Ro! she called, her head aching with the force it took to get through to him. Cut it out. You're not even stopping long enough to let the sound bounce back to you.
Am too, he said. For your information there is a sizable iceberg off our bow at two o'clock.
That's very interesting but we're not ships. Even if we ran into it we wouldn't hurt ourselves. We can't go that fast.
Ouch! For your information, you can so hurt yourself if you run into this iceberg while you're listening to your stupid sister instead of the echoes from your sonar.
Ran right into it.
And over the top of the next wave she saw it, her brother outlined against it before he dived. The Honus, not relying on sonar, swam neatly around it.
Undeterred, her brother called back, If you don't want to navigate properly, please don't distract me. Then he recommenced his series of snore-fart blatting, managing to sound pompous this time.
She stayed purposely behind the Honus, feeling somehow that their rear needed guarding. If she lost sight of them, she used her own sonar, emitting a sound that was not nearly so rude as the one Ronan produced. Hers was a throaty roar with a high-pitched tweak at the end. It sounded to her almost musical in its range.
She noticed that there weren't as many icebergs as there had been even in the summer, when they'd rescued Da and first saw the volcano spew.
But the water seemed warmer too, even so far away from the crater. Of course, the big volcano wasn't the only one warming the waters. Though they were still some distance away, there were smaller chimneys of gas and liquid venting from the planet's belly in the same volcanic caldera. These were called black smokers because, well, they were black from the solidified mineral deposits left behind when the hot gases cooled off rapidly in the frigid waters. And they continued to smoke as the gas continued to rise. All around them were the rich beds of specialized sea plants and animals, including white crabs and clams. The otters loved those so much they risked dodging the hot water and acid pumping from the active vents in order to snatch up some of the delicacies.
And even though the bed of smokers began farther out to sea, the warmth from them raised the temperature of the sea enough that it explained the relative scarcity of icebergs.
She had thought that the higher watermark on the coastline was due to displacement from the volcanic island, but now she reconsidered. Farther up the coast, where there was a year-round ice pack, that ice would have been touched by the warmer flow too and melted, perhaps for the first time in many years. For the first time ever. Petaybee was definitely rearranging its furnishings to accommodate its latest creation.
At some point during the night, Murel fell asleep, which she had never done before while still in the water. She didn't mean to. It just happened. She opened her eyes and found herself floating below the surface. How had she breathed? Her nostrils were closed. But then, without intending to, while still half asleep, she surfaced, breathed, and submerged again. Interesting. You never knew what you could do until the occasion arose, just like Mum always said.
However, she had no idea how far ahead of her Ronan and the others were. No doubt he had been having way too much fun making loud noises to think to check on her or the Honus or anyone. She sent out her signal and listened as it enveloped the sea within its reach. Four more icebergs floating on either side of her and three black smokers beneath the waves-she had drifted a long way in her sleep! She also detected eleven Honus-two weighted down with humans, one with a river otter-and a seal making rude noises perhaps five kilometers ahead of her.
She had been swimming at a leisurely pace, to stay behind the Honus. With a powerful undulation of her sleek body, Murel pulled out the stops and torpedoed ahead, using her sonar not as wantonly as Ro did, but judiciously emitting her helpful-and yes, quite musical-signal at even intervals to keep her on course.
Then, suddenly, where there had been nothing, there was something very large.
Very, very large, and it was coming straight toward her. When she changed course, so did it. Apparently she wasn't the only one with sonar in her immediate situation.
The thing drew close enough for her acute hearing to confirm her theory, at which point Murel realized that the large creature was not one entity, but many, all large.
Very large. She swam for all she was worth, calling to Ronan as she did, hoping he would tire of the sound of his own signal long enough to hear her thought.
Something's chasing me, she said. A school of something, I think.
We'll come back for you, he told her.
But she realized that probably wasn't a good idea. She recognized the shape of her pursuers now, first by the shape of their sound, then as her eyes caught the white markings on their black hides. Orcas. Seals were part of their diet, she remembered from some natural science lesson. She and Ro had never had to worry about the creatures when they were allowed to swim only in the rivers. She couldn't remember whether they ate otters or not, or sea turtles.
Probably. There were so many of them and they hunted in schools, like wolves in packs. In fact, weren't they called the wolves of the sea? And they looked so friendly and cute when she was walking on two legs and safely dry on shore.
CHAPTER 13
SHE WANTED TO tell Ronan not to come and at the same time she also wanted to yell for help, but she had no chance to do either. The grinning whales circled past then surrounded her like a lot of footballers intent on the ball, only they were much noisier. They used their voices not only for sonar now, but to bewilder her.
Swimming in an ever tightening spiral, they frothed and churned the water so that all she could see was their dark shapes whizzing around her and under her; that and flashes of humongous mouths filled with teeth the size of her foot, when she had feet.
It was great sport to them, which was all it could be since even one of them could gobble her down in a couple of bites.
Over here! To me to me! three of them cried at once.
An underpass! another sang out as he swam beneath her so close she could have hitched a ride had she had opposable thumbs at the time.
Something solid and black shot toward her, then into her, knocking her over and over in the water.
A side pass and a coup! Score one! called her attacker.
She had almost stopped spinning when another one did the same thing and cried a triumphant, Coup and score!
She spun dizzily away again, but this time pushed herself down as she spun, and actually landed on the back of the orca underpassing her. She was thoroughly confused, and she hated being confused so she was mad too. What worked on shark fins should work on whales as well, she thought, then clamped a black dorsal fin between her sharp teeth and bit.
Hey! the victim bellowed.
Score one for the seal, she called back to the lot of them. You lot leave me alone or I'll make a meal of your fin before you make one of me.
Us leave you alone? You've got my fin. You're confused about who's the prey here, seal. Orcas eat seals, not the other way around.
You're the one who's wrong, she said. I'm not just any seal. I'm Murel Shongili, a girl and a selkie, and my family is going to be pissed if you kill me and will come after you with harpoons and guns.
Back off, pod. There's something strange about this one. We may have made a mistake here.
You bet you did, Murel said. I did not swim this far to be a whale snack. I'm on an important mission for Petaybee.
We are too. We cull the seal population of specimens too slow to avoid us, said a voice above her. She looked up into a door-sized, spike-lined mouth.
Okay, eat me. I hope the sharks return the favor.