Tamino had no idea how she could tell that the sea-creature was female. Some intuition, he supposed, better than his own. The half-human woman backed away suspiciously, treading water and blinking it out of her large and lovely eyes.
"Land? On the land they make slaves of us, but you Human-folk have left us in peace here in the middle of the ocean. What are you doing out here, where none of your kind has ever come?"
"I am not one of the people who would make slaves of you," Tamino said, but he saw that the eyes of the seal-woman were fixed suspiciously on the flute.
"You called us with that and I had no choice but to come."
And suddenly Tamino remembered how, when he had played the flute on the doorstep of the temple, all manner of Halflings had stolen out to listen. The flute had power then over the Halflings, as did Papageno's magical bells.
So what was the test then? To demonstrate his power to command the Halflings of this element? He suspected that if he played the flute, and demanded of this seal-woman that she take them to the land, she would not be able to refuse. Pamina was tiring, he could see that. She swam uncomplaining at his side, but her eyes showed strain, and her movements were sluggish.
"I can swim," he said, "but I do not know where the land lies. Nevertheless—" and he stopped to think. What was expected of him now? The seal-woman had withdrawn and was swimming in circles a little way from him. Just beyond her, a head just poked from the water; a face like her own, but larger, broader, more heavily bewhiskered. With a sudden shudder, Tamino remembered that male seals were four times the size of the females, and perhaps male seal-halflings were in the same proportion. He clutched at the flute; if one of them should attack him, could he perhaps protect himself with the flute's music?
He heard the whistling song again. Then the water broke in a clean splash, and three forms, sleek and hairless and gray, broke the surface of the sea, leaped high, and came down between himself and Pamina. A male, he could see, for all three were naked, another male, and a female, all three with smooth round eyes and huge noses, gliding swiftly without apparent motion through the waves. They whistled shrilly to one another, speech he could not understand. Then one of the males said to the seal-woman, "Sister, who are these people, and what do they want in the dominion of the free people of the Sea?"
Tamino could hear the menace in the words. A Half-ling, yes, a Halfling of the Dolphin-people. But this one had never been subject to Humankind; that was in the very set of his head, the arrogance with which his hairless head crested the breeze.
"Human," he said, "there is an ancient warfare, and an ancient compact, between your people and mine. Remember? We won freedom from your people, that we would no longer live in chains and stagnant water in your land, bound by your evil whistles to bring jewels from the deep and pearls from the hidden fields in the bottom of the sea. We pledged in return that we would never eat of your food nor ask it of you, whether in good seasons or bad; and we took from you a pledge that as we asked nothing of you, so you would ask nothing of us. Of our good will we have destroyed, when we found them, the great sharks that menaced your beaches, so that your children could swim in the oceans without danger, and also of our good will, we have shared with you all the fish in the sea for your food. Why now do you break this agreement with us, and come into our world? For you know well that we are still subject to what you carry in your hand; play on it, and none of the people of the Sea may resist your commands."
"I did not know this," Pamina said. "Believe me, we did not summon you with any desire to command." She wavered, grabbed at Tamino; he put out his hand to support her, clinging to the flute with the other hand.
"Why then did you come here?" demanded the great male dolphin. "You are in our territory, now, not we in yours." He swam swiftly and furiously at Tamino, who ducked under the nearest wave, then surfaced, blinking, trying to clear his eyes of water.
He saw, with sudden clarity, that Pamina was in difficulty. She was not nearly as strong a swimmer as he was himself. He put the flute to his lips. By their own admission, it still had the power to command them, and he could at least protect her with it. Angrily he justified himself; he wouldn't hurt them, but did they really think he was going to let them hurt Pamina?
The enormous male seal he had seen at a distance made a swift rush toward them. Tamino grabbed the flute, holding it for dear life, then swam toward Pamina and put an arm around her.
"Hang on. This could be very nasty. These Halflings are not like the ones in the city; they're not tame. I may have to try and control them by playing the flute. I don't want to do it. They're free people. But I can't let them hurt you. So hold on tight, because if they rush us again, I'm going to stop them, whatever I have to do."
He could tell that she too was scared and frightened. "What do we have to do with some old war between our people? Can't they see that all we want from them is a little help which wouldn't hurt them at all?"
He put the flute to his lips, and stopped, seeing seal-halflings and dolphins swimming in circles, not far from them. But far enough that he was no longer panicked.
He lowered the flute. Surely there must be a better way to handle it than this. Somehow, remembering Sarastro's words, he did not think they had been sent out here to recapture the Sea-folk as slaves. It sounded totally unlike everything he had heard among the priesthood in Sarastro's realm.
He said tentatively, "You have to obey the flute?"
"You know that, Son of the Ape," said the great male seal-halfling, his huge sad eyes filled with bitterness. "You hold our lives and our people at hostage. What can we say to defend ourselves, while you hold a weapon against which there is neither negotiation nor defense? Why do you ask when you have the power to command? How can we even run away, when you hold in your hand the power to summon us back again, like toys or playthings?"
Tamino said, "Believe it or not as you will, brother of the Sea; I knew nothing of this. I was brought here against my will, but there must be a better way than this. The flute is not mine; I am obliged by my oath to guard it. But I swear on my life I will command nothing of you..." he broke off, looking at Pamina who was now struggling to stay afloat. She was exhausted, and no wonder, she had borne the brunt of the Ordeal of Air, and he had done so little to help her.
He said, "As for myself, I would like nothing better than to leave your realms as quickly as I can, and never return. If one of you will point me in the direction I should go, I will oblige you immediately."
He tightened his arms around Pamina. "I will try to carry my companion." Pamina had borne him, unaided, from the heights of Air; he would carry her through the Waters if he must. "But I do not know the way; might one of you guide me, at a distance if you will, to the closest land?"
The seal-woman who had surfaced first said guardedly, "Land lies there. Just over the horizon." She broke water, swimming swiftly in a direction Tamino could not identify; there were no signs whether it was north, south, east, or west. "An hour's swim, more or less, will bring you to the land."
An hour. Tamino's heart sank. Could he swim so far and carry Pamina as well? Was it right or fair that his very life, to say nothing of the mastery of the Ordeals, should depend on his ability to swim when he had never before in his life attempted to swim or float for more than a few minutes in a guarded pool? To add to his dread, he saw at a distance a thin narrow fin cutting the water. A shark? No, it was not fair or right. Yet he could command these creatures with the flute. And if he would not do it for himself, still it could not be wrong to do it for Pamina.
He tightened his arms around her. The seal-woman, swimming rapidly, was almost out of sight. He raised the flute to his lips, feeling that it was justified. It was not as if he intended them any harm, and when Pamina was safely on land again, he would release them at once.
"Tamino—" Pamina whispered, catching at his arm. "Are we lost? Do you even know the way to land? I don't. But these people do. I am sure this was why we were given the flute;
a test of mastery over them, Human over Halfling."
Her grip on his arm was painful now; she looked so weary that Tamino was terrified for her. Her eyes were red and swollen with the salt, her face drawn with exhaustion and strain, and her weight heavy on his arm. Whatever the cost, even if he accepted failure in the Ordeals, he must get her safely to land and rest. If he must use the flute to command help from the Sea-people, then let it be so. He raised it to his lips and blew an experimental note. The Sea-creatures, the Seal-folk, the three Dolphin-people, stopped dead in the water, their great dark eyes staring at Tamino, with the flute in his hand.
Then, with a long sigh, a little muffled because at that moment a wave broke over his face, he lowered it again.
"How can I prove to you that I have no wish to command you? We are at your mercy, my brothers and my sisters. We need your help in reaching the land. Yet we implore it as a gift; I will not command it."
He felt Pamina twitch restlessly on his arm, and knew he had disappointed her. But if the price of success in the Ordeals was to become a tyrant over the Halflings, to treat them as the Starqueen's ladies had done, he wanted none of it. The Starqueen had passed through the Ordeals, and it had made her a no more worthy person.
The dolphin leader blew water from his pursed mouth and said, "Give us what you hold, and we will guide you to land, and I will myself carry your companion; I can see that she is weary."
"It is not mine to give," said Tamino, "but I will engage my honor not to play a single note upon it."
"Not good enough," said the huge, furred male seal-halfling. "What do we know of your honor? We have seen little enough of it among Humankind." He splashed with his flat splayed feet and dived deep. Pamina sighed and went heavy on Tamino's arm; she had fainted.
Tamino said to the dolphin-man, who seemed to be their leader, "I have no knowledge of your honor, either. I am entrusted with the care of the flute; it is not mine to give. How do I know that with it once in your hands, you would not swim away and leave us to die?"
"Do you think I am a Son of the Ape or of the Serpent, to speak what is not true?" demanded the dolphin-halfling. "You know me not, but my name is Rock-watcher, and never in the history of the Sea has any of my folk violated his word. If I should die halfway to land, or be eaten by a shark, all of my people would protect you at the risk of their lives, that my word might not fall through the waves and become Seafoam! Shall I call a hundred of the Sea-creatures to witness the truth of what I speak?"
"I do not know them any better than I know you," Tamino said, distracted, his whole heart concentrated on Pamina's limp body on his arm. "I am entrusted with the safety of this flute, but I will make you a bargain. Help us to land, and any one of your people whom you can trust may hold and carry the flute. Set it on land, and I will pledge my own honor as prince that it will remain untouched and unblown until all of your people are out of earshot again."
Rock-watcher whistled shrilly in disbelief. "Never have I or any of my forefathers trusted a Son of Ape-kind."
"Nevertheless," said Tamino, "you told me that the old compact between our peoples had remained unviolated till now. I may not give you the flute, for Sarastro trusted me with it, but in the name of the compact of which you spoke, will you not trust me as you yourself would wish to be trusted, brother-halfling?"
"Sarastro." Again the shrill whistle, then Rock-watcher said, "So be it. Wave-rider, come and take the flute, and bear it to land safe, for my pledged honor."
The female dolphin-creature swam to Tamino, holding out one stubby flipperlike arm for the flute. Tamino reluctantly let it go. He did not more than half trust the dolphin-creatures, for all their talk of honor. Yet there seemed no alternative. His eyes were stinging with the salt, and his arms and legs felt as if they weighed a ton apiece. Wave-rider grabbed the flute and immediately swam out of reach, bobbing on the waves and staring at him with her huge eyes. Tamino noticed her sleek nakedness, the small breasts, no more than nubs of nipples low on her belly, the hairless well-shaped head. She and the third dolphin swam close together, their movements barely stirring the water, and Tamino contrasted their effortless movements, gliding side by side, with his own heavy splashing progress. As they swam together their limbs intertwined and they rubbed, one against the other, with a perfect, innocent sensuality. Would he and Pamina ever arrive at such a closeness? Why was he thinking about that now, when the important question was would they survive to land at all?
Rock-watcher glided through the water to Tamino; held out his arms.
"Give her to me," he commanded, and slid his arms under Pamina's body. "Ugh, how those ornaments of yours drag through the water, how can you swim in such things?" He bent his head down and tugged with his teeth at Pamina's tunic and ripped it through, pulling it away. Tamino, shocked, averted his eyes and cried out in protest as the sleek naked dolphin-man held Pamina's bare white body against his own. Then the other dolphins, laughing, ringed Tamino round, nipping at his clothing, tearing it away.
"Now you can swim like us," they teased, and nudged him along in the water. Tamino twisted his head to stare at Pamina. What would she think, how frightened would she be when she recovered to find herself held naked in the arms of a strange halfling? The two other dolphins slid alongside him, pressing their bodies close to his, bearing him up.
"Don't struggle and splash so," said the female dolphin—was her name Wave-rider? "We won't let you fall, but try and swim as we do, letting the water carry you." She emphasized the words with a sensuous little wriggle which Tamino found intensely embarrassing. The other male dolphin, too, pressed round him in the water, close against him, bearing him up with a touch, moving along his naked body. He tried to keep his mind barriered against the awareness of all this nakedness, this intimate sensuality.
Innocent—they were innocent, but he was not, that was the trouble, he was all too aware of it. Yet they seemed to take it for granted; the female dolphin pressed her sleek soft cool coat against his, seeming to enjoy the contact completely. There was nothing he could do about it, and after a moment he stopped trying, enjoying the touch and giving himself up to the water. The two of them bore him along far more swiftly than he could possibly have swum by himself, and it helped that he was no longer burdened with Pamina's weight, but he was troubled by seeing her held close in Rock-watcher's arms, borne along like that. He twisted his head to try and see her, but the two dolphins on either side of him nuzzled him hard to keep his head in the right direction, whistled gleefully and ducked him under the next wave.
His feet scraped land. Wave-rider bent and nuzzled along the whole length of his body, appreciatively, whistling laughter. Rock-watcher hauled himself out on the sand, Pamina in his arms, and gently let her fall. Tamino was cruelly startled to see how clumsy the dolphin-man appeared on land, after the incomparable grace he displayed in the sea.
Wave-rider still held the flute. She dashed into the surf, standing there, borne up and down by the waves, her sleek grayish body expressing defiance.
Rock-watcher dived toward her, nipped angrily at her hand, at her neck, at her breasts, till she let the flute fall from her hand. He took it in his mouth, with the same unself-consciousness with which a man would have held it in his fingers, and came to Tamino.
"It goes against my heart to return to you this instrument of slavery, yet what I have promised I shall perform. Take it." Scowling angrily, he gave it to Tamino.
Tamino said, blinking salt from his eyes, "I owe you thanks, Brother of the Sea."
"You owe me nothing; you could have commanded our help and willingly did forgo it," said Rock-watcher, scowling. "Never again shall I say of a Son of the Ape that they cannot speak with a straight tongue."
"For my part," Tamino said, suddenly conscious of his nakedness again—why should he be so aware of it when Rock-watcher bore his with splendid unconcern, "I pledge that the old compact between Mankind and the Sea-folk will never be broken by me."
"So be it," said Rock-wa
tcher, and whistled a long shrill note. The three dolphins leaped high, broke the waves, and disappeared beneath them. Tamino stood watching them go, until a cry of distress from Pamina recalled him to himself.
"Tamino! What has happened?" And then he realized that they were alone on the shore, that they were both naked, and that for all he knew, they had both failed the Ordeal of Water. A furry head, with large lovely eyes, surfaced from the water. It was the seal-woman, and clenched in her hand, she held something which she extended toward Pamina.
"For you," she said softly, "because you kept your word to us, my Sister of the Land."
It was a large, shining pearl. Pamina flung her arms around the seal-woman and received a damp embrace. Then the seal-woman also embraced Tamino quickly, hurried down into the surf, and dove out of sight.
And suddenly it did not matter to Tamino that they were both naked, that they were alone on the shore and must somehow make their way back into Saras-tro's realm. He had a feeling that they had passed the Ordeal of Water, after all; and with the flute which he still bore, and with the pearl in Pamina's hand, they were none the worse.
When he was reasonably sure that the Sea-folk were all out of earshot, and thus sure of his promise to them, he put the flute to his lips again. This time, as he had thought would happen, as the first notes quivered on the air, the three Messengers appeared shimmering against the light, all but invisible.
"What would you have, Masters of Water?" they demanded. "And what is the reason for your curious costume?"
Pamina cast down her eyes; but it was she who answered, before Tamino could collect himself to do so.
"We wear the clothing of the Sea-people," she said firmly, "but it is not suitable for the land. Bring us to our rooms in the temple, and find us suitable clothing."
"It shall be done at once, Masters of the element of Water," said the Messengers in their voices that were like blended song. "For the element of Air is yours to command." There was a soft sound like a great rushing of wings, and they were standing in the court of the temple. Tamino's guide was there, as was a priestess who covered Pamina at once with a great white robe laced with cords of blue and brown and a new color, green. The guide covered Tamino with a similar robe.
Night's Daughter Page 17
