Herzer dove deep and came up from below the formation, slashing his sword through the belly of an orca that had just caught one of the mer. The cut was too late, though; the orca's jaws crushed the mer-girl before he even realized his guts were trailing in the water.
"Form a globe around them," Edmund yelled, "women to the outside."
But as fast as the mer tried to regroup, the orcas were faster. Their powerful flukes smashed any attempt at formation and after their first attack on the women and older men they turned on the broken formation of spear-wielders and attacked them.
Herzer saw Pete caught that way, one of the orca catching him by his tail and tossing him up and out of the water like a play toy. Jason was fighting a desperate action against another, jabbing with his sword to keep the orca at bay.
It was the dragons, and Bast, that saved the day.
Herzer thought that the orcas were fast until he saw Bast. Her fins blurred like the tail of a tuna as she cut through the water like a shark. Her saber wasn't well suited for killing the big whales, but where she went orcas were left bleeding with huge gashes in their side, back, stomach, guts hanging out and fins cut away so they had to swim lopsidededly.
Donal had a nasty bite in his side but he still drove through the pod of orcas like a killing machine, tearing huge chunks out of their sides, catching fins and flukes and ripping them off to stain the water with crimson.
Chauncey was more methodical. He had caught one of the orcas with both claws and tore at it as it struggled. He didn't let go until the orca went limp and floated up to the surface, dead or so injured that it could struggle no more.
Joanna was more like Donal, her snakelike head darting through the formation and slashing at any orca that was stupid enough to get in range. One managed to get its teeth in her tail only to find out how well sprung it was; the two-ton orca was spun through the water, raising a wave on the surface for a moment, until he was brought in range of those killer teeth and when they closed the orca fought no more.
As fast as the attack started it was over and the water was filled with dead and dying orcas and mer.
"Oh, God," Jason said, looking around.
Bill and three of the other mer-warriors were clearly dead, horrible jaw marks on their chests and abdomens, their entrails drifting in the current. Pete was floating at the surface, his tail bitten half-way through. Herzer wasn't sure that he'd live, even if Daneh had been there. Several of the mer-women were dead as well and others were badly injured.
"Get to land," Edmund said. "Get them up in the shallows. The ones that are whole all the way out of the water. We'll . . . see what we can do for the rest."
"Grace is all we can give most," Bast said, wiping her sword on the flank of one of the still-twitching orcas.
"We'll see," Edmund replied.
Herzer floated up to one of the injured mer-warriors and grabbed him by the wrist, towing him towards shore. Everyone was dragged shoreward, the injured and the dead. None would be left for the sharks, as the bodies of the orcas were being left.
The sharks and the dragons. Chauncey grabbed the tail of the one he had killed and dragged it along as Donal grabbed another. Joanna got two.
"You're not going to eat them, too, are you?" Jason asked.
"Why not?" Joanna replied. "They'd eat me if they got a chance."
"They didn't eat any of us," Herzer replied. "We're all here."
"Are we?" Edmund said. "That's a damned good question. Jason?"
"Anyone notice anyone not here?" Jason said. "I never bothered to really get a list." He looked around and blanched white. "Antja?"
"Elayna," Bast hissed. "Where's Elayna?"
By the time they reached the shore it was clear that the two mer-girls were missing.
"Where could they have gone?" Herzer asked. "They would have come out if they hid in the reef."
"That was why they went for the women, first," Edmund said. "I thought it was a brilliant tactic. But I bet that they made off with them while we were still fighting, come and gone before anyone noticed."
"Herman," Herzer said, ducking under the water. "Did you see Antja or Elayna taken?"
"No," the delphino responded. "Too fast. None of ours injured."
"They ignored the delphinos," Edmund said, shaking his head. "They went for the girls and ignored the delphinos."
"Why?" Jason shouted. "Why them?"
"Tender mer-girl snacks?" Joanna asked, craning her head up to look around. "I can find them."
"Me too," Herzer said, climbing on Chauncey who had just started to rip into his lunch. The wyvern snarled at being kept from his meal but turned to look at Joanna.