by EJ Altbacker
It was still difficult after that, but also gratifying. And through it all, Snork thought he could feel his father smiling at him from the Sparkle Blue.
AFTER A WHORL CURRENT OF PREPARATIONS, Gray made his will as Seazarein known to everyone else. They would swim through the Arktik into the Atlantis and meet up with Xander at the Tuna Run. He had gotten word that Grinder and Hammer Shiver had already left and only took with them thirty sharks. That wouldn’t be enough to do anything except send them to the Sparkle Blue so Gray didn’t send for them. It was also too late for Hammer mariners to reach the Tuna Run from their homewaters.
He hoped the AuzyAuzy mariners stationed at Indi that could be spared would come join them, but they wouldn’t be too many. The final number would depend on the situation in the Indi homewaters. If the intrigue had settled, perhaps there would be another hundred battle-tested sharkkind added to Riptide’s numbers.
They had been swimming for twelve hours in the cold waters of the Arktik and the ice was getting thicker above them. Leilani was sure that the recent warmer temperatures had kept the short cut through the Arktik open. At least that was what the reports of a month ago had said.
But if those reports were wrong, Gray’s forces would be walled in, and Grimkahn would catch them.
The jurassics and frills had gotten on their trail far faster than he would have liked. Just as he had planned, Trank had told Hokuu they were heading this way to save his own skin, just as Gray thought he would. His plan had worked too well, though. Gray had to order everyone to increase their speed. Fortunately, Grimkahn’s forces had not been seen for several hours now because of the faster pace.
Their group was swimming past areas Gray had never heard of: the Bering Strait, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and now the Northern Passage past the Canada landmass toward the North Atlantis. If Riptide could meet up at the Atlantis Spine with Xander and his AuzyAuzy mariners, they would have a chance to overwhelm Grimkahn with numbers. If not, they would be slaughtered.
They’d left Fathomir soon after a quickfin came with a message from Kendra. Jaunt and the AuzyAuzy mariners had tried to engage the jurassics to slow them down, but the prehistores didn’t stop. They roared through the fire waters and then past the AuzyAuzy homewaters. Grimkahn was heard ordering them to keep moving to Fathomir where he would eat the Seazarein’s still beating heart.
That’s me, Gray thought as he swam, keeping up the twenty-five tail stroke per minute pace that had been set. It was a punishing tempo and only the fine conditioning of the three hundred Riptide mariners allowed them to keep it. Gray hadn’t let Striiker bring all their mariners. He left two hundred to protect the Riptide shiver sharks—pups and the moms and dads who needed to care for them, including Gray’s mom Sandy and his brother and sister Riprap and Ebbie—along with half the ghostfins inside the golden greenie fields by Fathomir. That was where everyone hid as Grimkahn and his forces swam by.
Now he wished that they had brought more sharkkind.
Gray glanced at Barkley, who led the remaining ghostfins on a fast swim where they formed in a line from tail to snout, but very close together. He gave Gray a fins-up but had to concentrate on keeping his position in the formation.
“How are you doing?” Gray asked Leilani, who was next to him.
She looked a little out of breath, her gills rapidly flicking open and closed. “I’m okay. Since we’re limited on how much we get out for long swims, the Eyes and Ears have regular fitness classes to stay in shape.” She wheezed, dropping back two tail strokes before catching up again. “I haven’t been going as much as I should have.”
“Shear,” Gray said, moving upward a little and poking the prehistore tiger in the stomach to get his attention. “How about you?”
“I’m fine.” Shear was swimming right over Gray’s dorsal again. Instead of being a nuisance, it now felt comfortable. “And if you would simply speak, I can hear you,” the tiger said. “Kindly do not poke me in the belly.”
“Right, right,” Gray said. “Sorry.”
There would be fighting soon and Gray was used to having a battle dolphin over his dorsal. This time, Olph the battle dolph was swimming near the chop-chop with his brothers and sisters. While dolphins could hold their breath for long periods of time, they couldn’t do it forever. Battle dolphs had a system for keeping an eye on things while they moved as a pack near the surface of the water, jumping and leaping through the chop-chop. If there was trouble, Olph would take his position with Striiker to relay his commands in click-razz, which penetrated the waters better than the loudest shout.
He moved to poke Shear’s underbelly again. The captain of the guardians adjusted his position and landed a stinging smack on Gray’s flank.
“Hey!” Gray exclaimed. “You slapped me!”
“Did I?” Shear asked. “I’m sure I was swimming a course where that shouldn’t happen. Unless you were moving up for some foolish reason.” Leilani snorted and Gray had to smile. For a shark with not too much of a sense of humor, Shear could be as sarcastic as Barkley when he wanted.
“Any word from the scouts?” Gray asked the prehistore tiger.
“If there is something you need to know, I’ll tell you at once,” Shear replied.
Gray swam out from under Shear and rolled so he could look at the tiger. “See, when you say it like that, it makes me think you’re keeping things from me.”
“I would never,” Shear answered, turning so he could look at Gray eye to eye. “The guardians do what is best for the Seazarein and you are the Seazarein. Now let me do what I’m supposed to be doing.” Shear turned himself and went on swimming as if this proved his point beyond all doubt.
Gray knew that Shear took his job seriously and put tons of pressure on himself since Kaleth was slain. At that same time, Hokuu had devastated the guardian force with his diabolical trap in the fire waters. There were fewer than twenty now. Only twelve including Shear were fit enough to make the trip. The finja guardians, being prehistores and stronger than any of the scouts in the Riptide forces, were tasked as the long-range scouts. Eight were swimming in a loose circle about a mile away; the other four were closer, a thousand tail strokes from each side of the moving formation.
“Ice field ahead! We’ll have to descend five hundred feet,” Shear said as he looked toward Leilani. “Are you sure this lane goes through?”
“Um, well the information—”
Shear added a slash to his powerful tail strokes, cutting Leilani off. “So you’re not sure.”
“I knew the risk when I made the decision, Shear,” Gray said.
“Wait, he’s right. I’m not sure,” the spinner answered. “But I do believe it or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
Shear nodded. That was good enough for him.
Striiker swam out from the diamondhead in their formation and joined them. “Is anyone else freezing their tailfin off? Who in their right mind would live in a place like this?”
“That’s another reason to go through this way,” Gray said. “The prehistores come from a place that is at least as warm as the South Sific in the summer. They won’t be used to this cold.”
Striiker nodded. “Probably right. I hate it here and I’m from the Atlantis. They’ll be miserable. Ha! Suck freezing algae, Grimkahn!”
Their laughter at this was cut off by a tremendous CRAAAACK! that thundered through the waters and seemed to go on and on. Everyone instinctively slowed.
“What in the name of Tyro is that?” yelled Shear. It was hard to hear anything.
“Oh no,” said Leilani. “I didn’t count on this!”
“What?” asked Striiker as a series of screeches, pops, and thundering noises vibrated the entire ocean. “Spit it out!” The big great white used a series of tail signals to order the armada to slow.
“The same warm temperature that kep
t the path open in the last few years also makes the ice mass unstable! A huge chunk fell into the water!” Leilani told them.
“There are many large pieces of ice in these waters,” said Shear.
“It’s too loud to be just another piece,” she said, looking around the waters. “There! Look!” She pointed with her fin.
Gray and everyone else could see a gigantic piece of the ice canyon, larger than any floating chunk that he had ever seen, descending into the water as it fell. The huge block of glacier was the size of an island. Gray wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that a thousand landsharks were living on it. It was heading with the current straight at the thinnest place on their course.
“If that iceberg hits both sides of the passageway we’ll be trapped!” Leilani yelled.
“Swim!” Gray ordered. “We have to get ahead of it!”
Striiker rejoined his formation and roared, “Increase speed to fifty tail strokes per minute! Execute!”
This was bad. Very bad.
The armada could keep that pace for maybe five minutes.
Unfortunately, because of the distance they needed to cover, it looked like they needed six.
THE JAGGED MOUNTAIN OF ICE SUBMERGED FOR a moment, then bobbed to the surface like any other iceberg. But this one was gigantic. Free from its place on the canyon wall the current took hold of the ice and pushed it toward the choke point faster than Gray would have believed.
“The Riptide mariners won’t make it!” Shear yelled.
Gray saw that his tiger captain was right. He, Leilani, and a few guardians were leading the Riptide formation by ten tail strokes and it didn’t look like they would get through either. Only Barkley and his ghostfins, fast-swimming in what they called the sea snake formation, seemed as if they had enough speed.
Olph the dolph had taken his place above Striiker’s dorsal and clicked out the pace to the mariners so they would stay in formation while maintaining their pace. The click-clack, click-clack, click-clack that the armada timed their tail strokes to was quicker than Gray was used to hearing. But they still weren’t going fast enough to beat the free-floating mountain of ice to the thin part of the passage.
“STRIIKER!” Gray yelled as loudly as he could. The great white’s eyes locked onto him from the diamondhead. “MORE!” was all Gray could shout as he increased his own pace. There was a pause, probably not more than a second, when he worried that Striiker had not understood.
Gray didn’t know if he had the breath to keep swimming and shout again but then Striiker bellowed, “ONE HUNDRED!”
Olph and his dolphin mates synchronized themselves. Within one tail stroke the speedy click-clack, click-clack, click-clack became an unreal clik-clikclikclikclikclikclikclik! There was no speaking while moving this fast. Gray’s heart hammered in his chest. His entire body was on fire and it felt like a sharp piece of coral was being pressed through each flank. It was all he could do to suck water into his gills fast enough to breathe.
The floating mountain turned ponderously in the water as the current pushed it. This revealed that the iceberg wasn’t circular, but more of a shard. Gray could see that there would be one more turn before the ice would smash into both sides of the passage.
The armada would have one chance. The next time the iceberg showed them its thinner end they might get by on the right. If they didn’t Gray and everyone else would probably be ground to paste between the jagged ice and the cliffs on their right side.
Gray risked a peek at Leilani. She was keeping up somehow. And Shear was in position over his dorsal. He wondered if the guardian was laboring at all. Gray couldn’t hear anything except the pounding of his own blood inside his head.
The ice mountain was five hundred tail strokes ahead of them. Two hundred strokes in front of that were the cliffs of the passageway. The ice revolved a quarter turn and now the path was totally blocked. If the current didn’t push the iceberg around the armada would smash their snouts right into it.
Stop thinking negatively, Gray thought. The ice will move!
The armada was barely ten strokes behind Gray, Leilani, and Shear. They roared toward the iceberg as the clikclikclikclikclikclikclikclik! of the dolphs vibrated through Gray’s body.
Three hundred tail strokes behind the ice. Clik-clikclikclikclikclikclikclik!
Then two hundred. Clikclikclikclikclikclikclikclik!
The iceberg was in no rush to rotate. The wide side stayed in front of their snouts.
They were one hundred tail strokes from it. Worse, the current had pushed the iceberg to within one hundred tail strokes of the passageway’s choke point.
Seventy tail strokes away. Clikclikclikclikclikclik-clikclik!
Then fifty.
Gray saw a sliver of a blue as the iceberg spun toward its thinner side.
But it wasn’t enough for everyone! There was barely room for Leilani and him.
Thirty tail strokes. Clikclikclikclikclikclikclikclik!
Finally the iceberg showed them its thin end. There was two hundred feet between the right wall of the passage and the ice.
The iceberg was just fifteen tail strokes from the left side of the passage.
Clikclikclikclikclikclikclikclik!
Gray passed through the gap with Leilani and Shear. He couldn’t stop to look but he heard Striiker—who somehow still had enough breath—shout, “MAKE IT! MAKE IT! MAKE IT!”
Clikclikclikclikclikclikclikclik!
Gray felt more than heard the Riptide armada’s frenzied tail strokes reflecting off the side of the cliff and the iceberg as they squeezed through just before the wider end came around and pulverized the other side of the passage.
The iceberg groaned and buckled.
The current slackened from the blockage. Everyone slowed and then stopped, moving only enough to not sink.
“They—they don’t—get much . . . closer . . . than that.” Striiker wheezed.
“If they do,” gasped Leilani, “I’m staying home next time.”
The iceberg continued to grind as pressure from current built up.
Barkley came over. He and the ghostfins weren’t in their formation and all sucked water into their gills greedily. The dogfish gave Striiker a grin. “What took you guys so long?”
“Shut—cod—hole,” managed the great white.
Gray watched as the iceberg was slowly ground to pieces. The passage wouldn’t be blocked for long. “We have to keep moving,” he said to everyone. “I know you’re hurting. I am, too. But we have to make the most of this lead time before the jurassics and frills can get through.”
“You heard . . . the Seazarein!” yelled Striiker, recovering his breath. “Quit lazing around like . . . a sunny day on the reef. You know the drill! Fins up and at the ready in five minutes!”
There was a groan but the mariners did it. They were soon on their way once more.
SNORK’S CONCENTRATION WAS SO DEEP HE WAS lost in the task at hand. It was peaceful with the current whisking past and the constant snik-snak noise his left and right cuts made. For some reason when he struck to the right it always made a snik sound, but a leftward slice was a decided snak. When Snork strung together a number of perfect strikes, it went snik-snak-snik-snak-snik-snak-snik-snak and lulled him into a relaxed alertness where he could sense the current bending every greenie stalk around him.
It was wonderful.
With a flick of his serrated bill, Snork severed a stalk of very thick brown-greenie. Before Snork began this task he definitely would have had a problem with it. But after studying Salamanca’s perfect form it was easy. The last time they had stopped was hours ago. Was it hours? Or days? Takiza had given Snork a piece of maredsoo greenie the last time they had stopped and he lost track of time after that.
The odd kelp made his body fiery hot for a whi
le, but then it had settled into a feeling of refreshing vigor. If Snork hadn’t been cutting through a field of greenie before eating the maredsoo, he would have certainly chosen to do it after.
Snork wasn’t as good with his bill as Salamanca, but that was to be expected. The big blue marlin had a lifetime of experience and training. Snork had settled into a rhythm, though: chop left, move forward, chop right, move forward, left, forward, right, forward—over and over until it became as natural as breathing. Snik-snak, snik-snak, snik-snak the stalks fell as Snork moved through them.
Then there were no more in front of him.
This broke his concentration. Snork looked around.
The entire field had been trimmed. He was done.
He was also alone.
Where did everyone go? Snork thought.
“Hello?” he said out loud.
“I told you he had potential,” Takiza said from above.
Snork looked up and saw Salamanca nodding, waving his bill up and down as the sun caught the glittering landshark hooks and fancy lures hanging from the side of his mouth. “This one, he can be especial,” the marlin told Takiza. He looked down at Snork. “Toward the end, your form was perfecto. Bravo!” Salamanca dipped his bill in respect.
Snork watched as the last few greenie stalks he had cut through drifted upward. They rose past Takiza and Salamanca to join the others . . .
“Wow,” Snork whispered in awe. The greenie formed into an immense ball of kelp that hovered above them. It would have engulfed the entire Speakers Rock area in the old Riptide homewaters. It was that big.
“Yes,” Salamanca agreed as he also glanced at what they had done. “It’s impressive what our short-nosed friend can do.”