Part 14 (1/2)
”Oo-ee know,' Inka said.
”Flip me,' another dolphin said, raising itself well above the water to reach an eyelevel that startled the Fish Master.
Hipme?” Curran asked.
”Flip! Flip! ”On-ra-bul naym.
”On-ra-bul?” Curran repeated amazed.
”Maybe he means honorable?” Sebell suggested and held out a hand, hoping to entice a dolphin to him. One immediately raised up and offered fins in his direction. ”Your name?” he asked.
”Ajay, Ajay. Mans name?” The interrogatory lift to the word was unmistakable.
”Sebell. Sebell, Ajay!'
”Sebell.” ”Sebell, Nolly, Cur-ran,- chorused dolphins in their high funny voices.
”Oldive,' Menolly said, putting her arms about the Master Healer. She had long since ignored the hump on the man's back and her arm curved over it as she made the introduction.
”Healer. Medic,' she added.
”Me-d.i.c.k! Medd.i.c.k!” Dolphins pa.s.sed this information back and forth among those that now thronged the waters about the boat and great pier bollards that rose above the surface and supported the T-shaped facility. ”Oll-deeve, med.i.c.k!” Excited squees and clicks followed this introduction and the immediate waters seethed with dolphins changing position and many attempting to inspect the Healer simultaneously. ”Ooooo heal?
Ooooo skraabbb blufisss?”
”How remarkable!” Oldive said, surprised to be the focus of such attention from so many cheerful faces. ”Oooo heal?” he asked, turning to Menolly for a translation. ”Skraaabbb blufiss?”
”Bloodfish. It's a parasite and has to be cut off,' Menolly said.
”Alemi did it for his pod. Something they are unable to do for themselves.”
”I shouldn't wonder with just flippers and no fingers. How would I ”Who has blufiss?” Menolly asked and four dolphins squeed and pushed in toward her. She had had a chance to study Aivas' tapes on the dolphins and now gave the signal for them to lay on their sides.
”Oh I say,' Oldive remarked with great sympathy. ”I've never seen a fully bloated bloodfish before. They must be very painful.
One would have to use a sharp knife.”
”Niggghhhfff, nigghhhfff,' was repeated back to him from those nearest with exposed bellies. They waggled themselves from side to side. ”Skraaabbb blufisss.”
”Well, I suppose they'd know . . . Oldive said and, taking out his belt knife, tested its edge. ”Sharp enough, I'll hope.”
He leaned over the side of the boat. Before any of the seamen could warn them, the harpers and healers leaned over to watch the operation. The boat, of course, rocked and spilled Master Oldive and Menolly into the water.
”No, no, leave me, I'm fine. I swim quite competently,' Oldive said, batting at the hands stretched out to retrieve him.
”Ooooo, it's cold,' Menolly said but she also declined offers to drag her back into the boat. She did however slip off her boots and pa.s.sed them up to Sebell. Then she took out her belt knife.
”Ah, is that how you do it?” she said as Oldive first sliced the head off the fish, with a deft cutting movement, removed the clinging body, and then pried out the head's sucker, leaving only a tiny hole. The sucker was of remarkable length since it had had to penetrate through the layers of blubber to tap a vein.
Just as Oldive dealt with his first patient, another dolphin nosed through its fellows, clicking in such an authoritative tone, the others parted for it.
”You really should wait your turn,' Oldive said in a gently chiding tone.
The dolphin smiled and turned its head this way and that as the bright black eyes fixed themselves on the healer.
”Bad back!” the creature said quite plainly.
”My goodness!” The remark caused a brief silence, almost an appalled one that a sea creature would make such a statement.
Oldive held out his hand to the creature's nose as if absolving it from mentioning what few did. ”How could you know?” Oldive asked. Despite his wetting, the hump was not that apparent under his carefully contrived s.h.i.+rt and the creature had only observed him from the front.
”Seeee. Seee. I Bit, Oll-deeeve med.i.c.k.”
”I don't really believe what I'm hearing,' Curran murmured to Menolly. ”And it knew about ” He closed his lips. ”How could it see?”
”Perhaps what Persellan said about the creatures' . Oldive looked at Menolly for the word.
”Sonar . . . ” she supplied.
”Is very true. Proof positive,' and 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, relieved and gratified.
”Pleeesss, Ol-deeve. Many many blufiss.”
”Skraabbb blufisss,' the cry went up from the many crowding in.
”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. When she insisted that Oldive re-enter the boat with her, and blankets were brought for them, she found willing enough hands to a.s.sist.
Over the next few hours of this auspicious meeting, most of the humans in the boat ignored their wet clothing although they were unable to attend to all the dolphins who applied for that service. When Sebell remarked that 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 Sebell managed to explain to the newcomers that they should return the next day.