Into the Abyss (7 page)

Fin’jaa
. Velenka hadn’t known such things existed until Finnivus had blurted out his plan this morning at breakfast. “Lochlan and Gray are probably already dead!” he’d crowed. But no matter how delicately Velenka tried to find out where the finja came from, or how Finnivus had found them, she was unsuccessful. Finnivus kept that secret to himself. And now, it seemed, these supposedly deadly assassins had not succeeded in dealing with Gray and Lochlan the way Finnivus had hoped.

Finnivus had gotten his hopes up far too high. Velenka’s former shiver leader, Goblin, shared similar mood swings. But Goblin was a dim-witted fool compared to the emperor, and easily controllable. His moods changed often, but Velenka could shift them with little effort.

That was emphatically
not
true with Emperor Finnivus Victor Triumphant.

As if to prove her point, Finnivus shouted, “Guards, to me!”

Velenka tensed. The
squaline
darted into place from both above and below. The armored mariners formed a battle line so that anything threatening the Emperor would have to go through them. From what Velenka had
seen, that would be nothing in the Big Blue. She doubted the landsharks above the chop-chop could find fighters more ferocious. The
squaline
were the best of the best. That was saying something as the Indi armada was the finest, most battle-ready force in the entire world. But even the
squaline
were not immune to the stormy moods of the emperor.

“No, no, no!” Finnivus yelled. “I didn’t mean I was in danger! I want you to go out and find that—that lying finja and bring it to me immediately!
We
will wait here!”

The
squaline
flowed from their defensive positions into two perfectly matched lines. They didn’t get more than five tail strokes before Finnivus shouted, “What are you doing? What if my enemies come? Who will guard me?” The
squaline
displayed no emotion as they resumed their normal guard patterns, one half swimming above the emperor and the other half hovering slightly below his mobile throne.

The blue whales switched positions, the second coming in underneath Finnivus as the first went for air. The third was away eating. The two here did the exchange so smoothly that the emperor rarely even noticed. But today wasn’t a good day for anyone.

“What are you doing, you dolt!” Finnivus shouted for no reason and finned the blue whale’s soft back, creating a scar. The blue whale didn’t react, which was wise. There were many other scars from previous fits of temper, but whales were tough. Finnivus could spend an
entire day biting before he reached something vital in a full-grown blue whale.

“Tydal, I’m hungry!” Finnivus wailed. “Bring me my supper!”

“Immediately, Magnificence!” The epaulette was gone in a flash. He was eager to be away from his place in court, and Velenka couldn’t blame him. The emperor’s temper was like a twisting current. You never knew which way the waters would churn, or who would be driven into the rocks.

“Stupid finja,” Finnivus muttered like a pouty child. “That lying mako over-promised and under-delivered. Over-Promised Under-Delivered,” Finnivus said, taking care to emphasize the first letter of each word. “O-P-U-D! Opud. I just made that up. It’s brilliant!” Tydal returned and Finnivus told him, “Tydal, make sure my new word
opud
is used in daily conversation by everyone in court.”

“Yes, my emperor!”

Finnivus preened for a moment and then gnashed his teeth once more. “But that’s what he, she, or it is—an opud! And when I see that opudding dweller again, I’ll—I mean,
we
—will have our vengeance!

Finnivus curled onto the mobile Speakers Rock on top of the blue whale and looked as if he were a minute away from a full-fledged weeping fit.

Opud
! Incredible! It was hard to believe he was master of all he surveyed!

Velenka snorted.

She shouldn’t have.

Finnivus whipped his head around, and his eyes locked onto her. Suddenly the tiger’s body language was one of a dangerous predator. Very dangerous. “Yes?” he asked quietly.

She heard the question clearly as it was dead silent in the court. Velenka kept a bland smile on her face but knew well that her life hung by the slenderest of currents.

Dumb, dumb, dumb! Velenka yelled inside her mind. She had let her guard down, and the emperor’s quick-silver mood had shifted, this time directly at her.

“You were saying?” Finnivus asked again, this time more forcefully.

Velenka couldn’t ignore him any longer. She kept a neutral look, bobbed her head, and inquired, “I was saying what, my Emperor?”

“You chortled,” Finnivus stated.

“Chortled at what?”

“How should I know? You were the one chortling!”

Velenka made sure to dip her head once more before she spoke. Ugh! She hated being so courteous to this fool! But bobbing her head was better than losing it! “If I did chortle—”

“YOU DID!” Finnivus screamed, startling some in the court so they twitched their tails. The emperor glared at them. Everyone looked guilty when they twitched. Velenka made sure she didn’t.

“Then it must be so, My Magnificence,” she answered. “I can only tell you I was so sad at your distress about those
opudding
finja that in my mind I was imagining Gray screaming as you shook him from side to side in your powerful jaws. If I did chortle, it was because of that image in my head, which I find especially pleasing.”

Finnivus relaxed. He allowed the current to push him against the Speakers Rock on his blue whale’s back. Then he addressed the court. “Do you see how effective my new word is? How radiant?” There were numerous murmurs of agreement. One of the other court sharks felt brave enough to tap Velenka on the flank in agreement.

“WHERE IS MY DINNER?!” Finnivus shouted. Tydal was off again, fast as a wahoo during a game of Tuna Roll. “And why are we stopped? I want Lochlan’s head on a platter, so let’s go!” The royal court and armada began moving once more toward the Atlantis and the final battle between Riptide and Indi Shivers.

But Velenka didn’t care just now. Her time in the eye of Finnivus’s stormy current was over, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was almost ready to put her own plan into action. Velenka would get rid of the emperor and put herself on his throne. It would take some time, and, of course, her life would be at risk. But huge rewards only came with equally large risks. After all, Velenka was a descendant of Machiakelpi, the mako who was third in the Line of the First Shiver.

I’ll just have to figure out a way to make his spirit proud, she thought.

“SLOPPY, SLOPPY, SLOPPY!” STRIIKER BELLOWED
at Riptide’s recently recruited mariners. “Hold your positions until the order to attack is given! Watch and listen for the commands!” Striiker looked over at Whalem, who nodded approval. It took a lot of effort to swim around, correcting the recruits’ mistakes, and the old tiger was in no shape to do that.

But Whalem could transfer his lifetime of knowledge and experience to Striiker in a series of one-on-one talks, as they had been doing since after the Battle of Riptide.

Barkley couldn’t believe how well Striiker had learned everything. Whalem even taught Striiker the correct way of yelling to scare the recruits into listening closely.
Yelling
practice! Striiker was amazing. He soaked up every single word like a sea sponge. But it didn’t give him the right to treat everyone like a loser.

Barkley couldn’t take it anymore. He swam out from the massed formation and yelled, “We’re trying our best! We aren’t real mariners, so don’t be such a tailbender!”

Striiker roared over and bumped him toward his place in the formation. “You’re not a real mariner? Reality check—you better become a
real
mariner, even if you are just a
dogfish
, or your head will wind up on the emperor’s platter! So excuse me if I don’t have time to stroke your flanks and talk about hurt feelings!”

Barkley got back to his position, muttering something about great whites with big egos. Striiker heard and shouted, “What’s that? What?”

“Nothing!” Barkley answered.

“Dog breath here just got everyone another hour of training!” Striiker announced. “Anybody else have something to add? Any of you? Then, fins up and attention hover!” There was much grumbling, but the group of newly drafted sharks snapped into position. The great white grunted, satisfied. “We’re going to keep doing this until we get it right!” Striiker began the drill again. This time the result was somewhat better.

But Barkley was still irritated. Striiker never made fun of a tiger, or blue shark, or especially a great white, by insulting their entire
species
. But for Barkley it was always
doggie
this, or
dog-breath
that. Striiker—and many others—always had an extra insult about dogfish ready to go when they got into an argument with him.

Barkley stewed. I’ll show him! So help me I will!

Unfortunately his mind wasn’t on the drill and he turned the wrong way, causing a tremendous crash as sharkkind swerved to avoid ramming him. Soon, Striiker was yelling about dogfish in general—and him in particular—once more.

All Barkley could do was hover there in front of everyone and take it.

Lochlan spoke with Whalem quietly as Gray hovered with Grinder and Silversun in a private area by Speakers Rock in the Riptide homewaters. The two shiver leaders had agreed to make their decision on whether Hammer and Vortex Shivers would join with Riptide or not. In the distance Striiker was putting their mariners through a series of drills. Even from here, Gray could see it wasn’t going well.

“More bad news, I’d say,” muttered Grinder, gesturing with a fin toward Whalem.

“It might not be,” Gray said, concentrating more on Silversun, who seemed by far the more reasonable fin of the two. “Let’s wait and see.”

“This thing is going sideways already,” Grinder huffed.

Gray felt hot irritation rise in his throat and ground his teeth together to keep from saying anything. The more he got to know the Hammer Shiver leader, the
more he wanted to tell him to stick his snout where the sun didn’t shine.

Lochlan swam over after Whalem departed. “I’m not going to put a sunny glow on the news. Part of this meeting is so you know everything that we do.” The AuzyAuzy king paused and then told the group, “We’ve lost another entire patrol. Finnivus is picking them off, as we feared.”

“Just great,” growled Grinder. “The brat might even know we’re here with you!”

“I doubt it worsens the danger we’re in already,” said Silversun. “Have you taken any precautions so it won’t happen again?”

“Gray’s going to find the best sharks for the job and get them trained into a special squad,” the golden great white told them.

Gray nodded when Grinder and Silversun looked his way. Thankfully, even though this was the first he was hearing about this, he managed to say, “I just have to decide on the best fin for the job. It’ll be soon, though.”

“Better be. But improved scouts are the least of your worries,” said Grinder. “I’ve seen your mariners. If it’s not their first day of training, it’s close.”

Gray wanted to shout but Lochlan only nodded in agreement. “You’re right about that, Grinder. That’s why we’d like Hammer Shiver to join with us. Riptide United could certainly use the example of your fine mariners to be the best they can be.”

“I know that,” Grinder told Lochlan. “But our territory is far away, just like Vortex Shiver’s. The holding force Indi left knows we’re there and doesn’t dare do anything because we’d rip them apart.” Grinder clacked his serrated triangle teeth together for emphasis. “So why should we go to war with you?”

Silversun watched Lochlan intently for his answer. Gray sensed that the small port jackson shark was extremely intelligent and would be useful in the coming fight. Grinder, though, Gray could do without. But Lochlan said they needed every mariner they could get. The golden great white turned, his wounds making it difficult, and faced the muscular hammerhead leader. A faint trickle of blood oozed from the deep gash in his flank. The doctor and surgeonfish had sutured the wound three times now, and still, it bled. “So why haven’t you driven them off?”