Chapter Twenty

A Futile Forecast

For Commodore RamStrong, Piper’s return was like the faraway rumble of a gathering storm. With guarded wonder he regarded her miraculous survival. He now held a begrudging respect for the youngster, which he was loath to disclose. Both the Commodore and the Council of Elders saw the signs: the blackest of threats to dissenting Clanists had been dealt a telling blow—all due to the resourcefulness and strength of one they had all gravely underestimated.

Even Thane SilverFlukes seemed enraptured by Piper’s triumph. He looked back on the chain of events that had led to her banishment—the killing of the huge black Snag-Tooth, the grim trial, and those final touching moments he had spent with her. For a fleeting instant back then, SilverFlukes had wanted to violate the harsh Code himself and override its judgment. But, as with the Commodore, it was the Thane’s sworn function to uphold the Code and to punish violators. The actions he’d taken had been necessary. He knew that. But now the scrappy youngster had done what no living Whistler had even thought possible. For the first time, SilverFlukes would hear from someone other than the Commodore and the Elders about the World Beyond their Boundaries. There was much to be learned from one who had journeyed the seas as young Piper had done.

And there was no greater joy than that felt by QuickFin. Though he had believed, reluctantly, that Piper’s punishment was just, he had been overwhelmed with grief at the thought of her all alone in the treacherous Open Sea. QuickFin had kept up his role as a Squad Leader, but his heartiness during the Drills had diminished notably. A cloud often surrounded him as he went about his duties, and he was strangely hesitant to speak or associate with the others. Guilt had plagued him constantly. But with Piper’s return to Kwi Coast came the return of the old QuickFin as well. He marveled at it—having never realized, before, what strength she truly possessed.

And though it had been Piper’s intent to wait until the Clan Gathering to tell of her journey, she had not been able to resist sharing with her brother her courageous rescue of the GhostFin. QuickFin had swelled with pride as she related the astonishing tale to him.

She found the Pod less receptive.

For two hours the Clan listened and debated fiercely at the Council Cliff. Though it was a mild day—the waters jade and calm, the bright kelp forest that encircled the crags blossoming in a rich brown—the discussion taking place marred its beauty.

“And you expect us to believe, now, that these terrible Humunz you call Killer Imps are our greatest menace, eh?” snorted RamStrong cynically.

“That’s what the GhostFin called them…because Humunz are all tiny compared to our larger Kin like him,” answered Piper sullenly. She was not at all pleased with the way everything was going.

“Ah, of course,” snickered RamStrong. “The, uh, GhostFin? Yes. And these…Killer Imps…they might just come all the way over here—across the entire Open Sea—from this western land of theirs, and snatch us all up in nets like so many GillFin?” The Commodore’s glossy eyes twinkled in hard merriment. Wherever Piper had come up with such nonsense was a mystery to him, but he was not sorry for it. Already, Pod members were gaping in disbelief at what all seemed farfetched, fatuous notions.

“Those were the Killer Imps of the faraway Western Seas,” she pleaded softly, trying hard to make them understand the terror she had witnessed in the cove where the Japanese fishermen, armed with clubs and spears, had brutally slaughtered the spinner dolphins. She could not afford to let the Commodore unnerve her, not this time. “They slew all the Jumpers…”

“Of course,” quipped RamStrong.

“…in the shallows of a cove!” Piper pressed on steadily. “I saw them! And so did SlugFlukes. He has seen it many times!”

“Your friend the mighty GhostFin, whom you courageously rescued from the HunterKin,” said the Commodore in mock awe.

“Yes—my friend that I saved, Commodore,” Piper retorted icily. She did not want to show how much that last quip hurt. Piper had secretly yearned that old RamStrong would be proud when he’d heard of the valor she’d displayed. She had even looked forward to especially telling him about it. Now he mocked her instead. “SlugFlukes’ whole Clan was slain by Killer Imps,” she continued. “And he has seen them slaughter many WhistlingFin who live near land masses…and in the Open Seas too.”

“How do they slay them, Piper?” Thane SilverFlukes asked politely. For all the peculiarity of the youngster’s tale, he did not appreciate the way RamStrong was handling it. A survivor of the sea’s greatest perils deserved better treatment.

“They come in their Floaters,” she began softly, trying to sound even and self-assured. “Sometimes they even sneak across the sea to where very few know about them. And some of their Floaters look just like the ones here. That way they might fool us into thinking they are harmless GillFin hunters, and not a threat to us.”

“I see,” said RamStrong sardonically.

“They go where the great schools of GillFin gather, and they wait there,” Piper continued, trying to ignore the Commodore’s little jibes.

“And how would they go about, eh…catching us?” inquired one of the decrepit Elders. “Do they simply reach over and snatch a Whistler right up out of the water?”

Laughter.

It hurt Piper. She looked pleadingly to SilverFlukes. The Thane clicked sharply, his turquoise eyes glowering. The outburst ceased instantly.

They broke for air silently and then reassembled. SilverFlukes wondered how much longer he should allow this to go on. It certainly wasn’t doing Piper’s newly attained status any good. And so much of it sounded farfetched even to him.

“The Killer Imps have very strong nets, which are so thin we cannot even scan them. Whistlers get caught in those nets when they go after the GillFins, and both are swept up in them,” said Piper.

“But you haven’t seen this for yourself,” mused another Elder.

“I watched those horrible creatures butcher a whole pod!” cried Piper, fed up at last. She was tired of the constant ridicule and all the deliberate taunts in their questions. “Do you think the murder of an entire Clan amusing?” she demanded, first of the High Clan, then of the entire Gathering. Her beak wagged furiously at them, and her tail flapped savagely, sending a parade of ripples through the water.

“Do you think the Snag-Tooth a laughing matter?” countered RamStrong. Or have you forsaken all of our Lore? Are we to abandon our defense against our worst enemy because of your mad forecasts?”

A clamor arose again. RamStrong had timed it all so well. The moment had now come for the crucial confrontation. Piper had finally been drawn out and all was in an uproar.

Two Pod members had remained entirely silent during the Gathering. Buffer, seemingly detached and expressionless, gave no indication of what he was thinking, and QuickFin stared back and forth from his sister to his Commodore, lost in a muddle of thoughts that flew at him like opponents’ beaks in a Drill session.

SilverFlukes ended the clamor again. When all was still, Piper continued in a softer, more measured tone. She knew it was the only way if they were to take her seriously...

“Every moment you spend here at Kwi Coast, wasting time with your Fury Squad, you are in great peril. You cannot destroy the Snag-Tooth. They will always be here. I have seen them all over the sea and in numbers you cannot imagine. And this ‘madness’ of theirs is nothing more than a sickness that comes over them. They do not wish us any more harm than the other fierce hunters of the seas. It is the Killer Imps we must fear.”

Piper heard the inevitable grumbling she knew would erupt and pressed on—a bit too hastily. “So we must abandon our folly here and flee this Cove before those evil Humunz come for us.”

“Hear! Hear!” bellowed RamStrong. Piper had finally trod her way into the treacherous waters he had been awaiting. “Now we must abandon our home as well as our ways…forsake our beautiful Coast where our Clan has dwelled for over twenty-five seasons. And give up our Fury Squad, which protects us from the evilest creatures in the seas!”

RamStrong’s outburst was echoed by the Elders and by many of his partisan Clanists, who were all growing more and more leery of the now mysterious Piper who had come back to them from the unknown. “Ah, but the Snag-Tooth ‘mean us no harm,’ ” cried several Elders in mock echo of Piper.

RamStrong had won, and he knew it.

“Is it a lust for power that makes you try to frighten us all into believing such gibber?” he pressed on relentlessly. “Is that why you have returned with all these lurid tales? ‘Evil Humunz.’ Why, the Land Dwellers have always been our friends. Have we not seen them slay the Snag-Tooth many times?” The Commodore’s face looked like a worn fishing net as he hefted himself up onto the lip of the Council Cliff, wagging his beak in small circles. “Is it not enough that Thane SilverFlukes has been generous enough to uphold the very Clan Code you disobeyed and allowed you back here?” said RamStrong, eying Piper hard. “But no…you continue mocking our sacred Code, even after the Thane treats you with honor. You fill us with this Waif’s chatter of your wonderful heroics and your grim tales of horror. Is it Commodore you now wish to be? Or even Thane?” His rictus seemed to curl into a mocking sneer.

“Not anyone can thwart a pack of HunterKin!” chimed in the she-Elder. Again the cruel sneers at the exploits that had brought her to her beloved SlugFlukes. Piper’s heart sank. She paddled listlessly to the surface as Thane SilverFlukes mercifully signaled another air break.

Above the waves she caught a glimpse of QuickFin. He looked grieved—lost in the bleakness of her situation. He slipped over and nuzzled his sister softly on the neck. He made to speak, but SilverFlukes signaled an immediate return.

It was obvious the Thane was not pleased with any of this and wanted an end to it. Piper could not blame him. Everything had come out wrong. She wished that, just this once, SilverFlukes could forget his own past in the Commodore’s Fury Squad and assert his bloodline authority over the blustering fool. Why couldn’t he just govern as he saw fit? Did he always have to let the Commodore have his way?

Calm was restored. The cackling Elders had resumed their usual posture and RamStrong had settled himself back pompously on his crusty flukes. Piper turned so she could address the High Clan and the rest of the Pod as well.

“I only know,” she began quietly,” that none of you has any idea what lurks out in the Open Sea, or what lies far to the west.” She hesitated, weighing whether to pursue what she knew would stir them. “But I have lived through it—and well past your feared Hundred Dawns. I have passed through the Black Waters and lived! Who here can say as much?”

Piper paused again, studying their stunned, dubious faces. She had challenged the sacred Code once already and survived the consequences. What did it matter now? “Come now,” she snickered in coy mimicry of RamStrong, “do we not all agree that a Whistler in Exile will surely perish when at the mercy of the Black Waters? Is there anyone here who disagrees that Lord Arkitu, coiled before his minions, is the most terrible fate one can suffer? How is it, then, that I am here now, eh?” Her voice rose in pitch, and she wondered if it might be wiser to tone it down a bit, lest her superstitious Pod think her some secret emissary for the Cold Lord.

The Commodore had remained silent during it all, suddenly unable to bandy words with her.

Piper, meanwhile, reveled in the momentum she had gained. No, she would give old RamStrong a taste of some stinging words for a change. “Tell me,” she persisted with her scathing invective, “why return to a Clan that banished me, when it was clear I no longer needed you to survive? Answer me, Commodore!” Piper cried defiantly, surprising herself and everyone else too.

RamStrong still said nothing. He glowered at her from behind the scars of his melon, annoyed by the return glare of the smooth-skinned youngster. No…this was not the same Whistler they had banished. Gone was that defeated little scamp who was cast out so long ago. This was a sea-worn scrapper that had returned, as worthy an adversary as he’d ever known. For an instant he was reminded of a bitter young Whistler who had just seen his entire Pod sheared to bits. He wavered as he locked glares with Piper—and for that moment, something flickered in his eye that only Piper saw. It was but a moment.

Then Thane SilverFlukes spoke, and all eyes turned to him.

“It may well be that Piper has seen such a menace, for she has also spoken of wonders and of perils known to us too. We have long heard of the legendary GhostFins and…and of the HunterKin.”

The last words dribbled out, barely audible. SilverFlukes did not consider mention of their predatory cousins a light matter. He dreaded the thought of them—as though speaking their name aloud would bring a band of the notorious black-and-white marauders bursting out from the kelp jungle.

“And it is true that the mighty GhostFins did once flourish over all the seas, for we have heard those stories too. Has Piper not explained to us why the GhostFins have been named so? I have yet to hear a better reason.” The Thane paused, clearly weighing his own thoughts. “So…perhaps we are not as informed about the Land Dwellers as we would like to believe—though I admit, I too find all this talk of Killer Imps somewhat strange. Still, it is wrong to belittle her for it. Our own Code declares: ‘Of one who returns from the Hundred Dawns, all past offense is absolved.’ We will hear no more of Piper’s offense. For who among you believed she would ever return? Who would have thought it possible?”

QuickFin raised his beak at that but said nothing. Inwardly the young squadron leader thanked the Thane for restoring his sister’s dignity as the Clan fell silent. It was rare that SilverFlukes imposed his own regal grace in such matters, but when he did it was with the majesty and grace of a seaward dawn. Even RamStrong knew the extent of his own influence over the Thane…and also knew where it ended. Silently, the Commodore cursed from behind his beak, while the three Elders reluctantly nodded their heads in acquiescence.

For the first time since the Gathering had got underway, Piper felt comforted. This was why she had always admired Thane SilverFlukes.

“Very well,” said RamStrong, “it cannot be denied what a marvelous feat young Piper here has accomplished. Surviving the Hundred Dawns and, eh, returning to warn us all of this…peril…is most admirable indeed.” The Commodore’s tone was strained, and it was obvious to Piper he was leading up to something. “But how, good Piper,” the Commodore was careful to be extremely polite, “how did you escape the Black Waters? You have not yet told us of your encounter with the Cold Lord.”

And at his mentioning the fell Dark Sea and its vulgar lord, another hush enveloped the Pod.

Piper had not expected it. With the intervention of SilverFlukes, she had felt sure the Gathering would now be dismissed—and matters of GhostFins and Killer Imps and HunterKin left to be mulled over. She would gladly have settled for that. At least then there would have been time for everyone to think further on all they had heard here. There would have been discussion in the days to come. She could have aired her views less formally, perhaps even swaying more support toward what she had told them.

RamStrong, however, could not simply let it go just yet. He had again managed to clog the matter. Piper had wanted to save her harrowing adventure in the Black Waters for last. The way this Gathering had gone thus far, she was leery of how the Pod might react, here and now, to what had happened there.

Fortunately, it was time for an air-break. As they soared toward the surface, she studied SilverFlukes. He appeared puzzled. Was he going to halt further discussion and adjourn in favor of another time? Piper dearly hoped so.

The water had faded to a misty gray, adding to everyone’s discomfort and strife. So they refreshed quickly and gathered again before the craggy Council Cliff. Piper waited anxiously for SilverFlukes to intervene. When he nodded for her to proceed, her stomach rolled into a knot. She began in a hollow voice that did not sound like her own—as though it came from deep inside some cold, dark sea cavern, where she pictured a frail, gray-and-white Whistler held fast to the stony floor by swarms of Slithering Ones, all with distorted faces resembling members of her own Pod.

“I…I was chased into the Black Waters by the HunterKin,” she said, barely audible. She paused. How was she ever going to explain this to them?

“Yes,” rumbled RamStrong, “and how did you come upon the Cold Lord Arkitu?”

Piper could not believe how loosely the Commodore had spit out Arkitu’s name. The very mention of it brought back terrible notions of flailing spiked coils and two long arms clutching hungrily for her. He would not have been be so flippant about it if he’d been through the ordeals she had endured.

“Come, good Piper…for, with all due respect, I myself have difficulty trying to imagine how any Whistler might evade the grasp of Lord Arkitu and his legions.” RamStrong affected the sweetest tone of courtesy, and Piper found it increasingly annoying. “Do explain, please…”

“I didn’t realize where I was till morning, because the HunterKin had chased me all night,” she began, trying to keep her voice steady. She was doing her best to make the unbelievable sound true. Piper understood their fears. She knew what she had been through was well beyond any of them. “I didn’t want to use my scanners to see where I had fled, for fear of drawing that pack of Hunters onto me. So I paid attention only to what was right around me, just enough to avoid bumping into anything.” She took another moment to see how the Pod was responding, and it seemed they were rapt with genuine intrigue.

“By morning, I could see…and there were the most horrid-looking little creatures all around me. They all had long fangs, like the Slithering Ones.”

A pair of flukes ruffled nervously from somewhere within the cluster of Clanists.

“Then I saw something truly terrible,” said Piper. “It was a huge white Stinger. Its body was a bubbling mush—as big as a Whistler’s—and its poisoned arms hung down so far I couldn’t see where they ended. I thought it might be Lord Arkitu himself, so I fled. I don’t know how far I had gone when I began to notice flashing little lights below me.”

“Little lights?” asked RamStrong with badly disguised sarcasm.

“Yes, little lights,” she replied firmly, giving the Commodore a defiant look. “I thought I might have been followed by the giant Stinger that had already gobbled up several GillFins…and that maybe those strange lights were helping it find me.” Piper paused, not sure how to present the next part of her story.

“I…I was about to rise for air when I saw…the largest Snag-Tooth in the sea charging up at me! Pure white it was, and bigger than any of the HunterKin who had chased me. I don’t think there is a one of our killing Kin in the entire sea who could match up to it. It was so huge and savage-looking that I panicked. I dove…and since SlugFlukes had taught me to stay down longer, I went so deep the water all around me was no longer gray and gloomy but as black as a night when there are no lights above the sea, like when the Shining White Glow above is nowhere in sight.”

“Did it seem this giant Snag-Tooth was going to attack you, Piper?” asked Thane SilverFlukes.”

“I don’t know,” said Piper. “I never saw it again after that. But I was sure it had to be one of Lord Arkitu’s evil servants coming for me. I just wanted to get away. You have to understand—this was a Snag-Tooth unlike any you have ever seen. It could have swallowed the largest of Whistlers whole! SlugFlukes had told me of the White Giants of the Snag-Tooth who grow as large as HunterKin—even larger—and they roam the Open Seas. And he said that long ago they even grew to be the size of BigFins!”

As soon as she’d said that, Piper wished she hadn’t. She had been doing well, up to that point, even with mentioning the White Giant, which had sent a chill through every Pod member. But she would have inhaled back those last few words if she could have. It wasn’t necessary to mention the old Snag-Tooth legends. It was asking them to accept too much at once.

“I think we should break for air now,” said SilverFlukes, Piper didn’t like his tone. It forecast an abrupt, brewing skepticism. And when they returned, RamStrong begged an audience.

“I must say, Piper, you have certainly seen things the rest of us have never beheld. I know I have never experienced such wonders in all my seasons,” the Commodore said glibly.

Piper felt members of the Pod suppressing the urge to giggle. The Elders themselves sat back on their flukes, snickering as RamStrong rolled his jowly head up and around in the usual fashion when he wanted everyone to know he was right.

“This, eh, great Snag-Tooth of yours,” the Commodore began, “why did you think it was a servant of Lord Arkitu’s, if you yourself do not believe the Snag-Tooth to be an evil breed?”

A hush fell over the Gathering. RamStrong had struck home. Even Thane SilverFlukes nodded.

“I said it was unlike the Snag-Tooth any of us have ever known,” said Piper. “And I did not say that all Snag-Tooth are harmless, either…Commodore.” She glowered at him defiantly.

“Yes, of course,” said RamStrong, ignoring her impertinence. “Do you suppose it, eh, has any old kin—perhaps even bigger than itself—swimming around a bit farther down in the Black Waters?”

“I don’t know!” snapped Piper. He was deliberately leading her nowhere, and she knew it.

“Well, let’s leave your big Snag-Tooth for another time, shall we? What of the Cold Lord, then? When did you see him? Or did you? Are you sure you weren’t just looking at, ah…more giant Stingers? You know, we Whistlers really don’t have such good sight down there—not even those who can dive so deep. We are a little better off using our scanners…that is, when the HunterKin aren’t chasing us all about the seas.”

RamStrong had turned and directed his final jibe toward the Pod, taking full advantage of the Thane’s momentary bewilderment with Piper’s story. “Please go on, Piper. Tell us of the Cold Lord,” RamStrong said smoothly.

“I didn’t see Lord Arkitu, Commodore,” said Piper frostily. “I scanned his shape. One does not see in the pits of the Black Waters. Remember?”

RamStrong made to retort, but Piper pushed on. She was not going to let such idiocies rattle her any further. She would bandy words with this bully of a Clan leader as long as he insisted. She no longer feared doing so and knew how much that troubled him now.

“Arkitu is all we have ever feared,” said Piper, addressing the entire Clan once again. “You see, I have not come back here to say that everything we’ve ever believed is not true—as some of you want to think.” She shot another hard look at Commodore RamStrong and at the Elders, then continued. “The Cold Lord is more frightening to behold than any of you can imagine.” She had their serious attention again and meant to keep it. “His writhing and hissing is the most terrifying thing I have ever known.”

“Then how did you escape him?” RamStrong asked sardonically. He was certain now that she had to be making most of this up.

Piper hesitated, knowing this moment had been coming. “I…did not escape Arkitu all on my own,” she said, recalling the image of the Great Lord of the Sea. As she spoke, she tried picturing for them an image of her magnificent savior. Then, feeling all the wonderment she herself had felt at that moment, she said with a glowing conviction, “I was saved by a magnificent creature—a giant of a BigFin—an enormous Toothed One. It rushed right into Arkitu’s lair and overpowered the Evil One!”

Lost now in all the flowery mystique of her rescue, Piper shifted her sleek, light-skinned body so she might better address the whole Clan. “I believe that grand being was the Lord and Master of All Seas.”

There was a moment of prolonged grave silence.

“She is mad,” uttered RamStrong.

Mad. The word crept over them all, slithering out from the flaky kelp jungle and crawling into the minds of every Pod member. “She is mad.” The murmuring spread amongst them.

“Good Thane SilverFlukes, I was so wrong to condemn…to mock!” cried the Commodore. “For here before us is the true terror of Exile—this most dreaded of diseases. Oh, good Clanists, I wish never again to have cause to banish any of you. See what it has done to this poor creature!”

“No!” shrieked Piper. “No…please listen to me!” But the Pod had caught the fever. Whether that had been the Commodore’s intent could not be said. Piper did not know, nor did she care. Everything she had told them of her valiant struggle for survival in the Open Sea had just been branded the ramblings of an insane creature—a sad lunatic to be pitied. Her mind was aghast with what that meant.

“She is mad! She is mad!” chanted the Pod members in unison. And above the clamor, Piper heard the husky voice of her brother quarreling vigorously with someone else.

“She shall never be cast out again!” RamStrong bellowed piously. “We shall care for her as the sick should be cared for—protect her, nurture her…guide her away from this madness, for which surely the Snag-Tooth and all their Evil are responsible!”

Commodore RamStrong was sincerely shocked at what Piper had just told them. Yes, the poor youngster had lost her senses. He also knew that it had won the day for him, too.

A chorus of shrieking dolphins cut the water with their piercing cries: “Yes, it is the Snag-Tooth who cause such misery. Avenge Piper!” They scurried everywhere, fairly howling as they whizzed up through the waves in hissing gray blurs.

SilverFlukes simply shook his regal head in sad agreement. Glumly he dismissed the Gathering.

After paddling back down in the gloomy Council Waters, Buffer gazed over at the crying, struggling Piper as she was escorted away by several Fury Guards. A few others tried restraining QuickFin, who had lost all control during Piper’s outburst.

Then Buffer turned and glared at the preening hulk of Commodore RamStrong and the three Elders chatting smugly at the lip of the Cliff. Had any of them caught—through the gray haze—the chill in Buffer’s frigid glare, they might well have shuddered.