The Dolphins of Pern (38 page)

“You help her?” Cal asked.

“She had a wicked bloodfish, yes, and I removed it.”

He was being pulled with such speed that he had more water in his mouth than words and gestured that he couldn’t speak. Then he saw that the entire pod was there, ranged on either side of Theresa. Some were in advance, leaping and diving as if they escorted a ship. Behind him, others were dipping in and
out, but more sedately than usual, not displaying the more athletic maneuvers. He spotted Loki and she rolled her head at him before dipping her nose under again.

Theresa just kept swimming, heading directly toward the Great Western Current. He’d been out to it several times with the pod, and been caught up in the incredible current, fearless only because he had been in the company of dolphins.

They were nearly upon the ships before he realized that her bulk had kept him from seeing them bearing down on them.

Two ships, one of them Master Idarolan’s
Dawn Sisters
, and the other, Alemi’s
Fair Winds.

“Oh, no, Theresa.” He dropped his hand and was immediately upheld by Cal on his left.

“Take hold, Readis,” Theresa said, screwing her head around so that he could not deny hearing her words. “You will come with me.”

“She speak, you obey!” Cal said, squeeing emphatically.

That was when Readis had the first suspicion. Later he realized how stupid he had been. Just then more pods could be seen, leaping and diving, plunging and cavorting, all heading toward the ships, which had furled their sails and seemed to be standing still. Sea anchors out, he thought in his bemuse-ment. As they neared, and Theresa was closing the distance with incredible speed, he could see that each ship had a longboat in the water beside it, and that there were dolphins clustered all around. He’d never heard that dolphins had Gathers, but that’s the word that came to mind. According to what Kib and Afo
had suggested, the only time dolphin pods met was in the Northwest at the Great Subsidence for …

“You’re the Tillek, Theresa!” he shouted. He lost his grip, and swallowed a mouthful of water that had him gasping for breath and grasping for the nearest solid form. Which happened to be the Tillek, Theresa, and that made him reach for any other form, for to grab at
her
seemed tantamount to sacrilege.

“Hold me, Dolphineer,” he was commanded, and his hand was flung up and landed against the dorsal fin, which he obediently clutched.

“I shouldn’t—” he gasped. “It’s not right. You’re the Tillek.”

Loud squees and clickings of approval answered him, and then they were so close to the longboats that he could hear the welcoming shouts. The Tillek swam him up to Master Idarolan’s ship, and slowed to come to a complete stop, her flippers holding her steady with deft subtle movements, by the
Dawn Sisters’
longboat. Looking up, he saw his father, smiling, his mother, unsmiling but somehow looking proud, Alemi, and Kami, of all people, and she looked as if she was about to weep. Beyond her were T’gellan, the Benden Weyrleader, D’ram, T’lion, looking excessively pleased, a dour-looking man he didn’t know, Master Samvel, Master Menolly, and Master Sebell. His father and Alemi held out their hands to him.

“Grab hold, Readis,” Jayge called. Too surprised to disobey, he held up his arms and was hauled aboard. His mother herself handed him a big towel, even as she ran critical eyes up and down his tanned body as
if she hadn’t expected to find him in such good and healthy condition.

“Thanks, Mother,” he mumbled, and didn’t know what else to do because there was the Tillek herself raised up from the water to be part of whatever was about to transpire in the boat. For this had the feeling of more than the recapture of a recalcitrant truant,

“Well, Readis, lad,” Master Idarolan said, planting his hands on his hips and grinning at him. “Led us a fine and merry chase you have, lad.”

“I just wanted to help the dolphins,” Readis said, speaking to his father despite the press of other important people around him, “No one else was.”

Jayge took Readis’s arm and pressed it affectionately, his expression wistful. “We know that now, son. And I honor you for what you did that day, despite what I said, and felt, at the time.”

“I should never have said what I did,” Aramina murmured right beside him, and there were tears in her eyes when he looked around at her.

“Ahem, we can’t keep the Tillek waiting, friends,” Master Idarolan said. “We are come at her request, Readis,” he added.

“At her …” Readis looked from the Fishmaster to the looming shape of the Tillek.

“She wishes you to be the Dolphineer,” Master Idarolan said. “We’ve never had a Dolphin Hall on Pern … never realized we
should
have had one all these years. But, well, she’s been very understanding.”

“The Thread caused many problems for humans,” the Tillek said in a tone that suggested she really couldn’t understand quite why. Beyond her, Readis
could see the masses and masses of dolphin bodies. Why, every pod on Pern must be here! “We are grateful to men for many things. For history, for knowing what we are, and for giving us the tongue to speak. For speech is what raises the human—and us—above the animals and fish of land and sea.”

“And you, Theresa the Tillek,” Masterharper Se-bell said, “are obviously my counterpart among dolphins.”

“I do not play music makers. But I sing the songs of old so that the young do not forget the past and the old Earth and how men and women swim with us in these new seas.”

“Close your mouth, Readis,” his father murmured softly.

“But he said—she said—a Dolphin Hall?”

“A Dolphin Hall,” Master Idarolan repeated.

“A Dolphincrafthall,” said F’lar of Benden, “and I speak for all the Weyrleaders …”

“And I, Oterel of Tillek Hold, speak for the Lord Holders …” said the gaunt man Readis didn’t know, and then he smiled and didn’t look half as forbidding.

“And I for the Harper Hall,” Sebell said, “that the new Hall is needed and is herewith situated at the sea caverns of … what will you call your place, Readis?”

“Huh? I don’t know. I don’t know anything …”

“Kahrain is the name we dolphins know of that place from the Ancients,” the Tillek said.

“Kahrain Hold it will be then,” Readis said, wondering if a man’s heart could burst from his chest. “But I really don’t have
much
of a Hold there right now, only the caves and the pools where I can do
healing. And I’d need to learn much more healing to be a
good
dolphineer …”

“That has been promised you,” the Tillek said, and ducked down into the water, rising again to blow out of her hole.

“Why? Why me? You said there were other dolphineers …” Readis said, almost accusing her of gentle treachery.

“There are!” T’lion said, bursting with the news. “Because Gaddie wants to help, too, and T’gellan has given his permission for me to spend my free time with you and the dolphins. I’ve copied another set of medical stuff for you, too, Readis …”

Readis began to shiver suddenly, though the sun was warm and the breeze mild.

“He is cold and needs hot food,” the Tillek said. “We will retire and return when he has been cared for.” She either did not hear or did not care to acknowledge the outraged “Well, I never” from Ara-mina, for she went on: “You swim strong and well, Dolphineer Readis. You will be Tillek and Thea to all in your hold.” Then she disappeared below the side of the longboat. Stunned by all that had just happened, Readis stared at the space she had been occupying until he saw her long body gracefully arch out of and then back in the water, many dolphins following her away from the ships.

Readis was then bundled up the rope ladder and into Master Idarolan’s cabin, and given hot soup and hot klah and made much of by his mother, attentions that he endured out of gratitude for the day and for her forgiveness. His father handed him a new shirt and muttered something about other things that had
been brought along that he would possibly need. Then, with Aramina still anxiously hovering over him, he was ushered back out to the deck. There everyone else on this extraordinary voyage had wineglasses, which were being topped up by Master Idarolan’s seamen.

“Now, lad, I’ve some cargo destined for your new Hold,” Master Idarolan said, handing Readis a full glass. “I know the Tillek wants to talk to you further …”

“I think I’d like to talk to
you
first,” Readis said, including his father and mother with a glance in their direction. “I didn’t know anyone knew where I was.”

“We have for the past three sevendays,” Jayge said, laying an arm across his son’s shoulders. When he saw Readis glance suspiciously toward the sea, he added, “No, the dolphins didn’t tell on you.”

“I’ve been on daily sweeps trying to find you, and then I saw the seaside caves and I figured that they were so perfect for you and dolphins, you had to be there,” T’lion said, looking very pleased with himself. “Only, what with one thing and another, Gaddie and I didn’t get a chance to check the place out. Made yourself right comfortable, didn’t you?”

“I got by fine,” Readis said, a remark calculated to take the anxious expression off his mother’s face and, at the same time, prove to his father that he’d coped well.

“Then,” Master Idarolan said, beaming at all impartially, “I was approached by no less than the Tillek herself. The dolphins at Paradise River were upset when you didn’t return.”

“I got questioned by the Eastern pod,” T’lion put
in. “And so did Master Persellan—who forgave me, by the way!”

“That’s a relief,” Readis said.

“And the Tillek asked me when would dolphineers come back to the sea to work with her pods,” Idarolan went on. “So naturally I informed Lord Oterel …” He gestured to the Lord Holder.

“And I asked T’bor of High Reaches and he …” Oterel said, turning to the Masterharper.

“Didn’t know anything about dolphin pods, and while I knew a little from Menolly here,” Sebell said, “I conferred with Alemi, who told me of your disappearance, Readis, and why. I also spoke to …”

“Us,” Lessa said, picking up the tale in her turn, “and I remembered something that Master Robinton had told me about these creatures.” She turned to D’ram.

“And I remembered all the tapes which Aivas had shown of the early days when there were dolphineers,” the old Weyrleader said, and then shrugged. “So the Tillek went to Paradise River Hold and spoke to your parents.”

“She asked us,” Jayge said, looking slightly embarrassed while Aramina ducked her head and nervously twitched the hem of her tunic, one of her Gather tunics, Readis now noticed, “if we objected to your becoming a dolphineer.”

Readis waited.

“It is an honor to be asked,” his mother said softly, hesitantly, before raising her head to look him straight in the eye. “I was once asked to accept an honor”—she shot Lessa a quick glance—“and could not. I cannot stand in your way, Readis.”

“Thank you, Mother,” he murmured, his throat blocked with the surge of relief and happiness.

“You’re in for a lot more training before you can become a Craftmaster, young Readis,” Master Idarolan said, “but you’ve made a fine start. Ahemm …” He cleared his throat. “However, the Tillek plans to instruct you herself, which is why she has come all the way down from her natural habitat.”

“She will?” Readis closed his mouth as soon as he realized that it had dropped open in surprise.

“She has insisted,” Sebell said with a wry grin. “She is the living repository of all delphinic history, tradition, and knowledge.”

“She speaks the best of any dolphin I’ve ever heard,” Readis said.

“She claims it’s because she has had to repeat the Words and the History every spring to all the new dolphins wishing to take the Test. I gather that’s swimming across the Great Subsidence whirlpool.”

Readis nodded and then asked softly, “I wouldn’t have to do that, would I? I mean, I’m a good enough swimmer but …”

Sebell wasn’t the only one to chuckle. “She’ll set her own test, and you should know that you’ve already passed the critical entrance examination.”

“I did?”

“You did. That’s why she brought you to us.”

“You’d have all just gone home?” Readis was astonished.

“No, we’d’ve gone in and brought you back home, lad,” Alemi said, “and no blame.”

“Oh!”

“Listen!” Menolly said, holding up one hand. “Listen!”

“To what?” Idarolan asked, but now Sebell held up his hand, too, and they fell silent. Even the sailors in the rigging and on deck stopped what they were doing, as the odd but melodious sound reached their ears,

“Music, but where is it coming from?” Sebell said, glancing around the ship.

“I’ve heard that before,” Aramina murmured to Jayge, and leaned close to him. “Only it’s not—quite—the same.”

“It’s not so lonely a sound,” Menolly said as she swung slowly to face the sea. That’s when those on deck saw the wedge of leaping dolphins coming alongside. Suddenly Menolly jumped back in surprise as a loud squee was clearly heard.

“The big one’s back, Master,” one of the seamen in the rigging said, pointing. He, too, involuntarily flinched away as the Tillek reared high from the sea.

“Readis,” she said plainly before she fell back into the water.

“Coming,” he said, and started toward the rail. Then he paused, startled by his own compliance, and not sure he could just leave the eminent company on the
Dawn Sisters’
deck. “Do I just go?”

“When your Master calls, lad, you go,” Idarolan said, grinning, and giving him an encouraging push on his way.

“We’ll drop the supplies off at your caves,” Alemi shouted after him.

“Listen well, learn hard,” Sebell added.

“We’re proud of you, son,” his father said just as
Readis arched himself in a dive over the railing and into the sea, carefully aiming at the space left free for him by the dolphins waiting there.

T
HE DRAGONRIDERS STAYED
a while longer, talking about this unusual meeting between humans and dolphins and eating the small repast that Master Idarolan had had prepared.

“Sometimes, I feel that we are rushing forward at unbelievable speeds,” Menolly remarked, “with hardly time to catch our breaths. So much has happened!”