Petaybee #05: Twins of Petaybee 2 - Maelstrom by Anne McCaffrey

Author:Anne McCaffrey [McCaffrey, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Twins, Life on Other Planets, Brothers and Sisters, Fantasy Fiction; American, Shapeshifting, Shongili; Murel (Fictitious Character), Shongili; Ronan (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 0345470044
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2006-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

MUREL SWAM UP toward the volcano, where the boat with the shark people was heading, with Jeel closing in. Her sonar search soon picked him up. However, she found the sharks as well. They seemed to have detected him and were diving to investigate. They were faster swimmers than she was.

She called to him, Jeel! Jeel, you need to go back to the city. These animals are dangerous. Don’t go near them, they’ll eat you.

She felt the alien—otter? boy? he felt like a boy in her mind—turn from the sharks to her. Who are you? he asked with curiosity as acute as a real otter’s.

Murel. I’m one of the seal people your mother rescued. She sent me to get you, to warn you about the sharks. Come with me now. Hurry!

Why didn’t she come herself? he asked. She would have if I was really in danger.

The sharks won’t hurt me, but your people are fair game for them.

Why would they eat me and not you? he asked skeptically.

Please just come and stop asking so many questions. There’s no time to argue. Look over your shoulder. See those shadows? They’re closing in on you. Come here to me where I can protect you.

Instead he backed away, though he did look over his shoulder.

By now Murel didn’t need sonar to tell that the sharks were almost upon them. She could see the white of their teeth. Dive! she cried. To me, to me!

He looked around for her instead. She swam up toward him as hard as she could, but he couldn’t see her yet, and otters had no sonar. He saw the sharks, though, bearing down on him.

She drove herself toward them with powerful thrusts of her tail and pulls of her flippers. No! Manos, no! she tried to command them, but she might as well have been addressing empty water. That is not prey. He’s a—

But they were between her and Jeel. She heard his thoughts, sensibly terrified at last. Then she heard his last water-strangled cry, the like of which she had never heard before and hoped never to hear again.

White teeth gnashed and the sea darkened with a deep blue stain that was Jeel’s alien blood. She felt him, heard him, saw him no more.

She swam forward and was surrounded by sharks. They still looked horrible and hungry but she was too angry and appalled to be afraid. You ate him! she cried. I told you not to but you ate him anyway!

Not me, said a Mano who she identified as the one they had first met. I didn’t get so much as a nibble. There wasn’t enough to go around. He wasn’t apologizing. He was complaining. It’s not like it was a seal or an otter.

It was an otter. A deep sea otter, she told him.

I didn’t notice any of those bringing fish to our tank. Just the brown slinky ones like your friend. Besides, it was feeding frenzy. Everybody knows you don’t stop a Mano in feeding frenzy.

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