by Caney, Mark
‘Well that’s enough, I suppose.’ She stared at Dusk with those odd dark eyes. ‘Listen, if you see him again and decide that he’s not for you, just tell him that Venus In Mist wants to see him again. Tell him to find the Western Red Mountains Clan. Alright?’
‘Alright, I’ll remember.’
Venus In Mist looked at her hard for a long moment, then nodded once and vanished off into the blue.
Dusk paused for a while trying to work this out. Did she want Sky? She did not know. Should she help this strange female who obviously did? Her instincts told her no. No, she would keep this meeting to herself. She would think about it more later, but for the moment she needed to continue with her plan.
She soon arrived at the familiar arch where she had always met Storm. He was not there of course, he was not expecting her. No one was around, so she followed the shore further on. The Guardian clan was normally along that stretch of coast.
Past the arch the shoreline consisted of fringing reef again. At the water’s edge, a wall dropped down a few meters to meet an almost flat, white sandy sea bed. The restless waves were deepening the sand ripples that paralleled the shoreline, picking up particles of sand and tossing them about. As each wave broke on the shore, a cloud of white bubbles was driven down in to the shallower depths. Purple surgeonfish darted agilely through these clouds, searching for food dislodged by the violence.
Dusk heard voices up ahead and slowed down. She recognised two of Storm’s bodyguards: Sorrow After Nightfall and Rock On Sand. She could not make out what they were saying at first, then she heard Nightfall saying, ‘We’ll have to get some more, he won’t last long on that. You know what Kark-Du told us.’
Dusk saw them now through the swirling water, and announced herself, ‘It is I, Fades Into Dusk!’
The two big dolphins stopped talking at once and turned towards her. She saw that they were hovering around an opening in the reef wall, the entrance to a cave.
‘Greetings, Fades Into Dusk,’ Rock said politely.
Dusk was about to say that they could call her Dusk, but then stopped herself. She would not see them again after today anyway.
‘Would you be looking for Kark-Du?’ Nightfall asked, with what she suspected was a faint smirk.
‘Yes. Can you take me to him?’
‘Oh no, we have to guard the…this cave. Important mission, it is. But you just follow the shore for a bit and you’ll see the clan. He should be around, we’re expecting him soon.’
She looked at the cave more closely now. It was not large, but would just about admit a dolphin to enter. It must have another opening inside; perhaps going up to the surface, as when each large wave broke, an eddy of small bubbles emerged from the entrance. She had no idea why they would want to guard such a thing.
‘Well, I’ll leave you to your important work. Do make sure no one steals it.’
She had just moved a short distance away when she thought she heard a faint voice, it sounded as though it came from the cave. She turned to look. Rock and Nightfall must have heard it too; they exchanged glances, then Rock shot into the cave. She heard some muffled sounds from within: they sounded violent. She was about to speak to them when Storm appeared from behind her. He looked at the cave and then at her. ‘Come here now!’ he commanded and led her out of sight of the cave. ‘What did you see?’ he demanded.
‘Nothing! Just those two hulks hanging around a cave.’
He snapped his jaws twice angrily in front of her. She was really frightened, he looked like he was about to attack her. She decided not to mention the voice she had heard. He stared at her as though trying to decide whether to believe her. He moved closer until he was almost touching her face with his and spoke coldly: ‘I forbid you to go anywhere near that cave. Do you understand?’
She seethed inside. Dusk hated being told what to do. She would enjoy telling him that she was never going to see him again now. But then she was struck by a strange series of thoughts. Why couldn’t she go near that cave? What was in there? And what was Storm talking about at the ceremony about the Ka-Tse coming to dominance in the next few moons? Why was he so interested in her being a Starwriter? She made a sudden decision to try and find out more, to learn what was going on. She tried to look meek and submissive, ‘Alright, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was important, Kark-Du.’
He softened, ‘Alright, little one, you don’t need to call me that. Just stay away from it. Now, why haven’t I seen you for so long? Are you still upset about the punishment ceremony?’
‘I was, but now I’ve thought about it and I see that…it must be necessary sometimes.’
‘Yes, exactly.’ He seemed calm now, reflective even. ‘I don’t like to have to inflict suffering on one of our own you know, but sometimes it must be done. And to kill a zeta — well I hate having to do it. Yet sometimes the individual must suffer for the good of the many, even make the ultimate sacrifice. I don’t like to see a good Ka-Tse die, but sometimes it is the only way.’
Dusk somehow sensed that he was not talking about the punishment ceremony any more. This talk of killing Ka-Tse — killing any zeta — was repellent to her, and more than ever she wanted to tell him she was leaving. As though he had read her mind, he went on, ‘You had me worried when you were gone for so long. I even thought for a moment that you may have decided not to see me again.’ He focussed on her again. Once again she felt a chill of fear. ‘I can’t let you leave me you know, I need you. And besides, you know so much about us. No, we couldn’t let you leave.’ She looked at him, feeling cold inside. How could she have ever loved him?
‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s swim in the shallows like we always did. And did I mention? That Dreamweaver has been telling me about unlocking songs, it’s really fascinating. I’d love to see how it works. Why don’t we talk to her, and find out if there’s anything interesting in that lovely head of yours that she could sing out?’
Dusk followed him, determined that he was not getting at any of the information she carried. She would make some excuses about the position of the planets or something and arrange to come back another day. She felt she had to do it; if only so that Sky’s sacrifice was not without purpose. The Guardians were planning something, now she was going to find out what it was.
Chapter 42
“If you want a more fulfilled life, lower your expectations.”
- Loss Consoled (13,317 - ? post Great Alluvion)
Sky’s mind slowly edged into normal consciousness. He awoke slowly, disorientated at first. He was alone in a small bay, with a near vertical rock wall beside him. The bottom was soft silt here, mostly devoid of life. A couple of small hermit crabs trudged across it, leaving their distinctive tracks on the surface. The silt was pocked with many small holes. From these, a number of delicate eels were half protruding, their bodies swaying gently in the slight swell as they awaited passing morsels of food. At his first movement, the nearer ones retreated backwards down their holes, waiting for this potential threat to pass before daring to cautiously re-emerge.
Now he knew where he was. Yesterday, as night fell, One Eye had led him into the lee of this headland to spend the hours of darkness. The old dolphin had explained that they could expect a slight west-going current given the recent winds and the present new moon. Behind the headland they could relax in still water. He had taken some time to fall into the sleeping state, but gradually his conscious mind had receded. Of course, part of his mind remained at a level of low activity, telling him when to breathe. Much of the time he had one eye open, sometimes after surfacing to take air he would continue swimming in gentle, aimless circles for a while. He had no recollection of One Eye actually sleeping though. He had been there at the start of the evening at least; moving around the little bay, investigating with his sonar. Now, there was no sign of him.
Sky set off around the headland to look for something to eat. He managed to surprise a small flatfish and soon afterwards a passing cuttlefish helped satisfy his immed
iate needs. As he went a little further, the silt turned to a wide area of seagrass. There, in the shallows, he came across One Eye who was poking at something on the bottom. Sky moved alongside him, taking care to approach him on the side of his good eye. One Eye was carefully picking up a flimsy white plastic cup with his jaws. As he lifted his head into the light, Sky once again noticed the curious, near perfect circular scar on his forehead. One Eye turned the cup over in mid water then dropped it. It slowly sank again, carried gently sideways in the current.
‘A Walker artefact,’ Sky said, ‘but what do they use them for?’
‘They drink out of these.’
Sky spent a few moments digesting this information. The idea of drinking was rather foreign to him as dolphins never drink, getting all the water they need from the bodies of the creatures they eat. However, he had heard of the concept and knew what it meant. Looking at the thing, he could just about imagine how it might work. The Walker would be holding it in the air of course; and it would be somehow filled with water, so gravity should hold the water inside the container as long as it was kept with the opening uppermost. Then the Walker would somehow suck it out. They probably had some kind of siphon or specialised tongue to enable them to do this, and they would have to keep the bottom of the thing pointing downwards all the time or the liquid would fall out. It seemed extremely complicated. Then the oddest thing of all struck him. One Eye had named the thing’s purpose without any hesitation or ambiguity. He had never met a zeta before who knew much about the Walkers and he was immediately intrigued. ‘How do you know that?’ he asked.
‘I’ve seen them do it. Look, here are more of their things.’ He gestured towards the surface where two clear plastic bags drifted to and fro in the slight surface waves.
Sky looked at them curiously. ‘If these things are useful to them, why do they discard them so often?’
‘They seem to make more of them than they need. Or perhaps an item has served its purpose or no longer functions properly, so the Walkers just drop them into the sea. Some of them rot away, but these things seem to last for ever.’
‘I don’t like the drinking thing, but these are quite beautiful,’ Sky said, looking at the plastic bags. The sun was shining through them now as they rocked back and forth. ‘They look a bit like big jellyfish.’
‘Yes, some of the old hardbacks think that too. Then they eat them and choke to death.’
‘Do all the Walkers have these sorts of things?’
‘Most, in my experience. Some seem to own more things than others.’
‘What do you mean, “own”?’
‘Ah! A rarely used expression; i’m not surprised you’re unfamiliar with it. But it is quite important to the Walkers. Look, say one day you have a son, you could say that he was your “own” son, no one else’s, he belonged to you.’
‘But one zeta cannot “belong” to another.’
‘No, alright; that was a bad example. Very well, look here, you see this rock? i am going to say that this is my rock, it belongs to me. I own it.’
Sky looked at him, mystified.
One Eye continued, ‘Now you go over there to that sponge by the sandy patch, yes, that one. Now let’s say that that is your sponge, and you also own that whole sandy patch. It’s yours alright?’
Sky was reconsidering his original impression that the old dolphin was mad. ‘But what happens to the sponge when I go hunting? It’s still here, it grows by itself; how can it be mine? And the sandy patch? Why would I want to call it mine? There’re lots of sandy patches in Ocean and anyone can swim over any of them; why should I claim that I…own this one?’
‘Well, we would have to have some kind of understanding between us that this is my rock and that was your sponge. i would not touch your sponge and you would not touch my rock.’
‘Why would I want to?’
‘It’s only an example! It could be anything! The Walkers like to stay in one place and they like to gather things around them. It seems to be their purpose in life, to collect as many things as possible.’
‘What do they do with them all?’
‘Who knows! Now enough of these questions about Walkers. i need something to eat. Go and look after your sponge! i’ll come back here in the post-noon.’
Sky watched him leave. He swam back to the sponge and circled it twice, trying to fathom what this all meant. Then he swam over to the rock. He looked around. One Eye was gone. He cautiously prodded the rock with his snout and waited.
Nothing happened.
Chapter 43
“The foolish prefer a scandalous lie to a dull truth.”
- Unnamed Shade (3,055 - 3,084 post Great Alluvion)
Dusk was swimming towards the Guardians again. No one expected her there, and she hoped that the Guardian clan were still in the area beyond the mysterious cave. She was going to try to find out what was going on in there. She had no desire to see Storm again; in fact it was important for her plan to work that she did not see him. She was also relying on his natural secretiveness and lack of communication with his guards. If she had misjudged that she could be in serious trouble; maybe even real danger. He had said some frightening things the last time she had seen him, and she knew that he was capable of real violence.
It seemed to her to take longer than usual to reach the rocky arch, but soon after it, she came close to the cave. She stopped using her sonar and swam more slowly. Soon she heard voices. She stopped listening: three, no, four of them. She could not hear the words but it sounded like calls of farewell, then there were just two in lower tones. She guessed this might have been a changing of the guards for the cave. She hoped the new guards would know her, if not, her plan had no chance. She moved a little closer and recognised the voices of Rock On Sand and Sorrow After Nightfall. She felt some relief. They not only knew her but were fairly stupid too. This might work. She swam away from the shore so that she was out of sonar and visual range, then circled around and swam back in towards the land. Now she could approach the cave as though she was coming from the direction of the Guardian clan.
As she drew closer she consciously changed her swimming style, from being slow and cautious to rapid and purposeful, using bursts of echolocation to make it clear she was coming. As her eyes made out their forms up ahead she announced, ‘It is I, Fades Into Dusk!’
The two large dolphins looked at each other doubtfully then replied in unison, ‘Greetings, Fades Into Dusk.’
‘Greetings to you. I come on a mission from Kark-Du. Who’s in charge?’
Rock looked suspicious but replied, ‘I have that honour. But we thought Kark-Du was coming here himself this post-noon.’
Dusk heart sank; that would spoil everything. She had to work fast. ‘Yes, he’ll still come later, but he sent me ahead with a special mission.’ She lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Kark-Du wants me to speak with the prisoner.’
Rock glanced at Nightfall and composed his features into an innocent expression. ‘What prisoner would that be?’
She fought to keep her nerve. If her hunch was wrong she could be in big trouble now. ‘Don’t waste my time! Don’t you know that I have been spying on the other Ka-Tse clans for months now! You have seen me with Kark-Du often enough — don’t you see I am in his confidence!’
Rock looked shaken but remained defiant, ‘But we have strict orders not to let anyone see him.’
Dusk spirits rose: him! There was a prisoner, and a male at that. She kept the pressure up: ‘Keep your voice down or he’ll hear us! Look, Kark-Du believes that prisoner may trust me and give useful information. I am to speak with him privately and try to gain his confidence.’
‘Maybe we should wait for Kark-Du…’
‘If you want to see how angry he can be, go ahead! He’s expecting me to present him with a full report when he gets here. I’ll just wait here in that case. When he arrives you can explain to him why you felt it wise to countermand his orders.’ She moved away to one side and started sendi
ng little bursts of sonar into the sand as though searching for food.
The two guards exchanged a brief but heated whispered debate. Then Rock turned to her again and in a loud whisper announced, ‘Alright then: go in.’
She brushed past them defiantly and entered the darkness. In spite of her bravado her heart was pounding. Now, maybe she would find out what this conspiracy was about. She just hoped that whoever was in here would not give her away.
Chapter 44
“Fear may be your enemy or your ally.
It depends which of you is in charge.”
- Attributed to Second Dawn Passing or Fallen Palm (c.9,998 post Great Alluvium)
High above them, the bright forms of the shallow-water fish were just visible against the silver surface. The wall here fell almost straight down far below them, here and there gorgonias — fan corals — spread their myriad branches across the prevailing currents, capturing minuscule creatures to feed their thousand tiny mouths.
Sky followed the older dolphin along the cliff wall. They paused for a moment as two Eagle Rays swam past them; their spotted wings rising and falling slowly, their long, thin tails trailing behind.
‘They’re beautiful,’ Sky commented to One Eye.
‘What makes them beautiful to you?’
‘The way they move I suppose. They are so graceful; they seem completely at ease in the water.’
The dolphins swam on for a while, then One Eye stopped above a ledge in the cliff wall. He looked down at something there and Sky came to his side to see what it was.
Among the rocks a large fish lay on its side, its eye staring blankly, its mouth agape. It was dead or very nearly so and there were large white patches on its side suggesting disease had caused its end. Two fireworms were arriving at the scene: long, red, segmented worms with countless legs, their sides covered with white, stinging bristles. At their heads, formidable jaws were working in anticipation.
