Emerald Sea

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Jason, Pete, Antja, Elayna and the weapons maker, Jackson, had dragged themselves up on land to join the landsmen for a good old fish fry. The fillets of mackerel had been wrapped in seaweed and left to cook on the coals while they feasted on lobster tails, sliced into cutlets and spitted over the fire. This was the group’s share, and maybe a bit more, from the bags the girls had returned with.

“The question is,” Jason said, around a mouthful of hot lobster, “can we do this without the dragons?”

“If the baitball is nearer the town,” Herzer replied, juggling one of the cutlets from hand to hand to cool it. “If you can’t swim out fast enough yourself, you can ride on the backs of the delphinos.”

“The problem was always getting enough back to town,” Jackson said. He was a short, burly mer-man with black hair and tail and the only one that Herzer had seen with a beard. “With nets that’s fixed.”

“Nets fix a lot of things,” Pete said. “Nets, lobster pots, grouper traps, long lines. We can use them all.”

“Only if we can get Bruce to go along,” Jason pointed out. “He’s death on commercial harvesting.”

“He’s going to find slow going fighting that battle,” Antja said, popping a cutlet into her mouth. “This is the first time we’ve been well fed since the Fall. And while picking lobsters out one by one is fun when it’s a game, I’d much rather go pick up filled traps. These tails took most of the day to round up.”

“You can trade for all of those things,” Edmund pointed out. “You might even be able to find a source for stainless steel. I doubt you’ll find one for the bronze. But it’s going to be slow going without some sort of support.”

“We hear you,” Jason said. “We’ve got the picture. The problem is that if we ally with you, we’re New Destiny’s enemies. And we have to consider that, carefully.”

“You’re already their enemies,” Herzer replied. “They hate Change. They may have allied with the orcas, but that’s a marriage of convenience. If they win, you can bet that their first action will be to round up their so-called allies and put them through a Change of their making.”

“The ocean is big,” Antja said.

“But places where you can birth your young are not so widely found,” Daneh interjected.

“What?” Herzer asked.

“What?” the mer-folk all said at once.

“Who told you that?” Jason snapped.

“Someone who needed a diagnosis,” Daneh replied mildly. “One that, if they hadn’t gotten it, would have led inevitably to the death of the child in question.”

“The yellow baby,” Antja said.

“Correct,” Daneh replied. “A simple case of jaundice that was easily corrected. But there are damned few trained doctors left in the world, and for sure you won’t have access to them. That is something else that we can give you no one else can. And there’s more.”

“Oh?” Jason said. “What?”

“You know how bloody vulnerable you are,” Edmund replied. He had obviously been talking to his wife. “We can provide the guards that can ensure your security.”

“So we’re just supposed to hand over the care of our children to you?” Jackson said. “That’s a pretty huge leap of trust.”

“It’s not like you have a lot of choice,” Edmund replied. “We’re not going to be the last people to find out about it. You have to get guards somewhere.”

“Why should we trust you?” Jason asked. “Why you as opposed to someone else?”

“Would you trust me?” Herzer asked.

Jason thought about it for a moment then nodded. “Yeah, you I’d trust.”

“How about someone that I said could be trusted even more unreservedly than me?” Herzer asked. “Someone to train and command the guard force? We’d draw them from our best soldiers, each of them with experience.”

“Gunny?” Edmund asked.

“He’s getting a little long in the tooth even for the Academy,” Herzer said. “But he’d be just the person to guard whatever you’re talking about. And I can’t imagine a better retirement spot than down here. We could cycle the Lords through on rotation. I think that most of them would scramble for the spot.”

“Station a group of dragon-riders down here as well,” Jerry said. “We’ve got the wyverns for it, but they’ll have to be moved east and brought down on carriers. And we need more trained riders.”

“If you ally with us, we’ll establish a base,” Edmund said. “A permanent station. There will be a permanent guard force that can watch over your birthing caverns. Hell, build something less makeshift; from what Daneh told me that place is a deathtrap. Probably not here, I’d prefer someplace more accessible. But we can do it.”

“Why?” Jason said. “What is worth all that trouble and expense?”

“We need you, the delphinos even more, against the New Destiny forces,” Edmund said. “And, hell, Herzer’s right. Guards will give their eyeteeth for the posting. Especially in winter.”

“Bimi’s not the greatest place in winter,” Pete pointed out. “Winds from the north turn it into an icebox from time to time.”

“It’s a hell of a lot better than Raven’s Mill,” Rachel replied with a grin.

“Would you have to trust us?” Edmund asked. “Yes. But we will be trusting you, in turn, to give us good information on the Destiny forces. And to be willing to attack them if it comes to it.”

“Well, I have to admit, you’ve convinced me,” Jason said. “But it’s Bruce you have to convince.”

“No,” Edmund replied. “I just have to convince enough of the mer that I’m right and he’s wrong.”

“I don’t know that I want to go there,” Jackson interjected. “Bruce has a lot of supporters who are going to follow him even if it’s the wrong idea and they know it. But we’ve survived by sticking together.”

“That’s what the mackerel said,” Edmund replied, scooping out one of the fish and unwrapping it from its seaweed. “Right up until they got eaten.”

When Bruce, inevitably, found out, he was furious.

“I cannot believe that someone showed you the birthing cavern!”

“I’m a doctor,” Daneh said, coldly. “There was a sick baby. He’s probably going to get well now. He wouldn’t have if they hadn’t shown me.”

“So to save one life they’ve threatened us all!”

“What threat?” Edmund said. “Seriously. You go on and on about all the history that you’ve studied, but I guarantee that I know it better than you. I know exactly what hostages those women and children make, but they’re hostages already!”

“What?” several in the group said.

The discussion was taking place in the middle of the square. For once, thanks to the net full of mackerel and grouper dropped onto the town by returning dragons, there was enough to eat and leisure to gather and discuss the latest crisis.

“Your birthing problems are always going to be your greatest weakness,” Edmund said. “A weakness you can’t control without allies on the surface, allies you can trust unreservedly. There’s no way, for example, to change out hostages. Humans, without breath masks, cannot survive underwater. Babies certainly cannot. So you can’t force anyone who guards you to give you hostages in return. So, sooner or later, you’re going to have to find allies to guard your babies, allies that you trust. Let me ask you this, would you ever, in your wildest dreams, trust New Destiny to guard them?”

From the mutterings from the crowd the answer was clear but Mosur had to pipe up.

“So you’re saying we should trust you?”

“Yes,” Edmund said. “With more than that. We’ll establish a fleet base somewhere in the islands, probably near the Bimi chain. We’ll rotate through our finest soldiers, the Blood Lords, Herzer is one, to guard your children. We’ll establish a power shield so that if New Destiny strikes, the children will be shielded. Face it, we’re the good guys. I know well what horrors are possible in war. But we guard against them. All of our beliefs, all of our philosophy, say that if we undertake this trust, we will guard it with our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. And there are only two choices, us or New Destiny.”

As he said this shadows began to fall over the reef and a pod of orcas passed over the square. They started to circle and the largest detached himself and drifted over the gathering.

“So, landie, you say that our brethren should trust you tailless landsmen, do you?” the orca said, drifting to a stop. He paused and rolled one eye at Bruce the Black. “Etool Shanol,” the orca said, bowing slightly. “Ambassador from New Destiny.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” Herzer muttered.

“We had a ship with us, carrying provisions to help you in your need,” the orca continued. “But it was brutally waylaid by a ship from the so-called Freedom Coalition and burned, killing everyone on board.”

“I’m sure that they approached the, effectively unarmed, carrier with parley flag flying and all good intentions,” Edmund replied, dryly. “I’m sure they didn’t simply open fire as soon as they were in range.”

“We are on a mission of peace,” Shanol replied. “Why ever would they attack your craft? So you see the lies that the Freedom Coalition spreads,” he said, pulsing the sonar loudly. “They ask you to trust them; I suppose they ask for your support. While all that New Destiny asks is that you remain neutral. We have no need of your support; we orcas as well as other sentients of the ocean support New Destiny. As its name implies, it is the destiny of the world for it to grow and prosper. Peacefully, if possible. But the so called Freedom Coalition has thus far prevented it, attacking our leaders at the last peaceful meeting of the Council, so in fear of the historical inevitability of New Destiny that they stooped to violence. They always stoop to violence.”

“If the triumph of New Destiny was so inevitable,” Edmund replied, “Celine would not have introduced deadly poisons into the meeting. Nor would Paul be attacking us at every turn, building an invasion fleet, gathering forces on his coast. You could just sit back and let historical inevitability take its toll.”

“The people of Norau suffer under their tyrannical rule of an hereditary aristocracy, Duke Edmund,” the orca replied, nastily. “It is the duty of New Destiny to free them from their feudal bondage.”

“The people of Norau voted upon the constitution,” Edmund replied, tiredly. “Groups that have joined since have joined through plebiscites. We do not conscript soldiers, Change people horribly. We do not refer to the Changed as ‘abominations.’ ”

“So you say, Duke Edmund, but I do not see these people here. I see a duke and his family.”

“I am one of those ‘people,’ ” Herzer responded, hotly. “I chose that life over yours, because I’ve seen the evil that comes wherever New Destiny touches! I will fight you with every ounce of my strength. With my last breath, I will curse you!”

“Ah, yes,” the orca replied, smiling as only an orca can smile. “His family and his chosen lapdog. I trust that Mistress Daneh is recovering from her ordeal.”

Herzer was halfway across the square before he felt arms holding him back. He struggled for a moment then shook them off and paused, panting.

“You finny bastard,” the lieutenant replied. “If it’s the last thing I do I’ll see your bird-picked carcass floating on the surface.”

“So you see the inherent peacefulness of the Freedom Coalition,” Shanol replied to the group. “We send peaceful orcas, water dwellers, like you. And an unarmed freighter that is brutally waylaid and sunk. The Coalition sends an armed carrier, a general, and his hot-headed young lieutenant, a lieutenant that has been a party to crimes against his own people.”

This time, Herzer was able to ignore the jibe.

“My demons are my own, fish-face,” he said. “But at least I control them, not let them run at the head of the pack.”

“Pod, young man, pod,” the orca sighed. “So, you see the truth of the choice. The violent philosophies of the Freedom Coalition, whose stated aim is to take over the world and rule it as they see fit. Or simple neutrality and protection from them by aid of New Destiny.”

“Yes, we can see it clearly enough,” Jason replied. “Gentle lies in the mouth of the predators upon dolphins and whales or the simple truths spoken by people who have shown themselves to be our friends.”

“You may believe who you wish, Jason Farseeker,” the orca replied, calmly. “But we are simple eaters of fish, just as you are. Perhaps we do not survive on sea plum, but, then again, who would, given the choice?”

There was a chuckle from the crowd and Edmund looked around and shook his head.

“Bruce and I have been discussing history,” Edmund said. “I remember other groups, as should he, who, in their time, claimed ‘inevitability.’ The strange thing about all such groups, the Nazis, the Communists, the Wahabbists, the Melcon AI, is that, in every single case, those who lived under their benign leadership suffered untold hardships. The Nazis disliked various groups within their control and they were marched to slave labor and gas chambers, killing nearly ten million all told. The Communists believed that things should go a certain way, that things should be done as they commanded, and in their blindness, and often quite open-eyed, they killed nearly a hundred million people before true historical inevitability dragged them off their thrones. And everyone knows the story of the AI wars; it is far too grim to repeat. Yet, in every case, the side that claimed inevitability was brought to the ground. By free peoples, going open-eyed to their deaths, aware that they were doing so so that their children, and grandchildren,” he added, looking at Bruce, “would not suffer the fates of those lucky individuals caught in the clutches of ‘historical inevitability.’ ”

“Yet, you speak of untold hardships,” the orca replied. “How many died in Norau, Duke? Far more died in the Dying Time than in Ropasa. Because the leaders in Ropasa saw the need for a firm hand and ensured that their people were fit to survive. The people of Ropasa did not starve by roadsides, desperately searching for succor.”

“Strangely enough,” Edmund said, dryly, “I remember those days. And I seem to recall that New Destiny had a far higher energy budget than the Freedom Coalition. Something about illicit access to the terraforming project power budgets. An access, I might add, that Herzer and I had a hand in ending, preventing the project from total energy drain. But by the time they were done they had taken more than half the power out of the core, putting the project back by over two hundred years.”

There was a mutter from the crowd at that. Even in the years after the Fall the Wolf 359 Terraforming Project was remembered, like a good dream at the end of the night. If there was anything to look forward to it was that at the end of the war they, or their children or their grandchildren, could continue the millennia-long project to create a new, livable, planet.

“Lies and damned lies,” the orca said smoothly. “Show me proof of this. I would be very surprised if there was any.”

“Well, I’d have to have access to Mother, wouldn’t I?” Edmund replied. “And if I did, you would question the access. But I was there when Dionys McCanoc destroyed himself in a rush of power. It was I that put him in his prison of energy, a prison that was breached with the power equivalent of a nuclear weapon. Of course, he’d neglected to shield himself, so the prison became his tomb. Where, I wonder, did he get all that power? He, the New Destiny tool, who was the sole surviving member of the Project council. All the other members suffered mysterious, or not so mysterious, deaths just prior to and after the Fall.”

“You call innuendo and supposition proof?” the orca asked with a blatted chuckle. “But we stray far afield. You want these good people to risk themselves in a doomed gamble. We but wish them to maintain themselves in neutrality. In proof of our goodwill we had brought goods to help them, nets, fishhooks, traps and harpoons. Unfortunately, all of them were destroyed by the Freedom Coalition. This is proof, not innuendo.”

“And, as I said, I’m sure that it was just a friendly meeting on the sea,” Edmund replied. “That your ship did not, for example, attack an unarmed clipper.”

“And if it was unarmed,” the orca snarled, “how did it sink our ship?”

“That, I’ll admit, is a puzzler,” Edmund said. “Honestly.”

“All I know is that they fired some sort of device off of the clipper,” the orca replied. “Black and small as a yellow snapper. But the ship stopped and the scuppers ran with blood.”

Edmund turned as he heard a liquid chuckle and looked at Bast, who was staring at him with merriment in her eye.

“Are you not glad, Duke Edmund,” she said, still chuckling, “that I brought that bedamned rabbit?”

Edmund started chuckling and ended up laughing heartily.

“You think?”

“Aye, methinks. A small object? Scuppers running with blood?”

“Poor doomed bastards,” Herzer said, chuckling as well. He turned to Jason and grinned. “Let’s just say that we have a secret weapon. It won’t usually work, but when it does…”

“Scuppers running with blood?” Jason said, gulping. “I don’t know.”

“You haven’t been through territory that New Destiny has ravaged,” Herzer replied. “You haven’t stood before their Changed orcs, come upon the ruins of buildings, and people, that they leave behind,” Herzer said, trying to check himself but realizing that the fury that lurked always just below his calm exterior was coming to the fore. “You haven’t seen the feeding pots, with the legs of children turning in the boiling water.”

“Lies and damned lies!” the orca bellowed, looming over the unChanged human. “Recant those untruths!”

“When you recant your lies, you… you… I can smell the flesh of dolphin on your breath like the evil stench of the lies you have been spouting!”

The orca blatted him with sound and hooked his tail around, hitting the lieutenant with a blast of water that struck like a full body hammer. Herzer was thrown backwards through the water, half stunned. But he was used to fighting half stunned and before he had ceased to tumble his knife had appeared in his hand and he circled up and to the right, turning to try to get in on the flank of the orca.

Suddenly the orca found two strong fingers pinching his blowhole and a long, slim, dagger pointed at his eye.

“Take a bite out of my boyfriend,” Bast purred, “and I’ll drive this all the way to your brain.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” the orca said.

“I’ve killed better orcas than you,” she whispered, staring him in the eye. “And what you are is a psychopathic monstrosity. But, then again, so am I,” she added and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long, unearthly sonar scream that echoed off the walls of the square.

Herzer shivered and froze as the reverberations of the unholy, multitonal shriek washed through his body. It was the most gut-wrenching sound he had ever heard, including the death shriek of horses, which was as close as he could come to identifying it with a known sound.

“Enough!” Bruce yelled. “Herzer, Bast, you’re no longer to come into this town! Ambassador Shanol, I am forced to permit your continued presence, but one more such outburst and I will have you barred from the village as well, and your pod with you. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” the ambassador said, blowing out bubbles as a sort of throat clearing. “I… regret my outburst. But the statement that I would eat the flesh of my good friends the dolphins… you understand.”

“Fighting will not be tolerated,” Bruce said. “That I understand. Duke Edmund?”

“Herzer is one of my staff,” Edmund replied. “And, I might add, has made valuable contributions to this community. But I accept that he is not to come within, say, one hundred meters of the town square. That means if we need to meet, it is a reasonable swim for one or both of us. As for Bast,” he sighed. “She goes where she wills.”

“I’ll not come back to this town until invited,” the elf said. “But those reshanool had better stay far from me or I’ll teach them what the myth of the food chain really means.”

“Agreed,” Bruce said. “And Ambassador Shanol, you and your pod are to stay away from the visitors from the mainland. The first sign of any further conflict and I am going to expel both groups.”

Herzer had already sheathed his knife and now nodded at Edmund, then turned and swam towards shore followed by Bast. As he passed over one of the canyons, Antja and Elayna popped out of a swim-through and Pete and Jackson popped out of another.

“This sucks!” Pete said angrily. “That damned dolphin-eater turns up and you just get tossed out. It’s not like you struck the first blow; he hit you solid.”

“Yeah,” Jackson added. “You okay?”

“I’ve had worse,” Herzer said.

“I’d noticed the scars,” Antja said. “But I hadn’t wanted to ask. Or about the hand.”

“Well, I think it’s time to tell you all about it,” Herzer said. “But not here. Up on shore where fish-face can’t come.”