“I am not much enlightened,” said Lawrence. “But this was the second covenant?”
“Yes.”
“Was any means of enforcing it provided?”
“No. The covenants never depended on force. The Old Ones had hoped we would be bound by the love we had for each other.”
“What about the third covenant?”
“It was made about twenty thousand years ago, between us, the sea people, and the first true men. Like the other covenants, it was something lived.”
“Did the sea people make a poem about it?” Lawrence asked.
“No. By then we and the dry-landers had grown too far apart from each other for making a poem to be worthwhile. The new men thought they were making the covenant for the first time.
“I will tell you one thing more about the covenant, Dr. Lawrence, though I don’t think you will understand it. The covenant looks forward. Part of it—is yet to be made.”
“No, I don’t understand that,” he said. “Is this all you are going to tell me about the covenant?”
“It is as much as there is any point in telling you. Now that you know, do you think you can use it to help us? Have you learned anything that would add to our armory?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered heavily. “It’s possible that after I—what was that?”
The Akba r had rocked sharply and then been slammed against the piling of the jetty with such force that Madelaine, who was standing, was almost knocked from her feet.
“It’s a quake!” Ivry honked excitedly. “There’s been another earthquake!”
“Be quiet,” Madelai ne said softly. She had caught at the boat’s railing to steady herself. “Yes, that was another earth quake. But it wasn’t an accident, any more than the first one was.”
“What do you mean?” Lawrence demanded.
“The navy has dropped another mine into Bent his Canyon. They wanted to test what Dr. Lawrence had told them. Now they know he was telling the truth.”
Chapter 10
“We must separate,” Dr. Lawrence said. Madelaine had only just finished speaking; the water around the Akbar was still arush with motion from the quake. “As long as we Splits are with you sea people,” he went on, “the danger is much greater for both parties than it would be separately. We can make arrangements to meet later. There are sure to be attacks on us, now the government knows I was telling the truth. We must separate.”
“No,” Ivry said flatly. “Attacks or no attacks. We stay together. You’re trying to get Moonlight away from us.”
Lawrence bit his lip. “No, I’m not. How could I get Maddy away from you unless she was willing to go? Amtor, see if you can’t reason with him. You’re a sensible person.”
“It’s not my place to try to reason with Ivry,” I answered. “Why don’t you ask Madelaine what she thinks of your idea?”
“All right. Maddy, wouldn’t it be wise for us to separate, at least for a while?”
A pale, strange rain had begun to fall from the charcoal sky. It faintly stung. Madelaine answered flatly. “It doesn’t matter whether or not it would be wise. It’s already too late.”
“What makes you say that?” Lawrence replied keenly. “Is this more ESP?” He was always markedly and, it seemed, disproportionately interested when Sosa displayed any evidence of paranormal powers; sometimes I thought he was jealous of her, and that his life was motivated by desire for an ability he had good reason to believe existed and yet had never been able to attain.
“I don’t know,” Madelaine answered. Her voice was high and strained. “More like Udra, I guess. I’ve changed since I was unconscious so much.—Oh, I wish I knew what to do! I can’t think what would help.”
“What are you talking about?” Lawrence demanded. His voice had risen a little, too, in response to the alarm in hers.
“Look in the water,” she answered. “The attack has already begun.”
Lawrence obeyed, looking over the Akbar’s side. “There’s a froth—a thick whitish scum—floating on the water,” he said after a minute. “I don’t know what’s causing it—the latest quake, I suppose. But I don’t see what it has to do with an attack. Froth can’t do any harm.”
“Can’t it?” Madelaine replied with a strange look at him. “The foam is getting deeper every minute. You can see it grow.”
“But it’s still just froth—”
“The dolphins are air-breathers,” Madelaine explained. “They breathe at the surface of the water. What will they do for air when the foam is two or three feet thick?”
“But—it may not get that thick,” the doctor answered a little stupidly. “Besides, they can always swim out beyond the foam to where the water is clear. They’re fast swimmers. I don’t understand why you’re so alarmed.”
“Where can they swim to?” Madelaine answered. She was twisting her fingers together. “The navy planes have broadcast the foam-producing chemical all over the bay. The dolphins would choke long before they could get to the open sea.—Oh, if I could only think of something that would help!”
The foam, which had begun as a mere scum on the water, was puffing up fantastically. It felt warm and rubbery, with a faint oily smell, and even when we arched our bodies in the water, we could not get our heads above it. We were not yet much frightened; it had happened suddenly, and we sea people can hold our breath for quite a time. But we could not breathe foam, any more than a man could. We would have to have air.
Through the muffling, constantly thickening blanket of the foam, I heard Madelaine say, “Untie the Akbar and take her out from the jetty, Doctor. Hurry! We may be able to use her to clear a swath in the foam.”
He made no answer, but an instant later we heard the Akbar’s motor begin a dull putt putt putt, and a moment later she swung out from the jetty and started to push the lofty foam aside with her prow.
It was high time. Already we were having to make short leaps up into the air for breath. What frightened us as much as anything was that our leaps were so short. The layer of foam was like a hand holding us back, and with our best efforts we couldn’t get more than six or seven feet into the air. Ordinarily, we sea people can leap right over the spars of a ship.
The Akbar was flat-bottomed and broad in the beam. She did a better job of clearing the foam than a smarter craft would have done. All the same, the swath she made was only about two feet wide, and it closed behind her rapidly. We swam in a narrow wake, with the tall, choking foam constantly threatening to cave in on us.
Even now, I am not quite certain why the government did not announce our responsibility for the quake to the general public, and proceed to launch a Jihad against us. There must have been a great deal of debate in high places. Long afterwards, when I discussed the matter with a top-ranking naval officer, he told me that they had been affected by a number of things—the wish to avoid a public panic, the feeling that unarmed sea creatures could not be really dangerous, and the fear that the dolphins’ attack might be a communist feint, designed to distract attention from more serious attempts—but that the final consideration had been the fact that it was an election year. They decided to eliminate us quietly. It never occurred to them that they would have any real difficulty in doing it.
The Akbar had passed the Diamond Lil and was moving out into slightly broader waters. We leaped up several times, but the foam was a solid sheet as far as we could see. It reached right up on the shore and was clinging close around the hulls of the boats we passed.