by Caney, Mark
Shining shook her head vigorously. ‘We told you, we can’t just go! The Council decide where the clan goes, and they are not going to move it now with the Gathering coming up.’
The strange youth dipped his odd head for emphasis as he spoke again in the same stilted way. ‘Is Gathering that troubles start. You go before Gathering. Go now.’
Bellatrix interrupted. ‘But you still haven’t told us why! We can’t tell our mothers we just want to go without a reason!’
The youth spoke more forcefully still. ‘Don’t tell then! Just go before bad things happen. Go before Gathering’. Then, pleading, ‘Promise you go.’
Sky sank slowly back to Muddy’s side and indicated for him to take station behind the gorgonia, then swam quietly around the bottom of the wreck till he was on the opposite side of it, behind the three young dolphins who hung above the wreck, absorbed in their conversation. When he was directly behind the strange young male, Sky rose up into view, saying as gently as he could, ‘It is I, Touches The Sky. And I think you had better tell me about these bad things.’
The three young dolphins spun to look at him in shock, the male looked terrified and turned to bolt, but as he did, Muddy’s bulky body loomed up above the edge of the ship in front of him. He turned back to look again at Sky for a moment, then to Sky’s horror he shot into an opening in the wreck, disappearing into the darkness of the ship’s inside. Sky darted to the opening but did not dare to go in.
‘That young idiot! If he gets lost or trapped in there he’ll drown! Muddy, see if there’s another way out.’ His friend swam swiftly along the wreck, using sharp bursts of sonar to scan the surface as he went. Sky turned back to the two females. ‘You two are both from the Dune Coast Clan. You know you are not meant to be here! Who is he?’
They looked at each other, frightened and guilty. Bellatrix answered at last. We are really sorry, Jeii. We didn’t think it was so wrong. His name is Sand In Rain.’
‘So his clan call him Rain?’
Bellatrix looked embarrassed. ‘He says they call him “Sand In Brain”. It’s why we come here — we’re his only friends. We call him Sand though.’
Sky looked at them hard for a moment before going closer to the darkness of the opening into the wreck. He called into the darkness: ‘Sand! Come out Sand! We’re not going to hurt you.’
Muddy reappeared. ‘There are no other openings big enough for a zeta to pass through that I can find. He needs to come back out this way or not at all.’
‘I don’t think he will answer you, Jeii,’ Bellatrix said, ‘he’s not allowed to speak to zetii from other clans.’
‘He needs to come out of there soon. He must need to breathe by now.’ Come on, let’s all go up, maybe that will encourage him.’ Sky led them all to the surface to take air, keeping his eye on the dark opening in the wreck. But there was no sign of the strange youth. ‘Muddy, I’m going to have to go in after him.’
‘No, Sky, you don’t know what you will find in there! There could be some kind of Walker trap or something. It’s not natural for a zetii to be in an enclosed place like that!’
Sky knew that full well and dreaded going into the hole. Getting trapped underwater was every dolphin’s worst nightmare, maybe even worse than getting trapped on the land. ‘I know, but I have to go. It’s our fault he went in there, we scared him. And I think he may know something important.’
They dived down again and Sky entered the hole cautiously, leaving the others at the entrance. He called the youth’s name again: no reply. Had he passed out already?
Sky went deeper into the wreck, relying more on his sonar as the light fell away. Shafts of light came in to dimly illuminate the space, coming through round apertures in the higher side, but they were too small for a dolphin to pass through. As he moved past the debris inside the ship, slowly billowing clouds of silt rose from the bottom, blinding him. The metal and other strange materials sent back confusing multiple echoes from his rasping sonar bursts, and he began to feel disorientated. He turned to look for the light from the entrance, but found to his dismay that a great wall of silt was following him. There were small patches of light here and there, but which one was the real opening? He began to feel panic rising in him. He was starting to feel the need to breathe. He should just go — Sand must have lost consciousness by now — must be dead by now. But no. He would go just a bit further, just to the end of this space. Then he heard a soft return to his sonar; and a moment later he could dimly see the shape of Sand, pressed against the side of the wreck, his eyes blank as though already dead.
‘Get out!’ Sky called urgently.
The youth stared at him blankly then moved his head sideways slightly in a negative gesture.
‘Get out now or you’ll die in here!’
Again the blank refusal.
Then Sky, remembered what Bellatrix had said to him about Sand. ‘You don’t have to speak to me. And I won’t tell anyone I’ve seen you. I promise!’
The screen of resignation lifted slightly from Sand’s eyes and he focused on Sky for a moment. He looked about to pass out.
‘I promise,’ Sky repeated firmly. Sand seemed to relax a little so Sky moved forward and pushed him into the silt cloud in the direction he hoped the exit lay. Sand swam with difficulty and seemed disorientated. Sky pushed him ahead of himself, hoping the opening was in fact this way. He knew there was no chance that Sand would make it if they were going the wrong way, and he was not sure he would either. He called out: ‘Muddy! Help me! We are lost!’
‘Here! You are not far now, I can hear you!’
With relief, Sky swam on, and Muddy kept calling encouragement, his voice getting louder, until at last, through the cloud of soft mud, Sky saw the light of the opening. He pushed Sand out ahead of him and then they both made the surface to take great gasps of beautiful air.
When they had recovered, they joined the others at the bottom again near the wreck. The young females circled nervously; Sand rested with his tail on the bottom, impassive but body full of tension.
Sky turned to Bellatrix. ‘I know he does not want to speak to me. So you ask him. What is going to happen at the Gathering? Who is behind this?’
Bellatrix looked very nervous but turned to the inert form. ‘Sand, what will happen at the Gathering?’
He looked at her sullenly. ‘Bad things. Zeta fight zeta. Maybe worse.’
‘How worse?’
‘Maybe kill.’
‘Kill!’ Muddy exclaimed. ‘We don’t kill other zetii. It’s against the Way to kill except to eat! That’s impossible!’
Sand looked at him angrily. ‘Not true! Sand heard it is already happening.’
Sky glanced at Muddy and motioned him to be quiet. He nodded to Bellatrix again.
‘Who wants to make this happen, Sand?’
‘Sand must go now.’
‘First say who, Sand.’
He looked around fearfully, then dropped his gaze to the seabed. ‘My clan. The Kark Du says it must happen. He will make zeta hate zeta. We must do it or we die, he says.’
Sand was looking more and more upset and Sky was afraid that he might bolt at any moment, maybe back into the wreck. ‘Kark Du?’ he enquired gently.
‘That is the name we give leader. Our father and our master.’
‘Who are “we”?’
‘Sand must go!’
Sky spoke gently to the young dolphin, trying to calm him, ‘Alright, you can go if you promise to come back and speak to me. When can you come?’
Sand looked at him mutely.
‘When would you normally meet him again, Bellatrix?’ Sky asked.
‘The next new moon, at sunset. But are you going to tell the Council about this Jeii?’
Sky glanced at Muddy for consent before replying. ‘Well, not yet anyway. Not if Sand promises to come back. Alright Sand? Come back then and you and I will talk some more. Promise that and you can go, and I will not tell our Council about your friends.’
Sky held the frightened stare of the youth for a long moment. Sand looked deeply distressed but finally lowered his eyes in what seemed to be acknowledgement. Sky decided that was the best he was likely to get.
‘Just one last question before you go: who are “we”? Who are your clan?’
Sand looked at him in panic. ‘We…they are…Guardians! And they kill me too if they know I speak like this.’ And suddenly he turned and was gone, swimming at speed out to sea.
Chapter 4
“For countless millennia, Ocean nurtured all the zetii; delighting in the strong, tolerating the weak. Now the times of plenty draw to an end. Only the true followers of the Way will prosper. The Ka-Tse are Ocean’s favoured sons and daughters. Others shall not eat until they are satiated.”
- The ‘Seer’ Stone Eyes (13,222 -13,264 post Great Alluvium).
He was being crushed by his own body. The unfamiliar weight of it driving his chest against the hot sand. Every breath a struggle. Sunlight burning his back, his skin stretched dry and tight. The tide had ebbed away leaving him and the rest of the clan in this alien world, their grey bodies scattered across the beach like giant, wave tossed pebbles. He was glad at least that his mother was beside him. It soothed him at first to look into her clear eye. There was some sand in the corner of that eye, and it looked wrong, unnatural. A drop of thick liquid carried some of it down her face. He wished he could help her get rid of that sand, it must be hurting her. At first he’d thought that she was trying to comfort him — was trying to speak to him. But he couldn’t hear her. Had heard nothing since the terrible noise had begun.
At first it had been exciting; they’d gone up to look at the strange machines. Odd, angular shapes protruded from the massive grey bodies that sped through the water driven by the noisy, swirling blades. He’d been frightened by those, but riding the huge pressure wave in front of the machines with his father and older brother had been fun.
Then the sounds had begun. Shattering pulses of sound that shook his chest and seemed to split his brain. He’d been terrified and had looked to the adults for guidance, just wanting them to stop the pain, make everything right; like they always did.
Father and mother had led him and his brother in a fast swim towards the land with the rest of the clan. There were no words of comfort, or none that could be heard. They couldn’t even navigate with their sonar; the awful sound pulses dominated everything; so they just fled through the turbid water.
They had blindly followed the rest of the clan up into the shallows and then through the surf of the beach. As they stranded among the waves they were at last free of the terrible, mind shattering pulses and they flopped about in confusion. The retreating sea left them there as Senx rose in the sky, pouring his burning heat onto their backs. Heat like he’d never experienced — the sea had always caressed it aside before.
He’d tried to talk to his mother in his childlike way but he never knew if she’d heard him. She’d tried to smile with her eyes but he saw hints of a strange, disturbing terror there. He remembered watching her blowhole open and close, taking reassurance in that even when the bright light of intelligence began to fade from her eye. As Senx reached his zenith and the heat grew beyond all endurance, the bodies around him fell still one by one. He’d still thought that everything would be alright, that father would come and help them back into the sea; make life go back to normal. Then he noticed that his mother had stopped breathing. Her sand coated eye stared blankly through him and for the first time in his short life he found that it was possible to be completely alone.
Then there was nothing for a long time; mind drifting, body crushed, the bright, merciless eye of Senx burning into his own. Then they came to him, or he thought they had. Maybe he just dreamed them. Moving upright with apparent ease, in spite of the oppressive weight of gravity. And making complex sounds to one another — almost as though they were talking. Strange others who caressed him reassuringly and looked into his eyes with compassion. The sand harsh against his belly as they pushed him back into the waves. He’d tried to swim onto the beach again to be with his mother. There was nowhere else for him to go in Ocean. But they must have pushed him back into the water with their gentle insistence. Back into a world of solitude that seemed more frightening to a young child than that beach of death…
‘Wake up Sky!’
After a long moment’s confusion he opened his eyes gratefully to see Muddy’s concerned face peering at him in the half light of the pre dawn greyness. ‘I was dreaming…’
‘I gathered that. The same dream I suppose?’
‘Yes — the beach…I wish I could get it out of my head.’
‘You probably never will. For that kind of thing to happen to a little kid — losing your parents, your brother — it must have been a huge shock.’
‘But I don’t really remember much about it; how I got off the beach, how long I was alone, how I survived…’
Muddy tipped his head in a shrug. ‘Well it’s no secret how you were found. One of our hunting parties came across you half dead in the shallows, right? Silent Waters can tell you all about that.’
‘Yes, she has of course, lots of times. I think I mean more why I survived. Why I survived, not the others.’
‘Don’t start getting all morbid this early in the day. Come on, let’s find something to eat, that’ll take your mind off it.’
Sky smiled to himself. Eating was Muddy’s solution to a wide range of problems. He followed the broad form of his friend across the bay. Below them, the familiar expanse of rippled, shallow sand fell gently away. A slender garfish darted off in panic above them as they approached; its shining silver body blending perfectly with the underside of the surface. They ignored it, looking for a meal that would be easier to catch and more palatable. Occasional pale fan worms snapped their delicate circle of arms down into the sand as the dolphins passed above them, then slowly re-emerged once they were well past. The rising sun coloured the rolling dunes behind the shoreline a warm pink, in striking contrast to the deep blue of the sea. They surprised a small group of cuttlefish in the open and Muddy snatched two before the rest jetted off from sight.
Muddy muttered a belated thank you to Senx before turning to Sky again. ‘What’s the matter, not hungry? They’re delicious — and no nasty sharp spikes or bones.’
‘Yes, I know. And I will eat soon. I was just wondering about what that strange Sand character told us.’
‘Yes, he was very strange. Mad would be a better word. All that stuff about zetii killing each other! That can’t be true.’
‘Are you so sure, Muddy? What about Born Into Summer? Something caused her death. And Sand said he had “heard it is already happening”.’
‘Oh, come on, you can’t believe that the Guardians can somehow make the zetii break one of the most basic teachings of the Way after a million years or whatever it is?’ Muddy looked troubled. ‘But if they could…what would it be like?’
‘Ocean is a very different place now, Muddy. Maybe they could change things with everything in such a mess. Maybe that’s why they are doing this now!’
‘I don’t want to believe it. All this stuff about Guardians must be exaggerated. Where’s the proof?’
Sky was about to reply when three dolphins shot out of the blue, emitting short blasts of navigational sonar as they came. Sky recognised them from the clan; all young males, not really friends of his but they had always been amiable enough. Now though, they careered past Muddy and deliberately bumped into Sky, one each side then one from below, striking him roughly.
‘Hey!’ Muddy called, ‘what are you doing? You hit him!’
‘Then he shouldn’t be where he doesn’t belong!’ came a reply, and they were gone, as fast as they had appeared.
Sky stared after them, very shaken.
Muddy looked at him in concern. ‘Did they hurt you?’
‘No — no not really. But what was that all about? They were so aggressive; what have I done to the
m?’
‘I’ve no idea, that was really weird.’ Muddy looked around nervously. ‘Well, I think they’ve gone for now at least. You sure you’re alright?’
Sky nodded.
‘Let’s get away from here then; let’s get back to the clan.’
After they had swum for a while, Muddy looked over at Sky again. ‘You look depressed. Still thinking about those idiots?’
‘Yes. But also about yesterday. The Cleaner — what Dusk and I were talking about.’
‘Arguing about you mean. You two always seem to argue these days. More than old lovers.’
‘Well, that’s not the reason as I’ve told you before.’ Sky kept pace with Muddy as they swam slowly inshore. ‘Don’t look at me like that — I know what you’re thinking. A year or so ago I thought that maybe there was going to be something between me and her. But it never happened, alright?’
‘That’s because you always just wait around hoping everything will work itself out. You have to take some initiative Sky! She’d have been perfect for you.’
‘I know that’s what everyone thinks, but she’s changed. Dusk has such strange ideas now. You heard her yesterday; she’s openly questioning parts of the Way — I don’t feel I have a connection with her any more.’
‘Look, I don’t get into all the deep thinking stuff like you do, but a lot of Ka-Tse are questioning the Way these days. In fact all kinds of zetii are questioning it from what I hear. Ocean has changed and the Way is ancient. It doesn’t seem to have all the answers like it used to.’
Sky leapt high from the water as they swam, trying to clear his head. He exploded back down through the surface again, a cascade of silver bubbles following him as he powered back alongside his friend.
‘I’m not talking about questioning details of the Way; there’s nothing wrong with that. After all we’re meant to do it as Novices aren’t we? Even more so if we qualify as Initiates of the Way. No, I mean that she really seems to be arguing against some of the basic principles. If she goes on like this she could get into a mess. That’s how ordinary Ka-Tse like you or me end up getting seduced into the Guardians.’