The Battle of Riptide (16 page)

GRAY BOLTED FROM THE PATCH OF THICK greenie, very close to where the Indi mariner prime hovered. It was a miracle he had made it this far. But with Whalem escaping, the royal court being attacked by Ripper, and two armadas clashing a short distance away, it was the perfect storm. The utter panic and confusion inside the Riptide homewaters hid Gray better than even the thickest kelp field.

Much to Gray's surprise, for five whole seconds after he went into a roaring attack sprint, absolutely no one raised an alarm. Perhaps, the few sharks who saw him streak behind the throne area where Finnivus was alternately weeping and screaming had other things on their minds.

Gray could hear the new mariner prime's orders as he closed the distance between them. “Battle fin one—Sea Serpent Strikes, execute! Battle fin two . . .” The richly tattooed armada commander, a young spinner shark, looked over an instant before Gray struck. The bite was clean and deep. Blood clouded the water as the spinner's eyes rolled upward to the whites.

“Look out!” cried one of the subcommanders, much too late.

Gray smashed through him, and there was a free path to the signaling device. The lantern fish inside panicked, bouncing and flashing madly, but couldn't move from the enclosed mesh pen. Gray crashed into the device, breaking it to pieces in his mouth. He whipped his head side to side, crushing the signaler further as his momentum carried him past the rim of the homewaters. Finally, Gray dropped what was left of it down a deep crevice. “Let them try and find that!”

The effect on the Indi armada was immediate. They had been doing a complex weaving maneuver with all three battle fins in motion at once. At least one battle fin took the panicked flashing of the terrified lantern fish as a real command from the now-dead mariner prime. That force went into an area where another was supposed to be. The two swam straight into each other!

The third battle fin tried to withdraw, but Gray's friends wouldn't let them. Lochlan bellowed, “Attack! Attack!” so loudly, it could clearly be heard across the battle waters. The AuzyAuzy-Coral formation struck the one Indi battle fin still in good order. Blood clouded everything in that area for a moment.

When the current whisked it away, Gray saw that Indi battle fin had lost over half of its sharkkind—more than fifty! The other two battle fins, in snarled confusion after swimming into each other, had no way to defend themselves when the entire AuzyAuzy and Coral Shiver force turned and charged them.

There was blood and chaos everywhere! The shrill, terrified shrieks chilled Gray's spine, but at least it wasn't his friends doing the screaming. If sharks had to swim to the Sparkle Blue today, thought Gray, let them be Indi mariners.

But the Black Wave armada wasn't going to swim away just yet. They were too disciplined. Their subcommanders saw the lantern fish weren't signaling and took matters into their own fins. AuzyAuzy tried to press its momentary advantage, but their next attack was deflected without any damage done! Then the three disorganized Indi battle fins merged into two organized ones. Even with their losses, Indi still outnumbered the AuzyAuzy force by two to one!

The armada wheeled and attacked, biting deeply into the AuzyAuzy formation. Through his lessons with Takiza and Lochlan, Gray knew they wouldn't last another strike.

Gray sped up. He would fight to the finish with his friends. But suddenly, there was something in front of his eye—Gray thought it might be a bit of floating greenie, but then it spoke!

“Take them in, Nulo! And try not to be your usual clumsy self!”

“Takiza!” Gray shouted. “Take who in?”

“Always asking questions!” The little betta scooted upward and behind. When Gray looked in that direction, he didn't see Takiza—but he
did
see two hundred AuzyAuzy mariners swimming toward the battle!

That
was what the maredsoo greenie was for!

Takiza swam across the entire Atlantis and into the Sific to lead the AuzyAuzy forces from there. The maredsoo had allowed them to get to Riptide in time for the battle.

The sharks of the Golden Rush, the name they used because of Lochlan's peculiar family shading, put Gray in diamond head position out in the center and near the front. Whether he wanted to or not, Gray would lead this group into battle!

“Takiza told us to follow you,” said a mako with an AuzyAuzy accent. “Orders, sir!”

Gray surveyed the situation. He was deathly afraid to do the wrong thing but knew he needed to be decisive or his friends would die. They needed to stop the Indi armada's next attack! “We're going directly in!” he shouted to everyone around him. “Spearfisher Streaks by the Cliffs—execute!”

But his order wasn't shouted. It was relayed by the clicks and whistles of a dolphin swimming right above his dorsal fin. The AuzyAuzy mariners understood the dolphin's odd language and snapped into perfect formation.

Gray and the AuzyAuzy's forces caught the Indi armada unaware and unprotected. With a tremendous howl, the mariners of the Golden Rush ripped into their enemy. Indi had killed their king and attacked their home. AuzyAuzy showed no mercy. This attack broke the Indi armada.

Lochlan's formation merged with Gray's. “If you don't mind,” the young king told him, “I'll take it from here!” Gray was happily relieved as Lochlan took the diamond head position with his personal guard and the dolphins now relayed his commands.

The subcommanders ordered everyone from Rogue and Coral to leave the formation. Now that Lochlan had his forces and the advantage of dolphins to relay his orders instantly, they would be much better without Gray and his untrained friends. The AuzyAuzy mariners smoothly and cleanly re-formed and swept after the Indi armada, striking at any groups that tried to organize into a battle formation. Soon, it became a rout! The shattered Indi mariners turned tail and swam away in disarray.

In the distance, Gray saw another large group of sharkkind had already left. It was Finnivus and his personal guard. They were retreating. Wait! Actually, they were swimming away as fast as they could!

Gray hovered in the bloody waters in numbed shock.

Somehow, they had done it. The Battle of Riptide was won.

AN HOUR LATER, THE LAST REMNANTS OF THE Indi Shiver armada were driven from the furthest reaches of Riptide territory. Barkley, Mari, Gray's friends from Rogue and Coral Shivers, Lochlan, and all those from AuzyAuzy were talking, shouting, and singing as they grieved for their lost friends.

Even Ripper was there! How did he get out of the royal court alive?

After the initial euphoria of the moment, Gray realized the one fin he didn't see was Takiza. Where was the frilly little betta? He, most of all, deserved to be celebrating with them. Gray told everyone, “Be right back!” and quickly swam the way he'd come with the AuzyAuzy mariners. He searched and searched but found nothing. Where was Takiza?

Then Gray saw him.

But he wasn't moving.

And his gills were so still.

Gray's heart caught in his throat as he slowed himself to a hover, the little betta's body drifting with the slow current next to his left eye. For a moment the water caught Takiza's frilly fins, making them bloom splendidly, but otherwise there was no movement.

Not even a fin flick.

The eyes of Takiza Jaelynn Betta vam Delacrest Waveland ka Boom Boom stared blankly into the Big Blue.

“Takiza?” Gray said in a whisper as tears welled up in his eyes. “Takiza?”

There was no answer.

“Oh, no, no, no,” was all Gray could keep repeating.

He sobbed a few times. He tried to keep his grief and pain inside, but then, like a tidal wave, everything came pouring out. How could the noble fish have sacrificed himself? For what? Finnivus was still
alive
!

Gray gave himself over to full-blown bawling for many minutes until he saw the little betta looking crossly at him, shaking his head in disapproval.

“TAKIZA!” shouted Gray.

“The first time I've slept soundly in a hundred years, and you disturb me with your hysterical sobbing!” Takiza shook himself and fluttered his gossamer fins this way and that. He grunted as if everything was to his satisfaction.

“Oh, Takiza! I—”

Gray was cut off by a sizable tail slap across the snout that made him wince. “How many times do I have to tell you to address me as Shiro?” Takiza shook his head once more. “Of all my apprentices throughout the ages, Nulo, you are truly the
most
Nulo.”

“But at least I'm the
best
at being worst,” Gray said, grinning. “I have that going for me, right?”

The betta snorted. He caught himself and scowled. “What am I to do with you? Keep up your training, Nulo. I must see to things much more important than listening to you weep or your pathetic attempts at humor. Do try and stay out of trouble for a little while until I return!” And with that, Takiza flared his fins once more and swam away.

Gray called after him, “I'll miss you, too, Shiro!”

Takiza didn't answer as he disappeared into the Big Blue, but somehow, Gray could tell the little betta was smiling.

EPILOGUE

“I WILL KILL THEM ALL!” SHOUTED FINNIVUS. “They have dishonored my—our!—armada! But what if they're coming after me right now? What if that evil Lochlan and his Golden Rush want to send me to the Sparkle Blue? Where are my guards? I must have more guards! I order them to protect me! And destroy the sharks responsible for this!”

Tydal watched the emperor alternate between fear and rage as what remained of their forces travelled back toward the Indi homewaters. Normally, each sharkkind in the court would fight tooth and fin to be nearest to His Highness. Not today. Most in the court stayed as far away as their rank permitted. This was a day of disaster. Tydal wouldn't be surprised if Finnivus had the whole thing wiped from the royal history. How had Whalem escaped? How had that giant hammerhead called Ripper attacked Velenka in the middle of the royal court? If it hadn't been for the quickness of the
squaline
—who had first thought Ripper was after Finnivus—she wouldn't have had a one-flippered seal's chance in a feeding frenzy of having remained with the living. As it was this aptly named Ripper had killed two of Finnivus's personal guards and
still
managed to get away!

But the most shocking thing of all was that the Indi Shiver armada had been defeated.

Tydal could only think of this in the hushed silence of his mind. The force against their mariners was smaller and not as well-trained. But they had won anyway! True, many things happened, not the least of which was a giant shark destroying the lantern fish signaler. How a fish that size managed to
sneak
into the homewaters unseen was simply baffling.

“They have not seen the last of us!” yelled Finnivus. “I am the emperor of the Big Blue, and they have rebelled from my just and gentle rule! They task me! They will pay!”

Tydal knew that once Finnivus was less panicked, he would gather his forces and bring another, far larger armada back to these waters. The tides of the entire North Atlantis would turn red with blood. How could anything stand against Finnivus's royal wrath? It was impossible.

But when Tydal had woken up this morning, he would have said any of the things that had happened today were impossible.

The armada had been defeated. Finnivus was swimming home in disgrace. There was much to think about. Tydal replayed in his mind how the emperor had shrieked when the hammerhead seemed to be hurtling toward him.

Tydal was careful not to show any emotion as he watched Finnivus sob, but inside, he laughed.

Takiza swam away with all the dignity he could muster. To be found floating in the water like a piece of drifting garbage! Absolutely galling! Little did the young pup know how close Takiza had come to swimming the Sparkle Blue. Even after giving Lochlan's mariners the maredsoo brought from the Dark Blue's depths by his increasingly capable apprentice, Takiza knew they wouldn't make it in time. He'd used his powers to speed the current, pushing it faster and faster to make up the difference.

By the time they'd arrived at the battle, Takiza could see the motes of color dancing on the edge of his vision that preceded everyone's journey into the Sparkle Blue. He allowed himself a smile. How his apprentice had led on a moment's notice! How easily Gray had filled the role of commander! Even though Takiza made sure to ask—a force as proud and capable as the Golden Rush would not blindly follow just anyone—they trusted Gray with their lives upon meeting him! It gave Takiza hope for the first time in a long time.

The Indi armada had been defeated because they had been caught by surprise.

That wouldn't be the case next time.

But these were thoughts for another day.

Takiza would go to a safe place and rest. He needed to regenerate his strength, or he would surely fail. It was such a long current to swim, and he despaired of successfully completing his journey. But he would try.

Tyro would expect nothing less.