Defender of the Future
Book one of
The Tidesinger Trilogy

Chapter Six

Days passed like shadows in the water, barely noticeable, flickering over him for a moment and then vanishing into the expanse of blue that stretched out at his tail. Ecco swam tirelessly, hardly pausing even to feed; he snapped up mackerel and sardines from schools as he passed. The sun rose, set and rose again. And ever his tail carried him south, following the faint elusive warmth that lay somewhere far ahead.

He heard the Foe again once or twice, but they were far to the north and the screeching had a baffled tone about it that was somehow heartening. Ecco had an idea that they were still looking for him, but it seemed they had lost his trail when he had met up with Castor. His wounds were well-nigh healed now; there was a faint white mark on his silvery hide where the Foe had slashed at his tail, that was all.

It was tiring, swimming so far without rest, but the waters were surprisingly calm and Ecco found himself almost enjoying it after the first few days. His body was toughening up, becoming accustomed to long exercise. He had gained one or two more battle-scars; once he had run into a man-o'-war medusa which had left a weal across his back, and a couple of times he'd lost a bit of his hide to one of the funny little cookiecutter sharks that took bites out of larger animals and then swam away hell-for-leather. Soon, he thought wryly to himself, I'll really look like a lone-swimmer: scruffy and battered.

For better or worse, he was becoming accustomed to the idea of being one of the lone dolphins. He was desperately lonely, of course--he missed Star dreadfully, and would have been glad even to see bossy Klik or Corse during the long days. But there were other animals around, and they generally seemed glad to see him. A long-tailed thresher shark, a little over two thirds his size, exchanged a few wary but polite words on the subject of Foe, and he was pleased to be able to reassure the shy fish-eater.

As he progressed south, he began to hear singing again from afar--whales again. Ecco never got close enough to see the creatures, so he wasn't sure what species they were exactly, but they sounded like humpbacks. He remembered Castor telling him that the humpbacks were poets, and the long cascades of sound that spilled through the water of an evening certainly sounded like poetry--even if he could understand very little of the archaic, beautiful tongue. Ecco began to feel very wise and, when a pod of pilot whales actually hailed him and requested to hear the news from the north, he felt as if his cup was full.

But always, when he relaxed and started to think that he could enjoy the wandering life, he heard the faint far screeches of his alien enemy. It reminded him at odd intervals that the danger had not gone away: the Foe were still searching. The waters here were full of life, which was reassuring, but he could never forget what lay behind, and the fact that he still had no way to fight them, no weak spot to approach.

He saw no really large sharks, and for that he was thankful. He kept to the open ocean, remembering that the bigger predators tended to stick closer to the shore, but there was always the possibility that he would run into a rogue white pointer or a tiger on one of their great meanderings. Ecco kept an eye out for turtles, knowing that tiger sharks liked to feed on them, and he steered clear of islands or reefs where the abundance of life would draw the bigger hunters. The pickings were poorer in the open sea, but he felt better about stopping to hunt.

On the morning of his eighth day at sea, the day dawned cloudy and overcast, and there was a slight fog on the choppy water. It soon cleared up and the sky became hot and clear, but when Ecco rose to breathe he felt an odd tension in the air that reminded him of summer storms in Sapphire Bay. He quickened his pace, feeling the warm southern waters on his skin; he had to be close now.

At last, around midday, he saw his first seal.

It was surprisingly large--he had heard that seals were much smaller than dolphins, and had had in mind something about the size of a big cod, and furry. In fact, the seal was almost the size of a porpoise, and very sleek. It was diving through a school of small fish whose name he did not know, and it seemed to be very good at it. Ecco waited a respectful distance away, not wishing to alarm or offend the creature at its hunting.

Presently the seal broke off feeding, and caught sight of him. With a yelp of alarm it turned and made to flee; Ecco called out to it quickly. "Wait! I need to talk to you!"

The seal hesitated, hovering just within eyesight. "Tursiops?" it asked suspiciously, eyeing him. Its eyes were big and brown and had a faintly startled expression that was not helped by the pale spectacle-rings around them.

Ecco blinked. The word was not one he knew. He hoped that seals spoke delphine, because otherwise he was stuck. "Dolphin," he whistled carefully, introducing himself. "Er... can you understand me?"

The seal seemed to relax a little; it swam forward and came up to him, examining him with a critical air. He said nothing, just watched as the marine mammal swam all around him and even poked its nose into his side in what appeared to be investigative curiosity. At last, it backed off and flicked around him to come up in front of his nose, looking at him with its big, interested eyes.

"Ha, dolphin!" the seal said, in an excruciating accent. "Yes, yes, understand. You far-far from home, yes? Is long way you come?"

"A long way, yes," Ecco answered. "Actually--I wondered if you could help me. My name is Ecco."

"Quiahuit am I," the seal replied, "is me. You come from north, Ecco-dolphin? From cold water?"

"I--yes, that's right." He surfaced to breathe, accompanied by the curious seal who was now looking at him with avid interest.

"Ha!" it said, in a tone of triumph. "You hear news?" Lowering its voice conspiratorially, it went on, "Dark things in water, they say--from north. But you-you come from there, yes? You have known of it?"

"I saw them," Ecco said with a heavy sigh. "That's why I'm here, in fact."

The seal regarded him with a suspicious look. "Why?"

"I'm looking for somebody. Greshruk the--wait!"

The seal vanished into the blue like a specter. He heard the echoes of its bark of alarm as they spread out through the water, becoming thin and finally vanishing. Grimly Ecco chased after the fleeing mammal, following its trail of panicked bubbles and the thin taste of fear it left in the water. "Please, wait!" he called out. "I just want to know--who exactly is Greshruk the Slayer?"

Suddenly he came face-to-face with the seal, who had stopped dead and now watched him with a severe look on its face. Ecco backfinned nervously, though he was much bigger than it was. "You do not want to know," the seal said coldly. "Greshruk not for you, funny one. We be one bite, maybe two for Greshruk..." It looked him over again. "You--maybe three. No good for you."

"I need to speak to Greshruk," Ecco said insistently. "It's to do with these things. I think Greshruk may be able to help me. Do you know where I can find him?"

"Ha!" The seal glowered at him. "Quiahuit is not stupid, Ecco-dolphin. Is no way to talk to Greshruk--not if want to keep blood in body. Slayer only helps self. You get out--go quick, fly on home. No good, no good..."

"I can't go home," Ecco sighed. "Listen--please--the Foe--the creatures took my family. I know Greshruk the Slayer knows something about them, or maybe even how to defeat them. Can't you at least point me in the right direction? I promise I won't bother you again if you do."

The seal blinked at him. "You crazy fish or something?"

"I'm not leaving these waters until I at least see Greshruk," he answered. "Maybe I am crazy, but I can't give up now--my pod are depending on me."

"Ha," the seal said in disgust. "Well... you come-come with me now. I know friend, he show you Greshruk maybe. I think you be changing mind when you see. Greshruk... not friendly type."

"If you can just show me Greshruk, that's all I could ask for," Ecco answered politely.

The seal blinked at him again, then appeared to give in and turned away. He followed it as it swam quickly through the water, glancing nervously left and right. Soon he tasted sand in the water, and realized that they were heading for the shallower continental shelf--where the sharks were. Ecco hung back nervously, and the seal glanced back. "Having second thoughts, crazy fish?"

"Not yet," he said with a tight grin.

"Is your head." Turning away again, the seal swam on without speaking, and presently Ecco saw the bottom fading out of blue below him. The sand was covered in coral and teeming with life--perfect conditions for sharks. He swam over sharp rocks, careful of the currents that threatened to pull him down and which the seal navigated with unconscious ease. At last he started to hear a hollow booming noise, endlessly repeated. There was a fine white mist of bubbles in the water, which surged back and forth now as if stirred by a giant paddle.

"What is that?"

"Shore," the seal said dispassionately. "You stay close now, funny fish. Many hungry ones be here. You stay, wait by rocks. I come back, bring help, okay?"

"Sure," he said hesitantly, taking up a position at the foot of a giant column of cracked black basalt. The water was too disturbed for sonar to work or eyes to make out much detail, and every second the oddly alternating current tried to wash him back onto the sharp stone and then out into the open waters. He saw a surprisingly large reef shark float slowly past a few lengths away, and stifled a whistle of alarm. The rushing and booming reverberated in his ears. Shore? What sort of shore could make that noise?

Ecco glanced around quickly, saw no sharks, and fluked to the surface before he could change his mind. Struggling against the washing current, he poked his head out of the water... and gasped in air in amazement.

It was shore all right, but what a shore. Towering cliffs of basalt, sheer and craggy, reached up high into the sky. There was no beach, just rocks sharp enough to impale a careless dolphin. Hundreds and thousands of white gulls wheeled in the sky above, calling to each other with their coarse sea-hardened voices.

The rocks were covered with seals, great fat beasts lounging on the volcanic basalt with no care for the sharpness of their chosen perches. In some places they even lay on top of each other in a lazy layer two or three bodies deep. Their thick, oily fur stood up and ruffled in the wind as they dried themselves. The honking, growling, barking and yelping of the seal colony was incredibly loud, now that it was no longer drowned out by the sound of the tide. A fine mist of spray hung in the air, making it humid enough to feel as if he were trying to breathe in water. Waves crashed onto the rocks and water fountained up ten, twenty feet into the air every time the sea impacted with the land. A hollow boom echoed out every time the water hit the rocks, and it was followed by a sucking rush as the liquid flowed down and back through hundreds of holes. Ecco had never seen anything so marvelous in his life.

"Hey, crazy fish!" came a voice from his shoulder. "Pay attention down below! You want to be getting eaten before you see Greshruk?"

The seal was back, and this time it had brought a friend. The newcomer was much larger, and he had a coat that was surprisingly light in color--almost white. "Kachik," Quiahuit said, jerking his head towards the other seal. "Spends much time nearly getting killed with Greshruk, does he. Knows all about the Slayer. He look after you from now, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, the dark-furred seal sped off, leaving Ecco alone with the white one.

He let out bubbles, preparing himself. "You--you know of Greshruk the Slayer?" he asked.

The seal nodded. "I see the Slayer most every day. So you want to meet Greshruk, ha?" His accent was better than Quiahuit's, but the look in his eye was uncomfortably intelligent. "Why?"

Ecco sighed heavily, and started on his long story once again. Kachik waited silently for him to finish, nodding every now and again as if to encourage him to go on. When he had finished, the white seal nodded again, sharply.

"I see. Well, I have never spoken to the Slayer, but I know a place..." The seal grinned at him, bearing sharp fish-catching canines. "You can wait there to see Greshruk come past. But I never draw attention to myself--is too little air down there, you see, no other way out. Have to wait 'til the Slayer's back is turned, then run for it. You catch me?"

"I think so," Ecco answered, a little baffled by the seal's landbound patois. "So I can wait there safely, and then speak to Greshruk?"

"Ha," Kachik said. "Safely--that I don't know. But yes, I think you will have time enough to speak to Greshruk. Come now, take air and I will lead you to the place."

They proceeded along the coast for a while, the seal navigating easily through the maze of currents and riptides. Ecco followed cautiously, wary of the rocks on one side and his unprotected flank facing the open on the other. Seals dashed by around them, casting curious looks back at the white seal with his delphine companion. Kachik took him on a course parallel to the shore, until they suddenly rounded a little point and found themselves in a sheltered inlet. The seal dived, and Ecco followed him.

It was surprisingly deep here. The rocky surface was riddled with cracks and holes; Kachik headed straight for one of them, a slender gap in the basalt stone. The seal slipped through with ease; Ecco wasn't so sure. It looked like a very small crack, and he was afraid he might get stuck. Kachik hissed at him to hurry up, and Ecco capitulated and surged forward, drawing his flippers in. He managed to get through, though he scraped his sides and bashed his tail quite painfully. Sonar told him he was in a narrow cave, and it went back for a very long way. The seal rose and took a breath from the top of the crack where they could just reach air, and then turned towards Ecco, who had manipulated his long body with difficulty so that he was facing back out into the lagoon.

"Ready, bold one?" the seal asked with another fanged grin. "Wait here now, and be patient. Greshruk will come--comes every day to hunt us, does the Slayer. Is safe enough here as anywhere when Greshruk is about. You wait, you see." And with that, Kachik swept out of the crack and was gone like a ghost into the hot blue water.

Ecco settled down to wait.

It seemed to take a very long time. Occasionally a seal flashed by his hiding place, barely giving the cleft another glance. Shoals of silvery fish glittered in the light, and reminded Ecco of how hungry he was--he let out a whistle of irritation, loath to leave his hiding place in case the mysterious Greshruk came by.

He was on the point of giving up when he noticed a strange stillness starting to creep over the water. Ecco tensed up, thoughts of Foe dashing to the forefront of his mind. But there was no shrieking in the water... just a strange, almost reverent silence. Faintly he heard the crash-boom of the water along the basalt coast. The fish seemed to have gone into hiding, and there was not a seal in sight. Everything was still, tense... waiting.

Greshruk the Slayer appeared, gliding out of the deep blue of the open water on outstretched pectoral fins, serene in the knowledge of ultimate power.

Ecco nearly inhaled water. The Slayer... was a shark. A shark like he had never seen before, but whose outline he knew instinctively, as did all dolphins. The white pointer, the biggest predatory fish in the world--the great white--the white death. A fat, mackerel-shaped body; two dark, flat eyes; a mouthful of triangular teeth, bristling like a pufferfish's skin. Ordinary sharks of this type would be white only on the underside and a flat, dead, slate-gray on top, but Greshruk's body was pale all over, as if age had rubbed off the color. Over forty feet long, impossibly huge, the great white cruised majestically through the water, heavy head swinging slowly in tune with the massive, scythe-like tail.

A thrill of terrible fear went up in him. The Foe were one thing, but this shark had been the enemy of dolphinkind ever since the dawn of time. Greshruk could have been the child of Carcharodon himself. How could a fish be that huge?

It took every effort for him to clear his head and speak--his skin was tingling with terror and his heart was pumping far too fast--but he managed to call out softly. "Gr-Greshruk?"

The shark's head swung lazily in his direction, and a spark kindled in the empty eye. The Crushing Dark was in that iron gaze, cold and black and merciless. Slowly, deliberately, Greshruk turned and cruised towards his cleft, jaws working with a lazy grace. Ecco shrank back desperately as the giant shark came straight for him. Turning at the last moment, Greshruk slid right past his hiding place--it took fully five seconds for the entirety of that massive body to pass by--and circled. The black eye drilled into the cleft, searching for him.

"Who calls?" came a languid voice, sultry, dark and charged with lazy power.

Female! Syuuii, this monster is a girl!!

Ecco wanted to surface for air, but he didn't dare even though the rock protected him from Greshruk's gigantic snout. He didn't want to do anything under that eye. It sent shocks through him every time it passed over him, and though he knew Greshruk couldn't possibly see him in the darkness of the cleft, the gaze seemed to linger horribly--hungrily. In that one moment he understood why Castor had been loath to advise him about Greshruk, and why Quiahuit and Kachik had laughed at his request. 

He was face-to-face with the mother of all sharks, and there was no way out.