Part 16 (1/2)

”Not as much as you getting Boojie st.i.tched. Oh,' and Alemi grinned at T'lion's surprise, ”we heard all about it.

They can pa.s.s 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, and T'lion clambered back up the ladder to the pier, tugging free his wet s.h.i.+rt 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 s.h.i.+rt out on the nearby bush to dry, hunkering down to lean back against Gadareth's haunch to wait.

A darkly tanned youngster came out and, grinning to see a dragon there, 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 5 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 Boskony 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 Boskony aboard. Circling upwards 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 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 he had bottled up his interest in the dolphins until he began to talk to Readis who responded so enthusiastically, his eyes sparkling, his whole body almost vibrating he was so intense.

”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?” and 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, bouncing the dark curls on his head, 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?” ”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 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 dragon lengths 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 into 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 pus.h.i.+ng her nose at his foot.

”T'orn. Bad t'orn,' she said and squeed urgently up at T'lion.

”Your foot hurting you'?”

Readis looked blankly at his friend, then down at the fi)ot.

Oh, now and then. I stepped on somethin' but it doesn't hurt when I swim.

”Lemme see.

Readis swirled on the float so he could obey and, while 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 fi)ot 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.”