Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

the depths. Try as she might, Chidi could not see the Orcs through the darkened waters with her seal eyes. Bryant! She called in vain, spinning in search of the partner she had watched dive into the water before calling to those still upon the boat.

Chidi! Bryant’s scattered voice shouted after in reply. Chidi, where are you?

Before she could answer, a mammoth shadow sped past her. Its shrieking call screamed in arrival.

Chidi dodged at the last to avoid the fateful bite meant to swallow her seal body whole. The beast of black and white rocketed onward, the speed of its swim setting Chidi’s mind and seal body to spin in the Killer’s wake.

Chidi righted herself by seeking out the lighter stretch of water that signaled the surface and the air beyond. Finding it, she kicked with her hind flippers to race upward for a quick breath before the Killer came for her again.

Again, Bryant shouted in her mind from somewhere further off. They’re everywhere! Get to the boat! Where are you, Chidi? Which direction?

I don’t know! She replied, peeking above the surface, blinking her seal eyes as she stole a breath from the above. Nothing but more empty Salt lay before her. Where is the boat? She briefly wondered, surmising its location a moment later.

More peppered gunshots rang out behind her to signal Marisa’s ongoing battle for the captain’s quarters, at least. Exhaling, Chidi was turning toward the gunfire and feral screams when she caught sight of a rising, black dorsal fin closing on her position.

Diving, she glimpsed the overly large and seeming white eye patches of a Killer Whale racing in a direct path to claim her. Spinning away, Chidi swore she could feel the rubbered skin of the Killer Whale’s mouth on the tips of her hind flippers as she called upon all the speed she could muster. Rather than wait for further confirmation of the Killer coming for her again, Chidi commanded her seal body to dive for deeper water.

The Killer screamed as she did. Again, it missed her by inches to judge the speed of the mammoth creature’s self-made undertow that carried it onward and over Chidi.

The booming voice of the hunter reverberated in her mind not a second thereafter. Keep swimming all you like, Silkie. You’re nothing but meat when I catch you.

Glancing back, Chidi witnessed the Orc shifting from its Killer Whale body to adopt its half-human form instead. She continued her flight from the Killer, wheeling again when feeling his presence drawn near enough to reach her.

Unlike before, the Orc swiped at her with a human hand, his fingers closing around the end of her left hind flipper and pinching upon it.

Her momentum allowed her to slip free of his grasp. Bryant! Chidi called for his aid as she swam onward. Bryant, where are you? They’re on me!

Bryant did not answer, and Chidi had no time to call for him again.

The Orc had caught up to her once more. Learning from his failures, the hunter had waited to grab for a better hold of Chidi. His hand landed higher upon her seal body, near where her thigh would be, then slid down to grab a lower joint. Like a noose closing on its victim, the Orc twisted at the last to immediately turn and slow Chidi’s momentum.

Chidi yelped at the suddenness of her trapping. She attempted to wriggle free, but the Orc was already swinging her around to face him. No sooner than she witnessed the pleasure in his gaze, the Orc grunted in pain, his eyes rolling back. A plume of crimson water bubbled and rose around him, the Orc swallowed in a watery cloud of his own blood.

In death, the Orc’s grip released Chidi to swim free once more. She wasted no time in hurrying away, the clicks and whistles of other Orcs never far away. Despite the fear hastening her on, Chidi took a moment to look upon the face of her rescuer, expecting to find Bryant, or Marisa Bourgeois.

Instead, she met the youthful face of one wizened beyond his years.

Allambee Omondi stared back at her with a sterner look than any she had ever witnessed in her innocent, younger friend. In his gaze now, Chidi recognized the hardened stare of a hunter in his environment. More surprising still was the coldness in the Kenyan’s dark eyes.

As Allambee plucked one of Girard’s harpoons free of the dead Orc, the movement drew Chidi’s attention to how it was that her friend had come to swim so deep beneath the Salt and to slay one of the greater predators there also. Where his legs should have been, Allambee Omondi had a darkened, if silvery shark tail that stretched into the black water below.

He’s a Nomad? Chidi questioned herself, blinking with her seal eyes as if she could wish away the image.

Allambee remained in front of her, his shark tail waving back and forth like a slow pendulum to count the time. Flicking his tail to position himself in front of her, Allambee spoke to her mind with a quiet confidence. Chidi . . . swim away.

She understood why he gave the order when another pair of overly large, white eye patches gleamed at them both from the darkened waters ahead.

Go . . . Allambee commanded once more. Swim for the boat, Chidi. I will deal with these monsters.

Chidi gulped when two more Orcs appeared from the shadows around them like flanking parties on either side. I can’t. She said, idling closer to him as the Orcs closed in. I can’t leave you . . . and there’s no way for me to go without them catching me. No way I get past them.

Then, I will make you a way past them, said Allambee. Rather than wait for the Orcs to reach him, Allambee flung himself at the nearest of their attackers, lunging with his harpoon as the Orc came at him also. When the Orc used his sword to bat the harpoon