Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver Read Free Book Online Page B

hear the peaks and valleys and the blind creatures moving in the dark. Here the Sea surged heavy and slow, which was a relief after the crashing, uneasy Edge. But whatever he was supposed to find, it wasn’t here either.
    As he sped back to the Edge for air, the dolphin wondered what to do next. It never took him long to decide things, even though he sometimes made mistakes, and now, in a splash, he knew. Telling the pod that he’d be back soon, he turned tail on them and struck out bravely for the open Sea.
    For a while he was busy sorting the tangled noises, andtasting the currents. The swell was bigger here, and he had fun racing up and down inside the waves. The whistles of the pod were growing fainter, but he wasn’t scared; he was excited. He was the most adventurous young dolphin in the pod, and he loved exploring.
    He also liked meeting new creatures, even if most of them didn’t enjoy meeting him. After several failed attempts, he’d learned that jellyfish stung and crabs pinched, and that it was no good playing with fish, because he always forgot and ate them. The best time he’d ever had was an amazing game with a seal, until it had remembered it was a seal, and swum away. The worst was when he’d tried to make friends with a dolphin from another pod; she’d butted him in the belly, then raked her teeth across his nose, which had hurt a lot.
    Suddenly he heard a large, lumbering body wallowing on the Edge.
    At first he thought it was a whale, but as he swam closer he heard that it didn’t have a tail, and was made of trees. Humans!
    The dolphin liked humans. They were so odd. They had no blowholes, and they talked through their mouths; and as they couldn’t really swim, they just splashed about on the Edge. He also felt sorry for them, because they had to live in the Above, on horrible little dry scraps of land.
    But humans were brave too, and almost as clever as dolphins; and the best thing about them was that if you swam just in front of one of their piles of floating trees, it pushed theSea at your tail, so that you could go faster without even trying. It was exactly like riding the nose-wave of a whale, but without the danger of annoying the whale.
    For a while the dolphin wove happily in and out of the waves in front of the humans, while they leaned over the side, calling to him and flailing their flippers. Although he couldn’t understand their strange, muffled speech, he felt that they were friendly and glad to see him.
    It came to him that he was getting too far from his pod and ought to turn back; but at that moment he sensed that one of the humans wasn’t happy.
    He couldn’t see her, she was hidden deep inside, but he sensed that she was half-grown and scared, and
angry.
He was sorry for her and he wanted to help, but he didn’t know how.
    Faint and far away, the pod was calling his name-whistle.
    The dolphin felt a tug of regret. He wanted to stay with the humans. He hadn’t found what he was seeking, and he felt in his fins that it was still out there waiting for him—and that it had something to do with humans.
    But the pull of the pod was strong.
    To say good-bye, the dolphin leaped out of the Sea and flicked his tail flukes, while the humans waved at him and bared their teeth.
    Then he splashed down again into his beautiful Blue Deep, and raced off to find his pod.

7

    P irra heard the splash on the other side of the hull and pictured the dolphin plunging back into the Sea. She knew it was a dolphin because she’d heard the sailors shouting, but she couldn’t see it. She wasn’t allowed.
    It was hot in the hold and it stank of almonds and sick. She couldn’t move. The cargo was crammed in around her and the deck was only a hand’s breadth above her face.
    Her throat tightened with panic. She gulped air, but couldn’t get enough. If the ship went down, she’d drown.
    Don’t think about it. The Sea is calm. We’re not going to sink.
    Clutching her sealstone, she lay listening