“Anybody need a bloodfish scraped off?” Readis asked, wanting to reinforce his usefulness. He was tired enough to be grateful that his offer was not taken up.
“We strong pod,” Cal said with an understandable pride. “Maybe later. When we swim closer in, where reefs and things make cuts.”
“Well, I’m willing to help whenever I can,” Readis said.
“Can’t be dolphineer to whole pod,” Cal said. “Not right. One to one is tradition.”
“Until I can find more folks who want to be dolphineers, I guess I’ll have to be one for the whole pod.”
Readis was surprised to discover that dolphins had a covetous streak in them. But then, dragons and fire-lizards were possessive, one way or another, of the humans they looked to. Runnerbeasts didn’t much care who got on their backs, though Readis had always considered Delky to be especially his, since she’d been a gift. The canines responded better to some folks than to others, so maybe it was one of those universal attributes he’d learned of from reading in the Aivas files.
“How people know to be dolphineers if no one knows who you are?” Delfi asked.
If Readis had needed any confirmation of how intelligent dolphins were, that remark certainly clinched it.
“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 crafthall.” Readis wasn’t exactly certain how one established a crafthall, 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 crafthall at Landing?”
“Where the bell rings is where we go. Is not crafthall?” Tursi asked. Readis recognized him by the network of old scrapes on his rostrum. He was very pleased that he was learning to identify the individuals of the pod so quickly.
“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, starting their characteristic leapings only 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 so far dolphins had shown no real interest in human artifacts. He was also relieved to see them leave be-cause fatigue was settling in on him, and hunger. He checked Delky’s water and refilled it, gathered enough dry grass to keep her through the night, and finished the last of the previous day’s fish stew before he gratefully laid himself down, dreaming dolphin songs.
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 she no longer seemed frightened. He peered around the irregular opening to the outer ledge.
There on the stone was a lump, dripping. There were wet patches, too, suggesting that 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 semijumped 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, along with other rocks to use in place of proper chisels. “A dolphin bell makes a proper Dolphin Hall.”
While he chipped away the accumulated 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. And not only safe from Thread. 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 grasses to make a rope, broke a branch of a hardwood to make into the clapper arm, and for the actual clapper, picked up several sea-washed, smooth rocks that fit in his palm. 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 hadn’t 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 Or maybe it was one of the other alloys 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. Outside, the gray rain of Threadfall hissed against the surface of the water. He saw fish heads protruding to eat of the skyborne 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 scraping his knuckles, and they got bloody 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 grass thong to hold the clapper. So, by the light of his fire, he wove grasses about the roundest of the stones he’d picked up and attached it to the hanger. He had trouble getting the grasses over the bar, partly because the light from the fire had died down so much that he couldn’t really see. Finally, when he realized he hadn’t eaten, he put his work aside, determined to finish that night and have a proper dolphin bell to ring the next morning, but by the time he had grilled a yellowfish, chewing on a root vegetable while it cooked, and eaten it, he could barely keep his eyes open. His scraped 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 external 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? He needed a belfry, too, and a long rope that would dangle in the water for them to pull.