The Dolphins of Pern

CHAPTER X

THREE TURNS LATER, four hundred students were living in dormitories at Landing and pursuing their courses, of which a variety were now offered. When generators were established in other major Holds, additional schools were set up, ranging from primary lessons to retraining. At Harper Hall, Masterharper Sebell inaugurated a totally new course for training apprentices, and musicianship was no longer the dominant concern of the Hall. He was able to implement the new form only because Master Robinton had proposed it to the Masters of the Hall before his death. It had not been acceptable at its initial airing but, afterward, Sebell and Menolly watched, bemused, while the obdurate older Masters insisted on adopting the program. If Menolly’s reception of that reversal was bitter, Sebell held on to the advantage and pressed forward, working all the hours of the day to get every phase of Master Robinton’s educational plan into operation.

With Fandarel and Oldive insisting, the Smith and Healer Crafts made it compulsory for Masters to attend courses that improved their skills and explained new Craft applications of Aivas’s knowledge. After the success of the Red Star mission, Master Fandarel had less trouble getting his Masters to embrace the technology. He was also attempting to produce the radio instrument that Aivas had suggested as a reliable means of communication between distant places. Materials to construct the transistors required were obtainable in quantity on Pern.

Master Oldive was not as fortunate, facing such rebellion from older healers that he concentrated on imparting Aivas’s techniques and methods to new and unprejudiced apprentice minds. Although he could prove that healers could now save many from desperate suffering and improve the quality of life for other patients by the discreet use of surgical remedies, Masters in his craft balked at using such methods, to the detriment of patient health and longevity. To Oldive, that was a Craft failure that could not be allowed to continue. Where he could, he introduced new procedures; his instruction seemed to work best with those who had the least training and were desperate to relieve the suffering of their patients. The transition in the Healer Hall was sporadic.

After the initial experiment with the dolphins, Oldive had asked for volunteers to work more closely with the discerning mammals, offering the reciprocal service of removing any bloodfish. Curran had been only too happy to permit the building of a small healer cothold at Fort Sea Hold. A float was rigged at the end of the pier so that patients could be lowered into the water where the dolphins could use their sonar capability on them. There were similar facilities at four other seaside locations: Ista, Igen, Nerat, and Monaco Bay, or rather, the Eastern Weyr.

Aivas had spent much time with Master Oldive and his more receptive Masters and journeymen. Though he had made it clear that Pern did not have certain requisites to bring medicine up to the level the Ancients had practiced, many innovations would improve the Hall. The dolphins were an effective alternative for the Ancients’ X ray machine and other scanning devices, an invaluable exploratory device for healers.

There was one major drawback to the dolphins’ ability to perceive abnormalities in the humans they examined: they could not tell the healers exactly what the growth or lump was, nor how to treat it: only that it was inside a body and shouldn’t be there. Nevertheless, their sonar readings gave healers more knowledge of the irregularities that could not be seen or palpated.

Master Oldive often had the notion that there had been a great many such devices, which Aivas had not even mentioned to him, and he sighed over those omissions and then went on, as healers had for centuries, making do with what was to hand and had proved helpful.

Once the wind machines had been installed on Fort Hold fireheights, a terminal unit was installed in Oldive’s rooms at the Harper Hall, and two more dominated classrooms. Lord Holder Groghe had tried his not insignificant best to get one for Fort Hold, but until the Smithcraft, or the new Computer Craft, could duplicate the components, distribution was restricted to those disseminating information.

The Landing students did not study all day long, as Master Samvel was well aware that youngsters required physical exercise as well as mental. Many old games were annotated in the Aivas files, and some of those Samvel revived: baseball, soccer, and polo, a sport in which Readis was to become quite proficient—as he was in the water sports when they started using the pond below the landing field. Readis suspected that Master Samvel emphasized the water sports in deference to his infirmity, but he thought it made sense that people should learn how to swim when so many long journeys were made on the seas.

Master Samvel also gained permission from Benden Weyr for a half wing of weyrling dragons to take Class 21 to Honshu, to see the incredible artifacts left by the Ancients in the mountain eyrie, not the least of which were the remarkable murals that decorated the walls. They had all seen the devices in action from tapes of that period of Pernese history, but now they could see and touch the machines that the Ancients had left behind. Kami was awestruck by the paintings, while Pardure found the old sled, the big looms, and the finely crafted tools to be of more interest. Readis found the view from the hall to be fascinating—the vista of endless mountains and valleys, a sense of the breadth of the landmass of this southern continent, which was scarcely explored.

F’lessan, rider of bronze Golanth and only son of F’lar and Lessa, had made this place what he called his “weyrhold.” As he explained to the students, this unique historical spot should be available to any who wished to visit it—to see the magnificent murals that decorated the main hall walls. He had appointed himself caretaker and spent more of his free time here than at Benden Weyr. The weyrhold had a complement of holders, herding and experimenting with grain crops and vegetables in areas that had once, clearly, been fields, walled by stones set in place centuries before.

“You’re Readis, aren’t you?” F’lessan asked, joining the boy on the bench placed on the upper terrace, where the best view of the valley could be had. The other students were clambering about the terraces below. “I asked Master Samvel to point you out. I knew your mother.” He leaned back against the cliff wall. “She was at Benden Weyr for a while, you know, before hearing dragons got too much for her. K’van, who’s now Weyrleader at Southern, was one of the weyriings in my wing and they were very close before Lessa sent her down to Benden Hold.” He gazed out over the view for a few moments. “So, have you decided what to study at Landing?”

“Oh, we’re just getting general stuff right now,” Readis said. “What Master Samvel calls ‘preparatory’ courses. There’s so much to learn.” Sometimes the sheer volume and complexity of the knowledge available at Landing overwhelmed Readis. It was daunting to know how much he didn’t know. “Master Samvel says he’s learning more ail the time himself.”

F’lessan grinned down at him. “Samvel’s the type of person who’ll never stop learning.”

“My head aches sometimes,” Readis admitted shyly.

“Mine would, too,” F’lessan agreed. “I was never a good student. Even Master Robinton gave up on me.”

Readis gave him a quick glance of surprise. “You had Master Robinton as a teacher?”

F’lessan’s snort was self-deprecating. “I was in the room all right but I didn’t pay much attention.” He grinned. “I was too enamored with being Golanth’s rider at the time, I think. Jaxom, Menolly, and Benelek were the real students.”

“Master Benelek of the Smithcraft? The one who’s keeping the Aivas machinery running?”

“The very one.” Then F’lessan cast a look at the awed expression of the boy. “Who knows where some of your study mates may end up? Where you yourself will.”

“Oh, I know where I’ll end up,” Readis said. “I’m to be Paradise River Holder.” He flicked a finger at his right leg. “I’m to learn so much that even this won’t keep me from being confirmed.”

“Your father’s a strong, healthy man. You might have to wait a long time to accede. What’re you going to do with all that time in between?”

Readis had thought about that. During his initial Turns at Landing, he realized that he had absorbed a great deal of hold management from following his father about and hearing him give orders. Managing the hold would be easy.

“I’d like to be a dolphineer.”

“A what? Oh, yes, you’ve been talking to the creatures, havan’t you?”

“There aren’t any dolphineers, not like the Ancients had, and the dolphins are very helpful, you know. To the Fishcrafthall and the healers. But we just sort of call them when we want them. We don’t do much for them apart from prying off a bloodfish now and then …” Readis paused, not wanting to appear to belittle the delphinic accomplishments, but he had to be truthful to the dragonrider. “I mean, nothing at all like the great work they did exploring the oceans and coastlines.”

“As I understand it, the coastline’s always changing. Charts will need to be updated, won’t they? Are you studying cartography?”

“Not as much as I’d like. I’m good at the maths but you also need special instruments to do a proper job.”

“I understand that Master Fandarel is making those instruments since everyone seems to want a chunk of the Southern Continent.” F’lessan chuckled.

“Don’t you dragonriders get the first choice?”

“Where’d you hear that?” F’lessan shot the lad an appraising look.

Readis shrugged. “Oh, you hear lots of things at Landing.”

“I’ll just bet you do.” F’lessan snorted. “Have you accessed the tapes on dolphins in the Library?”

“I did that the first term I was here,” Readis said, grinning. Then he went through some of the hand signals of the ancient dolphineers, and F’lessan’s eyes widened respectfully. “That’s how dolphineers gave directions to the dolphins underwater. They still know them. The dolphins, I mean.”

“And with you living right on Paradise River and the sea, you must make good use of them.”

Readis mumbled a noncommittal answer. This was not the time to confide home problems—nor the person to confide them to.

Oblivious to the boy’s hesitation, F’lessan went on. “You might even start up your own crafthall. That’s what Benelek did, you know, by learning all he could about Aivas’s terminals.”

“He did?”

“He did!” Then F’lessan gave Readis a mischievous grin. “Right now, you and all the other students at Landing have a brilliant chance to make sure that Pern becomes what the Ancients wanted it to be before Thread interrupted their progress.” The dragon-rider gestured behind him, to the murals. “The sum total of their knowledge and their overview of this planet is available to us. It’s up to us, and you, as the next generation, to be sure we pick up the plan where they left off and see that Pern becomes the planet they envisioned. That’s what must be done if Pern is to be what it could be. D’you see that? That’s what Master Robinton wanted. It’s what my parents want. But not all the Holders or Mastercraftsmen. They’re still hanging back with what’s comfortable and familiar.” He narrowed his eyes slightly to assess the impact of his words on his audience. “It’s going to be difficult, the next twenty-odd Turns, to set in place what Pern will be now that Thread has stopped.”

“But it hasn’t, has it?”

F’lessan gave him a quick look and grinned. “But it will.”

“Were you,” Readis began tentatively, “one of the dragonriders who took the engines to the Red Star?”

F’lessan nodded. “Golanth and I”

Readis’s jaw dropped in awe.

“All in a day’s work for a dragonrider,” F’lessan said, dismissing the feat in his usual light manner.

On the top of the weyrhold, Golanth lifted his head and uttered a welcoming bugle.

“Ah, your conveyancers arrive,” F’lessan said, standing up, though Readis could see nothing but empty sky in front of them. “Think about what I said, Readis, about the dolphins and about what Pern could be.”

Readis nodded, eyes front, waiting … and was rewarded by the thrilling sight that always made his heart pound faster: the abrupt emergence of a half wing of dragons. They were so beautiful. But not for everyone. Dolphins, now, they weren’t so restricted. Anyone could get to know a dolphin. He could be a dolphineer and a Holder. Form a new crafthall? That did appeal to Readis, and he turned over that possibility. Of course, his mother would have an attack if he even whispered of his interest in the dolphins around her. She persisted in believing that it was the dolphins who had put his life at risk when it was the other way round. His father might understand, especially now that the dolphins had been shown to be useful in so many ways, guarding the coastline and warning them of bad squalls and good fishing. Certainly mastering another Craft would only show the Lord Holders that Readis, son of Jayge and Aramina, was that much more capable of managing an important Southern Hold like Paradise.

“Thank you, F’lessan,” he said.

“For what?” the bronze rider asked, smiling down at the boy.

Suddenly Readis went shy and covered it by waving his arm about to indicate the weyrhold. “For what you just said.”

F’lessan grinned and placed his finger beside his nose, indicating secrecy. “Think about it, lad. We dragonriders are, I assure you.”

Before Readis could ask him what that cryptic comment meant, F’lessan had walked off to find Master Samvel.

Back at school, when he had some free time to use one of the keyboards, Readis tried to find out exactly what the Ancients had meant Pern to be, before Thread ruined their plans. Eventually, he found the Charter in LAWS, and that gave him a good deal to mull over. He wished he could talk to F’lessan again. By deft questioning, he learned that the son of F’lar and Lessa was considered a competent and much trusted Wingleader but, until he had discovered Honshu Weyrhold, had not been given to much serious thinking or behavior. That made Readis give more weight to what the bronze rider had said that day.

Of course, the dragons were not mentioned in the Charter, since they hadn’t been created at the time the Charter had been composed. Nor in any other file on LAWS or GOVERNMENT or VETERINARY or FARMING. They were listed in BIOGENETICS, though Readis couldn’t understand half the words and gave up trying to figure out what the cryptic words in the lab notes meant.

Nevertheless, in twenty Turns or so, Thread would stop falling on Pern and would never come back to rain on the planet. What would dragonriders do then? Surely there had to be something special. Readis gave a shudder. Pern without its dragons would be unthinkable. He was awed by the ingenuity that had resulted in dragons. He’d had enough biology to understand the concept of biogenesis even if no one on Pern now could possibly perform it. So what would dragons do when Thread was gone? He fretted over that question for quite a few weeks of that school term. Dragons did so many things that didn’t have to do with fighting Thread. They conveyed people, and often these days, materials that would take days to be transferred by cart or ship. Well, the blues and greens did, and occasionally the browns and the younger bronzes before they started flying Thread. For adult dragons to do so was somewhat demeaning. He couldn’t imagine a queen lugging things from one Hold or Hall to another.

Dolphins could do quite a few things only they could do, being water creatures. Dragons were of the air. There had to be something that only dragons could do.

Readis’s distraction had not gone unnoticed. Master Samvel found him staring at a screen displaying the earliest flight of dragons: dragons as small as large runnerbeasts.

“I’ve been meaning to have a word with you, Readis,” Samvel said, sitting down on the next chair. “You’ve not been paying as close attention in class as you usually do. Are you troubled about something?”

Readis took a deep breath. “Master Samvel, what’s going to happen to the dragons?”

Samvel blinked in surprise, and then he smiled and, in a rare gesture, patted Readis on the head. “You are not the only one pondering that question, young Readis.”

“Yes, but what can they do when Thread is all gone?

“This is a huge planet, Readis, and there is much work to be done to settle all the land available to us. Right now the dragonriders are carefully overflying this vast Southern Continent, making as detailed a map as possible. We know only a small part of it, and much of it would be impassable to people on foot or uninhabitable until the Pass ends. Don’t you worry about the dragons. Their riders will take care of them, as they’ve always done. But your concern does you credit. We must never, on Pern, forget what the dragons have done for us for twenty-five hundred Turns.”

“How could we forget?” Readis asked, appalled at the very notion of such ingratitude.

Samvel’s smile was sad. “We’ve done it often enough in long Intervals. You concentrate on your studies now, lad, and let the Weyrs worry about themselves. You have your own future to worry about.”

That put Readis in mind of F’lessan’s advice to him: to learn more about the dolphins. So once again he accessed that information, even though he knew most of it by heart already and had become quite fluent in using the underwater hand signals.

“Underwater” was the relevant word. Though Readis had learned how to hold his breath so he could follow the dolphins on some of their shallower dives, the Ancients had had special breathing equipment that had allowed them to stay underwater for long periods of time. Tanks, smaller but similar in design to those used with flamethrowers, had been strapped to swimmers’ backs. They’d had face masks to cover nose and mouth and had breathed proper air from a tube to the tank. The device seemed simple enough to Readis, although how he would acquire one was beyond him. He had a small hoard of marks since his father had paid him the last two seasons for helping with the harvesting, but he doubted that would be sufficient. However, since the tremendous effort from all crafthalls to implement Aivas’s plan was a glorious page of history now, some craftsmen might be willing to take such a commission. They might even know how to construct one since they, too, had access to many of Aivas’s more specialized files.

So Readis sought Uncle Alemi the next time he was back at Paradise River. He’d brought a diagram of the apparatus with him. In the evening, he turned Delky to the shortcut to the head and, as he’d suspected, he found Alemi and his son Aleki on their way to the pier for their daily talk with the pod.

Readis got through the courtesies as fast as possible and then shoved the drawing at Alemi. “If we had something like this, which the dolphineers used, we’d be able to function better in the dolphins’ own environment.”

Alemi gave him a startled look and then laughed outright. “You have learned a lot in that school, haven’t you, Readis? Kami’s nearly as bad with all the terms she throws out to confuse her poor parents. Now, let’s see what you have here to perplex an old sailor.” He glanced at the drawing as he walked.

“You’re not old, Unclemi, and I don’t think you’ll be the least bit perplexed about an aqua-lung.”

“Hmmm. Is that what this contraption is called?”

“That’s how I read it.”

Alemi wasn’t as condescending as many Masters were, but he still liked to tease, and Readis was not in a receptive mood. He was in deadly earnest about this project.

“I looked back over all the tapes showing dolphins and dolphineers. When the partners had to do underwater work, or long-distance swimming, the humans always wore this sort of equipment. And special clothing called wet suits.”

“One would need special gear to keep skin from softening too much during long immersions.” Alemi examined the drawing closely. “The Ancients had special gear for just about everything, didn’t they?”

“More than we’ll ever have,” Readis replied. “More than we’d ever need. The Charter Preamble states that they formed the Pern Colony to avoid the intense specialization that had stratified Earth culture. They intended to achieve a good standard of living using the lowest possible form of technology needed to supply essential services and a good, rounded lifestyle.”

Alemi grinned at Readis. “You’re much worse than Kami. Does the Charter really say that?”

Readis nodded, grinning back. At least Alemi wasn’t peremptorily dismissing the notion.

“And since this equipment is not beyond our current capabilities—oh, yes, I see the similarities and I know we have this much technology,” Alemi added, tapping the mask and the tank with one finger. “It’s only a matter of re-creating the elements displayed here. And, since such an order would come better from a Masterfishman, you’ve come to me to make the request.”

Readis nodded enthusiastically now, immensely relieved that Alemi had grasped what Readis hesitated to voice.

Alemi handed the sheet back and sighed deeply. “You know your mother’s opinion about dolphins and you; Readis. It wouldn’t be right for me to deliberately assist you to further your association with them.”

“Oh!” Readis sank into Delky’s back and, as she’d been trained to do, she halted. “But you know she’s wrong …”

“She’s your mother, Readis, and my Hold Lady. I’m well aware of the loyalty I owe her. I’ve not been all that easy in my mind about allowing you to swim with the pod here. Oh, I know you’ve been doing it, and as long as I didn’t actually see you in the water with them, I could pretend I didn’t know.” Alemi gave a wry grin. “The dolphins don’t at all understand your mother’s attitude, since Afo warned you about the thorn.”

Readis groaned. “But it was my fault, not Afo’s, or any of the dolphins.”

“True. Look, lad, I’m on your side in this even if I can’t sail on a dangerous tack. You could”—Alemi paused—“see what your father says.”

“He won’t upset Mother.”

Alemi lifted his hands in a gesture of impotence. “Try him, Readis. He’s really easy to approach on matters that improve the Hold, you know. And he never accused the dolphins.” Alemi shot the boy a glance. “He knew where the fault lay,” he added in a kindly voice. “Afo and Kib are always asking for you. Will you join us?”

Seeing the pod improved Readis’s spirits, especially after Kib and Afo did an enthusiastic tail walk when he gave them some of the hand signals he’d learned from the old tapes.

“’Member! ’Member!” Kib cried, squeeing and blowing with pleasure. “You do good. Very good. Better best. You come under soon?”

“Not today, Kib. But I will, someday,” Readis assured the happy dolphin.

“Old old times come back,” Afo said, her jaw dropping low as she squeed and chirped.

Readis could not resist giving Alemi an accusing look for failing to fall in with his plan to obtain an underwater breathing device.

It was full dark before the three of them made their way back to the hold proper. When his mother asked him where he’d been so long, he could quite honestly reply that he’d gone to visit Alemi and stayed to play with young Aleki.

Sometime during the night another solution presented itself to Readis. He had experienced a keen sense of betrayal when Alemi refused to help him get an aqua-lung. The device would only make his swimming with the dolphins that much safer. He’d’ve thought that Alemi would see that, too. However, he had another, stauncher ally in T’lion. When he got back to Landing after this break, he’d leave word that he’d like to speak to T’lion. In addition to his responsibilities as a member of a fighting wing, the bronze rider’s duties often brought him to Landing. They hadn’t seen that much of each other lately, but theirs was a friendship that could be resumed at any point with no sense of time lapse.

T’lion sought him out one afternoon a sevenday later. “Sorry to be so long getting to you, Readis, but what with Fall and all …” The bronze rider let his sentence dangle.

“That’s all right,” Readis said, pawing through the sheets that littered the deck in his quarters to find the diagram. “I found this.” He shoved it at his friend.

“Ooooh. This is great,” T’lion said, his eyes widening as he scanned the sheet. “An aqua-lung? Hey, we could use one of these. No trouble at all. Are you getting one?”

“I’m only a student, T’lion.” Then in a rush, he added, “I tried to get Alemi to help but he wouldn’t on account of my mother not liking me associating with dolphins and all.”

T’lion made a sound in his throat and smiled wryly. “They just won’t let you live that down, will they?”

“Evidently not!” Readis couldn’t suppress the bitterness. “It’d cost a lot of marks, wouldn’t it?”

“Hmmmm. Could. But we’re not the only ones who’re swimming with dolphins whenever we get the chance. Can I have this?” When Readis eagerly agreed, T’lion folded it carefully and put it in his inside pocket. “D’you have time to come see my pod?”

“Your pod?” Readis said, raising his eyebrows in surprise at the possessive pronoun.

“Well, the pod that answers my bell,” T’lion said with a grin. “Coming?”

Readis’s answer was to grab up the lined jacket and a swimming clout. He paused only long enough to scrawl a note on the message board at the entrance to his dormitory that he had gone with T’lion. He was old enough now that he didn’t have to ask special permission for short absences.

Once on the strand near Eastern Weyr, Readis helped T’lion divest Gadareth of his riding harness. T’lion rang the bell in the Come-in sequence that was less urgent than the Report and gave the dolphins the opportunity to ignore the summons if they chose. They rarely did, but sometimes only one or two answered. By the time the boys had changed into their swimming clouts, the waters of the cove showed half a dozen dolphins leaping and speeding toward shore. Raising himself up on his hind legs, Gadareth opened his wings and threw back his head for a welcoming bugle. The air was immediately full of wild fire-lizards, for they loved nothing better than to play with their large cousins in the water. Flattening his wings right to his back, he walked into the water and began to swim out to meet the dolphins with the fair display above him.

As one of the games dolphins liked best was scrubbing a dragon, they proceeded to “help” the humans wash Gadareth. The boys nearly drowned half a dozen times trying to emulate dolphin acrobatics. The fire-lizards left halfway through the bath to go about their own business.

“We really do … need that … breathing device,” T’lion gasped out to Readis when they took a rest, hanging on to the wing Gadareth had extended for washing. “But you can sure hold your breath a long time when you want to.”

“Can’t … do it … too often. Head starts … to spin,” Readis said. “Other thing … we need … is a decent … ball for them … to play with!”

“So they can steal it?” T’lion demanded. “That’s what they’ve done with all the ones I get made for em.

“New game? New game?” Boojie asked, head high in the water so all of his smiling face was visible.

“Not today, Booj,” T’lion said. “You’ve worn us out. C’mon, Gadareth, let’s go ashore.”

Booj swam backward, clapping his flippers and squeeing with delight. “Worn out! Worn out! We play more better.”

T’lion and Readis let Gadareth tow them ashore, grasping his tail until they felt the slope of the beach under their feet.

Gadareth found himself a spot on the sand, and a number of fire-lizards returned to find resting places on him while they murmured sleepily to their living perch. T’lion carefully extracted the diagram from his inner pocket and looked at it.

“We’ve got glass,” he said, tapping the face mask, “and we’ve got material for the straps, and the tanks shouldn’t be a problem, nor the hose. Valves look the same as the ones Smithcraft put on flamethrower tanks. It’s the rest of the face mask that might be difficult. You got any free marks?”

Readis rolled over on his stomach and propped himself up on his elbows. He grimaced. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have spent so much at the last Landing Gather But I’ve maybe three whole Smithcraft marks and some quarters. Now I’m nearly fifteen, Dad pays me for harvesting.” He said that with a bit of pride: he’d sweated for those marks.

“Hmmm, well, yes. I’ve some, too, from a bit of trading I’ve done.”

“Trading?” Readis perked up. Over the Turns he’d heard enough from Temma, Nazer, and his father about trading to be familiar with the Lilcamp family traditions. “What with?”

“Ohh …” T’lion shrugged his reluctance to continue. Then, making a quick decision, he went on. “Well, it’s like this. Most dragonriders are kind of looking about this continent to see where they’d like to live when the Pass is over. I mean, during Threadfall and all, the Holds and crafthalls tithe to the Weyrs, so we don’t have to worry about that. Honestly, we’d rather not be beholden to anyone …”

“But Holds and Halls have always tithed to Weyrs …” Readis protested, being well versed in Tradition.

T’lion grinned. “Not when there isn’t going to be more Thread.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, so we’re looking for our own places.”

“What F’lessan calls a weyrhold?”

T’lion nodded.

“And you’ve found one?” Readis asked, excited to learn that the dragonriders were looking so far ahead.

“Oh, I’ve found several sites I’d like, but we have to put in a bid and then, when it’s time, the Weyrleaders will decide who gets what. Right now, we’re charting the land to make divisions easier. That’s why I’ve been up at Landing so much, registering what Gaddie and I have overflown.”

“Did you find any more ruins? Like F’lessan did?”

T’lion gave a snort. “Ruins, I found. But nothing half so well preserved as Honshu. That is really spectacular. In fact, that’s the only place that was properly built. The others are all smack dab in wide-open spaces.”

Readis mirrored his consternation at such stupidity. The Ancients had known so much: why had they been so silly to build out in the open?

“Of course,” T’lion went on in a slightly patronizing tone, “the first few years they didn’t have Thread so they didn’t build proper.”

“Oh, yes, that’s right,” Readis agreed. “So, where have you seen places?”

“Gaddie wants a lake and there are quite a few and also some wide rivers, which are nearly better than lakes. That big inland sea, the one the Ancients called the Caspian, has some lovely islands. They’d be perfect.” He sighed. “But I’d be low on the list for a prime site like that. Another place I like a lot is not far from the old mines that Master Hamian is working now. Place the Ancients called Karachi. Pretty name, isn’t it? They had lots of unusual names. And there’s a cliff in the Southern Range which has a fairly decent-sized cave. View is fabulous and the ledge is wide enough for Gad to snooze on.” T’lion shot a fond look at his sleeping dragon. “Trouble would be having a weyrmate and family. They’d have to wait on Gaddie to get up or down.”

“That would be a disadvantage, but couldn’t you make stairs, the way they did at Honshu?”

“I suppose so …” T’lion paused, deep in thought. “Rather high up so it’d take a lot of stone carving. Then, too, I’d have to find work somewhere else. At the mines, we could always convey …” At Readis’s gasp of surprise, he said, “Well, transporting isn’t a bad way to make a living for a dragon and his rider. Particularly a big strong bronze like Gaddie. It’s a lot less dangerous to hide and health than Thread-fighting.”

“Yes, I suppose it is. But if you went that far inland, you’d be too far from the sea and the dolphins. They can’t swim in fresh water, you know. They don’t float well and they get sores.”

“Hmmm.” T’lion once again retreated into thought.

“Haven’t you found any place nice along the shore?”

“Oh, there’re coves left, right, and center.” T’lion dismissed them. “But you’re right. I’d miss Boojie and Natua and Tana. It’s a case of wanting what you get, I suppose. Then, too, other teams are searching east of here. I suppose I could ask to switch but the land I’ve been overflying is magnificent. You wouldn’t believe how much space there is!”

“Tell me,” Readis urged.

By the time darkness was falling, Readis was relieved to realize that Paradise River Hold had a great many advantages. His parents had been very lucky to be granted hold of it. And it was rather nice to have neighbors farther down the river. There might even be some new ones along the coast, if they could find a decent supply of stone to build their cotholds.

“Why do the Weyrleaders decide who gets what land?” he asked as he changed into his clothes for the trip back to Landing,

“Not just the Weyrleaders, Readis,” T’lion said with a grin. “The Lord Holders and the Craftmasters’ll have a say, too. But this time, the Weyrs get first choice.”

“They do deserve it. If they can hold what they want. The pod warned us just last week of another group trying to land, west of the river.”

“Really?”

“Dad sailed out with Alemi and they left. We outnumbered them,” Readis said with Hold pride. “One day, we might not,” he added ruefully.

“There’s a lot of decisions to be made, aren’t there?” T’lion said with a sigh.

Gadareth and T’lion brought Readis back to Landing. Seeing the area from a height, buildings lit, and people walking up and down the paths, Readis felt a surge of pride to be part of this place, which had had a glorious past and was now preparing for a future: the future that, in fact, had been planned a long time ago for this planet.

T’lion said he’d find time in the next sevenday to get to the Mastersmithhall in Telgar and he’d let Readis know the outcome.

“You may not have any marks to spend at a Gather for some time to come,” he said. “But then, neither will I!”

T’lion was back three days later, looking highly amused as he sauntered into Readis’s quarters.

“We’re not the only ones,” he announced.

“Only ones who what?” Readis asked, half of his mind still on the mathematics he was figuring.

“Who found the aqua-lung and want the Master-smith to make ’em. And I was right.”

“About what?”

“The face mask. There isn’t any sort of elastic material that will keep a mask comfortably tight and seal it against a face.”

“Oh.”

T’lion did not appear to be concerned about that lack. “Seems as if that sort of flexible material is needed for a lot of things the Ancients used. So Master Hamian and one or two of that Hall over in Southern Hold are experimenting.”

“Who else wants the aqua-lung?”

“Idarolan, for one. He’s really quite an advocate of dolphins. Master Fandarel told me …”

“You saw Master Fandarel himself?”

T’lion grinned. “I think I shall miss the courtesies accorded dragonriders.” He sighed wistfully. “I did see him but only after I’d talked to half a dozen journeymen and masters. Evidently Idarolan is mad because he’s too old to do too much with dolphins—too old and too busy as Masterfishman.”

Readis was beset with conflicting emotions: that someone as prestigious as a Craftmaster wanted to be with dolphins and would have more authority than he, Readis, ever could; that someone else might usurp his connection, tenuous as it was, with a pod; and fury at his mother’s prejudice, which kept him from openly associating with these marvelous creatures.

“Don’t look so bereft, Readis,” T’lion said. “It’s not the end of the world. Look how many pods we’ve already contacted—and how many more there are out there. Yours’ll be yours. And you already share it with Alemi, don’t you? Besides, you’re going to be Holder at Paradise River.”

“Which is a Sea Hold, too, so the dolphins are important to us. And who knows when, or if”—and Readis slapped the knee of his withered leg—“I get to be Holder. My father’s a healthy man …” F’lessan’s words at Honshu came back to him: “What are you going to do in the time between?” Then there was his younger brother, Anskono, with both legs in good working order and growing stronger and taller every year. Readis could be passed over in favor of his unimpaired younger brother.

“Paradise River’s a big place, Readis,” T’lion went on. “Big enough for you to hold on your own, separate from your parents. Your father’s barely touched the heart of it, even with all the folks he’s taken in over the last Turns. With a lot of seacoast.”

That prospect hadn’t occurred to Readis, though it had been standard practice for most northern Lord Holders to establish smaller holds for their sons whenever possible. That was another reason so many northerners looked enviously at all the space available on the Southern Continent: every accessible and workable site in the major northern holds was already long established. Readis knew from conversations at Gathers that Lord Toric had let some younger sons run Holds in Southern, but not every candidate met the high standards that Lord Toric expected or wanted to work under that taskmaster’s total authority.

“You could establish a dolphin base of your own and be a dolphineer. Wouldn’t hurt.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Readis agreed absently, thinking about his mother and cringing a bit at having deceived her, and his father. They’d no idea that he’d spent so much time with the Paradise River pod—unless Alemi had told them.

“And Lord Toric’s another one who wants aqualungs,” T’lion said. “That man!” And he shook his head. “He’s not going to let a chance pass him by. He’s ordered ten breathers.”

“He’s going to start a Dolphineer Hall?”

“No,” T’lion said with a wry grin. “That would require him to allow others to join.” His grin faded. “Not that he’d have the chance with Master Idarolan on the dolphins’ side.”

Readis gave a sigh of relief.

“Don’t worry, Readis,” T’lion went on. “I’ve already put in a good word for you.”

“You did?” Readis was torn between relief and the fear that now his mother would learn how he had disobeyed her.

“Never fear. Master Idarolan only asked me how many people were truly interested in dolphins. I said you were because you’d been rescued that time and had learned all the bell peals and hand signals out of gratitude.”

Readis wasn’t sure that was subtle enough.

“Don’t worry, now, Readis. It’s all come right. You’ll see.”

Readis’s response was a noncommittal sound deep in his throat. “Thanks anyway, T’lion. Did Master Fandarel have any idea when we might get an aqualung?”

“Soon, he hoped, but he couldn’t give a time. He’s got a whole hall doing nothing but assembling terminals. Do your folks have one yet? No? Well, they should. Fandarel says they have to find the sealer material. If you don’t have that, you get water inside the mask and that defeats the purpose. At that, we’re lucky because the sea here is so clear. Gets pretty murky in the northern waters. I’ll keep you informed, Readis.”

“I’d appreciate that, T’lion, and thanks.”

“Any time.” With a cheerful wave, T’lion left.