Kingdom of the Deep
EJ ALTBACKER
Kingdom
OF THE
Deep
An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Shark Wars #4: Kingdom of the Deep
RAZORBILL
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Young Readers Group
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Copyright © 2012 Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ISBN 978-1-101-59070-6
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Contents
Cover
Dedication
Title Page
Copyright Page
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO
PROLOGUE
PRESENT DAY
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
FLIPPERS AND FINS
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
BREAKOUT
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
BARKLEY’S JOURNEY
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
RIPTIDE REFUGEES
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
SHIRO AND NULO
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
HOKUU STRIKES
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
EPILOGUE
Atlantis Map
Sific Map
Acknowledgments
Coming in Fall 2012
PROLOGUE
“QUICKLY, MY SON!” GRAYNOLDUS SHOUTED AT his terrified pup. “You must swim like you have never swum before!” The little megalodon wasn’t old enough to speak but understood and churned his tail as fast as he could. Would it be enough?
Graynoldus could not believe how the situation had spun out of control so quickly and completely. It was madness!
Did Kaleth know of the coup by Drinnok? Drinnok was a bully and a loudmouth, but Graynoldus never would have thought that the giant mako shark would send King Bollagan and his Line to the Sparkle Blue! And were Hokuu and the mako fin’jaa that agreed with Drinnok part of this conspiracy? If so, Kaleth was in terrible danger! Graynoldus had to get to the other side and warn the rest. Everything depended on it!
“Stop him! By the order of Drinnok, stop him now!” yelled one of the giant frilled shark guards in hot pursuit. Graynoldus risked a glance back as he made a sharp turn, guiding his young son into the narrow canyon leading upward toward the new world above. Frilled sharks were better suited for swimming in tight spaces and flowed over the jagged ridges and switchbacks while he scraped himself on the sharp rocks. The frills were part eel, and that made them very tough in a fight, especially in cramped places. They could turn quicker than any sharkkind, and though their tri-tipped teeth were small compared to those of a megalodon, they could tear chunks off a shark with alarming efficiency. Frills also had a razor-sharp spike on the end of their tails that could pierce even the toughest shark hide. And they were swimming in a swarm of at least twenty.
If he and his pup were caught . . .
Graynoldus kept his attention on moving upward through the twisting passage. There was no time for playing “what if” right now. He would deal with that situation if the time came. Graynoldus ground his teeth and bore down, pushing his son forward.
Fifth Shiver had been sealed off for eons. It had been so long that only in legend was it whispered that there were a sun and moon above what was called the chop-chop, a term that had lost all meaning. Their watery world was hemmed in by a limestone and lumo-encrusted boundary. You could swim five thousand aqualeagues in any direction and no farther. Such had it been since long after the time of Tyro, the First Fish, who created all sharkkind and then set them in a Line to protect those who lived in the ocean. There were ancient stories that the Big Blue was bigger than their own waters, but there was no way to prove it.
Not until the seaquake.
The titantic quake had cracked the stone barrier imprisoning them all and opened a path upward into the wider ocean world. A scout had swum through the falling rocks, hissing steams, and glowing lava and made it to the other side! What he discovered was hailed as a miracle, a sign that their time was not over in the Big Blue. Graynoldus, too, was overjoyed when he swam out from the warm darkness of their pocket ocean. It had taken some time for his eyes to adjust, but he had seen the waters of the Big Blue along with the sun and moon above! Miraculous!
It was called the chop-chop because it was choppy from the waves! Who knew?
But this was a different world. It was much colder, the water tasted different, and most importantly, it was teeming with brand-new sharkkind and dwellers. They were younger races but doing wonderfully.
Their wise king, Bollagan, had decided that other than Kaleth, who was fifth in his Line, and a small group to guide the younger race of sharkkind, no one would swim into the new world until he had time to think over the consequences. Rightly, Bollagan thought that the younger races should swim their own current, with just a little help from their older, wiser cousins as in the ancient times. He did not want to start a war by rushing out and surprising them. If Fifth Shiver was to join the new world, they should live in peace with the younger races.
Although Bollagan was supported by Graynoldus and most others of his Line, Drinnok disagreed. He thought that they, the prehistores, as the younger race called them, had the right to reclaim the Big Blue as their own.
“If they have a problem with that, then they will die!” he had shouted at the council meeting last night. Sure, it was a disagreement, but Drinnok was a disagreeable fin and argued at mo
st of the council meetings. Then Graynoldus had awoken to the sounds of battle this morning and word that the king and the rest of the Line were dead. Now Graynoldus was the only one left to tell Kaleth of Drinnok’s treachery! With Kaleth at his side, perhaps they would be able to deal with Drinnok before he could invade the Big Blue.
If she was still alive.
Graynoldus used his massive tail to dislodge the loose rocks he hurtled past, but it wasn’t enough. The frilled sharks, willing allies in Drinnok’s plan, were too agile. A pocket of steam blasted out, scalding his side. The path was swelling and contracting, as if it hadn’t yet decided if it wanted to stay open.
“Swim, my boy! Swim!” Graynoldus urged his son as he felt a tug on his tail. One of the frilled sharks had taken a bite from it. Their teeth were so sharp you almost didn’t know you were being bitten.
Almost.
Graynoldus pushed little Gray forward and then flipped over, blasting the attacker away with his massive tail. The rest of the frills came forward in a rush. Each time one of the swarm struck, a scoop of flesh was taken from his flank or tail. Graynoldus was streaming so much blood that little Gray had stopped in shock, his mouth trembling. His son watched as Graynoldus was being eaten alive.
They weren’t going to make it. . . .
“Swim, Gray! Swim or you will be punished! Do what I say!”
Little Gray, frightened beyond belief, began moving upward once more.
Graynoldus turned and brought his own massive dagger teeth to bear, snapping two frills clean in half. They went writhing and twisting into the blackness. He ground several others to jelly against the rough passageway before turning to his enemies. The way was thin enough that the frills had to attack him face-to-face. Though Graynoldus dwarfed any one of them, the combined strength of the swarm would tear him apart.
“You will not pass!” he yelled with all his strength. “By Bollagan’s mighty heart, YOU WILL NOT PASS!”
Then the mountainous walls around him cracked and heaved. An orange glow brightened the waters before deepening to an angry red.
Steam hissed, louder and louder.
Graynoldus turned and looked at his son for what he knew would be the last time. “Swim, Gray! Swim! I love you!”
Little Gray disappeared around the last corner.
Good boy, Graynoldus thought.
The frilled sharks rushed forward to finish him.
And then the world exploded.
CHAPTER 1
“AQUA-ZAYDOR?” GRAY REPEATED HALTINGLY TO Kaleth, the megalodon Seazarein, who rested on her throne with a look that was somehow both haughty and annoyed. Aquasidor. The strange word was a title that meant messenger or bringer of news, and Gray had just been given both the title and job.
Well, not given. More like ordered.
Barkley and Mari hovered near him, open-mouthed from the surprise of it all. Only Takiza was composed. The betta fish floated as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
“Aquasidor! Aquasidor! Pronounce it correctly,” Kaleth told him, her eyes flashing. The throne she rested on had actually been fashioned for a prehistore shark—which the Seazarein was, being a megalodon—and even had a hole for her tail.
A megalodon!
This in itself was incredible. Up until five minutes ago, when Gray swam into the cave with Takiza, Barkley, and Mari, he hadn’t known that any others of his kind existed in the Big Blue. Now, in addition to Kaleth, there were giant prehistores lining each side of the cavern. They weren’t megalodons, but the ancient, larger versions of blue sharks, hammerheads, bulls, and tigers. They were her guards, Gray guessed.
Strangely, there were no makos.
But where did they come from? Were there others aside from the ones here? Gray had so many questions, but it seemed he would have to wait to ask them. The Seazarein and Takiza were perfectly happy having a conversation in front of Gray, Barkley, and Mari without including them.
Apparently Kaleth was fifth in the Line for Fifth Shiver, whose king was Bollagan. They were direct descendants from Tyro and First Shiver! It boggled the mind. Kaleth was a young shark—seemingly too young to be in the Line—but apparently where she came from, sharkkind grew up fast, or not at all. She had been holding Bollagan’s place here in the Big Blue, but the underwater passageway between her ocean and the Big Blue had closed, leaving her to be the Seazarein. It seemed there was also some argument between Bollagan and his fourth in the Line, a mako named Drinnok, who apparently wanted to take over the Big Blue. Or worse. It was all so confusing to Gray. Everything seemed to be a giant jumble of unfamiliar names and places.
“Takiza, how can Graynoldus be trusted to manage any situation I put him into when he can’t even say Aquasidor correctly?” asked the Seazarein.
That was also odd. Why was Kaleth calling him Graynoldus?
“Hey, he just heard the word for the first time!” said Barkley, coming to Gray’s defense.
Kaleth gave Barkley a look as if he were unworthy to be in the same cavern with her. “Dogfish should be seen and not heard. And neither seen nor heard would be even better.”
Mari bumped Barkley before he could give one of his smart replies, and he ground his teeth instead. Kaleth turned to Takiza. “The question remains: Can Graynoldus do the job of keeping the foolish fins in these seas from fighting each other so we can concentrate on the traitor Hokuu and the much larger danger he represents?”
The betta ruffled his colorful and billowy fins as he gave the question some thought. Takiza’s fins seemed so delicate, but the Siamese fighting fish, though tiny in size compared to any shark, was a master of shar-kata and the greatest fighter that Gray had ever seen. “He may need some training about the particulars of the position, but his instincts are surprisingly adequate,” he told her.
“I have a teacher who swears she can teach any shark as long as they’re not completely stupid.” The Seazarein looked pointedly at Gray as if trying to determine if he were completely stupid.
Takiza turned toward Gray also, pausing more than was necessary before saying, “He is not. Most of the time.”
Barkley whispered, “Sweet compliment!”
“Shut your cod hole,” Gray hissed, bumping his friend out of his hover for good measure. Mari cleared her throat to warn them, but it was too late. Kaleth and Takiza were watching them both.
“If you’re through playing, there are important things to do!” Kaleth thundered.
“Sorry,” Gray said, his tail drooping.
Mari swished her long-lobed thresher tail to get Kaleth’s attention. “May I speak, Your . . . Majesty?”
“Call me Kaleth,” the Seazarein answered. “Titles give you a big head.”
“Well, Kaleth, it seems like you’re making all these decisions without even asking Gray what he wants to do. I mean, he’s the leader of Riptide Shiver and won a battle of life and death against Finnivus and Indi Shiver. Doesn’t he deserve to be treated with a little respect?”
The Seazarein straightened and gave Mari a searing gaze but then nodded. “You and your shiver have been through a lot, that’s true.” She motioned at Gray with a fin. “And your victory in that war is the only reason you are here. I could use some help. The last Aquasidor, a frilled shark by the name of Hokuu, continues to be a problem today, which is why there hasn’t been one for over a decade. But now there is too much going on at once and my influence must be felt to keep the peace. No ordinary sharkkind will do. It must be a shark that others will immediately respect.”
“I—I don’t know if I’m that shark,” Gray stuttered.
Kaleth slammed her tail against the ground behind her throne. “Don’t put down your accomplishments! You have earned respect, and I need to use it. The danger, should I fail, would be much worse than if you had lost to Finnivus.”
Gra
y gulped. “Worse than Finnivus and Indi Shiver taking over the entire Big Blue?”
The thought was frightening. It was only by the edge of their pointy teeth that a combined force of Riptide, AuzyAuzy, Hammer, and Vortex Shivers, along with Tik-Tun and his orcas, had managed to defeat the mad emperor Finnivus and his Black Wave armada in a titanic battle in the depths by the Maw. And now there was something worse in the current? Already?
Takiza flicked his fins in agreement. “It is true. If Hokuu releases Drinnok and his prehistore allies from the under-waters, they have the potential to wipe every shark and dweller from the Big Blue.”
“King Bollagan will never allow Drinnok to go that far, but the danger is great,” Kaleth said.
Takiza gave the Seazarein a head bob before adding, “We have not heard from Bollagan since the passage closed, which is why it is best to be prepared for anything.”
Mari’s eyes widened and she asked, “What do you mean prehistore allies?”
“And what are the under-waters?” asked Barkley right after that.
Kaleth stared hard at Barkley and Mari but answered in clipped tones as if they were dumb pups. “The under-waters are where I come from and where many other prehistores live. They are located under these waters, hence their name.”
“Wow, that was super-snobby and arrogant, but let’s move on,” said Barkley. “Who’s this Hokuu?”
Kaleth’s eyes blazed as if she wanted to eat Barkley, but he continued undeterred. “How come I’ve never heard of him if he’s such a giant threat? Everyone in the ocean knew about Finnivus.”
“Which was his undoing,” Takiza replied. “Hokuu is much smarter. He swims in the shadows, waiting for his time to strike. And, as I have told Gray previously, he was my Shiro, which makes him exceptionally dangerous.”
Now Barkley did react. “Hokuu was your master? He trained you to do all that magical stuff that lets you toss sharks around like they were minnows in a whirlpool?”