddock went directly into his mouth while speed swimming—he was still hungry. He decided to head into the golden greenie fields and hunt. It was a beautiful night, the water cool and crisp with a refreshing current whisking through the kelp. He didn’t need shar-kata to catch five fat groupers in less than an hour and felt full for the first time in weeks.