[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
intermediary.'
There is a splash from behind the boat. The voice, Aiah concludes, can't be
anything human. 'It is best to undertake certain tasks in person,' the voice
says, 'in order that certain matters may be communicated in such a manner as
to felicitate perfect understanding. We must speak, thus-and-so, concerning
this-and-that, and without misapprehension.'
'Your illumination's wisdom surpasses that of the immortals,' Constantine says
gravely. 'Surely your brilliance and enlightenment will not be exceeded in ten
thousand decades.'
'My pitiful understanding is but a reflection of the glory and the wisdom of
Constantine,' the voice says. 'The radiance of your genius illuminates the
world as an incandescent ball irradiates the darkness beneath the water,
attracting to its magnificent light such unworthy beings as myself.'
'The courtesy that your illumination displays in affording me such a
description is exceeded only by your greatness.' Constantine straightens,
looks at Aiah. 'Please allow me to introduce to your illumination my
colleague, Miss Aiah, whose consummate knowledge shall guide us to our
inevitable success.'
Aiah walks dry-mouthed to the stern of the boat. She feels huge as an airship
in her thick porous suit, and as clumsy.
And Constantine of course had not prepared her for this. Another of his little
surprises.
The dolphin sits in a pool of halogen light, regarding her with small dark
pebble eyes sunk deep beneath a bulging forehead. His skin is a pinkish albino
white, with scars and blotches and a few open running sores. He seems to be
strongly hunchbacked. The nose has been shifted back to the top of the head.
His lower jaw is prognathous, hard and beaklike, fixed in a cold, unkindly
grin.
Once, she knows, the dolphins were the enemies of humanity, rulers of the
world's seas and the belligerents in a ferocious war for domination of the
world. Since their defeat the dolphins have been confined to a diminishing
role in the world's affairs, and humanity has encroached on their world
without hindrance.
The closest Aiah's ever come to a dolphin is watching the Dolphins march in
the Senko's Day parade.
She glances at Constantine for support, then licks her lips. 'I am,' she
ventures, 'awed by your presence, your illumination. Forgive my speechlessness
at, ah, this encounter with your magnificence.'
The dolphin flutters a hand, long spatulate fingers stirring the water. 'The
companions of Constantine are beacons of wisdom in a sea of darkness and
ignorance.'
Fortunately Constantine takes over the conversation from this point. The
ludicrous flattery seems even more absurd in this space, from two exiles
hiding from the light in a watery cellar.
Eventually the conversation floats on puffs of extravagant compliments to its
termination, and Prince Aranax kicks his broad feet up high and submerges.
Constantine and Aiah resume their preparations for their dive. Aiah puts on
Page 97
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
her buoyancy harness, which contains both pockets for lead weights and
inflatable compartments to adjust her depth. Constantine helps her with the
flat air tank curved to fit comfortably on her back. In her foam-plastic
swaddling, Aiah can hear her heart pounding, the rasp of her panting breath.
Just wrestling with all the unaccustomed gear is exhausting. By the time she
pumps up her buoyancy, dons her fins and mask, and rolls off the boat into the
water, she's relieved simply to be getting underway. The water tastes more
strongly of salt than she expected - she'd done her two hours' training in a
freshwater tank. Her suit lets in an insulating layer of seawater, and it
seems oily on her skin. She lets the buoyancy harness support her, tries to
calm her heart, her breath. Panic doesn't seem very far away.
Constantine follows her into the water, then swims to the sled and climbs
aboard. He moves with the same powerful confidence he displays on land, and
Aiah feels a stab of envy at his ability to be at home anywhere. Electric
motors whine as he tests each propeller. Cavitation bubbles stream in halogen
light. Then Constantine starts dumping ballast, air first hissing, then
bubbling, from the valves. The raft settles in the water. Aiah's heart gives a
leap as something white flashes beneath her feet. The dolphin.
Constantine looks at her. 'Climb on board,' he says, 'if you're ready.'
Aiah concludes she's as ready as she's ever going to be. She kicks up
alongside the sled, then wriggles up next to Constantine on the webbing
stretched between the two motors. As long as she's on the sled, she can use
the raft's air supply. Compressed air hisses as she tests one of the sled's
regulators, then puts it in her mouth. Salt sprays across her palate as she
takes her first breath.
'Dump the air from your harness,' Constantine says. 'We'll use the sled to
provide buoyancy.'
Aiah nods and reaches with clumsy gloved fingers for the pull-valve that will
release air from her harness pockets. Constantine dons his mask and regulator,
clears his ears, then begins again to submerge the sled. Escaping air sounds
loud in the dark watery hollow.
The dolphin surfaces, breath snorting from his nostrils, and looks at the
humans with his little eyes for a brief second before submerging once more.
The bubbling water splashes up past Aiah's face. Claustrophobia claws
at her heart. She pinches her nostrils and tries to clear her ears.
Below the surface, the world is an eerie opalescent green. The
barnacle-covered hulls of the pontoons stretch down into utter darkness below.
Aranax flies in and out of the light, his pale hunched body soaring in its
element. He's got a fin on his back that Aiah hadn't noticed before, and he's
wearing a sleek harness, with streamlined pockets that won't ruin his
hydrodynamics.
The sled sinks slowly. The nose pitches down and the headlights carve an empty
tunnel in the gloom. A greenish radium glow illuminates the control panel.
Aiah has nothing to do but watch and clear her ears. Her right ear seems
resistant, pain mounting as the sled drops, but Aiah clamps down with her
teeth on her mouthpiece and swallows, and there's a strange sound, like air
squeaking from a child's balloon, as air is forced to her middle ear.
As Constantine starts the sled's motors there is a teeth-clenching buzz that
seems to transmit itself through Aiah by bone conduction. It grows darker as
the sled moves out from beneath the area of illumination beneath the
speedboats. Aranax flies past, his long, outcurved feet pumping together as
they propel his hunched body through the water. Constantine steers after him.
There is a moment of claustrophobia, a pressure in the ears and in the mind,
as the sled moves beneath the flat-bottomed bulk of one of Caraqui's huge
pontoons. Over the whine of the sled's engines Aiah can hear a constant throb
of marine engines. With the pontoon above to reflect the sound, the engines
sound as if they're right overhead, a grinding pulsation over which Aiah can
detect the whine of intakes, the high-pitched shriek of small boats, random
Page 98
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
metallic clangs that seem to resonate in the water like the distant bang of a
gong. In the light Aiah can see hatches, gratings, vents, intakes, all coated
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]