The Dolphins of Pern (19 page)

“Perhaps what Persellan said about the creatures’—” Oldive looked at Menolly for the word.

“Sonar,” she supplied.

“—Is very true. Proof positive!” Because Oldive appeared cheerful about the matter, everyone began to relax. “What is it, this sonar?”

Menolly recollected the exact phrasing she’d had from Alemi. “Sonar. Dolphins can emit high-frequency sounds and register the vibrations coming back to their ears. That’s how they navigate in the sea and send messages long distance to other dolphins. Somehow they can use it on human bodies as well.”

“If this Bit could see my hump through all my clothes, I’m willing to believe. Bit, do you wish me to skraabbb your blufisss?”

“Now, see here, Master Oldive,” began one of the medics who had been upset to see his master in the water, “there are more and more coming. You had better come out of the water. There are too many for you to do them.”

“I’ve counted forty so far,” Sebell said.

“Pleeesss, Ol-deeve. Many many blufiss.”

“Skraabbb blufisss,” the cry went up from the crowding dolphins.

“I can really only do one more today,” Oldive said. “The water is very cold.” His teeth were beginning to chatter, and the others kept begging him to come back into the boat and be dried off.

Menolly’s teeth began to chatter, too. “Look, we are humans, not dolphins. But there are enough in this boat to remove any more parasites those dolphins have. Those we don’t do today, we can do tomorrow. All right?”

“Rigggh. Rigggh” was the enthusiastic delphinic response. The humans were not quite as pleased by her offer. But when she insisted that Oldive reenter the boat with her, and blankets were brought for them, she found willing enough hands to assist.

Over the next few hours, most of the humans in the boat had gotten wet—but still they were unable to attend to all the dolphins who asked to have bloodfish removed. When Sebell remarked that I Bit and Inka, who had a dark splotch like a cap on her head, seemed to have some authority over the pods, he, Menolly, and Oldive managed to explain to the newcomers that they should return the next day.

“When the sun comes up,” Menolly said, using the hand signals for “next day.” “More blufiss cull. Understand?”

Squeeings and clickings, as well as some happy acrobatics, answered her, and the press of dolphin bodies about the boat eased. They were later to learn that I Bit was one of the oldest dolphins in the nearby seas. Certainly she seemed to understand more and certainly appeared to be the most respected member of the pod. I Bit taught the young calves and sent the smartest ones to the Great Whirlpool to the Tillek. At first the use of that name confused the two harpers. Gradually they realized that the Tillek meant the oldest and wisest dolphin, who was evidently the repository of all marine knowledge, the way harpers preserved knowledge for humans.

When Sebell and Menolly asked if they would ever meet the Tillek, I Bit said she would ask. The Tillek was known to be very pleased with the mans.

“The Tillek is wo-mans,” I Bit said, giving them a
long stare with her very bright and intelligent eyes. “Best, biggest, wisest.”

“I’m sure she is,” Menolly said, and proceeded to ask I Bit detailed questions of what dolphins learned from the Tillek.

“T’e Tillek sing too,” I Bit remarked, her lower jaw dropped in what was the most expansive dolphin grin they had yet seen.

“I guess that settles me,” Menolly told Sebell, grinning. About then she noticed that most of the people on the boat were holding what looked like two-way conversations with individual dolphins.

The cold of twilight, augmented by a sharp southern wind, finally forced the humans out of the boat—but with many promises to continue the contact the next day, and every day.

“Oooo ring bell. Oo-ee come. Oo-ee promise. ’Member! Oooo ’member! Next sun more blufisss skraaabss.” Though, by the fall of night, the dolphin numbers had shrunk from the nearly one hundred that had swum into the pier in response to the Report peal to twenty, those last were as loath to leave as the humans.

Curran urged all back into the warmth of his hold, where the hot mulled wine that was passed around was very welcome indeed. The first mate, Texur, and three of the other skippers then took folks back to their cotholds where they could dry their clothing. Robina clucked about, handing out fur rugs and fussing over Master Oldive.

“You’ll be treating yourself if you don’t have more of a care for your own health, Master,” she said,
scowling fiercely. “And then where will the rest of us be?”

“Ringing the dolphin bell,” Oldive murmured in a whisper that only Menolly and Sebell heard. “There is so much, so much more than we could have ever anticipated,” he went on in a slightly louder but still reflective tone of voice, “and we
must
learn all we can. All we can.” His voice fell again and his hand nearly let go of the cup of mulled wine. Menolly rescued it with a smile, which he returned. “Goodness, I don’t think I’ve had this much outdoor activity in decades.”

“We should have had you conveyed a-dragonback,” Menolly said anxiously.

“No, no, my dear,” Oldive said, sitting up straighten “I’m always after my patients to exercise and get fresh air and I never listen to my own advice. This has been a truly remarkable day.”

“As soon as you’re dried out enough, I’ll send Beauty to Fort Weyr and we’ll get you home safe, sound, and unwet,” Menolly said firmly, and gave him a stern look.

“Oh, no, not today. I must wait over and speak with I Bit again. But let us send back Worlain and Fabry. I have a particular patient in the Hall at the moment. I Bit might just be able to see what ails her, for without some help, I fear she will die. There is so much we don’t know,” he added, shaking his head.

“Now, Master,” Fabry said, for he evidently had an ear cocked in his Master’s direction, “Mislue’s the last person to expose to a dolphin. In the first place, she’ll be terrified …”

“She’s also terrified of dying,” Oldive said crisply.

“But how will you transport her here? The jolting of a Gather wagon would be too painful …”

“A dragon will oblige.”

Fabry snorted. “She’d be even more afraid of riding a dragon—if we could get her astride one—than even the doll-fin.”

“Dolphin,” Sebell said in absent correction.

“Whatever,” Fabry said, glancing at the Master-harper with all the arrogance some of the healers often displayed for other Crafts.

“If that holder woman intends to live to see the grandchild she hopes her daughter-in-law carries, then she’ll obey my orders,” Oldive said with a tinge of impatience in his usually serene voice. He laid a sensitive, thin-fingered hand on Fabry’s arm, and the stocky journeyman assumed an attentive stance. “You will make the arrangements on your return to the Hall, Fabry. I know I can count on you but you are not to forewarn her …”

“She’ll want details. She always wants details,” Fabry said with a much-put-upon sigh.

“The sea, Fabry. It is possible that a sea cure will help her,” Oldive said, one of his irresistible smiles lighting his gentle face and kind eyes.

“A sea cure?” Fabry barked a laugh.

“A sea cure,” Oldive repeated, smiling back.

So Menolly dispatched Beauty to Fort Weyr with a request for N’ton to provide dragons for those returning that evening. Though she received a warm invitation from Robina to stay overnight, too, she declined, anxious to return to her children. Sebell elected to remain with Oldive for a further meeting the next day with the dolphins. That left the question of the
runnerbeasts they had ridden down to the Hold, but Curran said he’d have one of his holders lead them back, laden with fish, in a few days.

Sebell gave Menolly a quick embrace when the dragons arrived. “Now, don’t spend all night composing, will you?”

“Much as I’d like to,” she said, hugging him fiercely, “the fresh air’s got me yawning, too. I’m so glad that it all worked.”

“Were you worried?” Sebell asked, looking down into her face with searching eyes.

“Well, not exactly worried, but I certainly didn’t expect the turnout! I’ll have to tell Alemi. He’ll be thrilled. It is too bad, though,” Menolly added, uxoriously smoothing the wrinkles of a jacket only just dried from the afternoon’s soaking.

“What?”

“That so much else is happening to detract from the dolphins.”

“Hmmm. Yes, but we’ll have the dolphins with us for the rest of our lives on Pern. Right now it is imperative that we follow Aivas’s timetable and rid us of Thread.”

“You’re right, of course, Sebell. The dolphins will be with us as they have been with us all along. I do hope Lessa doesn’t mind.”

“Why should she mind?” Sebell asked. She could come out with the most astonishing observations.

“Well, you know how she was about fire-lizards!”

“Not yours, my love. Just the undisciplined mob. I’ll brief Master Robinton and he’ll break it to her.”

“D
OLL-FINS?”
Lessa demanded, her eyebrows rising in black arcs of astonishment. She stared at Alemi, glaring fiercely until Masterharper Robinton laughed at her.

“Dolphins, Lessa.” Adroitly he corrected her pronunciation. “They have been mentioned. They came with the original settlers and have been happily plying the seas, saving lives when they could, and waiting until humans remembered them. Aivas is very interested in reestablishing the association.”

She blinked at the Harper. “Well, I suppose I do remember some mention of the sea creatures, but there’s been so much else going on …” Her tone chided him for bringing up a subject that she plainly considered irrelevant and immaterial.

“They’ve been around longer than dragons,” he said teasingly. “And they’re proving far more useful than, say, the fire-lizards.” He shot her a wicked glance for her well-known disgruntlement with fire-lizards pestering her gold dragon, Ramoth.

Lessa awarded him a very sour look until she
caught sight of her golden dragon, Ramoth, splashing in the waters of Cove Hold, her bathing assisted by wild and tame fire-lizards alike.

“The dragons that have met them seem to like them, Lessa,” Alemi said, taking his cue from the Harper and not letting himself be intimidated by the diminutive but forceful Weyrwoman of Benden.

“Which ones?”

“First, Gadareth, the bronze of young T’lion from Eastern Weyr. He was conveying me the day I inadvertently summoned the Monaco Bay pod.” She accepted that with a flick of her fingers, so Alemi went on, “Master Oldive had a very puzzling patient, which the dolphins at Fort Sea Hold diagnosed as having an internal growth in the belly.”

“And that caused enough problems with his Hall,” she said dryly. “I really don’t like the idea of cutting into human bodies.” She gave a little shudder.

“No more than when a child is hard to birth,” Alemi said, knowing that Lessa had had to have that surgery. Probably why she disliked intrusive operations. “The woman’s recovering and most grateful. However,” he went on briskly, “the dolphins are certainly proving invaluable assets to my Craft.”

“I did hear Master Idarolan on the subject but now is
not
the time to go off half-cocked,” she said. “We must not let anything interfere with Aivas’s program.”

“No more will the dolphins,” Robinton said soothingly. “I’ve met one or two and they are charming. It’s so nice to see creatures smiling all the time.”

Lessa’s glare intensified and then, abruptly, she
burst out laughing. “I have been a grouch, haven’t I?”

“Indeed you have,” Robinton said as cheerfully as any dolphin. “You should meet a few. They all have names.”

“Sea creatures with names?” Lessa exclaimed and her frown returned. That the dragons knew their own names at birth was an indisputable mark of their self-awareness and intelligence. To hear that the dolphins also had names smacked of heresy to the Weyr-woman.

“Each calf is named as it’s bora, I’m told,” Alemi hastily explained. “Aivas said those names are variations on the names of the original dolphins. They have traditions, too, you see.”

“I suppose the next thing will be the formation of yet another crafthall to take care of dolphins.”

“They seem to take very good care of themselves, my dear,” Robinton said, “if they’ve survived on their own in our seas all this while.”

“Hmmm, yes, well. I don’t want anything to detract from the priorities Aivas has set us.”

“This won’t,” Alemi said with such conviction that he won a smile from her.

She rose then. “If that’s all today?” she asked Master Robinton.

He rose, too, and his stiff movement gave Lessa a pang of concern for her valued friend. He’d never been quite as vigorous—though he protested constantly that he was well—since the heart attack he’d suffered at Ista Weyr. All this fuss with Aivas and the discoveries at Landing were not at all the sort of stimulation he needed. And yet …

“There’re several very engaging fellows out in the cove,” Robinton said, gesturing toward the beautifully colored waters of his bay,

She made a disgruntled noise, dismissing the notion. “I’ve more than enough to do as it is. And far more ‘visitors’ to meet and sort out than I can comfortably deal with.” She saw the disappointment on the Masterharper’s face and laid a kind hand on his arm. “Once we’ve finished Aivas’s grand scheme, I promise you I’ll make time to meet these doll—dolphins of yours.”

“Grand! You’ll love the games they play.”

“Games?” Once more Lessa’s frown returned.

“Games can be as necessary as work, Lessa,” Robinton said gently. “You don’t take enough time for yourself.”

“I don’t
have
enough time for what I
have
to do, much less myself,” she said, but she gave him an encouraging smile and left the cool, shady comfort of Cove Hold for the midday heat.

Ramoth waded out of the water to meet her.
The sea creatures know where to scratch my belly just where it itches
, she told her rider.

“They do?” Lessa looked out at the cove waters, where these dolphins were leaping and diving about her dragon as easily as tumblers did at a Gather. They did have smiles on their faces. “They were born that way,” she told herself. “C’mon, Ramoth, we have to see if another holding is feasible below the others on the Jordan River,” she said as she stepped up to Ramoth’s neck. The dragon had not completely immersed herself, since she knew they’d have to go
between
and Lessa would not like sitting on damp hide.