Maelstrom (14 page)

The room was surrounded by what seemed to be open sea, and for a moment the twins thought Kushtaka had changed her mind and led them to freedom. However, when she said
Scan,
the seascape outside changed so rapidly it felt as if the room were moving, racing in circles toward the surface.

As more light filtered through the water from the sunlit day above, the sharks prowled into view, swimming back and forth beside and behind the hull of a medium-sized boat. Periodically one or more of the sharks dived to scoop up a mouthful of fish, though it looked as if they’d prefer to bite something larger instead. Murel thought the off-limits prey—seal, human, and otter—would remain off-limits only as long as the sharks knew they were being watched.

Then the scene outside the room—though it seemed to be the room itself—swung around to the outside of the sharks and the boat, scanning it first near the surface, then back down again.

A sleek brown shape that looked amazingly small in the vastness of the sea was pumping its way toward the boat and the sharks.

There!
Murel said.
That’s him, right? Call him back now!

He’s out of range,
Kushtaka said, frantically scanning from the sharks and the boat to her son and back again.

Can’t you send your beam thing to get him?
Murel asked. Jeel was already so close to the sharks that she doubted she could save him.

By the time we reset the beam, you could be there,
Kushtaka said.

I’ll go,
Ronan said.
Lead the way.

No,
Kushtaka said.
The female will go. It is well known that females among your species—both of them—are more ruthless fighters in defense of young—or in this case, my young. My son is the one in jeopardy because your species, of whom I gather your father is a leader, brought this peril to us. Therefore your father’s son will stand surety for Jeel’s return.

Murel shot a triumphant “So there!” look at her brother. It nearly masked her fear of returning to waters where other large predators had almost killed her a short time before.

Ronan would have argued, but there was no time. Jeel was on his way to be shark bait. If one of them—and Kushtaka had decided on Murel—didn’t get the silly git back before he became a shark snack, Ronan didn’t want to think what Kushtaka and her people might do.

Suddenly four of the big otter aliens appeared beside him, each taking hold of one of his flippers in one of their clawed paws as they carried him back down into the city.

Don’t worry, Ro,
Murel called after him, putting into her thought much more confidence than she felt.
I’ll be back with Jeel in no time.

Kushtaka guided her beyond the domed room, which looked solid from the outside, to a point somewhat higher where the sea enveloped the city. Then she dropped her otter form, revealing herself to be a larger version of her daughter. She waved a tentacle in front of her and then beckoned Murel forward. Murel felt a little resistance, as if she were penetrating some kind of membrane, then with a slight pop she was free in the cold salt water. Although the interior of the city dome had felt similar to the seawater, now that she was outside the enclosure the difference was marked. Although the water near the volcano was warmer than that closer to shore, it was still much chillier than inside the dome. Nor had the dome smelled as strongly of sulfur as the water out here did, despite the fact that the dome was near enough to a volcanic vent to draw energy from it.

She swam away quickly, her torso undulating and her back flippers propelling her toward the surface. She feared the sharks might not remain on the surface, but reckoned that as long as their people were with them, the predators would probably stay somewhat close to the boat.

Her sonar picked up the Manos and the hull of the boat as she had seen in the sursurvu. On board, the shark people and the crew that brought the sharks to the sea would be watching. Da too no doubt. She thought to send him a message, but then she’d be breaking her promise and probably putting Ro in danger. Besides, there wasn’t any time. She had to reach Jeel before the sharks did.

Her sonar didn’t pick up any deep sea otters anywhere, or other otters, for that matter. Just sharks, the boat, and millions of terrified sea creatures who had no idea what was gobbling them up like popcorn.

M
UREL SWAM UP
toward the volcano, where the boat with the shark people was heading, with Jeel closing in. Her sonar search soon picked him up. However, she found the sharks as well. They seemed to have detected him and were diving to investigate. They were faster swimmers than she was.

She called to him,
Jeel! Jeel, you need to go back to the city. These animals are dangerous. Don’t go near them, they’ll eat you.

She felt the alien—otter? boy? he felt like a boy in her mind—turn from the sharks to her.
Who are you?
he asked with curiosity as acute as a real otter’s.

Murel. I’m one of the seal people your mother rescued. She sent me to get you, to warn you about the sharks. Come with me now. Hurry!

Why didn’t she come herself?
he asked.
She would have if I was really in danger.

The sharks won’t hurt me, but your people are fair game for them.

Why would they eat me and not you?
he asked skeptically.

Please just come and stop asking so many questions. There’s no time to argue. Look over your shoulder. See those shadows? They’re closing in on you. Come here to me where I can protect you.

Instead he backed away, though he did look over his shoulder.

By now Murel didn’t need sonar to tell that the sharks were almost upon them. She could see the white of their teeth.
Dive!
she cried.
To me, to me!

He looked around for her instead. She swam up toward him as hard as she could, but he couldn’t see her yet, and otters had no sonar. He saw the sharks, though, bearing down on him.

She drove herself toward them with powerful thrusts of her tail and pulls of her flippers.
No! Manos, no!
she tried to command them, but she might as well have been addressing empty water.
That is not prey. He’s a—

But they were between her and Jeel. She heard his thoughts, sensibly terrified at last. Then she heard his last water-strangled cry, the like of which she had never heard before and hoped never to hear again.

White teeth gnashed and the sea darkened with a deep blue stain that was Jeel’s alien blood. She felt him, heard him, saw him no more.

She swam forward and was surrounded by sharks. They still looked horrible and hungry but she was too angry and appalled to be afraid.
You ate him!
she cried.
I told you not to but you ate him anyway!

Not me,
said a Mano who she identified as the one they had first met.
I didn’t get so much as a nibble. There wasn’t enough to go around.
He wasn’t apologizing. He was complaining.
It’s not like it was a seal or an otter.

It was an otter. A deep sea otter,
she told him.

I didn’t notice any of those bringing fish to our tank. Just the brown slinky ones like your friend. Besides, it was feeding frenzy. Everybody knows you don’t stop a Mano in feeding frenzy. We haven’t had enough to eat for a long time so don’t gripe when we eat something that isn’t taboo or we might forget what is and eat you so we don’t have to listen to you.

Two Honus swam past the sharks to flank her. Nothing hostile, just there.

It is futile to argue with Manos,
the Honus told her.
And foolish.

She knew that they were right, but she would almost as soon stay with the sharks as return to face Kushtaka. The colony leader would have been watching on the sursurvu. Kushtaka would have seen her fail and Jeel swimming into the jaws of the sharks. How would Murel ever explain why she couldn’t save Jeel when she’d promised that she would? How would she convince Kushtaka to release Ronan anyway?

She swam slowly back to the domed city, weary from her hard swim and sadder than she had ever been. The Honus swam escort for a time and then she asked them to go away, so Kushtaka would know she hadn’t betrayed the colony to anyone.

The sea trembled as it had during the quake when Petaybee was birthing the volcanic island. It shook, the water even more violently agitated than it had been during the shark attack or when the orcas hunted her.

As if she were a bit of flotsam instead of a strong swimming sea creature, Murel felt herself caught and flung round and round so fast she could not see and could not use her sonar. But she felt it when something solid shot past her toward the surface, and felt a void yawning beneath her.

CHAPTER 16

S
EAN AND
Y
ANA
kept searching for their children. He returned to the sea. She used Marmie’s best sensors to probe for some sign of two young seals and an otter. The Honus remained near the volcano, agreeing that it was making a very fine home for them, a comfortable one in keeping with the home in the memories that lay buried inside their ancient heads.

On board the barge and tug were several of the Mano’aumakua clan, chief among them their matriarch, Puna. Sean had found her fascinating, but Sinead didn’t have much time for her. The old woman’s smile, in spite of sporting few teeth, showed a strong family resemblance to her aumakuas.

Even though Puna was new to the planet and hadn’t even been to a welcoming latchkay yet, she was trying to run things her way. It didn’t seem to hurt anything since most of the Petaybeans simply pretended they didn’t understand if she told them to do something they hadn’t already intended to do, but it was irritating.

Once the sharks were released, the tug followed them out to sea, so the people aboard could see where they were to live.

The tall black cone bezeled in black lava rose from the sea as the boat chopped across the waves. An escort of diving, surfacing, circling, and feeding sharks played around it. Sinead couldn’t help feeling as if she were to be the main course at a shark picnic. Bears, moose, wolves, and all manner of other wild things held no terrors for her and few mysteries, but the sharks gave her the willies. The sea was Sean’s element and he could have it, as far as she was concerned. She used to feel left out that when their grandfather messed about with their DNA, Sean was apparently the successful experiment while she comprised a control group of one. But she was glad now to be more or less normal. It made her life less complicated. She didn’t know if her partner, Aisling, could handle a woman friend who grew fur and needed to go for a swim below the ice pack periodically. Now, if Grandfather had made it so she could turn into a wolf occasionally, that might have been different.

Ah well, she had enough on her plate as it was.

Puna grinned maternally at her seagoing relatives. “They like it here. It is a good place.”

Sinead nodded but privately thought it had been a good place before, but the other creatures were probably thinking the neighborhood had gone to hell now.

She watched three of the sharks dive and saw that they were converging on some hapless prey, but she couldn’t see what it was, despite the clarity of the waters. She felt sorry for it, whatever it was. She was a bit surprised when a few moments later the water on the surface was dyed a deep indigo.

An octopus or squid perhaps? She thought their ink was black.

She had little time to think after that because suddenly the boat lurched and she fell hard against the railing. It listed severely onto its starboard side, spinning in a huge circle. She had a fleeting impression of Puna and the others thrown into the water amid the sharks, who were also whipped around helplessly. An enormous whirlpool drilled into the sea floor.

Suddenly, Sinead was torn from the boat and gulping frigid saltwater. She spun in an ever narrowing and deepening spiral as she was sucked downward to the bottom of the sea. At the same time she was being pulled apart, she felt crushing pressure from her burning lungs and freezing body. A primordial roar filled her ears, and her eyes were blinded with churning water.

By the time the whirling ceased, releasing her, she hung in its depths like a broken doll.

K
USHTAKA’S CITY WAS
gone! Murel swam straight to where it had been. Only an open trough remained. The volcanic vents within the trough glowed dully, their heat momentarily dimmed by the push of cold water from above.

Murel blinked.
Ronan? Ro?
she called, but heard nothing, sensed nothing. Her twin was gone.

But when she looked up into what had been the vortex of the whirlpool, she saw her aunt floating in the water above her. For a second she didn’t react except to think,
What’s Sinead doing here? She doesn’t swim.
Then she thought, more clearly,
She doesn’t swim!
and rushed up to the drowned woman, grabbing her by the back of her windbreaker and hauling her to the surface. The water was full of sharks with people attached to them. The sharks had rescued their own human relatives, but the boat and the other Petaybean crew members were nowhere to be seen.

Murel had been so shocked by what happened to Jeel, the whirlpool, and the disappearance of the undersea city, that she hadn’t realized what the maelstrom had done to the boat.

This was horrible, horrible. Without someplace solid to lay Aunt Sinead, without someplace dry to transform herself, she knew she had no hope of reviving her aunt.

Da! Mum!
she cried into the sea and air, not knowing where her parents were or even how long she and Ronan had lain unconscious in the room in the underwater city before Sky awakened them.
Sky, oh, Sky,
another loss—her otter friend gone with her brother, her aunt, with the boat’s crew. Everything was suddenly too awful to bear. It couldn’t possibly be worse.

Then she saw the black fins bearing down on her. The killer whales had returned.