A boy and a dolphin go on a quest for a magic book

CHAPTER ONE

THE STAR VOICE

It was a clear night long ago. The stars were not like those we see but brighter and closer. Gone is their light; gone as well is the Star Voice that filled the sky with song. Only a faint echo remains of that call of sun to sun.

On a small island in the southern seas a gang of boys were dragging a small child along a shell-strewn beach. They were older and stronger than he. Though frightened, he let the tension in his lean brown arms signal his resistance.

         ‘Push him in here,’ ordered the gang’s leader, a squint-eyed boy whose father was the island’s leading trader.

They had reached a point where the beach grew steeper and the sea suddenly deep. Two of the gang shoved their captive down the slope until the waves were breaking over their chests and his shoulders. Then they ducked him under.

         ‘One, two, three...’ the leader began as though counting lamps on his father’s shelves.

‘I think he’s had enough,’ one of the gang said nervously when the counting had reached sixty.        

‘Far from it!’ The leader copied the tone his father used when refusing credit to hungry fishermen. ‘Now you’ve made me lose count. Where was I? Ah, forty, forty-one...’

         ‘He’s gone limp,’ a voice shouted from the water twenty numbers later.

         This lack of trust sat badly with the squint-eyed boy. ‘He’s a fish, isn’t be? Let Palu, the sea god, save him. Thirty-one, thirty-two...’ he stopped hastily. ‘What’s that thing in the sea over there? Why it’s a sh-sh-shark!’

         The others looked wildly around until their eyes fix on a dark fin streaking in their direction. Shrieking, they scrambled to the shore and dashed after their leader who had disappeared into the jungle.

         Their captive’s forgotten body floated to the surface. He knew nothing of the sleek form that nuzzled him into the shallows, rolled him onto sand and butted his stomach until seawater spilled from his mouth.

When the boy came to, he saw a dolphin lying near him on the sand. The foam of spent waves welled round its light grey underside but did not reach the top of its body, where the skin was beginning to crack like drying mud. The dolphin was stuck, but seemed strangely indifferent to its plight. Only its eyes moved, observing the boy keenly.

         ~ This creature must have saved me and stranded itself in the process, the boy decided.     

         He climbed unsteadily to his feet and began to push against the dark blue cape beneath the fin. The skin was smooth and yielding, but the dolphin was more than three times his size and did not budge.

         ‘Wait!’ he said and cupped water over its back until the skin was shiny and the cracks had gone. Then he sat and wedged his feet under its flipper. He strained until his calves ached, but at last, with his fourth effort, the slope took it. The dolphin rolled into the sea and swam from him.

         ~ Small thanks, thought the boy, but then it occurred to him that the slope was steep enough for the dolphin to have rolled down unaided, freeing itself from the hostile air that would have killed it in a few more minutes. ‘Why did you wait for me to save you?’ he shouted. The dolphin turned and watched him with the same intensity it had shown on the sand. ‘Anyway, though you can’t understand a word I say, I thank you for saving me.’

         To his surprise the dolphin gave a shrill whistle and began to glide towards him.

         ‘It’s no good,’ the boy muttered, ‘if that was something you said, I didn’t understand it.’

         The dolphin responded with a series of clicks that sounded like a key turning in a rusty lock.

         ‘Nor that either,’ the boy laughed.

         The dolphin’s tail rose and slammed down on an incoming wave. The boy stopped laughing. He felt he had upset it. Yet that meant the dolphin could understand him, which was mad.

         ~ Not as mad as you suppose! I cannot use your sounds, just as you cannot use mine. But I understand the thoughts behind them.

         What a strange idea considered the boy. Stranger still had, been the way it had sprung unbidden to his mind - for the voice was not from that part of him that filled the empty sea with make-believe ships and fought battles from their prows. He wondered if the ducking had injured his brain.

~ Answer now!

‘Who?’ he asked aloud then checked himself.

          ~ Who? He thought, returning the dolphin’s steadfast gaze.

          ~ Me.

          ~ I am frightened. It is as though a stranger is intruding in my mind.

          ~ I am no stranger. I saved you just as you saved me. There is nothing closer.

         ~ You let me save you. You could have freed yourself.

         ~ Then you would have been bound by your debt to me. We would not be free.

         ~ You tested me!

         ~ You passed. Is that not enough?

         ‘Dolphin!’ the boy cried.

The creature raised its flippers and brought them down upon the sea.

         ‘Navir!’

         Astonished, the boy thought the dolphin had replied to him in his own tongue. Then he realised somebody had hissed the word behind him. He turned and found the trader’s son squinting out at him from behind a palm frond.

         ‘Keep the beast occupied,’ the boy continued. ‘We’ll get it in a minute.’

Behind him, many men were creeping through the jungle, their spears rustling the undergrowth. Navir looked back at the dolphin.

         ~ They are coming for you!

The dolphin ignored this.

~  Why did the gang pick on you?

         ~ It was just a game that got out of hand.

         ~ We have games, too, but none are killed in them.

         ~ They hate me because I prefer to be by the sea than gamble for the herb that makes beards grow. Even when the monsoon rages and they hide in their huts, I cling to a palm, close enough to be drenched by the spray of waves that rise thirty feet before they thunder down.

         ~ The sea is my home. Why don’t you come with me?

         Navir wondered how he was to do this.

         ~ Did you leave your senses in the sand? I have a broad back, sturdy flippers and a tail truer than any rudder.

         ~ Where will we go?

         ~ Wherever you want, but hurry! They are coming from the jungle.

         Navir turned and saw the fishermen were creeping down the beach in a wide stealthy arc. He hesitated a moment, but the offer was too good to refuse. He pulled up his sarong and knotted it between his legs. Then he waded into the sea, grasped the dolphin’s fin and pulled himself onto its back. The skin was slippery and he almost slid off.

         ~ Push your legs up and grip firmly behind my flippers. Always keep at least one hand on my fin.

         Angry shouts rose from the shore as they surged away. It was too late. They were out of spear range.

         Navir was amazed by the power that coursed through the dolphin’s body and thrust them onward. He had to adjust his weight, balance on the sloping back and take care not to slide on the oily skin. When the island was a distant speck, the dolphin told him to lean forward and clench its sides tighter. Then it jumped. The sky rushed at them then reeled away; but Navir held, even when the long leap was completed and they landed with a splash.

         ~ That was good, the dolphin told him. Now try this!

         Without warning, it rose vertically out of the water. Powering itself by strong tail strokes, it skimmed along the surface. Flung back, Navir found himself facing the blue sky. He gripped the fin with all his strength, but his legs began to slide down the smooth flanks. He was just about to lose his hold when the dolphin straightened.

         ~ Not bad. Now take a deep breath!

         Navir did so then the dolphin dived. Between them and the red surface of the great coral reef that stretched beneath, shoals of silver fish glittered in the sunlight that filtered down. The dolphin sped on until a rocky cleft split the bottom.

         ~ Can you hear me? The dolphin asked.

         ~ Clearly.

         ~ Good. I was not sure if our thoughts could penetrate water.

         They surfaced. The boy sucked in air in greedy gasps. Then he asked his bearer how long it could stay underwater.

         ~ The time it takes for fifty waves to crash upon a beach. And you?

         ~ A minute, at the very most two … that must be about eight to ten waves. The pearl divers of my island can stay down for longer but they are specially trained.

~ Our lungs can hold more air than yours and our bloodstreams, too.

         ~ And dolphin, is this the fastest you can swim?

         The boy felt something like laughter ripple through his bearer’s mind. With a great shake of its tail, the dolphin surged forward, so Navir realised it had used but a very small part of its power up to then. The waves rushed by and a distant speck in the sky ahead grew closer till Navir saw it was an albatross. The bird gravely returned his gaze as they sped beneath.

~ Enough? The dolphin asked and slowed to a gentler pace.

           Though they did not speak Navir understood the language between them was an open door, which no silence could close – through thought alone he knew the dolphin’s mood.

         ~ Stop prying, it told him good-humouredly.

         Navir was startled. He had not realised theirs was a two-way traffic.

         ~ I am sorry. I could not help sensing something troubles you.

         ~ Indeed it does. What bothers me is you keep thinking of me as “it”. I am not a thing. I am a “he” like you.

         Navir promised not to make the same mistake again. Yet he still felt a darkness.

         ~ You are right. I was a fool to think I could hide it from you; the channel between us permits no secrets. Yet I cannot speak of it now. What is your name?

         The boy told him.

         ~ Well, Navir, when it is all over, I shall return to your shore and call for you. Then I shall tell you everything.

         ~ When will that be?

         ~ Does nothing satisfy your curiosity? You are like a whale calf playing with a crab. Some things have claws and are better not to know.

         Ahead of them, the fast setting sun was filling the sky with red and gold.

         ~ It is time I took you home, the dolphin said.

         Navir tried to hide his disappointment.

         ~ At least tell me your name, so I may know it if you come again.

         ~ I am Phosphor, his bearer said, and again the boy sensed darkness in his thoughts.

         The dolphin turned and swam back towards the island. Dusk had fallen by the time they reached it and there was the music in the sky as the stars began to sing.

         They skirted the dark shoreline until Phosphor located the spot where he had been stranded. But, just as he was about to approach it, he heard the muffled beat of a drum, which was joined by others along the shore. He tensed and listened.

         ~ What is it? Asked Navir.

         ~ Some kind of signal, but...?

         Something had passed by overhead, so close they could feel the beat of its wings. They looked up and saw a large shape that blotted out the stars. It flew into the jungle. Angry shouts and the clash of metal broke the stillness.

         ~ The fishermen are still waiting for us, Phosphor said. With a sharp flick of his tail he wheeled away. We were lucky that albatross alerted us. Perhaps the same one that flew over us today. Was it merely chance that drove it there, I wonder?

         ~ Can you see in the dark then?

         ~ If not with my eyes then with my ears, but do not concern yourself with that. The question is what am I to do with you.

         ~ Can’t I stay with you?

         ~ Impossible. Tomorrow I set out on a long journey that cannot be delayed. But wait! What is that in the sea ahead?

         In the distance, the waves sparkled in the rays of a bobbing amber lamp tied to the mast of a tiny boat.

         ~ Another trap? Wondered Phosphor; then he started for a low whistle came to them across the water.

         ~ Whoever is aboard that boat has bid us welcome. Are there some among your people who know the Dolphin tongue?

          ~ It must be Teriam. He is the wise man of my people. It is said he can speak the language of every bird, fish and beast – besides, that is his boat.

Phosphor pushed on until they could see a wiry old man seated in the stern whose wrinkled face was set with a pair of remarkable eyes. Gazing into them, the dolphin saw they were the blue of the sea so dark it verged on black. The man was fishing and had a good catch piled on the deck.

‘Ah, Navir,’ he chuckled in a gruff voice,’ you are the talk of Trambular. I see you’ve brought your kidnapper along.’

         The boy felt Phosphor stiffen.

         ~ Tell this insolent man I am no thief.

         Teriam put his rod down and rose to his feet. All humour had left his face. He pursed his lips and produced a series of long solemn whistles. Then he bowed.

         ~ I accept your apology, the dolphin said, and can see you are a great sage amongst your race. That you can speak our tongue will amaze the bards when they hear of it. But time is pressing and I must know what to do with this boy. It is obvious I cannot return him myself.

         Teriam smiled.

         ~ Take him to Nethness, he suggested, naming to a mighty volcano that lay in the sea not all that distant from Navir’s home.

         ~ How far?

         ~ Barring squalls, about one day north in a fast catamaran. It should take you slightly less. Of course, I do not know how the boy will get home from there.

~ Is there nowhere closer?

         ~ Nowhere, Teriam replied smugly. He sat down and took up his rod.

         ~ Can’t the boy stay with you? After all, you are from the same island and could return with him tomorrow.

         ~ Out of the question, I am afraid. I shall probably be here at least another day. It is a marvellous spot for fishing. This boat is too small for two and the boy would frighten the shoals away.

         Navir felt his bearer’s tail rise.

         ~ Has it ever struck you, Teriam, that there might be more important things in the world than catching fish? I must return this boy home by morning.

         ~ Why not take him with you?

         ~ If you had the faintest idea where my journey led, you would not dare suggest as much, even as a joke. Come Navir! I will talk to this fool no longer.

         ~ Wait!

         Phosphor paused, arrested by the command in Teriam’s tone.

         ~ In the entire breathing world none can match the dolphin kind. How they rule their element, how they leap and dive through waves, while we drag our feet across the earth in our heavy chains. They are the wave kings, the tide friends, the acrobats of surf. Yet it is not I, Phosphor, but you who are a fool. You are a great prince trained to read the song of the stars; but since the sun went down, you have not listened once to what they have to tell you. Hear them now!

         Phosphor did so and what he caught filled him with astonishment. Navir’s untrained ear, however, heard only the song of light as the stars called each to each across the cloudless sky.

         ~ They call my name! The dolphin exclaimed.

         ~ Not yours alone but also that of the boy you wish to dump on me.

         Phosphor listened again.

         ~ You are right, but why?

         ~ Navir must go with you.

         ~ How can that be? He is only a child. I go to Nembis!

         ~ Dare you question the decision of the stars? What you seek is Man’s. His hand alone can seize it from the chamber where it lies.

         ~ The schools will not permit this.

         ~ They have no choice. The bards will have heard his name just as you have.

         ~ We are to stay together then, Navir said with delight.

         ~ So it seems, though I wish for your sake it were not so.

         ~ Do not wish that, Phosphor, for the stars speak of great adventures the boy will share with you! Be certain I shall watch for you as well. Now go!