Kingdom of the Deep (14 page)

CHAPTER 25

THEIR PACE WAS BRUTAL. RIPTIDE ARMADA HAD
been terribly depleted since the destruction of their homewaters. Even with shiver shark recruits, there were less than five hundred fins moving toward the disputed waters near AuzyAuzy territory.

The attacks by the invisible mako finja began a day after they set out. At first the strikes were small, nibbling on the edges, causing scouts to disappear. Even though the patrols were all in force, one or two mariners would be picked off from each group and sent to the Sparkle Blue. By the time the rest rallied, the enemy had vanished, once again invisible to the untrained eye.

Takiza was somewhere close, looking for a chance to strike Hokuu, but Gray couldn't tell anyone. He thought that Striiker, Barkley, and Mari had figured it out, but he didn't want to say the words out loud in case he was overheard. And to keep where he was a secret, Takiza couldn't give away his position by fighting a single finja when it struck. But as far as the rest of the Riptide mariners knew, the betta had simply abandoned them.

Hokuu didn't show himself.

For now.

After they crossed from the North to the South Sific, the assaults became more persistent. Finja would wait for the Riptide formation to swim across their path and attack the underside or rear of the force, then break away. To counter this, Striiker moved his formation's position as they went toward their destination, never keeping a straight line. Then the renegade finja ambushed them with attacks in several places at once. The Riptide sharks were confused, trying to defend in every direction.

“We're being eaten alive!” Barkley said to Gray.

“Hey!” yelled Striiker as he swam past. “Stop with the negative waves and do something about it!”

“What's there to do?” asked Barkley as Mari and Snork joined him. “We're a moving target. They know which way we're going and are waiting for us. Unlike Kaleth's guardians, we can't see the enemy.”

Barkley had lost three ghostfins this morning and was in a foul mood. While his sharks were better than an average mariner, they gave up their advantages by swimming out in the open with the massed formation.

“It proves we're going the right way,” Gray said. He tried to be confident, but it didn't quite work. They were losing sharkkind, and it was sapping the morale of everyone, including him. “We have to keep moving quick.”

“That's the hard part,” Snork told everyone. “You make mistakes when you do things too fast.”

Mari swished her tail as she swam alongside them. “Snork's right. What if we took some time to eat, or at least
looked
like we're taking time to eat? Then maybe we can plan a surprise for the finja.”

Barkley gave the thresher an impressed nod. “I like your thinking. Gray, can we slow down? Give the ghostfins a chance to move ahead quietly and pick a spot to ambush these flippers.”

“Striiker won't like it, but we could use the time to tighten up and hunt,” Gray answered. “We'll still make it before the full moon.”

They had made good time and were closing in on the hissing lands where Hokuu would try to release the prehistores.

Then why am I so worried? thought Gray. Striiker had sent sharks to speak with both AuzyAuzy and Riptide Shivers, but there was no sign of either. Gray realized with a heavy heart that those mariners were swimming the Sparkle Blue. Hokuu wouldn't want the forces opposing him to get any larger. He would intercept any attempt to make contact with either of Gray's allies.

It's what I would do, Gray thought bitterly.

They had to swim the current that was flowing. There was nothing else to do but hope they were right. A halt was called. Striiker agreed with the plan and sent out strong hunting parties. It was a good feeding area, and the mariners didn't have to swim far to bring back multiple fish so everyone could eat.

Barkley, Snork, and the other ghostfins lost themselves in the greenie. There was a chance that the mako finja were waiting to pick them off, but there was also a chance the renegades were taken by surprise when Riptide stopped and had been too far ahead to prepare. It was worth the risk.

“Forward, five strokes!” shouted Striiker from the diamondhead position in a pyramid formation after they ate. The day was sunny and nice. Too nice for so many sharks to swim the Sparkle Blue.

There were attacks coming from below, so Striiker decided to move from their block shape to a pyramid with more mariners on the bottom. Any attacking makos would have to show their bellies to the Riptide mariners below them to strike the higher part of the pyramid formation.

Because Hokuu might realize Mari was missing since he had seen her well during the attack on the Riptide homewaters, she had to stay. Gray swam with her, and they both kept an eye on Velenka. The mako stayed inside the path the guards allowed her to swim.

“How do you think Velenka ended up, well, being Velenka?” Mari asked.

This simple question puzzled Gray. “I don't know. She couldn't have been born bad. Could she?”

Mari shook her head. “I don't think anyone is born that way.”

“Do you think it could have happened to us?” Gray wondered.

The thresher's sharp intake of water caused her to sputter. “No! Never!” Gray wasn't so sure, and Mari saw this. “We've been through a lot, and we're not like her. You'd never do the things she did, and I hope I wouldn't, either.”

“I've done plenty that I'm ashamed of,” Gray said. “Goblin offered me a home in his shiver and I betrayed him. I mean, if you think about it.”

Mari shook her head vigorously. “No, you changed sides because he wasn't a good fin,” she told him. “I don't think Goblin was all evil, but his actions weren't the ones of a good shark. You saw that and quit. Velenka went right on being a member of his shiver until she joined up with someone even worse.”

Gray nodded. When he saw what Goblin was doing, how it was costing the lives of innocent sharkkind, he couldn't swim that current. “I also betrayed everyone in Rogue Shiver. I left you, Striiker, Barkley, Snork, and Shell to go with Goblin. That's not being very good.”

“Then you came and saved us,” Mari reminded him. “That was.”

“But the point is I
chose
the wrong current. And I believed I was doing the right thing. Maybe Velenka is just choosing badly.”

Mari snorted. “She's done that over and over, though. How many times do you ignore it?”

“I don't know,” Gray said truthfully.

“Steady,” Striiker told everyone from the diamondhead, and the command was passed quietly along the ranks. They were approaching an area that was perfect for an ambush. There were towering cliffs on either side of their group, hemming them in. To swim over the mountain range would take too much time and divert them into a current pushing in the opposite direction.

There was no telling if this was the area that Barkley had set their counter-ambush. It was too risky for a ghostfin to come back and tell everyone where they were hidden, so Gray and Striiker had decided against it. Hokuu was too smart and might notice. He could even turn the ambush against Riptide somehow.

He might do that anyway, thought Gray.

Striiker looked over for a second opinion whether they should continue between the two walls of rock. Gray nodded at the Riptide leader, and everyone advanced. The valley was long, and the jagged ranges funneled the current so that it pushed them along at a faster pace. Gray didn't like this. Although a quick current would make the trip shorter, it also meant they would have trouble changing course if anything happened.

But soon the mountain range dropped away and the greenie below became sparse. Gray could see no one was there. It looked like they were in the clear.

That's when the mako finja attacked from the sides and above.

All of them.

CHAPTER 26

“HOLD POSITION UNTIL YOU SEE THEIR EYES!”
Striiker shouted.

It was chaos.

The Riptide forces, both the scouts and main formation, were being attacked in at least twenty locations by multiple finja. There had to be at least a hundred renegades. Too late, Gray saw that the valley wasn't a good ambush site. The attackers wouldn't have any place to retreat to, even with their color-shifting abilities. But out in the open like they were now, the renegades blended with the water. When they did strike, it was lightning quick and almost impossible to spot.

“Look out!” yelled Mari as a finja rushed Gray. But she was too far off to help. There was no time for a real defensive move, so Gray twisted to the side and whipped his massive tail around.

Whap!
A solid hit!

Solid, but lucky. I'll take it, thought Gray.

A Riptide mariner struck the finja, and it spiraled toward the greenie, streaming blood. Many other attacks were succeeding, though. Riptide sharks screamed in agony as they swam the Sparkle Blue. Gray saved one hammerhead mariner from a finja by ramming it in the gills. That mako managed to retreat, but it wouldn't be fighting again today.

Striiker's mariners had compressed their position to defend themselves, with even the scouts and the defensive screen joining his pyramid formation. The finja sensed victory and pressed their assault.

It was a mistake. Their first one.

And it couldn't have come at a better time.

From their well-concealed positions, Barkley, Snork, and the rest of the ghostfins launched straight up, each doing a classic Spinner Strikes move. And from this angle they could see the renegades clearly! Viewed from underneath (against the backdrop of the sun-lightened chop-chop) the finja weren't invisible: they were dark blue blotches against the lighter blue water.

And even better, the makos didn't expect an attack from below.

Blood bloomed in the ocean around the besieged Riptide formation. And this time, it was the blood of mako finja! Part of the plan was to give each one a bite, even if an underside ram would be more effective. That way, the renegades would leak blood. And because of that, they weren't invisible to the main force of Riptide mariners anymore.

“Attack!” commanded Striiker. “Let's show these chowderheads who we are!”

“
RIPTIIIIDE
!” came the thundering response as sharkkind roared out in all directions wherever a stream of enemy blood was spotted. It was the biggest loss ever inflicted on the dangerous finja. Riptide had finally succeeded in getting the renegades to a massed fight and it was going their way!

“Oh-ho-ho!” came a sprightly and impossibly loud voice that chilled Gray's blood. “That was very sneaky! Retreat, my finja!”

Hokuu appeared, swimming in a circle and creating a whirling vortex that scattered the Riptide mariners nearest him. The remaining prehistore makos raced past the frill and into the seething waters ahead. During the battle, the current had pushed everyone to the edge of the disputed lands, where Hokuu had been hiding all along.

They had guessed correctly after all.

Suddenly Shear and fifty guardians struck. It was only Hokuu's lightning-fast reaction to blast them away with a powerful ball of energy that saved him.

Gray rejoiced. Shear was here! That meant that Kaleth
had
sent her guardians! Deep down, she wasn't hard-hearted!

“Joining the party, too, eh? Well, you may have all found your way here, but there's nothing you can do to stop me!” Hokuu screamed. With a wave of his tail, a shimmering barrier appeared, walling off the ocean ahead of Gray and everyone else. “You may as well swim back the way you came!”

Shear skidded to a halt by Gray. “We must get through! This may be our only chance to face Hokuu with the complete guardian force!”

“Then let's get him!” cried Striiker. He raced toward the barrier and smashed into it as hard as he could. The wall stopped him cold as if he'd rammed a thousand-year-old coral pillar. Gray went over to the great white, who shook his head woozily. “I'm still kind of stupid sometimes.”

“No, it's a good idea! But we need to do it differently,” Gray said. “Shear, everyone! Push!”

Mari helped Striiker order their mariners into lines so they wouldn't jostle each other. Shear and his guardians took the center. “Set!” shouted Gray. The Riptide and guardian sharkkind put their snouts against the hazy surface of the barrier. Even though it looked like a thin line of cloudy water, it was cold and hard. “Swim! Swim forward!”

For a full thirty seconds the wall did not budge despite the massed power of over five hundred sharkkind and guardians. Hokuu waved his tail at them from the other side, his horrible smile growing even wider. “Silly sharks! You look so stupid!”

“I'll show you stupid!” shouted Striiker.

Hokuu swam in front of the great white on the other side of the barrier. “You already have—by being here!
Ohh
, you really set yourself up for that one!”

“Concentrate! Keep swimming!” shouted Gray.

The barrier began to bend and everyone inched forward. But it was painfully slow. Gray's body ached from the effort. “Come on, do it!” he urged everyone.

“It's moving!” exclaimed Snork.

Hokuu's snaky tail twitched. “Stop this! You'll never get through, so why try?”

“PUSH!” Gray countered. Sharkkind around him gasped and strained but the barrier curved noticeably.

“No, no, no!” cried the frilled shark. “You'll ruin everything!”

With a hissing
riiiip
, the barrier failed and a huge hole was torn through it. Shear and his guardians were quickest and they whipped through the waters after Hokuu with Gray and the Riptide mariners following. The frilled shark easily kept ahead of everyone chasing him.

“Oh no!” wailed Hokuu, his eyes wild and rolling. “How could you break through my shield!” The frilled shark darted into hissing waters. Everything was clouded by the sulfur and whatever else was being vented from the seafloor.

“After him!” yelled Striiker. “No mercy!” The Riptide sharks got into formation and followed.

Gray saw the frilled shark heading toward a single column of smoke that glowed red on the seafloor. Lava! That had to be where the walls between the two oceans were thinnest!

Hokuu was leading them right to it!

The frilled shark flashed ahead. His amplified voice screamed, “You'll never stop me from freeing Fifth Shiver! I'll do it right now!”

Gray sped after Hokuu, but something worried him.

The full moon
hadn't
risen yet.

In fact, the sun was only now going down. And why was Hokuu so vocal about what he was going to do, unless . . .

Unless this was a trick.

Or a trap!

“SHEAR, STOP!”

But Shear and the Guardians were too far ahead to hear anything. Gray wheeled as fast as he could, but the advance guard from Riptide streamed past him.

“STOP! STOP!” he yelled as the pyramid formation of mariners came forward.

“What are you doing?” yelled Striiker from the diamondhead. The main force of Riptide mariners was a little slower than the advance guard.

“IT'S A TRAP!” Gray yelled. He made sure that Mari, Barkley, and Snork heard.

“EMERGENCY STOP!” bellowed Striiker. The racket of the hissing waters carried his words away. Luckily, Olph the battle dolph was there. Dolphin click-razz language was now required study for every Riptide mariner. The clicks, whistles, and razzes cut through even the noisiest of waters. Olph pierced the chaos with Striiker's command.

Sharks piled into one another! It definitely wasn't the smoothest of emergency stops, but it got the job done. The water was thick and cloudy, the taste of sulfur choking everyone. Gray's eyes watered as he looked for Hokuu. It was a confused mess!

But stopping saved their lives.

“Who wants boiled shark?” yelled the frilled shark, hovering on the other side of the largest of the hissing vents. With a wave of his tail he sent a bolt of energy into it. The power burst activated the lava gurgling under the seabed.

FWHOOOOM!

There was a thunderous roar and an explosion of sizzling lava that created a gaping hole in the seabed a quarter mile around! The burst of hot gas burned most every guardian and Riptide advance sharkkind above it to black ash. What was left of them was blown apart by the roiling updraft of water that came after.

The lethally hot water would reach Gray and his friends in less than a second. And inside the explosion was lava rock, frozen into jagged spikes by the colder sea and hurtling at them. Gray could do nothing but close his eyes and wait to be pierced by the shards with everyone else.

But it didn't happen.

Instead, the boiling water stopped a foot from Gray's snout. It whooshed upward as the lava spikes clattered against an invisible barrier. Wait, it wasn't invisible. It was hard to see because the water itself was so murky and thick.

It was Takiza's doing.

Gray spotted the betta, rigid from the effort as he fed his power into a bright bluish shield that protected everyone. When the worst of the explosion was over, Takiza allowed the barrier to dissolve.

“I hate you, Taki! Do you know how long that trap took to set up? DO YOU?” screamed Hokuu from the other side of the crater. The lava inside was frozen from the colder water rushing onto it.

Steam gurgled and hissed all around them, but the frilled shark amplified his voice so everyone could hear. He was angry this time.
Really
angry. Not like before, when he had been acting, which was obvious to Gray only in hindsight.

Now Hokuu was furious and his glittering eyes blazed with hate. “You have spoiled my fun for the last time. This is the end, Taki. Now . . . YOU DIE!”