8 Bloodfin

The Bloodfin were a fierce race known to be killed hunters. They lived in the cold Melt the fringe of the Ice Crust, where food was scarce and the sea itself froze hard as rock. They rarely ventured to warmer waters. Now she was closer Cal she they were smaller than she'd imagined, compact, with wire limbs. Their skin was marked with scar patterns, just the same as those she and Jake had seen outside the cave. Most shocking were their cruel faces. One wore a necklace of claws; Cal had heard stories of ferocious bears that swim in the meltwater and she guessed it was a hunting trophy.

The young Bloodfin were edgy, twisting restlessly in the water; two of them smashing shellfish against the rocks and another aimlessly hacking at the chimneys with a metal spike. Cal kept still, trying not to give herself away by any disturbance of the water.

One patrolled the chimney, as if expecting trouble. He tossed a stone towards the marlin. A big beast instantly shot toward and smacked it with its snout, sending it spinning close to Cal, who shrank further into the shadows. She couldn't stop herself from trembling but she didn't want to move away until she'd heard what they had come for. "You know the Lin are restless," grown a stocky Bloodfin working barnacles off a piece pf pipe with a blade. "They won't be bound to us much longer. They're fighting among themselves now. They'll soon be skewering each other with those spears if they don't see more action. There's too much idle muscle out there."

The Bloodfin with the spike scowled. "They'll see action, Bait, if you have the guts for it!" Bait lunged towards him with the pipe but the others pulled him back, snatching the weapon from his hand. "Where are the rest, anyway? Why do we have to hang around here?"

The patroller give up his watch and come over to join them.

"Reefer to them to scout about for that Creeper we're supposed to find."

"The living dead one!" The gang sniggered. "Creepers! What a life, crawling around up there. Have you ever seen" em swim! I saw it once - big, ugly brute, flapping around like a demented octopus!" Cal edge closer. Could they possibly be talking about Jake? Her heart thumped so loudly she was terrified it would give her away. There was a pause while the patroller lifted the necklace to his face and picked his teeth with a claw. Two of the gang at the back of the group shifted uneasily. Cal saw them exchange urgent looks. She recognized the two who had paused outside the cave where she and Jake had been hiding.

"Seems this Creeper could be useful," shrugged the patroller. "We've got to deliver him alive, still squirming!" Out of the corner of her eye, Cal saw the two Bloodfin edge silently away.

Now the youngest member of the gang, not much more than a boy, spoke.

"I don't understand..." The left side of his face twitched nervously. "Why do we have to kill the Silvertails?" All eyes fell upon him.

"We have to kill them," the patroller growled. "They are many and we are few. We must make them fear us, because only their fear makes us the strongest. The wrath is rising. It had begun." A noose of chill water tightened around the rock pillars. "The time has come when those who were denied will triumph and the favored ones shall perish. We will be the first to strike - and we will lead the rest!"

"But what happened to the Elders? They'd have found another way -" The young one stopped, hearing the weakness of his words.

The patroller swam closer. "There is no other way," he snarled. "We're running things now and we don't want any trouble from Silvertails, or sponge-hearted snivelers."

There was a pulse of stunned silence among the gang, then one of them smirked. "Hey, Sniveller, shark got your tongue?"

Suddenly the patroller froze. "Where are Leaper and Narb?"

Cal started with alarm. She had to get away. Capture the Creeper! Kill the Silvertails! It was too terrible to be true. Cal fled, her body trembling uncontrollably. She had to reach the pod. She was the only one who could warn them. Spotting a shoal of mullet cruising fast above, she slide in among them to disguise her scent.

Cal swam on with the shoal, which kept a course just off the shallows. Her min raced. All the Silvertails were in danger. And how could the Bloodfin know about Jake? Suddenly Cal heard a voice ahead. So, she had been seen! Leaper and Barb had circled to head her off. She saw them first, knives glinting in their fists. Cal twisted round and shot away from the mullet. Ahead rose a low sandbar and beyond that she could see the rippling fronds of an eelgrass meadow. If only she could make it that far she might be able to lose them, but she was in shallow water now and the tide was slowing her down.

"Keep going," she gasped, urging herself on. The two Bloodfin weaved in and out of each other's path, testing their skills as they made a race of it. At last Cal reached the sandbar and dived into the thick eelgrass on the other side. She snaked into the heart of it, low to the ground. If the water had been deep her track through the fronds would have been easily visible from above, but the dense, narrow grass grew right up to the surface. Cal pushed and tried to calm herself. She knew the taint of her fear in the water would lead the Bloodfin straight to her hiding place. She listened. There was no sound and yet - she smell them, close - them, to her relief, turning away. Suddenly there was other voices - two more Bloodfin had caught up with Leaper and Barb.

"There's a Silvertail, she's here somewhere." "So there's where you went? Leave it. We're moving off." "But she might have heard - she'll warn the others..." "And what? Those finless farmers won't put up a fight. We'll hunt them out of their hiding places. More sports for us!"

Cal shuddered at the sound of their laughter as they leapt back over the sandbar four abreast.

She glided to the ridge of silver sand, waiting awhile to be sure the Bloodfin had truly gone, then slipped over and down the bank on to a dune. Their words had filled her with dread. It was true; her people had never had to defend themselves. Could they possibly be forced to leave their settlements, their home-waters? She thought of Nerine, the oldest and weakest in their pod, who could only reach the Overbreath now on the backs of others, and the young ones who had never swum in the open sea. Where could they go? She was exhausted but there was no time to rest.

"I have go on," she told herself, "I have to get home." Cal swam nervously into open water and took her bearing from the taste and flow of the current. I must be upstream from Strapkelp, she thought, as there was no trace of its pungent scent. She swam deeper and found a cool, fast-moving channel, which she hope was heading for the confluence that gathered beyond the forest. Cal felt alone and afraid. She scanned the water as she swam, hoping she might find company from seals or a turtle heading the same way. Why did I leave, why did I have to know more? she thought. If only I'd been content. Father loved me, why wasn't that enough? Cal reached for her pendant. Was it only her guilt that made her feel responsible in some way for the trouble she had found?

Cal was shaken from her thoughts by a familiar beat in the water headed.

"Skimmer!"

The manta ray sliced through the blue water, wheeled behind Cal and scooped her up on his wing. "Let's get out of here!" Cal clutched his furled horn and buried her face in his back as he lifted he away.