The Last Emprex (14 page)

CHAPTER 22

GRAY HOVERED IN A SMALLER CAVERN WHERE
he had ordered a meeting of his council. One way or another it would be their last meeting. The situation was dismal. With only a trickle of current flowing into Fathomir, they had precious little time left before everyone suffocated.

Takiza seemed better and for that Gray was thankful. Sandy and Onyx were also there, ready to receive instructions for the shiver sharks. Striiker and his subcommanders kept to themselves. Though the constant attacks had stopped because they were sealed in, the great white's planning for what they would do if freed did not. Tydal and Xander were also close, along with Leilani. She wasn't a mariner but Gray valued her opinion, as he did the others. It was also a comfort to have her by his side. He had sent Judijoan to distribute what little food they had left to the hungriest pups and older fins.

Gray didn't need anyone to run this meeting. He would do it himself.

“Okay, everyone,” he said in a strong voice. “Listen up.” All eyes in the cavern went to him. A year ago this would have been uncomfortable for Gray, but after so many dire situations, those feelings had passed. He was the Seazarein and he would lead. “Grimkahn has given us two choices. Stay in here and swim the Sparkle Blue or wriggle our way out of the cavern entrance to be eaten one by one. I don't like either of those.”

“Right on, Gray!” shouted Striiker. “Tell us how we get to bloody their snouts.”

Gray didn't look at Takiza but he could feel the betta's eyes on him. “I'm going to tunnel us out the other side of the mountain using shar-kata.”

Everyone was quiet. It wasn't the rousing reception he was hoping for.

Finally, Xander put it into words. “Gray, I've seen Hokuu and Takiza scrumble with shar-kata, firing those bursts and bolts. Powerful, yeah, too right it is. But strong enough to cut through this mountain? Not a chance, mate. If the back is anything like the front entrance, it'll be fifty or even seventy feet of solid rock. That's impossible.”

“That would be the case normally. But there is a way to amplify my strength many, many times,” Gray said.

“No!” shouted Takiza. “Surely you do not mean to—”

Gray whirled. “The Seazarein Emprex is speaking and—with all respect—you
will
listen.” His master quieted as Gray continued. “I can mix my life force with shar-kata to increase its power. It will not only dig through the side of Fathomir, but make a hole large enough so that we can swim whole battle fins out.”

“Brilliant!” exclaimed Xander. “If we can keep the mariners in battle fins of a hundred we can assemble our formation right quick.”

Striiker nodded. “It could work. We'd be on the other side from where Grimkahn's uglies are swimming. It would take them time to stack and face us.”

“Foolishness!” said the betta.

“Takiza, my mind is made up.”

Tydal gave Gray a fin flick, studying him. “I take it by Takiza's reaction that what you're attempting is dangerous.”

The betta could remain quiet no longer. “Not only is it dangerous, it is idiotic!” Takiza looked at Gray and softened. “It is also very brave.”

Gray was totally calm. He was more at ease with this decision than many others he had had to make. “Yes. It's dangerous. But only to me.”

“Wait, what?” asked Striiker. “What do you mean? What'll happen to you?”

“I'm going to free you, is what's going to happen,” Gray answered, not meeting anyone's eyes.

There was a long silence. Finally Leilani asked, “Do you mean that to free us you might . . . die?”

Gray gave his friends a tight smile.

He heard his mother whisper “Oh, no,” and then everyone was yelling at once. Voices rang off the walls until Gray thought the cavern would collapse.

He amplified his voice with a shar-kata boost. The cavern was small and the result was deafening. “SILENCE!” He went on in his normal voice. “This is the only current we have left to swim. Any other time Takiza would do it.” Gray looked warmly at his teacher. “But he can't. And I don't want him to. He's given enough through the years. This is my job. And who knows, maybe I won't need every bit of my life force to free us and we'll be laughing about this later. But the fact remains, we have to get out of here and then win the fight against Grimkahn and his jurassic horde. We are out of options and I, as Seazarein Emprex, am going to do this.”

“There must be some other way,” Leilani said, her eyes leaking tears into the water. Gray could taste them as they wafted through the space.

Striiker hid his distress, but only barely. “What are your orders, Seazarein?”

“I want you and Xander to get the mariners lined up, ten by ten,” Gray began. “Some of them won't have seen this much power being used so you'll need to tell them what to expect. It's going to be bright and loud. Also, if the jurassics are patrolling, and they likely are, they will hear it. You should plan on only having a few minutes before Grimkahn comes at you with his entire force.”

Gray turned to the others in the cavern. “Mom and Onyx, I want you to divide the shiver sharkkind and dwellers into smaller groups. These will swim away after the opening is made and the mariners have left. They'll have a better chance if they leave during the confusion of the fighting. Tydal, I need you to organize everything else inside the cavern. Gather the older and less injured mariners to protect any who can't leave, because Grimkahn might send frills in after our mariners are outside.”

“Of course,” the brown and yellow epaulette shark said, and dipped his snout.

“You have your orders,” Gray said. “I begin in fifteen minutes at the cavern farthest in back. Please, move with a purpose.”

This got everyone zipping in all directions, except Leilani, who remained by his side.

“I'm staying with you,” the spinner said.

“No, you're not,” Gray answered, shaking his head. “I need you to get the word out in case the worst happens. I need you to find BenzoBenzo or whoever's in charge of the spyfish Eyes and Ears. If we fail I want them to have all the information about Grimkahn, Hokuu, and the horde that might be useful. Then maybe someone else can defeat them.”

“Oh, Gray,” Leilani sobbed. But she couldn't say anything else and swam off.

Gray hovered alone in the cavern, listening to the roar of action he had set in motion.

He felt strangely at peace. The worrying, training, and waiting were finally over.

One way or another, everything would be decided.

“Have I ever told you that you are my most troublesome apprentice?” asked Takiza. The little betta drifted down in front of his left eye.

“Once or twice, Shiro,” Gray sighed. “Once or twice.”

“Come, I will help you focus your mind for this task,” the betta told him. “You will need to be your best.”

Gray nodded and they began.

It wouldn't be long now.

CHAPTER 23

THE RIPTIDE UNITED MARINERS WERE LINED
up in squares of ten by ten, one battle fin of a hundred after another, nineteen in all. Nineteen hundred sharkkind was a large force, but there had been even more before the battle at Pax Shiver. Nearly three thousand.

Gray hoped that Barkley could convince Trank to help, but what were the tiny poisonous dwellers going to do against huge frilled sharks and even larger mosasaurs? Maybe Jaunt was waiting to join them with AuzyAuzy forces. But how many of them had survived Grimkahn's attack? And had Eugene Speedmeister delivered his message? Was he even alive?

We'll have to do this alone, Gray thought.

“ATTEN-SHUN HOVER!” shouted Striiker. The rows of Riptide United mariners went fins up. “SPLIT RANKS!” The mariners made a space between the fifth and sixth rows, creating a path so Gray could swim to the cavern wall.

Sharkkind tails and dorsals were urchin spine straight.

Not a fin was out of place.

Gray's heart swelled with pride.

The lumos had been told what was going on. Other small dwellers like shellbacks and turtles had carried them from the area Gray would attempt to bore through. He didn't want to lose any innocent lives when it could be avoided. Those that remained on the cavern ceiling, walls, and pillars of volcanic rock shone brighter than Gray had ever seen. The colors were breathtaking as he began the slow swim past his fighting sharkkind to attempt the impossible.

Tyro, give me strength, he thought.

Gray met the eyes of the mariners that would swim out to battle Grimkahn and his horde should he succeed. They were ready to die to save the Big Blue.

Gray would
not
let them down.

If he had to use all his life force, so be it.

“CLOSE RANKS!” bellowed Striiker when Gray passed through the formation. “FINS UP AND AT THE READY!”

Gray reached out with his senses, falling deeper into concentration than he ever had before. He saw and felt everything: the heartbeats of the mariners, the electricity that formed the lumo lights, all things down to the tiniest wisps of moss pushed back and forth by the micro-currents that still flowed through Fathomir.

He asked the water and the rocks forming Fathomir to allow him to use their power, just for a little while. The reception he received was a warm one, and Gray felt more connected to the Big Blue than at any time in his entire life. The energy of the waters flowed into him, making everything so very bright to his eyes. He added his own life force to this and the power inside him multiplied and blossomed.

Gray kept the force churning and growing until he could bear no more. It crackled and popped in the water all around him. He was glowing now, heat coming from inside him. It only happened when the amount of power you were channeling was massive.

With a shout he released what he had gathered.

A stream of energy poured from Gray and turned the rock it touched into sand. He moved forward, making sure the dust didn't spread in the water and choke his mariners. He put every ounce of his will into it. Gray's heightened senses told him exactly how much rock he would have to cut through to get outside.

It wasn't fifty or even seventy feet.

It was a hundred and two.

Too far, too far . . .

I will not fail! he shouted inside his mind.

The first fifty feet of rock disappeared in a flash of light.

Then twenty more.

Gray mixed the energy of the ocean with his life force and kept shooting it forward.

It felt like he was on fire with twenty-five feet to go.

Then it was twenty.

Fifteen.

Gray's progress slowed.

It took more time to move the next five feet than it had to cut through everything else.

Ten feet of rock remained between them and the revitalizing waters of the Big Blue.

Gray gritted his teeth, driving more and more of his life force into his effort.

Eight feet . . .

His sight began to dim.

Six feet . . .

Sparkles blipped into existence everywhere. These weren't like the white lights that you found with shar-kata. They were colorful.

Three feet . . .

He had to finish! He would not allow everyone to die without a fighting chance!

Gray took the last of his life force, transferring it into his effort to vaporize the last of the rock in front of him. He had to get through or they would die.

But it wasn't enough.

There was still a foot of solid rock in front of him and he could not break it down!

Darkness closed in. The lights around Gray grew brighter and more colorful.

It was the Sparkle Blue.

He saw the dim shapes of sharkkind swimming between colorful flashes.

Were some of the sharks calling to him?

They were!

Gray wanted to swim over to them, but then . . . he got stronger. The dimness and colorful lights receded. He began to feel refreshed. Gray's body, his soul, latched onto the power and soaked it in. He realized it could only be coming from one place.

Or more accurately, one fin.

Takiza.

The foolish betta was draining
his
life force and pouring it into Gray to keep him alive.

Sure enough he found the betta floating above his snout. “I never said I wouldn't help. Now, what are you waiting for?”

Nothing!

Gray blasted through the final foot of rock, vaporizing it. He shot forward into the open water, breathing deep of the cold current, which tasted so sweet it made him want to laugh and cry all at once. He moved to the side as Striiker and Xander led their mariners through the gap.

“MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!” shouted the great white.

Gray turned to speak to Takiza, but the betta was gone in the mad rush of nineteen battle fins of mariners pouring from the Fathomir mountainside.

Jaunt couldn't believe it when the mountainside disappeared in a flash of brightness and Gray swam out.

He was literally shining with power!

Jaunt had hidden her battle fins in the golden greenie field on one side of Fathomir. After they returned from Trank's and saw with their own eyes how Gray and his forces were trapped, their hopes had dimmed. How could they possibly get them out? She, Barkley, Salamanca, and Aleeyoot were in the middle of a heated argument when Gray had made his own way.

She rushed up and nudged him on the flank. She had to dodge because, thinking he was being attacked, Gray almost tail slapped her into the next week. But he regained his senses quickly and was getting stronger every minute.

“Glad to see you, ya big beauty!” she told him.

“Me too, Jaunt,” Gray replied. “But let's save the group rubs until later.”

Jaunt gave Gray a fin flick. “What do you need me to do?”

“Join your mariners to our formation,” Gray said.

“We can't sort everyone in time! We'll do more harm than good.”

Gray shook his head and pointed at Striiker, busily giving orders. “No sorting. We're using each armada like a battle fin, so really you'll be a separate unit. You can break off before first contact with you leading your group.”

Jaunt nodded. “That's different, all right. On my way!” She yelled to her subcommanders, “Shake those tails, Golden Rush! We got us a scrumble to win!”

There was a cheer from her mariners. They were itching for the chance to fight Grimkahn on more even terms. Striiker put her mariners on top of the formation. Jaunt was getting everything ready as best she could when she caught sight of the jurassic horde.

It was all of them, and they blackened the waters as they came around the mountainside.

Hokuu watched the scene unfold before his eyes. He had felt the shar-kata being used and moved to get a better view when the breach in the mountainside appeared. The amount of energy necessary to do this was immense. Gray would be drained.

Now was the time to strike!

But Hokuu didn't see Takiza, and his old Nulo had to be somewhere close.

No, Hokuu wouldn't rush in.

And he didn't have to.

The mountain had rumbled as Gray burned his way through it. Frilled shark scouts were alerted and reported to Grimkahn. The mosasaur king and his mighty horde weren't caught completely by surprise. Even now they were swimming at the Riptide mariners who still needed time to get into formation.

The battle waters would run red with blood!

Hokuu would let Grimkahn and Gray fight it out.

That way there would be only one enemy left.

One weakened enemy that would be ripe for the taking.

All he had to do was wait.

And I'll get to watch one heck of a fight, he thought.

What could be better? Hokuu settled in to enjoy the carnage.