Maelstrom

CHAPTER 23

SKY? SKY! OTTERS don't drown, Sky. You can't drown, Murel thought forlornly as she nosed the half-frozen little body to the surface and kept him bobbing there while she steered him toward an iceberg to try to revive him. It was almost certainly hopeless, though, and she knew it. Even if she got him breathing again, he couldn't survive this cold. She should never have let him come.

Why had everything turned so horrible? All they had been trying to do was find a home for Ke-ola and his people, and all of a sudden everybody was drowning and getting eaten, and maybe worse, it seemed like everybody out here was trying to eat everybody else. She guessed that was what "dog eat dog" meant, not that she'd ever seen dogs eat other dogs. All poor little Sky ever ate was fish of one kind or another. He should never have come. He should have let her know he was too cold and too tired to make it.

She nosed him up onto an ice ledge and after three tries dragged herself onto it too.

The sea pounded them so relentlessly that even though she was not still in the water, she could not change, and that was all to the good, she thought. If she changed, she'd have that instant before she put on the dry suit when she'd be freezing-maybe shiver her way back into the water. Even if no harm came to her, she'd be no good to Sky.

In seal form, though, she was warm enough, her body well-insulated and furred.

Awkwardly, she nosed Sky's inert form into a ball and then curled her own around him, taking the brunt of the sea's beating with her own back. She tried to preserve what little warmth remained in the otter's body with hers while infusing him with her own heat and life force.

I NEVER SAW those seals before in my life, Ronan told Kushtaka.

Your sister is not there, or your father?

No, neither one of them. This lot could be keeping an eye on us for them, though.

Tell them to go away, Kushtaka said.

If Ronan had been in human form he'd have shrugged. What difference would it make if a herd of seals saw the city and knew he was inside? Still, he didn't want to antagonize Kushtaka.

Hey there, you seals, what are you lookin' at? he called. Haven't you ever seen the den of the deep sea otters before?

Who's that? A seal thought penetrated the city's barrier.

I dunno. I don't see anybody, do you? another seal answered. Other than the big otters?

Nobody worth seeing, no, the first seal replied. You lads see who was talking?

He could be inside one of those tall things, a third suggested. Ronan was pretty sure he knew where the thoughts were coming from. Three of the seals were crowded close together, studying the city with more intensity than the others. You there that did the talking. Are you a part-time seal? Because there's a part-time female seal looking for you if you are.

Yes, it's me, Ronan told them. Now go tell my sister I'm fine and stay away from here, will you? You're making the natives restless, and when they get restless, they make whirlpools big enough to drown you all.

Right, fine, we'll do that. Where is your sister?

Because the twins' childhood had been somewhat sheltered, confined to freshwater prior to their being sent offplanet to school, Ronan had never met wild seals before.

He was not impressed with their brilliance. How should I know? he asked. I'm stuck in here.

We could get you out, the most enterprising among them suggested.

No, you can't, Ronan said.

No, we can't, one of the others corrected the first seal. Shell's too hard. Claw it.

You'll see. It's like it's iced over, only the ice is thicker than it looks.

The scratching of seal claws against the outside was seen but not heard.

Tell them to stop that, Kushtaka demanded.

Stop that, Ronan told them. Then asked her, Why don't you tell them yourself?

I did, she said. They acted as though they didn't hear. You're the one they came for. Get rid of them.

The seals stopped scratching anyway. Too hard to scratch. We'll just be swimming away then, all right?

Yes, go tell Murel and Da I'm fine.

And don't bring them back here or we will be forced to take extreme measures,

Kushtaka threatened, but all that was visible by then was seal butts and the backs of flippers.

THE ICEBERG PITCHED and rolled but it kept Murel and Sky from the worst violence of the waves and let them rest like babies in a particularly active cradle.

Murel heard seals calling her and raised her head.

Cold bit her nose and stung her eyes, but beneath her it was warm, the ice slightly melted. She had lifted Sky in her front flippers so he wasn't lying entirely on the ice. He was very still but she felt him breathing. Around the curl of his body a shimmer of water overlaid the ice. He was generating his own body heat now.

Here, she answered the seal's call. I'm here. On an iceberg.

Okay, got a fix on your position. The seal voice was not Sorka's or Pork's or that of any of the herd she'd dealt with before. So it seemed the Perfect Fjord branch of the family was seeking her out. Above her a pale strip of lime green arced across the night sky. As she watched, it began to wiggle and swirl, other subtle colors blooming at its sides and tips. Those colors began jigging as well, dipping, swishing in broad swaths against the darkness. There was a bright moon but it was boring compared to the lights.

She had missed the aurora without even being aware of it. She and Ronan had been at school on Versailles Station for the best part of three years. It had been interesting in a way, and Marmie saw to it that they had far more than they'd ever been used to. They'd only been back to Petaybee a short time before they'd gone back into space to find Ke-ola's people.

Now, despite the warm waters of the volcano, winter was here. The aurora proved it. And winter was the longest season, the most familiar because she'd known

Petaybee wearing winter landscape most of the time. It was the time she loved the best. The lights were one of the reasons why. She knew they were caused by sunspots or electromagnetic fluctuations or some such, but they were still as beautiful and magical as when she thought they were the multicolored fringed skirts of a lady named Aurora fancy-dancing across the sky.

Mesmerized by the flying colors, she didn't see the seals approaching until they ringed the iceberg.

Stopped for a snack, did you? The seal facing her raised himself on his flippers to peer over her ledge at Sky. Can we have a bite? We've swum a long way to tell you what you want to know and that looks delicious.

That's not a snack. It's my friend, Murel replied. He got too tired and we had to rest. And he's not delicious. He's a freshwater otter and everyone knows they're poisonous.

What's a friend?

Sky had come up with a good definition for his fellow otters, "a family member who is not an otter." Da had overheard it and repeated it, awed at the cultural development of otter-kind, he said.

A friend is a family member who is not a seal, she said, changing the species to fit the situation.

Not all seals are family members, the hungry seal replied. Part-time seals are not family members so their friends aren't family members either. He may be poisonous to part-time seals but he smells delicious to me. We found what you wanted. We spoke to your sibling. We'll take you there if you share your friend.

He's not to eat, she repeated. He's not dead. He's just resting.

We are resting too, the seal said, making himself comfortable, finding another lower ledge to rest his lower half against. The other seals barked in agreement. And we don't care that it's not dead. We like live food best. But we can wait. We'll be right here until you get hungry. You will get hungry, you know. If you don't want to eat him, you will need to get back in the water and catch something you can eat soon. Then we'll eat him and then we'll take you to your brother.

Murel looked into the big brown eyes, the cute whiskers, the face like her own and her brother's and her father's. The seal was threatening her. He wanted to eat Sky and he meant to do it. A silly phrase popped into her mind, as silliness was apt to do at inappropriate moments. She wanted to call out to Ro, "Help, I'm under sealge." But she didn't know how to reach Ro and they did. The Perfect Fjord herd's demand was completely out of the question, of course. They were evil seals.

Who would have thought there were evil seals?

I've already had lots to eat, she lied. You'll get tired of this pretty soon. Go catch some fish and leave us alone.

Don't you want to know where your sibling is?

Sure, but I'll find him myself if that's the way you're going to be. Friends don't eat friends or let anybody else eat them either. Unbidden, the image of Jeel's blood rising around the ring of sharks came back to her. Not if they can help it, she added guiltily.

Maybe you can't help it, the seal said menacingly. Maybe you won't be able to stay on the iceberg. Maybe the iceberg won't stay under you.

What do you mean?

You're new to these parts, aren't you? The stories about you say you're used to freshwater, not the sea. But you have to know about ice.

Of course I do. What about it?

The seal slid up to her ledge, barely touching it with his nose and front claws, but pulling himself up and back. At his bark, three others along the ledge began doing the same thing.

The reassuring sheen of water beneath her and Sky slid out from under them and joined the sea.

It melts, the lead seal said. That's what.

THE COPTER SET down on the shore closest to the iceberg. "Sure you don't want to go on to the fjord?" Rick asked. "It's not far now."

Sean said, "No, we need to see why she's on the iceberg, if that's her."

"I'm about out of fuel or I'd wait," Rick said.

"That's okay. You may be needed there anyway." Sean turned to Yana. "You may as well go back with him, love."

"They're my kids, Sean, and I'm not some wimpy little housewife, you know."

"We don't actually have any of those on Petaybee," Sinead said thoughtfully. "But you are the co-governor, Yana, and the newcomers are going to be pretty upset, having the so-called authorities flying off with their kids. Not to mention Marmie."

Yana wanted to mutter something about the shape-shifting Shongilis sticking together and ganging up on her, but that was juvenile and Sinead was right. "Very well. You natives sort it out while Ke-ola and I go and try to sort the rest of it out."

"I should stay, missus," Ke-ola told her. "The warden." He nodded at Sinead.

"She's good in the woods but maybe not so good in the water, and she's strong but she's not as big as me. Dr. Shongili can't lift stuff while he's a seal. He can use a big fella like me to help if Ro and Murel need to get hauled into a boat or something. Besides, the warden almost drowned today. I'm fine."

Yana was surprised when Sinead said, "Thanks, Ke-ola. Right on all counts. I'd best go back to Kilcoole with Yana and see what I can do to help. Besides, Aisling will need to fuss over me a bit and make sure I'm okay."

So the survival gear-enough for Ke-ola as well as for Sean and the kids in human form-was dropped off with the menfolk. As the copter lifted up again, Sean was stripping down and Ke-ola setting up the boat. Night fell while they weren't looking, and a dazzling aurora accompanied them all the way back to Kilcoole.