Horizon (25 page)

Aluna wrapped her tail around her old resting stick, amazed at how different it felt to anchor oneself with a tail instead of legs. A tiny surge of confidence swished through her body. As the youngest, it wasn’t her place to talk first. Kampii younglings were supposed to sit quietly and listen. Then again, most young Kampii hadn’t walked in the Above World.

“Let’s get started,” Aluna said, pleased that her voice sounded strong and clear. “We’ve come here to discuss an alliance with the Deepfell and our participation in the war against Karl Strand.”

That was all it took. Her brothers’ voices filled her ears, angry and loud.

“The Deepfell have killed our people for generations,” Pilipo said. “Any truce would insult our ancestors.”

Ehu interrupted. “We need their breathing devices. What matters more than that? We all know Peleke can’t invent his way out of a clamshell. If we don’t take what we need, then we all die.”

“Tides’ teeth, you’re both idiots!” Daphine said, which shocked both brothers into silence. “One of you is looking backward, and the other is only looking forward a year or two. We need a long-term solution so we’re not having the same argument every season!”

Ehu swished his tail. “You think that scope reminds us of the danger of the Above World, Daphine, but it just tells me that we’re smart to stay hidden and take care of our own.”

“Except that
our own
are all going to
die
,” Daphine countered.

As her siblings rehashed the same arguments they’d made in the Deepfell cave, Aluna watched her father. Elder Kapono swayed in the water’s currents, his eyes sharp, his arms relaxed at his sides. Only his clenched jaw and twitching neck muscles betrayed his concentration. She hated that the future of the entire Kampii colony rested on her father’s willingness to open his mind, look at the facts, and listen to his people.

He reminded Aluna a little of the Shining Moon khan, and of Calli’s mother, and even a little of Tayan. But Aluna and Hoku had gotten through to all of them eventually. President Iolanthe had imprisoned them at first, seemingly without regret, and then let them go. Likewise, Khan Arasen had been against Aluna, Calli, and Hoku joining the Shining Moon herd, yet he had walked out on the field of battle and defied the High Khan and Scorch on their behalf. And Tayan . . . Tayan had ultimately risked her life and her honor by forming herd Flame Heart.

But Aluna had grown up fighting with her father. After his wife had died, he’d rebuilt his emotional defenses with inflexible, impenetrable walls. Nothing could get in. Not new ideas, not new love, and not acceptance for the daughter who seemed to willfully disrespect him.

Those defenses had kept her father safe all these years, but they’d kept him the same, too. Aluna kept beating on those walls, kept trying to find a way in. Not just for the safety of the Kampii and the Above World, but for herself. She’d never given up on anything in her entire life. She simply couldn’t face the idea that this battle — in some ways, the most important — was one she could fight forever and still never win.

“Enough!” Elder Kapono yelled.

Aluna froze, wondering how her father had managed to see her thoughts. But no, he was talking to Daphine, Ehu, and Pilipo.

“Do you not see?” Kapono asked. “If you, members of the same family — our Voice and our best hunters — can’t agree on this, then what hope has our beloved city of resolving this issue?”

“But, Father —”

“Aluna, no,” he said. “I have listened to your stories, and I do not doubt what you have said. But you have been infected by the Above World and its problems, and you can no longer see with clarity the issues that belong to the Kampii alone. You and Daphine are no longer fit to speak or act for the City of Shifting Tides.”

“Exactly! It’s —”

“Pilipo, silence!” Kapono snapped. “Did I raise none of you to respect me?” Pilipo shrank back, looking more the awkward youngling than the powerful hunter he had become. “We cannot afford to fight among ourselves,” her father said. “Indeed . . . we cannot afford to fight at all.” He looked at Aluna, a strange, sad smile tugging at his mouth. “Did you know that our women once hunted alongside our men? I often wonder if you had been born in that far-gone age, if perhaps we might have been civil to each other.”

“They fought?” Aluna said. “With spears?”

“And knives and harpoons and their own well-trained hands,” her father said. “But we don’t make enough babies, and too many of them die. Or their mothers die. Or the sharks find them as younglings. We have had to be more careful, and we have tried to protect our women. Without women, our entire people will dwindle into nothing.”

Aluna thought of the Serpenti and how they were doomed. She had no idea that the Kampii were facing the same fate.

“Is that why you sealed off Seahorse Alpha?” Aluna said.

Kapono nodded. “We truly felt that was what Sarah Jennings and our ancestors wanted. In part. But we also did not want our young growing enamored of other places or other people. We did not want them to yearn for the Above World or go off and die in the name of adventure.”

Aluna looked at Daphine and watched her sister’s scope spin and focus. Daphine sighed and looked at Aluna. “It’s all true.”

“Of course it’s true,” Kapono said, not realizing what his daughter had just done. “Losing a dozen Kampii would be a tragedy. Losing hundreds would mean the end of a viable population. It would doom us completely.”

“I had no idea that things were so bad,” Aluna said.

“The Elders are to blame for that, myself included,” Kapono answered. “We thought to protect you all from the truth, but also, we wanted to protect our pride. We didn’t want to admit that our city was failing.”

Pilipo stood straighter. “We can’t go to war, and we need breathing necklaces to replace the ones that are failing. We have no choice but to take them from the Deepfell.”

“No!” Daphine said. “Our need does not justify the slaughter of another people.”

“Daphine is right,” their father said. Then, shocking all of them, he smiled. “Perhaps Daphine is
always
right.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “Here is what I will tell the council: We cannot go to war . . . not even with the Deepfell. We will abide by the treaty the surface colony has created and put an end to our fighting.”

Aluna felt her mouth drift open.

“But the necklaces,” Ehu said. “More will fail!”

“Then Peleke will have to find another way,” Kapono answered. “And until then, the alliance will give our people a safe place to live.”

“So we won’t help defeat Karl Strand,” Aluna said. “After everything that’s happened, we still won’t help.”

“No,” Kapono said. “Even if we had the numbers we needed, I would not allow it. The ocean is our home and always will be, even if we must find a new place to hide our city. The Kampii colonies of Silverfin and Nautilus are also options, though we would lose many people on such a long journey. But no matter what befalls us, Kampii were not meant to meddle in the affairs of the Above World.”

Aluna was about to speak again, to lob another useless attack at her father’s towering mental wall, when Hoku’s voice burst in her ears.

“Aluna? Are you home?”

She was about to reply when Hoku swam through the archway, his familiar pale legs kicking in the current and Zorro clinging to his shoulder. Had it really been more than a week since she’d seen him? Aluna wanted to poke his freckled nose and ruffle his shaggy reddish-brown hair. And then she saw his eyes. His
orange
eyes.

“What did you do?” she whispered.

He lifted up the force shield still wrapped around his arm. “Oh, this? I’m using the power source to run the audio pickup and the camera for my portable comm system,” he said as if all the words made perfect sense. “I had to dig the camera out of a decomposing Great White. That part was not fun. I made Zorro do most of the squicky stuff.”

Your eyes
, she wanted to say.
What did you do to your perfect Hoku eyes?

“Hoku, did you interrupt us for a reason?” Kapono asked. “I sincerely hope your answer is yes.”

Hoku started, apparently noticing Aluna’s family for the first time. Her father had always terrified him. Actually, her brothers did, too. She started to answer on Hoku’s behalf, to save him from having to do it.

But this Hoku, the one with the strange, glittery eyes, recovered from his surprise quickly. “Of course I have a reason,” Hoku said, his tone direct and easy. In fact, he didn’t seem scared at all. “I’ve made contact with the Equians, the Serpenti, the Aviars, and —”

“Dash?” she asked quietly.

“No, with Pocket from Odd’s kludge,” he said. “He said Dash and Vachir are together, but they don’t know where. As soon as Pocket calls back, I’ll have a better idea. And then, if we’re very lucky, we’ll know something else, too. We’ll know the location of Karl Strand’s lair.”

H
OKU HANDED THE TINY PROJECTOR
to Elder Peleke. Peleke’s face contorted, as if he were being asked to stick his hand inside a squid. Finally the wrinkles around his eyes began to relax and the old man took Hoku’s offering.

“This box contains the answers we need?” Elder Maylea asked.

“Yes,” Hoku said. “The schematics for our breathing necklaces and some ideas for generating energy from the currents so we can recharge the necklaces ourselves. The Aviars use a similar device for trapping wind energy in Skyfeather’s Landing, and they helped me and Rollin modify the design. We’ll have complete control of our own tech, including recharging everyone’s breathing shells.”

A few months ago, standing in front of the council of Elders would have turned him into a stammering, blubbering mess of jellyfish goo. But compared to President Iolanthe of the Aviars and High Khan Onggur of the Equians, the Kampii Elders just seemed . . . smaller.

Peleke pressed the control button on the tiny projector and started glancing at the schematics. “These diagrams are gibberish,” he said. “They make no sense.”

“Yes, they do,” Hoku said. “If I have time before I leave, I’ll explain what I can. I’ve tried to label everything important and have removed the more complicated formulas.”

Peleke sneered. “No sand-sider youngling will explain anything to me!”

Hoku shrugged and turned to Aluna’s father, Elder Kapono. “Elder Peleke has two apprentices who I can work with instead. I’ve already spoken with them and they’re excited to get started.”

“Excellent!” Kapono said. “I will inform them that they report to you now.”

Hoku kept his gaze on Kapono but couldn’t help watching Peleke out of the corner of his eye. The Elder sputtered and turned red as fire coral. The old man tried to speak, but the words seemed to stumble off his tongue. In that moment, Hoku felt as light as one of Calli’s feathers.

After the council meeting, he spent two hours with Peleke’s apprentices, Loni and Udale, showing them how to read the tech diagrams and answering their endless stream of questions. His mood fluctuated from joy at sharing his knowledge to despair when he realized how little they knew.

But he’d started with even less and had managed to learn. Loni had a mind quick as a dolphin, and Udale’s slower but more analytic approach made them an excellent team. When Hoku left them, they’d already started arguing about the best methods for creating the pieces they’d need for the simplified turbine. He promised to check on them again as soon as he could.

Hoku swam toward his own nest, but changed his mind and headed for Aluna’s instead. The worst thing about his new eyes — aside from the occasional stabbing sensations — had been his mother’s reaction. When she’d seen him, she had recoiled, turning her body to protect the baby in her belly from the apparent monster who’d just entered the nest. Hoku’s father had been more understanding and had brokered an uneasy peace between them. But his mother . . . The wariness hadn’t left her eyes. Hoku had no doubt that she still loved him, but now she feared him a little, too. The thought made him sick.

He lifted a hand and scruffled Zorro behind his good ear. The little guy clung to his shoulder and kept his eyes squinted as they swam.
Are you happy?
Hoku asked. Zorro’s slitted eyes pulsed green and
Yes, yes, yes!
appeared in Hoku’s vision. He grinned.

By far the best side effect of his Datastreamers was his new relationship with Zorro. Just as he’d connected to the computers at Seahorse Alpha, he’d managed to bind his tech to Zorro’s. Now the two of them could talk and share data without even using words. It felt like Zorro was now a cute, fuzzy extension of his own brain.

Aluna wasn’t in her nest, so he swam to the training dome. She’d been living there lately, relearning all her weapon forms now that she had a tail. She looked up when he neared, but didn’t stop her spear strike against her invisible opponent. “Have you heard from the kludge?” she asked. “Are Dash and Vachir alive?”

“No word from Pocket yet,” he answered. They’d had this exchange two dozen times in the last day. “But Rollin is going to call soon, and I asked her to find Nathif.”

Aluna performed a long series of moves involving spinning and somersaults and more spear thrusts than Hoku could count. She almost impaled her own tail with one of them, but adjusted, tried the move again, and performed it flawlessly. Kampii women weren’t allowed to be hunters, but not even her father dared trying to stop her from practicing now.