The Last Emprex

by EJ Altbacker

  CHAPTER 17

  SNORK WATCHED THE SCENE FROM THE greenie near Fathomir with a sick feeling. The frilled sharks were so thick they darkened the area in front of the main entrance of the throne cavern. They twisted and squirmed, constantly attacking, trying to force their way inside. A haze of blood obscured the entire area despite the current. And waiting behind the frills were the gigantic mosasaurs with their fearsome leader, Grimkahn, roaring orders.

  Salamanca and the narwhal Aleeyoot looked at each other in dismay before signaling for Snork and the others to swim deeper into the cover of the golden greenie fields.

  “Salamanca thinks we have a problem,” said the huge marlin.

  “Salamanca shouldn’t speak in the third person because it’s annoying,” said Aleeyoot. The narwhal was rewarded with a “harrumph” from the marlin.

  Snork knew he shouldn’t say anything with all the higher-ranking bladefish around but couldn’t help it. His stomach was an ice ball of worry. “How are we going to help them? Did you see how many jurassics there are? And they’re huge!”

  Salamanca tapped Snork gently with his bill. “The size of your body is nothing, oh mighty Snork. It is the size of your heart that matters, and yours is very large indeed.”

  Aleeyoot moved his long tusk in short, agitated strokes. “But oh mighty Snork is right. There are too many for us. The Seazarein’s mariners may all be in there. Safe for now, but how will they get out?”

  “Obviously we bladefish will occupy the monsters so they can swim forth and fight with us,” Salamanca said, irritated.

  “Now’s not the time for your particular brand of heroic stupidity,” Aleeyoot said, making to poke the marlin in the flank. Salamanca blocked him, as Aleeyoot continued. “The only way we can occupy that force is to be sent to the Sparkle Blue by them. That still wouldn’t give those good fins inside time enough to get out.”

  “Unlike my apprentice you obviously lack heart,” Salamanca said as he tried to slap the narwhal on the head with his bill. He was deflected by Aleeyoot’s ivory tusk.

  “Guys, please!” Snork said, exasperated. “Can you save it for the jurassics?”

  Both Salamanca and Aleeyoot backed off. “He’s right,” the narwhal said.

  Salamanca saluted Snork with his bill. “It is not every day when Salamanca takes orders from a trainee.”

  Snork stared through the greenie at Fathomir. “We need to figure out a way to help.”

  “Maybe we can be a part of that,” said a voice from below them.

  It was Jaunt!

  The small, muscular tiger shark gave them a knowing flick of her fins. “G’day. How’re ya doing, Snork? Who are your mates?”

  Salamanca grew irritated. “Who are we? Surely you jest. I am Salamanca and my slightly less skilled compatriot is Aleeyoot. We are bladefish extraordinaire.”

  Jaunt nodded. “Me mum used to tell stories ’bout you fins. Bladefish, eh? Good on ya.”

  Aleeyoot bobbed his long tusk gracefully. “Excuse my sometimes capable but puffed up friend. I hear from your accent you hail from AuzyAuzy Shiver. Did you by any chance travel here with friends?”

  Jaunt nodded. “I did. Reckon there’s about six hundred of us left. We split from the main force led by Kendra. She’s gone.” The tiger saddened for a moment but then stiffened her resolve. “Woulda been more of us but we were hit pretty hard by these krill-faced drongos twice on the way. We aim to get us some payback.”

  “Where are these friends of yours?” asked Salamanca. “They would be of more use a bit closer.”

  “Only if we want to be spotted,” Jaunt said. “How many of you bladefish are here? Couple hundred?”

  “There are about two hundred bladefish in all the oceans but only sixty-five are here,” Aleeyoot said. “We lost five earlier. As it is, this is our largest gathering in many years. We do know that the Seazarein was able to join with Indi Shiver, so they are also inside.”

  Jaunt nodded. “Figured that. Then Xander’s there, too.”

  “Let us attack!” said Salamanca, whipping his bill through the water. “We go now, correct?” Jaunt and Aleeyoot shook their heads. The blue marlin’s tail dropped. “Salamanca’s strength has never been in the planning stage.”

  Aleeyoot gave the marlin a playful shove. “Luckily we can put our heads together and think up something where you can be the big hero.”

  “Really?” the marlin asked. “Salamanca would very much enjoy that. I would also save your life twice more before this is over.”

  “Keep dreaming,” said the narwhal.

  ”Maybe we don’t have to come up with a plan,” Snork said. “Maybe there already is one!”

  “And why would that be?” asked Jaunt.

  “Because Gray always has a plan!” Snork answered. “He’s really good at that. Gray along with Barkley, Takiza, and others like Onyx, Leilani, Striiker, and Tydal. I’ll bet they thought of some way of dealing with those monsters.”

  The group hovered in silence as they thought this over. “I have heard about Seazarein Graynoldus’s great victories and I agree this is probably true. But how can our group be helpful if we don’t know what they’re doing?”

  Suddenly there was a commotion.

  It was different from the sounds of the frills attacking Fathomir. The group moved forward in the greenie so they could get a better look. Grimkahn’s forces were swimming in every direction, shouting and smashing into each other.

  “Are they . . . fighting?” asked Salamanca.

  Jaunt moved forward to get a better view. “Well I’ll be a squiddely kelpie. They’re not fightin’. They’re chasin’.”

  Snork saw a multicolored flash. “It’s Eugene Speedmeister! He’s a quickfin!”

  The flying fish zoomed closer as he broke from the area by the Fathomir entrance. The group hid in the greenie until the fastest frilled sharks—in hot pursuit—angled off.

  “We should help the brave messenger,” Salamanca said.

  “Got about as much a chance of catching that finner as swimming through a whorl current,” said Jaunt.

  Aleeyoot watched as the frilled sharks resumed attacking the main entrance. “If Graynoldus is smart, and it seems he is, he used that distraction to do something else. But what would that be?”

  Snork thought about it. “There is one place we could check. One place he might send someone to make contact with us. It’s called the Stingeroo Supper Club. It may be dangerous, though.”

  Salamanca nodded. “Then, we go to that place. Right? We bladefish live for danger!”

  This time everyone nodded with the big marlin.

  Jaunt took a last look in the direction where Speedmeister had vanished into the distance. “Sure do hope that messenger is a clever fin, or he’s set to be lunch.”

  CHAPTER 18

  EUGENE HAD LEFT MOST OF THE MONSTERS behind. The mosasaurs were huge but couldn’t hope to lay a tooth or clawed flipper on him. No way. Eugene was proud he had caused such a massive disruption to Grimkahn’s attack. It was just as the Seazarein had wanted. The second, much more important thing Gray ordered was for Eugene to get to Hideg and Icingholme Shivers in the Arktik and ask for their aid.

  He would succeed.

  The quickfins were being targeted by Grimkahn and his jurassics. Many of his friends had died carrying messages for the good and goodly fins of the ocean. He would, in his own way, make the horde pay for sending his friends to the Sparkle Blue. And he got to make the quicker-than-they-seemed frilled sharks miss him time and time again as he carved turns that even they couldn’t match.

  But not all frills were alike.

  The two remaining snaky monsters chasing him were only twenty feet behind Eugene and keeping pace.

  In fact, they were slowly gaining.

  Could they keep it up for as long as he could? Probably not.
>
  But they didn’t have to if they caught him.

  I’ll have to switch from endurance mode to vortex mode, Eugene thought to himself through gritted teeth.

  Endurance mode was what he used for longer swims, where his two sets of fins would stroke at different times, first one and then the other. Somehow it was less tiring. He could keep going for days, usually catching his food by swimming through minnow shoals or krill sieges.

  He was still the fastest of the fast, quicker than a wahoo even, in endurance mode.

  Vortex mode was a different matter. That way he beat both sets of fins, all four, at once. It produced more speed for a while but used up energy fast. And the current was against him. This affected smaller fish more than larger ones. A whale would swim right through a current that would push a small fish like him backward. The frilled sharks behind him plowed through the current while he struggled. Even with their odd, slithering way of swimming, they came forward easily.

  Eugene knew that this was the reason for the illusion that frilled sharks were slow. How could they be fast when they sent huge ripples through their bodies in order to move? But that was where other fish who weren’t experts in swimming like a quickfin messenger made their mistake. Though they looked like eels, a frilled shark’s head didn’t move back and forth, only their bodies. The heads, with all those ferocious teeth, came straight at him. Their bodies were like long, flat tailfins, and that propelled them through the water faster than most sharks.

  Eugene heard the snap of jaws close behind. He estimated that the frill had missed by five feet. That was another advantage the frilled sharks had. They didn’t have to reach his tail to attack like a shark would. By coiling themselves they could shoot forward six or eight feet depending on the size of the frill. It did cost them a little time, though.

  Then there were their spiked tails. Eugene had dodged many on his way out of the Fathomir homewaters. He didn’t want to do that again. That was the reason he wasn’t in vortex mode already. Vortex mode was great for going in straight lines but not as good for carving extremely tight turns. And Eugene needed every bit of those fin-bending angles to get away.

  His problem was the quarter of a second he needed to synchronize his two sets of fins into vortex mode. He had to start both sets together. Normally this wasn’t an issue. Gliding for a quarter second was no big deal. The majority of dwellers in the ocean couldn’t even tell when Eugene did it.

  But right now, fouling his own stroke pattern for a quarter second, the frills would catch him. And to switch over with the current in his face, Eugene would lose a lot of speed, maybe even be pushed to a complete stop for a fin flick.

  SNAP!

  One of the frilled sharks tried to eat him again.

  They were gaining. Only three feet behind now.

  The head-on current was allowing the frills to creep ever closer.

  These had to be the fastest frills in the world.

  Suddenly Eugene got a bad feeling and swung left.

  It was a good thing he did.

  A frilled shark smashed his jaws together right where he had been swimming.

  They were on him!

  There was no way Eugene could safely give up that quarter second.

  There was only one thing to do.

  It was risky, dangerous, and extreme.

  But that’s what I’m all about, thought Eugene. I am the Speedmeister, the fastest of the fast, the quickest of the quickfins, and these lumpfish won’t keep me from delivering my duly appointed message!

  Eugene streaked straight up toward the chop-chop.

  The move caught the frilled sharks by surprise and they shot past him by twenty feet. If Eugene had been in vortex mode he never could have angled so sharply. The frilled sharks corrected, lightning fast. He tore through the water, up-up-up!

  The light of the sun grew so bright it was blinding. Still he climbed, pushing himself faster and faster. He would need every ounce of his strength.

  With one final push Eugene burst through the chop-chop and into the air.

  He heard the snap of frill teeth but they missed.

  Eugene soared into the air. For a moment it seemed he could fly like a seabird.

  But, and he knew this well, he wasn’t a seabird.

  No, in Eugene’s case, what went up would definitely come down . . .

  Straight into a frilled shark’s hungry maw.

  His gills slapped shut. He wasn’t a bird after all and couldn’t breathe air. But he could hold his breath while above the water. He was great at it, actually. And his fins allowed him to glide when he caught the wind. Eugene’s paddle tail could push his body back above the chop-chop time and time again, keeping himself aloft for as long as the wind currents were right. It was dangerous to launch yourself into the air without knowing which way the wind above was blowing. Usually it moved with the current, but sometimes not.

  To glide, Eugene needed the wind to be against him.

  He also needed to synchronize his fins into glide mode. This took as long as getting into vortex mode but was slightly different, of course. Eugene would beat his two sets of fins in whatever order caught the wind best. Glide mode was the toughest one to learn. Sometimes you needed to jump more than once into the air. First to tell which way the wind was blowing and how hard, then to give yourself the angle you needed to glide.

  You didn’t launch yourself up without knowing this because if you didn’t get your glide going, you would crash into the water. That could really hurt.

  In this case it wouldn’t hurt.

  He would be eaten in one gulp.

  Eugene fell.

  As his body turned he saw the frilled sharks jostling for position. They were both panting heavily and wanted the prize of eating him.

  Eugene spread his fins, shaking the water off them with a hard flap.

  His first attempt to get into glide mode was ruined by a gust of wind which spun him around.

  He spiraled toward the mouth of one of the frilled sharks.

  I will not fail! he yelled at himself.

  SWAP-SWAP! His fins caught the wind on his second attempt.

  Eugene zoomed over both frilled sharks, yelling to them as he passed, “I AM THE SPEEDMEISTER! EAT MY WAAAAAKE!”

  It was three minutes before he skimmed back into the water. He had glided over a mile above the chop-chop, a personal best.

  It was still going to be a long swim, but Eugene didn’t mind one bit.

  CHAPTER 19

  HOKUU WRITHED IN PAIN AS THE SHARKKIND of Jetty Shiver gathered before him. He was feverish from Grimkahn’s bite as well as the smaller wound from Velenka. Jetty’s homewaters were over a stunning black coral reef made up of tens of thousands of delicate fans that seemed to wave at Hokuu, wishing him good luck.

  I don’t need luck, he thought, smelling his own blood in the water.

  The Jetty Shiver fools had attacked him earlier. Now he would teach them a lesson. Their leader was a young thresher shark named Conton. “We’re all here, like you asked,” he said. “Please, give your speech and then go in peace.”

  Hokuu nodded. Even that effort caused his wound to stretch and hurt like fire. He had found the hidden shiver numbering a thousand sharkkind by sheer luck when his fever spiked and he wandered into their territory. Hokuu still didn’t know anyone was there until they attacked. After Hokuu killed twenty or so of their sharks, the leader decided it was time to talk.

  Hokuu told them he was a prophet and all he wanted to do was preach the word of the coming future. Conton and his Line were so relieved there wouldn’t be any more fighting, they immediately agreed. The thresher leader was young and in over his head.

  “Good,” Hokuu told the thresher. “As I said, all I want to do is enlighten you. I only wish I hadn’t been so viciously attacked.”

  Conton fli
cked his tail nervously. “I said I was sorry for that. But you didn’t stop the five times the guards asked you to. They had to think about the safety of the shiver.”

  “So you attacked a poor, wounded prophet,” Hokuu said, swishing his tail as he gathered the dark-kata power. It hurt so much his head swam and his vision got blurry, but it had to be done or he would die. “You and Jetty Shiver should be so proud.”

  Conton mumbled “sorry” once more.

  Hokuu had drained the life force of a few groups of fish and sharkkind after he fled Grimkahn, but it wasn’t enough. And shar-kata was useless for this type of injury. The only way to heal was a massive infusion of power that only dark-kata would bring.

  “I need everyone to look at me!” Hokuu announced. “Look at my tail. See how it circles? So circle the waters of the seven seas, moving from one ocean to the other in an endless current.” Whether or not this was true, Hokuu didn’t care. Getting the shiver sharkkind to watch the pulsing greenness of his dark-kata spell was the point. The hypnotic power that would steal their lives also gave him control of their bodies so they couldn’t flee.

  The energy grew brighter and brighter.

  Hokuu extended tendrils from the center of the dark-kata vortex with his own life force and sent these through the packed homewaters. These force lines connected each and every sharkkind and dweller that was watching to him.

  Hokuu could feel a few frightened Jetty sharks try to turn or avert their eyes.

  But they couldn’t.

  He had them.

  It was so easy. He was about to send an entire shiver to the Sparkle Blue and it had been pup’s play.

  That thought should have brought a smile to Hokuu’s face, but it didn’t.

  His well-laid plans had been ruined once again. Sometimes it seemed the ocean itself was against him. It was so frustrating! He had been doing everything right and that fat pup managed to turn his current of victory into defeat once more!

  How could Grimkahn have believed Gray?