by EJ Altbacker
Lochlan, Lochlan, Lochlan! The golden wonder shark! Gray couldn’t wait to one day meet this teacher’s pet and bop him right in the snout for being such a goody-goody.
Gray forced himself forward. The little betta loved talking during the training, and it usually broke Gray’s concentration. Maybe that was part of the lesson. If Gray could manage to listen and understand what was being said even through a flurry of insults, then his concentration would improve.
Or maybe Takiza just liked insulting him.
“Feel the distance between the rock and the ocean floor. Feel how you are now dragging the rock in the sand, instead of properly floating it as I told you.”
Gray strained against the harness and adjusted his depth so the rock was off the seabed. It wasn’t so bad after he got going, but lifting off was tough.
“Feel the currents around you. Use them to your advantage. Work with the ocean, not against it.”
“I am working with it,” Gray huffed, gills pumping furiously from his efforts. “But it doesn’t want to work with me!” Nevertheless, he floated the rock underneath the hardest portion of the course, a low ceiling formed by a fallen coral spire. One that Gray hadn’t broken. It was fiendishly tricky to keep the rock moving forward as there was only a tail length between his dorsal fin and the urchin spine–sharp coral above, and an equally short distance between the seabed and the bottom of the harnessed rock below. If the rock hit the ocean floor, as it had all ten times Gray had tried today, it was impossible to get enough lift in the cramped area to get moving again. But this time, with some skill and a favorable current . . .
“Ha! I did it!” Gray said, swishing his tail with a flourish. “Take that, obstacle course!”
Takiza nodded. “Finally, one small victory. Of course, Lochlan did it on his first try. Have I mentioned if you could be somewhat like him, your training would go much faster?”
“You may have said that once or twice, Shiro.”
“Good. Now we can practice at a greater depth, my young apprentice.”
Gray groaned. He couldn’t imagine carrying the rock in the harness while struggling to breathe in the Dark Blue. He was about to object when Takiza did a quick half loop and plunged into the sand.
“What have we here?” asked the betta, bouncing a large sandy rock with his gauzy tailfin. “Explain yourself this instant!”
Gray thought Takiza had gone crazy, ordering a stone to speak. Then he saw it wasn’t a rock at all. “Trank! What are you doing here?”
But the stonefish didn’t answer. Or move. From the shocked look in his eyes, it appeared Takiza had paralyzed him with one of his mysterious pressure-point fin touches. When Gray asked to learn the move, Takiza laughed as if it were the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
“You know this stonefish? Do you realize his kind are quite low in character? And this particular one seems even lower than most.”
“He’s okay,” Gray said. “Let him go.”
Takiza sighed. “Very well.” The frilly betta did a quick turn around the floating stonefish and touched him with a fin flick between the eyes.
Trank’s fins began moving. He backed away from the betta and closer to Gray. “That’s a neat trick, Takiza. It is Takiza, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“I’m sure Gafin would pay if youse would teach that to a few of us.”
“Gafin would, would he?” Takiza gave the stonefish a smirk. “Tell Gafin to make the offer to me in person.”
“Gafin don’t see no one.”
“In that case we are at an impasse.”
“What are you doing here, Trank?” Gray asked again.
The stonefish was still mad about being paralyzed. It took him a few seconds before he could answer. “You know you’re behind on what youse owe us?”
Takiza snorted derisively.
Trank gave him a look but went on. “Gafin knows yer good for it, but keep it in mind.”
“First day off I have, I promise to go to hunting for you.”
“Okay, fine,” the stonefish said. “Then there is one other thing.” Trank paused before continuing, his eyes darting between Gray and Takiza. “Velenka wants to meet.”
“No,” Takiza said, shaking his head. “That one swims with Indi Shiver now.”
“She does?” Gray said in surprise.
Trank eyed Takiza suspiciously. “How do youse know that?”
The frilly betta ignored the question. “It is a trap,” Takiza told Gray matter-of-factly.
“Gafin gives his word for your safety inside Slaggernacks.”
“What about outside?” asked the betta.
“Show Gafin some respect!” the stonefish growled. “Velenka knows we can get to her if she doesn’t play nice. If she and I can do business, you can, too.”
“It’s dangerous to trust Velenka,” Gray said to himself. “And Barkley would kill me.”
“Finally, you prove there is something other than chowder in that huge head of yours,” Takiza commented.
Trank swam closer to Gray. “Yeah, she thought youse wouldn’t just come for a snack and the band, so she said to tell youse what it’s about.”
“Which is?”
“It’s about Coral Shiver’s continued safety, she says.” Takiza swam around Trank very slowly, and the stone fish began spinning as if he were caught in a whirpool. “Hey, stop it! Stop it!”
The betta ignored Trank and spoke to Gray. “If she knew where your family was, Velenka would have already traded that information to secure her position with the emperor.”
“Hey! This isn’t funny!” shouted the now wildly spinning Trank.
But the way Gray saw it, there was no choice. “I can’t take the chance, Shiro. I have to go.”
Takiza sighed. “You are an extremely troublesome apprentice, Nulo. Not like Lochlan at all.”
IT HAD TAKEN GRAY TWO DAYS TO SWIM BACK to Coral Shiver from the training grounds because the current was running against him. He stopped by Slaggernacks and left word that he would meet with Velenka. Then, after making sure no one was following, Gray swam to Coral’s temporary homewaters. The shiver was safe, and Quickeyes promised to suspend all feeding while Gray went to his meeting. Every shark in the shiver would have to ignore their rumbling bellies for a while. They couldn’t take the chance of being spotted. Onyx, Barkley, Mari, and the rest would continue searching for another, more defensible, place they could move to in case they were discovered. But how many times could Coral Shiver run?
After picking off a few oily mackerel, Gray crept through the dense greenie until he got to the edge of the field and stopped. He surveyed the maze of rocky caverns, coral, and greenie, whose jumble formed Slaggernacks. How could this odd place have become so important? It was still supposedly neutral ground, but only because Emperor Finnivus and Indi Shiver didn’t know it existed. Would it still be safe once they found out about it? The Indi armada was a power unlike any the Big Blue had seen in a thousand years. What were a few poisonous dwellers compared to that?
Everyone in Rogue Shiver and quite a few in Coral had offered to back up Gray for his meeting with Velenka. But Gray made the decision as Rogue Shiver leader that no one else could come, something he had never done. There was no way he wanted others risking their lives. For the safety of both Rogue and Coral Shivers, he needed to do this by himself. If Velenka’s information helped, that was good. If it was a trap, well, then Gray would be the only one caught.
Trank had given his word, but was his word any good? Gray felt a cold tingle creep down his spine that had nothing to do with the coming of winter and the water cooling. He looked into the distance around Slaggernacks and saw nothing unusual. He even tried to reach out with his other senses that Takiza was constantly berating him to use. Sometimes when Gray used his lateral line, ther
e was a faint electrical buzzing when he located another sharkkind or fish. But now he felt no other presence aside from the usual small dwellers going about their lives. Gnashing his teeth nervously a few times, Gray swam toward the back caverns.
Trank floated upward from a pile of rocks near some waving greenie. “Didn’t know if youse would show.”
Not for the first time, Gray wondered how many of the rocks near Slaggernacks were actually stonefish, or something equally venomous in disguise.
“Am I first?” he asked. He’d arrived an hour before he was supposed to so he could be in the cave before Velenka.
Gray was dismayed when Trank answered, “Youse wish. Watch your back.”
“Not coming in?”
Trank shook his head, causing a cloud of dirt to fall from his seemingly malformed scales. How stonefish could live like that, Gray didn’t know. “She wanted privacy and paid a large amount to get everyone out. Youse is on your own.”
Gray cautiously swam into the smallish cavern. Glowing coral grew only sparsely here. Without lumos to provide light, it was nearly black. But now his lateral line buzzed. Gray could feel Velenka’s position clearly. He took a quick look at the craggy ceiling of the cave and saw that it was bare; there were no poisonous urchins or octos. Like Trank had said, they were alone.
“Gray, it’s good to see you,” said Velenka, rolling her mako tail and giving him a smile. Her upper half almost merged with the gloom around them. Those eyes—they seemed even more disconcertingly black now. Gray shivered involuntarily. Once he had liked being around Velenka. But now, despite her beauty and brains, it was as if darkness oozed from her very being.
“What do you want, Velenka?”
The mako winced exaggeratedly. “No hello? No, ‘I’m glad the emperor didn’t kill you’?”
“How can you deal with being around that maniac?” Gray asked.
“Finnivus isn’t a maniac! He’s misunderstood!” she said with sudden intensity. “I have to get close to him.”
“Convenient for you.”
“Convenient for everyone!” she shouted. Her voice rang off the stone ceiling. “The emperor will destroy you if he’s not managed.”
“And you’re just the shark to do that.”
“With your help,” Velenka answered quietly.
Gray couldn’t believe it. She was asking him to trust her? After she betrayed him and his friends on more than one occasion? “I’ll trust you—after Goblin tells me it’s okay to do that.” There were rumors that Goblin hadn’t been at the face-off with Indi Shiver. It was very suspicious for the stubborn and aggressive great white leader to have disappeared so completely.
Velenka bristled. “I’m the only hope the sharkkind and dwellers around here have! That includes your mother!”
Gray rammed the mako, pinning her against the wall with his bulk. He was sure this was painful, but he didn’t care. “Don’t—don’t you talk about my mom.”
“Goblin was a fool,” she hissed. “He was going to get us all killed! I had to act!”
“Tell me what you know!” Gray yelled. Then he eased up. When it came down to it, Gray couldn’t just bite Velenka and send her to the Sparkle Blue.
“He’s going to search the area carefully for any hidden shivers,” she told him. “That’s what Indi always does after they beat the main forces. They’ll crush anyone they find. It teaches a lesson to everyone who might want to make trouble after they’ve left for their homewaters. This way Finnivus can leave a smaller force to hold this area.”
“But have they found Coral Shiver yet?”
From the glint in Velenka’s eye, Gray knew he’d made a mistake. His heart sank as she said, “So they are still here.”
She hadn’t known until just now, he thought. Until I opened my big, fat mouth. Gray tasted his own blood as he grated his teeth back and forth in anger.
Velenka continued, “They found a remnant of Razor Shiver and a few others. If you surrender, it’ll go much easier for you.”
“Velenka,” Gray gasped. “Are you crazy? The emperor is insane. How do you know he won’t make me eat Barkley’s head to prove I’m loyal?” The mako didn’t answer. It was then that Gray understood. “You don’t know what he’s capable of, do you?”
“I took an awful chance coming here. This is a huge favor I’m doing for you!” She went on, either not noticing or not caring about the look of horror on his face. “You can’t save everyone, Gray. If you throw yourself on the emperor’s mercy, things may work out.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “That’s not a chance I’m willing to take, Velenka.”
“Then everyone you know and care about is doomed!”
Gray backed out of the cramped cavern, not wanting to turn his back on the mako. If this was her idea of a favor, who knew what she might do if she had a chance to bite his tail?
“They won’t be able to hide forever!” Velenka said, her eyes blazing with a weird intensity.
Gray slid out of the cavern—and found ten tattooed Indi shiver sharkkind waiting. His heart sank. He was able to spot Trank in the pile of rocks by the door. “I thought you guaranteed my safety. I thought we had a deal!”
Trank fluttered off the sandy bottom, turning so he could look Gray in the eyes. “Sorry, pup. He offered a better deal. One where we keep breathing.” The stonefish pointed a stubby fin into the distance, where Finnivus himself hovered!
The intricately tattooed tiger shark wore a dismissive smirk and had a cruel glint in his eye. He was carried on the back of a blue whale that hovered behind a wall of armored guards. Seemingly on their own, Gray’s fins and tail churned furiously as he stared at the haughty emperor. But his insides chilled. Gray knew he could never allow this shark to decide the fate of his mother or any of his friends.
“So this is the sharkkind you spoke of?” said Finnivus. “We are not impressed.”
“What’s the matter with you?” Gray shouted at Finnivus. He looked over at the guards and their commander, the older shark they called the mariner prime. “And you! How can you allow him to order you to do such evil? Do you have any conscience at all?”
Finnivus’s eyes blazed at Gray. “No one allows me to do anything! I—we—are the emperor of all the seven seas! None may disobey!”
Gray bristled, chopping his fins through the water. “All I see is a spoiled bully! But you won’t get away with it! The good fins in the Big Blue will swim against you, you—chowderheaded flipper!”
There was an audible gasp from some of the guards. Finnivus’s eyes went red, and he thrashed his tail around. “Did you just call me a chowderheaded flipper?” The emperor was maniacally angry now. “No one calls me names!” he yelled. “NO ONE!” He pointed at Gray with a trembling fin. “I—we want your head for dinner!”
“It didn’t have to be this way,” the mako told Gray sadly.
“And it’s not going to be!” Gray roared, rocketing forward and catching the Indi mariners by surprise. He rammed the nearest one in the liver and ricocheted off two others.
“Seize him!” their commander shouted.
For all Gray’s complaining, Takiza’s training had transformed him. He was too quick for the armored guards. Other armada mariners tried to catch him. Some clenched glinting ropes in their mouths—chains was the landshark word that flashed through Gray’s mind. He knew he couldn’t let the Indi sharks entangle him with those!
He accelerated right toward Finnivus, cutting a hard turn that made his side hurt. The squaline adjusted their positions to block. Even wearing their metal coverings, they were so fast! But Gray wanted them to do that. This way he could go underneath the blue whale that Finnivus was riding. He finned it mercilessly in its soft underbelly.
The shock caused the whale to reflexively throw the emperor off his back and into the open water
s. For any ordinary shark, this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Finnivus was no ordinary shark.
“Whalem! What’s happening?” Finnivus yelled to his mariner prime, his voice cracking. Things weren’t going as planned and now he was scared. Well, too bad! If things went smoothly, Gray would be eaten!
Whalem ordered, “Protect the emperor at all cost! Close ranks!”
Every armada mariner and squaline surrounded Finnivus immediately, which was exactly what Onyx had told Gray would happen.
Then members of the octopus clan, whom Gray and Barkley knew from the Coral Shiver, going all the way back to the bucket incident (and more importantly, who didn’t work for Trank) rose from their hiding places on the ocean floor and squirted their black ink into the water.
Barkley had arranged for a meeting with the octos through Prime Minister Shocks while they were at Coral Shiver, and they were only too happy to help. Their ink blotted out the light from the random lumos in the area and put a putrid taste into the water. Now no one could follow him by sight or scent. Gray was going to owe them a huge thank you and a lot of fish, even though the older octos insisted on naming the plan Operation Buckethead. Dumb octos . . .
Gray heard Whalem shout, “Fall back! Fall back!”
Finnivus shrieked even louder, “NO! WE DO NOT RETREAT! FIND HIM! I—WE ORDER IT!”
Yet Gray was already swimming into the thick greenie. He had escaped, but at what price to everyone he cared about?
TYDAL WAS AFRAID TO TWITCH A FIN. Doing so might draw unwanted attention from the emperor, who hadn’t stopped raging since he returned to his newly conquered homewaters. Usually, Tydal went with Finnivus on his swims outside of the royal court in order to serve him. However, when Finnivus traveled outside of the Indi Shiver homewaters, his wants and needs were under squaline authority, so Tydal had been dismissed by Finnivus and told to stay and “make this sad little place more befitting of an emperor!” That turned out to be a very good thing.