She swam away quickly, her torso undulating and her back flippers propelling her toward the surface. She feared the sharks might not remain on the surface, but reckoned that as long as their people were with them, the predators would probably stay somewhat close to the boat.
Her sonar picked up the Manos and the hull of the boat as she had seen in the sursurvu. On board, the shark people and the crew that brought the sharks to the sea would be watching. Da too no doubt. She thought to send him a message, but then she'd be breaking her promise and probably putting Ro in danger. Besides, there wasn't any time. She had to reach Jeel before the sharks did.
Her sonar didn't pick up any deep sea otters anywhere, or other otters, for that matter. Just sharks, the boat, and millions of terrified sea creatures who had no idea what was gobbling them up like popcorn.
MUREL SWAM UP toward the volcano, where the boat with the shark people was heading, with Jeel closing in. Her sonar search soon picked him up. However, she found the sharks as well. They seemed to have detected him and were diving to investigate. They were faster swimmers than she was.
She called to him, Jeel! Jeel, you need to go back to the city. These animals are dangerous. Don't go near them, they'll eat you.
She felt the alien-otter? boy? he felt like a boy in her mind-turn from the sharks to her. Who are you? he asked with curiosity as acute as a real otter's.
Murel. I'm one of the seal people your mother rescued. She sent me to get you, to warn you about the sharks. Come with me now. Hurry!
Why didn't she come herself? he asked. She would have if I was really in danger.
The sharks won't hurt me, but your people are fair game for them.
Why would they eat me and not you? he asked skeptically.
Please just come and stop asking so many questions. There's no time to argue.
Look over your shoulder. See those shadows? They're closing in on you. Come here to me where I can protect you.
Instead he backed away, though he did look over his shoulder.
By now Murel didn't need sonar to tell that the sharks were almost upon them. She could see the white of their teeth. Dive! she cried. To me, to me!
He looked around for her instead. She swam up toward him as hard as she could, but he couldn't see her yet, and otters had no sonar. He saw the sharks, though, bearing down on him.
She drove herself toward them with powerful thrusts of her tail and pulls of her flippers. No! Manos, no! she tried to command them, but she might as well have been addressing empty water. That is not prey. He's a- But they were between her and Jeel. She heard his thoughts, sensibly terrified at last. Then she heard his last water-strangled cry, the like of which she had never heard before and hoped never to hear again.
White teeth gnashed and the sea darkened with a deep blue stain that was Jeel's alien blood. She felt him, heard him, saw him no more.
She swam forward and was surrounded by sharks. They still looked horrible and hungry but she was too angry and appalled to be afraid. You ate him! she cried. I told you not to but you ate him anyway!
Not me, said a Mano who she identified as the one they had first met. I didn't get so much as a nibble. There wasn't enough to go around. He wasn't apologizing.
He was complaining. It's not like it was a seal or an otter.
It was an otter. A deep sea otter, she told him.
I didn't notice any of those bringing fish to our tank. Just the brown slinky ones like your friend. Besides, it was feeding frenzy. Everybody knows you don't stop a
Mano in feeding frenzy. We haven't had enough to eat for a long time so don't gripe when we eat something that isn't taboo or we might forget what is and eat you so we don't have to listen to you.
Two Honus swam past the sharks to flank her. Nothing hostile, just there.
It is futile to argue with Manos, the Honus told her. And foolish.
She knew that they were right, but she would almost as soon stay with the sharks as return to face Kushtaka. The colony leader would have been watching on the sursurvu. Kushtaka would have seen her fail and Jeel swimming into the jaws of the sharks. How would Murel ever explain why she couldn't save Jeel when she'd promised that she would? How would she convince Kushtaka to release Ronan anyway?
She swam slowly back to the domed city, weary from her hard swim and sadder than she had ever been. The Honus swam escort for a time and then she asked them to go away, so Kushtaka would know she hadn't betrayed the colony to anyone.
The sea trembled as it had during the quake when Petaybee was birthing the volcanic island. It shook, the water even more violently agitated than it had been during the shark attack or when the orcas hunted her.
As if she were a bit of flotsam instead of a strong swimming sea creature, Murel felt herself caught and flung round and round so fast she could not see and could not use her sonar. But she felt it when something solid shot past her toward the surface, and felt a void yawning beneath her.
CHAPTER 16
SEAN AND YANA kept searching for their children. He returned to the sea. She used Marmie's best sensors to probe for some sign of two young seals and an otter.
The Honus remained near the volcano, agreeing that it was making a very fine home for them, a comfortable one in keeping with the home in the memories that lay buried inside their ancient heads.
On board the barge and tug were several of the Mano'aumakua clan, chief among them their matriarch, Puna. Sean had found her fascinating, but Sinead didn't have much time for her. The old woman's smile, in spite of sporting few teeth, showed a strong family resemblance to her aumakuas.
Even though Puna was new to the planet and hadn't even been to a welcoming latchkay yet, she was trying to run things her way. It didn't seem to hurt anything since most of the Petaybeans simply pretended they didn't understand if she told them to do something they hadn't already intended to do, but it was irritating.
Once the sharks were released, the tug followed them out to sea, so the people aboard could see where they were to live.
The tall black cone bezeled in black lava rose from the sea as the boat chopped across the waves. An escort of diving, surfacing, circling, and feeding sharks played around it. Sinead couldn't help feeling as if she were to be the main course at a shark picnic. Bears, moose, wolves, and all manner of other wild things held no terrors for her and few mysteries, but the sharks gave her the willies. The sea was Sean's element and he could have it, as far as she was concerned. She used to feel left out that when their grandfather messed about with their DNA, Sean was apparently the successful experiment while she comprised a control group of one.
But she was glad now to be more or less normal. It made her life less complicated.
She didn't know if her partner, Aisling, could handle a woman friend who grew fur and needed to go for a swim below the ice pack periodically. Now, if Grandfather had made it so she could turn into a wolf occasionally, that might have been different.
Ah well, she had enough on her plate as it was.
Puna grinned maternally at her seagoing relatives. "They like it here. It is a good place."