The Dolphins of Pern (11 page)

Sounds were sent that the dragons which mans had made still liked dolphins. Dolphins had seen dragons in the skies since mans went to the New Place North Dolphins had sung to dragons but had not been answered. Dragons talked to their riders in a fashion that dolphins did not quite understand. They
felt
the speech and saw the results
—
the dragon doing what the rider asked. Dragons provided many new games. They liked having their undersides ski-ritched and mans were always inspecting them so they did not have any more blufiss. They did not mind being jumped and providing sport for dolphins. They had very big and colored eyes, not like dolphins. Dolphins had jumped to see. Dragon had been pleased to see them play.

Back at Eastern Weyr, T’lion was sent off to help in the kitchen, which he never minded because it gave him a chance to see what dinner would be and he always managed to sneak a few bites. When his brother twitted him about having to do drudge chores because he wasn’t big enough or old enough for anything else, T’lion invariably gave K’din the reaction he expected and never admitted that he
liked
doing the tasks set him. The best part was that he never knew from one day to the next what he’d be doing.

Before appearing at the main Weyr Hall, T’lion saw Gadareth comfortable in his own sandy wallow, a clearing in the thick jungle that T’lion had prepared for his dragon when they were considered old enough to leave the weyrling barracks. T’lion lived in a single-roomed accommodation that looked out onto the clearing. He even had a covered porch where, on the hottest nights, he slept in the hammock slung between wall and porch support. Having lived, up until his Impression, in a hold too small for all the brothers and sisters he shared it with, T’lion treasured his privacy. He felt very lucky indeed, because he could just remember the cold winters and the harsh winds of his birthhold in Benden Hold. Living south was much better. Even in Benden Weyr riders had to live in cold caves high up on the Weyrside. Here, he could live right in the forest, with fruit to be picked from branches whenever he wanted.

Over the next few weeks, T’lion and Gadareth spent a good deal of time conveying Master Menolly about, usually by direct flight, since she was too pregnant to go
between
—sometimes to Landing, but most often to Cove Hold to see Master Robinton, old Lytol, and D’ram. Neither were long flights if the winds were right, as they often were at this time of year. While he was waiting to return Master Menolly, he and Gadareth had plenty of time to bathe in the lovely waters of the cove. Then, when he and Gadareth went exploring one day, they found a second cove to the west, with deep waters, where dolphins swam.

That was quite a boon for T’lion and Gadareth, for dolphins seemed as eager to talk to them as they
were to improve their relationship. Neither rider nor dragon realized that dolphins swam in groups called pods, patrolling certain areas as their home waters, just as dragons had certain areas they patrolled to keep Threadfree. T’lion didn’t have a bell, couldn’t find one at the Weyr Hall, but Gadareth’s melodic bugle seemed to work just as well Gadareth got brave enough, too, to settle on the water, wings spread wide to aid flotation. This provided the dolphins with yet another entertainment—leaping across the wings or coming up between Gadareth’s forelegs. The dolphins also enjoyed tickling the bronze dragon by caressing their bodies on his ticklish underside, a “game” that caused T’lion to be submerged on several occasions until he learned to unfasten his riding straps before the dolphins could “attack” Gadareth.

It was Menolly’s custom to send her gold fire-lizard, Beauty, or one of the bronzes, Rocky, Diver, or Poll, to summon him back to Cove Hold. The fire-lizards were fascinated by the dolphins, perching on one of Gadareth’s outstretched wings and learning just where dolphins like to be scratched with the excellent talons that were fire-lizard equipment.

Gadareth would know the gist of what the fire-lizards wished to express, and he’d tell his rider, who then informed the dolphins. It was a three-cornered conversation, but T’lion thought it helped develop more usable words and terms. Sometimes, teaching dolphins proper pronunciations, he felt like a harper. They were using words more properly now: like “we” instead of “oo-we” and “report” instead of “reporit” and “bell” instead of “bellill.”

Sometimes he’d come away from these sessions feeling bigger than T’gellan!

What with all these flights and despite being in and out of Paradise River often, it was nearly six seven-days before T’lion saw Master Alemi again.

“T’lion, Gadareth, how are you?” Master Alemi said, arriving with a creel of fresh fish for Menolly.

“I’m fine, Master Alemi. How are your dolphins?”

Surprised, Alemi grinned at the boy’s proper pronunciation; he was still having trouble getting others to say the word properly.

“You remembered?”

“Yes, Master, I’m not likely to forget a day like that. And …” Then T’lion hesitated.

Alemi took him by the shoulder and looked down at him kindly. “And you’ve been talking to dolphins since, have you, lad?” He looked up then at Gadareth, who turned calmly spinning eyes on the fishman. “And Gadareth? What does he think of them?”

“He likes them, Master Alemi, he really does. You know the cove west of Cove Hold? Well, the water’s really deep there and the dolphins love it, too, and we’ve sort of had a chance to get to know some of them.”

“Good!” Alemi was delighted. “Which ones? I’m trying to make a list of dolphin names. They’re rather proud of them, you know.”

T’lion grinned mischievously. “Don’t they just get stroppy when you miscall them! Well, the ones I’ve met are Rom, Alta—she’s pod leader—and Fessi, Gar, Tom, Dik, and Boojie, that’s Alta’s latest calf. And—”

“Steady on, lad,” Alemi said, laughing at the torrent of names he had unleashed as he fumbled in his belt pouch for pencil and pad. “Give me that list more slowly, will you?”

T’lion complied. “Have you met any of them, Master?”

“No, but I’
ve
met Dar and Alta from Monaco, Kib, Afo, Mel, Jim, Mul, and Temp. You ask yours if they know mine and I’ll do the same. We can compare notes later, shall we? I see you now and again, flying in, to collect Menolly, but it’s usually when I’m making out to sea and can’t turn back. How do you call them? D’you use a bell?”

“Gadareth bugles and they come. They like him!”

“I’d be surprised if they didn’t.”

“Well, we’re sort of on the opposite side from the dolphins, though, aren’t we?” T’lion remarked, looking up at the tall fishman. “They eat what we char.”

“Point. Dolphins and dragons are both intelligent creatures. I’d say they’d respect each other’s ways.”

“Yes, yes, they do,” T’lion said excitedly.

“What do you talk about? Does Gadareth understand them, too?”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you,” T’lion said, turning solemn.
“Could
they hear what he thinks?”

Alemi considered that. “Well, now, I’ve never heard a dragon—not in my head as you riders do. I understand dragons can make themselves heard to people they want to talk to but, well, I haven’t been so complimented.”

I
will speak to you, Masterfishman
, Gadareth said immediately—and to T’lion’s surprise.

A stunned expression came over Alemi’s tanned
face. “Ooosh.” He put a hand to his temple, rolling widened eyes. “The words
do
just come into your head.” Then he bowed formally to Gadareth. “Thank you, Gadareth. That was very kind of you.”

My pleasure, Master

“Yes, well, to answer your questions, Aivas didn’t say anything about any telepathic ability in dolphins, just that they had had mentasynth enhancement.”

“What’s that?”

Alemi chuckled. “I’m not at all sure I understand, but it was a treatment the Ancients used and it allowed dolphins to use human speech.”

“The reason I wanted to know is, well, sometimes they say something just after Gaddie and I have been talking, and it just seems as if they’re answering us. Only I’m not talking out loud.”

“Really? That could be merely coincidence, you know. Great minds thinking along the same lines.”

T’lion absently hauled off his riding helmet, scratching at his sweaty scalp. “I suppose it could be. But you’d know, since you talked to Aivas.”

Alemi gave a chuckle. “Aivas only told me what he knew, and what he got from the records. I doubt he’s enjoyed our personal contact with the dolphins, or yours with your dragon.”

T’lion cocked his head at Alemi. “Are yours speaking more? I mean like, telling you more things?”

Alemi thought a moment. “I believe they are. I don’t know about yours, but I’ve been trying to teach mine the correct pronunciation—or, rather, how
we
say words.”

“It’s better if they speak more like us, isn’t it?”

“If we want them to be understood by people here and now, it is. But I do believe they are remembering more words.” He grinned drolly. “Do try not to use words that sound alike and have different meanings. Like ‘whole’ and ‘hole.’ Dolphins know of only one hole.” Alemi tapped the top of his head.

“Then it’s all right for me to correct them?” T’lion asked, grinning. “I’ve got mine to say ‘bell’ and ‘report’ and other words properly. How come they got so … twisted?”

“Ah …” Alemi held up one hand. “We don’t speak the way our ancestors did.”

“We don’t?” T’lion exclaimed, his eyes widening. “But the harpers are forever saying that they’ve helped keep the language pure, just as it’s always been spoken.”

Alemi laughed. “Not according to Aivas. He had to make adjustments to allow for”—Alemi hesitated briefly, trying to get the next words right—“lingual shifts. But let’s not rub harper noses in the fact. I certainly want to keep on the good side of my sister the Masterharper. I’ve only to mention her name and here she is! Good day to you, Master Menolly.”

“Good day, Master Alemi brother. T’lion. Gadareth. How good you are to fly me so patiently,” Menolly said, putting her arms through the straps of the pack she carried. “D’you mind if we hurry on, Alemi? It’s so hot in riding gear. And fish for me? Thank you, ’Lemi. I’m being spoiled rotten. Camo?”

The big man came, carrying a chortling Robse pickaback.

“Here, dear, put these in the cooler, will you? What are you to do with the fish, Camo?” she said,
tweaking his sleeve arm so that he looked right in her face.

“Fish?” Camo said, his expression blank as his mind tried hard to recall what she had just told him. “Put in cooler.”

“That’s right.” She turned him around and gave him a gentle push toward the door. “In the cooler now, Camo. Then you take Robse to ’Mina.”

“Fish in cooler, Robse to ’Mina,” Camo said under his breath, and he could be heard repeating his instructions as he obeyed them, Robse’s happy laughter as counterpoint to his litany.

“There, now, thanks again, ’Lemi, and have a good day. Let’s go, T’lion, before I sweat off my breakfast.”

As they walked to the waiting bronze dragon, Menolly asked him what he and Alemi had been talking about so earnestly.

“Oh, this and that,” T’lion said in a noncommittal tone, unwilling to mention what Alemi had said about the “linguistic” shift and harpers.

“You’ve conveyed Alemi a time or two?” she asked casually.

“That’s what I’m good at,” T’lion said. “You can still get up all right, Master Menolly?”

“Of course I can,” she said with a trilling laugh, and proceeded to prove it. Though, in fact, it took an effort to hoist her gravid body into position between Gadareth’s firm neck ridges. “Good thing you’ve a bronze. I’d never fit now on a blue or a brown.” Then, just before T’lion urged his bronze into the sky, she added ruefully, “And very soon I fear I shan’t be able to fit on Gadareth. Guess I’ll have to
get that brother of mine to sail me around to Cove Hold.”

“Or I could bring to you the people you need to see,” T’lion offered, shouting over his shoulder at her.

“That, too, if push comes to shove,” she yelled back, and then the difficulty of speaking against the wind of flight kept them both silent.

T’lion was just as glad, because he wasn’t sure if he should mention all his visits with the dolphins to anyone. Not even Master Menolly, who was so nice that it was easy to forget she was one of the most important Masters on Pern.

One of the archivists who thronged Cove Hold these days was on the porch and hurried down to them when they arrived.

“Master Menolly, Master Robinton would like you to go up to Landing today. Aivas has had time to release more music.” The journeywoman’s eyes shone with eagerness. “I hear it’s simply splendid.”

“Oh, it must be the sonatas we’ve been after him to copy to us,” Menolly said, shifting herself a bit from the long ride. “Well, let’s go, T’lion. I can see how Sharra’s doing, too. She came south on the
Dawn Sisters
with me.”

All the way up to Landing, T’lion wondered what he’d do if she started to have the baby while he was conveying her. His mother was always having babies at night, at which times he and his brothers were shoved out of the hold. He’d never be forgiven if anything happened to Master Menolly while she was in his care. He’d ask Mirrim.

That distracted him from the fact that he would
have to forgo his day’s idling with the dolphins. Well, he was lucky to have as much free time as he did, he told himself sternly. And the kitchens up at Landing
did
produce much better food than he generally got at noontime at Cove Hold, where everyone usually grabbed a meatroll or cold food and continued working.

Landing was really less fun than Cove Hold. Gadareth took himself up to the heights and sunbathed, or exchanged draconic comments with whoever else had arrived from the various Weyrs.

Gadareth told him that most of the dragonriders were in some sort of conference. There were Mastersmiths, too, and half the Harper Hall, trying to construct something called a “printing press.”

When T’lion sidled hopefully into the kitchen, he was immediately pounced on by the headwoman,

“Another pair of hands. T’lion, isn’t it? Yes, here, make yourself useful. Take this tray—and be careful not to spill it—to the large conference room. I’ve all that lot to make a nooning for and not enough hands to do it.” She added several more sweet rolls to the tray and winked at him. “Something for you, too, lad.”