“Aah—!” Alex’s yell was cut short by the eel yanking him underwater.
Immediately he sucked in a breath of water and started to choke. The eel squeezed him and slithered around through the water, gaining momentum until it was moving at a maniacal speed. Alex’s vision grew hazy, and he couldn’t struggle anymore. He tried desperately to hold his breath, but the intake of water had messed up everything. Just before he blacked out, a flash of light caught his eye.
And this time, it wasn’t the eel.
Spike Furious
The shiny, blue-painted whale with a faux diamond–encrusted spike shooting out from her forehead came zipping toward Alex and the eel at top speed. Even though she’d been captured by this same eel once before, she was not afraid. She had learned the eel’s tricks. Compelled by a voice inside her, she swam at a furious pace, aiming her spike without fear at the enormous electric eel.
That voice inside—she’d heard it before, at the beginning of everything. But the voices of the sea had been louder back then, calling her to play. She hadn’t been able to resist them.
Today in the cage she heard that voice again, coming from the boy. From the Alex.
At the beginning, during the terrible time, the Alex was there, feeling terrible too. It reminded her of something. Of someone. Of a man, a very long time ago, who remained by her side until the end. And even though it hurt, she felt comfort knowing that the man was there, feeling terrible with her.
When she heard that voice, the voice of the Alex, and saw his eyes and understood his words, she believed in him. And when the Alex’s personal monster came to break the cage and set everyone free so they could breathe again, Spike Furious knew that she would want to stay near the Alex forever. The thought made her happy.
Now, with the Alex in grave danger, there was only one thing Spike could do to stop the bad eel from hurting him and everyone else.
She sped toward the giant eel and stabbed her spike into its side.
The creature recoiled. The Alex slipped out of its grasp. Spike Furious yanked her spike out of the eel’s side, slipped her tail under the boy as he fell lifeless through the water, and lifted his body above the surface to the air, because every creature of the sea knows that the Alexes can’t hold their breath as long as whales can.
When Spike heard the noises from the ship, she got scared, but then she saw that the people on board were smiling and cheering. Spike smiled back and cheered with them as two creatures of the air picked up the Alex from her tail and brought him to the ship.
“Thank you, Spike! You saved Alex!” said the girl with short fur who had been near the cage with the boy.
Spike bobbed in the water, tail and snout sticking up. She liked the girl with short fur. The whale ducked her head underwater to fill her blowhole so she could speak, and repeated, “Thank you, Spike!” And for some reason, just like when she had spoken to the sea monster and the squid and the dead stone woman, it didn’t seem strange.
“Oh, you can talk,” said the girl. “How excellent. I am Carina. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Of course I can,” Spike said. She blew, and water shot up, hitting the Carina in the face.
Carina laughed and wiped her eyes. “Lovely! Alex did an excellent job with you.”
Spike nodded, somehow knowing this to be true, but not knowing quite how she’d learned of it. She submerged once more. “Where is the Alex?”
“He’s here on the deck, coughing up a lungful of water—do you hear him? But he’ll be okay, I think, because you rescued him in time.”
“It is always good to be in time,” Spike said, as if it just occurred to her. She was learning new things every minute.
“Indeed it is.” Carina glanced out to sea, a worried look on her face. “I’m wondering if you can do me a favor while we wait for Alex to feel better.”
“Oh,” Spike said, and she closed her eyes as a wave of . . . something . . . passed over her. “You want me to check on the monster with wings.” Again, Spike had no idea how she knew what Carina wanted, but the knowledge was there. She could feel it, anticipate it. “And the dead stone woman.”
“Yes, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“It is not.” Spike dove down and barreled through the water like a bullet in the direction of the cage. There was no sign of the eel, she thought with smug satisfaction.
» » « «
On board the ship, Alex felt like he might never stop coughing. As soon as he was able, and despite the outcry of those surrounding him, Alex got to his feet and stumbled over to the side of the ship. “Where’s Simber?” he demanded. “Has anyone seen him?”
For Alex, this scene was all too horribly familiar. Simber, lost underwater again. It was unnerving.
“Spike is checking on them,” Carina said, joining Alex at the railing. “Our whale friend is quite intelligent and seems extra intuitive. She guessed what I was about to ask her.”
Alex looked at Carina. “She spoke to you?”
“Yes—didn’t you make her that way?”
“I did, yes,” Alex said, a grin spreading over his face. “I made her to be able to communicate with all humans and creatures. But I didn’t think it would actually work.”
“She seemed to have no trouble speaking to that long-necked sea monster and the squid, and definitely no problems talking to me. That’s a lot already. She calls you ‘the Alex.’ It’s very cute,” Carina teased. “As if you are your own breed.”