by Caney, Mark
‘Well it makes sense doesn’t it? The injuries she suffered — that was an attack by other zetii — the Guardians must have killed her too.’
‘But why?’
‘I don’t know for sure, but something to do with what she told us — remember — she thought it was a Councillor that was spying on a Starwriter ceremony, and then meeting a stranger secretly — it must have been a Guardian.’
‘Who in the Council would do that?’
‘Well the obvious one,’ Muddy said, ‘is North Wind. Should we tell someone? Won’t it be dangerous for us if he suspects we know?’
Deneb looked hard at them, his face grim. ‘I don’t care if it’s dangerous. I want to stop this killing somehow. Let’s not tell anyone yet, we don’t have any real proof. We’ll just keep a close eye on North Wind and see if we can find out more. Sky, you are keeping quiet — can’t you see that the Guardians are causing these deaths?’
‘Yes. You don’t have to convince me. There’s more that I know — I’m not allowed to say — but they are very dangerous.’
Muddy and Deneb exchanged glances but said nothing. Sky regretted saying anything and hoped that they would assume he meant something that came out of the Grand Council meetings.
Now they were approaching the clan and they could hear other voices as the seabed shelved up towards the beach. Muddy made an effort to change the subject, saying:
‘Deneb, what about your special mission? How’s your Xenthos coming along?’
‘Poorly,’ he grimaced, ‘I’ve been trying but there hasn’t been much time yet to practice.’
‘When do you go?’
‘Trevally Outpaced was originally coming back the day after tomorrow but then Green Wave came to see me last evening and said that the envoy later told him that they might actually be back a day earlier than that. So he’ll take me to meet him at this rendezvous point he knows tomorrow. He wants to cram in some extra diplomacy lessons on the way I think! Then he’s going to leave me there and the Xenthos will pick me up in the next day or two.’
‘You looking forward to it?’ Muddy asked.
‘Well, it’s certainly an honour to be chosen, but I find the responsibility a bit daunting. I’m supposed to be building confidence between them and the Ka-Tse. What if I make some mistake and offend them in some way?’
‘You’ll be fine,’ Sky assured him, ‘you’re the perfect diplomat, you’ve inherited your mother’s skill.’
‘In any case,’ Muddy added, ‘from what I hear of the Xenthos, you’ll probably be left behind in an exhausted heap in a day or two. They’re always moving and don’t like it near the shore. Don’t expect to see the seabed in the next sixty days. And the depths they dive to! By the time you come back…’
Muddy trailed off and Sky saw that he and Deneb were staring at something behind him.
‘Who’s she?’ murmured Deneb, looking at the slim shape of the approaching female.
‘That’s Sky’s new friend,’ Muddy whispered, ‘and I don’t suppose we’ll be needed around here now.’
Sky was about to protest when Venus In Mist arrived beside them, looking them over with those disconcerting dark eyes. She spoke to Muddy and Deneb.
‘I’m terribly sorry to interrupt you like this, but I’d like to speak to your friend for a short while. Alone. Do you mind?’ Her eyes gave them the sweetest of smiles as she tilted her head in a disarming way.
Deneb Rising replied.
‘Not at all, please take your time. Sky, we will be hunting over by the reef at the north east headland if you want us later.’
As they swam behind Mist, Deneb looked at Sky and, out of her sight, opened his eyes wide in compliment to him. Then they were gone.
Mist turned her attention to Sky.
‘You know my clan leaves tomorrow don’t you?’
‘Yes, I did, I’d just forgotten...I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.’
‘Well, I suppose that’s understandable. I know you must have loved Cloud Passing. Was it hard for you yesterday?’
‘I…I’m not sure I can talk about it yet.’
‘Look,’ she said, looking at him intently, ‘last night you helped me a lot. I’d kept in all my thoughts about that baby dying — I was blaming myself for it and holding it all in. You spent all that time listening to me and I started to realise that there probably wasn’t anything I could have done differently, and I started to deal with the pain. I haven’t had that kind of communication with anyone before. Maybe I can help you too.’
Sky watched her as she spoke. She had an intensity about her that was unique; when she talked to him it felt like there was no-one else in Ocean for her. He thought she was also probably the most beautiful female he had ever seen. Then he thought about Dusk and felt guilty. But why, when Dusk seemed so disinterested in him? He spoke at last.
‘Look, Mist, I’m really glad that I could help you. And I think it would help me to talk about yesterday, in fact a lot of things, I just need a little time to get things straight in my own head. But when I’m ready, I would like to talk to you. You’re…special.’
‘Sky, when my clan leaves tomorrow, you know I probably won’t see you again. Maybe at another Gathering, but that won’t be for at least three years.’
‘When do you go?’
‘Early tomorrow post-noon,’ she moved closer to him, and spoke more urgently. ‘Listen Sky, I like this coastline. I like the zetii here. If I said I wanted to join your clan for a while, maybe forever, what would you think?’
He was shocked by the possibilities. It was not unusual for dolphins to move from one clan to another, but this was something to do with him. Was she expecting something of him? Wasn’t that what he wanted? He had to find out what was happening with Dusk, once and for all.
‘I’m sure my clan would welcome you…’ he started.
‘No doubt, they seem very polite. But what would you think?’
‘Mist, can you give me one night to think about things please? Let me meet you here at noon tomorrow and I will know what I want.’
He could not read her expression as she nodded back to him.
‘Alright. Think hard then. And remember, after noon tomorrow my clan leaves. I need to know if I follow them or my heart.’
And she was gone, leaving Sky alone, the dropping sun sending dancing shafts of light through the shallow water onto the sand ripples around him. Vraxia overlaid with Lasa-ka: a change or decision — great, of high import. He set off to find Fades Into Dusk.
Chapter 32
“Never assume that the merit of an argument is proportional to the emotion or volume applied during its delivery.”
- Saturn Over Antares (12,415-12,438 post Great Alluvium)
Dusk was with some dolphins from one of the visiting clans she had befriended. She had just spent some time babysitting one of the young ones so that his mother could go and hunt. As the mother returned, Dusk led the calf towards her. As soon as he recognised her signature call he chirped with joy, swimming over to her and took station just beside her dorsal fin; riding the pressure wave as she swam.
‘You are a darling Dusk,’ the mother said, ‘that was so helpful.’
‘You’re welcome, he is a delight. He must be approaching his naming ceremony soon, have you any names in mind?’
‘Yes, he will be a year old just after the next new moon. He loves starfish, so I thought perhaps something including that would be nice; perhaps just “Plays With Starfish”’.
Dusk smiled, but thought that when the youngster was a sexually mature young male he may not care for the name so much.
‘Yes, that’s a cute name, but you know what they say: name the child on the child’s naming day.’
‘Oh, I will of course. I’ll get his Shades read on the morning of the ceremony to see if I get any inspiration there.’
‘Do the other family members have any ideas?’
‘His grandmother would probably like to have something including “Alph
ecca” after her, but no one else has any strong opinions. We’re not sure who his father was, so that’s not a consideration.’
Dusk nodded. It was fairly common for dolphins to be polygamous so it was not unusual for the exact father of a child to be unknown.
The baby sidled down below his mother and nuzzled at her side. She tilted her body so that he could suckle briefly at her nipple. She turned back to Dusk who still swam alongside her.
‘What about you my dear, any fine young males that catch your eye? You would make a wonderful mother.’
‘Well, I’m a final year Novice,’ Dusk said evasively, ‘so I couldn’t for another couple of months anyway.’
‘Still, all these handsome creatures at the Gathering! I don’t know that I would be so restrained in your place! And you have some fine young males in your own clan. What about that good looking fellow who was picked out to go into the Sun Chamber? Don’t you fancy him?’
‘That’s Touches The Sky. I’ve known him a long time, but just as friends. I don’t know, it just never went beyond that.’
‘He looked like a zeta who will go far to me. A fine hunter too I dare say. Snatch him up my dear! Ones like that are few and far between.’
Just as Dusk was about to reply, Sky appeared ahead of them, making his signature call and heading towards them.
‘Well, that must be fate!’ exclaimed the mother, ‘I’ll leave you to it; remember what I said!’ She swam off, leaving Dusk alone and embarrassed.
Sky arrived and they swam together alongside one another parallel to the shore. The sun was setting and the night-time creatures were slowly starting to emerge from the coral heads they passed.
‘What was she saying?’ he asked, ‘What was that about fate?’
She thought quickly. ‘Oh, we were just talking about finding a name for her son; she has some strange ideas and is looking for inspiration. Anyway, what are you doing here?’
‘I…I was just thinking of you and wanted to talk to you. To ask you something.’
‘Well, that sounds pretty serious. What is it?’
‘What do you want out of life Dusk? How do you imagine your future here with the clan?’
‘Wow, serious stuff! I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it too much I suppose. Anyway why would you assume I would stay with the clan? I mean. I might, but who knows? Lots of zetii move from one clan to another.’
‘Do you think you might then?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe. I guess it depends on what there is for me here or if it seems better somewhere else. So, you tell me, what are you going to do with your life?’
Sky paused for a moment.
‘I’d like to be happy. To do nothing I would regret. To follow the Way.’
‘To “do nothing you would regret”? What kind of an ambition is that Sky? And to follow the Way? Can’t you come up with anything of your own? It’s like you’re always quoting from a lesson.’
‘What’s wrong with that? So, they are the kind of things our teacher would have said — old wisdom — but why should that make them wrong?’
Dusk was exasperated. This was exactly what drove her crazy about him.
‘Because times have changed! You just don’t see it Sky! Ocean is coming to pieces and our place in it has been turned inside out. You’ve been spending too much time with those ancients on the Council — you sound just like them!’
‘Dusk, there’s no real alternative. You want us to just take what we need and ignore the consequences? Then what makes us any better than every other species in Ocean?’
‘Because…because we have no choice, that’s why! If we keep to the old ways we’re going to just die out. Probably that’s going to happen anyway, but at least we can keep going as long as we can.’
‘No, Dusk! We think of the zetii as the most culturally sophisticated creatures on the planet — what would your logic make us?’
He was angry now but arguing from principles. Dusk was frustrated more than angry; Sky was so stubborn. But she realised for the first time that he was not just quoting from the Way. He was not weak, he just followed a doctrine that she now doubted after all she had heard from the Guardians. But he had clearly thought about it all and believed it. She recognised that he had the same passion in his beliefs that she found so attractive in Storm. But who was right? Then she realised how dark it was becoming: she had to go; she would be late for her meeting with Storm. She was hoping to see him before the ceremony started that evening.
‘Sky, we are getting nowhere here. Look, let’s talk about this more some other time. I’m sorry but I have to go now; I just need to spend some time alone.’
Her eyes gave a little forced smile and she swam off along the shoreline to the east, leaving him there in the shallows. As she swam she tried to replay their conversation in her mind. She had to respect Sky’s position, he had spoken with a confidence and conviction that showed he believed what he said, but was it just naïvety? She knew what Storm’s opinions would be, and although she loved his certainty, she wondered yet again if he could be wrong. She was sure that tonight’s events would be significant. She had not wanted to see the ceremony but Storm had insisted; he wanted her to join the Guardians and wanted her to see every part of their ways. But the ceremony had sounded repulsive to her — nothing like it would be permitted by the Way.
She resolved that this should be a test of her commitment: she would try to view the ceremony objectively, but if it did prove to be as bad as it sounded she would have to think seriously about breaking off her relationship with Storm. As she learned more and more of their ways it was starting to just feel too wrong somehow.
She was deep in thought as she swam along the coastline and did not notice the distant form shadowing her in the twilight.
Chapter 33
“Judge them by how they judge”
- Traditional
Sky trailed Dusk in the darkness. As the sunlight disappeared it became very dark and he was afraid that he might lose her. He could hear her navigational sonar up ahead from time to time and he followed that. He did not dare to use his own in case she heard him, and as the water became black, he had twice collided painfully with an unseen coral head. He also occasionally saw a faint stream of light particles in her wake as she disturbed the phosphorescence. Then, after a while, the half moon rose and he began to see better, especially when she swam over the sandy areas between the coral outcrops. He continued following her for over an hour, taking care not to surface for a breath at the same time as her in case she might hear his exhalations.
Eventually, she slowed and stopped near an isolated rocky arch. This protruded from an area of rock and coral that jutted out from the shelving sandy sea bed. She made her signature call: ‘It is I, Fades Into Dusk!’
Sky felt a nervous tremor pass through him: she was meeting someone here! There was no reply so they were not here yet and she settled down as though to wait. He realised that they might come from any direction and he could be seen there on the sand. So he worked his way back to the shallows in a big circle and then swam carefully out on top of the rocky area with the arch. Soon he was well placed in a good vantage point up there where she could not see him. The rock rose close enough to the surface so that he could even make short trips up to breathe without being seen, and the upper surface of the rock was convoluted enough that he could hide himself in it when Dusk would surface to breathe.
After some time Sky thought he heard a dolphin’s sonar in the distance. Dusk must have heard it too as she roused herself and gave her signature call again. Then he saw the large form of a male dolphin appear in the dim light.
The newcomer approached Dusk and they caressed. They swam in gentle circles below Sky, pectoral fins brushing against each other. Sky hated the sight of the stranger’s large body up against her slender one. So this was where she went. This was obviously her lover. This answered all his questions and he felt cold inside watching them together. But why the secrecy? Where wa
s his clan?
Sky could see that they were talking but he could not make out what they were saying. He decided to go, there was nothing else for him here; he knew now, Dusk had a lover. He had known this was a possibility but knowing it for certain hurt. He quietly turned and was about to leave when he heard more sonar approaching: other dolphins — a lot of dolphins. The pair below him turned expectantly towards the sound. Sky stopped, curious to know what this meant.
The moon was higher now and against the white sand below him, Sky saw a column of dolphins file into the sandy area. He thought there must be around sixty of them at least. They formed a wide semi-circle facing the large male who Sky sensed was their leader. At the centre of the crescent there was a knot of dolphins, with one individual flanked by four large males. They seemed to be protecting or controlling him; in the dim light Sky could not be sure.
The leader moved forward slightly into the centre of the half-ring facing the newcomers, Dusk edged around to join one end of the line of dolphins. He had moved to where all could see him; she seemed to want to seek anonymity.
The large dolphin addressed them in a clear voice: ‘My brothers and sisters, you are the chosen ones. You are among the select few zetii who have accepted their duty as the Guardians.’
Up in his hiding place, Sky was shocked. The Guardians! Dusk was here with the Guardians! The male continued on below him.
‘It is no easy task, and many of you had hard journeys to endure before you could join this select band. Some of you saw that ours is the true way for the Ka-Tse and sought out our family. Others were banished from other clans, usually because you despised their soft attitudes and sensed that the version of the ‘Way’ that they pathetically cling to is an anachronism; incapable of saving our kind from a new and dangerous future. One thousand years ago, the Seer Stone Eyes warned the Ka-Tse what would happen, but only a few enlightened zetii heeded his words. He saw the changes taking place in Ocean; the dwindling food supplies, the rapacious Walkers competing for our food as they learned to take everything from Ocean — even killing the Great Wanderers by the thousand. He foretold that a time would come when there would not be enough for all zetii to eat and that only the most noble of the zetii — the Ka-Tse — might be saved. He told his followers that in order to survive, the Ka-Tse must take their proper place as the dominant species in Ocean. He did not say that other zetii should not eat; only that they should not eat until every one of the chosen Ka-Tse, the Guardians, have eaten their rightful share.’