The Dolphins of Pern (21 page)

Afo gave the information, which included sonar “readings.”

“They know where the school is, but the only way they can express that to me is to give me the return time of their sonar responses,” Alemi said. “I’m getting good at figuring distances that way.”

“That’s—that’s amazing,” T’lion said, awed.

“Not as much as you getting Boojie stitched.” Alemi grinned at T’lion’s surprise. “Oh, we heard all about it. They can pass quite a bit of information around—if they feel like it.”

“Dragons are still the most responsible,” T’lion said, proudly glancing up at his splendid bronze.

“Don’t deny that for a moment, lad. Each to his own purpose on Pern.”

“Which reminds me, I’ll be late collecting Harper
Boskoney.” T’lion clambered back up the ladder to the pier, tugging free his wet shirt as he made his way to his dragon. He finished changing to the dry one from his pack as Gadareth flew the short distance.

When he and Gadareth glided in to land in front of Boskoney’s cothold, the harper peered around the door at them.

“Be a moment,” he called.

T’lion knew these harper “moments” and laid his shirt out on the nearby bush to dry, then hunkered down to lean back against Gadareth’s haunch to wait.

A darkly tanned youngster came out and, grinning at the sight of a dragon, came confidently up to him.

“You must be T’lion and this is Gadareth.” The boy reached a hand up to the dragon’s muzzle. Gadareth touched it in polite greeting. “Boskoney said you’d come to collect him so I could run along now.”

“And you are?” T’lion asked, amused at the boy’s poise. He couldn’t be more than seven Turns.

“I’m Readis, son of Holders Jayge and Aramina. I wash Ruth, Lord Jaxom’s dragon, whenever he comes to visit. Can I wash Gadareth sometime, too?” Then he eyed the bulk of the bronze, who had not yet reached his full stature. “There’s a lot more of him than Ruth, but I could
help.”

T’lion laughed. “You can, if we ever have a chance to stay long enough. Generally, though, the dolphins help me wash Gadareth.”

The boy’s ogle-eyed reaction made T’lion laugh.

“You’re speaking to dolphins?”

It was T’lion’s turn to be surprised: the boy not
only knew that the dolphins spoke but he pronounced their name correctly.

“Have
you
spoken to dolphins?” T’lion asked. Maybe the boy answered the dolphin bell for Alemi. It would be a good task for a young lad and a Holder’s son.

“Only the day they saved my life. But Unclemi said they ask him how I’m doing.”

“They saved your life? Tell me how.” Sometimes T’lion missed the youngest of his brothers, Tikini, who had much the same ingenuousness about him as this Holder’s son. He and Tikini had been very close.

Just then Boskoney came out of his cothold, sweat breaking out on his forehead from the heavy flying jacket he was wearing. “You scoot on home now, Readis,” he said to the boy, “and let’s get above this heat, can we, T’lion?”

“I’ll see you around, Readis,” T’lion called as he speedily mounted Gadareth and then helped Boskoney aboard. Circling upward away from the sultry air of the steaming hold, T’lion saw the boy waving as long as he could be seen.

Over the next several weeks, in the course of T’lion’s collecting the harper, T’lion and Readis met again. Readis invariably asked what was new with
his
pod, and who was sick, and who had been cured, and T’lion was only too glad to talk to someone who avidly soaked up his tales. He hadn’t realized how much he had bottled up his interest in the dolphins until he began to talk to Readis, who responded enthusiastically, his eyes sparkling, his whole body almost vibrating in his intensity.

“Look, you can speak to the dolphins again, if you want to,” T’lion told Readis one day.

“I’m not ‘sposed to be near water alone,” Readis said. “I promised.”

“Well, if you’re with me and Gadareth, you’re scarcely alone.”

Readis considered this, thoughtfully and wistfully, digging at the sand with his bare toe, “Yes, a dragonrider and a dragon would keep me my promise.” He gave T’lion a radiant grin. “But where?” His arm swept to the wide expanse of the river mouth.

“Oh, that’s the easy part and very safe,” T’lion said. “D’you know where Master Alemi anchors? Are you allowed to go that far?”

Readis nodded vigorously, the dark curls on his head bouncing, his eyes solemn and his expression so eager it was hungry.

“You meet me there tomorrow afternoon, say, at the fourth hour, so we’d have a whole one before I’m due to collect Master Boskoney.”

“Oh, I will, I will, I will. Thank you!”

Begun innocently enough, the afternoon sessions with the dolphins became a happy routine for them both. If his mother asked Readis “Where have you been?” or “Who was with you?” he could honestly reply that he was with T’lion and Gadareth. The fact that he was also swimming with the dolphins off Alemi’s float simply was not mentioned.

T’lion was delighted not only with the boy’s fearlessness in the water and with the dolphins, but in how quickly Readis seemed to understand their odd speech. They, in turn, liked his high-pitched young
voice and, having been warned by T’lion that the “calf was young and must be carefully handled, never swamped him or roughed him up, even when Readis dove under the water to swim with them.

“You’ve got lungs like a dragon to stay under so long,” T’lion said one afternoon when he had almost feared the boy had gone too deep, only to have him and Afo’s latest calf, Vina, burst out a good two dragonlengths from the float. “Don’t do that to me again, Ready,” he shouted. “Now, come on in. Take a breather!”

Laughing, Readis allowed Vina to tow him in to the float. He climbed up, grinning and thoroughly pleased with himself. “We got way far down but not to the bottom. Vina clicked it too far for us. So we surfaced. She’s great to swim with.”

“I can see why your folks want someone with you when you do swim,” T’lion said, still recovering from that long moment of fright. “You can promise me that you won’t stay under so long again.”

“Sure, I promise. But it was great fun. You try it. You can get ever so much deeper with a dolphin!”

“I’m sure, but next time, we’ll do it together! Promise?”

Then Readis looked irritably down at Afo, who was pushing her nose at his foot.

“T’orn. Bad t’orn,” she said, and squee’ed urgently up at T’lion.

“Your foot hurting you?”

Readis looked blankly at his friend, then down at the foot. “Oh, now and then. I stepped on somethin’ but it doesn’t hurt when I swim.”

“Lemme see.”

Readis swiveled on the float so he could obey. Though T’lion prodded the strong, callused foot, he didn’t strike a sore spot.

“Bad t’orn,” Afo insisted.

“Nothin’s there, Afo,” Readis insisted, and twisted so his face was on a level with hers. He reached out one hand and scratched her chin just where she liked it. “Nothin’ hurts.”

Afo ducked her head vigorously, scooping water at them with her nose.

“Maybe, Readis, you better show your foot to your mother, or your aunt Temma. She’s Hold healer, isn’t she?”

“Ah, it’s nothin’. Let’s swim again …”

“No,” T’lion said so firmly that Readis knew better than to coax him. “I’ve got to collect Boskoney.”

“He’s always late,” Readis said with good-humored scorn.

“That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be on time. C’mon now.”

It so happened that that day either they were later than they should have been or Boskoney was actually on time. T’lion deposited Readis on the ground and helped Boskoney up, so he had no time to remind the boy to get the foot seen to.

The next day he had to attend the Fall, delivering firestone sacks to the fighting wings far out over the huge inland lake. Then he was sent to collect Mastersmiths attending one of the endless discussions now held daily at Admin, so it was three days before he resumed conveying Boskoney. He arrived at Alemi’s float, eager to see Readis, but the boy didn’t
come. When T’lion and Gadareth landed to collect Boskoney, he asked the harper if he’d seen the boy.

“No, he’s ill. Quite ill, I understand.”

T’lion experienced a pang of fear. Shard it! Readis had promised to see his aunt Temma.

“Got one of those swift high fevers that kids his age so often have,” Boskoney added, settling himself between the bronze’s neck ridges. “He’ll be fine in a day or two. Bright child.”

“Yes, he is,” T’lion replied, his anxiety only partially abated. One of his sisters had died of one of those swift high fevers, but she’d been younger than Readis and not nearly as sturdy as the Holder boy.

“Maybe a dolphin should look at him. They’re good at diagnosing.”

Boskoney laughed, giving the young rider’s shoulder a comforting pat. “Oh, I don’t think it’s anywhere near critical enough for
your
friends, T’lion, but it’s nice of you to be concerned.”

“I am. He’s like a brother to me.”

“I’ll tell him you were asking for him.”

“Do. Please.”

The next day, T’lion went to the float and rang the bell, asking for Afo when the first dolphin reported in.

“What kind of thorn was it in Ready’s foot, Afo?” he asked urgently.

“Swim w’us,” Afo squeed, clicking in excitement. “You not ring bell three suns now.”

“No, Readis is sick.”

“Bad t’orn. Told him.”

“A thorn could cause him to have a fever?”

“Bad t’orn. Sea t’orn, not land. Badder.”

“I’d better tell his mother, then,” T’lion said, and promptly had Gadareth fly him to the Holder’s cottage.

There, he found not only the boy’s parents and Aunt Temma but the Masterhealer from Landing as well. All looked anxious, the mother was drawn and haggard from sleeplessness. Even Jayge showed the strain of anxiety.

“I heard Readis was ill,” T’lion began, nervously clutching his flying cap, “Anything I can do? The dolphins are good at telling what’s wrong with people, you know.”

“Dolphins!” Aramina spat the word out. “He’s delirious about dolphins.” She turned her face up to Jayge. “He can’t possibly be reliving that rescue, can he?”

She’s afraid of dolphins, T’lion
, Gadareth said.

Why should she be?

She’s just afraid of them for Readis
,

That was when T’lion had his first inkling that he had perhaps done wrong in taking the boy to Alemi’s float. But he’d been very careful with him, and the boy hadn’t broken the promise he must have made his fearful mother.

The Masterhealer gave T’lion a keen glance. “You’re the bronze rider who’s helped Persellan at Eastern Weyr?”

“Yes, Master, T’lion, Gadareth’s rider.”

“You’re kind to offer, dragonrider, but this is a child’s fever. More tenacious than they usually are, it’s true, but nothing within the problems which the dolphins can solve.”

T’lion hesitated. “Isn’t he always running about
the place, barefooted? I don’t mean that as a criticism, Holder Aramina,” he added hastily when he saw that she was bridling at his comment. “I wish I could.” he gestured to the heavy boots, in which his feet were perspiring. “But I know how nasty thorns are and it would be so easy …”

“His limbs are swollen,” the healer said slowly.

“Both legs,” Aramina said with such an irritated glance in T’lion’s direction that he shrugged as if he regretted making the suggestion.

“But the right foot is unusually swollen …” The healer spoke on his way down the wide corridor that led to the sleeping rooms, and Aramina and Temma hurried after him.

“I’d better go,” T’lion said to Jayge now that he’d done what he could. “I’ll come in again. I collect Boskoney every day.” He looked anxiously at Temma and Jayge.

“You’re good to be concerned, dragonrider,” Jayge said kindly, though it was obvious to T’lion that the Holder’s ears were pricked toward the sickroom.

“Not at all. Not at all. He’s such a friendly lad, like my brother …” T’lion made a hasty retreat, more concerned than ever.
We didn’t do anything
bad,
did we, Gadareth? He
wanted
to speak to the dolphins, He already
had
spoken to the dolphins. But his mother was sure upset She heard dragons too much. We are careful not to speak too loud. It upsets her. Maybe dolphins upset hen too.

T’lion walked quickly across to Boskoney’s cot-hold. If he asked just the right questions, maybe he’d find out what he needed to know. But if he
had
done
wrong, then he’d have to admit it. Or he’d be in real trouble with T’gellan. Being a dragonrider didn’t save him from making stupid mistakes sometimes. But how could he have known?

“Yes, there was no way you
would
have known,” Boskoney said with a heavy sigh when T’lion stumbled through his recital of events. “And I don’t think you’ve done
wrong
, exactly. It’s just unfortunate it’s turned out so badly. You say one of the dolphins ‘saw’ a sea thorn in his foot four days ago?” He sighed. They were both aware, having been raised in the tropics, how treacherous thorns could be in human flesh. The harper laid a reassuring hand on the young rider’s shoulder. “I’ll do what I can, lad. And I’ve canceled tonight’s meeting. They need me here right now. You go on. Speak to your Weyrleader. That’s the best thing to do now. I’ll find Alemi and tell him what you’ve told me.”

The upshot of the matter was that T’lion and Gadareth were assigned other duties, and a blue weyrling and his rider conveyed Harper Boskoney to and from Paradise River Hold. A sevenday later Boskoney appeared at Eastern Weyr on his way to Landing to tell the guilt-tormented bronze rider that Readis’s fever had broken and he would recover. Out of respect for T’lion’s feelings, the harper did not mention that the poison had affected the boy’s right leg, knotting the tendons so that he might never have full use of the limb.

“Alemi managed to insist that they take the boy to the dolphins, and Afo accurately identified the site of the thorn, and the poison which had traveled up to
the knee by then. It could have traveled all the way to his heart, I’m told, and killed him.”

T’lion sank to the hammock on his porch, head in hands. “I should have told them
then!”