While Sven and Moonlight slept, we dozed, caught fish and talked to each other. We felt we were beginning to make some bodily adjustments to our lessened buoyancy, though it was still irksome to us, and would be so for a long time. Once we smelled a shark, but it was a long way off and seemed to be in distress. It did not bother us.
Toward dawn the skies cleared and the rain died away. By the time our friends woke up, it was a reasonably good day, with the sun visible from time to time.
“I’ve been thinking,” Sven said after we had exchanged greetings with our friends. “The water’s fallen a good deal.
That means that the flood from the North Polar ice melt has begun to equalize itself, and the South Polar flood hasn’t yet begun.”
“Or hasn’t got here yet,” I said.
“Yes. Well, when it does come, this rock is probably going to be submerged. Maddy and I can’t ride out another flood, a longer-lasting flood than the one we just went through, on your backs at sea. Amtor, is there any place where you dolphins could put us down on the mainland? Some place with mountains behind it? If we have time, we can try to get to high ground.”
I blew water. “I don’t know. I mean, I know about how far we are from where the coast used to be, but I can’t possibly tell what it’s like now. There will be a lot of new currents, for one thing. But we can try it. There’s not much else we can do.”
“Where are we now?” Madelaine asked.
“We’re opposite a place about a hundred miles below that big river that doesn’t have any bay.”
“The Klamath River?”
“I guess so. We don’t always know the names you Splits have for things.”
“Never mind that,” Sven said. “Let’s get going. If he means the Klamath River, there’s high ground not too far from it. We’ve eaten all our food.”
He began helping Moonlight down toward the water. They both moved stiffly and awkwardly. Rain and salt spray had washed most of the dye from the girl’s hair. I was glad to see it its usual color again.
With a good deal of difficulty, the Splits got on Pettrus’ and Ivry’s backs. “Northeast, I think,” Sven said. “The farther we can get from the South Polar flood, the better. And east, of course, because we want to get back to the American coast.”
“All right,” Ivry said.
As the day grew brighter, all our spirits rose. The sea was smooth, and we made very good time, particularly since there was a current flowing east. It hadn’t been there before.
Late in the afternoon, Djuna and I went fishing. We fed Ivry and Pettrus, and then, since we knew the two Splits hadn’t had anything to eat, offered part of our catch to them.
“It’s not alive, you know,” I said as Djuna held the salmon out to Sven in her mouth. “She bit it in the head.”
“I—thank you. Madelaine, are you hungry enough to try raw fish?”
“Not yet. But put it in your jacket, Sven, and keep it. We may be short of food after we get ashore.”
At sunset, the Splits tied their legs together under the two dolphins’ bellies. The sea continued calm. The moon rose. It was hardly well up in the sky when we saw land ahead.
It was very different from how I had remembered it— Buildings rose straight out of the surface of the water, and the mass of land lay far behind them. There were no lights anywhere.
“Be careful,” Madelaine said as we swam in slowly. “We don’t know how deep the water is, or what’s under it.”
“Of course,” I answered. “Djuna and I will go ahead and act as pilots, since we can dive to see if there’s danger.”
Cautiously we swam in beside the drowned city. The water was quite deep, thirty or forty feet, and it occurred to me that we were following the streets of the submerged city. There were many bodies of Splits floating among the buildings. We avoided them as much as we could. The moonlight robbed them of color and made them look unreal.
Madelaine stirred uneasily on Pettrus’ back. “I wonder what city this was,” she said. I noticed how softly she and Sven were speaking. “Amtor, are we near the river you spoke of?”
“We’re somewhat north of it.”
“Then this is probably Crescent City,” Sven replied.
Neither of them said anything more as we left the city behind and approached a range of low hills. The water grew shallower. I dived and found land, still covered with grass, only two or three feet below me.
“We’ll have to let you off here,” I said.
“Yes.” Sven undid the straps from his ankles, and slid into the water. He help ed Madelaine untie herself. Then they both waded toward the hills.
“Good-bye,” Madelaine said. She turned toward us, holding out her hands. “When the waters start to go down,” she said quickly, “call us to you. Use Udra. We’ll come. We will meet again, my darlings! I know it. I am sure of it.”
“So are we, Sosa,” I answered. This was true. And yet, our good-byes made, we were all heavy-hearted as we started back to deeper water. It was the first time since Sosa had come to us at Drake’s Bay, months before, that we had been parted from her.
Chapter 20
The old man held up the lamp and peered at them doubtfully. The scattering of white hairs on his scalp glistened in the light. “You’re refugees?” he asked.
“Yes,” Sven answered. “All we want is to get in out of the rain for a while and a place to cook. Here.” He produced the salmon Djuna had caught—it was still fresh enough to be desirable—and showed it to the old man. “We’d be glad to share with you. I can’t get a fire started outside. Everything’s so wet.”
The old man did not move away from the door. “I don’t need your food,” he said. “I’ve got a whole freezer full of stuff that’s spoiling since the power went off. I’m sorry, but I can’t take you in. You’ll have to be on your way.”
Madelaine stepped forward, so that the light of the lamp fell on her face. “Are you afraid of us?” she asked directly.
“Afraid?”
“Yes. You might be. You don’t know anything about us, or what we might do.”
The old man laughed. “I’m still strong enough to take care of myself,” he said. “I’m not afraid of you as people. But I heard on the radio that diseases are breaking out. They’re giving everybody in the refugee camps shots.”
“We haven’t been near anybody since before the flood started,” Madelaine said. “We were at sea all during it. That’s how we got the fish. But we did have to swim through water where bodies were floating. That was when we were coming ashore.”
“At sea? I guess that’s why none of the ’copters or planes picked you up. They’ve been trying to evacuate people. My neighbors wanted me to leave, but I told them I’d stay. I’ve been growing fruit on this land all my life. Well, I don’t suppose you’d have caught anything just from swimming through water where th ere were bodies.” The old man seemed to be weakening.
“I could cook,” Madelaine said. “I could get a nice meal for the three of us from the things you have in the freezer.”
The old man looked at th em a little longer. They could hear his shallow breathing. “All right,” he said at last. “You’ll have to cook on a wood stove, since the power is off. And you’re to go away after you eat, do you understand? I don’t want you staying here.”
“All right.”
Once Sven and Madelaine were over the threshold, they realized how wet they were. Puddles formed around them on the floor immediately. The fruit grower brought them towels, and they dried themselves as well as they could. Madelaine squeezed most of the water from her hair, and Sven took off his shirt and jacket, wrung them out in the sink, and hung them to dry on the back of a chair. The girl and the young man were both still wet enough to leave splotches on the linoleum floor when they walked.