The Last Emprex (5 page)

CHAPTER 5

“CONCENTRATE!” TAKIZA GRUMBLED. “YOUR
mind wanders like a drunken sea cow!”

Gray didn't answer. He had learned over many, many training hours that most of the time Takiza didn't want one. Besides, shar-kata was hard enough without trying to carry on a conversation. And the betta did enough talking for both of them. “The power of the tides and currents do not merely wash past those who live in the oceans. Each fin and dweller is a part of it, their tail strokes and heartbeats add to the energy. Everyone is a part of this relationship.
You
are a part of it. . . .”

Gray let Takiza's words mix with the current and pretty soon didn't hear anything at all. Whenever he was free from his Seazarein duties, Takiza insisted on instructing him on how to increase his shar-kata powers. Unfortunately, there never seemed to be enough time. Trying to plan the attack against Grimkahn's forces took up much of Gray's day. Worse, it was mentally exhausting, so when they did get to train, he couldn't do very much.

He was all right at the first part, what Gray named
calling the sparkles
. He reached his mind out as if looking for sharks or dwellers in the area. Magnifying this, Gray could see the motes of power. There were millions and millions of them. More than anyone could count.

When these merged with Gray they gave him a boost of power. If he forced the matter, tried to will them to come, the sparkles stubbornly resisted. But if he relaxed and became one with them, they swooped over so fast it was hard to believe.

This Gray could do readily. He could gather power from the water.

He just couldn't use it very well.

“Good,” said the betta. “Now swim the course.”

He hesitated and Takiza cracked him with a gauzy fin on the snout. “Swim!”

Gray had speed-swum over to these training fields, not the ones in the Dark Blue by the Maw, but a different area in a less active section of the northern fire waters. What would have taken a week to travel normally took only a half hour using shar-kata. Gray was proud that he had been able to do this by himself.

But that had been a straight-line swim in clear waters.

Now he was being asked to go through an obstacle course a hundred miles long filled with razor-sharp coral spires. Shar-kata wasn't magic. If he didn't turn away from a thick coral formation or mountainside, he wouldn't go through it. Gray would splatter himself into it.

“I am still waiting,” Takiza said. The betta had regained some of his previous sarcasm during their last few training sessions. It wasn't helping.

“Yes,” Gray replied. “Your usual patient self, I see. Shiro—”

Crack!
Takiza gave him another stinging snout slap.

“Oww!” Gray couldn't help yelping, but didn't lose the power he had gathered.

Takiza noticed. He had probably planned it. “Very good. See? You can concentrate! What do you want to ask?”

“I'm afraid I'll smash into one of those very solid coral pillars and kill myself.”

“Then do not do that,” the betta said, exasperated. “Begin!” Gray sighed. Just as he was thinking, Takiza would probably save me if I was going to hurt myself, his master added, “And don't expect me to guard you from your mistakes. I'm old and not as quick as I once was.”

“The turns are so sharp,” Gray said as he eyed the pylons. If he were to swim it at normal speed, there would be a good two or three tail strokes between each. More than enough time to adjust and angle his way through.

But using the speed of shar-kata . . .

Takiza tapped him on the snout again, but gently. The betta remained at ease and stuck like a barnacle on Gray's side through the entire training session, the better to critique Gray's every move. “Remember, turning is the same as swimming in a straight path.”

“That makes no sense.”

“No, it is so simple that you
believe
it to be complicated,” Takiza said. “You can go straight with shar-kata, yes?”

“Yes,” Gray answered.

“But your tail is not pushing you, even though you continue to wave it about as if calling for more seasoned fish. But it does nothing. That is why turning is the same as swimming a straight path.”

Gray didn't want to continue the maddening conversation. The goal of this exercise was to teach him to move as Takiza and Hokuu did. They seemed to disappear, jittering left and right, and could stop on an urchin spine. For a shark without shar-kata to fight one that used it, a trip to the Sparkle Blue was almost always the end.

The last two times Gray had tried this exercise, he zoomed forward toward the first spire but had stopped to avoid crashing. He wasn't able to turn. This time he would get it right.

With a deep breath, Gray thought himself forward. Everything slowed down as if he was in battle, and he crossed the hundred yards of water in an eye blink.

 . . .
Turning is the same as swimming in a straight path 
. . .

It totally made sense!

What did it matter which direction he willed himself?

Straight, curved, zigzag—he could go anywhere he wanted!

Gray zoomed through the obstacle course. It was easy to zigzag his way through once he understood. He was moving with the speed of thought. What had been a cramped two or three tail stroke space to him before was a yawning chasm when Gray moved with his mind.

“Yes, yes!” he heard Takiza exclaim. “Turn around and do it again.”

Gray whipped back and forth through the course ten times without a scratch. “Turning is the same as going straight, but in a curved way! Totally get it now. You're right, so simple!”

“Excellent.” Takiza detached from Gray and gathered his own shar-kata energy. “Now, defend yourself! And remember, this is also the same, but in an entirely different way.”

“Wait—what?”

Takiza released a ball of bright red energy and it hit Gray, stinging him so badly he thought he was on fire.

“Oww!” he yelled. “Let me get ready!”

“Hokuu will not wait for you to catch your breath,” Takiza answered. The betta sped to the side and fired another bolt of energy.

Gray moved himself a good fifty feet and the next shot missed. “Ha!” he yelled triumphantly.

Takiza was behind him, though. There was a sizzling sensation as Gray got tagged again. “What?” the betta asked innocently. “I thought I heard you say something.”

“Not fair!” Gray said as he zipped away, then back so he could face Takiza. The betta continued to hurl different types of energy. He threw bolts that boiled the water as they passed, ones that forked and spread like lightning, and others that exploded.

Gray put up a shield and blocked the attacks he couldn't avoid. Takiza nodded his approval, but after three hits by the betta the shield fell apart. Gray was jolted twice in quick succession.

It really hurt!

Gray gathered his own ball of energy and fired.

Miss.

“Again! Concentrate!” commanded Takiza.

They exchanged bolts, but Gray's weren't as strong as his master's. That wouldn't do, especially in a fight against Hokuu. He drew the sparkles inside him and thought about making them more powerful.

Then something happened.

The energy inside Gray multiplied many times until he felt like he would burst. His vision dimmed and he saw a different type of light. Not clean and white like the energy of the waters. This one was different, more like flashes and globs of color.

“NO! NO! NO!” yelled Takiza.

Gray fired and the betta dodged. The blistering energy blew a path through the thick coral forest. Once it was out of him, Gray's vision returned to normal and he didn't see the multi-colored lights.

“Wow!” Gray shouted. “Did you see that? How did I do that?”

“By almost killing yourself!” Takiza shook his head.

Gray stopped. “What? How?”

“You mixed you own life force with the energy of the oceans,” the betta said. “Yes, it's powerful, but it can easily stop your heart. Did you notice the colored lights?

All of a sudden it hit Gray. “That's the Sparkle Blue.”

Takiza nodded solemnly. “Correct.”

“Great. I have Grimkahn and Hokuu after me and I almost do the job for them.” Gray sighed. “I'm a jelly-headed, chowder-brained idiot.”

“No,” Takiza said, shaking his head. “You are the best student I have had in my long life. But that alone will not save you against a mosasaur. Though you cannot beat him without shar-kata, Gray, you must still keep in mind your limits. Until now you were physically the strongest in all the Big Blue and could solve problems by ramming them with your very thick head. That is no longer true. If you do not master shar-kata, I fear for the seven seas.”

They trained for hours afterward. Gray's strikes got stronger and stronger and he avoided mixing his own life force with the energy of the tides. He was even able to launch attacks while he maintained a shield, for which he got another rare compliment.

But still, it didn't feel like he had enough power to beat Grimkahn. Or any mosasaur.

They were just too big and strong.

And then there was Hokuu, the most powerful shar-kata master the world had ever known.

When they were done, Gray's swim back to Fathomir was fast but depressing.

CHAPTER 6

THE SUN HAD DISAPPEARED BY THE TIME
Gray returned to Fathomir. Though he had eaten a little—a haddock went directly into his mouth while speed swimming—he was still hungry. He decided to head into the golden greenie fields and hunt. It was a beautiful night, the water cool and crisp with a refreshing current whisking through the kelp. He didn't need shar-kata to catch five fat groupers in less than an hour and felt full for the first time in weeks.

For a moment, he hovered and enjoyed the silence.

Then something tickled his face in a familiar way. This wasn't shar-kata but a sense called the lateral line. For most sharks it was only a close-range detection alert, but then Gray wasn't like most sharkkind. Because of his training with Takiza, Gray's lateral line could detect the electrical shadows of larger fins up to a quarter mile away when conditions were right.

Even though he could not see a shark, Gray knew one was there because of the size of the shadow it cast. Or maybe it was a large bluefin tuna. Gray's stomach rumbled. He could go for a big bluefin about now. He swam silently through a copse of greenie and into a clearing.

Leilani was there.

The spinner didn't notice him. She was entranced by streams of glowing algae that floated through a valley in the distance. There was no moon and the currents were lit up by different-colored flows of algae. They moved and dipped with the waters, changing when they merged. Blue and yellow became green, red and green transformed to yellow, red and blue formed magenta.

It was beautiful and Gray sighed at the sight.

“Oh!” Leilani said when she heard. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.”

“It's gorgeous, isn't it?” she asked. Then the spinner shook her head. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so distracted by this dumb algae formation when so many are dying in the war.”

Gray moved closer. “No, don't say that. If you can't enjoy things like this, then what's the point of fighting? Besides, you're right, it
is
beautiful.”

“Did you want to be alone? I'm sure you have things on your mind,” said the spinner. “I can go.”

Gray laughed. “You were here first, Leilani. And no, I don't want to be alone. But I would like to
not
talk about Grimkahn, Hokuu, or jurassic hordes for a while.”

“What would you like to talk about?”

“I don't know,” Gray said. “You choose. Something you think is interesting.”

Leilani thought. “Do you know how landsharks pick their leaders?”

They seemed pretty violent, so Gray guessed, “A fight to the death?”

“No, they
vote
,” she told him. “They each choose their favorites and the human with the most votes is the leader. It's called an
election
. They elect their leader.”

Gray laughed. “Really? What a waste of time! Wouldn't everyone vote for their friends?”

“Well, the humans who want to lead have to talk to all the different shivers in their home territory,” Leilani said. She began to swim side to side as if she were teaching a class. Gray found this cute for some reason. “The landsharks of the different shivers listen to each one and then decide who has the better ideas on how to lead. Everyone gets one vote.”

“What about royal votes?” Gray asked. “Are they worth more?”

“I heard it used to be that way, but now everyone's vote is the same.”

Gray nodded approvingly. “And what if the winning leader does something totally different than he said he would before he was elected?” Gray asked. “Is there a fight to the death then?”

“I don't think they use mortal combat at all. I think they vote again after a time. You aren't appointed for life, only a few years. If they believe you're a liar, they choose someone else.”

“And if that human dies, do they have a Line for someone to take over?” All shark shivers had a leader and what was called the Five in the Line. Number one would take over if the leader died or if the number one in the Line won a challenge. It had been that way since the time of Tyro, the First Fish.

Leilani nodded. “They do have something like that, but when the leader's term is over, he or she and their whole Line leave or have to be elected again.”

“That's interesting,” said Gray.

“I know,” she agreed. “I was talking with Tydal, the minister prime of Indi Shiver, and he wondered if sharkkind could ever do it the landshark way.”

This struck Gray as ridiculous, and he laughed out loud for a moment but then stopped.

Was the sharkkind way better?

Many shivers had the right of challenge. That usually meant someone like Silversun, a smart port jackson shark, could never become a leader. They weren't big and strong enough. But brains didn't always come with size. Barkley was proof of that. Sharkkind weren't really getting the
best
leaders their way. Mostly, they got the best fighters, some of whom happened to be smart.

“That would be something, all right,” he told the spinner.

“We should get back,” Leilani said. “Everyone is probably wondering where you are.” Gray watched the masses of luminous algae drift and mix and change colors. It was soothing. “Another minute,” he told her.

And together they watched the light show in silence.

They left a half hour later. Leilani had to go and check for quickfins from Jaunt or BenzoBenzo, her superior in the AuzyAuzy Eyes and Ears spyfish network. Gray knew that he probably had a bunch of urgent messages but there was one stop he had to make first. He felt bad taking time for himself but he wanted to do this. Gray veered toward the Riptide United's new homewaters, which were at the northern edge of Fathomir territory.

Riptide's previous homewaters in the Atlantis had been destroyed when Hokuu poisoned the waters so nothing could grow there. That was slowly getting better, but it would be years before anyone could live there again. There was a nice reef on the northern edge of Fathomir, and that was where he saw his mother, Sandy, a nurse shark. Though he was too young to remember, it was Sandy who first found Gray when he was a scared pup after his escape from the Underwaters.

“Hi Mom,” he said and gave her an affectionate rub on the flank.

His mother ran her tail along his back like she'd done when he was little. It didn't really work anymore because Gray was too big for her to do this without swimming down his entire length. But it felt wonderful anyway. “It's good to see you, Gray,” she said.

Onyx the blacktip gave him a hearty flank slap. He was an older fish, but cunning and smart. Barkley called him the original ghostfin. “Don't tell me Judijoan actually let you out of the royal cavern.” They all laughed.

“I'm on my way there. I wanted to stop off before . . . ” Gray trailed off.

He didn't know how to finish the sentence.

Before the world ended?

Was that what was going to happen?

Gray was so tired.

Despite a few moments of peace between battles, there had been crisis after crisis since Barkley and Gray swam out into the open waters from their home in Coral Shiver when they were pups. Would it ever end? “I just wanted to stop by and say hi.”

“You look tired,” Sandy said, her mouth barbels vibrating with emotion. She, of course, saw everything. Gray was her son, after all.

“Tired?” repeated Onyx. “You are mistaken, Sandy. The great Graynoldus, Seazarein Emprex, never gets tired, isn't that right, son?”

“Right,” Gray answered. “I had a training session with Takiza. Those can be tough.”

“See?” Onyx said, looking straight at Gray. “Not tired.
Recovering
. Big difference.” Onyx knew that a leader had to be strong for his mariners and other shiver sharkkind. But there was concern in the blacktip's eyes. If the sharkkind fighting for Gray saw he was dispirited, they themselves might lose hope. He couldn't allow that.

“Gray! Gray! Gray!” said his little sister, Ebbie, as she tore over.

“Ebbie!” he exclaimed. “I was hoping you were around! Look how big you are!”

“I am totally
so big
now,” she said, preening a little. “I think I'm big enough to swim into the open waters but Mom won't let me.” Ebbie rubbed against him. “Can you tell her I'm big enough?”

“Yes, Gray,” Sandy said with a smile. “Why don't you tell me that?”

“Because I've learned that Mom knows best!”

“Jelly-headed no longer!” said Onyx. “Thank Tyro!”

Gray used his tail to swish the current underneath Ebbie, and she floated to his eye level. “You'll have to convince Mom. I may be the Seazarein, but she's in charge of you.”

“Aww!”

He looked around for Riprap, his little brother. “Now where's your—
oof
!” Gray was tapped with some force on his side—right on the liver, actually—by Riprap's version of a snout ram.

“Oww!” Riprap cried. “I think I broke my snout.” Gray's brother was going to be large for a nurse shark, but he was still a pup. “That was supposed to hurt you more than me!”

Ebbie shook her head. “I said you couldn't paralyze him. Even with that thick head of yours.”

“You didn't distract him enough!” yelled Riprap.

“So this was all a plan? How devious!” Gray said, acting surprised. In truth, his little brother and sister had ambushed him like this several times. It was all in fun. “Ebbie diverts my attention and you snout-bang my liver. Pretty good.”

“Not good at all!” pouted Riprap. “You didn't even flinch! How are we going to send Grimkahn or Hokuu to the Sparkle Blue if we can't even ambush you when you're not looking?”

“We'll have to practice harder,” Ebbie said in all seriousness. “Maybe we can get Takiza to train us like he did with Gray.”

“Stop speaking foolishness!” Sandy said.

“Your Mum's right,” Onyx said. “Let's go.”

“Wait,” Gray said. “What are you two talking about?”

Both Riprap and Ebbie came to the best attention hover they could. “We've decided to be mariners!” he said.

Ebbie added, “It's everyone's duty to fight in the armada. We can't be turtles, after all.”

Gray exploded. “DON'T EVEN THINK THAT!” he yelled. Riprap and Ebbie were blown backward by the force of his words. “You're not anywhere near old enough to be mariners! Or even train!”

“Are too!” Riprap said before Ebbie gave him a tail poke to be quiet.

Gray wanted to yell again but saw his mother watching, calm as usual. She'd have an answer to this, so he motioned for her to speak. “It's true there are other younger sharks than Riprap and Ebbie training with the armada, but they won't be mariners until they mature,” she told him. “Striiker wanted everyone to be familiar with formation fighting by the time they're old enough.”

Onyx dipped his snout. “I've been helping with that. Didn't seem wrong, Seazarein, and no one gets hurt. Do you want us to stop?”