Read Online Enemy of Oceans by EJ Altbacker - Free Book Online Page B

soon! Very soon!”
    The frilled shark whooshed away leaving a trail of bubbles.
    â€œMari!” Gray yelled as Leilani joined them. “Mari!”
    â€œShe’s gone!” Barkley yelled in his ear over the din of the brutal fighting that continued all around him.
    A megalodon came at Gray as he hovered in shock and indecision. Was Mari really gone?
    Takiza touched the giant prehistore with a fin flick and paralyzed him. The megalodon crashed into the rocks behind them. “I said GO!” shouted the betta. “Shear, take them!”
    With a flick of Takiza’s tail Gray, Barkley, and Leilani were pushed a hundred yards away from the immediate fighting. Shear and his guardians rammed Gray to prevent him from turning back. “We must withdraw!” the tiger finja shouted in his ear. “It’s a slaughter!”
    Their retreat to the AuzyAuzy homewaters was dark and cold.

THE FUNERAL WAS A SOMBER AND FORMAL affair. It was one level below the funerals of kings and queens and done after a special ceremony for the mariners that had been killed. Kendra had called for homewaters-wide attendance and bestowed the title of Loyal and Courageous Friend of AuzyAuzy Shiver on Mari. Gray thought this was well deserved but the honor, and everything else, tasted like ash in his mouth.
    He was also angry at Kendra. She had saved their lives with her mariners but also caused the entire mess by ordering them followed. She’d wanted to make sure they were safe. Yet doing that, and then attacking when Hokuu and Drinnok threatened, had cost Gray a chance to solve the problem peacefully. He knew he shouldn’t feel this way but couldn’t help it.
    There was no way to undo what had been done.
    There was no way to bring Mari back.
    The entire AuzyAuzy armada was arranged in two lines fifty sharks long, each facing the other with a swimming path down the middle. Every other AuzyAuzy mariner was stacked in rows of fifty directly above the first two rows facing each other. This formed a canyon of sharkkind whose heights stretched from the seabed toward the chop-chop. The path in between led to the Speakers Rock where Gray, Kendra, and other friends of Mari hovered. Behind the mariners, thousands of shiver sharks and dwellers watched. A school of humpbacks filled the waters with mournful whale song as a young thresher symbolizing Mari swam down the path formed by the AuzyAuzy armada.
    Shear’s face was set like rock as he and the other guardians hovered by Gray. Takiza’s expression was neutral but Gray could sense the betta was hiding his true emotions. Jaunt and Leilani cried freely. Barkley tried not to do the same but was losing that battle.
    Gray felt his body clench. He would love to howl in grief. But he was the Seazarein and had to be strong. The young thresher swimming down the path represented a new life taking the place of the one that had been lost. That may have all been true, but for Gray no one could ever take Mari’s place. The thresher picked up speed and zoomed straight up toward the sun and the chop-chop. It was supposed to signify Mari’s passing from the Big Blue to the Sparkle Blue and it was beautiful.
    But Mari’s swim to the Sparkle Blue hadn’t been anything like it! Gray trembled with anger and ground his teeth until one snapped off with a kkrk! Mari was burned to nothing by Hokuu! His vision turned red. All Gray could think about was biting into Hokuu’s gills and ripping his head off.
    One day he would. One day . . .
    Suddenly Gray noticed the humpbacks had stopped singing and the only sound was the light current whisking past his ears. Everyone was looking at him. Kendra gently tapped him on the flank, her eyes filled with understanding. “Are you all right?” she whispered.
    â€œFar from it,” he croaked. Gray had completely forgotten that he was supposed to speak.
    â€œYou don’t have to say anything,” Kendra told