Chapter Six

In the Wake of Death

It was over. Long after the Basker had drowned in the wake of the first blows that had shattered its tender gills, the frenzied dolphins still batted about the torn chunks of flesh that drifted in the red-stained water. Finally the fervor subsided, and RamStrong gathered his victorious ranks above the carnage, which sank slowly to the sandy bottom. Not a Whistler had been lost. The kill had been swift and clean. Kwi Coast was safe. RamStrong had begun congratulating each of his charges when the eruption came.

“Cowards!” hissed the cold whistle of the only one to remain outside the grisly circle of death. Piper paddled back into the midst of the primping Whistlers. Her ashy eyes were ablaze with fury, her white pectoral fins curled up in a gesture of rage. The young Whistler’s shrill voice bit into the pack like a cold knife searing through tender raw flesh.

“If I did not think you slightly mad, Piper, I would punish you myself for such impertinence,” growled the Commodore, his thick face pulsing with anger. “Now fall into the ranks and cease with this senseless babble! It is bad enough you will have to face unpleasant consequences…”

“Perhaps a good thrashing is in order now, my Commodore,” clicked Buffer, puffing up his dull white chest. “It was my attack she first bumped.”

“Perhaps you’d like to try—you chattering heap of Waif scrap!” retorted Piper, lowering her head in battle gesture, to the amazement of all.

Buffer was stunned. He had not expected such a return from the little female. It annoyed him. One light thump with the side of his beak would teach her. But he’d barely thrust off when he felt himself banged heavily in the side, careening him off course. Buffer spun round sharply and found himself staring at a glowering QuickFin.

“And now I have bumped your attack, ‘bold Buffer,’ ” sneered QuickFin arrogantly.

Buffer eyed him back savagely. “You won’t always be so eager to do so…‘favored one,’ ” he retorted, though not sure this was the time for a head-on spat with QuickFin.

“That will be enough!” roared the Commodore. For it had all taken place in a matter of seconds, and he wanted an immediate halt to it. They were all still under the feverish spell of the kill, and the slightest rift could easily wind them up again. “You, Buffer, should be more annoyed with this insolent youngster’s slurs on her own Clan than with your wounded pride!” snapped RamStrong. “And you, QuickFin, should know better than to quarrel openly like that,” he added, his voice dropping a bit.

He turned back to face the entire Fury Squad. “Now, reassemble—everyone!”

The Commodore’s husky voice echoed throughout the murky underwater world, sending shock waves out at all the lesser creatures around them. The Squad was subdued instantly with the resounding boom of RamStrong’s voice. None wanted to tempt the old Whistler’s wrath. Buffer sulked under his Commodore’s scolding, noting that the favored QuickFin had not been rebuked as strongly.

“QuickFin…take charge of your reckless sister!” barked RamStrong. “See to it that she is quiet and orderly. She is in enough trouble as it is.”

QuickFin clicked obediently, then turned to Piper, giving a half-pleading wave of his flippers, to which she yielded reluctantly. She did not wish to put her brother through the embarrassment of an even more unpleasant task. She fell in with the rest of the Squad.

Still flustered by the young she-Whistler’s outburst—having never before been challenged by any of his own legions—RamStrong gathered himself together. “The defense of these waters was a successful one!” he proclaimed grandly. “Kwi Coast is once more safe from attack, for one of the more dangerous of them—a fierce leader for certain—has been vanquished! Let all the sea know that the might of Kwi Coast lies in the strength of its Fury Squad!”

The Squad promptly clicked its agreement. QuickFin nudged Piper…who appeared on the verge of retorting but refrained from doing so.

“And as for this matter of dissension,” RamStrong added, shooting Piper an ugly stare, “that will be settled before the High Clan.”

A hush fell over the gray ranks. None of them had ever been before the High Clan’s Council of Justice. Piper might well face Exile unless she repented. Even then…

“Judgment and consequence shall be decided there,” said the Commodore in finality. The Squad responded again with the prescribed clicks and then broke formation.

Piper swam back toward the cove with QuickFin, benumbed…her mind in a fog. She did not notice the cold glare of nearly every member of the Squad, or the quiet grumbling of Buffer, who felt his own brand of justice would have sufficed. But even he shuddered at mention of the dreadful Council of Justice—and what that meant.

Commodore RamStrong remained behind, grimly contemplating the fate of the impertinent youngster. He swam off, paddling casually through a patch of floating plankton that had been spit up by the Basker when it had first been hit.

The dead plantlike creatures drifted aimlessly in the red-stained murk.