Maelstrom

by Anne McCaffrey

  Tell them to stop that, Kushtaka demanded.

  Stop that, Ronan told them. Then asked her, Why don’t you tell them yourself?

  I did, she said. They acted as though they didn’t hear. You’re the one they came for. Get rid of them.

  The seals stopped scratching anyway. Too hard to scratch. We’ll just be swimming away then, all right?

  Yes, go tell Murel and Da I’m fine.

  And don’t bring them back here or we will be forced to take extreme measures, Kushtaka threatened, but all that was visible by then was seal butts and the backs of flippers.

  THE ICEBERG PITCHED and rolled but it kept Murel and Sky from the worst violence of the waves and let them rest like babies in a particularly active cradle. Murel heard seals calling her and raised her head.

  Cold bit her nose and stung her eyes, but beneath her it was warm, the ice slightly melted. She had lifted Sky in her front flippers so he wasn’t lying entirely on the ice. He was very still but she felt him breathing. Around the curl of his body a shimmer of water overlaid the ice. He was generating his own body heat now.

  Here, she answered the seal’s call. I’m here. On an iceberg.

  Okay, got a fix on your position. The seal voice was not Sorka’s or Pork’s or that of any of the herd she’d dealt with before. So it seemed the Perfect Fjord branch of the family was seeking her out. Above her a pale strip of lime green arced across the night sky. As she watched, it began to wiggle and swirl, other subtle colors blooming at its sides and tips. Those colors began jigging as well, dipping, swishing in broad swaths against the darkness. There was a bright moon but it was boring compared to the lights.

  She had missed the aurora without even being aware of it. She and Ronan had been at school on Versailles Station for the best part of three years. It had been interesting in a way, and Marmie saw to it that they had far more than they’d ever been used to. They’d only been back to Petaybee a short time before they’d gone back into space to find Ke-ola’s people.

  Now, despite the warm waters of the volcano, winter was here. The aurora proved it. And winter was the longest season, the most familiar because she’d known Petaybee wearing winter landscape most of the time. It was the time she loved the best. The lights were one of the reasons why. She knew they were caused by sunspots or electromagnetic fluctuations or some such, but they were still as beautiful and magical as when she thought they were the multicolored fringed skirts of a lady named Aurora fancy-dancing across the sky.

  Mesmerized by the flying colors, she didn’t see the seals approaching until they ringed the iceberg.

  Stopped for a snack, did you? The seal facing her raised himself on his flippers to peer over her ledge at Sky. Can we have a bite? We’ve swum a long way to tell you what you want to know and that looks delicious.

  That’s not a snack. It’s my friend, Murel replied. He got too tired and we had to rest. And he’s not delicious. He’s a freshwater otter and everyone knows they’re poisonous.

  What’s a friend?

  Sky had come up with a good definition for his fellow otters, “a family member who is not an otter.” Da had overheard it and repeated it, awed at the cultural development of otter-kind, he said.

  A friend is a family member who is not a seal, she said, changing the species to fit the situation.

  Not all seals are family members, the hungry seal replied. Part-time seals are not family members so their friends aren’t family members either. He may be poisonous to part-time seals but he smells delicious to me. We found what you wanted. We spoke to your sibling. We’ll take you there if you share your friend.

  He’s not to eat, she repeated. He’s not dead. He’s just resting.

  We are resting too, the seal said, making himself comfortable, finding another lower ledge to rest his lower half against. The other seals barked in agreement. And we don’t care that it’s not dead. We like live food best. But we can wait. We’ll be right here until you get hungry. You will get hungry, you know. If you don’t want to eat him, you will need to get back in the water and catch something you can eat soon. Then we’ll eat him and then we’ll take you to your brother.

  Murel looked into the big brown eyes, the cute whiskers, the face like her own and her brother’s and her father’s. The seal was threatening her. He wanted to eat Sky and he meant to do it. A silly phrase popped into her mind, as silliness was apt to do at inappropriate moments. She wanted to call out to Ro, “Help, I’m under sealge.” But she didn’t know how to reach Ro and they did. The Perfect Fjord herd’s demand was completely out of the question, of course. They were evil seals. Who would have thought there were evil seals?

  I’ve already had lots to eat, she lied. You’ll get tired of this pretty soon. Go catch some fish and leave us alone.

  Don’t you want to know where your sibling is?

  Sure, but I’ll find him myself if that’s the way you’re going to be. Friends don’t eat friends or let anybody else eat them either. Unbidden, the image of Jeel’s blood rising around the ring of sharks came back to her. Not if they can help it, she added guiltily.

  Maybe you can’t help it, the seal said menacingly. Maybe you won’t be able to stay on the iceberg. Maybe the iceberg won’t stay under you.

  What do you mean?

  You’re new to these parts, aren’t you? The stories about you say you’re used to freshwater, not the sea. But you have to know about ice.

  Of course I do. What about it?

  The seal slid up to her ledge, barely touching it with his nose and front claws, but pulling himself up and back. At his bark, three others along the ledge began doing the same thing.

  The reassuring sheen of water beneath her and Sky slid out from under them and joined the sea.

  It melts, the lead seal said. That’s what.

  THE COPTER SET down on the shore closest to the iceberg. “Sure you don’t want to go on to the fjord?” Rick asked. “It’s not far now.”

  Sean said, “No, we need to see why she’s on the iceberg, if that’s her.”

  “I’m about out of fuel or I’d wait,” Rick said.

  “That’s okay. You may be needed there anyway.” Sean turned to Yana. “You may as well go back with him, love.”

  “They’re my kids, Sean, and I’m not some wimpy little housewife, you know.”

  “We don’t actually have any of those on Petaybee,” Sinead said thoughtfully. “But you are the co-governor, Yana, and the newcomers are going to be pretty upset, having the so-called authorities flying off with their kids. Not to mention Marmie.”

  Yana wanted to mutter something about the shape-shifting Shongilis sticking together and ganging up on her, but that was juvenile and Sinead was right. “Very well. You natives sort it out while Ke-ola and I go and try to sort the rest of it out.”

  “I should stay, missus,” Ke-ola told her. “The warden.” He nodded at Sinead. “She’s good in the woods but maybe not so good in the water, and she’s strong but she’s not as big as me. Dr. Shongili can’t lift stuff while he’s a seal. He can use a big fella like me to help if Ro and Murel need to get hauled into a boat or something. Besides, the warden almost drowned today. I’m fine.”

  Yana was surprised when Sinead said, “Thanks, Ke-ola. Right on all counts. I’d best go back to Kilcoole with Yana and see what I can do to help. Besides, Aisling will need to fuss over me a bit and make sure I’m okay.”

  So the survival gear—enough for Ke-ola as well as for Sean and the kids in human form—was dropped off with the menfolk. As the copter lifted up again, Sean was stripping down and Ke-ola setting up the boat. Night fell while they weren’t looking, and a dazzling aurora accompanied them all the way back to Kilcoole.

  CHAPTER 24

  VERY WELL, THEY’RE gone now, Kushtaka, are you happy? Ronan couldn’t keep the resentment out of his thoughts.

  She ignored him, talking to others of her own species, whatever it was, in their own tongue. He didn’t understand all of it—part of it
seemed to be technical jargon of some sort, but the gist of it was that it was safe now and they could go.

  The water around the dome filled with deep sea otters bearing something unidentifiable in their paws. They scattered, some remaining in sight, others disappearing among the fish and seaweed, the smoking black volcanic chimneys, and rocks. Some dived toward the bottom.

  Setting the sursurvus, Kushtaka explained. We’ve recalibrated them to cover a broader area. We want to be prepared if the sharks return.

  That won’t be your only large predator this far north, he told her.

  Somewhere beneath us lies what is left of the second greatest city of our civilization, she told him. I’ve visited the ruins many times.

  She didn’t like him knowing more about the place than she did. He didn’t want to get Puk and Mraka in trouble by letting on that they’d told him something of their species’ history on Petaybee.

  Oh, then you know about the bears, he replied in an offhand way.

  Bears?

  You know, big white jobs, dive like us, swim like us, but faster, meaner, and eat anything.

  Bears live on land, she said, as if he was trying to fool her. We’ve seen them when we venture close to shore.

  Normal bears do, he answered. Black bears, brown bears, grizz. None of them mind a bit of a swim, usually in freshwater, but the white bears are almost as at home in the water as seals like me or otters like you folks. Or the regular kind of sea otters anyway.

  It sounds most improbable, she said.

  I thought the same when the sea otters told me about your people, he replied, and yet, here you are. The bears are real too. Keep watching and you’ll see one before long I imagine.

  Is this something else your people have put into these waters to endanger us? she demanded.

  That was so unfair it made Ronan forget his manners. That’s bollocks, he told her. I’m sorry for your loss. My sister and I were the only ones who even knew you were here, you’ve been that secretive, so how could anyone else know the sharks endangered you? Even though we tried to warn you about them, you’re blaming us for trying to help you. I would think instead of blaming children no older than your own, Kushtaka, that you as leader of these folk would be thinking more along the lines of telling them what was dangerous to them and planning ways for them to fight or escape it.

  When we were the dominant species on this planet, there never were such creatures, she said haughtily.

  Maybe not, but there certainly was something because Petaybee didn’t survive long enough for you to keep living here, did it? He hoped Mraka and Puk would forgive him, but he wasn’t going to let her keep treating him like a murderer for something that wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault either, really, except maybe her stupid son’s for not being more careful, or hers for not keeping a better eye on him.

  Looking at her closely, feeling what she was feeling instead of thinking, Ronan realized that was what bothered her. Jeel’s death was her fault, and she wanted to blame someone else, however unreasonably, for her own lapse. Would Mum act that way if he or Murel did something dumb that got one of them killed by something introduced by someone else? He thought about it. Probably not. His mum, as a former Corps officer, would claim full responsibility as her own lapse, put his picture on the shelf by the stove, then hunt down whatever had killed him and obliterate it.

  Of course, if those who had introduced the danger gave Mum any further grief, they would be in danger of obliteration too. He looked at Kushtaka again, wondering what, if any, means of obliteration she had at her disposal.

  She returned her attention to the activities beyond the dome, but seemed to be deep in her own private thoughts. Since she didn’t dismiss him or have him carried away by the flippers again—that was an experience to be avoided at all costs!—he watched with her as, one by one, the surveillance units were placed and new areas of the surrounding ocean were revealed. Most of them were dark and cold and wet, no big surprise there.

  But after one placement, what showed on the screen was two of the big otters—probably the ones who had set up the equipment—surfacing, looking startled, diving again and swimming hard before jumping out of the water and splashing around, seeming to try to draw attention to themselves.

  Ronan was sure he recognized them too, since he had just spent quite a lot of time with them. Puk and Mraka were either scared or they were up to something.

  COMMUNICATION WAS DIFFICULT without the Honu to keep him in mental touch with Sean, as Ke-ola now thought of his friends’ father. It was hard to think of a seal as Dr. Shongili in furry trunks. To try to tell what he was to do next, Ke-ola had to watch the seal-man as well as he could in the moon and aurora-lit darkness.

  The iceberg where they had seen the seal who might be Murel was three or four kilometers offshore, and before they reached it they had to slide out onto the thin ice. Some of it was left over from past years, the permanent ice pack that rimmed the northernmost shores of the northern continent. Some was fresh ice, newly formed for the winter that was only beginning in Kilcoole. Ke-ola, being large and heavy, was afraid he would fall through before he found a clear enough spot so he could hop into the boat and paddle out.

  Sean, in spite of his worry over Murel, was thinking about him too, Ke-ola saw. Seals knew where the thin ice was, and Sean solved the problem by clawing a hole in it with his front flippers and enlarging it all the way out to the open—or more open—sea.

  Ke-ola widened the opening with his paddle, making a place big enough for the emergency boat, then climbed in, kneeling in the center of the boat and breaking the ice with the paddle as he used it to push away from the jagged edges and into the open sea.

  Once there, he spared a glance for the colored lights dancing overhead, reflected in the rolling water. His winter suit was warm, if bulky. The boat was neither a kayak nor a canoe but a semirigid inflatable made of a pierce-proof synthetic fiber, the shape somewhere between that of an Irish fishing dory and a raft. It had a compact but powerful motor unit as well as the paddles. He tried the motor, and to his relief, it immediately roared to life.

  Across the color-sheened waves he heard the barking of seals. More than one, so it was not just Sean, or even Sean and Murel. Besides, he saw Sean’s head bobbing ahead of him as the selkie swam, his fur shining pink, then green or orange. Ke-ola had a torch in his snow pants pocket, but the boat had no running lights.

  The rhythm of paddling came naturally to Ke-ola, even though Halau had all of its water underground and no seas underground that they had ever located. But all of the chants and dances he had learned from Aunty Kimmie Sue had a similar rhythm, one that came to him when he dipped his paddle. He was singing inside himself, and his song and these wild northern waves fit together in a pleasing and calming way.

  Other icebergs loomed up ahead of them, but he didn’t mistake them for the one with the seal because Sean seemed to know which one that was. The wind was loud enough to mask most sounds, but Ke-ola could still hear the barking of seals once in a while over the dual roar of the sea and wind. The wind was icy, sticking pins and needles in his nose and making his mouth feel lipless and dry. He pulled a scarf across the lower half of his face, tucking it into his hood as Clodagh had once showed him, playing “dress up like a real Petaybean” at a pre-latchkay gathering at her cabin after he first arrived. The scarf had been crocheted by Sinead’s partner Aisling in a lacy pattern from the mud-brown undercoat of a musk ox. It was soft and stayed dry inside even when it iced up outside.

  The seal barking grew louder and louder. Sounded like an argument to him, and he was pretty sure he could hear Murel. Sean barked too but his was a solo voice. Somewhere close there were a lot more seals, all in a group.

  Two more dark heads raised out of the water, otterlike but bigger than Sky’s head or that of a regular sea otter. These guys started bouncing up and down on the waves, going “Hah! Hah!” and making chirpy noises that were not quite as loud as the barks. The
y were waggling their paws, as if they were waving too. Something was definitely disturbing their world and they seemed to be trying to warn someone—the seals?

  Sean swam back toward the boat, and a couple of dozen other seals swam in the same direction, heading frantically back for the ice.

  Ke-ola strained his eyes to see what was bothering them but the black fins were almost impossible to see until they almost touched the boat, then they were under it and Ke-ola was paddling air until the boat rolled sideways and dumped him in all of his heavy clothing into the frigid sea.

  AS SOON AS the other seals dived and swam away from her iceberg, Murel, feeling Sky move, looked down at him.

  He looked up from busily grooming his fur, his eyes as bright and curious as ever. Hah! he said. Fooled those seals.

  I didn’t know otters could play possum, Murel said. But glancing up again, she saw other otters playing at something else. Two of the deep sea otters seemed to be trying to get her attention.

  No more seals, she told Sky. Can you make it now? Shall we go see what they want?

  Otters need sleep sometimes, but when they wake up they can swim very fast, Sky assured her. Also, otters do not like seals-who-eat-otters.

  Selkies don’t like to see those seals either, Sky, she said, making a clear distinction between herself and the attack seals. Those deep sea otters seem to have scared them away.

  What deep sea otters?

  That’s funny. They were right over there, she said, diving in. Sky slid into the sea beside her and she sent out her sonar signal. The two large otters were not far from them, underwater, though she couldn’t see them in the glacial flour clouding the northern sea so close to land. However, she also sensed something else: a large group of large something elses.

  CHAPTER 25

  EXCUSE ME, SEAN heard the whale tell the rapidly sinking Ke-ola, you looked just like a shark from that angle.

  Allow me, Sean said, diving after Ke-ola and catching his parka hood in his teeth.