Part 28 (1/2)
”Well now, you have a point, Delfi,' he said, settling more comfortably on the ledge, his feet dangling. ”Just tell folks that there is now a dolphineer and a dolphin Craft Hall.” Readis wasn t exactly certain how one established a Craft Hall, but Master Benelek had and so had Master Hamian when he decided to specialize in the plastic materials that the Ancients had made so much use of. Someone had to start someplace, sometime and for a good reason. He believed that he had one: the care of the dolphins who had been neglected by humans for so long in their struggle to survive Threadfall. ”Was there a dolphin Craft Hall at Landing?”
”Where the Bell rings is where we go. Is not Craft Hall?” asked Tursi. And Readis recognized him by the network of old sc.r.a.pes on his rostrum. He was very pleased that he was beginning to identify the individuals of the pod so early in their a.s.sociation.
”I wouldn't qualify then, I've got no bell,' Readis said.
”No Bell?” ”No Bell!” ”No Bell!” The phrase went from dolphin to dolphin.
”That's why I had to swim out to you, I had no bell to ring. Clicks and hisses, and much blowing out of their holes as they turned from one to another.
”Tomorrow Bell,' Cal said at the end of this cryptic discussion.
”Sure thing,' Readis said amiably, grinning, and reaching down to scratch Cal under her chin.
”Give good scritches,' she said, dropping her jaw and leaning just hard enough into his hand to get him to increase the pressure.
”We get Bell.” Then she flipped up and over the rest of the pod and started out of the cavern.
Tursi had lifted his head for similar attentions but as abruptly, he pulled away and followed her out, the rest of the pod streaming behind, only starting their characteristic leapings when they were clear of the rock formations.
Readis watched them go, relieved that he had made such a good start and wondering what they were up to. Bells didn't grow on trees, after all. And dolphins had shown no real interest in human artefacts. He was also relieved to see them leave because fatigue was settling in on him, and hunger. He checked Delky's water and refilled it, gathered enough dry gra.s.s to keep her through the night, and finished the last of the previous day's fish stew before he gratefully laid himself down.
Odd sounds roused him at dawn. By now he was accustomed to the various water noises made as the sea flowed in and out of the main cavern so this unusual thunk, plus Delky's distressed snort, got him out of bed.
His arms were stiff and sore where the vest had rubbed him.
He wondered what he could use from his small store of clothing to pad it adequately. He slipped his knife from his belt and peered out into the outer cave. Nothing, and no more sounds.
Delky snorted again but no longer frightened. He peered around the irregular opening to the outer ledge.
There on the stone was a lump, dripping. There were wet patches, too, that suggested the lump had been deposited by wet bodies. Readis didn't see a dorsal fin in the cavern nor could he see one outside. Straightening up and replacing his knife in the sheath, he went to examine the lump. Halfway to it, he realized it was rounded on the top and he semi-jumped in his excitement to examine it. The heavy lump was indisputably bell-shaped, misshapen by centuries of encrustations. And it had no clapper, only the stout bar across the inside of the dome where a clapper could be hung. First he'd have to clean it up.
”A bell, my own bell,' he murmured to himself and he went to collect the hammer he had made and other rocks to use in place of proper chisels. A Dolphin Bell makes a proper Dolphin Hall.
While he chipped away the acc.u.mulated layers, he kept one eye on the waters leading into the cavern. Dolphins were endlessly curious. Surely they'd come back to see how their offering had been received: to check that he was awake, to see what he did with the bell. He was almost sorry that no single fin cut the water.
He had to take a break to feed and water Delky. By his calculations, there'd be Threadfall sometime today and they'd better stay inside. He went as far as the patch of root vegetables to pull some to eat later: they were as tasty raw as cooked.
He cut enough of the stout gra.s.ses he could weave into rope, broke a branch of a hardwood to make into the clapper arm and picked up several sea-washed, smooth rocks that fit in his palm for the actual clapper. He paused long enough by the fish trap to remove two good-sized yellowtails. The trap had been one of his real successes and he blessed Unclemi for having taught him how to weave them properly.
He stirred up his fire, put his pot on the firestone to heat water and then returned to the laborious chipping, pausing now and then to rest or work on the clapper. He had that long before he had chipped down to the metal. The lip, once he got all the junk off it, was smooth but dull after its long immersion. He wondered if it would polish up. Was it bronze?
Or steel? The Ancients had had good steel. Maybe one of the other alloys that they had favored.
It took him most of the day to clear the exterior and then he had a time getting his tools in to scour the inside. He stopped only briefly when he heard Delky's fearful squeal and saw her swinging as far inside the cavern as possible. He saw the grey rain of Threadfall hissing against the surface of the water. Even saw fish heads protruding to be the first to eat of the sky-borne bounty but not a single dolphin. He checked Delky's tether but it was firm and she wasn't likely to bolt out of safety no matter how scared she was. Then he returned to his work. He was constantly sc.r.a.ping his knuckles and they got b.l.o.o.d.y and sore from the knocking. He couldn't quite get the stuff at the very top of the bell but managed to clear the hanging bar so he could attach the gra.s.s thong to hold the clapper. So, by the light of his fire, he wove gra.s.ses about the roundest of the stones he'd picked up and attached it to the hanger. He had trouble getting the gra.s.ses over the bar, partly because the light from the fire had died down so much, he couldn't really see. He put it aside, determined to finish that night and have a proper Dolphin Bell to ring the next morning, when he realized he hadn't eaten. By the time he had grilled a yellowtail, chewing on a root vegetable while it cooked, and eaten it, he could barely keep his eyes open. His sc.r.a.ped and bruised knuckles hurt, his shoulder muscles were knotted from the laborious chip-chipping and he never even made it to his bed, curling up by the remains of his fire and falling instantly asleep.
He woke with a start, but that was more from the discomfort of his chilly position on cold stone than from an exterior sound.
His bad leg was very stiff and spasmed, knocking against the bell. It gave a soft ”bong' that delighted him. He picked up the clapper arm and very softly tapped the rock against the rim of the bell. Not quite a perfect sound but indisputably a bell ring! Would the dolphins have heard that muted sound? And he needed a belfry, too, and a long rope that would dangle in the water for them to pull.
Quickly, he stoked up the fire, gutted and filleted the second yellowtail and put it on the cooking rock. Then he picked up the bell and the clapper. His fingers were slightly swollen from yesterday's exertions and it took him quite a time - he nearly lost his temper twice - to get the gra.s.s around the hanging bar and secure the clapper arm. And then the bell pull.
He made himself eat the fish - it was tastier hot than cold before he rose, hand on the clapper and carried the bell to the water's edge. There was a protrusion near the entrance to the cavern. He put the bell down and returned to his supplies for more of the rope he had twisted in readiness. And hung the bell, wincing every time it issued a small complaint in the process.
Delky kept one wide, white eye on him, not quite sure what he was doing. He hoped she wouldn't panic when he rang the bell.
The sun was only just up in the east, he noted, so the pod would have finished its morning feed. He couldn't have timed it better if he'd tried.
Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the pull rope and listened critically to the sound that reverberated through the cave.
”Not bad,' he said as the still slightly sour ”bong' echoed in his ears. Then he rang the ”come in' sequence. Not that a ”report' to celebrate the hanging of the bell wouldn't be appropriate but report' was urgent: ”come in' gave them an option.
As if they'd been waiting just outside the cave for the slightest bell sound, sleek grey bodies glistened under the pool water and heads lifted right under him.
”Bell ring! Ring Bell!” ”We come!” ”We come!” ”Reporrit!' ”Reporrit !”
”No report, you silly fish faces,' Readis said, laughing with relief and delight, ”I only rang ”come in”.”
”We come in!” ”We come in!'
Then the bell rope was yanked out of his grasp and enthusiastically pulled as a dolphin discovered it hanging down in the water.
”Hey, hey,' Readis cried, grabbing for the clapper. The ringing was like thunder all around him in the confines of the cavern. He should probably place it outside or he'd be deafened. Delky was rearing and kicking, screaming with panic. ”Easy, there, now.
Easy!” He meant the advice for both runner and dolphin. He was also none too sure that the gra.s.ses would hold under such ardent manipulations.
Then he knelt down at the side and delivered scratches on all the chins that were presented. ”Where did you find that bell? I couldn't believe it when I saw it yesterday morning.
it took all day to clean it up.”
”Bell long lost,' Cal said. ”Long, long, long.”
Readis grinned at the delphinic repet.i.tions. He really must teach them ”good, better, best' though Cal's pod spoke very well: much better than even the Paradise River ones.
”Did you find it on the sea bottom?”
”We find. We bring. You fix. You ring,' Loki said, she with splotch on the side of her melon.
Loki! You're a poet! Did you know that? Readis exclaimed.
”Yes. I poet, I know it. See?”
Readis howled so with laughter he lost his balance and sprawled on the ledge, repeating her words while dolphin faces regarded him in their constant amus.e.m.e.nt and clicked and squeed.
”You have Bell now. Need long feet, mask, tank so you can swim far with pod!'
That sobered Readis almost instantly. ”That would cost more marks than I have . . . ” And Readis suddenly realized that such marks as he did have were back in his dormitory room. Or, if Master Samvel had taken his long absence as a withdrawal from the school, maybe his belongings had been returned home.
Either way, the marks were out of his reach as was the aqua lung. ”And I don't have any to buy an aqua lung, even if one could be made.”
”No thing left over?” Cal asked.