The Dolphins of Pern Read Online Free Page A

relief.
    “Wheeeeee!”
    Startled by that cry, Alemi turned as he saw a shipfish launch itself above the waves in a graceful arc and reenter the water. Others began the same antic, all wheeing or squeeing.
    “Wheee!” cried an unmistakably boyish voice, and Alemi looked over his left shoulder to see Readis, now sitting up straighter on his shipfish, grinning with delight at the exhibition. “That’s great!” the boy added. “Aren’t they great, Alemi?”
    “Grrrreat!” But it was a shipfish who repeated the word, spinning the
r
out.
    On all sides, shipfish were crying “Great!” as they continued their leisurely vaultings in and out of the sea. Alemi convulsively tightened his grip on the dorsal fin. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The stress of the storm, perhaps a blow to his head, or plain fear, had addled his faculties. His companionraised its head and, water shooting up out of the blowhole in the top of its cranium, clearly said, “Thass great!”
    “They’re talking, Unclemi, they’re talking.”
    “How could they, Readis? They’re fish!”
    “Not fish! Mam’l.” His rescuer got out the three words in a loud and contradictory tone. “Doll-fins,” it added clearly, and Alemi shook his head. “Doll-fins speak good.” As if to emphasize this, it began to speed forward, hauling the dazed Masterfisher along at a spanking pace.
    Readis’s doll-fin and the guardian companions altered their course, too, and picked up speed, the flankers still performing their acrobatic above-the-water spins, vaults, and turns.
    “Talk some more, will you?” Readis encouraged in his high-pitched young voice. This was going to make some Gather tale. And they’d have to believe what he said because Unclemi was here with him to vouch that what he said was true.
    “Talk? You talk. Long tayme no talk,” a doll-fin swimming alongside Readis said very clearly. “Men back Landing? Doll-fin ears back?”
    “Landing?” Alemi repeated, stunned. The doll-fins
knew the
ancient name? Wonder upon wonder.
    “Men
are
back at Landing,” Readis said quite proudly, as if he had been instrumental in their return.
    “Good!” cried one doll-fin as it executed a twist in midair, knifing back into the water without splashing.
    “Squeeeeee!” another cried as it vaulted upward.
    In the water all around him, Alemi heard excited clickings and clatterings. The area seemed so full ofshipfish bodies that he wondered how they could move without injuring each other.
    “Look, Unclemi, we’re nearly back!” Readis said, jabbing his finger at the fast-approaching land.
    They had been conveyed so rapidly and smoothly that Alemi struggled between relief that they were so close to dry land and regret that this incredible journey was ending. The forward motion of the shipfish slowed as they came to the first of the sandbanks. Some leaped over it, others followed Readis’s and Alemi’s mounts to the channel, while the majority altered their direction seaward again.
    Moments later the smooth transport came to a complete halt and, tentatively lowering his feet, Alemi felt the firmness of the seabed, gradually sloping up to the shore. He released the dorsal fin and slapped the side of his mount, which turned and rubbed its nose against him, as if inviting a caress. Bemused, Alemi scratched as he would his dog or the small felines who were beginning to invade the Hold. Readis’s mount continued past him.
    “Thanks, my friend. You saved our lives and we are grateful,” Alemi said formally.
    “Wielcame. Uur duty,” the shipfish said clearly, and then, with a swirl, it propelled its body sinuously back out to the break in the sandbar, its fin traveling at ever-increasing speed as it rejoined its fellows.
    “Hey!” Readis cried on a note of alarm. His mount had unceremoniously dumped him in shallows where, if he stood on tiptoe, he could just keep his chin out of water.
    “Thank the doll-fin,” Alemi called, wading as fast as he