Deep Wizardry

Summer Nights Song

Nita slipped out the back door of the beach house, careful not to let the 
rickety screen door slam, and for a second stood silently on the back porch in 
the darkness. It was no use. Nitaher mothers voice came floating out from 
the living roomwherere you going?
Out, Nita said, hoping to get away with it just this once.
She might as well have tried to rob a bank. Out where?
Down to the beach, Mom.
There was a sighs worth of pause from the living room, broken by the sound of a 
crowd on TV shouting about a base that had just been stolen somewhere in the 
country. I dont like you walking down there alone at night, Neets . . . 
Nhhnnnnn, Nita said, a loud noncommittal noise she had learned to make while 
her mother was deciding whether to let her do something. Ill take Ponch with 
me, she said in a burst of inspiration.
Mmmmmm . . .  her mother said, considering it. Ponch was a large black and 
white dog, part Border collie, part German shepherd, part muttan intrepid 
hunter of water rats and gulls, and ferociously loyal to his master and to Nita 
because she was his masters best friend. Wheres Kit?
I dunno. It was at least partly the truth. He went for a walk a while ago.
Well . . . okay. You take Ponch and look for Kit, and bring him back with you. 
Dont want his folks thinking were not taking care of him.
Right, Ma, Nita said, and went pounding down the creaky steps from the house 
to the yard before her mother could change her mind, or her rather, immersed in 
the ball game, could come back to consciousness.
Ponch! Hey Pancho! Nita shouted, pounding through the sandy front, through the 
gate in the ancient picket fence, and out across the narrow paved road to the 
dune on the other side of the road. Joyous barking began on the far side of the 
dune as Nita ran up it. Hes hunting again, Nita thought, and would have laughed 
for delight if running had left her any breath. This is the best vacation we 
ever had . . . 
At the top of the dune she paused, looking down toward the long dark expanse of 
the beach. Its been a good year, her father had said a couple of months 
before, over dinner. We cant go far for vacationbut lets go somewhere nice. 
One of the beaches in the Hamptons, maybe. Well rent a house and live beyond 
our means. For a couple weeks, anyway . . . 
It hadnt taken Nita much begging to get her folks to let her friend Kit 
Rodriguez go along with them, or to get Kits folks to say yes. Both families 
were delighted that their children had each finally found a close friend. Nita, 
and Kit laughed about that sometimes. Their families knew only the surface of 
what was going onwhich was probably for the best.
A black shape came scrabbling up the dune toward Nita, flinging sand in all 
directions in his hurry. Whoa! she shouted at Ponch, but it was no use; it 
never was. He hit her about stomach level with both paws and knocked her down, 
panting with excitement; then, when she managed to sit up, he started 
enthusiastically washing her face. His breath smelled like dead fish.
Euuuuw, enough! Nita said, making a face and pushing the dog more or less off 
her. Ponch, wheres Kit?
Yayayayayayayaya! Ponch barked, jumping up and bouncing around Nita in an 
attempt to get her to play. He grabbed up a long string of dead seaweed in his 
jaws and began shaking it like a rope and growling.
Cut it out, Ponch. Get serious. Nita got up and headed down the far side of 
the dune, brushing herself off as she went. Wheres the boss?
He played with me, Ponch said in another string of barks as he loped down the 
dune alongside her. He threw the stick. I chased it.
Great. Where is he now?
They came to the bottom of the dune together. The sand was harder there, but 
still dry; the tide was low and just beginning to turn. Dont know, Ponch 
said, a bark with a grumble on the end of it.
Hey, youre a good boy, Im not mad at you, Nita said. She stopped to scratch 
the dog behind the ears, in the good place. He stood still with his tongue 
hanging out and looked up at her, his eyes shining oddly in the of the nearly 
full Moon that was climbing the sky. I just dont feel like playing right now. 
I want to swim. Would you find Kit?
The big brown eyes gazed soulfully up at her, and Ponch made a small beseeching 
whine. A dog biscuit?
Nita grinned. Blackmailer. Okay, you find the boss, Ill give you a biscuitTwo 
biscuits. Go getim!
Ponch bounded off westward down the beach, kicking up wet sand, headed for the 
water line, where she shrugged off the windbreaker that had been covering her 
bathing suit and dropped it on the sand. Two months ago, talking to a dog and 
getting an answer back would have been something that happened only in Disney 
movies. But then one day in the library, Nita had stumbled onto a book called So 
You Want to Be a Wizard. Shed followed the instructions in the book, as Kit had 
in the copy hed found in a used-book storeand afterward, dogs talked back. Or, 
more accurately, she knew what language they spoke and how to hear it. There was 
nothing that didnt talk back, shed foundonly things she didnt yet know how 
to hear or how to talk to properly.
Like parents, Nita thought with mild amusement. If her mother knew Nita was 
going swimming, shed probably pitch a fit: shed had a terrible thing about 
night swimming after seeing Jaws. But its okay, Nita thought. There arent any 
sharks here . . . and if there were, I think I could talk them out of eating me.
She made sure her clothes were above the high-water line, then waded down into 
the breakers. The water was surprisingly warm around her knees. The waxing Moon, 
slightly golden from smog, made a silvery pathway on the water, everywhere else 
shedding a dull radiance that made both land and sea look alive.
What a great night, Nita thought. She went out another twenty paces or so, then 
crouched over and dived into an incoming wave. Waterborne sand scoured her, the 
water thundered in her ears; then she broke surface and lay in the roll and 
dazzle of the moonlit water, floating. There were no streetlights there, and the 
stars she loved were bright. After a while she stood up in the shoulder-high 
water, watching the sky. Back up on the beach, Ponch was barking, excited and 
noisy. He cant have found Kit that fast, Nita thought. Probably something 
distracted him. A crab, maybe. A dead fish. A shark . . . 
Something pushed her in the back, hard. Nita gasped and whipped around in the 
water, thinking. This is it, there are too sharks here and Im dead! The sight 
of the slick-skinned shape in the water stopped her breathuntil she realized 
what she was looking at. A slender body, ten feet long; a blowhole and an amused 
eye that looked at her sidelong; and a long, beaked face that wore a permanent 
smile. She reached out a hesitant hand, and under her touch the dolphin turned 
lazily, rolling sideways, brushing her with skin like warm, moonlit satin.
She was immensely relieved. Daistiho, she said, greeting the swimmer in the 
Tongue that wizards use, the language that shed learned from her manual and 
that all creatures understand. She expected no more answer than a buzz or squeak 
as the dolphin returned the greeting and went about its business.
But the dolphin rolled back toward her and looked at her in what seemed to be 
shock. A wizard! it said in an urgent whistle. Nita had no time to answer; the 
dolphin dived and its tail slapped the surface, spraying her. By the time Nita 
rubbed the salt sting out of her eyes, there was nothing near her but the usual 
roaring breakers. Ponch was bouncing frantically on the beach, barking something 
about sea monsters to the small form walking beside him.
Neets?
Nita waded out of the breakers. At the water line Kit met her and handed Nita 
her windbreaker. He was smaller than she was, a year younger, dark-haired and 
brown-eyed and sharp of face and mind; definitely sharper, Nita thought with 
approval, than the usual twelve-year-old. He was hollering about whales, Kit 
said, nodding at Ponch.
Dolphins, Nita said. At least, a dolphin. I said hi to it and it said A 
wizard! and ran away.
Great. Kit looked southward, across the ocean. Somethings going on out 
there, Neets. I was up on the jetty. The rocks are upset.
Nita shook her head. Her specialty as a wizard was living things; animals and 
plants talked to her and did the things she asked, at least if she asked 
properly. It still startled her sometimes when Kit got the same kind of result 
from unalive things like cars and doors and telephone poles, but that was 
where his talent lay. What can a rock get upset about? she said.
Im not sure. They wouldnt say. The stones piled up there remembered 
something. And they didnt want to think about it any more. They were shook. 
Kit looked up sharply at Nita. That was it. The earth shook once . . . 
Oh, come off it. This isnt California. Long Island doesnt have earthquakes.
Once it did. The rocks remember . . . I wonder what that dolphin wanted?
Nita was wondering too. She zipped up her windbreaker. Cmon, we have to get 
back before Mom busts a gut.
But the dolphin
Nita started down the beach, then turned and kept walking backward when she 
noticed that Kit wasnt following her. The ball game was almost over, she 
said, raising her voice as she got farther from Kit and Ponch. Theyll go to 
bed early. They always do. And when theyre asleep
Kit nodded and muttered something, Nita couldnt quite hear what. He vanished in 
a small clap of inrushing air and then reappeared next to Nita, walking with 
her; Ponch barked in annoyance and ran to catch up.
He really hates that beam-me-up-Scotty spell, Nita said.
Yeah, when it bends space, it makes him itch. Look, I was practicing that other 
one
With the water? She grinned at him. In the dark, I hope.
Yeah. Ill show you later. And then
Dolphins.
Uh-huh. Cmon, Ill race you.
They ran up the dune, followed by a black shape barking loudly about dog 
biscuits.









Wizards Song
The Moon got high. Nita sat by the window of her ground-floor room, listening 
through the stillness for the sound of voices upstairs. There hadnt been any 
for a while.
She sighed and looked down at the book she held in her lap. It looked like a 
library bookbound in one of those slick-shiny buckram library bindings, with a 
Dewey decimal number written at the bottom of the spine in that indelible white 
ink librarians use, and at the top of the spine, the words SO YOU WANT TO BE A 
WIZARD. But on opening the book, what one saw were the words Instruction and 
Implementation Manual, General and Limited Special-Purpose Wizardries, 
Sorceries, and Spells: 933rd Edition. Or that was what you saw if you were a 
wizard, for the printing was done in the graceful, Arabic-looking written form 
of the Speech.
Nita turned a few pages of the manual, glancing at them in idle interest. The 
instructions shed found in the book had coached her through her first few 
spellsboth the kinds for which only words were needed and those that required 
raw materials of some sort. The spells had in turn led her into the company of 
other wizardsbeginners like Kit and more experienced ones, typical of the 
wizards, young and old, working quietly all over the world. And then the spells 
had taken her right out of the world shed known, into one of the ones next 
door, and into a conflict that had been going on since times beginning, in all 
the worlds there were.
In that other world, in a place like New York City but also terribly different, 
she had passed through the initial ordeal that every candidate for wizardry 
undergoes. Kit had been with her. Together they had pulled each other and 
themselves through the danger and the terror, to the successful completion of a 
quest into which they had stumbled. They saved their own world without 
attracting much notice; they lost a couple of dear friends theyd met along the 
way; and they came into their full power as wizards. It was a privilege that had 
its price. Nita still wasnt sure why shed been chosen as one of those who 
fight for the Worlds against the Great Death of entropy. She was just glad shed 
been picked.
She flipped pages to the regional directory, where wizards were listed by name 
and address. Nita never got tired of seeing her own name listed there, for other 
wizards to call if they needed her. She overshot her own page in the Nassau 
County section, wanting to check the names of two friends, Senior Wizards for 
the areaTom Swale and Carl Romeo. They had recently been promoted to Senior 
from the Advisory Wizard level, and as shed suspected, their listing now read 
On sabbatical: emergencies only. Nita grinned at the memory of the party 
theyd thrown to celebrate their promotion. The guests had been a select group. 
More of them had appeared out of nowhere than arrived through the front door. 
Several had spent the afternoon floating in midair; another had spent it in the 
fishpond, submerged. Human beings had been only slightly in the majority at the 
party, and Nita became very careful at the snack table after her first encounter 
with the dip made from Pennsylvania crude oil and fresh-ground iron filings. She 
paged back through the listing and looked at her own name.
CALLAHAN, Juanita T.
On active status
243 E. Clinton Avenue Hempstead
NY 11575 (516) 379-6786
Assignment location: 38 Tiana Beach Road Southampton
NY 11829 (516) 667-9084
Nita sighed, for this morning the status note had said, like Toms, 
Vacationing/emergencies only. The book updated itself all over that waypages 
changing sometimes second to second, reporting the status of worldgates in the 
area, what spells were working where, the cost of powdered newt at your Local 
Advisory. Whatevers come up, Nita thought, were expected to be able to handle 
it.
Of course, last time out they expected us to save the world, too . . . Neets!
She jumped, then tossed her book out the window to Kit and began climbing out. 
Sssh!
Shhh yourself, mouth. Theyre asleep. Cmon.
Once over the dune, the hiss and rumble of the midnight sea made talking easier. 
You on active status too? Kit said. Lets find the dolphin and see whats 
up.
They ran for the breakers. Kit was in bathing suit and windbreaker as Nita was, 
with sneakers slung over his shoulder by the laces. Okay, he said, watch 
this. He said something in the Speech, a long liquid-sounding sentence with a 
curious even-uneven rhyme in it, all of which told the night and the wind and 
the water what Kit wanted of them. And without pause Kit ran right up to the 
water, which was retreating at that particular momentand then onto it. Under 
his weight it bucked and sloshed the way a waterbed will when you stand on it; 
but Kit didnt sink. He ran four or five paces out onto the silver-slicked 
surfacethen lost his balance and fell over sideways.
Nita started laughing, then hurriedly shut herself up for fear the whole beach 
should hear. Kit was lying on the water, his head propped up on one hand; the 
water bobbed him up and down while he looked at her with a sour expression. 
Its not funny. I did it all last night and it never happened once.
Must be that you did the spell for two this time, Nita said, tempted to start 
laughing again, except that Kit would probably have punched her out. She kept 
her face as straight as she could and stepped out to the water, putting a foot 
carefully on an incoming, flattened-out wave. It took her weight, flattening 
more as she stepped up with the other foot and was carried backward. Its like 
the slidewalk at the airport, she said, putting her arms out for balance and 
wobbling.
Kind of. Kit got up on hands and knees and then to his feet again, swaying. 
Come on. Keep your knees bent a little. And pick up your feet.
It was a useful warning. Nita tripped over several breakers and sprawled each 
time, a sensation like doing a bellywhopper onto a waterbed, until she got her 
sea legs. Once past the breakers she had no more trouble, and Kit led her at a 
bouncy trot out into the open Atlantic.
They both came to understand shortly why not many people, wizards or otherwise, 
walk on water much. The constant slip and slide of the water under their feet 
forced them to use leg muscles they rarely bothered with on land. They had to 
rest frequently, sitting, while they looked around them for signs of the 
dolphin.
At their first two rest stops there was nothing to be seen but the lights of 
Ponquogue and Hampton Bays and West Tiana on the mainland, three miles north. 
Closer, red and white flashing lights marked the entrance to Shinnecock Inlet, 
the break in the long strip of beach where they were staying. The Shinnecock 
horn hooted mournfully at them four times a minute, a lonely-sounding call. 
Nitas hair stood up all over her as they sat down the third time and she rubbed 
her aching legs. Kits spell kept them from getting wet, but she was chilly; and 
being so far out there in the dark and quiet was very much like being in the 
middle of a deserta wet, hissing barrenness unbroken for miles except by the 
quick-flashing white light of a buoy or two
You okay? Kit said.
Yeah. Its just that the sea seems . . . safer near the shore, somehow, deep is 
it here?
Kit slipped his manual out of his windbreaker and pulled out a large nautical 
map. About eighty feet, it looks like.
Nita sat up straight in shock. Something had broken the surface of the water and 
was arrowing toward them at a great rate. It was a triangular fin. Nita 
scrambled to her feet. Uh, Kit!
He was on his feet beside her in a second, staring too. A shark has to stay in 
the water, he said, sounding more confident than he looked. We dont. We can 
jump
Oh, yeah? How high? And for how long?
The fin was thirty yards or so away. A silvery body rose up under it, and Nita 
breathed out in relief at the frantic, high-pitched chattering of a dolphins 
voice. The swimmer leaped right out of the water in its speed, came down, and 
splashed them both. Im late, and youre late, it gasped in a string of 
whistles and pops, and Sreees about to be! Hurry!
Right, Kit said, and slapped his manual shut. He said nothing aloud, but the 
seas surface instantly stopped behaving like a waterbed and started acting like 
water. Whoolp! Nita said as she sank like a stone. She didnt get wetthat 
part of Kits spell was still workingbut she floundered wildly for a moment 
before managing to get hold of the dolphin in the cold and dark of the water.
Nita groped up its side and found a fin. Instantly the dolphin took off, and 
Nita hoisted herself up to a better position, hanging from the dorsal fin so 
that her body was half out of the water and her legs were safely out of the way 
of the fiercely lashing tail. On the other side, Kit had done the same. You 
might have warned me! she said to him across the dolphins back.
He rolled his eyes at her. If you werent asleep on your feet, you wouldnt 
need warning.
Kit She dropped it for the time being and said to the dolphin, Whats 
Sreee? And whys it going to be late? Whats the matter?
She, the dolphin said. Sreees a wizard. The Hunters are after her and she 
cant do anything, shes hurt too badly. My pod and another one are with her, 
but they cant hold them off for long. Shes beached, and the tides coming in
Kit and Nita shot each other shocked looks. Another wizard in the areaand out 
in the ocean in the middle of the night? What hunters? Kit said, and Your 
pod? Nita said at the same moment.
The dolphin was coming about and heading along the shoreline, westward toward 
Quogue. The Hunters, it said in a series of annoyed squeaks and whistles. The 
ones with teeth, who else? What kind of wizards are they turning out these days, 
anyway?
Nita said nothing to this. She was too busy staring ahead of them at a long dark 
bumpy whale shape lying on a sandbar, a shape slicked with moonlight along its 
upper contours and silhouetted against the dull silver of the sea. It was the 
look of the water that particularly troubled Nita. Shapes leaped and twisted in 
it, shapes with two different kinds of fins. Kit!
Neets, Kit said, not sounding happy, there really arent sharks here, the guy 
from the Coast Guard said so last week
Tell them! the dolphin said angrily. It hurtled through the water toward the 
sandbar around which the fighting continued, silent for all its viciousness. The 
only sound came from the dark shape that lay partly on the bar, partly off ita 
piteous, wailing whistle almost too high to hear.
Are you ready? the dolphin said. They were about fifty yards from the 
trouble.
Ready to what? Kit asked, and started fumbling for his manual.
Nita started to do the sameand then had an idea, and blessed her mother for 
having watched Jaws on TV so many times. Kit, forget it! Remember a couple 
months ago and those guys who tried to beat you up? The freeze spell?
Yeah . . . 
Do it, do it big. Ill feed you power! She pounded the dolphin on the side. 
Go beach! Tell your buddies to beach too!
But
Go do it! She let go of the dolphins fin and dropped into the water, 
swallowing hard as she saw another fin, of the wrong shape entirely, begin to 
circle in on her and Kit. Kit, get the water working again!
It took a precious second; and the next oneone of the longer seconds of Nitas 
lifefor her and Kit to clamber up out of the liquid water onto the solid. 
They made it and grabbed one another for both physical and moral support, as 
that fin kept coming. The other spell set? Nita gasped.
Yeahnow!
The usual immobility of a working spell came down on them both, with something 
addeda sense of being not one person alone, but part of a one that was somehow 
bigger than even Nita and Kit together could be. Inside that sudden oneness, she 
felt the freeze spell waiting like a phone number with all but one digit 
dialed. Kit said the one word in the Speech that set the spell free, the last 
digit, then gripped Nitas hand hard.
Nita did her part, quickly saying the three most dangerous words in all 
wizardrythe words that give all of a wizards power over into another s hands. 
She felt it going from her, felt Kit shaking as he wound her power, her trust, 
into the spell. And then she took all her fright, and her anger at the sharks, 
and her pity for the poor wailing bulk on the sand, and let Kit have those too.
The spell blasted away from the two of them with a shock like a huge jolt of 
static, then dropped down over the sandbar and the water for hundreds of feet 
around, sinking like a weighted net. And as if the spell had physically dragged 
them down, all the circling, hunting fins in the water sank out of sight, their 
owners paralyzed and unable to swim.
No wizardry is done without a price. Kit wobbled in Nitas grip as if he were 
going to keel over. Nita had to lock her knees to keep standing. But both of 
them managed to stay upright until the weakness passed, and Nita looked around 
with grim satisfaction at the empty water. The sharks wont be bothering us 
now, she said. Lets get up on the sandbar.
It was a few seconds walk to where the dolphins lay beached on the bar, 
chattering excitedly. Once up on the sand, Kit took a look at what awaited them 
and groaned out loud. Nita would have too, except that she found herself busy 
breathing deep to keep from throwing up. Everywhere the sand was black and 
sticky with gobs and splatters of blood, some clotted, some fresh.
The dark bulk of the injured whale heaved up and down with her breathing, while 
small weak whistling noises went in and out. The whales skin was marked with 
rope burns and little pits and ragged gashes of shark bites. The greatest wound, 
though, the one still leaking blood, was too large for any shark to have made. 
It was a crater in the whales left side, behind the long swimming fin; a crater 
easily three feet wide, ragged with ripped flesh. The whales one visible eye, 
turned up to the moonlight, watched Kit and Nita dully as they came.
What happened? Kit said, looking at the biggest wound with disbelief and 
horror. It looks like somebody bombed you.
Someone did, the whale said in a long pained whistle. Nita came up beside the 
whales head and laid a hand on the black skin behind her eye. It was very hot. 
It was one of the new killing-spears, the whale said to Nita, the kind that 
blasts. But never mind that. What did you do with the sharks?
Sank them. Theyre lying on the bottom with a freeze on them.
But if they dont swim, they cant breathetheyll die! The concern in the 
whales voice astonished Nita. Cousins, quick, kill the spell! Were going to 
need their good will later.
Nita glanced at Kit, who was still staring at the wound with a tight, angry look 
on his face. He glanced up at her. Huh? Oh. Sure. Better put up a wizards wall 
first, so that the dolphins can get back in the water without getting attacked 
again.
Right. Nita got her book out and riffled through pages to the appropriate 
spell, a short-term forcefield that needed no extra supplies to produce. She 
said the spell and felt it take hold, then sagged back against the whale and 
closed her eyes till the dizziness went away. Off to one side she heard Kit 
saying the words that released the freeze.
A few moments later fins began appearing again out on the water, circling inward 
toward the sandbar, then sliding away as if they bumped into something, and 
circling in again.
The water will take the blood away soon enough, the whale said. Theyll go 
away and not even remember why they were here . . .  The whales eye fixed on 
Nita again. Thanks for coming so quickly, cousins.
It took us longer than we wanted. Im Nita. Thats Kit.
Im Sreee, the whale said. The name was a hiss and a long, plaintive, 
upscaling whistle.
Kit left the wound and came up to join Nita. It was one of those explosive 
harpoons, all right, he said. But I thought those were supposed to be powerful 
enough to blow even big whales in two.
They are. Aemhnuu died that way, this morning. Sreees whistle was bitter. 
He was the Senior Wizard for this whole region of the Plateau. I was studying 
with himI was going to be promoted to Advisory soon. Then the ship came, and we 
were doing a wizardry, we didnt notice
Nita and Kit looked at each other. They had found out for themselves that a 
wizard is at his most vulnerable when exercising his strength. He died right 
away, Sreee said. I took a spear too. But it didnt explode right away; and 
the sharks smelled Aemhnuus blood and a great pack of them showed up to eat. 
They went into feeding frenzy and bit the spear right out of me. Then one of 
them started chewing on the spear, and the blasting part of it went off. It 
killed a lot of them and blew this hole in me. They got so busy eating each 
other and Aemhnuu that I had time to get away. But I was leaving bloodtrail, 
and they followed it. What else should I have expected? . . . 
She wheezed. Cousins, I hope one of you has skill at healing, for Im in 
trouble, and I cant die now, theres too much to do.
Healings part of my specialty, Nita said, and was quiet for a moment. Shed 
become adept, as Kit had, at fixing the minor hurts Ponch kept pickingup bee 
stings and cat bites and so forth. But this was going to be different.
She stepped away from Sreees head and went back to look at the wound, keeping 
tight control of her stomach. I can seal this up all right, she saidBut 
youre gonna have a huge scar. And I dont know how long itll take the muscles 
underneath to grow back. Im not real good at this yet.
Keep my breath in my body, cousin, thatll be enough for me, Sreee said.
Nita nodded and started paging through her book for the section on medicine. It 
started out casually enough with first aid for the minor ailments of wizardsthe 
physical ones like colds and the mental ones like spell backlash and brainburn. 
Behind that was a section she had only skimmed before, never expecting to need 
it: Major Surgery. The spells were complex and lengthy. That by itself was no 
problem. But all of them called for one supply in commonthe blood of the wizard 
performing them. Nita began to shake. Seeing someone else bleed was bad enough; 
the sight of her own blood in quantity tended to make her pass out.
Oh, great, she said, for there was no avoiding what had to be done. Kit, you 
have anything sharp on you?
He felt around in his pockets. No such luck, Neets . . . 
Then find me a shell or something.
Sreees eye glinted in the moonlight. There are the dolphins, she said.
What do theyoh. The one dolphin still beached, the one who had brought them 
in, smiled at Nita, exhibiting many sharp teeth.
Oh, brother, she said, and went down the sandbar to where the dolphin lay. 
Look, she said, hunkering down in front of it, I dont even know your name
Hotshot. He gave her a look that was amused but also kindly.
Hotshot, right. Lookdont do it hard, okay? And wincing, Nita put out her 
left hand and looked away.
Do what?
Do llllp! Nita said, as the pain hit. When she looked again, she saw that 
Hotshot had nipped her very precisely on the outside of the palmtwo little 
crescents of toothmarks facing each other. Blood welled up, and the place stung, 
but not too badly to bear.
Hotshots eyes glittered at her. Needs salt.
Yeccch! But Nita still wanted to laugh, even while her stomach churned. She 
got up and hurried back to Kit, who was holding her book for her.
Together they went over to the terrible wound, and Nita put her bleeding hand to 
it, turned away as far as she could, and started reading the spell. It was a 
long series of complicated phrases in the Speech; she spoke them quickly at 
first, then more slowly as she began to be distracted by the pain in her hand. 
And as often happens in a wizardry, she began to lose contact with her physical 
surroundings.
Soon Kit and Sreee and the beach were gone. Even the book was gone, though she 
was reading from it. She was surrounded by the roaring of green water around 
her, and the smell of blood and fear, and shadows in the water. Pursuing her. 
She swam for her life, and kept reading.
No wound can be healed, the book said, unless the pain of its inflicting is 
fully experienced. There was nothing to do but read, and flee, wailing 
terror-song and grief-song into the water, until the first pain came, the sick, 
cold sharpness in her side. Nita knew she was sagging, knew Kit was holding her 
up from behind. But all that was far away.
The second pain came, the fierce mouths ripping and worrying at her till she 
couldnt go forward any more, only flail and thrash in an agony of helplessness 
and revulsion
and then the third pain hit, and Nita lost control of everything and started to 
fall down as the white fire blew up in her side. But the words were speaking her 
now, as they do in the more powerful wizardries. Though inwardly Nita screamed 
and cried for release, it did her no good. Her own power was loose, doing what 
she had told it to, and the wizardry wouldnt let her go until it was done. When 
it was, finally, it dropped her on her face in the sand, and she felt Kit go 
down with her, trying to keep her from breaking something.
Eventually the world came back. Nita found herself sitting on the sand, feeling 
wobbly, but not hurting anywhere. She looked up at Sreees side. New gray skin 
covered the wound, paler than the rest of the whale, but unbroken. There was 
still a crater there, but no blood flowed; and many of the smaller shark bites 
were completely gone, as were the burns from the harpoons rope where it had 
gotten tangled around Sreees flukes.
Wow, Nita said. She lifted her left hand and looked at it. The place where 
Hotshot had bitten her was just a little oval of pink puncture marks, all 
healed.
You all right? Kit said, trying to help her up.
Yeah, yeah, sure, Nita said. She pushed him away as kindly and quickly as she 
could, staggered down to the water line, and lost her dinner.
When she came back, her mouth full of the taste of the salt water shed used to 
wash it out, Sreee had rolled herself more upright and was talking to Kit. I 
still feel deathly sick, she said, but at least dying isnt a problem . . . 
not for the moment.
She looked at Nita. Though the long face was frozen into that eternal smile, it 
was amazing how many expressions could live in a whales eyes. Admiration was 
there just now, and gratitude. You and I arent just cousins now, hNiit, 
Sreee said, giving Nitas name a whistly whalish intonation, but sisters too, 
by blood exchanged. And Im in your debt. Maybe its poor thanks to a debtor to 
ask him to lend to you again, right away. But maybe a sister, or a friendshe 
glanced at Kitwould excuse that if it had to happen.
Were on active status, Kit said. We have to handle whatever comes up in this 
area. Whats the problem?
Well then. Sreees whistling took on a more formal rhythm. As the only 
remaining candidate Senior Wizard for the Waters About the Gates, by Wizards 
Right I request and require your assistance. Intervention will take place 
locally and last no more than ten lights-and-darks. The probable level of 
difficulty does not exceed what the manual describes as dangerous, though if 
intervention is delayed, the level may escalate to extremely dangerous or 
critical. Will you assist?
Nita and Kit looked at each other, unnerved by the second part of the job 
description. Sreee moaned. I hate the formalities, she said in a long unhappy 
whistle. Im too young to be a Senior: Im only two! But with Aemhnuu gone, 
Im stuck with it! And were in trouble, the water people and the land people 
both, if we dont finish what Aemhnuu was starting when he died! She huffed 
out a long breath. Im just a calf; why did I get stuck with this? . . . 
Kit sighed too, and Nita made a face at nothing in particular. On their first 
job, she and Kit had said something similar, about a hundred times. Ill help, 
she said, and Me too, said Kit, in about the same breath.
But youre tired, Nita said, and were tired, and its late, we ought to go 
home . . . 
Come tomorrow, then, and Ill fill you in. Are you living on the Barrier?
Nita didnt recognize the name. Over there, Kit said, pointing across the 
water at Tiana Beach. Where the lights are.
By the old oyster beds, Sreee said. Can you go out swimming a couple hours 
after the suns high? Ill meet you and well go where we can talk.
Uh, Kit said, if the sharks are still around
Out on the water there was a splash of spray as a silvery form leaped, 
chattering shrilly, and hit the water again. They wont be, Sreee said, 
sounding merry for the first time. Hotshot and his people are one of the breeds 
the sharks hate worst; when there are enough of them around, few sharks would 
dare come into the area. Hotshot will be calling more of his people in tonight 
and tomorrowthats part of the work Im doing.
Okay, Nita said. But what about you? Youre stuck here.
Wake up! Kit shouted playfully in Nitas ear, nudging her to look down at the 
sandbar. She found herself standing ankle-deep in salt water. Tides coming in. 
Shell be floated off here in no time.
Oh. Well then . . .  Nita opened her book, found the word to kill the 
wizards-wall spell, and said it. Then she looked up at Sreee. Are you sure 
youre gonna be all right?
Sreee looked mildly at her from one huge eye. Well find out tomorrow, she 
said. Daistiho.
Dai, Nita and Kit said, and walked slowly off the sandbar, across the water, 
and toward the lights of home.









A Song of Choice
Nita got up late, and was still yawning and scrubbing her eyes even after shed 
washed and dressed and was well into her second bowl of cereal. Her mother, 
walking around the kitchen in her bathrobe and watering the plants that hung all 
over, looked at Nita curiously.
Neets, were you reading under the covers again last night?
No, Mom. Nita started to eat faster.
Her mother watered another plant, then headed for the sink. On the way, she put 
a hand against Nitas forehead. You feel okay? Not coming down with anything, 
are you?
No, Im fine. Nita made an annoyed face when her mothers back was turned. Her 
mom loved the beach, but at the same time was sure that there were hundreds of 
ways to get sick there: too much heat, too much cold, too much time in the 
water; splinters, rusty nails, tar . . . Nitas little sister Dairine had kicked 
off a tremendous family fight last week by insisting that the blueness of her 
lips after a prolonged swim was actually caused by a grape Popsicle.
Is Kit having a good time? her mother said.
Wow, yeah, he says its the best, Nita said. Which was true enough: Kit had 
never been at the beach for more than a day at a time before. Nita suspected 
that if he could, hed dig into the sand like a clam and not come out for 
months.
I just wanted to make sure. His dad called last night . . . wanted to see how 
his littlest was.
El Nio, Nita said, under her breath, grinning. It was what Kits family 
called him sometimes, a punboth the word for the baby and the name for a 
Pacific current that caused storms that could devastate whole countries. The 
name made Kit crazy, and Nita loved to use it on him.
Be careful he doesnt hear you, Nitas mom said mildly, or hell deck you 
again. How have you two been getting along?
Huh? Were fine. Kits great. Nita saw a slightly odd look come into her 
mothers eyes. For a boy, she added hurriedly.
Well, her mother said, be careful. And she took the watering can off into 
the living room.
Now what was that about? Nita thought. She finished her cornflakes at high 
speed, rinsed the bowl and spoon in the sink, and hurried out of the house to 
find Kit.
Halfway across the sparse sandy grass of the front yard, another voice spoke up. 
Aha, it said. The mystery lady.
Put a cork in it, Dairine, Nita said. Her sister was hanging upside down from 
the trapeze swing of the rusty swing set, her short red hair ruffling in the 
breeze. Dairine was a tiny stick of a thing and an all right younger sister, 
though (in Nitas estimation) much too smart for her own good. Right now 
entirely too much smart was showing in those sharp gray eyes. Nita tried not to 
react to it. Gonna fall down and bust your head open, she said. Probably lose 
what few brains you have all over the ground.
Dairine shook her head, causing herself to swing a little. Naaah, she said, 
but Id soonershe started pumping, so as to swing harderfall off the 
swingthan fall out the windowin the middle of the night!
Nita went first cold, then hot. She glanced at the windows to see if anyone was 
looking out. They werent. Did you tell? she hissed.
Idont tell anybodyanything, Dairine said, in time with her swinging. This 
was true enough. When Dairine had needed glasses, when shed started getting 
beaten up at school, and when she was exposed to German measles, nobody had 
heard about it from her.
Ylike him, huh? Dairine said.
Nita glared at Dairine, opened her mouth to start shouting, then remembered the 
open windows.
Yeah, I like him, Nita said, and turned red at having to make the admission. 
The problem was, there was no lying to Dairine. She always found out the truth 
sooner or later and made your life unbearable for having tried to hide it from 
her.
You messing around? Dairine said.
Dairiiiiiiiine! Nita said, quietly, but with murder in it. No, we are not 
messing around!
Okay. I just wondered. You going swimming?
No, Nita said, snapping the strap of her bathing suit very obviously at her 
sister, I thought Id go skiing. Wake up, lamebrain.
Dairine grinned at Nita upside down. Kit went west, she said.
Thanks, Nita said, and headed out of the yard. Tell Mom and Dad Ill be back 
for supper.
Be careful, Dairine called after Nita, in a perfect imitation of their mother. 
Nita made a face.
And watch out for sharks! Dairine added at the top of her lungs.
Oh, great, Nita said to herself, wondering if her mom or dad had heard. She 
took off at a dead run in case they had.
She found Kit waiting about a mile down the beach, playing fetch with Ponch to 
tire him out, as hed told her he was going to. Otherwise he gets crazy if I go 
away. This way hell just lie down and sack out. And sure enough, after some 
initial barking and dancing around Nita when she arrived, Ponch flopped panting 
on the sand beside them where they sat talking and finally rolled over on one 
side and began to snore.
They grinned at each other and headed out into the water. It was unnerving at 
first, to swim straight out into the ocean, past the breakers and the rollers, 
past the place where the bottom fell away, and to just keep going as if they 
never intended to come back. Nita had uncomfortable thoughts about undertow and 
how it might feel to drown. But just when she was at her twitchiest, she saw a 
long floppy fin tip up out of the water. Sreee was lolling there in the 
wavewash, her long pale barnacled belly upward.
The night before, when Sreee had been injured and immobile, it had been hard to 
tell much of anything about her. Now Nita was struck by the size of herSreee 
was at least forty feet from the tips of her flukes to her pointy nose. And last 
night she had been a wheezing hulk. Now she was all grace, floating and gliding 
and rolling like some absurd, fat, slim-winged birdfor her long swimming fins 
looked more like wings than anything else.
Did you sleep well? she sang at them, a weird cheerful crescendo like 
something out of a happy synthesizer. I slept wonderfully. And I ate well too. 
I think I may get back most of the weight I lost yesterday.
Kit looked at the healed place, treading water. What do you eat?
Krill, mostly. The littlest things that live in the water, like little 
shrimpBut some fish too. The blues are running, and the little ones are good. 
Of they have been until now . . .  She sighed, spraying water out her blowhole. 
Thats in the story I have to tell you. Come on, well go out to one of the 
Made Rocks.
They took hold of her dorsal fin, and she towed them. The Made Rock turned out 
to be an old square fishing platform about three miles south of Tiana Beach: 
wooden pilings topped by wooden slats covered with tarred canvas and with 
bland-faced seagulls. Most of the gulls immediately took out and began flying 
around and screaming about the humans sitting on their spot, despite Nitas and 
Kits polite apologies. Some of the other gulls felt less annoyed, especially 
after they found out the visitors were wizards. Later on, whenever Nita thought 
of her first real conversation with Sreee, what she remembered best were the 
two seagulls who insisted on sitting in her lap the whole time. They were heavy, 
and not housebroken.
I guess the best place to start, Sreee said when Nita and Kit were settled, 
is with what you already know, that theres been trouble for wizards on the 
land lately. The troubles been felt in the sea too. Out here weve been having 
quakes on the sea floor much more often than we should be having themsevere 
ones. And some other old problems have been getting worse. The dirt they throw 
into the water from the High and Dry, especially: theres more of it than ever
The High and Dry?
The place with all the high things on it.
Oh, Kit said. New York City. Manhattan, actually.
The water close to it is getting so foul, the fish cant breathe it for many 
thousands of lengths out. Those that can are mostly sick. And many more of the 
boats-that-eat-whales have been out here recently. The past few months, theres 
been a great slaughter
Nita frowned at the thought of other creatures suffering what Sreee had been 
through. She had heard all the stories about the hungry people in Japan, but at 
the moment she found herself thinking that there had to be something else to 
eat.
Things have not been good, Sreee said. I know less about the troubles on 
land, but the Sea tells us that the land wizards have been troubled of late, 
that there was some great strife of powers on the High and Dry. We saw the Moon 
go out one night
So did we, Kit said. There was fear in his eyes at the memory, and pride in 
his voice. We were in Manhattan when it happened.
We were part of it, Nita said. She still didnt know all of how she felt about 
what had happened. But she would never forget reading from the book that kept 
the world as it should be, the Book of Night with Moon, while around her and Kit 
the buildings of Manhattan wavered like a dream about to breakand beyond a 
barrier of trees brought to life, and battling statues, the personification of 
all darkness and fear, the Lone Power, fought to get at them and destroy them.
Sreee looked at them somberly from one eye. Its true then what Aemhnuu used 
to tell me, that there are no accidents. Youve met the Power that created death 
in the beginning and was cast out for it. All these thingsthe lost Moon, that 
night, and the earthquakes, and the fouled water, and the whale-eating 
shipstheyre all Its doing, one way or another.
Kit and Nita nodded. It took a defeat in that battle you two were in, Sreee 
said. Its angry, and the problems weve been having are symptoms of that 
anger. So we have to bind It, make It less harmful, as the first sea people 
bound It a long time ago. Then things will be quiet again for a while.
Bind it how? Nita said.
No, wait a minute, Kit said. You said something about the Sea telling you 
things
Sreee looked surprised for a moment. Oh, I forgot that you do it differently. 
You work your wizardry with the aid of those things you carry
Our books.
Right. The whales who are wizards get their wizardry from the Sea. The water 
speaks to you when youre ready, and offers you the Ordeal. Then if you pass it, 
the Heart of the Sea speaks whenever you need to hear it and tells you what you 
need to know.
Nita nodded. The events in that other Manhattan had been her Ordeal, and 
Kits; and after they passed it, their books had contained much more information 
than before. So, she said, bind the Lone Power how?
The way the first whale-wizards did, Sreee said. The story itself is the 
binding. Or rather, the storys a song: the Song of the Twelve. In the long form 
it takeswill takehours to sing.
Im glad I had breakfast, Kit muttered.
Sreee spouted good-naturedly. Nita wondered whether it was accidental that the 
wind turned at that exact moment, threw the spray straight at Kit, and soaked 
him to the skin. At any rate, Nita laughed.
I wont take quite that long, Sreee said. You know about the Great War of 
the Powers, at the beginning of everything; and how the Lone Power invented 
death and pain, and tried to impose them on the whole universe, and the other 
Powers wouldnt let It, and threw It out.
Even regular human beings have stories about it, Kit said. He took off his 
windbreaker and shook it out, mostly on Nita.
Im not surprised, Sreee said. Everything that lives and tells stories has 
this story in one form or another. Well. After that war in the Above and Beyond, 
the Lone Power spent a long while in untraveled barren universes, recouping Its 
strength. Then It came back to our native universe, looking for some quiet, 
out-of-the-way place to try out Its new inventions. Right then the only place 
vulnerable to It, because thinking life was very new here, was this world; and 
the only place thinking life existed as yet was the Sea. So the Lone One came 
here to trick the Sea into accepting Death. Its sort of death, anywaywhere all 
power and love are wasted into an endless darkness, lost forever.
Entropy, Nita said.
Yes. And any sea people It succeeded in tricking would be stuck with the death, 
the Great Death, forever. Now there was already a sort of death in the Sea, but 
only the kind where your body stops. Everyone knew it wasnt permanent, and it 
didnt hurt much; you might get eaten, but you would go on as part of someone 
else. No one was afraid of not being his own self anymoreI guess thats the 
simplest way of putting it. That calm way of life drove the Lone Power wild with 
hate, and It swore to attach fear and pain to it and make it a lot more 
interesting.
Sreee sighed. The whales job then was what it is now: to be masters and 
caretakers for the fish and the smaller sea people, the way you two-leggers are 
for the dry-land beasts. So naturally, the only wizards in the Sea were whales, 
just as humans were originally the only ones on land. That early on, there were 
only ten whale-wizards, all Seniors. Nihwinyii, they were called, the Lords of 
the Humors
Nita was puzzled. Its the old word for emotions, sort of, Kit said. Not like 
funny humor.
I know, Nita said, annoyed. She hadnt.
Sreee blew, laughing. The spray missed Kit this time. Those ten whales ruled 
the Sea, under the Powers, she said. If the Lone Power wanted to trick the Sea 
into the Great Death, It had to trick the Tenthen all the life they ruled would 
be stuck with the Great Death too. So the Lone One went to the Ten in disguise, 
pretending to be a stranger, a new whale sent to them so that they could decide 
under which of their Masteries it fell. And as each one questioned the Lone 
Power, the Stranger whale offered each of them the thing he wanted most, if he 
would only accept the Gift the Stranger would give him. And he showed them 
just enough of his power to prove that he could do it.
Uh-oh, Kit said softly. Ive heard that one before.
Apples and snakes, Nita said.
Yes. The pattern repeats. One after another, the Lone One tempted the Ten. The 
Sea was silent then and gave them no advicesome people say that the Powers 
wanted the Ten to make up their own minds. But however that might have been, 
three of the Ten took the Gift, and fell. Three of them were undecided. Three of 
them rejected the Gift. And the Lone Power needed a majority of the Lords to 
accept Death, or Its victory would only be partial.
Those were only nine Lords, though, Kit said.
Yes, and here the Tenth comes in: the Silent Lord, they called her. She was the 
youngest of them, and each of the other Nine tried to bring her around to his 
own way of thinking. The Lone One came to her too and tempted her as It had 
tempted the others. You know, though, that its the youngest wizard who has the 
most power, and where the other Lords were deceived, the Silent Lord wasnt. She 
realized what the Stranger was and what It was trying to do.
She was faced with a difficult choice. She knew that even if she rejected the 
Stranger, the fighting would only go on among the other Nine. Sooner or later 
they or their successors would accept the Gift and doom the whole Sea to the 
Great Death. But she also knew something else that the Sea had told her long 
before, and that others have found out since. If one knows death is comingany 
death, from the small ones to the Great oneand is willing to accept it fully, 
and experience it fully, then the death becomes something elsea passage, not an 
ending: not only for himself, but for others.
Sreees voice got very soft. So the Silent Lord did that, she said. Luck, or 
the Powers, brought one more creature into the singing, uninvited. It was the 
one fish over whom no mastery was ever giventhe Pale Slayer, whom we call the 
Master-Shark. The Silent Lord decided to accept the Gift that the Stranger 
offered herand then, to transform the Gift and make it safe, she gave herself 
up willingly to die. She dived into a stand of razor coral; and the Master-Shark 
smelled her blood in the water, and . . . well. Sreee blew. He accepted the 
sacrifice.
Nita and Kit looked at each other.
When that happened, the Lone Power went wild with rage, Sreee said. But that 
did It no good. The Silent Ones sacrifice turned death loose in some of the 
Sea, but not all; and even where it did turn up, death was much weaker than it 
would have been otherwise. To this day there are fish and whales that have 
astonishing lifespans, and some that never seem to die of natural causes. The 
sharks, for instance: some people say thats a result of the Master-Sharks 
acceptance of the Silent Lords sacrifice. But the important thing is that the 
Lone Power had put a lot of Its strength into Its death-wizardry. It had become 
death Itself, in a way. And when death was weakened, so was the Lone One. It 
fell to the sea floor, and it opened for It and closed on It afterward. And 
there It lies bound.
 Bound? Kit said. Sreee, when we had our last run-in with the Lone Power, 
It didnt seem very bound to us. It had a whole alternate universe of Its own, 
and when It came into this one to get us, It went around tearing things up any 
way It liked. If It is bound, how could It have also been running loose in 
Manhattan?
Sreee blew, a sober sound. Its the usual confusion about time, she said. 
All the great Powers exist outside it, and all we usually see of Them are the 
places and moments where and when They dip into the timeflow were inhabiting. 
This world has always been an annoyance to the Lone One. It gets frustrated here 
a lotso It visits often, in many forms. From inside our timeflow, it can look 
as if the Lone Power is bound in one place-time and free in another . . . and 
both appearances are true. Sreee rolled and stretched in the water. 
Meanwhile, outside the timeflow, where things dont have to happen one after 
another, the Lone One is eternally rebelling and eternally defeated
We gave It a chance to do something else, when we fought last, Nita said. We 
offered It the option to stop being a dark power
And it worked, Sreee said, sounding very pleased. Didnt you know? Its also 
eternally redeemed. But meantime we have to keep fighting the battles, even 
though the wars decided. The Lone Ones going to take a long while to complete 
Its choice, and if we get lazy or sloppy about handling Its thrashing around, a 
lot of people are going to die.
The sea floor, Nita said, has been shaken up a lot lately.
Thats one symptom that tells us the Twelve Song needs to be reenacted, Sreee 
said. We do the Song at intervals anyway, to make sure the storys never 
forgotten. But when the Lone Power gets troublesomeas It seems to be doing 
nowwe reenact the Song, and bind It quiet again.
Where do you do this stuff? Kit said.
Down the coast a ways, Sreee said, off the edge of the plateau, in the Great 
Deep past the Gates of the Sea. Aemhnuu was getting ready to call the Ten 
together for a Song in three days or so. He was training me for the Singers 
partbefore they blew him in two pieces and boiled him down for oil.
Her song went bitter, acquiring a rasp that hurt Nitas ears. Now Im stuck 
handling it all myself. Its not easy: You have to pick each whale wizard 
carefully for each part. I dont know who he had in mind to do what. Now I have 
to work it out myselfand I need help, from wizards who can handle trouble if it 
comes up. She looked up at them. You two can obviously manage that. And the 
Ten will listen to you, theyll respect you, after what you went through up in 
the High and Dry. Youve fought the Lone Power yourselves and gotten off
It was luck, Kit muttered. Nita elbowed him.
Singing, huh, Nita said, smiling slightly. I dont have much of a singing 
voice. Maybe Id better take the Silent Ones part.
Sreee looked at Nita in amazement. Would you?
Why not?
Not me, Kit said. Im even worse than she is. But Ill come along for the 
ride. The swim, I mean.
Sreee looked from Kit to Nita. You two are enough to make me doubt all the 
stories Ive heard about humans, she said. HNiit, best check that book 
thing and make sure this is something youre suited for. The temperaments of the 
singers have to match the parts they singbut I think this might suit you. And 
the original Silent Lord was a humpback. The shapechange would come easily to 
you, since weve shared blood
Wait a minute! Shapechange? Nita cried. You mean me be a whale?
Kit laughed. Why not, Neets? You have been putting on a little weight lately . 
. . 
She elbowed him again, harder. Oh, youd shapechange too, Kit, Sreee said. 
We couldnt take you down in the Great Deeps otherwiseLook, you two, theres 
too much to tell, and some of its going to have to be handled as we go along. 
Weve got three days to get everyone together for the Song, so that it happens 
when the Moons round. Otherwise it wont keep the sea bottom quiet
Kit looked suddenly at Nita. Did you see that thing on the news the other 
night? About the volcano?
The what?
There was some scientist on. He said that hot-water vents had been opening up 
all of a sudden off the Continental Shelf. And he said that if those little 
tremors weve been having keep getting worse, it could open the bottom right up 
and thered be a volcano. The least itd do would be to boil the water for 
miles. But it could also break Long Island in two. The beaches would go right 
under water. And Manhattan skyscrapers arent built for earthquakes. Kit was 
quiet for a moment, then said, The rocks remembered. Thats why they were upset 
. . . 
Nita wasnt thinking about rocks, or Manhattan. She was thinking that her folks 
were planning to be there for another week and a half at leastand she saw a 
very clear picture of a tidal wave of dirty, boiling water crashing down on the 
beach house and smashing it to driftwood.
When should we start, Sreee? she said.
Dawn tomorrow. Theres little time to waste. Hotshot will be going with 
ushell be singing the Fourth Lord, the Wanderer, in the Song.
Dawn Nita chewed her lip. Could it be a little later? Weve got to have 
breakfast with my parents or theyll freak out.
Parents? Sreee looked from Nita to Kit in shock. Youre still calves, is 
that what youre telling me? And you went outworld into a Dark Place and came 
back! Id thought you were much older
We wished we were, Nita said under her breath.
Oh, well. No matter. Three hours after dawn be all right? The same place? Good 
enough. Let me take you back. I have something to fetch so that you can swim 
with us, Kit. And, look She gazed at them for some time from that small, 
worried, gentle eye; but longer at Nita. Thank you, she said. Thank you very 
much indeed.
Think nothing of it, Kit said grandly, slipping into the water and patting 
Sreee on one big ribbed flank.
Nita slid into the water, took hold of Sreees dorsal fin, and thought 
something of it all the way home.









Seniors Song
The alarm clock went off right above Nitas head, a painful blasting buzz like a 
dentists drill. Aaagh, she said, reluctantly putting one arm out from under 
the covers and fumbling around on the bedside table for the noisy thing.
It went quiet without her having touched it. Nita squinted up through the 
morning brightness and found herself looking at Dairine. Her little sister was 
standing by the bedside table with the alarm clock in her hands, wearing Star 
Wars pajamas and an annoyed look.
And where are we going at six in the morning? Dairine said, too sweetly.
We are not going anywhere, Nita said, swinging herself out of bed with a 
groan. Go play with your Barbie dolls, Einstein.
Only if you give them back, Dairine said, unperturbed. Anyway, there are 
better things to play with. Kit, for example
Dairine, youre pushing it. Nita stood up, rubbed her eyes until they started 
working properly, and then pulled a dresser drawer open and began pawing through 
it for a T-shirt.
Whatre you doing, thengetting up so early all the time, staying out late? You 
think Mom and Dad arent noticing?Oh, dont wear that, Dairine said at the 
sight of Nitas favorite sweatshirt. It featured numerous holes made by Ponchs 
teeth and the words watch this space for further developments. Oh, really, 
Neets, dont, its incredibly tacky
That sounds real weird, Nita said, coming from someone with little Yodas all 
over her pajamas.
Oh, stuff it, Nita, Dairine said. Nita turned her head and smiled, thinking 
that Dairine had become easier to tease since shed decided to be a Jedi Knight 
when she grew up. Still, Nita went easy on her sister. It wasnt fair for a 
wizard to make fun of someone who wanted to do magic, of whatever brand.
Same to you, runt. Whenre Mom and Dad getting up, did they say?
Theyre up now.
What for?
Theyre going fishing. Were going with them.
Nita blanched. Oh, no! Dair, I cant
Dairine cocked her head at Nita. They wanted to surprise us.
They did, Nita said, in shock. I cant go
Got a hot date, huh?
Dairine! I told you
Where were you two going?
Swimming. That was the truth.
Neets, you can swim any time, Dairine said, imitating their mothers tone of 
voice. Nita zipped up her jeans and sat down on the bed with a thump. What were 
you gonna be doing, anyway?
I told you, swimming! Nita got up, went to the window, and looked out, 
thinking of Sreee and the summoning and the Song of the Twelve and the rest of 
the business of being on active status, which was now looking ridiculously 
complicated. And it looked so simple yesterday . . . 
You could tell them something
Nita made a face at that. She had recently come to dislike lying to her parents. 
For one thing, she valued their trust. For another, a wizard, whose business is 
making things happen by the power of the spoken word, learns early on not to say 
things out loud that arent true or that he doesnt want to happen.
Sure, she said in bitter sarcasm. Why dont I just tell them that were on a 
secret mission? Or that were busy saving Long Island and the greater 
metropolitan area from a fate worse than death? Or maybe I could tell them that 
Kit and I have an appointment to go out and get turned into whales, how about 
that?
Even without turning around, Nita could feel her sister staring at her back. 
Finally the quiet made Nita twitchy. She turned around, but Dairine was already 
heading out of the room. Go on and eat, Dairine said quietly, over her 
shoulder. Sound happy. And she was gone.
Under her breath, Nita said a word her father would have frowned at, and then 
sighed and headed for breakfast, plastering onto her face the most sincere smile 
she could manage. At first it felt hopelessly unnatural, but in a few seconds it 
was beginning to stick. At the dining-room door, where her father came around 
the corner from the kitchen and nearly ran her over, Nita took one look at 
himin his faded lumberjack shirt and his hat stuck full of fish-hooksand 
wondered why she had ever been worried about getting out of the fishing trip. It 
was going to be all right.
Her dad looked surprised. Oh! Youre up. Did Dairine
She told me, Nita said. Is there time to eat something?
Sure. I guess she told Kit too thenI just looked in his room, but he wasnt 
there. The bed was made; I guess hes ready
Nita cheerfully allowed her father to draw his own conclusions, especially since 
they were the wrong ones. Hes probably down at the beach killing time, she 
said. Ill go get him after I eat.
She made a hurried commando raid on the kitchen and put the kettle on the stove 
for her mother, who was browsing through the science section of The New York 
Times and was ready for another cup of tea. Nitas mother looked up at her from 
the paper and said, Neets, wheres your sister? She hasnt had breakfast.
That was when her sister came thumping into the dining room. Nita saw her mom 
look at Dairine and develop a peculiar expression. Dari, her mother said, are 
you feeling all right?
Yeah! said Dairine in an offended tone. Nita turned in her chair to look at 
her. Her sister looked flushed, and she wasnt moving at her normal breakneck 
speed. Cmere, baby, Nitas mother said. Let me feel your forehead.
Mom!
Dairine, her father said.
Yeah, right. Dairine went over to her mother and had her forehead felt, 
rolling her eyes at the ceiling. Youre hot, sweetie, Nitas mother said in 
alarm. Harry, I told you she was in the water too long yesterday. Feel her.
Nitas dad looked slightly bored, but he checked Dairines forehead and then 
frowned. Well . . . 
No wells, Dari, I think youd better sit this one out.
Oh, Mom!
Cork it, little one. You can come fishing with us in a day or two. Nitas 
mother turned to her. Neets, will you stick around and keep an eye on your 
sister?
Mom, I dont need a babysitter!
Enough, Dairine, her mom said. Up to bed with you. Nita, well take you and 
Kit with us the next time; but your dad really wants to get out today.
Its okay, Mom, Nita said, dropping what was left of the smile (though it now 
really wanted to stay on). Ill keep an eye on the runt.
Dont call me a runt!
Dairine, her father said again. Nitas little sister made a face and left, 
again at half the usual speed.
As soon as she could, Nita slipped into Dairines room. Her sister was lying on 
top of the bed, reading her way through a pile of X-Men comics; she looked 
flushed. Not bad, huh? she said in a low voice as Nita came in.
How did you do that? Nita whispered.
I used the Force, Dairine said, flashing a wicked look at Nita.
Dari! Spill it!
I turned Dads electric blanket up high and spent a few minutes under it. Then 
I drank about a quart of hot water to make sure I stayed too warm. Dairine 
turned a page in her comic book, looking blas about the whole thing. Mom did 
the rest.
Nita shook her head in admiration. Runt, I owe you one.
Dairine looked up from her comic at Nita. Yeah, Dairine said, you do.
Nita felt a chill. Right, she said. Ill hang out here till they leave. Then 
I have to find Kit
He went down to the general store just before you got up, Dairine said. I 
think he was going to call somebody.
Right, Nita said again.
There was the briefest pause. Then: Whales, huh? Dairine said, very softly.
Nita got out of there in a great hurry.
The sign on top of the building merely said, in big, square, black letters, 
tiana beach.  Tiana Beach what? people typically said, and it was a fair 
question. From a distance there was no telling what the place was, except a 
one-story structure with peeling white paint.
The building stood off the main road, at the end of a spur road that ran down to 
the water. On one side of it was its small parking lot, a black patch of 
heat-heaved asphalt always littered with pieces of clamshells, which the gulls 
liked to drop and crack open there. On the other side was a dock for people who 
came shopping in their boats.
The dock was in superb repair. The store was less so. Its large multipaned front 
windows, for example, were clean enough outside, but inside they were either 
covered by stacked-up boxes or with grime; nothing was visible through them 
except spastically flashing old neon signs that said Pabst Blue Ribbon or 
Cerveza BUDWEISER. Beachgrass and aggressive weeds grew next to (and in 
places, through) the buildings cracked concrete stepsThe rough little U.S. 
Post Office sign above the front door had a sparrows nest behind it.
Nita headed for the open door. It was always open, whether Mr. Friedman the 
storekeeper was there or not; On the off chance, as Mr. Friedman usually said, 
that someone might need something at three in the morning . . . or the 
afternoon . . . 
Nita walked into the dark, brown-smelling store, past the haphazard shelves of 
canned goods and cereal and the racks of plastic earthworms and nylon 
surf-casting line. By the cereal and the crackers, she met the reason that Mr. 
Friedmans store was safe day and night. The reasons name was Dog: a whitish, 
curlyish, terrierish mutt, with eyes like something out of Disney and teeth like 
something out of Transylvania. Dog could smell attempted theft for miles; and 
when not biting people in the line of business, he would do it on his own time, 
for no reason whateverperhaps just to keep his fangs in.
Hi, Dog, Nita said, being careful not to get too close.
Dog showed Nita his teeth. Go chew dry bones, he said in a growl.
Same to you, Nita said pleasantly, and made a wide detour around him, heading 
for the phone booth in the rear of the store.
Right, Kit was saying, his voice slightly muffled by being in the booth. 
Something about The Gates of The Sea. I tried looking in the manual, but all 
I could find was one of those restricted notices and a footnote that said to 
see the local Senior for more details
Kit looked up, saw Nita coming, and pointed at the phone, mouthing the words 
Tom and Carl. She nodded and squeezed into the booth with him; Kit tipped the 
hearing part of the receiver toward her, and they put their heads together. Hi, 
its Nita
Well, hi there yourself, Tom Swales voice came back. He would doubtless have 
gone on with more of the same if someone else, farther away from his end of the 
line, hadnt begun screaming HELLOOOOOOO! HELLO! in a creaky, high-pitched 
voice that sounded as if Tom were keeping his insane grandmother chained up in 
the living room. This, Nita knew, was Tom and Carls intractable macaw Machu 
Picchu, or Peach for short. Wizards pets tended to get a bit strange as their 
masters grew more adept in wizardry, but Peach was stranger than most, and more 
trying. Even a pair of Senior wizards must have wondered what to do with a 
creature that would at one moment deliver the evening news a day early, in a 
flawless imitation of any major newscaster you pleased, and then a second later 
start ripping up the couch for the fun of it.
Cut that out! Nita heard another voice saying in the background, one with a 
more New Yorkish sound to it: That was Carl. Look out!Shes on the stove. Get 
heroh, Lord. There go the eggs. You little cannibal!
Its business as usual around here, as you can tell, Tom said. Not where you 
are, though, to judge from how early Kit called . . . and from what he tells me. 
Kit, hang on a minute: Carls getting the information released for you. 
Evidently the Powers That Be dont want it distributed without a Seniors 
supervision. The area must be sensitive right now.
Nita made small talk with Tom for a few minutes while, in the background, Peach 
screamed, and Annie and Monty the sheepdogs barked irritably at the macaw, who 
was shouting Bad dog! Bad dog! Nonono! at themor possibly at Carl. Nita could 
imagine the scene very wellthe bright airy house full of plants and animals, a 
very ordinary-looking place as far as the neighbors were concerned. Except that 
Tom spent his days doing research and development on complex spells and 
incantations for other wizards, and then used some of the things he discovered 
to make a living as a writer on the side. And Carl, who sold commercial time for 
a flagship station of one of the major television networks, might also make a 
deal to sell you a more unusual kind of timesay, a piece of last Thursday. The 
two of them were living proof that it was possible to live in the workaday world 
and function as wizards at the same time. Nita was very glad to know them.
The links busy, she heard Carl saying, at some distance from the phone. Oh, 
never mind, there it goes. Look, he said, apparently to one of his own 
advanced-level manuals, we need an intervention authorization for an offshore 
areayeah, thats right. Heres the numbers
Kit had his manual open to the spot where hed found the notification. Nita 
looked over his shoulder and watched the box that said restricted information 
suddenly blink out, replaced by the words see chart page 1096. Got it? Tom 
said.
Almost. Kit turned pages. Nita looked over his shoulder and found herself 
looking at a map of the East Coast, from Nova Scotia to Virginia. But the coast 
itself was squeezed far over on the left-hand side, and individual cities and 
states were only sketchily indicated. The map was primarily concerned with the 
ocean.
Okay, Ive got it in my book too, Tom said. All those lines in the middle of 
the water are contour lines, indicating the depth of the sea bottom. You can see 
that there arent many lines within about a hundred miles of Long Island. The 
bottom isnt much deeper than a hundred feet within that distance. But thenyou 
see a lot of contour lines packed closely together? Thats the edge of the 
Continental Shelf. Think of it as a cliff, or a mesa, with the North American 
continent sitting on top of it. Then theres a steep dropthe cliff is just a 
shade less than a mile high
Or deep, Nita said.
Whichever. About a five thousand foot drop; not straight downit slopes a 
bitbut straight enough. Then the sea bottom keeps on sloping eastward and 
downward. It doesnt slope as fast as before, but it goes deepsome fifteen 
thousand feet down; and it gets deeper yet farther out. See where it says Sohm 
Abyssal Plain to the southeast of the Island, about six or seven hundred miles 
out?
It has the Crushing Dark underneath that on our map, Nita said. Is that the 
whales name for it?
Right. That area is more like seventeen, eighteen thousand feet down.
I bet its cold down there, Kit muttered.
Probably. Let me know when you get back, Tom said, because thats where 
youre going.
Nita and Kit looked at each other in shock. But I thought even submarines 
couldnt go down that far, Nita said.
They cant. Neither can most whales, normallybut it helps to be a wizard, Tom 
said. Look, dont panic yet
Go ahead! Panic! screamed Picchu from somewhere in the background. Do it now 
and avoid the June rush! Fear death by water!
Bird, Carls voice said, also in the background, youre honing for a punch in 
the beak.
Violence! You want violence, Ill give you violence! No quarter asked or given! 
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Dont give up the AWWWK!
Thanks, Carl, Tom said, as silence fell. Where were we? Oh, right. You wont 
just be going out there and diving straight down. Theres a specific approach to 
the Plain. Look back closer to the Island, and youll see some contours drawn in 
dotted lines
Hudson Channel, Nita said.
Right. Thats the old bed of the Hudson River - where it used to run a hundred 
thousand years ago, while all that part of the Continental Shelf was still above 
water. That old riverbed leads farther southeast, to the edge of the Shelf, and 
right over it . . . there was quite a waterfall there once. See the notch in the 
Shelf?
Yeah. Hudson Canyon, it says
The Gates of the Sea, said Tom. Thats the biggest undersea canyon on the 
East Coast, and probably the oldest. It cuts right down through the Shelf. Those 
walls are at least two or three thousand feet high, sometimes four. Some of the 
canyons on the Moon and Mars could match the Hudsonbut none on Earth. And for 
the whale-wizards, the Gates have become the traditional approach to the Great 
Depths and the Crushing Dark.
The thought of canyon walls stretching above her almost a mile high gave chills. 
Shed seen a rockslide once, and it had made her uneasy about canyons in 
general. Is it safe? she said.
Of course not, Tom said, sounding cheerful. But the natural dangers are 
Carls department; hell fill you in on what precautions youll need to take, 
and I suspect the whales will too.
Natural dangers, Kit said. Meaning there are unnatural ones too.
In wizardry, when arent there? This much I can tell you, though. New York City 
has not been kind to that area. All kinds of things, even unexploded depth 
charges, have been dumped at the head of Hudson Canyon over the years. Most of 
them are marked on your map; but watch out for ones that arent. And the city 
has been dumping raw sewage into the Hudson Channel area for decades. Evidently 
in the old days, before people were too concerned about ecology, they thought 
the water was so deep that the dumping wouldnt do any harm. But it has. Quite a 
bit of the sea-bottom life in that area, especially the vegetation that the fish 
depend on for food, has been killed off entirely. Other species have been . . .  
changed. The manual will give you details. You wont like them.
Nita suspected that Tom was right. Anyway, he said, let me give you the rest 
of this. After you do the appropriate rituals, which the whales will coach you 
through, the access through the Gates of the Sea takes you down through Hudson 
Canyon to its bottom at the lower edge of the Shelf, and then deeper and farther 
southeastwhere the canyon turns into a valley that gets shallower and shallower 
as it goes. The valley ends just about where the Abyssal Plain begins, at seven 
hundred miles off the coast, and seventeen thousand feet down. Then you come to 
the mountain.
It was on the mapa tiny set of concentric circlesbut it had looked so 
peculiar, standing there all by itself in the middle of hundreds of miles of 
flatness, that Nita had doubted her judgment. The Seas Tooth, she said, 
reading from the map.
Caryn Peak, Tom agreed, giving the human name. Some of the oceanographers 
think its simply the westernmost peak of an undersea mountain range called the 
Kelvin Seamountstheyre off the eastward edge of your map. Some think 
otherwise; the geological history of that area is bizarre. But either way, the 
Peaks an important spot. And impressive; that one peak is six thousand feet 
high. It stands up sheer from the bottom, all alone, a third as high as 
Everest.
Five Empire State Buildings on top of each other, Kit said, awed. He liked 
tall things.
A very noticeable object, Tom said. Its functioned as landmark and meeting 
place and site of the whales great wizardries for not even they know how long. 
Certainly since the continents started drifting toward their present positions . 
. . at least a hundred thousand years ago. And it may have been used by . . . 
other sorts of wizards . . . even earlier than that. Theres some interesting 
history in that area, tangled up with whale-wizards and human ones too.
Toms voice grew sober. Some of the wizards who specialize in history say that 
humans only learned wizardry with the whales assistance . . . and even so, our 
brands of wizardry are different. Its an old, old branch of the Art they 
practice. Very beautiful. Very dangerous. And the area around Caryn Peak is 
saturated with residue from all the old wizardries that whales and others, have 
done there. That makes any spell you work there even more dangerous.
Sreee said that the danger level wouldnt go above moderate,  Kit said.
She said it shouldnt, Nita said.
Probably it wont, Tom said. He didnt sound convinced, though. You should 
bear in mind that the danger levels for humans and whales differ. Still, the 
book said she was about to be promoted to Advisory status, so she would know 
that. All the same . . . you two keep your eyes open. Watch what agreements you 
make. And if you make themkeep them, to the letter. From all indications, the 
Song of the Twelve is a lovely wizardry, and a powerful one . . . probably the 
most powerful magic done on a regular basis. The sources say it leaves its 
participants forever changed, for the better. At least, it does when it works. 
When it failswhich it has, once or twice in the pastit fails because some 
participant has broken the rules. And those times its failed . . . Well, all I 
can say is that Im glad I wasnt born yet. Be careful.
We will, Nita said. But what are the chances of something going wrong?
We could ask Peach, Kit said. It was a sensible suggestion; the bird, besides 
doing dramatic readings from Variety and TV Guide, could also predict the 
futurewhen it pleased her.
Good idea. Carl?
Here I am, Carl said, having picked up an extension phone. Now, Kit, about 
the monsters
Carl, put that on hold a moment. What does the Walter Cronkite of the bird 
world have to say about all this?
Ill find out.
Monsters? Nita mouthed at Kit. Listen, she said hurriedly to Tom, Im going 
to get off now. Ive got to be around the house when my folks leave, so they 
wont worry about my little sister.
Why? Is she sick?
No. But thats the problem. Tom, I dont know what to do about Dairine. I 
thought nonwizards werent supposed to notice magic most of the time. Im lot 
sure its working that way with Dairine. I think shes getting suspicious . . . 

Well talk. Meanwhile, Carlwhat does the bird say?
Oh, it is, it is a splendid thing/To be a pirate kiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Picchu was 
singing from somewhere in Toms living room.
Picchu
Whatsa matter? Dont you like Gilbert and Sullivan?
I told you we should never have let her watch Pirates on cable, Tom remarked 
to his partner.
Twice your peanut ration for the week, Carl said.
 . . . and I did the deed that all men shun, I shot the Albatross . . . 
Youre misquoting. How about no peanuts for the rest of the week
Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!
How about no food?
Uh There was a pause. It didnt take Nita much imagination to picture the 
look that Carl was giving Picchu. She was glad no one had ever looked at her 
that way.
Give.
Well. The bird paused again, a long pause, and when she spoke her voice 
sounded more sober than Nita could remember ever hearing it. Do what the night 
tells you. Dont be afraid to give yourself away. And read the small print 
before you sign!
Kit glanced at Nita with a quizzical expression; she shrugged. At the other end 
of the line, sounding exceptionally annoyed, Carl said to Picchu, You call that 
advice? We asked you for the odds!
Never ask me the odds, Picchu said promptly. I dont want to know. And 
neither do you, really. And that end of the conversation swiftly degenerated 
into more loud squawking, and the excited barking of dogs, and Carl making 
suggestions to Picchu that were at best rather rude.
Thanks, Nita said to Tom. Ill talk to you later. She squeezed out of the 
phone booth and past Dog, who growled at her as she went. Behind her, Kit said, 
in entirely too cheerful a tone of voice, So, Carl, what about the monsters?
Nita shook her head and went home.









The Blues Song
Giant man-eating clams, she said to Kit later, as they walked down an isolated 
stretch of Tiana Beach toward the surf. Giant squid
Krakens, Kit said.
I dont care what you call them, theyre still giant squid. And squid belong in 
sushi. I dont like this.
With luck, we wont see any of them, Carl says.
When have we ever had that kind of luck? . . . 
Besides, Neets, even you can outrun a clam . . . 
Cute, she said. They splashed into the water together, glancing up and down 
the beach as they did so. No one was in sight; and they had left Ponch up in the 
dunes, looking for a good place to bury the remains of his latest water rat. 
Look, Nita said, pointing.
Several hundred yards out, there was a glitter of spray, and sunlight glanced 
off the curved, upleaping body of a dolphin as if from an unsheathed, upheld 
sword. Wild, merry chattering, a dolphins laughter, came to them over the 
water, as the leaping shape came down with a splash and another shock of spray.
Hotshot, Kit said. Lets go.
They struck out through the breakers, into water that was again surprisigly 
warm. This time Nita wasnt able to enjoy it quite as much; the thought of 
undersea volcanoes was much with her. But even she couldnt be depressed for 
long when they paused to rest a moment, dog-paddling, and from behind came the 
nudge in the back she remembered, followed by a delphine laugh. You rotten 
thing, she said, turning to rub Hotshot affectionately. Im gonna get you for 
the first time you did that.
Youll have to catch me first, Hotshot said with a wicked chuckleas well he 
might have, for nothing in the Sea except perhaps a killer whale or one of the 
great sharks on the hunt was fast enough to catch a dolphin that didnt want to 
be caught.
Wheres Sreee? Kit said.
Out in deeper water, by the Made Rock. HNiits change could be done right 
here, but the kind of whale youre going to be would ground at this depth, Kit. 
Take hold; Ill tow you.
The fishing platform was once more covered with seagulls, which rose in a 
screaming cloud at the sight of Kit and Nita and Hotshot. Ill meet you later, 
out at sea, Hotshot said, leaving them beside a rusty metal ladder that reached 
down into the water.
Kit and Nita climbed up it and walked across the platform to where they could 
look down at Sreee, who was rolling in the wavewash.
Youre early, she whistled, putting her head up out of the water at them, and 
its just as well; Im running a bit late. I went a-Summoning last night, but I 
didnt find most of the peopleso well have to make a stop out by the 
Westernmost Shoals today. Sandy Hook, you call it.
New Jersey? Nita said, surprised. How are we going to get all the way out 
there and back before
Its going to be all right, hNiit, Sreee said. Time doesnt run the same 
under the waters as it does above them, so the Sea tells me. Besides, a humpback 
swims fast. And as for Kitwell, one change at a time. Itll come more easily 
for you, hNiit; youd best go first.
Wonderful, Nita thought. She had long been used to being picked last for things; 
having to go first for anything gave her the jitters. What do I have to do? 
she said.
Did you have a look at your book last night?
Uh-huh. I understand most of what were going to be doing; its fairly 
straightforward. But there was some business I didnt understand very well
The part about shapechanging.
Yeah. There wasnt that much in the book, Sreee. I think it might have been 
missing some information.
Why? What did it tell you?
Only a lot of stuff about the power of imagination. She was perplexed. 
Sreee, arent there supposed to be words or something? A specific spell, or 
materials we need?
For shapechange? You have everything you need. Words would only get in the 
way, said Sreee. Its all in the being. You pretend hard enough, and sooner 
or later what youre pretending to be, you are. The same as with other things.
Oh, cmon, Sreee, Kit said. If somebody who wasnt a wizard jumped into the 
water and pretended to be a whale, I dont care how hard they pretended, nothing 
would happen without wizardry
Exactly right, Kit. Wizardrynot one particular spell. The only reason it works 
for you is that you know wizardry works and are willing to have it so. Belief is 
no good either; belief as such always has doubt at the bottom. Its knowing that 
makes wizardry work. Only knowing can banish doubt, and while doubt remains, no 
spell, however powerful, will function properly. Wizardry does not live in the 
unwilling heart, the Sea says. Thered be lots more wizards if more people were 
able to give up doubtand belief. Like any other habit, though, theyre hard to 
break . . . 
It did take me a while to know for sure that it wasnt just a coincidence when 
the thing Id done a spell for actually happened as soon as Id done the spell, 
Kit admitted. I guess I see the problem.
Then youre ready for the solution, Sreee said. Past the change itself, the 
chief skill of unassisted shapechanging lies in not pretending so hard that you 
cant get back again. And as I said, hNiit, you have an advantage; weve shared 
blood. You have humpback in you nownot that our species are so far apart 
anyway; were all mammals together. I suppose the first thing youd better do is 
get in the water . . . 
Nita jumped in, bobbed to the surface again. And that stuff around you is going 
to have to go, Sreee added, looking with mild perplexity at Nitas bathing 
suit. Nita shot a quick look over her shoulder. For a moment, Kit just gazed 
innocently down at her, refusing to look awaythen he turned, rolling his eyes.
Nita skinned hurriedly out of the suit and called to Kit, While youre up 
there, put a warding spell on the platform. I dont want the gulls doing 
you-know-what all over my suit while were gone. Or yours. She flung the wet 
lump of bathing suit out of the water overhanded; it landed with a sodden 
thwack! at which Kit almost turned around again. Can we get on with this? Nita 
said to Sreee.
Surely. HNiit, are you all right? Sreee said.
Yes, fine, lets do it! Nita said.
So begin! said Sreee, and began singing to herself as she waited.
Nita paddled for a moment in the water, adjusting to not having her bathing suit 
on. Saying Begin to what? especially with Kit listening, seemed incredibly 
stupid, so she just hung there in the water for a few moments and considered 
being a whale. I dont have the faintest idea what this is supposed to feel 
like, she thought desperately. But I should be able to come up with something. I 
am a wizard, after all.
Nita got an idea. She took a deep breath, held it, and slowly began to relax 
into the sound. Her arms, as she let them go limp, no longer supported her; she 
sank, eyes open, into salty greenness. Its all right, she thought. The airs 
right above me if I need it. She hung weightless in the green, thinking of 
nothing in particular.
Down there in the water, Sreees note seemed louder, fuller; it vibrated 
against the ears, against the skin, inside the lungs, filling everything. And 
there was something familiar about it. Cousin, Sreee had called her; and We 
have blood in common, she had said. So it should be easy. A matter of 
remembering, not what you have been . . . but what, somewhere else, you are. 
Simply allow what is, somewhere else, to be what is hereand the change is done, 
effortless. Nita shut her eyes on the greenness and trusted to the wizardry 
inside her. That was it. Wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart. Not 
the kind of will that meant gritted teeth, resisting something else, like your 
own disbelief, that was trying to undermine younot willpowerbut the will 
that was desire, the will so strong that it couldnt be resisted by all the 
powers of normality . . . 
Where am I getting all this? Nita didnt know, didnt care. To be a whale, she 
thought. To float like this all the time, to be weightless, like an astronaut. 
But space is green, and wet, and warm, and there are voices in it, and things 
growing. Freedom: no walls, no doors. And the songs in the water . . . Her arms 
were feeling heavy, her legs felt odd when she kicked; but none of it mattered. 
Something was utterly right, something was working. Nita began to feel short of 
air. It hadnt worked all the way, that was all. She would get it right the next 
time. She stroked for the surface, broke it, opened her eyes to the light
and found it different. First and oddestso that Nita tried to shake her head 
in disbelief, and failed, since she suddenly had no neckthe world was split in 
two, as if with an axe. Trying to look straight ahead of her didnt work. The 
area in front of her had become a hazy uncertainty comprised of two sets of 
peripheral vision. And where the corners of her eyes should have been, she now 
had two perfectly clear sets of sideways vision that nonetheless felt like 
forward. She was seeing in colors she had no names for, and many she had names 
for were gone. Hands she still seemed to have, but her fingers hung down oddly 
long and heavy, her elbows were glued to her sides, and her sides themselves 
went on for what seemed years. Her legs were gone; a tail and graceful flukes 
were all she had left. Her nose seemed to be on the top of her head, and her 
mouth somewhere south of her chin; and she resolved to ask Sreee, well out of 
Kits hearing, what had happened to some other parts of her. Sreee, Nita 
said, and was amazed to hear it come out of the middle of her head, in a whistle 
instead of words, it was easy!
Come on, hNiit, Sreee said. Youre well along in wizardry at this point; 
you should know by now that its not the magic thats excitingits what you do 
with it afterward.
More amazement yet. Nita wanted to simply roll over and lie back in the water, 
marvelling at the sheer richness of the sound of Sreees words. She had done 
the usual experiments in school that proved water was a more efficient conductor 
of sound than air. But she hadnt dreamed of what that effect would be like when 
one was a whale, submerged in the conducting medium and wearing a hundred square 
feet of skin that was a more effective hearing organ than any human ear. 
Suddenly sound was a thing that stroked the body, sensuous as a touch, 
indistinguishable from the liquid one swam in.
More, Nita could hear echoes coming back from what she and Sreee had said to 
each other; and the returning sound told her, with astonishing precision, the 
size and position of everything in the arearocks on the bottom, weed three 
hundred meters away, schools of fish. She didnt need to see them. She could 
feel their textures on her skin as if they touched her; yet she could also 
distinctly perceive their distance from her, more accurately than she could have 
told it with mere sight. Fascinated, she swam a couple of circles around the 
platform, making random noises and getting the feel of the terrain.
I dont believe it, someone said above Nita, in a curious, flat voice with no 
echoes about it. Is that how we sound? Nita thought, and surfaced to look at Kit 
out of first one eye, then the other. He looked no different from the way he 
usually did, but something about him struck Nita as utterly hilarious, though at 
first she couldnt figure out what it was. Then it occurred to her. He had legs.
Youre next, Kit, Sreee said. Get in the water. Nita held her head out of 
water and stared at Kit for a moment. He didnt say anything, and after a few 
seconds of watching him get so red she could see it through his sunburn, Nita 
submerged, laughing like anythinga sound exactly like oatmeal boiling hard.
Nita felt the splash of his jump all over her. Then Kit was paddling in the 
water beside her, looking at her curiously. Youve got barnacles, he said. 
Thats as may be, Kit, Sreee said, laughing herself. Look at what I brought 
for you.
Kit put his head under the water for a moment to see what she was talking about. 
For the first time, Nita noticed that Sreee was holding something delicately in 
her mouth, at the very tip-end of her jaw. If spiders lived in the Sea, what 
Sreee held might have been a fragment torn from one of their webs. It was a 
filmy, delicate, irregular meshwork, its strands knotted into a net some six 
feet square. The knotting was an illusion, as Nita found when she glided closer 
to it. Each knot was a round swelling or bulb where several threads joined. 
Flashes of green-white light rippled along the net whenever it moved, and all 
Nitas senses, those of whale and wizard alike, prickled with the electric 
feeling of a live spell, tangled in the mesh and impatient to be used.
You must be careful with this, Kit, Sreee said. This is a whalesark, and a 
rare thing. A sark can only be made when a whale dies, and the magic involved is 
considerable.
What is it? Kit said, when hed surfaced again.
Its a sort of shadow of a whales nervous system, made by wizardry. At the 
whales death, before the lifelightnings gone, a spell-constructed energy 
duplicate of the whales brain and nerves is made from the pattern laid down by 
the living nerves and brain. The duplicate then has an assisted shapechange 
spell woven into it. When the works done properly, contact with the sark is 
enough to change the wearer into whatever kind of whale the donor was.
Sreee tossed her head. Shimmering, the sark billowed fully open, like a curtain 
in the wind. This is a sperm-whalesark, like Aivaaan who donated it. He was a 
wizard who worked these waters several thousand full Moons ago, and something of 
a seer; so that when he died, instead of leaving himself wholly to the Sea, 
Aivaaan said that we should make a sark of him, because there would be some 
need. Come try it on for size, Kit.
Kit didnt move for a moment. Sreeeis whats his name, Aivaaan, in there? Am 
I going to be him, is that it?
Sreee looked surprised. No, how did you get that idea?
You said this was made from his brain, Nita said.
Oh. His under-brain, yesthe part of the brain that runs breathing and blood 
flow and such. As for the rest of Aivaaan, his mindI dont think so. Not that 
Im any too sure where mind is in a person. But you should still be Kit, by 
what the Sea tells me. Come on, times swimming.
What do I do with it?
Just put it around you and wrap it tight. Dont be afraid to handle it roughly. 
Its stronger than it looks. She let go of the sark. It floated in the water, 
undulating gently in the current. Kit took another breath, submerged, reached 
down, and drew the sark around him.
Get back, hNiit, Sreee said. Nita backfinned several times her own length 
away from Kit, not wanting to take her eyes off him. He was exhaling, slowly 
sinking feet-first, and with true Rodriguez insouciance he swirled the sark 
around him like Zorro putting on a new cape. Kits face grew surprised, though, 
as the cape continued the motion, swirling itself tighter and tighter around 
him, binding his arms to his sides.
Alarmed, Kit struggled, still sinking, bubbles rising from him as he went down. 
The struggling did him no good, and it suddenly became hard to see him as the 
wizardry in the whalesark came fully alive, and light danced around Kit and the 
sark. Nita had a last glimpse of Kits eyes going wide in panic as he and the 
whalesark became nothing more than a sinking, swirling storm of glitter.
Sreee! Nita said, getting alarmed.
With a sound like muffled thunder and a blow like a nearby lightning-strike, 
displaced water hit Nita and bowled her sideways and backward. She fluked madly, 
trying to regain her balance enough to tell what was going on. The water was 
full of stirred-up sand, tatters of weed, small confused fish darting in every 
direction. And a bulk, a massive form that had not been there before
Nita watched the great gray shape rise toward her and understood why Sreee had 
insisted on Kits change being in deep water. Her own size had surprised her at 
firstthough a humpback looks small and trim, even the littlest males tend to be 
fifty feet long. But Kit was twice that, easily. He did not have the 
torpedo-like grace of a humpback, but what he lacked in streamlining he made up 
in sheer mass. The sperm is the kind that most people think of when they hear 
the word whale, the kind made famous by most whaling movies. Nita realized that 
all her life she had mostly taken the whales shape for granted, not considering 
what it would actually be like up close to one.
But here came Kit, stroking slowly and uncertainly at first with that immense 
tail, and getting surer by the second; looking up at her with the tiny eyes set 
in the huge domed head, and with his jaw working a bit, exposing the terrible 
teeth that could crunch a whaling boat in two. Nita felt the size of him, the 
weight, and somehow the dangerand kept her movements slow and respectful. He 
was still Kitbut something had been added.
He glanced at Sreee and Nita, saying nothing, as he rose past them and broke 
surface to breathe. They followed. He spouted once or twice, apparently to get 
the feel of it, and then said to Sreee in a rather rueful tone of song, I wish 
youd warned me!
His voice ranged into a deeper register than a humpbacks and had a sharper 
sound to itmore clicks and buzzes. It was not entirely comfortable on the skin. 
I couldnt, Sreee said, or you might have fought it even harder than you 
did, and the change might have refused to take. That wouldve been trouble for 
us; if a whalesark once rejects a person, itll never work for him at all. After 
this itll be easier for you. Which in itself will make some problems. Right 
now, though, lets get going. Take a long breath; I want to get out of the bay 
without attracting too much attention.
They took breath together and dived deep, Sreee in the lead and swimming south 
by west, Nita and Kit following. The surroundingsthick, lazily waving kelp beds 
and colonies of bright polyps and anemones, stitched through with the brief 
silver flash of passing fishfascinated Nita. But she couldnt give the 
landscape, or seascape, her whole attention; she had other concerns. (Kit,) she 
tried to say in the Speechs silent form, for privacys sakethen found that it 
wasnt working; she wasnt getting the sort of mental echo that told her she 
was sending successfully. Probably it had something to do with the shapechange 
spell. Hey, she said aloud, you okay?
The question came out of her as such a long, mournful moan that Kit laugheda 
sound more like boiling lava than boiling oatmeal: huge hisses and bubblings 
mixed together. Now I am, he said, or I will be as soon as I can get used to 
this bit with the eyes
Yeah, its weird. But kind of nice too. Feeling things, instead of seeing them 
. . . 
Yeah. Even the voices have feelings. Sreees is kind of twitchy
Yeah. Youve got sharp edges
Youve got fur.
I do not!
Oh, yes you do. Its soft, your voice. Not like your usual one
Nita was unsure whether to take this as a compliment, so she let it lie. The 
moment had abruptly turned into one of those times when she had no idea just 
what to say to Kit, the sort of sudden silence that was acutely painful to Nita, 
though Kit never seemed to notice it at all. Nita couldnt think of anything to 
do about the problem, which was the worst part of the whole business. She wasnt 
about to mention the problem to her mom, and on this subject the wizards manual 
was hugely unhelpful.
The silence was well along toward becoming interminable when Sreee said, 
Thats the primary way we have for knowing one another, down here. We havent 
the sort of physical variations you havedifferences in head shape and so 
forthand even if we did, what good would a distinction be if you had to come 
right up to someone to make it? By voice, we can tell how far away a friend is, 
how hes feeling, practically what hes thinking. Though the closer a friend is 
to you, usually, the harder it is to tell whats on his mind with any accuracy.
Nita started to sing something, then caught herself back to silence. Is the 
change settling in, Kit? Sreee said.
Now it is. I had a weird feeling, though, like something besides me, my mind I 
meanlike something besides that was fighting the change. But its gone now.
Only for the moment, Sreee said. See, its the old rule: no wizardry without 
its price, or its dangers. Though the dangers are different for each of you, 
since you changed by different methods. As I said, hNiit, you have to beware 
pretending too hardthinking so much like a whale that you dont want to be a 
human being any more, or forget how. Wizards have been lost that way before, and 
theres no breaking the spell from outside; once you re stuck inside the 
change-shape, no one but you can break out again. If you start finding your own 
memories difficult to recall, its time to get out of the whaleshape, before it 
becomes you permanently.
Right, Nita said. She wasnt very worried. Being a humpback was delightful, 
but she had no desire to spend her life that way.
Your problems different, though, Kit. Your change is powered more by the spell 
resident in the whalesark than by anything youre doing yourself. And all the 
sarks done is confuse your own body into thinking its a whales body, for the 
time being. That confusion can be broken by several different kinds of 
distraction. The commonest is when your own mindwhich is stronger than the 
whale-mind left in the sarkstarts to override the instructions the whalesark is 
giving your body.
Huh?
Kit, Sreee said very gently, finning upward to avoid the weedy, barnacled 
wreck of a fishing boat, suppose we wereoh, say several hundred 
humpback-lengths down, in the Crushing Darkand suddenly your whale-body started 
trying to behave like a humans body. Human breathing rate, human pulse and 
thought and movement patterns, human response to pressures and the temperature 
of the water
Uh, Kit said, as the picture sank in.
So you see the problem. Spend too much time in the sark, and the part of your 
brain responsible for handling your breathing and so forth will begin to 
overpower the dead brain preserved in the sark. Your warning signs are nearly 
the opposite of hNiits. Language is the first thing to go. If you find 
yourself losing whalesong, you must surface and get out of the sark immediately. 
Ignore the warningThe best that can happen is that the whalesark will probably 
be so damaged it can never be used again. The worst thing She didnt say it. 
The worry in her voice was warning enough.
No one said much of anything for a while, as the three of them swam onward, 
south and west. The silence, uneasy at first, became less so as they went along. 
Sreee, to whom this area was as commonplace as Kits or Nitas home streets 
might have been, simply cruised along without any great interest in the 
surroundings. But Nita found the seascape endlessly fascinating, and suspected 
Kit did toohe was looking around him with the kind of fascination he rarely 
lent anything but old cars and his z-gauge train set.
Nita had rarely thought of what the seascape off the coast of the island would 
look like. From being at the beach she had a rather dull and sketchy picture of 
bare sand with a lot of water on top of it; shells buried in it, as they were on 
the beach, and there had to be weed beds; the seaweed washed up from somewhere. 
But all the nature movies had given her no idea of the richness of the place.
Coral, for example; it didnt come in the bright colors it did in tropical 
waters, but it was there in great quantityhuge groves and forests of it, the 
white or beige or yellow branches twisting and writhing together in tight-choked 
abstract patterns. And shells, yesbut the shells still had creatures inside 
them; Nita saw Kit start in amazement, then swim down for a closer look at a 
scallop shell that was hopping over the surface of a brain coral, going about 
its business.
They passed great patches of weed, kinds that Nita didnt know the names 
ofuntil they started coming to her as if she had always known them: 
red-bladder, kelp, agar, their long dark leaves or flat ribbons rippling as 
silkily in the offshore current as wheat in a landborn wind.
And the fish! Nita hadnt taken much notice of them at first; theyd all looked 
alike to herlittle and silver. But something had changed. They passed by a 
place where piles had been driven into the sea floor, close together, and great 
odd-shaped lumps of rusty metal had been dumped among them. Weed and coral had 
seized on the spot, wrapping the metal and the piles; and the little life that 
frequented such places, tiny shrimp and krill, swam everywhere. So did thousands 
of iridescent, silvery-indigo fish, ranging from fingerling size to about a foot 
long, eating the krill and fry as if there were no tomorrow. For some of the 
smallest of them there wasnt going to be one, Nita realized, as she also 
realized how hungry she was.
Blues! she said, one sharp happy note, then dived into the cloud of bluefish 
and krill, and helped herself to lunch.
It was a little while before shed had enough. It took Nita only a couple of 
minutes to get used to the way a humpback ateby straining krill and others of 
the tiniest ocean creatures, including the smallest of the blues, through the 
sievelike plates of whalebone, or baleen, in her jaws. The swift blue shapes 
that had been darting frantically in all directions were calming down already as 
Nita soared out of the whirling cloud of them and headed back over to Sreee and 
Kit, feeling slightly abashed and that an explanation of some kind was in order 
for the sudden interruption of their trip. However, there turned out to be no 
need for one. Sreee had stopped for a snack herself; and Nita realized that Kit 
had been snacking on fish ever since they left Tiana Beach. A sperm whale was, 
after all, one of the biggest of the toothed whales, and needed a lot of food 
to keep that great bulk working. Not that he did anything but swallow the fish 
whole when he caught them; a sperms terrible teeth are mostly for defense.
Kit paused only long enough to eat nine or ten of the biggest blues, then 
drifted down toward the pilings and the objects stacked sloppily among them. 
Neets, he said, will you take a look at this? Its cars!
She glided down beside him. Sure enough, the corroded fins of an old-model 
Cadillac were jutting out of a great mound of coral. Under the tangled whiteness 
of the coral, as if under a blanket of snow, she could make out the buried 
shapes of hoods or doors, or the wheels and axles of wrecks wedged on their 
sides and choked with weed. Fish, blues and others, darted in and out of broken 
car windows and crumpled hoods, while in several places crabs crouched in the 
shells of broken headlights.
Its a fish haven, Sreee said as she glided down beside them. The land 
people dump scrap metal on the bottom, and the plants and coral come and make a 
reef out of it. The fish come to eat the littler fish and krill that live in 
reefs; and then the boats come and catch the fish. And it works just as well for 
us as for the fishers who live on land. But weve got other business than dinner 
to attend to, at the moment. And hNiit, dont you think it would be a good idea 
if you surfaced now?
Nita and Kit looked at one another in shock, then started upward in a hurry, 
with Sreee following them at a more leisurely pace. How long have we been 
down? Kit whistled.
They surfaced in a rush, all three, and blew. Sreee looked at Kit in some 
puzzlement; the question apparently meant nothing to her. Long enough to need 
to come up again, she said.
Neets, look, Kit said in a rumbly groan, a sperm whales sound of surprise. 
She fluked hard once or twice, using her tail to lift herself out of the swell, 
and was surprised to see, standing up from the shore half a mile away, a tall 
brick tower with a pointed, weathered green-bronze top; a red light flashed at 
the towers peak. Jones Beach already! she said. Thats miles and miles from 
Tiana
Weve made good time, Sreee said, but weve a ways to go yet. Lets put our 
tails into it. I dont want to keep the Blue waiting.
They swam on. Even if the sight of the Jones Beach tower hadnt convinced Nita 
they were getting close to New York, she now found that the increasing noise of 
the environment would have tipped off the whale that shed become. Back at Tiana 
Beach, there had been only the single mournful hoot of the Shinnecock horn and 
the far-off sound of the various buoy bells. But this close to New York Harbor, 
the peaceful background hiss of the ocean soon turned into an incredible racket. 
Bells and horns and whistles and gongs shrieked and clunked and whanged in the 
water as they passed them; and no sooner was she out of range of one than 
another one assaulted her twitching skin.
Singing pained notes at one another, the three ran the gauntlet of sound. It got 
worse instead of better as they got closer to the harbor entrance, and to the 
banging and clanging was added the sound of persistent dull engine noise. Their 
course to Sandy Hook unfortunately crossed all three of the major approaches to 
New York Harbor. Along all three of them big boats came and went with an endless 
low throbbing, and small ones passed with a rattling, jarring buzz that reminded 
Nita of lawn mowers and chain saws.
The three surfaced often to get relief from the sound, until Sreee warned to 
dive deep for a long underwater run through one of the shipping lanes. Nita was 
beginning to feel the slow discomfort that was a whales experience of shortness 
of breath before Sreee headed for the surface again.
They broached and blew and looked around them. Not far away stood a huge, black, 
white-lettered structure on four steel pilings. A white building stood atop the 
deck, and beside it was a red tower with several flashing lights. A horn on the 
platform sang one noncommittal note, short-LONG! short-LONG! again and again.
Ambrose Light, Kit said.
The Speaking Tower, yes, Sreee said. After this itll be quieterthere are 
fewer markers between here and the Hook. And listen! Theres a friends voice.
Nita went down again to listen, and finally managed to sort out a dolphins 
distant chattering from the background racket. She surfaced again and floated 
with the others awhile, watching Hotshot come, glittering in the sun like a 
bright lance hurling itself through the swells. As he came abreast of the 
Lightship he leaped high out of the water in a spectacular arc and hit the 
surface with a noise that pierced even all the hooting and dinging going on.
For Seas sake, we hear you! Sreee sang at the top of her lungs, and then 
added in annoyed affection, Hes such a showoff.
But most dolphins are, Kit said, with a note to his song that made it plain he 
wasnt sure how he knew that.
True enough. Hes worse than some, though. No question that hes one of the 
best of the young wizards, and a talented singer. I love him dearly. But what 
this business of being Wanderer is going to do to his precious ego She broke 
off as Hotshot came within hearing range. Did you find him?
Hes feeding off the Hook, Hotshot said, arrowing through the water toward 
them and executing a couple of playful and utterly unnecessary barrel rolls as 
he came. Nita began to wonder if Sreee might be right about him. Hes worried 
about something, though he wouldnt tell me what it was. Said it was just as 
well you were coming; he wouldve come looking for you if you hadnt.
The four of them started swimming again immediately; that last sentence was by 
itself most startling news. Blue whales did not do things, Nita realized, in the 
sudden-memory way that meant the information was the Sea s gift. Blue whales 
were, that was all. Action was for other, swifter species . . .  except in the 
Song of the Twelve, where the Blue briefly became a power to be reckoned with. 
The Song, as Tom had warned, had a way of changing the ones who sang it . . .  
sometimes even before they started.
Are you ready for the Oath? Sreee was saying to the dolphin. Any last 
thoughts?
Only that this is going to be one more Song like any other, Hotshot said, 
even if it is your first time. Dont worry, Ree; if you have any problems, Ill 
help you out.
Nita privately thought that this was a little on the braggy side, coming from a 
junior wizard. The thought of talking to an Advisory or Senior that wayTom, 
sayshocked her. Nevertheless, she kept her mouth shut, for it seemed like 
Hotshot and Sreee had known one another for a while.
And how are our fry doing here? Hotshot said, swimming careless rings around 
Nita as he sang. Getting used to the fins all right?
Pretty much, Nita said. Hotshot did one last loop around her and then headed 
off in Kits direction. How about you, Minnoweeeech!
The huge jaw of a sperm whale abruptly opened right in front of Hotshot and 
closed before he could reactso that a moment later the dolphin was keeping 
quite still, while Kit held him with great delicacy in his huge fangs. Kits 
eyes looked angry, but the tone of his song was casual enough. Hotshot, he 
said, not stopping, just swimming along with casual deliberateness, Im 
probably singing too. And even if Im not, I am a sperm whale. Dont push your 
luck.
Hotshot said nothing. Kit swam a few more of his own lengths, then opened his 
mouth and let the dolphin loose. Hey, he said then, no hard feelings.
Of course not, Hotshot said in his usual recklessly merry voice. But Nita 
noticed that the dolphin made his reply from a safe distance. No problem, 
MiKit looked at Hotshot, silentah, Kit.
Minnow it is, Kit said, sounding casual himself. The four of them swam on; 
Nita dropped back a few lengths and put her head up beside Kits so that she 
could sing her quietest and not be heard too far off.
What was that all about?
Im not sure, Kit saidand now that only Nita was listening, he sounded a bit 
shaken. Sreee might have been right when she said this body doesnt actually 
have whats-his-faces
Aivaaan.
His memories, yeah. But the body has its own memories. What its like to be a 
sperm. What it means to be a sperm, I guess. You dont make fun of usof them. 
He paused, looking even more shaken. Neetsdont let me get lost!
Huh?
Me. I dont beat people up, thats not my style!
You didnt beat him up
No. I just did the ocean equivalent of pinning him up against the wall and 
scaring him a good one. Neets, I got into being a wizard because I wanted other 
people not to do that kind of stuff to me! And now
Ill keep an eye on you, Nita said, as they began to come up on another 
foghorn, a loud one. And there was something odd about that foghorn. Its note 
was incredibly deep. That has to be almost too deep for people to hear at all. 
What kind of
The note sounded again, and Nita shot Kit an amazed look as she felt the water 
all around her, and even the air in her lungs, vibrate in response to it. One 
note, the lowest note she could possibly imagine, held and held until a merely 
human singer would have collapsed trying to sing it . . . and then slurred 
slowly down through another note, and another, and holding on a last one of such 
profound depth that the water shook as if with thunder.
Sreee slowed her pace and answered the note in kind, the courtesy of one 
species of whale to another on meeting or partingsinging the same slow, somber 
sequence, several octaves higher. There was a pause; then she was answered with 
a humpbacks graceful fluting, but sung in a bottom-shaking baritone.
Come on, Sreee said, and dived.
The waters around Sandy Hook boil with krill in the spring and summer, so that 
by night the krills swarming luminescence defines every current and finstroke 
in a blaze of blue-green light; and by day the sun slants through the water, 
brown with millions of tiny bodies, as thickly as through the air in a dusty 
room. As the group dived, they began to make out a great dark shape in the 
cloudy water, moving so slowly it barely did more than drift. A last brown-red 
curtain of water parted before them in a swirl of current, and Nita found 
herself staring down at her first blue whale.
He was hardly even blue in this light, more a sort of slaty maroon; and the 
faint dapples on his sides were almost invisible. But his color was not what 
impressed Nita particularly. Neither was his size, though blues are the biggest 
of all whales; this one was perhaps a hundred twenty feet from nose to tail, and 
Kit, large for a sperm, was almost as big. That voice, that stately, leisurely, 
sober, sorrowful voice that sounded like a storm in mourning, that mattered to 
her; and so did the tiny eye, the size of a tennis ball, which looked at her 
from the immense bulk of the head. That eye was wise. There was understanding in 
it, and tolerance, and sadness: and most of all, great age.
Age was evident elsewhere too. The blues flukes were tattered and his steering 
fins showed scars and punctures, mementos of hungry sharks. Far down his tail, 
the broken stump of a harpoon protruded, the wood of it rotting, the metal 
crumbling with rust; yet though the tail moved slowly, it moved with strength. 
This creature had been through pain and danger in his long life, and though he 
had learned sadness, it had not made him bitter or weak.
Nita turned her attention back to the others, noticing that Kit was holding as 
still as she was, though at more of a distance; and even Hotshot was holding 
himself down to a slow glide. Eldest Blue about the Gates, Sreee sang, 
sounding more formal than Nita had ever heard her, I greet you.
Senior for the Gate-waters, said the Blue in his deep voice, with slow 
dignity, I greet you also.
Then youve heard, Aroooon.
I have heard that the Sea has taken Aemhnuu to its Heart, said the Blue, 
leaving you Senior in his place, and distressed at a time when theres distress 
enough. Leaving you also to organize a Twelve Song on very short notice.
Thats so.
Then you had best be about it, said the Blue, while time still remains for 
singing, and the bottom is still firm under us. First, though, tell me who comes 
here with you. Swift-Fire-In-The-Water I know already
Hotshot made the closest sound Nita could imagine to an embarrassed delphine 
cough. She smiled to herself; now she knew now what to tease him with if he got 
on her case.
Land wizards, Aroooon, Sreee said. HNiit Nita wasnt sure what to do, so 
she inclined the whole front of her body in the water in an approximation of a 
bow. and Kit. Kit followed Nitas suit. They were the ones who went into the 
Dark High-And-Dry after the Naming of Lights
To Nitas utter astonishment, Aroooon inclined his own body at them, 
additionally curling his flukes under him in what she abruptly recognized as a 
gesture of congratulation. Theyre calves, Sreee added, as if not wanting to 
leave anything out.
With all due respects, Senior, they are not, Aroooon said. They came back 
from that place. That is no calfs deed. Many who were older than they did not 
come back. You will sing with us then? What parts?
Im not sure yet, Kit said. Sreee needs to see if all her people come in.
The Silent Lord, Nita said.
Indeed. Aroooon looked at her for several long moments. You are a good age 
for it, he said. And you are learning the song
I got most of the details from my manual, she said. She had been up studying 
late the night before, though not as late as Kit had; a lot of exertion in salt 
air always left her drained, and shed put the book aside after several hours, 
to finish the fine details of her research later. The Sea will give me the 
rest, Sreee says, as we go along.
So it will. But I would have you be careful of how you enact your part, young 
hNiit. Aroooon drifted a bit closer to her, and that small, thoughtful eye 
regarded her carefully. There is old trouble, and old power, about you and your 
friend . . . as if blood hung in the water where you swim. The Lone Power 
apparently knows your names. It will not have forgotten the disservice you did 
It recently. You are greatly daring to draw Its attention to you again. Even the 
Heart of the SeaTimeheart as your kind calls itwill not be quiet for one who 
has freely attracted the Lone Ones enmity. Beware what you do. And do what you 
say; nowhere does the Lone Power enter in so readily as through the broken 
word.
Sir, Nita said, rather unnerved, Ill be careful.
That is well. Aroooon looked for a moment at Kit before speaking. It is a 
whalesark, is it not?
Yes, sir, Kit said in the same respectful tone Nita had heard him use on his 
father.
Have a care of it, then, should you find yourself in one of the more combative 
parts of the Song, said Aroooon. Sperm whales were fighters before they were 
singers, and though their songs are often the fairest in the sea, the old blood 
rises too often and chokes those songs off before they can be sung. Keep your 
mouth closed, you were best, and youll do well enough.
Thank you, sir.
Enough politeness, young wizard, Aroooon said, for the first time sounding 
slightly crusty. If size is honor, you have as much as I; and as for years, 
just keep breathing long enough and youll have as many of those as I do. 
Sreee, you travel more widely now than I, so I put you a question. Are the 
shakings in the depths worse these days than they ought to be at this time of 
year and tide of Moon?
Much worse, Eldest. That was why Aemhnuu originally wanted to convene the 
Song. And I dont know if the Song will be in time to save the fishing grounds 
to the east and north, around Nantucket and the Races. Hot water has been coming 
up close to there, farther east and south. The Shelf is changing.
Then let us get started, Aroooon said. I assume you came to ask me to call in 
some of the Celebrants, time being as limited as it is.
Yes, Aroooon. If you would. Though as the rite requires, I will be visiting the 
Pale One tomorrow, in company with hNiit and Kit. The meeting place for the 
Song is to be ten thousand lengths north-northeast of the shoals at Barnegat, 
three days from now. A fast rehearsalthen right down the channel and through 
the Gates of the Sea, to the place appointed.
Well enough. Now administer me the Celebrants Oath, Senior, so that I may 
lawfully call the others.
Very well. Sreee swam up close to Aroooon, so that she was looking him 
straight in one eye with one of hers; and when she began to sing, it was in a 
tone even more formal and careful than that in which she had greeted him
Aroooon uaoluor, those who gather to sing that Song that is the Seas shame 
and the Seas glory desire you to be of their company. Say, for my hearing, 
whether you consent to that Song.
I consent, the Blue said in notes so deep that coral cracked and fell on the 
rock shelves some yards away, and I will weave my voice and my will and my 
blood with that of those who sing, if there be need.
I ask the second time, that those with me, both of your Mastery and not, may 
hear. Do you consent to the Song?
I consent. And may my wizardry and my Mastery depart from me sooner than I 
abandon that other Mastery I shall undertake in the Songs celebration.
The third time, and the last, I ask, that the Sea, and the Heart of the Sea, 
shall hear. Do you consent to the Song?
Freely I consent, Aroooon sang with calm finality, and may I find no place in 
that Heart, but wander forever amid the broken and the lost, sooner than I shall 
refuse the Song or what it brings about for the good of those who live.
Then I accept you as Celebrant of the Song, as Blue, and as latest of a line of 
saviors, Sreee said. And though those who swim are swift to forget, the Sea 
forgets neither Song nor singer. She turned a bit, looking behind her at 
Hotshot. Might as well get all of you done at once, she said. Hotshot?
Right.
The dolphin went through the Oath much faster than Aroooon had, though his 
embarrassment at being referred to as Swift-Fire-In-The-Water was this time so 
acute that Nita actually turned away so she wouldnt have to look at him. As for 
the rest of the Oath, though, Hotshot recited it, as Nita had expected, with the 
mindless speed of a person who thinks he has other more important matters to 
attend to.
Sreee turned to Nita. We cant give Kit the Oath yet, she said. We dont 
know who hes going to be.
Cant you just give it to me and leave that part blank or something? Kit said 
eagerly. He loved ceremonies.
Kit!
No, Kit. HNiit, do you know the words?
The Sea does, she said, finding it true. Sreee had already begun the ritual 
questioning; Nita felt for the response, found it. I consent, and I will weave 
my voice and my will and my blood with that of those who sing, if there be 
need. It was astonishing, how much meaning could be packed into a few notes. 
And the music itself was fascinating; so somber, but with that odd thread of joy 
running through it. She threw herself into the grave joy of we final response.  
. . . And may I find no place in that Heart, but wander forever amid the broken 
and the lost, sooner than I shall refuse the Song or what it brings about for 
the good of those who live.
Then I accept you as Celebrant of the Song, and as Silent One, and as the latest 
in a line of saviors. And though those who swim are swift to forget, the Sea 
forgets neither Song nor singer. Sreee looked at Nita with an expression in 
those blue eyes of vast relief, so much like the one she had given her and Kit 
when theyd first agreed to help that Nita shuddered a little with the intensity 
of it, then smiled inside. It was nice to be needed.
That was well done, Aroooon said slowly. Now, Sreee, give me names so Ill 
know whom to call.
A few moments of singing ensued as Sreee recited the names of five whales Nita 
had never heard of. Her inner contact with the Sea, moments later, identified 
them all as wizards of various ratings, all impressive. Aroooon rumbled 
agreement. Good enough, he said. Best get out of the area so that I may begin 
Calling.
Right. Come on, Kit, hNiit. Till the Moons full, Aroooon
Till then.
They swam away through the darkening water. Sreee set the pace; it was a quick 
one. Why did we have to leave in such a hurry? Kit said.
There arent many wizardries more powerful than a Calling, Sreee said as she 
led them away. Hell weave those whales names into his spell, and if they 
agree to be part of the Song, the wizardry will lead them to the place 
appointed, at the proper time.
Just by singing their names?
Kit, thats plenty. Dont you pay attention when someone calls you by your 
name? Your name is part of you. Theres power in it, tied up with the way you 
secretly think of yourself, the truth of the way you are. Know what a persons 
name means to him, know who he feels he isand you have power over him. Thats 
what Aroooon is using.
That was a bit of information that started Nitas thoughts going in nervous 
circles. How do I think of myself? And does this mean that the people who know 
what I think can control me? Im not sure I like this . . . 
The first note rumbled through the water behind them, and Nita pulled up short, 
curling around in a quick turn. Careful, hNiit! Sreee sang, a soft, sharp 
note of warning. Nita backfinned, hovering in the water. Dont disturb his 
circle
Looking back, she wouldnt have dreamed of it. The water was growing darker by 
the second, and as a result the glow of the krill in it was now visiblea 
delicate, shimmery, indefinite blue-green light that filled the sea everywhere. 
The light grew brighter, moment by moment; but it was brighter still at the 
surface, where the waves slid and shifted against one another in a glowing, 
undulating ceiling. And brightest of all was the track left by Aroooons 
swimminga wake that burned like clouds of cool fire behind him with every slow 
stroke of his tail.
At the head of the wake, Aroooon himself traced the grand curves of his spell, 
sheathed in bubbles and cold light. One circle he completed, melding into itself 
as he sang that single compelling note; then he began another right angles to 
the first, and the water burned behind him, the current not taking the 
brilliance away. And the blues song seemed to get into the blood, into the 
bone, and would not be shaken
HNiit, Sreee said, we cant stay, you said you have to get back
Nita looked around her in shock. Sreee, when did it get so dark! My folks are 
gonna have a fit!
Didnt I mention that time didnt run the same way below the water as it does 
in the Above?
Yeah, but I thought Kit said, and then he broke off and said a very bad word 
in whale. No, I didnt think. I assumed that itd go slower
It goes faster, Nita moaned. Kit, how are we going to get anything done? 
Sreee, how long exactly is the Song going to take?
Not long, the humpback said, sounding a bit puzzled by her distress. A couple 
of lights, as its reckoned in the Above
Two days!
Were in trouble, Kit said.
Thats exactly what were in. Sreee, lets put our tails into it! Even if we 
were getting home right now, wed have some explaining to do.
She turned and swam in the direction where her sharpening whale-senses told her 
home was. It was going to be bad enough, having to climb out of this splendid, 
strong, graceful body and put her own back on again. But Dairine was waiting to 
give her the Spanish Inquisition when she got home. And her mother and father 
were going to give her more of those strange looks. Worse . . . there would be 
questions asked, she knew it. Her folks might even call Kits family if they got 
worried enoughand Kits dad, who was terminally protective of his son, might 
make Kit come home.
That thought was worst of all.
They went home. It was lucky for them that Nitas father was too tired from his 
fishingwhich had been successfulto make much noise about their lateness. Her 
mother was cleaning fish in the kitchen, too annoyed at the smelly work to much 
care about anything else. And as for Dairine, she was buried so deep in a copy 
of The Space Shuttle Operators Manual that all she did when Nita passed her 
room was glance up for a second, then dive back into her reading. Even so, there 
was no feeling of relief when Nita shut the door to her room and got under the 
covers; just an uneasy sense of something incomplete, something that was going 
to come up again later . . . and not in a way shed like.
Wizardry . . .  she muttered sourly, and fell asleep.









Eds Song
Neets, her mother said from where she stood at the sink, her back turned. Got 
a few minutes?
Nita looked up from her breakfast. Whats up?
Her mother was silent for a second, as if wondering how to broach whatever she 
had on her mind. You and Kitve been out a lot lately, she said at last. Dad 
and I hardly ever seem to see you.
I thought Dad said itd be fun to have Dairine and me out of his hair for a 
while, this vacation, said Nita.
Out of his hair, yes. Not out of his lifeWe worry about you two when youre 
out so much.
Mom, were fine.
Well, I wonder . . . What exactly are you two doing out there all day?
Oh, Mom! Nothing!
Her mother looked at her and put up one eyebrow in an excellent imitation of Mr. 
Spock.
Nita blushed a bit. It was one of those family jokes that you wish would go 
away, but never does; when Nita had been little and had said Nothing! she had 
usually been getting into incredible trouble. Mom, Nita said, sometimes when 
I say nothing, its really just nothing. We hang out, thats allWe . . . do 
stuff.
What kind of stuff?
Mom, what does it matter? Just stuff!
It matters, her mother said, if its adult kinds of stuff . . . instead of 
kid stuff.
Nita didnt say a word. There was no question that what she and Kit were doing 
were adult sorts of things.
Her mother took in Nitas silence, waiting for her daughter to break it.
I wont beat around the bush with you, Neets, she said at last. Are you and 
Kit getting . . . physically involved?
Nita looked at her mother in complete shock. Mom! she said in a despairing 
groan. You mean sex? No!
Well, her mother said slowly, that takes a bit of a load off my mind. There 
was a silence after the words. Nita was almost sure she could hear her mother 
thinking, if its true . . . 
The silence unnerved Nita more than the prospect of a talk on the facts of life 
ever could have. Mom, she said, if I were gonna do something like that, Id 
talk to you about it first. She blushed as she said it. She was embarrassed 
even to be talking about this to anybody, and she would have been embarrassed to 
talk to her mom about it too. Nevertheless, what shed said was the truth. 
Look, Mom, you know me, Im chicken. I always run and ask for advice before I 
do anything.
Even about this?
Especially about this!
Then what are you doing? her mother said, sounding just plain curious now. And 
there was another sound in her voicewistfulness. She was feeling left out of 
something. Sometimes you say to me playing, but I dont know what kids mean 
any more when they say that. When I was little, it was hopscotch, or Chinese 
jump rope, or games in the dirt with plastic animals. Now when I ask Dairine 
what shes doing, and she says playing, I go in and find shes doing quadratic 
equations . . . or using my hot-curlers on the neighbors red setter. I dont 
know what to expect.
Nita shrugged. Kit and I swim a lot, she said.
Where you wont get in trouble, I hope, her mother said.
Yeah, Nita said, grateful that her mother hadnt said anything about 
lifeguards or public beaches. This is a real pain, she thought. I have to talk 
to Tom and Carl about this. What do they do with their families? . . . But her 
mother was waiting for more explanation. She struggled to find some. We talk, 
we look at stuff. We explore . . . 
Nita shook her head, then, for it was hopeless. There was no explaining even the 
parts of her relationship with Kit that her mother could understand. Hes just 
my friend, Nita said finally. It was a horrible understatement, but she was 
getting hot with embarrassment at even having to think about this kind of thing. 
Mom, were okay, really.
I suppose you are, her mom said. Though I cant shake the feeling that there 
are things going on youre not telling me about. Nita, I trust you . . . but I 
still worry.
Nita just nodded. Can I go out now, Mom?
Sure. Just be back by the time it gets dark, she said, and Nita sighed and 
headed for the door. But there was no feeling of release, no sense of anything 
having been really settled, as there usually was when a family problem had been 
hashed out to everyones satisfaction. Nita knew her mother was going to be 
watching her. It griped her.
Theres no reason for it! she thought guiltily as she went down to the beach, 
running so she wouldnt be late for meeting Kit. But there was reason for it, 
she knew; and the guilt settled quietly into place inside her, where not all the 
seawater in the world would wash it out.
She found Kit far down the beach, standing on the end of the jetty with a 
rippling, near-invisible glitter clutched in one hand: the whalesark. Youre 
late, he said, scowling, as Nita climbed the jetty. Sreees waiting Then 
the scowl fell off his face when he saw her expression. You okay?
Yeah. But my moms getting suspicious. And we have to be back by dark or itll 
get worse.
Kit said something under his breath in Spanish.
Ay! Nita said back, a precise imitation of what either of Kits folks would 
have said if theyd heard him. He laughed.
Its okay, she said. Lets go.
Wed better leave our suits here, Kit said. Nita agreed, turning her back and 
starting to peel out of hers. Kit made his way down the rocks and into the water 
as she put her bathing suit under the rock with his. Then she started down the 
other side of the jetty.
Nita found that the whale-body came much more easily to her than it had the day 
before. She towed Kit out into deeper water, where he wrapped the whalesark 
around him and made his own change; his too came more quickly and with less 
struggle, though the shock of displaced water, like an undersea explosion, was 
no less. Sreee came to meet them then, and they greeted her and followed her 
off eastward, passing Shinnecock Inlet.
Some answers to Aroooons Calling have already come back, she said. Kit, it 
looks like we may not need you to sing after all. But I would hope youd attend 
the Song anyway.
I wouldnt miss it, he sang cheerfully. Somebody has to be around to keep 
Neets from screwing up, after all . . . 
Nita made a humpbacks snort of indignation. But she also wondered about the 
nervousness in Sreees song. Wheres Hotshot this morning?
Out calling the rest of his people for patrol around the Gates. Besides, Im 
not sure hes . . . well, suited for what were doing today . . . 
Sreee, Kit said, picking up the tremor in her song, whats the problem? Its 
just another wizard were going to see
Oh, no, she said. The Pale Ones no wizard. Hell be singing one of the 
Twelve, all rightbut the only one who has no magic.
Then whats the problem? Even a shark is no match for three wizards
Kit, Sreee said, thats easy for you to say. Youre a sperm, and its true 
enough that the average sharks no threat to one of your kind. But this is no 
average shark were going to see. This shark would be a good candidate to really 
be the Pale Slayer, the original Master-Shark, instead of just playing him. And 
there are some kinds of strength that even wizardry has trouble matching. Her 
song grew quieter. Were getting close. If you have any plans to stay living 
for a while more, watch what you say when the Pale One starts talking. And for 
the Seas sake, if youre upset about anything, dont show it!
They swam on toward Montauk Point, the long spit of land that was the 
southeastern tip of Long Island. The bottom began to change from the yellow, 
fairly smooth sand of the South Shore, littered with fish havens and abandoned 
oyster beds and deep undergrowth, to a bottom of darker shadesgrey, brown, 
almost blackrocky and badly broken, scattered with old wrecks. The sea around 
them grew noisy, changing from the usual soft background hiss of quiet water to 
a rushing, liquid roar that grew in intensity until Nita couldnt hear herself 
think, let alone sing. Seeing in the water was difficult. The surface was 
whitecapped, the middle waters were murky with dissolved air, and the hazy 
sunlight diffused in the sea until everything seemed to glow a pallid gray 
white, with no shadows anywhere.
Mind your swimming, Sreee said, again in that subdued voice. The rocks are 
sharp around here; you dont want to start bleeding.
They surfaced once for breath near Montauk Point, so that Nita got a glimpse of 
its tall octagonal lighthouse, the little tenders house nearby, and a group of 
tourists milling about on the cliff that slanted sharply down to the sea. Nita 
blew, just once, but spectacularly, and grinned to herself at the sight of the 
tourists pointing and shouting at each other and taking pictures of her. She 
cruised the surface for a good long moment to let them get some good shots, then 
submerged again and caught up with Kit and Sreee.
The murkiness of the water made it hard to find her way except by singing brief 
notes, waiting for the return of the sound, and judging the bottom by it. Sreee 
was doing so, but her notes were so short that she seemed to be grudging them.
Whats the matter with her? Nita thought. You cant get a decent sounding off 
such short notesAnd indeed, she almost hit a rock herself as she was thinking 
that, and saved herself from it only by a quick lithe twist that left her aching 
afterward. The roaring of the water over the Shoals kept on growing, interfering 
with the rebound of the song-notes, whiting them out. Sreee was bearing north 
around the point now and slowing to the slowest of speeds. Kit, to keep from 
overswimming her, was barely drifting, and keeping well above the bottom. Nita 
glanced up at him, a great dark shape against the greater brightness of the 
surface waterand saw his whole body thrash once hard, in a gesture of terrible 
shock. Nita!
She looked ahead and saw what he saw. The milky water ahead of them had a great 
cloud of blood hanging and swirling in it, with small bright shapes flashing in 
and out of the cloud in mindless confusion. Nita let out one small squeak of 
fear, then forced herself to be quiet. The sound came back, though, and told her 
that inside that roiling red darkness, something was cruising by in a wide 
curvesomething nearly Kits size. She backfinned to hover in the water, 
glancing up at Kit.
He drifted downward to her, singing no note of his own. She could understand 
why. Tumbling weightlessly out of the blood-cloud, trailing streaks of watery 
red, were the slashed and broken bodies of a school of small fin tunaheads, 
tails, pieces too mangled to name, let alone to bear close examination. Some of 
these drifted slowly to the bottom, where the scavengerssalt-water catfish and 
crabs and other suchate them hurriedly, as if not wanting to linger and face 
whatever hunted above.
Nita didnt want to attract its attention either, but she also wanted Kits 
reassurance. This place to which Sreee had brought them was unquestionably the 
location of a sharks feeding frenzy, in which the hunter begins to devour not 
only its prey, but anything else that gets in the way, uncontrollably, 
mindlessly, until sated.
Inside the cloud of blood, which the current over the shoals was taking away, 
something moved. Impossible, was Nitas first reaction as the circling shape was 
revealed. It broke out of its circling and began to soar slowly toward her and 
Kit and Sreee. Sonar had warned her of its size, but she was still astonished. 
No mere fish could be that big.
This one could. Nita didnt move. With slow, calm, deadly grace the huge form 
came curving toward them. Nita could see why Sreee had said that this creature 
was a good candidate for the title Master-Shark, even if the original had lived 
ten thousand years ago, when everything was bigger. The shark was nearly as long 
as Kitfrom its blunt nose to the end of its tails top fin, no less than ninety 
feet. Its eyes were that same dull, expressionless black that had horrified Nita 
when shed watched Jaws. But seeing those eyes on a TV screen was one thing. 
Having them dwell on you, calm and hungry even after a feeding frenzythat was 
much worse.
The pale shape glided closer. Nita felt Kit drift so close to her that his skin 
brushed hers, and she felt the thudding of his huge heart. In shape, the shark 
looked like a great white, at least as well as Nita could remember from Jaws. 
There, though, the resemblance ended. Great white sharks were actually a pale 
blue on their upper bodies and only white below. This one was white all over, an 
ivory white so pale that great age might have bleached it that color. And as for 
size, this one could have eaten the Jaws shark for lunch, and looked capable of 
working Nita in, in no more than a bite or two, as dessert. Its terrible maw, 
hung with drifting, mangled shreds of bleeding tuna, was easily fifteen feet 
across. Those jaws worked gently, absently, as the white horror cruised toward 
the three of them.
Sreee finned forward a little. She inclined the fore half of her body toward 
the white one and sang, in what seemed utter, toneless calm, EdRashtekaresket, 
chief of the Unmastered in these waters, I greet you.
The shark swam straight toward Sreee, those blank eyes fixed on her. The whale 
held her position as the Pale One glided toward her, his mouth open, his jaws 
working. At the last possible moment he veered to one side and began to describe 
a great circle around the three.
Three times he circled them, in silence. Next to Nita, Kit shuddered. The shark 
looked sharply at them, but still said nothing, just kept swimming until he had 
completed his third circle. When he spoke at last, there was no warmth in his 
voice, none of the skin-stroking richness she had grown used to in whale-voices. 
This voice was dry . . . interested, but passionless; and though insatiably 
hungry, not even slightly angry or vicious. The voice destroyed every idea Nita 
had of what a shark would sound like. Some terrible malice, she could have 
acceptednot this deadly equanimity. Young wizard, the voice said, cool and 
courteous, well met.
The swimmer broke free of his circling and described a swift, clean arc that 
brought him close enough to Nita and Kit for Nita to see the kind of rough, 
spiky skin that had injured Sreee so badly two nights before. The great shark 
almost touched Nitas nose as he swept by.
My people, the Pale One said to Sreee, tell me that they met with you two 
nights since. And fed well.
The nerve! Kit said, none too quietly, and started to swim forward.
Aghast, Nita bumped him to one side, hard. He was so startled he held still 
again. Keep your mouth shut! she said quietly. That thing could eat us all if 
it wanted to!
If he wanted to, said the Pale One, glancing at Nita and fixing her, just for 
a moment, with one of those expressionless eyes. Peace, young human. Ill deal 
with you in a moment.
She subsided instantly, feeling like a bird face to face with a snake.
I am told further, said the shark, circling Sreee lazily, that wizardry 
struck my people down at their meal . . . 
And then released them.
The storys true, then.
True enough, Unmastered, said Sreee, still not moving. Im no more ignorant 
than Aemhnuu was of the price paid for the reckless wasting of life. Besides, I 
knew Id be talking to you today . . .  and even if I didnt, Id have you to 
deal with at some later time . . . Shall we two be finished with this matter, 
then? I have other things to discuss with you.
Having heard the Calling in the water last night, I believe you do, said the 
Pale One, still circling Sreee with slow grace. His jaws, Nita noticed were 
still working. You were wise to spare those of my Mastery. Are your wounds 
healed? Is your pain ended?
Yes to both questions, Pale One.
I have no further business with you, then, said the shark. Nita felt Kit move 
slightly against her, an angry, balked movement. Evidently he had been expecting 
the shark to apologize. But the sharks tone of voice made it plain that he 
didnt think hed done anything wrong . . . and bizarrely, it seemed as if 
Sreee agreed with him.
Well enough, Sreee said, moving for the first time, to break out of the Pale 
Ones circle. Lets get to business. The shark went after, pacing her.
Since you heard the Calling, Sreee said, you know why Im here.
To ask me to be Twelfth in the Song, said the shark. When have I not? You may 
administer the Oath to me at your leisure. But first you must tell me who the 
Silent One is.
She swims with us, Sreee said, rolling over on her back as she swamsomething 
Nita would certainly never have dared do, lest it give this monster ideasand 
indicating Nita with one long fore fin.
Nita would have preferred to keep Kit between her and the shark; but something, 
the Sea perhaps, told her that this would be a bad idea. Gulping, she slipped 
past Kit and glided up between Sreee and the great white. She was uncertain of 
protocol - or of anything except that she should show no fear. Sir, she said, 
not bowing but looking him straight in those black eyes, Im Nita.
My lady wizard, the Pale One said in that cool, dry voice, youre also 
terrified out of your wits.
What to say now? But the sharks tone did have a sort of brittle humor about it. 
She could at least match it. Master-Shark, she said, giving him the title to 
be on the safe side, if I were, saying so would be stupid; Id be inviting you 
to eat me. And saying I wasnt afraid would be stupid tooand a lie.
The shark laughed, a terrible soundquiet, and dry, and violent under its humor. 
Thats well said, Nita, he said when the laughing was done. Youre wise not 
to lie to a sharknor to tell him that particular truth. After all, fear is 
distress. And I end distress; thats my job. So beware. I am pleased to meet 
you; but dont bleed around me. Whos your friend? Make him known to me.
Nita curved around with two long strokes, swam back to Kit, and escorted him 
back to the white with her fins barely touching him, a dont-screw-it-up! 
gesture. This is Kit, she said. He may or may not be singing with us.
A whalesark? said the Pale One, as Kit glided close to him.
Yes, Kit said bluntly, without any honorific note or tone of courtesy appended 
to the word. Nita looked at him in shock, wondering what had gotten into him. He 
ignored her, staring at the shark. Kits teeth were showing.
The Pale One circled Kit once, lazily, as he had when offering challenge to 
Sreee. She is not as frightened as she looks, Kit, he said, and at any rate, 
I suspect youre more so. Look to yourself first until you know your new shape 
better. It has its own fierce ways, I hear; but a sperm whale is still no match 
for me. He said this with the utter calm of someone telling someone else what 
time it was. I would not make three bites of you, as I would with Nita. I would 
seize your face and crush your upper jaw to make myself safe from your teeth. 
Then I would take hold of that great tongue of yours and not let go until I had 
ripped it loose to devour. Smaller sharks than I am have done that to sperm 
whales before. The tongue is, shall we say, a delicacy.
The shark circled away from Kit. Very slowly, Kit glided after. Sir, he 
saidsounding subdued, if not afraid, I didnt come here to fight. I thought we 
were supposed to be on the same side. But frightening us seems a poor tactic if 
were supposed to be allies, and singing the same Song.
I frighten no one, said the shark. No one who fears gets it from anywhere but 
himself. Or herself. Cast the fear outand then I am nothing to fear . . . No 
matter, though; youre working at it. Kit, Nita, my name is edRashtekaresket.
It has teeth in it, Nita said.
The shark looked at her with interest in his opaque gaze. It has indeed, he 
said. You hear well. And youre the Silent One? Not the Listener?
The Listeners part is spoken for, Pale One, Sreee said. And the Silent 
Ones part needs a wizard more experienced than any we haveone already tested 
against the Lone Power, yet young enough to fulfill the other criteria. HNiit 
is the one.
Then these are the two who went up against the Lone One in Manhattan, 
edRashtekaresket said. Oh, dont sing surprise at me, Kit: I know the Human 
names well enough. After all, you are who you eat.
Nita swallowed hard. Such shock, the shark said, favoring Nita again with that 
dark, stony, unreadable look. Beware your fear, Nita. They say Im a killing 
machineand they say well. I am one. The terrible laugh hissed in the water 
again. But one with a mind. Nor such a machine that I devour without cause. 
Those whom I eat, human or whale or fish, always give me cause.Im glad you 
brought them, Sreee. If this Heart of the Sea the wizards always speak of 
really exists, then these two should be able to get its attention. And its 
attention is needed.
For the first time since the conversation began, Sreee displayed a mild 
annoyance. It exists, Pale One. How many Songs have you played Twelfth in, and 
you still dont admit that
More Songs than you have, young one, edRashtekaresket said. And it would 
take more still to convince me of what cant be seen by anyone not a wizard. 
Show me the Seas Heart, this Timeheart you speak of, and Ill admit it exists.
Are you denying that wizardry comes from there? Sreee said, sounding even 
more annoyed.
Possibly, said the shark, if it does not. Dont be angry without reason, 
Sreee. You warm-bloods are all such great believers. But theres no greater 
pragmatist than a shark. I believe what I eat . . . or what I see. Your power 
Ive seen: I dont deny that. I simply reserve decision on where it comes from. 
What I say further is that theres trouble in the deep waters hereabouts, more 
trouble than usualand its as well the Song is being enacted now, for theres 
need of it, wherever its virtue comes from. Will you hear my news? For if things 
go on as theyre going now, the High and Dry will shortly be low and wetand 
those of my Mastery will be eating very well indeed.









A Song of Battles
What is it? Kit said. Is it the krakens?
EdRashtekaresket looked at Kit and began a slow, abstracted circling around 
him. You know about that? said the Master-Shark. Youre wise for a human.
I know that the krakens are breeding this year, Kit said, breaking their 
usual eleven-year cycle. And theyre bigger than usual, our Seniors told us. In 
the deep water, krakens have been seen that would be a match for just about any 
whale or submarine they grabbed.
That is essentially what I would have told you, the Master-Shark said to 
Sreee, still circling Kit. My own people have been reporting trouble with the 
bottom dwellersbut any sharks who cannot escape such are no longer entitled to 
the Masterys protection in any case. At any rate, I pass this news along as a 
courtesy to you warm-bloods. By way of returning the courtesy done to my people 
after your accident.
Thank you, Sreee said, and bowed as they swam.
Odd, EdRashtekaresket mused as they went, that qualified wizards of high 
levels are so few, the whales must bring in humans to make up the number.
Odd isnt the word for it, Pale One, Sreee said. Advisories and Seniors have 
been dying like clams at red tide lately.
As if, the Master-Shark said, someone or something did not care to nave the 
Song enacted just now. His voice sounded remote. Im reminded of that Song 
enacted, oh, a hundred thirty thousand moons agowhen the bottom shook as it 
does now, and the Lone One had newly lost the Battle of the Trees. One wizard 
was injured by rockfall while they made the journey down through the Gates of 
the Sea. And when they began the Singing proper, first the Killer and then the 
Blue lost control of their spells at crucial times. You know the moment, Sreee: 
when the mock-battle breaks off among the three parties, and each one tries to 
force the others around to its way of thinking.
EdRashtekaresket fell silent. The four of them swam on. Uh, EdedRak Nita 
stopped short, unable to remember the rest of his name as anything but the sound 
of gnashing teeth. Look, can I call you Ed?
Blank eyes turned their attention toward her. At least I can say it, she said. 
And if Im going to be singing with you, it cant be titles all the time. We 
have to know each other, you say.
A sprats name, the shark said, dry-voiced. A fry namefor me, the Master. 
Then came the quiet, terrible laughter again. Well enough. Youre the Sprat, 
and Im Ed. He laughed again.
Nita had never heard anything that sounded less like mirth in her life. Great. 
So, Ed, what happened? In that Song, when it went wrong. Was anyone hurt?
Of the singers? No. They were inside a spell-circle, and protectedit has to be 
that way, else anything might get in among the singers and upset their spelling. 
But when the Song failed, all the power its Singers had tried to use to bind the 
Lone One rebounded and freed him instead. The sea bottom for hundreds of miles 
about was terribly torn and changed as a result. Volcanoes, earthquakes . . . 
Also, there was a landmass, a great island in the middle of these waters. Surely 
you know about that country, since your people named the ocean after it. That 
island was drowned. There were humans on it; millions of them died when the 
island sank. As for the resteating was good hereabouts for some time. The 
species of my Mastery prospered.
A hundred thirty thousand moons ago Kit whispered, one soft-breathed note of 
song. Ten thousand years!
Atlantis, Nita said, not much louder.
Afallone, Sreee said, giving the name in the wizardly Speech. There were 
Senior and Master wizards there, she said sadly, a great many of them. But 
even working together, they couldnt stop what happened. The earthquakes begun 
by the downfall of Afallone were so terrible that they tore straight through the 
first level of the land-under-Seathe crust, I think the two-leggers call itand 
right down to the mantle, the molten stuff beneath. The whole island plate on 
which Afallone stood was broken in pieces and pushed down into the lava of the 
mantleutterly destroyed. The plates of your continent and that of Europe have 
since drifted together over the islands old location, covering its grave . . . 
But even after the Downfall, there was trouble for yearsmostly with the 
atmosphere, because of all the ash the volcanoes spat into the air. It got cold, 
and whole species of land creatures died for lack of their food. It was 
thousands of Moons before things were normal again. So we tend to be very 
careful about the Song. Lest the Sea become the Land, and the Land become the 
Sea 
And the krakens are breeding, the Pale One said as they swam. Well. Im for 
the Northern Rips tonight; theres trouble in the water there.
What kind of creature, Nita wondered, could hear the sounds of simple distress 
at a distance of two hundred miles and more?
Beware, Nita, Ed said. Only a dead shark could have avoided hearing that 
thought. If were to know each other well, as you say you desire, best mind how 
you show me your feelings. Else I shall at last know you most intimately, sooner 
than you are planningand the relationship will be rather one-sided.
Eds jaws worked. I was going to say: matters swimming as they do, I will see 
you three home. Its getting dark, and
Dark! Nita and Kit looked around them. The water, turbid green white when they 
had come here, was now almost black.
The Suns going down, Kit said unhappily. Were really in for it now.
Nita agreed. Master-Shark, she said, staying as calm as she could, we have to 
get back to, uh, our feeding grounds. And in a hurry. Our parents are waiting 
for us, and we had orders to be back before it got dark.
Ed simply looked at Nita with that calm black stare. As you say, he said, and 
began to swim faster. But we will not be at Bluehaven before many stars are out 
and the Moon is about to set.
I know, Nita said. It was hard to sound unconcerned while her insides were 
churning. Maybe you should go ahead and let them know were okay, she said to 
Kit. Tell them Im coming
No, Kit said, also at pains to sound calm. Ill take my chances with you, 
Neets. All for one . . .  
Sprat, Ed said to Nita, this is an odd thing, that your sire and dam impose 
restrictions on you when youre doing a wizardry of such weight.
They dont know were wizards, Kit said.
Sreee was so surprised by this that she backfinned to a dead stop in the water. 
Ed, as if nothing took him by surprise, merely circled about the group, while 
Kit and Nita coasted close by. They dont know! Sreee said. How do you do 
anything? How do you prepare wizardries? Let alone the matter of singing the 
Song without the full support of the people close to youand when youre singing 
the Silent Ones part, no less!
There had been something about that last part in the manual. Nita had thought 
she had all the support she needed in Kit. She was becoming less sure. Tom, got 
to call TomI know, she said out loud. Sreee, lets swim, were late enough 
as it is.
The four of them headed west again. It cant be helped, Kit said. Its not 
like it is here, where wizardry is something respectable and useful that most 
everybody knows about. Up on the land, they used to burn people for it. 
Nowadayswell, its safer to hide what youre up to. People would think you were 
nuts if you tried to tell them you were a wizard. Most people dont believe in 
magic.
What do they believe in? Sreee said, unnerved.
Things, Nita said unhappily. Sreee, its too complicated. But doing wizardry 
and keeping everybody from noticing is a problem.
Im no wizard, Ed said, but only a fool would try to deny a wizards 
usefulness. It must be a crippled life your people live up there, without magic, 
without what cant be understood, only accepted
For all her concern about being late, Nita looked wryly sideways at Ed. This 
from someone who wont admit Timeheart exists unless he sees it himself?
Sprat, Ed said, if it does in fact exist, can my not believing in it make the 
slightest difference? And as for understandingIm not interested in 
understanding Timeheart. What use is spending time figuring out, say, why water 
is wet? Will it make breathing it anyWare, all!
The warning came so conversationally that it took Nita precious moments to 
realize what the problem was. The sea around them was dark to begin with. But in 
the black water, darker shapes were moving. One of them, writhing and growing, 
reached up dim arms at them. Nita let out a squeak of surprise, and the 
returning echoes hit her skin and told her, to her terror, what her eyes 
couldnt. A long torpedo-shaped body, a great mass of arms that squirmed like 
snakes, and a long wicked beak-fang hidden at the bottom of them. She backfinned 
desperately as those writhing arms with all their hooked suckers reached for 
her.
The sound that began rumbling through the water probably upset the krakens as 
much as it did her. Nita had never heard the battlecry of an enraged sperm 
whalea frightful scrape of sound, starting at the highest note a human being 
can hear and scaling down with watershaking roughness to the lowest note, then 
past it. It was hard to see what was going on, but Nita kept singing so her 
radar would tell her. She would have preferred not to; the echo-sight of Kit 
in the whalesark, arrowing toward the leading kraken, jaws open, all his sharp 
teeth showing, was a horror. Suckered arms whipped around him, squeezing; and 
the giant squid had its own noise, a screech so high it sounded like fingernails 
being scraped down a blackboard.
Before she really knew what she was doing, Nita circled off to pick up speed, 
and then swam straight toward the krakens head-ruffle, the thick place where 
the tentacles joined behind mouth and tooth. She sang for aim as she charged, 
then lost the song when she rammed the kraken. The squids long porous backbone 
crunched and broke under her blow. Rolling, tail lashing, she fluked away. All 
the telephone pole-length arms spasmed and squeezed Kit hard one last time, then 
fell away limp. Kit shot in toward the head of the broken squid. Jaws opened, 
crunched closed, opened again to slash once or twice with wild ferocity. Then 
Kit fluked powerfully, still singing, and arched away through the water.
Kit! Nita cried, but his only answer was the sperm-whale battlecry. The water 
was dark with night, thick with squid ink, and scratchy with stirred sand. 
Through it all a pallid shape was cruising with terrible speed, jaws open, 
circling in. The patch of darkness he circled threw out a score of arms to 
grapple with him. Ed let them draw him closer to his prey, then bit, and blood 
and ink billowed everywhere in the frantic rush of water expelled by the 
shrieking squid. Severed chunks of kraken arm spun and swirled in the water, and 
sank through it. Ed swept forward, jaws wide, and bit again. The shriek cut off. 
Out of the cloud of blood and ink Ed came silently sailing, cool, untroubled, 
graceful: the Pale Slayer, a silent ghost looking calmly about him for his next 
victim. Nita held very still and sang not a note until he passed her by.
Sreee was ramming another kraken as Nita had. But one more closed on her from 
behind. Kit came swimming, singing his battlecry. He bit the second squid 
amidships, hanging onto that bullet-shaped body like a bulldog as its struggles 
shook him from side to side. Between her and Kit and Sreee, Ed was circling a 
third kraken. It flailed at him, trying to bind his mouth shut so that it could 
get a better grip on him and squeeze him to death.
It might as well not have bothered. As a fourth kraken came for her, Nita saw Ed 
break his circling pattern to dart in and slash, then curve away. Again and 
again he feinted, again and again his teeth tore, until the kraken was reduced 
to a tattered, screaming storm of blood and ink and flailing tentacles. 
Blank-eyed, Ed soared straight at the finned rear end of the doomed creature and 
opened his mouth. When his jaws scissored shut, all that was left to drift 
downward were the tips of several tentacles. The kraken had been about the size 
of a station wagon.
A fifth kraken took a great suck of water into its internal jet-propulsion 
system and thrust it out again, tainting the water with the sepia taste of ink 
as it fled into the depths, wailing like a lost soul. Nita was willing to let it 
go, and was swimming for the surface when a chill current and a pale form sank 
past her, spiraling downward with deadly grace. The utter dark of the night sea 
swallowed Ed. She heard the krakens screams, which had been diminishingand now 
grew louder, and more ragged, until they abruptly stopped.
Wearily Nita swam upward. She broached and blew gratefully, doing nothing for a 
long while but lie there in the wavewash, gasping.
Not too far away, Sreee broached and made her way slowly toward Nita. Neither 
of them said anything; but the two of them sagged together and simply leaned 
against each other, taking comfort in the presence of another whale. Some yards 
off, the water rushed away from Kits back and sides as he came up, gasping too. 
Nita looked over at him, shaking. She knew that what she saw was just her friend 
in a whalesuit. But she kept seeing sharp teeth slashing in a blood-hunger too 
much like Eds for comfort.
Are you okay? she said to Kit.
Yeah. He sounded uncertain, and Nita breathed out in relief. The voice was a 
sperm whales, but the person inside it was definitely Kit. Got a littlea 
little carried away there. You, Neets?
All right, she said.
Out of the depths a white form came drifting upward toward them.
They breathed and dived, all three, to find Ed circling in the clearing water, 
while a storm of fingerling blues and sardines swarmed about him, picking scraps 
and shreds out of the water, some of them even daring to pick bloody bits off 
Eds skin or from between his teeth. That last one was in pain at the thought 
of returning to the depths without its purpose fulfilled, he said. So I ended 
that pain.
Purpose? Kit said.
Surely you dont take that attack for an accident, young one, Ed said. Any 
more than the shaking of the sea bottom these days or the ill chances that have 
been befalling Sreees people have been accidents.
Nita looked at Kit, and then at Ed, in confusion. You mean that what happened 
to SreeeI thought you were on our side!
Ed began to circle slowly inward toward Nita. Peace, spratling, he said. I 
pay no allegiance to anyone in the Sea or above it; you know that. Or you 
should. I am the Unmastered. I alone. He swept in closer. The encounter Sreee 
and Aemhnuu had with the ship-that-eats-whales was doubtless the Lone Ones 
doing. It has many ways to subtly influence those who live. As for the sharks 
Eds voice became shaded with a cold, slow rage that chilled Nita worse than 
anything hed said or done yet. They did according to their nature, just as you 
do. Do not presume to blame them. On the other flank, however, my people have 
only one Master. If the Lone One has been tampering with species under my 
Mastery, then It will have to deal with me.
That made Nita shakenot only at the thought of Ed trying to take on the Lone 
Power himself, but at the outrageous thought that the Lone One, for all Its 
power, might actually be in for some trouble. Im sorry, she said. I thought 
you meant you told the sharks to just go ahead and attack a hurt whale. And 
with some trepidation, she copied Sreees earlier gesturerolling over in the 
water, exposing her unprotected flanks and belly to the Master-Shark.
A few long seconds afterward she felt what few beings have lived to tell 
aboutthe abrasive touch of a live sharks skin. Ed nudged Nita ever so lightly 
in the ribs, then glided by; almost a friendly touch, except that she could see 
the ranged mouth working still, the opaque black eyes tracking on her. Finned 
whiteness sailed silent and immense above her, hardly stirring the water. In 
another time, in another place, I might have told them to, Ed said. In another 
time, I may yet tell them to. And what will you think of me then, Sprat?
I dont know, she said, when the white shape had passed over.
That was well said too. Ed circled about the three of them, seeming to both 
watch them and ignore them at the same time. So let us be on our way; were 
close to Tiana Beach. Sreee, you and I have business remaining that must be 
done before witnesses.
Sreee wasted no time about it, gliding close to Edbut, Nita noticed, not 
nearly as close as Sreee had come to Aroooon or Hotshot, or herself. 
EdRashtekaresket tk Ghshestaesteh, Eldest-In-Abeyance to the Pale Slayer 
That Was, Master for the Sharks of Plain and Shelf and what lies betweenthose 
who gather to sing that Song that is the Seas shame and the Seas glory desire 
you to be of their company. Say, for my hearing, whether you consent to that 
Song.
I consent, and I will weave my voice and my will and my blood with that of 
those who sing, if there be need.
I ask the second time
Peace, Sreee, I know the words by now: Who better? A second time I say it, 
that those with me, both of my Mastery and not, may hear. Twice I consent to the 
Song, in my Masterys name; and a third time, that the Sea, and the Heart of the 
Sea, shall hear . . .  Was his voice just a touch drier on that phrase, Nita 
wondered? So up, now, the three of you. We are where you need to be.
Kit looked around him in confusion. How can you tell? Theres a lot of Tiana 
Beach, and youve never seen our house
I can smell your human bodies in the water from this morning, Ed said, 
unperturbed. And, besides, I hear distress.
Uh-oh . . .  Kit said.
Sreee, Nita said, stalling, when will you need us next?
Next dawn, the humpback said, brushing against first Nita, then Kit, in 
sympathy. Im sorry we cant have a days rest or so, but theres no time any 
more.
Do we have to be there? Kit said.
The Silent Lord does, Sreee said, glancing at Nita. In fact, normally its 
the Silent Lord who administers the Oath, since her stake in the Song is the 
greatest.
Nita made an unhappy sound. Kit, she said, maybe youd better stay home. At 
least you wont get in trouble with your folks that way.
Kit shouldered over beside her, absent affection that bumped her considerably 
sideways as his hundred-foot bulk hit her. No, he said. I told you: All for 
one. Its not fair for you to be stuck with this alone. Besides, what if those 
things show up again, and Eds not here
Right, Nita said.
Neets, we better get going, Kit said.
She headed for the surface. Kit and Sreee followed; but Ed was above her and 
surfaced first, several hundred yards westward and much closer to the shore. So 
the first sound Nita heard from the shore was the screaming.
Nita had never heard her mother scream. The raw panic in the sound got under 
Nitas skin even worse than Kits hunting song had.
Harry! her mother was shouting, and every few words her terror would gnaw its 
way through her desperately controlled voice and come out as a scream again. 
Harry, for Gods sake look, theres a fin out there, its a shark! Get Mr. 
Friedman, get the cops, get somebody!
The beach flickered with lightsflashlights, held by people running up and 
downand every light in Nitas house was on, as well as most of those in the 
houses next door. Nita gulped at her fathers hoarse replyjust as scared as her 
mother, trying to stay in control and failing.
Betty, hang on, theyre coming! Hang on! Dont go near the water! For her 
mother was floundering into the surf, looking out seaward, searching for someone 
she couldnt see. Nita!
Nita had to fight to stay silent.
Ed cruised serenely, contemptuously close to the shore, bearing off westward, 
away from Nita and Kit and Sreee. The flashlights followed his pale fin as it 
broached, as Ed went so far as to raise himself a little out of the water, 
showing a terrible expanse of back, then the upward-spearing tailfin as big as a 
windsurfers sail. Shouting in fear and amazement, the people followed him down 
the beach as if hypnotized. The flashlights bobbed away.
Hes got them distracted, weve gotta get out now, Kit said.
But our bathing suits
No time! Later! Sreee, well see you in the morning! The two of them fluked 
wildly and made for the beach, in the direction opposite the one in which Ed was 
leading the people on the shore. Nita stayed under the surface as long as she 
could, then felt the bottom scrape on her belly; she was grounded. Kit had 
grounded sooner than she had. Nita gasped a long breath of air and let the 
shapechange go, then collapsed into the water againnot deep for a whale, but 
three feet deep for her. She struggled to her feet and staggered to shore 
through the breakers, wiping the salt out of her eyes and shaking with the shock 
of a spell released too suddenly.
By the time her sight was working properly, there was no time to do anything 
about the small, dark figure standing a few feet up the incline of the beach, 
looking straight at her.
Dairine.
There was a slam of imploding air behind Nita. Kit came scrambling up out of the 
water, with the undone whalesark clutched glittering in one fist. Quick, he 
said, I can do the Scotty spell before they come back He reached out and 
grabbed her by the arm, shaking her. Neets, are you okay?
Then he saw Dairine too. Uh, he said. The sounds of voices down the beach were 
getting closer; and through them, abrupt and terrible, came a sudden crack! of 
gunfire. Kit looked down that way, then at Dairine again, and took a long 
breath. Right back, he said. He said one quick syllable and, in another clap 
of air, vanished.
Dairine just stood there in her pajamas with Yoda all over them, staring at her 
sister. Whales, she said.
Dairine, Nita whispered, how long have they been out here?
About an hour.
Oh, no. And her folks would be there in moments. Dairine, Nita said, look 
There she stopped. She couldnt think what she wanted to say.
It is magic, Dairine whispered back. There really is such a thing. And its 
that book you have, isnt it? Its not just an old beat-up kids book. Its
In another slam of air, blowing outward this time, Kit reappeared. He was 
already in his bathing suit; he flung Nitas at her and then looked unhappily at 
Dairine.
And you too, she said to him as Nita struggled into her suit.
A wizard? Kit said. Yeah. Both of us.
Off to their left, there was another gunshot, and a mighty splash. Nita and Kit 
stared out at the sea. Ed was arrowing straight up out of the water with slow, 
frightful grace, jaws working as he arched up in a leap like a dolphins. Fifty 
feet of him towered out of the water, sixty, eighty, until even his long sharp 
tailfin cleared the surface and he hung there in midair, bent like a bow, the 
starlight and the light of the Moon sheening ice white along his hide and the 
water that ran down it. Until later, my wizards! came his hissed cry in the 
Speech, as Ed dived dolphin-curved back into the sea. The gunshot cracked across 
the water at him, once, twice. Ed went down laughing in scorn.
Thats as much as hes gonna do, Kit said. Theyll be back in a moment, when 
they see hes gone.
That shark said Dairine, sounding about ready to go into shock. Hes a 
friend, Nita said. Neets, Kit said, whatre we gonna tell them? That 
depends on Dairine. Nita took care to keep her voice perfectly What about it, 
Dari? Are you going to spill everything? Or are you going to keep quiet?
Dairine looked at the two of them, saying nothing. Then, I want you to tell me 
everything later, she said. Everything.
Itll have to be tonight, Dari. Weve got to be out again by dawn.
Youre gonna get it, Dairine said.
Tell us something else we dont know, Sherlock, Kit said, mild-voiced
Well. I guess I saw you two coming over the dune, Dairine said, looking from 
Kit to Nita. She turned to head down the beach.
Nita caught Dairine by the arm, stopping her. Dairine looked back at Nita over 
her shoulderher expression of unease just visible in the dim light from the 
houses up the beach. I really dont want to lie to them, Dari, Nita said.
Then you better either keep your mouth shut, Dairine said, or tell them the 
truth. And she tugged her arm out of Nitas grasp and went pounding off down 
the beach, screaming, in her best Im-gonna-tell voice, Mom, Dad, its Nita!
Nita and Kit stood where they were. Theyre gonna ground us, Kit said.
Maybe not, said Nita, in forlorn hope.
They will. And whatre you going to do then?
Nitas insides clenched. And the sound of people talking was coming down the 
beach toward them.
Im going, she said. This is lives were talking aboutwhales lives. 
Peoples lives. It cant just be stopped in the middle! You remember what Ed 
said.
Thats what Id been thinking, Kit said. I just didnt want to get you in my 
troublejust because Im doing it, I mean. He looked at her. Dawn, then.
Better make it before, Nita said, feeling like a conspirator and hating it. 
Less light to get caught by.
Right. And that was all they had time for, for Nitas mother and father, and 
Mr. Friedman, and Dairine, all came trotting up together. Then things got 
confusing, for Nitas dad grabbed her and hugged her to him with tears running 
down his face, as if he were utterly terrified; and her mother slowed from her 
run, waved her arms in the air and roared, Where the blazes have you been?
We lost track of the time, Kit said.
We were out, Mom, Nita said. Swimming
Wonderful! There are sharks the size of houses out there in the water, and my 
daughter is off swimming! At night, at high tide, with the undertow Her mother 
gulped for air, then said more quietly, I didnt expect this of you, Nita. 
After we talked this morning, and all.
Nitas father let go of her slowly, nodding, getting a fierce, closed look on 
his face now that the initial shock of having his daughter back safe was 
passing. And I thought you had better sense, Kit, he said. We had an 
agreement that while you stayed with us, youd do as we said. Here it is hours 
and hours after dark
I know, sir, Kit said. I forgotand by the time I remembered, it was too 
late. It wont happen again.
Not for a while, anyway, Nitas mother said, sounding grim. I dont want you 
two going out of sight of the house until further notice. Understood?
Yes, Mrs. Callahan.
Nita? her mother said sharply.
There it was: the answer she wasnt going to be able to get around. Okay, Mom, 
she said. Her stomach turned over inside her at the sound of the lie. Too late 
now. It was out, not to be recalled.
That also means staying out of the water, her father said.
Why me? Why me! Nita thought. She made a face. Okay.
Okay, Kit said too, not sounding very happy.
Well see how you two behave in the next few days, Nitas mother said. And 
whether that shark clears out of here. Maybe after that well let you swim 
again. Meanwhileyou two get home.
They went. Just once Nita looked over her shoulder and was sure she saw, far out 
on the water, a tall pale fin that stood high as a sail above the surface, then 
slid below it, arrowing off toward Montaukdistress ended for the moment, and a 
job done.
Nita felt the miserable place in her gut and thought it was just as well that Ed 
couldnt come up on the land.









Fearsong
Nita lay awake in the dark, staring at the ceiling. It was three thirty in the 
morning, by the glow of the cheap electric clock on the dresser. She would very 
much have liked to turn over, forget about the clock, the time, and everything 
else, and just sack out. But soon it would be false dawn, and she and Kit would 
have to be leaving.
Changes . . . 
Only last week, her relationship with her folks had seemed perfect. Now all that 
was over, ruinedand about to get much worse, Nita knew, when her mom and dad 
found her and Kit gone again in the morning.
And the changes in Kit
She rolled over on her stomach unhappily, not wanting to think about it. She had 
a new problem to consider, for when everyone was in bed, Dairine had come 
visiting.
Nita put her face down into her pillow and groaned. Dairine had gone right 
through Nitas wizards manual, staring at all the strange maps and pictures. It 
was annoying enough to begin with that Dairine could see the book at all; 
nonwizards such as her mother and father, looking at it, usually saw only an 
old, beat-up copy of something called So You Want to Be A Wizard, apparently a 
kids book. But Dairine saw what was there, and was fascinated.
The aptitude for wizardry sometimes runs through a whole generation of a family. 
Several famous circles of wizards in the past had been made up of brothers or 
sisters or cousins, rather than unrelated people such as she and Kit, or Tom and 
Carl, who met by accident or in some other line of work and came to do wizardry 
together by choice. But families with more than one wizard tended to be the 
exception rather than the rule, and Nita hadnt been expecting this. Also, Nita 
was beginning to realize that she had rather enjoyed having her wizardry be a 
secret from everybody but the other wizards she worked with. That secret, that 
advantage, was gone now too. Dairine had the aptitude for wizardry as strongly 
as Nita herself had had it when she started.
In fact, shes got it more strongly than I did, Nita thought glumly. The book 
had to get my attention by force, that first time I passed it in the library. 
But Dairine noticed it herself, as soon as I brought it home.
For several years Nita had kept her advantage over her sister by only the 
slimmest of margins. She knew quite well that Dairine was a lot smarter than she 
was in most things. Wizardry had been a large and satisfying secret shed felt 
sure Dairine would never catch on to. But that advantage was now gone too. The 
youngest wizards were the strongest ones, according to the book; older ones 
might be wiser but had access to less sheer power. Dairine had gotten the better 
of her again.
Nita turned over on her back, staring at the ceiling once more.
Kit . . . 
He just wasnt himself in the whalesark. When hes in his own skin, she told 
herself fiercely, hes fine. But she couldnt quite make herself believe that. 
His look, his stance, were too different in just the past day or two.
She had thought that having a best friend at last would be great fun. And she 
and Kit had enjoyed each others company immensely in their first couple months 
of wizardry, after the terror and sorrow of their initial encounter with the Art 
had worn off a bit. But sometimes things just didnt work. Kit would get moody, 
need to be by himself for days at a time. Or he would say sudden things that 
Nita thought cruelexcept that it was Kit saying them, and Kit wasnt cruel; she 
knew that.
I wish Id had some friends when I was younger, she thought. Now Ive got one 
who really mattersand I dont know what to do so he stays my friend. He changes 
. . . 
And Kit was going to be in that whalesark for more and more time in the next 
couple of days. Would she even know him if this kept up?
Would he know her? Or want to? Humpbacks and sperms were different. Her own 
aggressiveness had frightened her badly enough, after the fight with the 
krakens. Kits had been worse. And he had been enjoying it . . . 
Listless, Nita reached under her pillow for her wizards manual and a 
flashlight. She clicked the light on and started paging through the book, 
intending to kill some time doing homeworkfinishing the study of her parts of 
the Song, the Silent Lords parts. They were mostly in what whales used for 
verse-songs with a particular rhythm and structure, different for each species, 
but always more formal than regular conversational song. Since she wasnt good 
at memorizing, Nita was relieved to find that when she was in whaleform, the Sea 
would remind her of the exact words. What she needed to study were the emotions 
and motivations behind each song, the way they were sung.
She riffled through the book. There was a lot of background materialthe full 
tale of the first Song, and of others, including the disastrous Drowned Song 
that ended in the downfall of Atlantis; the names of famous whale-wizards who 
had sung and how they had sung their parts; stage direction for the Song 
itself; commentary, cautions, permitted variations, even jokes, for evidently 
though the occasion was serious, it didnt have to be somber. Then the Song 
proper, in verse, with the names of the ten Lords of the Humors: the Singer, the 
Gazer, the Blue, the Sounder, the Gray Lord, the Listener, the Killer, the 
Wanderer, the Forager, and of course the Silent Lord. Each of them ruled a kind 
of fish and also a kind of temperament.
Some of them struck Nita as odd; the Killer, for example, was the patroness of 
laughter, always joking: the Gazer looked at everything and hardly ever said 
what he saw. And the Silent LordNita paused at the lines that described the 
one who ruled seas with no songs in them, and hearts that were silent; but in 
her own silence, others would sing forever . . . 
And of course there was the Pale Slayer. And another odd thing; though the names 
of all the whales ever to sing the Song were listed, there was no listing for 
the Master-Shark, except the mere title, repeated again and again. Maybe hes 
like an executioner in the old days, Nita thought. Anonymous. The commentaries 
werent very illuminating. The Master of the lesser Death, one of them called 
him, who, mastering it, died not. For wizardry toucheth not one to whom it hath 
not been freely given: nor doth the messenger in any wise partake of the message 
he bears.
The manual was like that sometimes. Nita sighed and skimmed down to the first 
canto: Sreees verse, it would be, since the Singer opens the Song as the other 
Ten gather around the lonely seamount Caryn Peak, the Seas Tooth. Alongside the 
musical and movement notations for a whale singing the Song, the manual had a 
rough translation into the Speech:
Blood in the water I sing, and one who shed it:
deadliest hunger I sing, and one who fed it
weaving the ancientmost tale of the Seas sending;
singing the tragedy, singing the joy unending.
This is our shamethis is the whole Oceans glory;
this is the Song of the Twelve. Hark to the story!
Hearken, and bring it to pass; swift, lest the sorrow
long ago laid to its rest devour us tomorrow!
There was much more: the rest of the prologue, then the songs of each of the 
Masters who were part of the Song and their temptations by the Stranger-whale, 
the Lone Power in disguise. Nita didnt need to pay any attention to those, for 
the Silent Lord came in only near the end, and the others, even the Stranger, 
dared use nothing stronger than persuasion on her. The whale singing the part of 
the Silent One then made her decision which side to be onand acted.
That was the part Nita had gotten up to. Almost done, she thought with some 
relief, seeing that there wasnt much more beyond this. Only a few more cantos. 
Boy, how do you manage to be cheerful while singing this stuff? It sounds so 
creepy.
Must I accept the barren Gift?
Learn death, and lose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath
will take the Gift and set them free:
whose is the voice and whose the mind
to set at naught the well-sung Game
when finned Finality arrives
and calls me by my secret Name.
Not old enough to love as yet,
but old enough to die, indeed
the death-fear bites my throat and heart,
fanged cousin to the Pale Ones breed.
But past the fear lies life for all
perhaps for me; and, past my dread,
past loss of Mastery and life,
the Sea shall yet give up Her dead!
Glad that wasnt me back then, she thought. I could never have pulled that off . 
. . Nita read down through the next section, the stage directions for this 
sequence of the Song. The whale singing the Silent One then enacts the 
Sacrifice in a manner as close to the original enactment as possible, depending 
on the site where the Song is being celebrated . . . 
She skimmed the rest of it, the directions detailing the Pale Slayers 
acceptance of Sacrifice, his song, the retreat of the Lone Power, and the 
songs conclusion by the remaining Ten. But she was having trouble keeping her 
mind on her work. Kit
Neets!
His voice was the merest hiss from outside the locked window. She got up and 
peered out the window to see where Kit was, then waved him away from the wall. 
The spell she had in mind for getting out needed only one word to start it. Nita 
spoke it and walked through the wall.
Between the distracting peculiarity of the feeling, which was like walking 
through thick spiderwebs, and the fact that the floor of her room was several 
feet above the ground, Nita almost took a bad fall, the way someone might whod 
put his foot into an open manhole. Kit staggered, barely catching her, and 
almost fell down himself.
Clumsy, he said as he turned her loose.
Watch it, Nio
He punched her, not as hard as he might have; then spent a moment or two 
brushing himself off, and redraped the whalesark over one shoulder, where it 
hung mistily shimmering like a scrap of fog with starlight caught in it. Is 
that locked? he said, looking up at Nitas window with interest.
Uh-huh.
And the front and back doors are too.
Yeah.
Kit threw a wicked look at Nita as they made their silent way out of the yard 
and toward the beach. Your mom and dad are going to be real curious how we got 
out of the house and then locked all the inside locks when we dont have the 
keys.
Uh-huh, Nita said. If were gonna get in real trouble, we might as well 
confuse them as much as possible. It might distract them . . . 
Wanna bet? Kit said.
Nita didnt answer.
The beach was desolate. Nita and Kit left their bathing suits under a prominent 
boulder and slid into the chilly water. Nita changed first and let Kit take hold 
of her dorsal fin and be towed out to deeper water. She shuddered once, not 
knowing why, at the strange cool feeling of human hands on her hide as she swam 
outward.
Beyond the breakers, the water was peculiarly still. The sky was cobalt with a 
hint of dawn-silver in it; the sea was sheenless, shadowless, the color of lead. 
And rising up from the listless water, four or five hundred yards from shore, a 
tall white fin was cruising in steady, silent circles, like the sail of a ghost 
ship unable to make port.
I didnt think Ed was going to be here, Kit said. He let go of Nitas fin and 
slipped off into the water.
Neither did I, Nita said, not knowing if he heard her before he dived. When he 
was finished changing, she dived too and made her way toward where Ed swam 
serenely.
Sreee was there as well. She swam close, whistling Nita a greeting, and brushed 
skin with her. Hotshot was there too, gamboling and swooping in the dim-lit 
waterthough with just a little more restraint than usual around the silently 
drifting bulk of Ed.
A long swim today, Sreee said to Nita. Up to Nantucket. Are you ready? Did 
you get your problem with your dam and sire worked out?
Not really, Nita said. In fact, itll probably get a lot worse before it gets 
any better. Theres going to be trouble tonight . . .  She stopped; there was 
no use letting it spoil the day. Never mind, she said. Lets go.
Sreee led the way, a straight course east-northeast, to Nantucket Rips. From 
her reading and from what the Sea told her, Nita knew those were treacherous 
waters, full of sudden shelves and hidden rocks. And the wizards manual spoke 
of uneasy forces that lingered about those dead and broken shipsforces Nita 
suspected she would mistake for restless ghosts, if she should have the bad luck 
to see one.
You are silent today, said a dry, cool voice directly above Nita. Glancing 
upward, Nita saw floating above her, effortlessly keeping pace, the great pale 
form that had been one of the images keeping her awake last night. And you did 
not greet me. Is this courtesy to another celebrant?
Good morning, Ed, Nita said, in the same mildly edgy tone of voice she would 
have used on a human being who bugged her that way.
Oh, indeed, Ed said. Youre bold, Sprat. And the boldness comes of distress. 
Beware lest I be forced to hurry matters, so that we should have even less time 
to get acquainted than you seem to desire.
That was something I was meaning to ask you about, Nita said, looking up at Ed 
again. The distress business
Ask, Sprat.
You said before that it was your job to end distress where you found it . . . 

You are wondering who gave me the job, Ed said, sinking to Nitas level, so 
that her left-side eye was filled with the sight of him. Perhaps it was the Sea 
itself, which you wizards hear speaking to you all the time. You look askance? 
Doubtless you think the Sea would be too good to assign a whole species to 
nothing but painful and violent killing. Eds voice stayed cool as always, 
though there was a tinge of mockery to it. If you think so, look around you, 
Sprat. The ocean is full of weaponry as effective as my teeth. Poisons and 
spines, snares and traps and claws that catch are everywhere. We all have to 
eat.
Ed smiled at her. A long shiver went down Nita from head to tail; a sharks 
smile is an expression the wise person does not provoke. Those are just dumb 
creatures, though, she said, keeping her song as inoffensive-sounding as 
possible. They dont think. You doand you enjoy what you do.
So? Ed swam closer. How should I not? Like all my people Im built to survive 
in a certain fashion . . . and its only wise to cause what you build to feel 
good when it does what it must to survive. My nerves are tuned to pain That fact 
tells me beyond question what my job is. Distress calls me; blood in the water 
is the clearest sign of that distress, and I have a duty to it. If I destroy, 
still I serve life. What cant elude me is often sick or injured, and suffering; 
what survives me or outthinks me is stronger and wiser for it. And the 
survivors descendants will be too. Is that so bad?
Well, that way . . . no. But I bet you wouldnt be so calm about it if it was 
you dying.
Me? Die? Ed laughed again. The Master-Shark eats the Silent Lords Gift, 
you know, along with the Silent One. Theres immortality in all the sharks, in 
various degrees. But what good is immortality if you havent died first? And 
nothing in the Sea is deadly enough to kill me against my will.
Something about Eds voice was making Nita curious. What about with it?
Ah, but will must spread to the body from the mind. And after all the years 
Ive lived in it, my body is too strong. All it wants is to eat, and live. And 
so it does; and I swim on. Immortality is of terrible power. It would take 
something more powerful yet to override it . . . 
Nita didnt say anything.
But all that being so, Ed said, for good or ill, I am the Destroyer. Being 
that, I might as well enjoy my work, might I not? And so I do. Would it help if 
I decided to be miserable? There was actually a touch of humor in that cold, 
dry voice.
No, I suppose not.
So I go about my work with a merry heart, Ed said, and do it well as a 
result. That should please you, I think
Im delighted, Nita sang, under her breath.
for spells work best, you wizards tell me, when all the participants are of 
light heart and enjoying themselves. Ill certainly enjoy eating you when the 
time comes round.
Ed, thats not funny.
It isnt? said the Master-Shark, looking at her.
Nita stopped swimming, letting herself coast for a moment. There was something 
odd about the way hed said thatEd, what was that crack supposed to mean?
The look Ed gave her was expressionless as ever. The Silent Lord is pleased to 
jest with me, he said.
Ed!
Distress, distress, Sprat. Have a care.
Ed was drifting closer again, and Nita kept herself as outwardly calm as she 
could. Ed, she said, slowly and carefully, are you trying to say that youre 
actually planning to eat me sometime soon?
The day after tomorrow, said the Master-Shark in perfect calm, if we keep to 
schedule.
Nita couldnt think of a thing to say.
You seem surprised, Ed said. Why?
It took Nita a few moments to answer, for her mind was boiling with sudden 
memories. Sreees great relief when Nita agreed to participate in the Song. Her 
repeated questions to Nita about whether she was sure she wanted to do this. The 
Blues silent, sad appraisal and approval of her. Sreees remark about the 
Silent Lords contribution to the Song being the most important of any 
celebrantthe Silent Lord has the most at stake. And the wording of the 
Celebrants Oath itself, with its insistent repetition and the line Nita had 
been so sure was ceremonial: and I will blend my blood with theirs should there 
be need . . . 
Nita gulped. Ed, she said, the Song, the whole thing . . . I thought it was 
just sort of, sort of a play . . . 
Indeed not. Ed seemed unconcerned by her terror. Theres always blood in the 
water at the end of the Song. I am no wizard, but even I know that nothing else 
will keep the Lone Power bound. Nothing but the willing sacrifice, newly made by 
the Celebrant representing the Silent Oneby a wizard who knows the price he is 
paying and what it will buy. The spells worked during the Song would be 
powerless otherwise, and the Lone Power would rise again and finish what It once 
began.
But Off on her right, she saw Kit looking curiously at her. But at the moment 
Kit meant nothing to her, and neither did Ed, or the chill silver light dawning 
in the water, or anything else. The manuals words, which shed skimmed over so 
casually: those were what mattered now. The whale singing the Silent One then 
enacts the Sacrifice in a manner as close to the original enactment as possible, 
depending on the site where the Song is being celebrated. The shark singing the 
Pale Slayer then receives the Sacrifice . . . With frightful clarity she could 
remember sitting on the fishing platform off Tiana Beach and Sreee saying, The 
Silent One dived into a stand of razor coral; and the Master-Shark smelled her 
blood in the water, and . . .  Well . . . 
Nita started to swim, without any real idea of where she was going, or why she 
was going there. She went slowly at first, then faster. Neets, Kit was singing 
behind her, whats wrong, what is it?
HNiit! sang another voice, farther away. Wait! Whats the matter?
That voice she wanted to hear some more from. Nita wheeled about and hurtled 
back the way she had come, almost ramming Kit, and not caring, letting him get 
out of her way as best he could. Sreee saw Nita coming and simply stopped 
swimming. Sreee! Nita cried, one long note that was more a scream than a 
song. Why didnt you tell me!
Oh, hNiit, Sreee sang, desperate and hurried, the Master-Shark is aboutfor 
Seas sake, control yourself!
Never mind him! Why didnt you tell me!
About what the Silent One does? Sreee said, sounding confused and upset as 
Nita braked too late and almost hit her too. But you said you knew!
Nita moaned out loud. It was true. Just about finished with my reading, she 
remembered herself saying. Only one thing I dont understand; everything else is 
fairly straightforward . . . And, I got it, Sreee, lets get on with it . . .  
But the truth didnt break her rage. You should have made sure I knew what you 
were talking about!
Why? Sreee cried, getting angry herself now. Youre a more experienced 
wizard than I am! You went into the Otherworlds and handled things by yourself 
that itd normally take whole circles of wizards to do! And I warned you, make 
sure you know what youre doing before you get into this! But you went right 
ahead!
Nita moaned again, and Sreee lost her anger at the sound and moaned too. I 
knew something bad was going to happen, she sang unhappily. The minute I found 
Aemhnuu dead and me stuck with organizing the Song, I knew! But I never thought 
itd be anything as bad as this!
Kit looked from one of them to the other, somewhat at a loss. Look, he said to 
Sreee, are you telling me that the whale who sings the Silent One actually has 
to die?
Sreee simply looked at him. Nita did not look at him, could not.
Thats horrible, Kit said in a hushed voice. Nita, you cant
She must, Sreee said. Shes given her word that she would.
But couldnt somebody else
Someone else could, Sreee said. If that person would be willing to take the 
Oath and the role of the Silent Lord in hNiits place. But no one will. What 
other wizard are we going to be able to find in the space of a day and a half 
who would be willing to die for Nitas sake?
Kit was silent with shock.
Anyway, hNiit took the Oath freely in front of witnesses, Sreee said 
unhappily. Unless someone with a wizards power freely substitutes himself for 
her, she has to perform what shes promised. Otherwise the whole Song is 
sabotaged, uselesscant be performed at all. And if we dont perform it, or if 
something goes wrong . . . 
Nita closed her eyes in horror, remembering the time the Song failed. What 
Atlantis couldnt survive, she thought in misery, New York and Long Island sure 
wont. Millions of people will die. Including Mom and Dad, Dairine, Ponch, Kits 
folks
But the Song hasnt started yet, Kit protested.
Yes, it has, Nita said dully. That she remembered very clearly from her 
reading; it had been in the commentaries, one of the things she found strange. 
The minute the first Celebrant takes the Oath, the Songs begunand everything 
that happens to every Celebrant after that is part of it.
HNiit, Sreee said in a voice so small that Nita could barely hear her, what 
will you do?
A shadow fell over Nita, and a third and fourth pair of eyes joined the first 
two: Hotshot, grinning as always, but with alarm behind the grin; Ed, gazing 
down at her out of flat black eyes, emotionless as stones. I thought I sensed 
some little troubling over here, said the Master-Shark.
Kit and Sreee held still as death. Yes, Nita said with terrible casualness, 
amazed at her own temerity.
Is the pain done? said the Master-Shark.
For the moment, Nita said. She could feel herself slipping into shock, an 
insulation that would last her a few hours at least. Shed felt something 
similar, several years before, when her favorite uncle had died. The shock had 
gotten Nita through the funeral; but afterward, it had been nearly two weeks 
before she had been able to do much of anything but cry. I wont have that 
option this time, she thought. Theres work to be done, a Song to sing, spells 
to work . . . But all that seemed distant and unimportant to her, since in a day 
and a half, it seemed, a shark was going to eat her. Kit looked at Nita in 
terror, as if he suddenly didnt know her.
She stared back, feeling frozen inside. Lets go, she said, and turned to 
start swimming east-northeast again, their original course. The Gray is 
waiting, isnt she?
By the sound of her waysong Nita could hear Sreee and Kit and Hotshot following 
after her; and last of all, silent, songless, came Ed.
Im going to die, Nita thought.
She had thought that before, occasionally. But she had never believed it.
She didnt believe it now.
And she knew it was going to happen anyway.
Evidently, Nita thought, Ed had been right when hed said that belief made no 
difference to the truth . . . 









The Gray Lords Song
They found the whale who would sing the part of the Gray in the chill waters 
about Old Man Shoals, a gloomy place strewn full of boulders above which 
turbulent water howled and thundered. The current set swift through the shoals, 
and the remnants of its victims lay everywhere. Old splintered spars of rotting 
masts, fragments of crumbled planks, bits of rusted iron covered with barnacles 
or twined about with anemones; here and there a human bone, crusted over with 
coralbroken-backed ships lay all about, strangled in weed, ominous shapes in 
the murk; and when Nita and Kit and the others sang to find their way, the songs 
fell into the silence with a wet, thick, troubled sound utterly unlike the clear 
echoes that came back from the sandy bottoms off Long Island.
The place suited Nitas mood perfectly. She swam low among the corpses of dead 
ships, thinking bitter thoughtsmost of them centering on her own stupidity.
They warned me. Everybody warned me! Even Picchu warned me: Read the fine print 
before you sign! Idiot! she thought bitterly. What do I do now? I dont want to 
die!
But Any agreements you make, make sure you keep, Tom had saidand though his 
voice had been kind, it had also been stern. As stern as the Blues: Nowhere 
does the Lone Power enter in so readily as through the broken word.
She could see what she was expected to do . . . and it was impossible. I cant 
dieIm too young, what would Kit say to Mom and Dad, I dont want to, its not 
fair! But the answer stayed the same nonetheless.
She groaned out loud. Two days. Two days left. Two days is a long timeMaybe 
something will happen and I wont have to die.
Stop that sniveling noise! came a sharp, angry burst of song, from practically 
in front of her. Nita backfinned, shocked at the great bulk rising up from the 
bottom before her. The echoes of her surprised squeak came back raggedly, 
speaking of old scars, torn fins and flukes, skin ripped and gouged and badly 
healed. And the others song had an undercurrent of rage to it that hit Nita 
like a deep dive into water so cold it burned.
How dare you come into my grounds without protocol? said the new whale as she 
cruised toward Nita with a slow deliberateness that made Nita back away even 
faster than before. The great head and lack of a dorsal fin made it plain that 
this was another sperm whale.
Your pardon, Nita sang hurriedly, sounding as conciliatory as possible. I 
didnt mean to intrude
You have, said the sperm, in a scraping phrase perilously close to the awful 
sperm-whale battlecry that Nita had heard from Kit. She kept advancing on Nita, 
and Nita kept backing, her eye on those sharp teeth. These are my waters, and I 
wont have some noisy krill-eating songster scaring my food
That voice was not only angry, it was cruel. Nita started to get angry at the 
sound of it. She stopped backing up and held her ground, poising her tail for a 
short rush to ram the other if necessary. Im not interested in your fish, even 
if they could hear me, which they cantand you know it! she sang angrily. 
Humpbacks sing higher than fish can hearthe same as you do!
The sperm kept coming, showing more teeth. You look like a whale, she said, 
voice lowering suspiciously, and you sing like a whalebut you dont sound like 
a whale. Who are you?
HNiit, Nita said, giving her name the humpback accent. Im a wizard. A human 
wizard
The sperm whale cried out and rushed at her, jaws wide. Nita arrowed off to one 
side, easily avoiding the sperms rush. Spy! Murderer! The sperm was howling, 
a terrible rasping song like a scream. It came at her again
Again Nita rolled out of the way, her maneuverability easily defeating the 
others rage-blinded charge. I may be a human, she sang angrily, but Im 
still a wizard! Mess with me and Ill
WHAM! The sperm whales spell hit her with an impact that made the 
displaced-water explosions of Kits shapechanges seem puny. Nita was thrown 
backward, literally head over tail, thrashing and struggling for control as she 
swore at herself for being caught off guard. The spell was a simple 
physical-violence wizardry, as contemptuous a gesture from one wizard to another 
as a slap in the face . . . and as much a challenge to battle as such a slap 
would have been from one human to another.
Nita went hot with rage, felt about for her inner contact with the Sea, found 
it, and sangonly three notes, but pitched and prolonged with exquisite accuracy 
to take the power of the others spell and turn it back on her tenfold. The 
spell and the water thundered together. The sperm whale was blown backward as 
Nita had been, but with more force, tumbling violently and trailing a song of 
shock and rage behind her.
Nita held still, shaking with anger, while Sreee and Hotshot and Kit gathered 
around her. Im all right, she said, the trembling getting into her song. But 
that one needs some lessons in manners.
She always has, Sreee said. HNiit, Im sorry. I would have kept you back 
with us, but She didnt go on.
Its all right, Nita said, still shaking.
Nice shot, said a low scrape of song beside her ear, angry and appreciative: 
Kit. She brushed him lightly with one flank as a great pale shape came drifting 
down on the other side of her, eyeing her with dark-eyed interest.
So, Ed said, calm as ever, the Sprat has teeth after all. I am impressed.
Thanks, Nita said, not up to much more conversation with Ed at the moment.
Slowly they swam forward together to where Sreee was hovering in the water, 
singing more at than with the other whale. know you were out of bounds, 
Areinnye, she said. There was no breach of protocol. We came in singing.
That one did not, said the sperm whale, her song so sharp with anger that it 
was a torture to the ears. My right
does not extend to attacking a silent member of a party entering your waters 
within protocols, Sreee said. You attacked hNiit out of spite, nothing more. 
First spite, then anger because she was human. We heard
Did you indeed? And what else have you heard in these waters, you nursling 
wizard, you and your little playfellows? The sperm whale glared at them all as 
they gathered around her, and the rasp of pain and hatred in her voice was 
terrible. Have you seen my calf hereabouts? For all your magics, I think not. 
The whalers have been through these waters three days ago, and they served my 
little Mhali as they served your precious Aemhnuu! Speared and left to float 
belly-up, slowly dying, while they hunted methen hauled bloated out of the 
water and gutted, his bleeding innards thrown overboard by bits and pieces for 
the gulls and the sharks to eat!
When Sreee spoke again, her voice was unhappy. Areinnye, I share your grief. 
Its things like this that the Song will help to stop. Thats why were here.
The sperm whale laughed, a sound both anguished and cruel. What lies, she 
said. Or what delusions. Do you truly think anything will make them go away and 
stop hunting us, Sreee? Areinnye looked with hatred at Nita. Now theyre even 
coming into the water after us, I see.
Kit glided forward ever so slowly, until he was squarely between Nita and 
Areinnye. I guarantee you dont know what shes here for, Areinnye. Preserving 
your life, along with those of a lot of othersthough at the moment, in your 
case, I cant imagine why anyone would bother.
Areinnye made a sound at Kit that was the sperm-whale equivalent of a sneer. 
Oh, indeed, Areinnye said. What could she possibly do that would make any 
difference to my life?
She is the Silent Lord for the Song, Sreee said.
Areinnye turned that scornful regard on Nita. Indeed, the sperm said again. 
Well. We are finally getting something useful out of a human. But she doubtless 
had to be compelled to it. No human would ever give up its life for one of us, 
wizard or not. Or did you trick her into it?
Gently, hardly stroking a fin, Ed soared toward Areinnye. Unwise, he said. 
Most unwise, wizard, to scorn a fellow wizard sowhatever species she may 
belong to. And will you hold Nita responsible for all her species wrongdoing, 
then? If you do that, Areinnye, I would feel no qualms about holding you 
responsible for various hurts done to my people by yours over the years. Nor 
would I feel any guilt over taking payment for those hurts out of your hide, 
now.
Areinnye turned her back on Ed and swam away, as if not caring what he said. 
You take strange sides, Slayer, the sperm said at last, cold-voiced. The 
humans hunt those of your Mastery as relentlessly as they hunt us.
I take no sides, Areinnye, Ed said, still following her. Not with whales, or 
fish, or humans, or any other Power in the Sea or above it. Wizard that you are, 
you should know that. He was beginning to circle her now. And if I sing this 
Song, it is for the same reason that I have sung a hundred others: for the sake 
of my Masteryand because I am pleased to sing. You had best put your distress 
aside and deal with the business we have come to discuss, lest something worse 
befall you.
Areinnye turned slowly back toward the group. Well, if youve come to 
administer me the Oath, Areinnye said to Sreee, you might as well get on with 
it. I was in the midst of hunting when you interrupted me.
Softly, Sreee said. Your power is a byword all throughout these parts; I 
want it in the Song. But were not so short of wizards that Ill include one 
wholl bring the High and Dry down on us. Choose, and tell me whether you can 
truthfully sing and leave your anger behind.
Areinnye cruised slowly through the group, making no sound but the small ticking 
noises the sperm uses to navigate. Seeing that the human who sings with us 
sings for the Seas sake, she said at last, in that tight, flat voice, I am 
content. But my heart is bitter in me for my calfs loss, and I cannot forget 
that easily. Let the humans remember that, and keep their distance.
If that is well for you two Kit and Nita both flicked tails in agreement. 
Well enough, then, said Sreee. Areinnye tHwio-dheii, those who gather to 
sing that Song that is the Seas shame and the Seas glory desire you to be of 
their company. Say, for my hearing, whether you consent to that Song.
I consent . . .  Areinnye sang her way through the responses with slow care, 
and Nita began to relax slightly. The sperms voice was beautiful, as pleasant 
as Kits, when she wasnt angry. Yet she couldnt help but catch a couple of 
Areinnyes glances at Edas if she knew that she was being watched for her 
responses and would be watched in the future.
Then the third Question was asked, and Areinnyes song scaled up in the high 
notes of final affirmation, a sound of tearing, chilly beauty. Let me wander 
forever amid the broken and the lost, sooner than I shall refuse the Song, 
Areinnye sang, or what it brings about for the good of those who live. But 
there was a faint note of scorn in the last phrase, as if the singer already 
counted herself among the lost and broken; and the notes on those who live 
twisted down the scale into a bitter diminuendo of pain that said life was a 
curse.
Now it was Sreees turn to look dubious; but it was too late.
Well, the sperm said, when is the Foregathering? And where?
Tomorrow dawn, said Sreee, in the waters off the Hook. Will you be on time?
Yes, Areinnye said. So farewell. And she turned tail and swam off.
Kit flicked a glance at Ed and said quietly to Nita, Boy, that was a close one. 
If those two got started fighting . . . 
It would not be anything like close,  Ed said.
Okay, great, Kit said in mild annoyance, she couldnt kill you. But isnt it 
just possible she might hurt you a little?
She would regret it if she did, Ed said. Blood in the water will call in some 
sharks, true. But their Masters blood in the water will call them all in, 
whether they smell it or not . . . every shark for thousands of lengths around. 
That is my magic, you see. And whatever the Master-Shark might be fighting when 
his people arrived would shortly not be there at all, except as rags and scraps 
for fingerlings to eat.
Nita and Kit and Sreee looked at each other.
Why do we need Areinnye in the first place? Nita said to Sreee. Is she 
really that good a wizard?
Turning, Sreee began to swim back the way they had come, through the 
now-darkening water. Hotshot paced her; and silently, pale in the dimness, Ed 
brought up the rear. Yes, Sreee said. In fact, by rights, she should have 
been Aemhnuus apprentice, not I.
Kit looked at her in surprise. Why wasnt she?
Sreee made a little moan of annoyance. I dont know, she said. Areinnye is a 
much more powerful wizard than I ameven Aemhnuu agreed with me about that. Yet 
he refused her request to study with him, not just once, but several times. And 
now this business with her calf Sreee blew a few huge bubbles out her 
blowhole, making an unsettled noise. Well, well make it work out.
That shall yet be seen, Ed said from behind them.
The Moon was high when Nita and Kit came out of the water close to the jetty and 
went looking for their clothes. Kit spent a while gazing longingly up at the 
silver-golden disc, while Nita dressed. Were really gonna get killed now, 
arent we? he said, so quietly that Nita could hardly hear him.
Uh-huh. Nita sat down on the sand and stared out at the waves while Kit went 
hunting for his bathing suit and windbreaker.
Whaddaya think theyll do? Kit said.
Nita shook her head. No idea.
Kit came up beside her, adjusting his windbreaker. You think theyre gonna send 
me home?
They might, she said.
They toiled up the last dune before home and looked down toward the little rough 
road that ran past the house. All the upstairs lights were on. The downstairs 
ones were dark; evidently Dairine had been sent to bed.
Neets Kit said. Whatre you gonna do?
Im sworn, Kit. Im in the Song. I have to be there.
You mean youre going to
Dont, she said, in genuine pain. She didnt want him to say it, to think it, 
any more than she wanted to think it herself. And to tell the absolute truth, 
she wasnt sure of what she was going to do about the Song yet.
They dont need me for the Song, Kit said.
It doesnt look that way.
Yeah. He was quiet a moment. Lookif somehow I can get you off the hook, get 
your folks to think this is all my fault somehow, so that you can still go out . 
. . 
No, Nita said, scandalized. Anyway, theyd never buy it. I promised my mom 
Id be back on time last timeand blew it. Then I snuck out today. They know 
its me as much as you. Im just gonna have to face the music.
With what? Kit said.
I dont know. The thought of treating her parents as enemies made her feel as 
if the bottom had fallen out of the Universe.
The one good thing, she thought, is that by tomorrow, tonight will be over.
I hope.
Cmon, she said. Together they went home.
The house was deadly still when they stepped in, and the screen door closing 
behind them seemed loud enough to be heard for miles around. The kitchen was 
dark; light flowed into it from the living room, the subdued illumination of a 
couple of table lamps. There was no sound of TV, even though Nita knew her dads 
passion for late movies; no music, despite her moms fondness for classics and 
symphonic rock at any hour of day or night.
Nitas mouth felt dry as beach sand. She stopped where she was, tried to 
swallow, looked at Kit. He looked back, punched her lightly in the arm, then 
pushed past her and walked into the living room.
For the rest of her life, Nita thought, she would remember the way that room 
looked and felt when she walked in. The living room needed a new paint job, its 
rug was threadbare in places, and the walls were hung with bargain-basement 
seascapes, wide-eyed children of almost terminal cuteness, and, in one corner, 
something her dad called the Piece of Resistancea garish matador done in 
day-glow paint on black velvet.
Her mother and father were sitting side by side on the Coca-Cola-colored couch, 
their backs straight. They looked up as Nita and Kit came through the door, and 
Nita saw her mothers face tight with fear and her fathers closed like a door. 
They had been reading magazines; they put them aside, and the usually friendly 
room suddenly looked dingy as a prison, and the matador hurt Nitas eyes.
Sit down, her father said. His voice, quiet, calm, sounded too much like Eds. 
She managed to hold onto her composure as she headed for Dairines favorite 
chair and sat down quickly.
Pretty slick, said her father. My daughter appears to have a great future in 
breaking and entering. Or breaking and departing.
Nita opened her mouth and shut it again. She could have dealt with a good 
scolding . . . but this chilly sarcasm terrified her. And there was no way out 
of it.
Well? her father said. Youd better start coming up with some answers, young 
lady. You too, he said to Kit, his eyes flashing; and at the sight of the 
anger, Nita felt a wash of relief. That look was normal. Because what you two 
say is going to determine whether we send you straight home tomorrow morning, 
Kitand whether we let you and Nita see any more of each other.
Kit looked her father straight in the eye and said nothing.
Sperm whales! Nita thought, and it was nearly a curse. But then she took the 
thought back as she realized that Kit was waiting for her to say something 
first, to give him a lead. Great! Now all I have to do is do something!
What do I do?
Kit, her father said, I warn you, Im in no mood for Latin gallantry and the 
whole protect-the-lady business. You were entrusted to my care and I want 
answers. Your parents are going to hear about this in any casewhat you say, or 
dont say, is going to determine what I tell them. So be advised.
I understand, Kit said. Then he glanced at Nita. Neets?
Nita shook her head ever so slightly, amazed as always by that frightened 
bravery that would wait for her to make a move, then back her utterly. It had 
nothing to do with the whalesark. Kit, Nita thought, practically trembling with 
the force of what she felt, youre incredible! But I dont have your gutsand I 
have to do something!
Her mother and father were looking at her, waiting.
Oh, Lord, Nita thought then, and bowed her head and put one hand over her face, 
for she suddenly knew what to do.
She looked up. Mom, she saidand then had to start over, for the word came out 
in a kind of strangled squeak. Mom, you remember when we were talking the other 
day? And you said you wanted to know why we were staying out so much, because 
you thought something besides nothing was going on?
Her mother nodded, frozen-faced.
Uh, well, there was, Nita said, not sure where to go from there. Two months of 
wizardry, spells wrought and strange places visited and wonders seenhow to 
explain it all to nonwizards? Especially when they might not be able to see 
wizardry done right under their eyesand in the past hadnt? Never mind that, 
Nita told herself desperately. If you think too much, youll get cold feet. Just 
talk.
Her mother was wearing a ready-to-hear-the-worst expression. No, not that, 
Nita said, feeling downright cross that her mother was still thinking along 
those idiotic lines. But this is going to take a while.
Nita swallowed hard. You remember in the spring, she said, that day Kit and I 
went into the cityand that night, the Sun went out?
Her parents stared at her, still angry, and now slightly perplexed too.
We had something to do with that, Nita said.









Truthsong
And Nita began to tell them. By the time she saw from their faces just how crazy 
the story must be sounding, it was already much too late for her to stop.
She told them the story from the beginningthe day she had her hand snagged by 
an innocent-looking library book full of instructions for wizardryto the end of 
her first great trial, and Kits, that terrible night when the forces of 
darkness got loose in Manhattan and would have turned first the city and then 
the world into a place bound in eternal night and cold, except for what she and 
Kit did. She told them about Advisory and Senior wizards, though she didnt 
mention Tom and Carl; about places past the world where there was nothing but 
night, and about the place past life where there was nothing but day.
Not once did her parents say a word.
Mostly Kit kept quiet, except when Nitas memory about something specific 
failed; then he spoke up and filled in the gap, and she went on again. The look 
on her fathers face was approaching anger again, and her mother was well into 
complete consternation, by the time Nita started telling them about the dolphin 
who nudged her in the back, the whale she and Kit found on the beach, and the 
story the whale had told them. She told them a littlevery little, fearing for 
her own composureabout the Song of the Twelve and what she was going to be 
doing in it.
And then, not knowing what else to say, she stopped.
Her mother and father looked at each other.
Our daughter, the look said, is going to have to be hospitalized. Shes sick.
Nitas mother finally turned to her. Her dad had bowed his head about a third of 
the way through the story, and except for that glance at her mother seemed 
unable to do anything but sit with his hands clasped tightly together. But her 
mothers face was stricken.
Nita, she said, very gentlybut her voice was shaking like the tightly clasped 
hands of the man beside her, you dont have to make up stories like this to 
keep us from being angry with you.
Nitas mouth fell open. Mom, she said, are you trying to say you dont 
believe me?
Nita, her father said. His eyes were haunted, and his attempt to keep his 
voice sounding normal was failing miserably. Give us a break. How are we 
supposed to believe a crazy story like this? Maybe youve got Kit believing it . 
. .  He broke off, as if wanting to find a way to explain all this, something 
reasonable. I guess its understandable, hes younger than you . . . 
Nita glanced over at Kit for the first time in a while and gulped. His annoyed 
look brought the sperm-whale battlecry scraping through her memories again.
Ill tell you how youre supposed to believe it, Kit said.
Nitas mother and father looked at him.
Kit was suddenly sitting a little taller in the chair. And taller still, though 
he didnt move a muscle. And talleruntil Nita could see that Kits seat and the 
seat of the chair no longer had much to do with each other. He was hovering 
about two feet in the air.
Like this, Kit said.
Holding her breath, Nita looked from Kit to her parents.
They stared at Kit, their faces absolutely unmoved, as if waiting for something. 
Kit glanced over at Nita, shrugged, and kept floating up until he was sitting 
six feet or so above the floor. Well? he said.
They didnt move a muscle.
Harry Nitas mother said, then, after what seemed forever.
He didnt say a thing.
Harry, her mother said, I hate to admit it, but I think all this has gotten 
to me . . . 
Nitas father simply kept looking at the chair.
Then, ever so slowly, he leaned his head back and looked up at Kit.
Hypnosis, Nitas father said.
Bull! Kit said. When did I hypnotize you?
Nitas father didnt say anything.
I havent said a thing, Kit said. If I hypnotized you without lights or words 
or anything, thats a pretty good trick, isnt it? You two better talk to each 
other and see if youre seeing the same thing. If you arent, maybe I did 
hypnotize you. But if you are
Nitas mother and father looked away from Kit with some effort. Betty . . .  
said Nitas father.
Neither of them said anything further for a few seconds.
Harry, her mother said at last, if I told you that I saw . . . saw Kit . . . 
 She stopped and swallowed. Then she started again, and the same feeling that 
had shaken Nita earlier about Kit took hold of her and shook her about her 
mother. Evidently bravery came in odd forms, and out of unexpected places. If I 
told you that I saw Kit not sitting in the chair any more, her mother said, all 
at once and in a rush. Then her voice gave out on her.
Above it, her dad said. And that was all he could manage.
They stared at each other.
You got it, Kit said.
Nitas dad broke away from looking at her mother and glared at Nita instead. 
Hypnosis, her father said. Theres no other explanation.
Yes, there is! Nita hollered at him, waving her arms in frustration, but you 
dont want to admit it!
Nita, her mother said.
Sorry, Nita said. Look, Kit . . . this isnt going to do it. We need 
something more impressive. She got up. Come on, she said. Outside. Its my 
turn.
Nita yanked the front door open and ran outside, up the dune and down its far 
side toward the beach. There was a long pause before she heard the sound of 
footsteps following her down the wooden stairs. Shock, she thought, feeling both 
pity and amusement. If only there was some easier way! But there wasnt . . . 
She made it down to the beach, picked the spot she wanted, then stood and waited 
for them to arrive.
First her mother, then her father, came clambering up the dune and slid down its 
far side, to stand on the beach and stare up and down it, looking for her. Then 
Kit appeared beside them in a small clap of air that startled her mother so 
badly she jumped. Her father stared.
Sorry, Kit said, I should have warned you. He was still sitting cross-legged 
in the air, and Nita noticed that he didnt sound very sorry either.
Oh, Lord, said Nitas father at the sight of Kit, and then turned resolutely 
away. All right. Wheres Nita?
Over here, Daddy, Nita called from where she was standing on the water, just 
past the line of the breakers.
He stared at Nita. So did Nitas mother, who slowly went to stand beside her 
husband. Her voice was shaking as she said, Harry, it could be that my eyes are 
just going . . . 
Mom, Nita shouted, give me a break; you both went to the eye doctor last 
month and you were fine! She bounced up and down on the water several times, 
then took a few long strides to the west, turned, and came back. Admit it! You 
see me walking on water! Well, surprise: I am walking on water! Get it! Its 
like I told you: Im a wizard!
Nita, her father said, uh, walking on water is, uh
I know, she said. I wouldnt want to overdo it. It makes my legs hurt.
Nita trotted back in to shore, taking a last hop onto the curl of a flattening 
breaker and letting it push her up onto the beach and strand her there, a few 
feet in front of them.
Kit uncrossed his legs, got his feet back on the ground, and came to stand 
beside her. So what else would you like to see? he said.
Her parents looked at each other, then down at the two of them. Look, Kit, 
Nita, her father said unhappily, its not a question of what wed like to see. 
At this point Im sure you two could get us to see anything you wanted to . . 
. heaven knows how. But thats not the point. This cant benone of this is 
real!
Wanna bet? Kit said softly. Neets, this is gonna call for drastic measures.
I think youre right. Well, lets see what the manual says about this. Book, 
please, she said, thinking the six words of a spell she knew by heart and 
putting her hand out. Another small clap of air, about as noisy as a cap going 
off, and her wizards manual dropped into her hand. Her mother goggled. Nita 
opened the manual and began browsing through it. Lets see . . . 
You two just stop making things pop in and out for a moment, and listen to me, 
Nitas mother said all of a sudden. Nita, I want to know where this power came 
from! You two havent made a pact with, with
Nita thought of her last encounter with the Lone Power and burst out laughing. 
Oh, Mom! Kit and I are the last people that One wants anything to do with.
Her mother looked nonplussed. Well, thatsnever mind, youll tell me about 
that some other time. But, honey, why, why?
You mean, Why are there wizards? Or Why are we wizards?  Nita said. Or do 
you really mean Whats in it for us? 
Yes, her mother said, sounding lost.
Nita and Kit looked at each other, and Kit shook his head. Were never gonna be 
able to explain this, he said.
She agreed with him. Only one thing we can do, I guess, Nita said, musing.
Show them?
Nita looked at Kit, and for the first time in what seemed days, a smile began to 
grow. Remember that place we went a week and a half ago? she said. The one 
with the great view?
Ill get my book, he said, grinning back, and the string.
Dont forget the chip! Nita said, but Kit had already gone out, bang! just 
like a candle, and Nita was talking to empty air. She turned to her mother and 
father. He went to get some supplies, she said. Most wizardry you need things 
forraw materials, kind of.
Fine, honey, her mother said, but does he have to keep appearing and 
disappearing like that?
Its faster than walking, Nita said. And we havent got all night. He and I 
are going to have to be out early again tomorrow morning
Nita! said her father.
She went to him and put her arms around him. Please, Dad, she said, let it be 
for a little while. We told you why. But you have to feel this first. It wont 
make sense unless you do. In fact, it may never make sense. Just trust me!
Kit popped back out of nothing, making Nitas mother jump again. Sorry, Mrs. 
Callahan, he said. Its fun, thats all. Its a beam-me-up-Scotty spell. 
Sos this one were going to do. Just a little more involved. He dropped the 
necessary supplies on the sanda small coil of cord, an old silicon chip 
salvaged from a broken pocket calculator, a gray stone. Then he started going 
through his own manual.
Nita looked down at the stone Kit had brought. Good idea, she said. 
Shorthand, huh?
It remembers the way. Should save some work. Good thing, too . . . weve got 
two more sets of variables this time. Get the figures for me, will you?
Right. Nita held out her book a bit as she went through it, so that her mother 
and father could look over her shoulder. See, Mom? Dad? Its just an 
instruction manual, like I said.
I cant read it, her father said, staring at the graceful strokes of the 
written form of the Speech. What is it, Arabic?
No, she said. No Earthly language. At least, not strictly Earthly. A lot of 
the forces we work with dont have names in any language on Earthor they only 
have vague ones. You cant be vague about magic.
Good way to get killed, Kit said from where he knelt in the sand, scribbling 
with a stick and sounding cheerful. Mr. Callahan, Mrs. Callahan, dont step on 
any of these things Im writing in the sand, or well all be in big trouble. 
Mrs. Callahan, whats your birthday?
April twenty-eighth, said Nitas mother.
Mr. Callahan?
July seventh, said Nitas father.
Neets, how big a circle?
Half a second, Nita said. Brighter, she said to her manual. Its pages began 
to glow softly in the dark. Okay, here we are. Four of us . . .  about a cubic 
foot of air for each breath. Allow for excitementsay thirty breaths a minute. 
Times four . . .  She turned to another page. Start, she said, and heard over 
her shoulder her mothers quick intake of breath as the page Nita had opened to 
abruptly went blank. Print one two zero times four. A set of characters 
appeared. Okay, print four eight zero times twenty . . . Good, print nine six 
zero zero divided by three . . . Great. Cubic meters . . .  uhh . . . Oh, crap. 
Kit, whats the volume of a cylinder again?
V equals pi times r squared times the height.
Thats it. Now how did I do this before? Nita chewed her lip a little, 
thinking. Okay, she said to the book, print three point one four one seven 
times, uh, three zero. A figure flickered at her. No, that is not a number, 
she said to the book. Times three zero, and dont get cute with me . . . Okay. 
Print square root parenthesis three two zero zero divided by nine four point two 
five one close parentheses. Great. End. Kit? Make it thirty-six feet wide.
Got it, Kit said. Mrs. Callahan, would you stand on this string, please? And 
whatever happens, dont go near the edge of the circle after I close it. He 
started to walk around them all, using Mrs. Callahan and the long knotted string 
as a compass. Neets? Come check your name. And theirs; they cant do it
She stepped over to the circle and made sure that the Speech-characters 
describing herself and her parents were correct, then glanced over Kits too for 
safetys sake. Everything was in order. Kit finished the circle he was making in 
the sand, closed it with the figure-eight design called a wizards knot, and 
stood up. All set, Nita said.
Then lets go. He opened his book; Nita went looking for the page in hers on 
which the spell was written. Its a read spell, Nita said to her mother and 
father. That means its going to be a few moments before it takes. Dont say 
anything, no matter what you feel or see or hear. Dont move, either.
You might want to hang on to each other, Kit said. Nita gave him a wry grin; 
there had been occasions in the past when the two of them, terrified out of 
their wits, had done just that. Ready?
Go ahead, said Nitas father, and reached out and pulled Nitas mother close.
Nita and Kit looked at each other and began slowly to read out loud. The 
strange, listening stillness of a working spell began to settle in around the 
four of them, becoming more pronounced with every word of the Speech, as the 
Universe in that area waited to hear what would be required of it. The wind 
dropped, the sound of the surf grew softer, even the breakers in the area became 
gentler, flatter, their hiss fading to a bare whisper . . . 
The sense of expectation, of anticipation, of impatient, overwhelming potential 
grew all around them as the silence grew . . . slowly undergoing a 
transformation into a blend of delight and terror and power that could be 
breathed like air, or seen as a shading now inhabiting every color, a presence 
inhabiting every shape.
Nita raised her voice into the stillness unafraid, speaking the words of the 
spell formula, barely needing to look at her book. The magic was rising in her, 
pouring through her with dangerous power. But with the sureness of practice she 
rode the danger, knowing the wonder to which it would bring her, reveling in her 
defiance of her fear. And in more than that: for Kit was across the circle from 
her, eyes on hers, matching her word for word and power for powerpeer and 
friend and fellow-wizard, afraid as she was, and still willing to dare, for the 
delight of what lay on the other side of the magic
Almost through, Nita thought, exulting. Her words and Kits wound about one 
another, wove together, binding the spell tighter around the circlesqueezing 
air in, squeezing power in, pushing inward with such force that the circle and 
its contents had no choice but to be somewhere else than they were.
AlmostNita matched her words to Kits with a laugh in her voice, rushing him, 
finding that she couldnt rush him because he had already matched pace to keep 
up with herShe laughed at being anticipated so. Faster and faster they went, 
like two kids seeing who could say the Pledge of Allegiance faster, as all 
around them the silence began to sing with inturned power, the air shimmered and 
rang with force like a gong ringing backward, soft at first, then louder, though 
without sound, without breaking that silencea hiss, a murmur, an outcry of 
something about to happen, a shout of inner voices, a silent thunderclap. And 
the last not-sound, so loud it unmade the world around them and struck them deaf 
and blind
Then true silence again, with darkness above and whiteness belowbut not the 
same darkness or whiteness as on the beach.
Were here, Nita whispered. Mom, Dad, have a look around. Dont go near the 
edges of the circle.
Be careful how you move, Kit said. You only weigh a sixth of what you usually 
do. If your muscles overreact you could bounce right out of the circle. I almost 
did, first time.
Nita watched her mother and father stare around them. She swallowedpartly out 
of reflex, for her ears were ringing in the silence that surrounded them now. 
That was to be expected; this stillness was more total than anything experienced 
on Earth. Her other reason for swallowing was more practical. The sudden 
transfer to one-sixth gravity tended to upset your stomach unless you were used 
to it.
Her father was staring at the ground, which had changed from wet beach sand to a 
mixture of grayish gravel and pebbles, and rocks the size of fists or melons, 
all covered with a gray-white dust as fine as talc. But Nitas mother was 
staring up at the sky with a look of joy so great it was painthe completely 
bearable anguish of an impossible dream that suddenly comes true after years of 
hopeless yearning. Tears were running down her mothers face at the sight of 
that sky, so pure a velvet black that the eye insisted on finding light in it 
where light was nota night sky set with thousands of stars, all blazing with a 
cold fierce brilliance that only astronauts ever saw; a night sky that 
nonetheless had a ravening sun standing noonday high in it, pooling all their 
shadows black and razor-sharp about their feet.
Nita was blinking hard herself to manage the stinging of her eyes; she knew how 
her mother felt. Over there, Mom, she said very quietly. Off to the left. 
Look.
Off to the left was a steep slope that plunged down and down to a deep chasm, 
filled with absolute blackness ungentled by the presence of air. On the far side 
of the chasm stretched a flat, rocky plain that seemed to stop too soon, running 
up against a horizon abnormally close. Out on the plain, not too far away, a 
dazzling squarish glow of gold sat on four spidery legs. Some thirty yards from 
the bright platform on legs stood a silvery pole with an American flag standing 
out from it, held straight by a rod running through the top of it: a 
necessityfor here where it stood, no wind would ever stir it.
No, Nitas father said, his voice hushed. Impossible. Tranquillity Base
No, Kit said, his voice soft too. Thats going to be a tourist attraction in 
a few years, when they build the Hilton thereso we dont go down there for fear 
of leaving footprints where somebody might find them. This is from Apollo 16. 
See over there? He pointed past the abandoned first-stage platform of the LEM 
Orion at the first Lunar Rover, which sat parked neatly beside a bouldera 
delicate-looking little dune buggy, still in excellent condition, used only once 
by a couple of astronauts from Pasadena for jaunts to Stone Mountain, on which 
the four of them stood.
Nitas father slowly went down on one knee and brushed his hand along the dry, 
pale lunar soil, turning over the stones that lay there, then picking one up and 
clutching it hard in his fist.
Harry, Nitas mother said, still looking up. The tone of her voice made her 
husband look up tooand seeing what she saw, he forgot the rock.
What they saw was part of a disk four times the size of the Moon as seen from 
the Earth; and it seemed even bigger because of the Moons foreshortened 
horizon. It was not the full Earth so familiar from pictures, but a waning 
crescent, streaked with cloud swirls and burning with a fierce green-blue 
radiancea light with depth, like the fire held in the heart of an opal; that 
light banished the idea that blue and green were cool colors; one could have 
warmed ones hands at that crescent. The blackness to which it shaded was ever 
so faintly touched with silvera disk more hinted at than seen; the new Earth in 
the old Earths arms.
Therell be a time, Nita said softly, when any time someones elected to a 
public officebefore they let them start worktheyll bring whoever was elected 
up here and just make them look at that until they get what it means . . . 
Kit nodded. You wanted to know where the power came from, he said to Nitas 
mother and father. The grownups whore wizards tell us that whatever made that 
made the power too. Its all of a piece.
The grownups whore wizards?
And as for why,  Kit said, thats why. There was no need for him to point 
to that. Not just for thefor what you felt on the way in. Thats part of it. 
But because somebodys gotta take care of that. Not just part of itnot just one 
country, or one set of rules, or one species, at the expense of the others. But 
everything that lives, all the kinds of people. All of it, with nothing left 
out. One whole planet. Somebodys got to make sure it grows as well as it can. 
Or just that it survives. Thats what wizards do.
Daddy, Nita said, its like you always say. If you dont do it yourself, it 
may not get done right. And we cant afford to let that get screwed up. We have 
to live there. So will other people, later.
Her father shook his head, confused. Nita, he said, sounding unsure, youre 
too young to be thinking about this kind of thing.
She bit her lip. Dadthat sort of thinking might be one of the reasons why 
things arent working so well back there . . . 
Neets, Kit said, we have to get back. Were losing heat pretty fast.
Mom, Dad, Nita said, we can come back some other time. Its late, and Kit and 
I have an early day tomorrow. Got the rock? she said to Kit.
Uh-huh. Ready?
Nitas mother reached out and pulled her husband close this time. Is it going 
to be like it was before?
Huh? No. It just takes a lot of effort to push all this air up out of Earths 
gravity well, thats all. You have to reach escape velocity
Nitas father blinked. Wait a minute. I thought this wasmagic. He said the 
word as if for the first time in his life.
Nita shrugged. Even with magic, she said, you have to obey the rules. 
Downhill is a lot easier than uphill in wizardry, same as anywhere else. Kit?
Ready, he said. They looked at each other, took a breath, and said one short 
word in unison.
WHAM!and air and sand and water blew outward in all directions as they left 
noon for midnight, standing once again on the long dark beach silvered with 
moonlight. Kit stepped to the edge of the circle, first scuffing the wizards 
knot out of existence, then going around and breaking the circle once at each 
compass point. Lets go in, Nita said to her parents. Its dead.
The four of them trudged up the stairs to the front door, back into the living 
room. Her dad plopped down onto the couch and said, Nita, wait just a few 
minutes. I have to ask you something.
Nita looked at him, sighed, and did as she was told. Tell me again, her dad 
said, this stuff about what youre doing underwater. Just very briefly.
It turned out to be more than briefly, since much of what Nita had told her 
parents had fallen out of their heads the first time, discarded in general 
disbelief. And it was with growing dismay that Nita watched the unease in her 
parents faces, as she told them again about the undersea tremors, the pollution 
of the water, the slaughter of the whalesand the purposes of the Lone Power, 
though she tried to tell them as little about that as she could.
Nita, her father said at last, what are the chances that you could get hurt 
doing this Song business? The truth.
She looked at him unhappily. Pretty good, she said.
And the same for Kit? her mother said.
Just about, Kit said.
Nitas father shook his head. Nita. Look. I understand . . . no. I sort of 
understand how you and Kit feel about this. Magic . . .  He raised his hands, 
dropped them again, in a helpless gesture. If someone offered me the chance to 
be a magician, Id jump at it . . . 
A wizard, Nita said. And, No, you wouldnt, she thought. Because if you would 
have, really, you would have been offered it! There are never enough wizards . . 
. 
But her father was still talking. But this business . . . endangering yourself, 
or endangering KitYour mother and I cant permit it. Youre going to have to 
bow out.
For a moment, as far as Nita was concerned, everything faded out, drowned in a 
great wash of relief and hope. The perfect excuse. Perfect. My mom and dad wont 
let me. Sorry, Sreee, Hotshot, Ed . . . 
Opaque black eyes looked at Nita out of the scene her eager mind was already 
constructing for herand hope died. The hair stood up all over Nitanot from 
fear, but from something more terrible. Without any warning, and for the first 
time, she understood in her own person what had only been a word to her before: 
honor. I cant, she thought. For mefor meits not right.
Dad, she said unhappily, you didnt get it. Im sworn to the Song. If I back 
out now, the whole thing will be sabotaged.
Her father got up, a sign that he intended this argument to be over shortly. 
Come on, Neets. Surely someone else could do it
No.
Nita, said her mother, looking stern, you dont understand. Were not letting 
you do this. Or Kit either, while hes under our roof. Youre going to have to 
find a replacement. Or thethe whales will. Whoever. Youre not going.
I must not have said it right, theyre not understanding! Mom Nita said, 
searching frantically for words. This isnt just some cute thing that Kit and I 
are doing because itll be fun! If we dont stop the forces that are beginning 
to move, there are going to be massive earthquakes all up and down the East 
Coast. Thats not a maybe. Its a will! You think the Island would survive 
something like that? The whole place is nothing but rocks and trash the glaciers 
dumped in the ocean; itll break up and wash away like a sandcastle at high 
tide! And you think Manhattanll survive? Its already got four unstable 
geological faults of its own, right through the bedrock! And none of the 
buildings there are earthquake-proof; one quakell leave the place looking like 
somebody kicked over a pile of blocks! Nita was waving her arms in the air now, 
so upset that she was beyond caring whether she looked silly or not. Millions 
of people could die
Could, her father said, seizing on the word. He was pacing now.
Kit shook his head. Will, he said, and there was such a weight of certainty 
and misery on the word that Nitas father stopped pacing, and her mother closed 
her mouth, and they both stared at Kit in amazement. Youre saying, Kit said, 
gazing at them out of eyes suddenly gone dark and fierce, that you dont care 
whether ten million people, more than ten million people, would die, just so 
long as we two dont get hurt.
Nitas mother spluttered, to Nitas great satisfaction. That one had sunk in. 
No, we arent, we just
You dont even care that ten million people might die, Nita said. Just so Kit 
and I are okay, youre willing to run that risk.
No, I Nitas father saw what was being done to him. Young lady, no more out 
of you! Just the quakes going on off the coast now, by the reports weve heard, 
are too dangerous for you to be down there.
Daddy, believe me, weve survived a lot worse!
Yesand your mother and I didnt know about it then! Now we do. Her father 
turned away. The answer is no, and thats final!
From many fights Nita had overheard between her folks, Nita knew that when her 
dad said that, it never was. Daddy, she said. Im sorry. I really am. I love 
you, and I wish like anything I could do what you want. But I cant.
Nita! There was that rage again, full-blown, worse than before. Her father was 
on his feet, standing right over her, glaring at her. You will do as I tell 
you!
Hot all over, Nita shot to her feetstanding on the chairand in sheer 
desperation shouted right back in his face. Dont you get it? There are some 
things in the world more important than doing what you tell me!
Her father and mother stared at her, stunned.
Besides, Kit said quietly from out of her range of vision, how would you stop 
us?
Nitas father turned away to stare at Kit now.
Look, Kit said. Mr. Callahan, Mrs. Callahanwe gave our word that wed do 
this. What is this we? Nita thought, bemused. And the wizardry were doing 
is mainly directed against the One who invented the broken promise. Breaking our 
word will play right into Its hands and cause a lot of people to die, at best. 
Maybe destroy this world, sooner or later, at worst.
But we have only your word on that! Nitas mother said.
Uh-huh. But isnt our word any good? And why would we lie to you about this? 
Considering that were going through all this crap for the sake of telling you 
the truth.
Nitas mother closed her mouth.
She didnt have to tell you, Kit said, sounding angry for the first time. But 
it wouldve been lying, in a wayand Nita thinks youre worth not lying to. He 
paused, then said, I do too. We may just be kids, but were old enough to tell 
the truth. And to take it. Are you?
The question wasnt a taunt: It was honestly meant. Even if youre not, well 
still have to do what we have to, Nita said, though saying it made her unhappy. 
When you two wake up in the morning, this could all seem like a dream to youif 
it had to. I guess youd better make up your minds, because we have to get some 
sleep or we wont be worth dead fish tomorrow.
Her parents were staring at each other. Betty . . .  said Nitas father.
We need more time, Nitas mother said.
I dont think weve got it.
Her mother looked back at her father. If theyre right about this, she said, 
it would be wrong of us to stop them if they want to help.
But were responsible for them!
Apparently, Nitas mother said, in a peculiar mixture of pride and pain, 
theyve learned that lesson better than we suspected, Harry. Because now they 
seem to be making themselves responsible for us. And a lot of other people.
I guess there comes a time when you cant do anything but trust, her father 
said at last, sounding reluctant. It just seemsso soon . . . Nitais all this 
on the level?
Oh, Daddy. She loved him, right then, and hurt for him, more than she could 
have told him. I wish it werent. But it is.
Nitas father was silent for several long breaths. Millions of lives, he said 
under his breath. And another silence, which he finally broke as if it were a 
physical thing. At which hour do you need to be up?
Sixish. Ill set my alarm, Daddy. Nita got stiffly down from the chair aching 
all over. Behind her, Kit got up and brushed past her as Nita hugged first her 
dad good night. Maybe the last time she would ever hug him . . . or the 
second-to-the-lastOh, dont think of that now!
Her mother had caught Kit on the way past and hugged himand now wouldnt let 
Nita past without one either. She held her for a moment at arms length. Thank 
you forup there, baby, she said, nodding once at the ceiling. Her eyes were 
wet, but she was smiling.
Its okay, Mom. Any time. Is this what it feels like when your heart breaks? 
Oh, Lord, dont let me cry.
And thank you for trusting us.
Nita swallowed. You taught me how, she said. And then she couldnt stand it 
any more. She broke away and headed for her room, Kit right behind her.
She knew there was one hurdle left between her and bed. Actually, the hurdle was 
on the bed: sitting there crosslegged in the dark, looking at her with cool 
interest as they came in.
Well? Dairine said, as Nita flopped down on her stomach beside her, and the 
bed bounced them both once or twice. I saw you disappear. Wheredya take 
them?
The Moon.
Oh, come on, Neets.
Dairine, Kit said from the doorway. Catch.
Nita glanced up, saw her sister reach up and pick something out of the air: an 
irregular piece of pale, grainy stone, about the size and shape of an eraser. 
Dairine peered at it, rubbing it between her fingers. What is this? Pumice? 
There was a moment of shocked silence; then Dairines voice scaled up to an 
aggrieved shriek. You did go to the Moon! And you didnt take me! You, you 
Apparently she couldnt find anything sufficiently dirty to call them. Im 
gonna kill you!
Dari, shut up, theyre in shock out there! Nita said. This argument did little 
to save her. Far more effective was Kits wrestling Dairine down flat, stuffing 
her under the bedcovers and a couple of pillows, and more or less sitting on her 
until she shut up and stopped struggling.
Well take you next time, Nita said, and then the pain hit her again. Kit, 
she said, husky-voiced. Remind me to see that the runt here gets to the Moon in 
the near future. Next week, maybe. If she behaves.
Right, Kit said. You give up, runt?
Hwhmffm hnnoo rrhhrhn ffwmhhnhhuh, said the blankets.
Keep talking like that and your mouthll get stuck that way, Kit said, and let 
Dairine out.
Nitas sister extricated herself from the covers with icy dignity that lasted 
just until she was sitting where she had been, back in control and smoothing her 
ruffled pajamas. Mom n Dad didnt kill you, she said to Nita.
Nope. You gave me good advice, runt.
Huh? What advice?
Last night, I suspect, Kit said. That stuff about Either keep your mouth 
shut, or tell the truth 
Nita nodded, looking from Kit to Dairine, while Dairine modestly polished her 
nails on her Yoda pajamas. And Nita stared at her, and then started to laugh, so 
hard that she got the hiccups and fell over sideways, and Dairine looked at her 
as if shed gone nuts, and Kit sat down and punched her once or twice, 
worriedly, in the shoulder. Neets? You okay?
Oh, Kit, she managed to gasp at last, between bubbles of laughter. What 
Picchu said
Huh?
What Peach said. Do what the night tells you  She went off into the giggles 
again.
Kit looked down at her, perplexed. You lost me.
Nita pushed herself upright, reached out and tugged a couple of times, weakly, 
at one of Dairines pajama-sleeves.  Do what the night tells you. Not night 
like when it gets dark. Knight! Do what the knight tells you! As in the Junior 
Jedi here She went over sideways again and strangled her last few whoops of 
laughter in a convenient pillow.
It was good advice, he said to Dairine. Thanks, Dari.
Uh, sure, said Dairine, amazed at another compliment.
Nita sat up again after a little while, wiping her eyes. Yeah, she said. Even 
if I took it before I remembered you said it . . . it was good advice. She 
thought she would let her sister have just one more complimentespecially since 
it was true, and information she might never have another chance to give her. 
Youre gonna be one hot wizard someday, Nita said.
Dairine sat speechless.
Neets, Kit said, weve had a long day. And tomorrowll be longer. Im sacking 
out. Dairine
Right, Nita said. She lay down again, feeling glad, afraid, excited, shaky, 
lighta hundred things at once. She never noticed when Dairine got off her bed; 
she never heard Kit leave. She fell into sleep as if into a hole.









Foregathering Song
Nita sat hunched in a miserable little bundle on the beach, her arms around her 
kneesstaring at the bright morning sea and not seeing it.
She had gone to bed with the feeling that everything would be all right when she 
woke up in the morning. But shed awakened to a pair of parents torn among 
insane curiosity, worry, approval, and disapproval, who drank cup after cup of 
coffee and stared at the lump of lunar pumice in the middle of the table, and 
made little sense when they talked.
She hardly knew them. Her mom and dad alternated between talking to her, hanging 
on every word she said, and talking over her head about her, as if she werent 
there. And they kept touching her like a delicate thing that might breakthough 
there was an undercurrent of anger in the touches that said her parents had 
suddenly discovered she was in some ways stronger than they were, and they 
didnt like it.
Nita sighed. Id give anything for one of Dads hugs that squeeze the air out 
and make you go squeak! she thought. Or to hear Mom do Donald Duck voices at me. 
But fat chance of that . . . 
She let out a long, unhappy breath. Kit was finishing his breakfast at a 
leisurely pace and handling endless questions about wizardry from her 
parentscovering for her. Just as well: She had other business to attend to 
before they left.
Tom, she said, almost mourning, under her breath. She had been down to 
Friedmans already and had minded the store under Dogs watchful eye for a 
long time, waiting for Tom to return her call. She needed expert help, in a 
hurry. Ive gone as far as I can on my own, she thought. I need advice! Oh, Tom, 
where are you?
As shed expected. Nothing
The last thing she expected was the sudden explosion of air that occurred about 
twenty feet down the beach from her, flinging sand in all directions. No, Nita 
corrected herself. The last thing she expected was what the explosion produced: 
a man with one towel wrapped around his waist and another draped around his 
necktall, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, with dark hair and the kind of 
face one sees in cigarette ads, but never hopes to see smile. It was not Tom, 
but Carl. He looked around him, saw Nita, and came over to her in a hurry, 
looking grave. Whatsamatter, Nita? he said, casual as always, but concerned. 
I heard that even though it wasnt meant for me.
She looked up at him wanly and tried to smile just a little; but the smile was a 
dismal failure. Uh, no. Look, no one was answering the phoneand then I was 
just thinking
That wasnt what I would call just thinking, Carl said, sitting down on the 
sand beside her. Sometimes I forget what kind of power wizards have when 
theyre kids . . . 
Nita saw that Carls hair was wet. I got you out of the shower, she said. Im 
sorry . . . 
No, I was out already. Its okay.
Wheres Tom? Nita said.
He has a breakfast meeting with some people at ABC; he asked me to take his 
calls. Not that I had much choice, in your case . . . Youve got big trouble, 
huh? Tell me about it.
She did. It took her a while. Though she braced herself for it, the look of 
shock on Carls face when he heard about Nitas accepting the Silent Lords part 
was so terrible, she started to leak tears again. Carl sat still while she 
finished the story.
Do your folks know? he said at last.
No, Nita said. And I dont think Im going to tell them. I think Dad 
suspectsand Mom knows he does and doesnt want to talk to him about it.
Carl let out a long breath. I dont know what to tell you, he said.
This was not the most encouraging thing Nita had ever heard. A Senior Wizard 
always knew what to tell you. Carl, she said, tears still thick in her voice, 
what can I do? I cantI cant just die!
It was the first time she had actually said the word out loud. It left her 
shaking all over like the aftermath of a particularly large wizardry, and the 
tears started coming again.
Carl was quiet. Well, yeah, you can, he said at last, gently. People do it 
all the timesometimes for much less cause.
But there must be something I could do!
Carl looked down at the sand. What did you say you were going to do?
Nita didnt say anything; they both knew the answer very well. You know what 
caused this? Carl said.
What?
Remember the blank-check sorcery you did while in the other Manhattan, that 
time? The open-ended request for help?
Uh-huh.
That kind of spell always says that at some later date youll be called upon to 
return the energy you use. Carl looked somber. You got your help. But it must 
have taken a lot of energy to seal a whole piece of another space away from 
every other space, forever . . . 
Nita scrubbed at her eyes, not much liking this line of reasoning. But the 
spell never said anyone was going to have to die to pay back the price!
No. All it said was that you were going to have to pay back the exact amount of 
energy used up at some future date. And it must have been a very great amount, 
to require lifeprice to be paid. Theres no higher payment that can be made. 
Carl fell silent a moment, then said, Well, one. And his face shut as if a 
door had closed behind his eyes.
Nita put her head down on her knees again. This wasnt working the way it was 
supposed to. Carl, there has to be something you, we could do
The surf crashed for a long time between her words and his. Nita, Carl said 
finally, no. What you absolutely do not want is something you could do. What 
you really want is for me to get you off the hook somehow, so you dont have to 
carry through with your promise.
Her head snapped up in shock. You meanCarl, dont you care if I die or not?
I care a whole lot. The pain in Carls voice made it plain that he did. But 
unfortunately I also have to tell you the truth. Thats what Seniors are for; 
why do you think were given so much power to work with? Were paid for what we 
doand a lot of it isnt pleasant.
Then tell me some truth! Tell me what to do
No, he said gently. Never that. Nine-tenths of the power of wizardry comes 
from making up your own mind what youre going to do. The rest of it is just 
mechanics. Carl looked at her with a professional calm that reminded Nita of 
her family doctor. What I can do is go over your options with you.
She nodded.
So firstwhat youd like to do. You want to break your word and not sing the 
Song. Thatd be easy enough to do. You would simply disappearstay on land for 
the next week or so and not have anything further to do with the whales with 
whom youve been working. That would keep you out of the Song proper; youd be 
alive three days from now.
Carl looked out to sea as he spoke, nothing in his expression or his tone of 
voice hinting at either praise or condemnation. There would naturally be 
results of that action. For one, you took the Celebrants Oath in front of 
witnesses and called on the Powers of wizardry themselves to bring certain 
things about if you break the Oath. They will bring those things about, Nitathe 
Powers dont forget. Youll lose your wizardry. Youll forget that there is any 
such thing as magic in the world. Any relationships you have with other wizards 
will immediately collapse. You would never have met Kit, for example, or me, or 
Tom, except for your wizardry. So well cease to exist for you.
Nita held still as stone.
Therell also be effects on the Song itself as a result of your leaving. Even 
if the group manages to find a replacement wizard to sing the Silent One Nita 
thought of Kit and froze. the Song itself will still have been sabotaged by 
your betrayal of your Oath. It wont be effective. The undersea tremors, the 
pollution and the attacks on the whales and all the rest of it will continue. Or 
the Lone Power will enter into the wizardry and throw it completely out of 
control - in which case I dont want to think of what will happen to New York 
and the Island, sooner or later. If all the other wizards in the area worked 
together, we might be able to slow it down. But not for long.
Carl took a breath. And on top of everything else, breaking the Celebrants 
Oath will also be a violation of the Wizards Oath, your oath to assist in 
slowing down the death of the Universe. In your last moment as a wizard, as you 
lose your magic, you will know beyond all doubt that the Universe around you is 
going to die sooner because of your actions. And all through your life therell 
always be something at the bottom of your heart that feels sad . . . and youll 
never be able to get rid of it, or even understand it.
Nita didnt move.
That was all the bad stuff. On the good side I can tell you that you 
probably wouldnt die of the upheavals that will start happening. What you did 
in Manhattan with Kit wouldnt be forgotten by the Powers either; they pay their 
debts. I imagine your folks would get a sudden urge to go visit some relatives 
out of statesomething like thatand be a good distance inland when the trouble 
started. And after the trouble, you would go on to live what would seem a 
perfectly normal life . . . after all, most people think its normal to have a 
nameless sorrow at the bottom of your soul. Youd grow up, and find a job, and 
get married, or not, and work and play and do all the other things that mortals 
and wizards do. And then youd die.
Nita was silent.
Now the second option, Carl said. You go down there and keep your wordthough 
youre not happy about it, to say the least. You sing the Song, and when the 
time comes you dive into that coral or whatever and cut yourself up, and the 
Master-Shark comes after you and eats you. You experience about two or three 
minutes of extreme pain, pain like being hit by a car or burned all over, until 
you go into shock, or your brain runs out of oxygen, whichever comes first; and 
you die. Your parents and friends then have to deal with the fact of your 
death.
Nitas tears started again.
The good side to this option, said Carl, is that the Song will be 
successfully completed, millions of people will continue to live their lives 
untroubled, and the Lone Power will have suffered another severe setback. My 
estimate is that It couldnt interfere in any large way with the Seas 
affairsand, to some extent, with the landsfor some forty to fifty years 
thereafter. Possibly more.
Nita nodded slowly. So if
Wait. Theres a third option, Carl said.
Huh?
He looked at her with an expression she couldnt fully decipher. Sing the Song 
and make the Sacrificebut do it willingly. Rather than just doing it because 
you have to, to keep terrible things from happening.
Does it make a difference?
Carl nodded. If you can make the Sacrifice willingly, the wizardry will gain 
such power as you can barely imagine. The Lone Ones power is always based on 
Its desire to have Its own way in everything. Nothing undermines Its workings 
faster than power turned toward having something be the way someone else wants 
it.
Carl looked hard at her. I have to make real sure you understand this. Im not 
talking about the sort of fakery most people mean when they talk about 
sacrificenone of that unselfishness business, which usually has the desire 
for other people to feel guilty or sad hidden at the bottom of it. No being a 
martyr. That would sabotage a wizardry almost as badly as running out on it. 
But to willingly give up ones life for the sake of the joy and well-being of 
others will instantly destroy whatever power the Lone One has currently 
amassed. He glanced away. That doesnt mean you couldnt be afraid and still 
have it work, by the way.
Great, Nita said with a nervous laugh.
The important thing is that, other times when the Sacrifice has been made 
willingly, there have been fewer wars afterward, less crime, for a long while. 
The Death of things, of the world as whole, has been slowed . . . 
Nita thought of people beating and shooting and stealing from each other; she 
thought of A-bombs and H-bombs, and people starving and poorand she thought of 
all that slowed down. But all those troubles and possibilities seemed remote 
right now compared to her own problem, her own life. I dont know if I could do 
that, Nita said, scarcely above a whisper.
There was a long pause. I dont know if I could either, said Carl, just as 
quietly.
She sat still for a long time. I think
Dont say it, Carl said, shaking his head. You couldnt possibly have decided 
already. And even if you have He glanced away. You may change your mind later 
. . . and then youll be saved the embarrassment of having to justify it to me.
Later She looked at him in distress and confusion. You mean you would still 
talk to me if I She stopped. Wait a minute. If I dont do it, I wont know 
you! And if I do do it
Theres always Timeheart, Carl said softly.
Nita nodded, silent. She had been there once, in that place to which only 
wizards can find their way while still alive; that terrible and beautiful place 
where things that are loved are preserved, deathless, perfect, yet still growing 
and becoming more themselves through moment after timeless moment. After 
weAfter were alive, then
Whats loved, Carl said, lives.
She looked at him in a few moments sorrowful wonder. But sure, she said. 
Youre a Senior. You must go there all the time.
No. He looked out over the sea. In fact, the higher youre promoted, when 
youre a wizard, the more work you have to doand the less time you get to spend 
outside this world, except on business. He breathed out and shook his head. I 
havent been to Timeheart for a long time, except in dreams . . . 
Now it was his turn to sound wistful. Nita reached out and thumped Carls 
shoulder once or twice, hesitantly.
Yeah, Carl said. Slowly he stood up and brushed the sand off his towel, then 
looked down at her. Nita, he saidand his voice was not impassive any more, 
Im sorry.
Yeah, she said.
Call us before you start the song, if you can, okay? The New York accent was 
pronounced and raspy, as if Carls nose were stuffed.
Right.
He turned away, then paused and looked back at her. And everything suddenly 
became too much for Nita. She went to Carl in a rush, threw her arms around him 
at about waist height, and began to bawl. Oh, honey, Carl said, and got down 
on one knee and held Nita tight, which was what she needed. But the helpless 
expression on his face, when she finally got some control over herself and 
looked up, almost hurt her more than her own pain.
After a while she pushed him away. Carl resisted her for a moment. Nita, he 
said. If youIf you do . . .  He paused.  . . . Thank you, he finally said, 
looking at her hard. Thank you. For the ten million lives thatll keep on 
living. Theyll never know. But the wizards will . . . and wont ever forget.
A lot of good thatd do me! Nita said, caught between desperate laughter and 
tears.
Sweetheart, Carl said, if youre in this world for comfort, youve come to 
the wrong place . . . whether youre wizard or just plain mortal. And if youre 
doing what youre doing because of the way other people will feel about 
ityoure definitely in the wrong business. What you do has to be done because 
of how youll feel about you . . . the way you did it last night, with your 
folks. His voice was rueful. There are no other rewards . . . if only because 
no matter what you do, no one will ever think the things about you that you want 
them to think. Not even the Powers.
Right, Nita said again.
They let go of each other. Carl turned and walked away quickly. The air slammed 
itself shut behind him, and he was gone.
Nita walked back to the house.
She kept her good-byes brief. We may be back tonight, she said to her mother 
and father as they stood together on the beach, or we may not. Sreee says 
itll depend on how much of the rehearsal we get finished.
Rehearsal Her mother looked at her curiously.
Uh-huh. Its like I told you, Kit said. Everyone who sings has his own 
partbut theres some ensemble singing, and it has to be done right.
Kit, were late, Nita said. Mom She grabbed her mother and hugged her hard. 
Dont worry if we dont come back tonight, Mom, please, she said. We may just 
go straight into the Songand thats a day and a half by itself. Look for us 
Monday morning. Us! her mind screamed, but she ignored it. Dad She turned to 
him, hugged him too, and saw, out of the corner of her eye, her mother hugging 
Kit.
Nita glanced up and down the beach. Its all clear, Kit, she said. She 
shrugged out of the towel wrapped around her, leaving it with her mother, then 
sprinted for the water. A few fast hops over several breakers, and there was 
depth enough to dive and stroke out to twenty-foot water. Nita leaped into the 
whaleshape as if it were an escape rather than a trap from which she might never 
return. Once a humpback, she felt normal againand felt a twinge of nervousness; 
there was something Sreee had warned her about that . . . 
No matter. Nita surfaced and blew good-bye at her mother and father, then turned 
for Kit, who was treading water beside her, to take her dorsal fin and be towed 
out to depth.
Out in the fifty-foot water Kit wrapped the whalesark about him and made the 
change with a swiftness that was almost savage. The sperm whale that appeared in 
his place had a bitter, angry look to its movements when it began to swim away 
from shore.
Kit, Nita said as they went, you okay?
It was some time before he answered. No, he said. Why should I be? When 
youre going to He didnt finish the sentence.
Kit, look
No, you look. Dont you see that theres nothing I can do about all this? And I 
dont like it! His song was another of the scraping sperm-whale battlecries, 
soft but very heartfelt, and the rage in it chattered right down Nitas skin 
like nails down a blackboard.
Theres not much I can do about it myself, she said, and I dont like it 
either. Lets not talk about it for now, please! My brain still hurts enough 
from last night.
Neets, he said, weve got to talk about it sometime. Tomorrows it.
Fine. Before tomorrow. Meanwhile, weve got today to worry about. Are we even 
going the right way?
He laughed at her then, a painful sound. Boy, are you preoccupied, Kit said. 
Clean your ears out and listen!
She stopped everything but the ticks and clicks a humpback uses to find its way, 
and listenedand was tempted to laugh herself. The sea had a racket hidden in 
it. From the southwest was coming an insane assortment of long, odd, wild 
sounds. Sweet high flutings that cut sharply through the intervening distance; 
clear horncalls, as if someone hunted under the waves; outer-spacy whistles and 
warbles like the electronic cries of orbiting satellites; deep bass scrapes and 
rumbles, lawn-mower buzzes and halftone moans and soulful sighs. And many of 
those sounds, sooner or later, came back to the same main themea series of long 
wistful notes, slowly ascending into pitches too high and keen for human ears, 
then whispering away, lost in the quiet breathing of the water.
Nita had never heard that main theme before, but she recognized it instantly 
from her reading and her wizards sense of the Sea. It was the loss/ gain/sorrow 
motif that ran all through the Song of the Twelve; and what she heard now, 
attenuated by distance but otherwise clear, was the sound of its singers, tuning 
up for the performance in which that mournful phrase would become not just a 
motif but a reality.
Kit, Nita said with a shiver, thats a lot more than ten whales! Who are all 
those other voices?
He bubbled, a shrug. Lets find out.
She whistled agreement and struck off after Kit, due west, away from the south 
shore of the island and out across the Atlantic-to-Ambrose shipping approaches 
once more. Song echoed more and more loudly in the sunlit shallows through which 
they swam; but underneath them Nita and Kit were very aware of the depths from 
which no echo returnedthe abyss of Hudson Canyon, far below them, waiting.
This is it, Kit said at last, practically in Nitas ear, as they came to the 
fringes of the area Sreees instructions had mentionedfifteen miles 
east-northeast of Barnegat, New Jersey, right over the remains of an old sunken 
tanker six fathoms down in the water. And floating, soaring, or slowly fluking 
through the diffuse green-golden radiance of the water, were the whales.
Nita had to gulp once to find her composure. Hundreds of whales had gathered and 
were milling about, whales of every kindminke whales, sei whales, sperm whales, 
dolphins of more kinds than she knew existed, in a profusion of shapes and 
colors, flashing through the water; several blues, grave-voiced, gliding with 
huge slow grace; fin whales, hardly smaller than the blues, bowhead whales and 
pygmy rights and humpbacks, many of them; gray whales and pygmy sperms and 
narwhals with their long single spiral teeth, like unicorn horns; belugas and 
killers and scamperdowns and bottle-nosed whalesKit, Nita sang, faint-voiced, 
Sreee didnt tell me there were going to be people here!
Me either. I guess spectators at the rehearsal are so common, she forgot . . . 
 Kit sounded unconcerned.
Easy for you, Nita thought. You like crowds! She sang a few notes of sonar, 
trying nervously to hear some familiar shape. One shape at least Nita 
recognized, accompanied by the slow, calm, downscaling note of the Blue, as 
Aroooon passed by, a gold-tinged shadow in the background of greenness and the 
confusion of bodies. And there was Hotshots high chatter, some ways off, 
accompanied by several other dolphin voices very like hismembers of his pod.
Stillness swept over the spectators as she approached with Kit, and they 
recognized who she was. And a single note began to go up from them, starting at 
the fringes of the circle, working its way inward even to the Celebrants, until 
she heard even Aroooons giant voice taking it up. One note, held in every range 
from the dolphins dog-whistle trilling to the water-shaking thunder of the 
blues. One thought, one concept in the Speech, trumpeting through the water with 
such force that Nita began to shake at the sound of it. Praise. They knew she 
was the Silent One. They knew what she was going to do for them. They were 
thanking her.
Stunned, Nita forgot to swimjust drifted there in painful joy.
From behind, as the note slowly ebbed away, Kit nudged her. Get the lead out, 
Neets, he sang, just for her hearing. Youre the star of this showSo start 
acting like it! Go in there and let them know youre here.
She swam slowly through the spectator whales, into the clear water in the center 
of their great circle, where the Celebrants were gathered.
One by one, as she circled above the weed-covered remnant of the trawler Nita 
quickly identified the whales she knew. Aroooon, yes, swimming on more or less 
by himself to tideward, singing his deep scrape of notes with the absent 
concentration of a perfectionist who has time to hunt perfection; Hotshot, doing 
barrel rolls near the surface and chattering through the quick bright harmonies 
of some part of the Wanderers song; Areinnye, aloof from both Wanderer and 
Blue, running again and again over a phrase of the Gray Lords song and paying 
no further attention to Nita after a quick glance.
There were also five other whales whom Nita didnt know, exactly as Kit had 
pegged them. A beluga, dolphin-sized but whale-shaped, lazing near the surface 
and singing some longing phrase from the Gazers song; a pilot whale, long and 
slim and gray, silent for the moment and looking at Nita with interest; a right 
whale, with its huge, strange, bent-out-of-shape baleen mouth, listening to the 
beluga; a killer whale, the sharp blacks and whites of its hide a contrast to 
the grays and quiet mottlings of most of the others.
Andthank Heaven!Sreee, swimming toward Nita from beside the killer. Nita had 
been shaken by the sight of the killerkiller whales being one of a humpbacks 
most persistent natural enemiesbut just now her composure was so unraveled, 
there wasnt much more damage that could be done to it. As Sreee came up to 
greet her, Nita managed to sing in something like a calm voice, and as if she 
were actually in charge, Well, were late. Should we get started?
Good idea, said Sreee, brushing skin briefly and reassuringly with Nita. 
Introductions first, though.
Yes, please.
Sreee led Nita off to the north, where several of the singers were working 
together. Weve been through the first part of the Song already this morning, 
said Sreee, the name-songs and so forth. Ive heard you do yours, so there was 
no need for you to be here till late. Were up to the division now, the 
temptation part. These are the people singing the Undecided group
Hi, Hotshot, Nita sang as she and Sreee soared into the heart of the group. 
The dolphin chattered a greeting back and busied himself with his singing again, 
continuing his spirals near the surface, above the heads of the right whale and 
a whale whose song Nita hadnt heard on the way in, a Sowerbys beaked whale. 
She immediately suspected why she hadnt heard it; the whale, undoubtedly there 
to celebrate the Foragers part, was busy eatingripping up the long kelp and 
redweed stirring around the shattered deck-plates of the wreck. It didnt even 
look up as she and Sreee approached. The right whale was less preoccupied; it 
swam toward Nita and Sreee at a slow pace that might have been either courtesy 
or caution.
HNiit, this is Tlhlki, said Sreee. Nita clicked his name back at him in 
greeting, swimming forward to brush skin politely with him. Hes singing the 
Listener.
Tlhlki rolled away from Nita and came about, looking at her curiously.
When he spoke, his song revealed both great surprise and some unease. 
Sreeethis is a human!
Tlhlki, Nita said, wry-voiced, with a look at Sreee, are you going to be mad 
at me for things I havent done too?
The right whale looked at her with that cockeyed upward stare that rights 
havetheir eyes being placed high in their flat-topped heads. Oh, he said, 
sounding wry himself, youve run afoul of Areinnye, have you. No fear, Silent 
LordhNiit, was it? No fear. Tlhlkis song put her instantly at ease. It had 
an amiable and intelligent sound to it, the song of a mind that didnt tend 
toward blind animosities. If youre going to do the Sea such a service as 
youre doing, I could hardly do less than treat you with honor. For Seas sake 
dont think Areinnye is typical . . . 
However, Tlhlki added, gazing down at the calmly feeding beaked whale, some 
of us practically have to have a bite taken out of us to get us to start 
honoring and stop eating. He drifted down a fathom or so and bumped nose-first 
into the beaked whale. Roots! Heads up, you bottom-grubber, here comes the 
Master-Shark!
Huh? Where? Where? the shocked song came drifting up from the bottom. The kelp 
was thrashed about by frantic fluking, and through it rose the beaked whale, its 
mouth full of weed, streamers of which trailed back and whipped around in all 
directions as the whale tried to tell where the shark was coming from. 
WherewhatOh, the beaked whale said after a moment, as the echoes from its 
initial excited squeaking came back and told it that the Master-Shark was 
nowhere in the area. Ki, it said slowly, Im going to get you for that.
Later. Meantime, heres Sreee, and hNiit with her, said T!h!ki. HNiits 
singing the Silent Lord. HNiit, this is Roots.
Oh, said Roots, well met. Pleasure to sing with you. Would you excuse me? 
She flipped her tail, politely enough, before Nita could sing a note, and a 
second later was head-down in the kelp again, ripping it up faster than before, 
as if making up for lost time.
Nita glanced with mild amusement at Sreee as Hotshot spiraled down to join 
them. Shes a great conversationalist, Hotshot whistled, his song 
conspiratorially quiet. Really. Ask her about food.
I kind of suspected, Nita said. Speaking of the Master-Shark, though, where 
is Ed this morning?
Sreee waved one long fin in a shrug. He has a late appearance, as you do, so 
it doesnt really matter if he shows up late. Meanwhile, we have to meet the 
others. Ki, are you finished with Roots?
Shortly. Were going through the last part of the second duet. Ill catch up 
with you people later. The right whale glided downward toward the weeds, and 
Sreee led Nita off to the west, where the Blue drifted in the water, and the 
beluga beside him, a tiny white shape against Aroooons hugeness.
Aroooon and I are two of the Untouched, said Sreee. The third, after the 
Singer and the Blue, is the Gazer. Thats Iniihwit.
HNiit, Aroooons great voice hailed them as Nita approached.
Nita bent her body into a bow of respect as she coasted through the water. 
Sir, she said.
That small, calm eye dwelt gravely on her. Are you well, Silent Lord? said the 
Blue.
As well as I can be, sir, Nita said. Under the circumstances.
Thats well, said Aroooon. Iniihwit, here is the human I spoke of.
The beluga swam away from Aroooon to touch skin with Nita. Iniihwit was male, 
much smaller than Nita as whales went, though big for a beluga.
But what struck her more than his smallness was the abstracted, contemplative 
sound of his song when he did speak. There were long silent days of calm behind 
it, days spent floating on the surface alone, watching the changes of sea and 
sky, saying little, seeing much. HNiit, he said, well met. And well met now, 
for theres something you must hear. You too, Senior.
The weather? Sreee said, sounding worried.
Yes indeed. It looks as if that storm is not going to pass us by.
Nita looked at Sreee in surprise. What storm? Its clear.
For now, said Iniihwit. Nevertheless, theres weather coming, and theres no 
telling what it will stir up in the depths.
Is there any chance we can beat it? Sreee said, sounding very worried indeed.
None, the beluga said. It will be here in half a light. Well have to take 
our chances with the storm, I fear.
Sreee hung still in the water, thinking. Well enough, she said. Come on, 
hNiit; lets speak to Areinnye and the others singing the Undecided. Well 
start the group rehearsal, then go straight into the Song. Times swimming.
Sreee fluked hard and soared off, leaving Nita in shock for a moment. We wont 
be going home tonight, she thought. No good-byes. No last explanations. Ill 
never set foot on land again . . . 
Neets? Kits voice said from behind her.
Right, she said.
She went after Sreee to see the three whales singing the Undecided. Areinnye 
greeted Nita with cool cordiality and went back to her practicing. And heres 
the Sounder, Sreee was saying. Fluke, this is hNiit.
Nita brushed skin with the Sounder, who was a pilot whale; small and bottled 
gray, built along the same general lines as a sperm, though barely a quarter the 
size. Flukes eyes were small, his vision poor, and he had an owlish, 
shortsighted look about him that reminded Nita of Dairine in her glasses. The 
likeness was made stronger by a shrill, ratchety voice and a tendency toward 
chuckles. Fluke? Nita said.
I was one, the Sounder said. Im a triplet. And a runt, as you can see. There 
was nothing to do to hold my own with my brother and sister except become a 
wizard in self-defense.
Nita made a small amused noise, thinking that there might not be so much 
difference between the motivations and family lives of humans and whales. And 
heres Fang, said Sreee.
Nita found herself looking at the brilliant white and deep black of the killer 
whale. Her feelings were decidedly mixed. The humpback-shape had its own ideas 
about the killer, mostly prejudiced by the thought of blood in the water. But 
Nitas human memories insisted that killers were affable creatures, friendly to 
humans; she remembered her Uncle Jerry, her mothers older brother, telling 
about how hed once ridden a killer whale at an aquatic park in Hawaii and had 
had a great time. This killer whale edged closer to Nita now, staring at her out 
of small black eyesnot opaque ones like Eds, but sharp, clever ones, with 
merriment in them. Well? the killer said, his voice teasing. Shark got your 
tongue?
The joke was so horrible, and somehow so funny, that Nita burst out laughing, 
liking this creature instantly. Fang, is it?
It is. HNiit, is it?
More or less. There was a kind of wicked amusement about Fangs song, which by 
itself was funny to listen tosweet whistles and flutings peppered liberally 
with spits and fizzes. Fang, are you from these waters originally?
Indeed not. I came down from Baffin Bay for the Song.
Nita swung her tail in surprise. Thats in Canada! Fifteen hundred miles!
What? Oh, a great many lengths, yes. I didnt swim it, hNiit. Any more than 
you and Kit there went where you went last night by swimming.
I suppose, she said, that a wizardry done like thaton such short notice, and 
taking the wizards such a distancemight have been noticed.
Fang snorted bubbles.  Might! I should say so. By everybody. But its 
understandable that you might want to indulge yourselves, anyway. Seeing that 
you and your partner wont have much more time to work together in the flesh.
Fangs voice was kind, even matter-of-fact; but Nita wanted to keep away from 
that subject for the moment. Right. Speaking of which, Sreee, hadnt we better 
start?
Might as well.
Sreee swam off to a spot roughly above the wreck, whistling, and slowly the 
whole group began to drift in toward her. The voices of the whales gathered 
around to watch the Celebrants began to quiet, like those of an audience at a 
concert.
From the top, Sreee said. She paused a few seconds, then lifted up her voice 
in the Invocation.
Blood in the water I sing, and one who shed it:
deadliest hunger I sing, and one who fed it
weaving the ancientmost song of the Seas sending:
Im singing the tragedy, singing the joy unending.
Joy . . . Nita thought, trying to concentrate. But the thought of whose blood 
was being sung about made it hard.
The shadow that fell over Nita somewhere in the middle of the first song of the 
Betrayed whales, though, got her attention immediately. A streamlined shape as 
pale as bleached bone glided slowly over her, blocking the jade light; one 
dead-black, unreflecting eye glanced down. Nita.
Ed, she said, none too enthusiastically. His relentless reality was no 
pleasant sight.
Come swim with me.
He arched away through the water, northward toward Ambrose Light. The gathered 
spectators drew back as Nita silently followed.
Shortly they were well to the north, still able to hear the ongoing practice 
Song, but out of hearing range for standard conversation. So, Silent Lord, Ed 
said, slowing. You were busy last night.
Yes, Nita said, and waited. She had a feeling that something odd was going on 
inside that chill mind.
Ed looked at her. You are angry . . . 
Damn right I am! Nita sang, loudly, not caring for the moment about what Ed 
might think of her distress.
Explain this anger to me, said the Master-Shark. Normally the Silent Lord 
does not find the outcome of the Song so frightful. In fact, whales sometimes 
compete for the privilege of singing your part. The Silent Lord dies indeed, but 
the death is not so terribleit merely comes sooner than it might have 
otherwise, by predator or old age. And it buys the renewal of life, and holds 
off the Great Death, for the whole Seaand for years.
Ed glanced at her, sedate. And even if the Silent One should happen to suffer 
somewhat, what of it? For there is still Timeheart, is there not? . . . the 
Heart of the Sea. Nita nodded, saying nothing. It is no ending, this song, but 
a passage into something else. How they extol that passage, and what lies at its 
end. There was faint, scornful amusement in Eds voice as he lifted his voice 
in a verse of the Songone of the Blues cantosnot singing, exactly, for sharks 
have no song; chanting, rather.   . . . Past mortal song 
that Sea whereof our own seas merely hint, poor shadows sidewise-cast from 
what is realwhere Time and swift-finned Joy are foes no more, but lovers; where 
old friend swims by old friend, senior to Death, undying evermorepartner to 
Songs unheard and Voices hid; songs past our knowing, perilously fair 
Ed broke off. You are a wizard, he said. You have known that place, 
supposedly.
Yes. Timeheart had looked like a bright city, skyscrapered in crystal and 
fire, power trembling in its streets and stones, unseen but undeniably there. 
And beyond the city stretched a whole universe, sited beyond and within all 
other worlds, beyond and within all times. Death did not touch that place. Yes, 
I was there.
So you know it awaits you after the Sacrifice, after the change of being. But 
you dont seem to take the change so calmly.
How can I? Im human!
Yes. But make me understand. Why does that make your attitude so different? Why 
are you so angry about something that would happen to you sooner or later 
anyway?
Because Im too young for this, Nita said. All the things Ill never have a 
chance to dogrow up, work, live
This, Ed said mildly, looking around him at the green-burning sea, the swift 
fish flashing in it, the dazzling wrinkled mirror of the surface seen from 
beneath, this is not living?
Of course it is! But theres a lot more to it! And getting murdered by a shark 
is hardly what I call living!
I assure you, Ed said, its nothing as personal as murder. I would have done 
the same for any wizard singing the Silent Lord. I have done the same, many 
times. And doubtless shall again . . .  His voice trailed off.
Nita caught something odd in Eds voice. He sounded almost . . . wistful?
Look, she said, her own voice small. Tell me something . . . Does it really 
have to hurt a lot?
Sprat, said Ed dispassionately, what in this life doesnt? Even love hurts 
sometimes. You may have noticed . . . 
Lovewhat would you know about that? Nita said, too pained to care about being 
scornful, even to the Master-Shark.
And who are you to think I would know nothing about it? Because I kill without 
remorse, I must also be ignorant of love, is that it?
There was a long, frightening pause, while Ed began to swim a wide circle about 
Nita. Youre thinking I am so old an order of life that I can know nothing but 
the blind white rut, the circling, the joining that leaves the joined forever 
scarred. Oh yes, I know that. In its time . . . its very good.
The rich and hungry pleasure in his voice disturbed Nita. Ed was circling closer 
and closer as he spoke, swimming as if he were asleep. And, yes . . . sometimes 
we wish the closeness of the joining wouldnt end. But what would my kind do 
with the warm-blood sort of joining, the long companionships? What would I do 
with a mate? He said it as if it were an alien word. Soon enough one or the 
other of us would fall into distressand the other partner would end it. Theres 
an end to mating and mate, and to the love that passed between. That price is 
too high for me to pay, even once. I swim alone.
He was swimming so close to Nita now that his sides almost touched hers, and she 
pulled her tail and fins in tight and shrank away from the razory hide, not 
daring to move otherwise. Then Ed woke up and broke the circle, gliding lazily 
outward and away as if nothing had happened. But, Sprat, the matter of my 
lovesor their lackis hardly whats bothering you.
No, she burst out bitterly, love! Ive never had a chance to. And nownow
Then youre well cast for the Silent Lords part, Ed said, his voice sounding 
far away. How does the line go? Not old enough to love as yet, but old enough 
to die, indeed That has always been the Silent Lords businessto sacrifice 
love for life . . . instead of, as in lesser songs, the other way around . . . 
Ed trailed off, paused to snap up a sea bass that passed him by too slowly. When 
his eyes were more or less sane again and the water had carried the blood away, 
Ed said, Is it truly so much to you, Sprat? Have you truly had no time to 
love?
Mom and Dad, Nita thought ruefully. Dairine. Thats not love, I dont love 
Dairine!do I? She hardened her heart and said, No, Pale One. Not that way. No 
one . . . that way.
Well then, said the Master-Shark, the Song will be sung from the heart, it 
seems. You will still offer the Sacrifice?
I dont want to
Answer the question, Sprat.
It was a long while before Nita spoke. Ill do what I said I would, she said 
at last. The notes of the song whispered away into the water like the last notes 
of a dirge.
She was glad Ed said nothing for a while, for her insides gripped and churned as 
she finally found out what real, grownup fear was. Not the kind that happens 
suddenly, that leaves you too busy with action to think about being afraidbut 
the kind that she had been holding off by not officially deciding: the kind 
that swims up as slowly as a shark circling, letting you see it and realize in 
detail whats going to happen to you.
I am big enough to take a humpback in two bites, Ed said into her silence. 
And there is no need for me to be leisurely about it. You will speak to the 
Heart of the Sea without having to say too much to me on the way.
Nita looked up at him in amazement. But I thought you didnt believeI mean, 
youd never
I am no wizard, Nita, Ed said. The Sea doesnt speak to me as it does to you. 
I will never experience those high wild joys the Blue sings ofthe Sea That 
Burns, the Voices. The only voices I hear cry out from water that burns with 
blood. But might I not sometimes wonder what other joys there are?and wish I 
might feel them too?
The dry, remote pain in his voice astonished her. And Nita thought abruptly of 
that long line of titles in the commentaries in her manual: as if only one shark 
had ever been Master. Sharks dont die of natural causes, she thought. Could it 
be that, all these years, there has been just one Master? And all around him, 
people die and die, and hecant
and wants to? And so he understands how it is to want to get out of something 
and be stuck with it.
Nita was terribly movedshe wasnt sure why. She swam close to the Pale Ones 
huge head for a moment and glided side by side with him, matching his course and 
the movements of his body.
I wish I could help, she said.
As if the Master could feel distress, Ed said, with good-natured scorn. The 
wound in his voice had healed without a scar.
And as if someone else might want to end it, Nita said, sarcastic, but gentle 
about it.
Ed was silent for a long while. I mean, its dumb to suffer, Nita said, rather 
desperately, into that silence. But if you have to do it, you might as well 
intend it to do someone some good.
In silence they swam a few lengths more through the darkening water, while 
Nitas fear began to build in her again, and one astonished part of her mind 
shouted at her, Youre running around talking about doing nice things for 
someone whos going to kill you? Youre crazy!
Ed spoke at last. Its well said. And we will cause it to be well made, this 
Sacrifice. You, young and never loving; I, old and never loved. Calm, utterly 
calm, that voice. Such a Song the Sea will never have seen.
HNiit? came a questioning note through the water, from southward of Ambrose: 
Sreees voice. Its almost your time
I have to go, Nita said. Ed
Silent Lord?
She had no idea why she was saying it. Im sorry!
This once, I think, the passionless voice said, so am I. Go on, Sprat. I will 
not miss my cue.
Nita looked at him. Opaque eyes, depthless, merciless, lingered on her as Ed 
curved past. Coming! Nita sang in Sreees direction, loud, and tore off 
southward.
No pale shadow followed.
The next few hours, while the water darkened further, ran together for Nita in a 
blur of music, and annoying repetitions, and words that would have been 
frightening if she hadnt been too busy to be frightened. And something was 
growing in her, slowly, but getting stronger and strongeran odd elation. She 
sang on, not questioning it, riding its tide and hoping it would last through 
what she had to do. Again and again, with the other Celebrants listening and 
offering suggestions, she rehearsed what would be the last things she would ever 
say:
 . . . Sea, hear me now, and take my words and make them ever law!
Right, now swim off a little. No one hears this part. Upward, and toward the 
center, where the peak will be. Right there
 Must I accept the barren Gift?
learn death, and lose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath 
will take the Gift and set them free:
whose is the voice and whose the mind
to set at naught the well-sung Game
when finned Finality arrives
and calls me by my secret Name.
Not old enough to love as yet,
but old enough to die, indeed 
Oh Lord
 the death-fear bites my throat and heart,
fanged cousin to the Pale Ones breed.
But past the fear lies life for all
perhaps for me: and, past my dread, past loss of Mastery and life,
the Sea shall yet give up Her dead! 
and then the paleness came to circle over her, bringing with it the voice that 
chanted all on one soft hissing note, again and again, always coming back to the 
same refrain
 Master have I none, nor seek.
Bring the ailing; bring the weak.
Bring the wounded ones to me:
They shall feed my Mastery . . .  
That strange excitement was still growing in Nita. She let it drive her voice as 
she would have used it to drive a wizardry, so that her song grew into something 
that shook the water and almost drowned out even Eds voice, weaving about it 
and turning mere hunger to desire, disaster to triumph
 Lone Power, I accept your Gift!
Freely I make death part of me;
By my acceptance it is bound
into the lives of all the Sea
yet what I do now binds to it
a gift I feel of equal worth:
I take Death with me, out of Time,
and make of it a path, a birth!
Let the teeth come! As they tear me,
they tear Your ancient hate for aye
so rage, proud Power! Fail again,
and see my blood teach Death to die! 
 . . . The last time she sang it, Nita hung unmoving, momentarily exhausted, for 
the moment aware of nothing but Kits anxious eyes staring at her from outside 
the circle and the stir of water on her skin as the Pale One circled above her.
Thats right, Sreee said at last, very quietly. And then
She fell silent and swam out of the circle of Celebrants. Behind her, very 
slowly, first the Blue and then the rest of the whales began to sing the dirge 
for the Silent Lordconfirmation of the transformation of death and the new 
defeat of the Lone Power. Nita headed for the surface to breathe.
She came up into early evening. Westward, sunset was burning itself into scarlet 
embers; eastward a Moon lacking only the merest shard of light to be full lifted 
swollen and amber through the surface haze; northward, the bright and dark and 
bright again of Ambrose Light glittered on the uneasily shifting waves, with the 
opening and closing red eyes of Manhattan skyscraper lights low beyond it; and 
southward, gazing back at them, the red-orange glow of Arcturus sparkled above 
the water, here and there striking an answering spark off the crest or hollow of 
some wave. Nita lay there gasping in the wavewash and let the water rock her. 
Heaven knows, she thought, I need somebody to do it.
Beside her Kit surfaced in a great wash of water and blew spectacularlyslightly 
forward, as sperms do. Neets
Hi, she said. She knew it was inane, but she could think of no other way to 
keep Kit from starting what he was going to start, except by saying dumb things.
Neets, he said, were out of time. Theyre going to start the descent as soon 
as everybodys had a chance to rest a little and the protective spells are set.
Right, she said, misunderstanding him on purpose. We better get going, then 
She tilted her head down and started to dive.
Neets. Suddenly Nita found that she was trying to dive through a forty-foot 
thickness of sperm whale. Nita blew in annoyance and let herself float back to 
the surface again. Kit bobbed up beside herand, with great suddenness and a 
slam of air, threw off the whalesark. He dogpaddled there in the water, abruptly 
tiny beside her bulk. Neets, get out of that for a minute.
Huh? Oh
It was a moments work to drop the whaleshape; then she was reduced to 
dogpaddling too. Kit was treading water a few feet from her, his hair slicked 
down with the water. He looked strangetight, somehow, as if he were holding 
onto some idea or feeling very hard. Neets, he said, Im not buying this.
Nita stared at him. Kit, she said finally, look, theres nothing we can do 
about it. Ive bought it. Literally.
No, Kit said. The word was not an argument, not even defiance; just a simple 
statement of fact. Look, Neetsyoure the best wizard Ive ever worked with
Im the only wizard youve ever worked with, Nita said with a lopsided grin.
Im gonna kill you, Kit saidand regretted it instantly.
No need, Nita said. Kitwhy dont you just admit that this time Ive got 
myself into something I cant get out of.
Unless another wizard gets you out of it.
She stared at him. You loon, you cant
I know. And it hurts! I feel like I should volunteer, but I just cant
Good. Cause you do and Ill kill you
That wont work either. He made her own crooked grin back at her.  All for 
one, remember? We both have to come out of this alive. He looked away.
Lets go for both, Nita said.
Silence.
She took a deep breath. Look, even if we dont both get out of this, I think 
its gonna be all right. Really
No, Kit said again, and that was that.
Nita just looked at him. Okay, she said. Be that way. And she meant it. This 
was the Kit she was used to working with: stubborn, absolutely sure of 
himselfmost of the time; the person with that size-twelve courage packed into 
his size-ten self, a courage that would spend a few minutes trembling and then 
take on anything that got in its wayfrom the Lone Power to her father. If Ive 
got to go, Nita thought in sudden irrational determination, that sheer guts has 
got to surviveand Ill do whatevers necessary to make sure he does.
Look, she said, whatre you gonna tell my folks when you get back?
Im gonna tell them were hungry, Kit said, and that youll fill em in on 
the details while I eat.
I did tell him to be that way . . .  Right, Nita said.
For a long time they stayed where they were, treading water, watching the Moon 
inch its way up the sky, listening to the Ambrose fog signal hooting the minutes 
away. A mile or so off, a tanker making for New York Harbor went by, its green 
portside running lights toward them, and let off a low groaning blast of horn to 
warn local traffic. From under the surface, after a pause, came a much deeper 
note that held and then scaled downward out of human hearing range, becoming 
nothing but a vibration in the water.
Theyre ready to leave, Kit said.
Nita nodded, slipped into whaleshape again, and looked one last time with all 
her heart at the sunset towers of Manhattan, until Kit had finished his change. 
Then they dived.









The Song of the Twelve
Hudson Channel begins its seaward course some twenty miles south of Ambrose 
Lighttrending first due south, parallel to the Jersey shore, then turning 
gradually toward the southeast and the open sea as it deepens. Down its length, 
scattered over the channels bottom as it slowly turns from gray-green mud to 
gray-black sand to naked, striated stone, are the broken remnants of four 
hundred years seafaring in these waters and the refuse of three hundred years 
of human urban life, mixed randomly together. There are new, almost whole-bodied 
wrecks lying dead on their sides atop old ones long since gone to rot and rust; 
great dumps of incinerated wood and ash, chemical drums and lumps of coal and 
jagged piles of junk metal; sunken, abandoned buoys, old cable spindles, 
unexploded ordnance and bombs and torpedoes; all commingled with and nested in a 
thick ooze of untreated, settled sewagethe garbage of millions of busy lives, 
thrown where they wont have to look at it. The rugged bed of the channel starts 
out shallow, barely a fathom deeper than the seabed that surrounds it. It was 
much deeper once, especially where it begins; but the ooze has filled it 
thickly, and for some miles it is now hard to tell that any channel at all lies 
under the rotting trash, under the ancient faded beer cans and the hubcaps red 
with rust. Slowly, though, some twenty miles down the channel from its head, an 
indentation becomes apparenta sort of crooked rut worn by the primordial Hudson 
River into the ocean floor, a mile wide at the ruts deepest, five miles wide 
from edge to edge. This far downforty fathoms under the surface and some sixty 
feet below the surrounding ocean bed, between a great wide U of wallsthe dark 
sludge of human waste lies even thicker. The city has not been dumping here for 
some time, but all the old years sewage has not gone away. Every stone in the 
deepening rut, every pressure-flattened pile of junk on the steadily 
downward-sloping seabed around the channel, is coated thick and black. 
Bottom-feeding fish are few here: There is nothing for them to eat. Krill do not 
live here: The water is too foul to support the microscopic creatures they eat, 
and even on a summer night the thick olive color of the sea is unchanged.
The channels walls begin to grow less and less in height, as if the ocean is 
growing tired of concealing the scar in its side. Gradually the rut flattens out 
to a broad shallow depression like a thousand other valleys in the Sea. A whale 
hanging above the approximate end of the channel, some one hundred thirty miles 
southeast of New York Harbor, has little to see on looking back up the channels 
lengthjust an upward-sloping scatter of dark-slimed rocks and mud and scraps of 
garbage, drab even in the slate-green twilight that is all this bottom ever sees 
of noon. But looking downward, southward, where its course would run if the 
channel went any farther
the abyss. Suddenly the thinning muck, and the gentle swellings and dippings of 
the sea bed, simply stop at the edge of a great steep semicircular cliff, two 
miles from side to side. And beyond the cliff, beyond the edge of the 
Continental Shelf, curving away to northeast and southwestnothing. Nothing 
anywhere but the vague glow of the oceans surface three hundred feet above; and 
below, beyond the semicircle, the deadly stillness of the great deeps, and a 
blackness one can hear on the skin like a dirge. Icy cold, and the dark.
I warn you all, Sreee said as the eleven gathered Celebrants and Kit hung 
there, looking down into that darkness at the head of Hudson Canyon. Remember 
the length of this dive; take your own breathing needs carefully into 
consideration, and tell me now if you think you may need more air than our 
spells will be taking with us. Remember that, at the great pressures in the 
Below, youll need more oxygen than you usually doand work will make you burn 
more fuel. If you feel you need to revise the breathing figures on the group 
spell upward, this is the time to do it. There wont be a chance later, after 
weve passed the Gates of the Sea. Nor will there be any way to get to the 
surface quickly enough to breathe if you start running low. At the depths well 
be working, even a sperm whale would get the bends and die of such an ascent. 
Are you all sure of your needs? Think carefully.
No one said anything.
All right. I remind you also, one more time, of the boundaries on the 
pressure-protection spell. Theyre marked by this area of light around uswhich 
will serve the added purpose of enabling us to see whats going on around us. If 
we need to expand the boundaries, thats easily done. But unless I direct you 
otherwise, stay inside the light. Beyond the lighted area, theres some 
discretion for a limited area, but its erratic. Dont depend on it! Otherwise 
you may find yourself crushed to a pulp.
Nita glanced at Kit; he gave her an I-dont-care wave of the tail. Sperm whales 
were much less bothered by pressure changes than most of the species, and the 
great depths were part of their hunting grounds. You be careful! she sang at 
him in an undertone. Dont get cute down there.
Dont you.
Anything else? Sreee said. Any questions?
Is there time for a fast bite? Roots said, sounding wistful.
Surely, Fang said, easing up beside the beaked whale with that eternal 
killer-whale smile. Where should I bite you?
Enough, you two. Last chance, my wizards.
No one sang a note.
Then forward all, Sreee said, and let us take the adventure the Powers send 
us.
She glided forward, out into the darkness past the great curved cliff, tilted 
her nose down, and divednot straight, but at a forty-five-degree angle roughly 
parallel to the downward slope of the canyon. The wizard-light advanced with 
her. Areinnye followed first; then Fang and Iniihwit, with Fluke and Roots close 
behind. After them came Tlhlki and Aroooon and Hotshot, and Nita, with Kit 
behind her as rearguard, suspiciously watching the zone of light around them. 
Only one of the Celebrants did not stay within that boundary, sailing above it, 
or far to one side, as he pleasedEd, cruising restlessly close to the canyon 
walls as the group descended, or pacing them above, a ghost floating in 
midnight-blue water.
I dont like it, Nita sang, for Kits hearing only, as she looked around her.
What?
This. She swung her tail at the wallswhich were towering higher and higher as 
they cut downward through the Continental Shelf. On the nautical maps in their 
manuals, the canyon had looked fairly innocent; and a drop of twenty-five feet 
in a half-mile had seemed gentle. But Nita was finding the reality that rose in 
ever-steepening battlements around her much more threatening. The channels 
walls at their highest had been about three hundred feet high, comparable to the 
walls shed seen in the Grand Canyon on vacation. But these walls were already 
five or six hundred feet high, growing steadily steeper as the canyons angle of 
descent through the shelf increased. Nita had a neck to crane back, it would 
already be sore.
As it was, she had something much worsea whales superb sonar sense, which told 
her exactly how puny she was in comparison to those cliffsexactly where loose 
rocks lay on them, ready to be shaken down at the slightest bottom tremor.
Kit looked up around them and sang a note of uncomfortable agreement. Yeah, he 
said. It gives me the creeps too. Its too tall
No, Nita said softly. Its that this isnt a place where were supposed to 
be. Something very large happened here once. Thats your specialty; you should 
be able to feel it.
Yeah, I should. There was a brief pause. I seem to have been having trouble 
with that lately.But youre right, its there. Its not so much the tallness 
itself were feeling. But what itswhat its a symbol of, I think
Nita said nothing for a moment, startled by the idea that Kit had been losing 
some of his talent at his specialty. There was something that could mean, some 
warning signShe couldnt think what.
Kit, this is one of the places where Afallone was, isnt it?
He made a slow sound of agreement. The whole old continental plate Atlantis 
stood on was ground under the new plates and buried under the Atlantics floor, 
Sreee said. But the North American plate was a lot farther west when the 
trouble first started, and the European one was farther east. So if Ive got the 
story straight, this would have been where Afallones western shoreline was, 
more or less. Where were going would still have been open sea, a couple of 
million years ago.
Millions of years Nita looked at him in uncomfortable wonder. Kitthats 
much farther back than the fall of Afallone. That could Her note failed her 
momentarily. That could go right back to the first Song of the Twelve
Kit was still for a while as they kept diving. No wonder, he said at last, no 
one travels down through the Gates of the Sea except when theyre about to do 
the Song. Part of the sorcery is buried in the stone. If anybody should trouble 
it, wake it up
like were doing, Nita said, and fell silent.
They swam on. The immensities rearing up about them grew no more reassuring with 
time. Time, Nita thoughthow long have we been down here? In this changeless 
cold dark, there was no telling; and even when the Sun came up, there still 
would be no knowing day from night. The darkness yielded only grudgingly to the 
little sphere of light the Celebrants carried with them, showing them not much, 
and too much, of what Nita didnt want to look atthose walls, reaching so far 
above her now that the light couldnt even begin to illumine them. Nita began to 
get a bizarre sense of being indoorsdescending a winding ramp of infinite 
length, its walls three miles apart and now nearly a mile high.
It was at about this time that Nita felt on her skin what sounded at first like 
one of the Blues deeper notes, and stared ahead of her, wondering partly what 
he was sayingthe note was one that made no sense to her. Then she wondered why 
he was curving his body upward in such surprise. But the note grew, and grew, 
and grew louder still, and though they were now nearly a mile from the walls on 
either side, to her shock and horror Nita heard the walls begin to resonate to 
that note.
The canyon walls sounded like a struck gong, one of such boneshaking, 
subterranean pitch as Nita had never imagined. She sounded, caught in the 
torrent of shock waves with the rest of the Celebrants. Seaquake! she thought. 
The sound pressed through her skin from all sides like cold weights, got into 
her lungs and her heart and her brain, and throbbed there, hammering her into 
dizziness with slow and terrible force.
The sluggish, brutal pounding against her skin and inside her body eventually 
began to die down. But the quakes effects were still going on around her, and 
would take much more time to settle. Sonar was nearly drowned; Nita was floating 
blind in the blackness. This is the pits! she thought in anguish, and 
concentrated everything she had on one good burst of sound that would cut 
through the terrible noise and tell her what was going on.
The echoes that came back reassured her somewhat. All the Celebrants were still 
fairly close together, safe within the light of the pressure-protection spell. 
Kit was farther ahead than he had been, fighting for control and slowly finding 
it. Others, Sreee and Fang and Areinnye, were closer to Nita. And there was 
other movement close to themlarge objects drifting downward, slowly, resonating 
with the same note, though in higher octaves, as the towering cliffsides. 
Massive objects, said the echo. Solid massive objects. Falling faster now. One 
of them falling past Sreee and down toward Areinnye, who was twisting and 
struggling against the turmoil of the water for balance
Warn her! was Nitas first thought, but even as she let out another cry, she 
realized it was uselessAreinnye would have no time to react. The falling rock, 
a piece of cliff-shelf nearly as long as a city block, was practically on top of 
her. Shield spell, Nita thought then. Impossible
She did it anyway. It was an old friend, that spell, long since learned by 
heart. When activated, punches, or any physical object thrown at one, slid right 
off it. Running them together in her haste, she sang the nine syllables of the 
spell that were always the same, then added four more that set new coordinates 
for the spell, another three that specified how much mass the shield would have 
to repeltons and tons! Oh, Lord!and then the last syllable that turned the 
wizardry loose. She felt the magic fall away from her like a weight on a cord, 
dropping toward Areinnye. Nothing to do now but hang on, she thought, letting 
herself float. Faintly, through the thunder, the echoes of her spell brought 
Nita the shape of Areinnye, still struggling, trying to get out from under the 
falling rock-shelf, and failing. Her connection with the spell brought her the 
feeling of the massive slab of stone dropping towards, closer, closer still. 
Making contact
crushing down and down onto her wizardry with force more terrible than she had 
anticipated. The spell was failing, the shelf was settling down on it and 
inexorably pressing it closer and closer to Areinnye, who was in turn being 
forced down against the battering of the shock waves, toward the floor of the 
canyon. The spell was breaking up, tearing like a rotten net filled with 
weights. No, Nita thought, and strained, pouring all her concentration, all her 
will, down the connection to the spell. No! It was like hanging on to a rope in 
a tug of war, and losing, and not letting godigging in, muscles popping out all 
over, aching, straining, blood pounding, and not letting goThe spell firmed a 
little. The shelf, settling slowly down and down onto Areinnye, forcing her 
closer and closer to the bottom, seemed to hesitate. Kit! Nita screamed into 
the water. Im gonna lose it. Im gonna lose it! Kit!
The echo of her yell for help showed her another sperm-whale shape, a larger one 
than Areinnyes, fighting his way against the battering shock waves and down 
toward the bottom of the canyontoward where Areinnye floundered, underneath the 
stone shelf, underneath the spell. Kit rammed Areinnye head-on, hitting her 
squarely amidships and punching the smaller sperm whale backward thirty or forty 
feet. But not out from under the settling shelf; and now Kit was partly under it 
too. The spell began sagging again. Nita panicked; she had no time or energy 
left for any more warnings, any more anything. She threw herself so totally into 
the spell that she couldnt feel her body, couldnt hear, couldnt see, finally 
became nothing but a single, none-too-coherent thought: No! But it was no use. 
The spell was coming undone, the rock was coming down, this time for good. And 
Kit was under it. No! No, no, NO&mdash;
And everything went away.
The next thing Nita felt was the shock of a spell being broken by forces too 
great for it to handle, as the rock-shelf came crushing down on it, smashing it 
flat against something both soft and hard. NO! Nita screamed again in horror, 
as the diminishing thunder of the seaquake was briefly augmented by the multiple 
crashes of the shelfs shattering. The floor of the canyon was obscured even to 
sonar by a thick fog of rockdust and stirred-up ooze, pierced all through by 
flying splinters of stone, but Nita dove into it anyway. Kit!
You sang? came a sperm whales sharp-edged note from down in the rock-fog, 
sounding tired but pleased.
Speechless with relief and shaking with effort, Nita pulled up her nose and just 
let herself float in the trembling water, listening to the rumbling of the quake 
as it faded away and the songs of the other whales round about as they checked 
on one another. She became aware of the Master-Shark, finning slowly down-canyon 
not too far from her and favoring her as he went with a look that was prolonged 
and indecipherable. Nita glided hurriedly away from him, looking around her.
The light of the protection spell showed Nita the roiling of the cloud of ooze 
and dust in the bottom of the canyon, and the two shapes that swam slowly up 
through itfirst Kit, fluking more strongly than Nita would have possible for 
someone whod just gone through what they all had, then Areinnye, stroking more 
weakly, and swimming with a stiffness that made it very plain just how hard Kit 
must have hit her. Kit rose to hang beside Nita. More slowly, Areinnye came 
swimming up to face her.
There seems to be a life between us, hNiit, the sperm whale said.
The mixture of surprise and anger in Areinnyes song made Nita uncomfortable. 
Oh, no, she said, rather weakly. Kit did it
Oh, dead fish, Kit said. You held it for a good ten seconds after we were out 
from under. You wouldve managed even if I hadnt helped.
I had incentive, Nita muttered.
Kit looked at her for a moment. You didnt drop it until Ed nudged you, he 
said. You might have gone deaf for a little, or maybe you were in spell 
overload. But either way, this was your cookie. Dont blame me.
Silent Lord, Areinnye saidstill stiffly formal, but with an uncertain note in 
her voice, I thank you. I had hardly given you cause for such an act.
You gave me plenty of cause, she said wearily. You took the Oath, didnt you? 
Youre with me. And youre welcome. She took a deep breath, feeling the 
respiratory part of the protection spell briefly surround her blowholes with a 
bubble of air for her to inhale. Kit, she said, can we get going and get this 
over with?
That is well said, came Eds voice. He was coming up-canyon again, fast. As 
Nita looked up she saw him arrow overhead, ghastly pale in the wizard-light, 
with a trail of darkness billowing thick behind him, and something black in his 
jaws. It struggled; Ed gulped it down. Inside his gill slits and lower body, 
Nita could see the swallowed thing give a last couple of convulsive heaves. And 
wed best get on with it
Thick black sucker-tipped arms whipped up from the disturbed ooze on the bottom, 
grasping, flailing in the light. Oh, no, Nita moaned. Kit plunged past her, 
the first note of the scraping sperm-whale battlecry rasping down Nitas skin as 
he dived for the body to which those arms belonged. Farther down the canyon, 
almost out of range of the wizard-light, there was a confused boiling-together 
of arms, long dark bodies, flat platter-like yellow eyes glowing with reflected 
light and wild-beast hungernot just a few krakens, but a great pack of them. 
To business, Silent Lord, Ed said, his voice rich with chilly pleasure, as he 
swept past Nita again on his way down-canyon.
She went to business. These krakens were bigger than the last ones had been; the 
smallest one Nita saw had a body the size of a stretch limousine, and arms twice 
that length. True, there were more toothed whales fighting this timenot only 
Kit, but Fang and Areinnye as well. And teeth werent everythingwhat Aroooon or 
Tlhlki rammed didnt move afterward.
The Celebrants also had the advantage of being wizards. Nita was terrified at 
first when she saw one of the krakens come at poor slow Rootsand poor slow 
Roots raised her voice in a few squeaky little notes and simply blew the giant 
squid into a cloud of blood and ink and black rags of flesh. But a wizards 
strength has limits; such spells could only be worked once or twice. And since a 
spell has to be directed at what you see, not even the most deadly offensive 
wizardry does a bit of good against the choking tentacles that you dont notice 
coming up from behind you. So it was a slow, ugly, bitter battle, that fight in 
the canyon. Four or five times the Celebrants were assaulted as they made their 
way down between the dwarfing, twisting walls of stone; four or five times they 
fought the attackers off, rested briefly, and started out again, knowing that 
somewhere deeper down, more thick tentacles and hungry eyes waited for them.
This is your fault! Areinnye cried angrily at Nita during one or another of 
the attacks, while Fang and Kit and Ed and Aroooon fought off krakens coming 
from downcanyon and from above, and Sreee and Tlhlki worked furiously to heal a 
great sucker welt torn in Areinnyes side before Ed should notice it and turn on 
her.
Nita simply turned away, in no mood for it. Her face hurt from ramming krakens, 
she had bruises from their suckers and a stab from ones beak, and she was sick 
of the smell of blood and the galling sepia taste in the water. The problem, and 
the only reason Nita didnt answer Areinnye hotly back, was that there might 
have been some slight truth to the accusation. According to Carl and the manual, 
the same pollutants that caused cancer in human beings, that had caused the U.S. 
Fish and Game Service to warn people on the Jersey shore against eating more 
than one ocean-caught fish a week, were getting concentrated in the squids 
bodies, changing their DNA: changing them. The food the krakens normally ate at 
the great depths was dying out, also from the pollution. They had to come up 
into the shallows to survive. The changes were enabling them to do so. And if it 
was starving, a hungry kraken would find a whale perfectly acceptable as food.
Nita was startled by the sudden sharpness of Sreees answering voice. 
Areinnye, dont talk nonsense, she said after singing the last note of a spell 
that sealed the sperm whales torn flesh. The krakens are here for the same 
reason the quake wasbecause the Lone Power wants them here. Were supposed to 
use up our air fighting them.
Tlhlki looked soberly at Sreee. That brings up the question, Ree. We complete 
the Song?
Sreee swung her tail in a shrug, her eyes on Areinnyes healing wound. I 
thought such a thing might happen, she said, after we were attacked the other 
night. So I brought extra air, more than the group felt it needed. Even soitll 
be close.
Were a long way down the canyon, Nita said. Practically down to the plain. 
If theyre all down there, waiting for usif these attacks have just been to 
wear us down
I dont think so, Tlhlki said, glancing over at Nita. Once out into the 
plain, well be practically under the shadow of the Seas Tooth, close to the 
ancient site of the Song. And once our circle is set up, they couldnt get in 
unless we let them.
Which we wont, Sreee said. Lets waste no more time. This is going to be 
the fastest Song on recordAreinnye, youre done. How do you feel?
The sperm swayed in the water, testing her healed tail. Well enough, she said, 
grim-voiced. Though not as well as I would if this human were And Areinnye 
broke off. Pardon me, she said, more slowly. It was an ill thought. Let me go 
help Kit now.
She went. You now, Sreee said to Nita. She sang a few notes to start the 
healing spell going, then said, HNiit? Are you all right otherwise?
The sound of Kits battlecry came scraping along Nitas skin from down-canyon. 
No, she said. Kit had been fighting with a skill and, heaven help him, a 
relish that Nita would never have suspected in him. Im not sure its the sark 
doing this, she thought. I keep thinking that Kit might actually be this way, 
down deep.
Then Nita stopped. What makes me think it matters one way or another? she 
thought. In a few hours, anything I think about Kit will make no difference at 
all. But I cant stop acting as if it will. Habit is hard to break . . . 
If its something I can help with Sreee said, finishing up.
Nita brushed skin with her, an absent gesture. Its not, she said. And off she 
went after Areinnyeinto the water fouled with stirred-up slime and ink and 
blood, into the reach of grabbing, sandpapery tentacles and the glare of yellow 
eyes.
It went on that way for what seemed forever, until Nita was nearly blind from 
head-on ramming. She gave up on sonar and concentrated on keeping just one more 
squid occupied until Kit or Ed or Areinnye could deal with it. So, as the walls 
of the canyon, which had been towering some six thousand feet above the 
Celebrants on either side, began to decrease in height, she didnt really notice 
it. Eventually the bitter cold of the water got her attention; and she also 
realized that the krakens attack had stopped. Nita sang a few notes to see at 
a distance, and squinted around her in the sea-green wizard-light to find out 
where she and the other Celebrants were.
The walls closest to them were still nearly three thousand feet high. But their 
slope was gentler; and the canyon had widened from some two miles across to 
nearly five. To left and right of the canyons foot, curving away northward and 
southward, miles past sound or sight, stretched the rubble-strewn foothills of 
the Continental Shelf. Behind the Celebrants the shelf itself towered, a mighty 
cliffwall rising to lose itself in darkness. Outward before them, toward the 
open sea, the terrain was mostly flat, broken only occasionally by hills so 
shallow they were more like dunes. The rocky bottom was turning to pale sand. 
But the paleness did nothing to lighten the surroundings. Above it lay an 
intolerable, crushing weight of water, utterly black, icy cold, weighing down on 
the soul no matter what spell protected the body. And far out in the blackness 
could be seen the furtive, erratic movements of tiny lightseerie points of 
peculiar-colored fire that jittered and clustered and hung in the cold dark, 
watching the whales.
Nita took a sharp breath, for some of those lights were definitely eyes. Tlhlki, 
hanging motionless in the still water beside her, did the same. He was staring 
down the slope, which sank past the light of the breathing-spell, and far past 
echo range, dropping farther downward into more darkness. Nothing can be this 
deep, he sang in an unnerved whisper. How much farther down can we go?
All the way, said another voice from Nitas other side. She turned, not 
recognizing itand then knew the speaker very well and was sick inside. Kit hung 
there, with a fey, frightening look in his eyea total lack of fear.
Nita swallowed once. Sperm whales took the great dives better than any other 
whale, coming down this far on purpose to hunt the giant squid; but their 
boldness also got them in trouble. Numerous sperm-whale skeletons had been found 
at these depths by exploring bathyscaphs, the whales tails or bodies hopelessly 
tangled in undersea telephone or telegraph cables.
Were a long way up yet, Kit said, with that cool cast to his voice that 
better suited Areinnye than it did him. Barely six thousand feet down. Well 
have to go down to sixteen thousand feet at least before we see the Seas 
Tooth. And he swam off toward the boundaries of the light.
Nita held still for a few moments as Sreee and various other of the Celebrants 
went slowly after Kit. Tlhlki went too; she barely noticed him go. This isnt 
the Kit I want to say good-bye to.
Perhaps a hundred feet away from her, Ed glided past, staring at her. Sprat, 
he said, come along.
She did. But the fighting in the canyon had left Nita so fatigued that much of 
this part of the descent seemed unreal to her, a prolonged version of one of 
those dreams in which one falls down stairs for hours. And there was a 
terrible sameness about this terrain: a sea of white sand, here and there 
featuring a darker rock thrust up or thrown down into it, or some artifact more 
bizarreoccasionally, great pressure-fused lumps of coal; once an actual kitchen 
sink, just sitting there on the bottom by itself; another time, a lone Coca-Cola 
bottle standing upright in the sand with a kind of desolate, pitiful pride. But 
mostly the bottom was as undifferentiated as a mile-wide, glare-lit snowfield, 
one that pitched forever downward.
Nor was Nitas grasp on reality much helped by the strange creatures that lived 
in those waters more than a thousand fathoms down. Most everything seemed to be 
either transparent as a ghost or brilliantly luminous. Long-bodied, lantern-eyed 
sharks swam curiously about Nita, paid brief homage to their Master, and moved 
on. Anglerfish with their luminous baits hanging on fishlines in front of 
their mouths came up to stare Nita right in the eye and then swam dourly away, 
disappointed that she was too big to eat. Long, many-segmented bottom worms and 
vampire squid, sporting dots or stripes of pink or yellow or blue-white light, 
inched or squirted along the bottom about their affairs, paying no attention to 
the Celebrants sailing overhead in their nimbus of wizard-light. Rays fluttered, 
using fleshy wings to rearrange the sand in which they lay buried; tripod-fish 
crutch-walked around the bottom like peg-legged pirates on their long stiff 
fins. And all the eyes circling in the black water, all the phosphorescent 
shapes crawling on the bottom or undulating above it were doing one of two 
thingseither looking for food or eating it, in the form of one another.
Nita knew there was no other way for these creatures to live, in this deadly 
cold, but by the minimum expenditure of energy for the maximum return . . . 
hence all the baits, traps, hiding. But that didnt affect the dull horror of 
the scenethe endless crushing dark, the ear-blinding silence, and the pale 
chilly lights weaving through the space-black water as the creatures of the 
great depths sought and caught and ate one another with desperate, mindless 
diligence.
The gruesome power of the besetting horror brought Nita wide awake. She had 
never been superstitious; shadows in the bedroom had never bothered her when she 
was little, and she found horror movies fun to watch. But now she started to 
feel more hemmed in, more watched and trapped, than she suspected shed feel in 
any haunted house. Ed, she sang, low as a whisper, to the pale shape that 
paced her, what is it? Theres something down here . . . 
Indeed there is. We are getting close.
She would have asked To what? but as she looked down the interminable slope at 
the other Celebrantswho were mostly swimming gathered close together, as if 
they felt what she feltsomething occurred to her, something so obvious that she 
felt like a moron for not having thought of it before. Ed
If this is the Song of the Twelve, how come there are only eleven of us 
singing?
The Twelfth is here, Ed said. As the Song says, the Lone Power lies bound 
here, in the depths below the depths. And It will sing Its part, as It always 
has. It cannot help it. Indeed, It wants to sing. In the temptation and 
subversion of the Celebrants lies Its only hope of escape from the wizardry that 
binds It.
And if It succeeds
Afallone, Ed said. Atlantis, all over again. Or worse.
Worse Then she noticed something else. Ed, the waters getting warmer!
And the bottom is changing, Ed said. Gather your wits, Sprat. A few hundred 
more lengths and we are there.
The white sand was giving way to some kind of darker stuff. At first Nita 
thought she was looking at the naked rock of the sea bottom. But this stuff 
wasnt flat, as sediment would be. It was ropy, piled-up, ridgy-looking black 
stone. And here and there crystals glittered in it. Scattered around ahead of 
them were higher piles of the black stone, small, bizarrely shaped hills. Nita 
sounded a high note to get some sonar back, as the water through which she swam 
grew warmer and began to taste odd.
The first echoes to return surprised Nita until she started to suspect what they 
were. Waving frondy shapes, the hard round echoes from shelled creatures, a 
peculiar hollowness to the echo that indicated water of lower pressure than that 
surrounding itThat was a stream of sulfur-laden hot water coming out of an 
undersea vent; the other echoes were the creatures that lived around it, all 
adapted to take advantage of the oasis of heat and the sulfur that came up with 
it. And now she understood the black bottom stoneold cooled lava, the kind 
called pillow lava, that oozes up through the oceans crust and spreads itself 
out in flat, ropy piles.
But from past the vent came another echo that was simply impossible. A wall, a 
rounded wall, at least a mile and a half wide at the base, rising out of the 
piled black stone and spearing up, and up, and up, and up, so that fragments of 
the echo kept coming back to Nita for second after second. She backfinned to 
hold still until all the echoes could come back to her, and in Nitas mind the 
picture of the massive, fluted, narrowing pillar of stone got taller and taller, 
until she actually had to sing a soft note or two to deafen herself to it. It 
was, like the walls of Hudson Canyon, too bigonly much more so. Five Empire 
State Buildings on top of each other, Kit had called itbut Empire States a 
mile wide: Caryn Peak, the Seas Tooth, the site of the Song of the Twelve.
The whales ahead of Nita were gathering near the foot of the peak. Against that 
gigantic spear of stone they seemed dwarfed, insignificant. Even Aroooon looked 
like a toy. And the feeling of being watched, closely, by something of malicious 
intent, was getting stronger by the second.
She joined the others. The Celebrants were poised not too far from the open 
ventevidently Sreee preferred the warmer waterin clear view of the strange 
creatures living about it: the twelve-foot stalks of the tubeworms, the great 
blind crabs, the colonies of giant blood-red clams, opening and closing their 
fringed shells with mindless regularity. No coral, Nita thought absently, 
looking around her. But she wouldnt need any. Several hundred feet away, there 
on the face of the peak, were several shattered outcroppings of stone. The 
outcroppings were sharp as glass knives. Those should do it, Nita thought. So 
sharp Ill hardly feel anythinguntil Ed arrives . . . 
If youre all prepared, Sreee sang, her voice wavering strangely where notes 
had to travel suddenly from cold water to hot, I suggest we start right now.
The Celebrants chorused muted agreement and began to spread out, forming the 
circle with which the Song begins. Nita took her place between Fang and Tlhlki, 
while Sreee went to the heart of the circle. Ed swam away, toward the far side 
of the peak and out of sight. Kit glided away from the circle, off behind Nita. 
She looked back at him. He found the spot from which he would watch and gazed 
back at her. Nita swallowed one last time, hard. There was very little of her 
friend in that look. Kit she said, on one low note.
Silent Lord, he said.
And though it was his voice, it wasnt Kit . . . 
Nita turned away, sick at heart, and faced inward toward the circle again; and 
Sreee lifted up her voice and sang the Invocation.
 Blood in the water I sing, and one who shed it:
deadliest hunger I sing, and one who fed it
weaving the ancientmost tale of the Seas sending:
singing the tragedy, singing the joy unending.
This is our shamethis is the whole Oceans glory:
this is the Song of the Twelve. Hark to the story!
Hearken, and bring it to pass; swift, lest the sorrow
long ago laid to its rest devour us tomorrow! 
And so it began, as in song Sreee laid out the foundations of the story, which 
began before lives learned to end in resistance and suffering. One by one the 
Celebrants drew together, closing up the circle, named themselves to one 
another, and began to discuss the problem of running the Sea to everyones 
advantage. Chief among their problems at the moment was the sudden appearance of 
a new whale. It was puzzling; the Sea had given them no warning, as She had in 
times past, that this was about to happen. But they were the Nihwinyii, the 
Lords of the Humors, and they would comport themselves as such. They would 
decide the question for themselves. Under whose Mastery would the Stranger fall? 
. . . 
Nita, who had backed out of the circle after the Invocation, hung shivering in 
the currentless water as the Song shook the warm darkness about her. Part of 
what she felt was the same kind of trembling with excitement she had felt a 
hundred times in school when she knew she was about to be called on. Im ready, 
she thought, trying to quiet herself. This is silly. I know my part backward and 
forwardtheres not that much of it. Ill do all right.
 . . . But there was also something else going on. She had felt it start with 
the Invocation and grow stronger with every passing secondthat sense of 
something waking up, something rousing from sleepy malice, awakening to active, 
alert malevolence. It waits, Ed had said. It was a certainty, as sure as looking 
up toward a lighted window and seeing the person whos been staring at you drop 
the curtain and turn away.
She wrenched her attention back to the Blue, who was at the end of one of his 
long stately passages. But it was hard.
 Nay, slowly, Sounder. Slow is the wise whales song, and wise as slow; for 
he who hastens errs, who errs learns grief. And not the Master-Shark has teeth 
as fierce: grief eats its prey alive, and pain grows greater as the grief 
devours, not less. So let this Stranger sing his piece: what he desires of us; 
theres Sea enough and time to hear him, though he sing the darkened Moon to 
full and back again. Ay, let him speak . . .  
And to Nitas shock and fascinated horror, an answer came. The voice that raised 
itself in the stillness of the great depths was the sonic equivalent of the 
thing one sees out the corner of ones eye, then turns to find gone, or 
imagined. It did not shake the water; it roused no echoes. And Nita was not 
alone in hearing it. She saw the encircled Celebrants look uneasily at one 
another. On the far side of the circle, Kits coolness was suddenly broken, and 
he stared at Nita like someone believing a myth for the first time. The 
innocent, gentle-spoken, unselfconscious evil in the new voice was terrifying. 
With Powers and Dominations need I speak, sang that timbreless voice in quiet 
sincerity,
 the ancient Lords who hold the Sea in sway. I pray thee, Lords of the Humors, 
hear me now, last, least and poorest of the new-made whales, new-loosed from out 
the Seas great silent Heart. No Lord have I; therefore to ye I come, beseeching 
low thy counsel and thy rule for one thats homeless, lawless, mateless, lost. 

Who art thou, then, that speakst? sang Sreee, beginning the Singers 
questioning. At the end of her verse she was answered, in more soft-spoken, 
reasonable platitudeswords meant to lull the unwary and deceive the alert. And 
questions and answers continued, until Nita realized that there had been a 
shift. Rather than the Singer asking the Stranger what he wanted, the Stranger 
was telling the Singer what he knew she wantedand could offer her, if only she 
would take the unspecified Gift he would give her.
Nita began shaking steadily now, and not from the cold. The insinuating power of 
that not-quite-voice somehow frightened her worse than head-on conflict with the 
Lone Power had, a couple of months ago. There the Power had been easily seen in 
its true colors. But here it was hidden, and speaking as matter-of-factly as the 
voices in the back of ones own mind, whose advice one so often tends to follow 
without question. Your Mastery is hollow, said the voice to Sreee,  cold 
song, strict-ruled by law. From such bland rule come no great musics. Singer, 
follow me, accept my Gift and what it brings, and song shall truly have no 
Master save for you. My gift will teach you lyric that will break the heart that 
hears it; every seaborne voice will curse your newfound art, and wish that art 
be its own. Take up the Gift, O foremost Singer . . .  
Nita glanced over at Sreee. She was trembling nearly as hard as Nita was, 
caught in the force of the temptation. Sreee sang her refusal calmly enough; 
but Nita found herself wondering how much of that refusal was the rituals and 
how much Sreees own.
She began watching the other Celebrants with as much care. Iniihwit sang the 
Gazers questioning and rejection with the outward attitude of mild unconcern 
that Nita had in their brief acquaintance come to associate with him. Aroooons 
refusal of the prize offered the Blue by the Stranger, that of Power over all 
the other whales, was more emphatic, though it came in his usual rich, leisurely 
manner. He sang not as if making ritual responses, but as if he rejected someone 
who swam in the circle with him and dared him to do something about it.
After that, the unheard voice sounded less certain of itself, and also 
impatient. The Song passed on to what would for the Lone Power be more 
successful ground: the Wanderer and the Killer and the Forager, all of whom 
would succumb to the Strangers temptations and become the Betrayedthose 
species of whales and fish to whom death would later come most frequently and 
most quickly. One by one Roots and Fang and Hotshot sang with the Lone One, were 
tempted, and in the place of the original Masters, fell. Nita tried to keep 
herself calm, but had trouble doing it; for each time one of the Celebrants gave 
in to the Lone Ones persuasion, she felt the voice grow a little more pleased 
with itself, a little more assuredas if something were finally going according 
to plan.
Nita stared across at Kit. He traded looks with her and began to make his way 
around the circle toward her.
The Lone One was working on the last three whales in the circle now, the ones 
who would become the Undecided. Their parts were the most difficult, being not 
only the longest sung passages but also the most complex. The Undecided argued 
with the Lone Power much more than did the Untouched, who tended to refuse 
quickly, or the Betrayed, who gave in without much fighting. Tlhlki sang first, 
the Sounders part; and strain began to show as the Power offered him all the 
hidden knowledge of the great deeps, and the Sounders song went from smooth 
flowing melodies to rumbles and scrapes of tortured indecision. Not all that 
carrying on is in the Song, Nita thought nervously. Whats happening? And 
indeed, though the Sounder finished his passage and turned away, ostensibly to 
think about what the Lone Power had said to him, Nita could see that Tlhlki 
looked pallid and shaken as a whale thats sick.
The Listener fared no better. Fluke sang steadily enough to begin with; but when 
the voiceless voice offered him the power to hear everything that transpired in 
the Sea, from the random thoughts of new-hatched fry to the secret ponderings of 
the continental plates, he hesitated much too longso long that Nita saw Sreee 
look at him in surprise and almost speak up to prompt him. It was bizarre; in 
rehearsals Fluke had had the best memory of any of them. He finished his verses 
looking troubled, and seemed relieved to turn away.
Its what Sreee said, very early on, Nita thought. The whales picked have to be 
close in temperament to the original Celebrantsloving the same kinds of things. 
But it makes them vulnerable to the temptations too.
And then Areinnye began to sing, questioning the Power in her disturbingly sweet 
voice, asking and answering. She showed no sign of the unease that had troubled 
the others. Nita glanced over at Kit, who had managed by this time to work his 
way fairly close to her; he swung his tail a fraction, a whales version of a 
worried headshake. Areinnyes singing was polished, superb, her manner poised, 
unruffled, royal. She sang her initial rebuff with the harsh certainty the Gray 
Lords song called for.
 Stranger, no more
give me no gift.
Power am I,
fear in the water
as my foes flee.
I need no boon.
In the Below
all bow before me.
Speak not to me.
Speak not of gifts. 
The voice that answered her was as sweet and poised as her own.
And do you then desire no gift of mineyou who have lost so much? Ah no: you 
have strength of your own indeedgreat strength of jaw, of fluke, of fin; fear 
goes before your face. But sorrow follows after. What use strength when 
slaughtered children rot beneath the waves, when the sweet mouth that you gave 
suck is gone, rent to red tatters by the flensing-knives; and when the second 
heart that beat by yours lies ground for dogs meat in a whalers hull? Gray 
One, accept my Gift and learn of strength
Thats not in the Song!
Nita stared in shock at Kit, then at the other Celebrantswho, all but Areinnye, 
were trading horrified looks. The sperm whale held very still, her eyes turned 
outward from the circle; and she shook as violently as Tlhlki had or, for that 
matter, Nita. The Lone Power sang on:
learn power! Learn how wizardry may turn to serve your purpose, sinking the 
whalers deep, taking the brute invaders lives to pay for that small life that 
swims the Sea no more; take up my Gift
There isthere is another life, Areinnye sang, trembling now as if storm 
waters battered at her, breaking the continuity of the Song. Savedshe saved
what matter? As if brutes who fear the Sea are capable of thought, much less 
of love! Even a shark by accident may save a lifethen turn and tear the newly 
saved! Take up my Gift and take a life for life, as it was done of old
Slowly Areinnye turned, and the glitter of the wizard-light in her eyes as she 
looked at Nita was horrible to see. Life, she sang, one low, thick, struggling 
note
She leaped at Nita. In that second Fang, on her left, arrowed in front of 
Areinnye, punching her jaws away from Nita in time for Nita to roll out of their 
way. But Fang didnt recover from the blow in time to flee himself; Areinnyes 
head swept around and the great teeth of her upper jaw raked frightful gashes 
down Fangs side. Nita pulled herself out of her roll just in time to see 
something else hit AreinnyeKits huge bulk, slamming into her with such force 
that she was knocked straight into the side of Caryn Peak. She screamed; the 
water brought back echoes of the sickening sound of her impact. And then she was 
fleeingout of the wizard-light, past the boundaries of the protective spell, 
out into the darkness past the peak.
The Celebrants stirred about in terrible confusion, while Sreee hurried to 
Fangs side and examined him. Nita stroked over quickly and brushed Fangs good 
side, very lightly. One of those merry eyes, now slightly less merry, managed to 
focus on her. We need youSilent One, Fang said.
We do, Sreee said. These wounds arent deep, but theyre bleeding a lotand 
the Master-Sharks about. Ive got to handle this. Meanwhile, were shy the Gray 
Lordand I dont think shes going to come back and take back what she said. 
Kit, are you willing?
Nita looked swiftly behind her. Kit was hanging there, looking down at Fang. 
Id better be, he said.
Good. HNiit, administer him the Celebrants Oath. And hurry. Sreee turned 
away from them and began one of the faster healing spells.
Kit, are you sure
Get going, he said.
She led him through the Oath. He said it almost as quickly as Hotshot had, 
tripping in only one place:  . . . and I shall weave my voice and my will and 
my blood with theirs if there be need . . .  He was looking at Nita as he said 
that, and the look went right through her like a spear.
Done, Sreee said. Fang, mind that sidethe repair is temporarySwiftly, now. 
Everyone circle, we cant afford a delay.
They sang. And if the Song had been frightening before, it was becoming frantic 
now. Underneath them all the Celebrants could feel some malicious force 
straining to get free
Nita watched Kit closely. He didnt rehearse any of this stuff, she thought. 
What if he slips? But Kit sang what remained of the Gray Lords part 
faultlessly; he had laid himself wide open to the Sea and was being fed words 
and music directly. Nita felt a lump in her throatthat reaction humans shared 
with whalesat the perfect clarity of his voice. But she couldnt stop worrying. 
If hes this open to the Sea, hes also open to that Other
And that Other was working on him. Kit was beginning to tremble as the second 
part of the Gray Lords rebuff came to an end. The soundless voice, when it 
spoke for the last time, was all sweet reason:
 strength is no use. Give over the vain strife that saves no one, keeps no 
old friend alive, condemns the dear to death. Take but my Gift and know long 
years that end not, slow-burnt days under the Sun and Moon; not for yourself 
alone, but for the other  
No, Nita saida mere whisper of song.
Kit looked at her from the heart of the circle, shaking. In his eyes and the way 
he held his body Nita read how easy it would be for him to desert the Song after 
just these few lines, destroy it, knowing that Nita would escape alive. Here was 
the out he had been looking for.
No! she tried to say again, but something was stopping her. The malice in the 
water grew, burning her. Kit wavered, looking at herthen closed his eyes and 
took a great breath of air from the spell, and began singing againhis voice 
anguished, but still determined. He finished the last verse of the Gray Lords 
rebuff on a note that was mostly a squeak, and immediately turned to Sreee, for 
the next part would be the group singingthe battle.
Sreee lifted her head for the secondary invocation.
The ocean floor began to shake. And Nita suddenly realized that it wasnt lust 
the Lone Powers malice burning all around her. The water was heating up.
Oh, Sea about us, no! Sreee cried. What now?
Sing! came a great voice from above them. Aroooon had lifted out of the 
circle, was looking into the darkness, past the great pillar of Caryn Peak. For 
your lives, sing! Forget the battle! HNiit, quickly!
She knew what he wanted. Nita took one last great gulp of breath, tasting it as 
she had never tasted anything in her life, and fluked upward out of the Circle 
herself, locating one of the sharp outcroppings she had noticed earlier.
A flash of ghostly white in the backgroundGood, she thought. Eds close. Sea, 
hear me now, she sang in a great voice, and take my words and make them ever 
law
Nitaaaaaa!
HNiit, look out!
The two cries came from opposite directions. She was glancing toward Kit, one 
last look, when something with suckered arms grabbed her by the tail and pulled 
her down.
The moments that followed turned into a nightmare of thrashing and bellowing, 
arms that whipped at her, clung to her, dragging her inexorably toward the place 
where they joined and the wicked beak waited. No one was coming to help her, 
Nita realized, as she looked down into that sucking mouth. The water was full of 
screams; and two of the voices she heard were those of sperm whales. TwoShe 
thrashed harder, getting a view as she did so of Sreee fleeing before a great 
gray shape with open jawsAreinnye; and coming behind Areinnye, a flood of black 
shapes, bigger than any the Celebrants had had to handle in Hudson Canyon.
Shes sold out, Nita thought miserably. Shes gone over to the Lone One. She 
came back and broke the circle, and let the krakens in, and everythings going 
to go to hell if I dontNita swung her head desperately and hit the kraken with 
it, felt baleen plates in her mouth crack, felt the kraken shudder. Let go of 
me, you disgusting thing! Nita was past working any wizardry but one. Brute 
force was going to have to do it. Let go! She slammed her head into the kraken 
again, sideways. It let out a shrill painful whoop that was very satisfying to 
her. Your eyes sensitive, huh? she thought. One more time!
She hit it again. Something soft gave under the blow, and the kraken screamed. 
Nita tore free of the loosening arms and swam upward, hard and fast, heading for 
her sharp outcropping. The whole area around the base of Caryn Peak was boiling 
with kraken, with Celebrants fighting them and trying desperately not to be 
dragged out of the boundaries of the protective spell. The bottom was shuddering 
harder; hot water was shimmering faster and faster out of the vent. Its got to 
be stopped, Nita thought. Kit, she called, looking around hurriedly. Theres 
just time enough to say good-byeTwo things she saw. One was that ghostly white 
shape soaring close by, bolting down the rear half of a kraken about the size of 
a step van and gazing down at her as it passed by.
The other was Kit, turning away from a long, vicious slash he had just torn down 
Areinnyes sidelooking up at Nita and singing one note of heart-tearing 
miserynot in the Speechnot in the human-flavored whale he had always spoken 
beforebut in pure whale.
Oh, no. Hes lost language! Nitas heart seized. Sreee had said that if that 
happened, the whalesark was about to be rejected by Kits brain. Unless 
something was done, it would leave him human again, naked in the cold, three 
miles down.
That thought, and the echoes of Kits cry of anguish, suddenly meant more to 
Nita than any abstract idea of ten million deaths. And in that second Nita came 
to understand what Carl had been talking about. She wheeled around and stared at 
the outcroppingthen chose to do, willingly, what she had thought shed no 
choice but to do. The triumph that instantly flared up in her made no sense: But 
she wouldnt have traded it for any feeling more sensible. She turned and fluked 
with all her might and threw herself at the stony knives of the peakand 
hitsomething, not stone, and reeled away from the blow, stunned and confused. 
Something had punched her in the side. Tumbling over and over with the force of 
the blow and the ever-increasing shockwaves blasting up from the shuddering 
bottom, Nita saw that great white shape againbut much closer, soaring backward 
with her as she tumbled. Silent One, he said, before you do what you 
mustgive me your power!
What?
Only trust me! Give it meand be quick!
Nita could hardly react to the outrageous demand. Only with Kit had she ever 
dared do such a thing. To give Ed all her power would leave her empty of it, 
defenseless, until he finished whatever he wanted to do with it. Which could be 
hoursor forever. And he wasnt even a wizard
Nita, swiftly!
But Ed, I need it for the Sacrifice. What do you want it for!
To call for help! Ed hissed, arching away through the water toward Areinnye 
and Kit, who was still fighting feebly to keep her busy and away from Nita. 
Sprat, be quick and choose, or it will be too late!
He dove at Areinnye, punched Kit out of harms way, and took a great crater of a 
bite out of Areinnyes unprotected flank.
Areinnyes head snapped up and around, slashing at Ed sideways. He avoided her, 
circled in again. Nita!
To call for helpWhat help? And even for Ed, to give up her power, the thing 
that was keeping her safe and was also the most inside part of her
Read the fine print before you sign, said a scratchy voice in her memory. Do 
what the Knight tells you. And dont be afraid to give yourself away!
Ed, Nita sang at the bloody comet hurtling through the water, take it! then 
she cried the three words that she had never spoken to anyone but Kit, the most 
dangerous words in the Speech, which release ones whole Power to another. She 
felt the power run from her like blood from a wound, she felt Ed acquire it, and 
demand more as he turned it toward the beginning of some ferocious inner 
calling. And then, when she felt as empty as a shell, Ed shook himself and dived 
toward the lava again, driving Areinnye away from Kit.
Areinnye refused to be driven. Swiftly she turned and her fangs found Eds side, 
scoring a long deep gash from gills to tail. The Master-Shark swept away from 
Areinnye, his wound trailing a horrid boiling curtain of black blood-smoke in 
the failing wizard-light.
Nita flailed and gasped with exertionand got air from the protective spell, 
much to her surprise. She was still in whaleshape. And stuck in it, I bet, she 
thought, till I get the power back. What in the worlds Ed doing?
The sea bottom around the vent suddenly heavedlifting like some great dark 
creature taking its first breath . . . then heaved again, bulging up, with 
cracks spreading outward from the center of the bulge. The cracks, or something 
beneath them, glowed red-hot.
The sea floor thundered with another tremor. Superheated water blasted up from 
the remains of the vent; rocks rained down from Caryn Peak. The red glow burst 
up through the widening cracks. It was lava, burning a feverish, suppurating red 
through the murk and the violently shimmering water. The water that came in 
contact with itunable to boil at these pressures, regardless of the heat 
applied to itdid the impossible, the only thing it could do: It burst into 
flame. Small tongues of blue-violet fire danced and snaked along the 
outward-reaching tentacles of lava.
The wizard-light remaining in the water was a failing, sickly mist. Caryn Peak 
shook on its foundations. The Celebrants were scattered. Nita swam desperately 
upward, trying to do what she saw Kit doingget safe above the roasting heat of 
the sea floor. All the bottom between her and the peak was a mazework of 
lava-filled cracks, broken stone floating on the lava, and violet fire.
Under the stone, under the lava, in the depths of the great crack that had 
swallowed the vent, something moved. Something began to shrug the stone and lava 
aside. A long shape shook itself, stretched itself, swelled and shrank and 
swelled againa shape clothed in lava and black-violet fire, burning terribly. 
Nita watched in horrified fascination. What is it? Nita wondered. Some kind of 
buried pipeline? But no manmade pipeline was a hundred feet across. And no 
pipeline would seem to breathe, or move by itself, or rear up serpentlike out of 
the disintegrating sea bed with the dreadful energy of something unbound at 
last.
That shape was rising now, letting go its grasp on part of that long burning 
body that stretched away as far as the eye could see from east to west. A neck, 
Nita thought, as the shape reared up taller, towering over the sea bottom. A 
neck and a headA huge snakes head, fringed, fanged, long and sleek, with 
dark-burning lava for a hide, and eyes the sick black-violet of water bursting 
into flame
In the guise It had first worn after betraying the whales, and wore now again in 
gloating token of another victory, the Power, the many-named darkness that men 
had sometimes called the Old Serpent, towered over the sea bed as the binding 
that had held It shattered. This, Nita realized, was the terrible truth 
concealed under the old myths of the Serpent that lay coiled about the 
foundations of the world, waiting for the day It would crush the world in those 
coils.
And now Its moment was at hand: But It was stretching it, savoring it. It looked 
at Nita, drifting not two hundred feet from Its immense stony jaws looked at her 
out of eyes burning with a color that would sear its way into the nightmares of 
anyone surviving to remember it. And those eyes knew her.
She was frightened; but she had something to do yet. I know my verse now without 
having to get it from the Sea, she thought. So maybe I wont need wizardry to 
pull this off. And maybe just doing the Sacrifice will have its own power. Lets 
find out . . . 
Nita backfinned through the thundering water, staying out of reach of those 
jaws, watching for any sudden movement. She drew what she suspected was a last 
breaththe protective spell around her was fading fastand lifted her voice into 
the roaring darkness. Ed, she thought, dont blow it now!
 Must I accept the barren Gift?
learn death, and lose my Mastery?
Then let them know whose blood and breath
will take the Gift and set them free! 
The gloating eyes were fixed on herletting her sing, letting Nita make the 
attempt. But the Lone Power wasnt going to let her get away with it. That huge, 
hideous head was bending closer to her. Nita back-finned, not too obviously, she 
hopedkept her distance, kept on singing:
 Not old enough to love as yet,
but old enough to die, indeed
the death-fear bites my throat and heart,
fanged cousin to the Pale Ones breed 
And with a low thick rumble of amusement and hunger, the Serpents head thrust 
at Nita in a strike that she couldnt prevent.
This is it!
The sudden small shock in the water made her heart pound. She glanced downward 
as she sang. There was Kitbattered and struggling with the failing whalesark as 
if it were actually someone elses bodybut ramming the Serpent head-on, near 
where the neck towered up above the slowly squeezing coils. Their pressure was 
breaking the sea bed in great pieces, so that lava and superheated water gushed 
up in a hundred places. But Kit ignored the heat and rammed the Old Serpent 
again and again. Hes trying to distract It, Nita thought, in a terrible uprush 
of anguish and admiration. Hes buying me time. Oh, Kit! The gift was too 
precious to waste. But past the fear lies life for them, she sang,
 perhaps for me; and past my dread, past loss of Mastery and life,
the Sea shall yet give up Her dead! 
Annoyedas a human might be by a gnatthe Serpent bent Its head away from Nita 
to see what was troubling It. Humor and hunger glinted in Its eyes as It 
recognized in Kit the other wizard who had once given It so much trouble in 
Manhattan. It bent Its head to him, but slowly, wanting him to savor the terror. 
Now, Nita thought, and began to sing again. Lone Power
No! cried another voice through the water, and something came hurtling at her 
and punched Nita to one side. It was Areinnyewounded, and crazy, from the looks 
of her. I dont have time for this! Nita thought, and for the first time in her 
life rummaged around in her mind for a spell that would kill.
Someone else came streaking in to ram. Areinnye went flying. There was blood in 
the water: Eds, pumping more and more weakly from the gash in his side. But his 
eyes were as cool as ever. Ed, Nita said, breaking off her singing, thank 
you
He stared at her as he arrowed toward herthe old indecipherable look. Sprat, 
he said, when did I ever leave distress uncured? And to her complete 
amazement, before Nita could move, he rammed her again, close to the 
headleaving her too stunned to sing, tumbling and helpless in pain.
Through the ache she heard Ed lift his voice in song. Nitas songthe lines 
that, with the offered Sacrifice, bind Death anew and put the Lone Power in Its 
place. Kit just went on pummeling at the great shape that bent closer and closer 
to them all, and Nita struggled and writhed and couldnt make a sound.
No! she thought. But it was no use. Ed was taking her part willingly circling in 
on the Lone Power. Yet even through Nitas horror, some wonder intruded. Where 
did he get such a voice? she thought. It seemed to fill the whole Sea.
 Lone Power, I accept your Gift!
But take my Gift of equal worth:
I take Death with me, out of time,
and make of it a path, a birth!
Let the teeth come! As they tear me,
they tear your ancient hate for aye 
so rage, proud Power! Fail again,
and see my blood teach Death to die! 
And the Master-Shark dived straight at the upraised neck of the Serpent, and bit 
it. He made no cry as Its burning hide blasted his teeth away and seared his 
mouth instantly black; he made no cry as the Lone Power, enraged at Its 
wounding, bent down to pluck the annoying little creature from Its neck and 
crush it in stony jaws.
And then the sharks came.
Calling for help, Ed had said. Now Nita remembered what he had said to her so 
long ago, on the only way he had to call his people together . . . with blood: 
his own. Her wizardry, though, had lent the call power that even Eds own 
Mastery could never have achieved, just as it had lent him a whale-wizards 
power of song. And brought impossible distances by its power, the Master-Sharks 
people cameby dozens, by hundreds, by thousands and tens of thousands. Maddened 
by the blood in the water, they fell on everything that had a wound and tore it 
to shreds.
Nita found that she could swim again, and she did, fastaway from there, where 
all the sharks of the world, it seemed, jostled and boiled in feeding frenzy. 
Areinnye vanished in a cloud of sleek silver bodies. Ed could not be seen. And 
the Serpent
A scream of astonishment and pain crashed through the water. The Lone Power, 
like all the other Powers, had to obey the rules when within a universe and wear 
a body that could be acted upon. The sharkswild with their Masters blood and 
beyond feeling painwere acting upon it. The taste of Its scalding blood in the 
water, and their own, drove them mad for more. They found more. The screaming 
went on, and on, and on, all up and down the length of the thrashing, writhing 
Serpent. Nita, deafened, writhing her finsshe felt as if it would go on 
forever.
Eventually forever ended. The sharks, great and small, began milling slowly 
about, cruising for new game, finding none. They began to disperse.
Of the Master-Shark, of Areinnye, there was no sign; only a roiling cloud of red 
that every now and then snowed little rags of flesh.
Of the Lone Power, nothing remained but sluggishly flowing lava running over a 
quieting sea bed, and in the water the hot sulfurous taste, much diluted, of Its 
flaming blood. The writhing shape now defined on the bottom by cooling pillow 
lava made it plain that the Unbound was bound once more by the blood of a 
willing victim, a wizardno matter that the wizardry was borrowed.
Aching all over, impossibly tired, Nita hung there for several minutes, simply 
not knowing what to do. She hadnt planned to live this long.
Now, though: Kit?
Her cry brought her back the echo of a sperm whale heading for the surface as 
quickly as was safe. She followed him.
Nita passed through the twilight zone at three hundred fathoms and saw light, 
the faint green gold she had never hoped to see again. When she broke surface 
and drew several long gasping breaths, she found that it was morning. Monday 
morning, she guessed, or hoped. It didnt much matter. She had sunlight again, 
she had air to breatheand floating half a mile away in the wavewash, looking 
too tired to move a fin, the massive back of a sperm whale bobbed and rocked.
She went to him. Neither of them did anything for a long time but lie there in 
the water, side by side, skin just touching, and breathe.
I got carried away down there, Kit said eventually. And the whalesark started 
to go out on me. I would have gone all sperm whaleand then the sark would have 
blown out all the way
I noticed, Nita said.
And you pulled me out of it. I think I owe you one.
After all that, Nita said, Im not sure who owes what. Maybe wed better call 
it even.
Yeah. But, Neets
Dont mention it, she said. Someone has to keep you out of trouble.
He blew explosively, right in her face.
One by one, finding one another by song, the other Celebrants began to gather 
around them. Neither Kit nor Nita had any words for them until, last of the 
group, Sreee surfaced and blew in utter weariness.
She looked at Nita. Areinnye
Gone, Kit said.
And the Master-Shark
The Sacrifice, Nita said, was accepted.
There was silence as the Celebrants looked at each other. Well, Sreee said, 
the Sea has definitely never seen a Song quite like this
It will be a Song well sung, said a cool voice in Nitas head. And sung from the 
heart. You, young and never loving: I, old and never loved
but the Lone One is bound. And the waters are quieting.
Sreee, Fang said, dont we still need to finish the Song?
Its done, Kit said.
Sreee looked at him in silence a moment. Yes, she said then. It is.
And I want to go home, Kit said.
Well enough, said Sreee. Kit, well be in these waters resting for at least 
a couple of days. You know where to find us. She paused, hunting words. And, 
look
Please save it, Nita said, as gently as she could. She nudged Kit in the side; 
he turned shoreward for the long swim home. Well see you later.
They went home.
They found Nitas parents waiting for them on the beach, as if they had known 
where and when they would be arriving. Nita found it difficult to care. She and 
Kit slogged their way up out of the surf, into the towels that Nitas mom and 
dad held out for them, and stood there shivering with reaction and early-morning 
cold for several moments.
Is it going to be all right? Nitas father asked.
Nita nodded.
Are you all right? Nitas mother asked, holding her tight.
Nita looked up at her mom and saw no reason to start lying then. No.
 . . . Okay, her mother said. The questions can wait. Lets get you home.
Okay, Kit said. And you can ask her all the questions you like . . . while I 
eat.
Nita turned around then; gave Kit a long look . . . and reached out, and hugged 
him hard.
She didnt answer questions when she got home. She did eat; and then she went to 
her room and fell onto her bed, as Kit had done in his room across the hall, to 
get some sleep. But before she dropped off, Nita pulled her manual out from its 
spot under her pillow and opened it to one of the general data supply areas. I 
want a readout on all the blank-check wizardries done in this area in the last 
six months, she said. And what their results were.
The list came up. It was short, as shed known it would be. The second-to-last 
entry on the list said:
BCX 85/003CALLAHAN, Juanita T., and RODRIGUEZ, Christopher K.: open-ended 
Mobius spell implementation.
Incurred:
5/25/85.
Paid:
7/15/85, by willing substitution. See Current Events precis for details.
Nita put the book back under her pillow, and quietly, bitterly, started get 
caught up on her crying.







Heartsong
Neither she nor Kit got up till well after nightfall. When Nita threw clothes on 
and went downstairs, she found Kit sitting at the table, shoveling Cheerios into 
his face with the singleminded intensity he gave to the really important things 
in life. In the living room, she could hear the TV going, making crowd sounds, 
over which her mother was saying indignantly, Him? Hes no hitter! Just you 
watch
Kit looked up at Nita as she leaned on the doorsill. You hungry?
Not yet.
She sat down beside him, carefullyshe still ached all overand picked up the 
cereal box, absently reading the list of ingredients on the side.
Business as usual in there, Kit said, between mouthfuls.
So I hear.
Im going out in a while. Wanna come?
Swimming?
Yeah. He paused for another mouthful. Ive got to take the whalesark back.
Does it still work?
At this point, Kit said, Id almost rather not get into it and find out. But 
it got me back.
Nita nodded, put the cereal box down, and just sat for a moment with her CW in 
her hands. I had a thought
Ahooooooo.
Nita looked brief murder at Kit, then let the look go. We seem to have pulled 
it off again, she said.
Yeah.
He said it almost a little too easily. You notice, she said, that our reward 
for hard jobs seems to be that we get given harder jobs even?
Kit thought, then nodded. Problem is, he said, that we like the hard jobs.
She made a sour face. Much as it annoyed her to admit ither, little quiet Nita 
who sat in the back of the class and made decent grades and it was true. Kit, 
she said, theyre gonna keep doing that.
They.
The Powers. Theyll keep doing it until one day we dont pull it off. of us, or 
both of us.
Kit looked down at his cereal bowl. Both, preferably, he said.
She stared at him.
Saves the explanations. He scooped out the last spoonful of cereal, glanced 
up, and made a face. Well, what would I have told them?
Nita shook her head. We could stop, she said.
Kit chewed, watching her, swallowed, and said, You want to?
She waited to see if he would give some sign of what he was thinking. Useless: 
Kit would make a great poker player someday. No, she said at last.
Me either, Kit said, getting up and putting the bowl in the sink. Looks like 
were stuck with being wizards, huh?
Very slowly, she smiled at him. Yeah.
Then lets go down to the water and let them applaud.
Kit gave the screen door a good-natured kick and went pounding down the stairs. 
Nita shook her head, still smiling, and followed.
It was late. The Moon was now a day past full, and about halfway up the sky; its 
light was so bright the sky couldnt even manage to be totally black. The stars 
hung glittering in a sky more indigo, or midnight blue. Nita and Kit walked out 
into the surf, feeling the wind on them and hearing something most unusualthe 
sound of whales basking on the surface, some miles out, and singing where they 
lay. It was, as it had been on first hearing, a high, wild, lovely sound; but 
now the songs brought something extra, a catch at the heart that hadnt been 
there beforesorrow, and loss, and wonder. Oh, Ed, Nita thought, and sighed, 
remembering the glory of how he had sounded at the last. Im gonna miss you . . 
. 
Nita swam out far enough to take whaleshape, then took Kit in tow until they 
made it to water deep enough for a sperm whale. He changed. Side by side they 
swam outward into the singing, through a sea illumined in a strange green-blue 
radiance, moonlight diffused and reflected. Dark shapes came to meet them; all 
the Celebrants but two, cruising and singing in the bright water. Sreee came to 
greet them skin to skin. Come swim with us awhile. she said. No business 
tonight. Just singing.
Just a little business, Nita said. It was hard to stop being the Silent Lord 
with all her responsibilities. How are things down deep?
Quiet. Not a shake; and several of the hot-water vents seem to have reduced 
their outputs to normal levels. Were going to have some peace for a while, it 
seems . . . for which we thank you. Both of you.
Youre very welcome, Kit said. Wed do it again, if we had to. Nita shot Kit 
a quizzical look, which he returned in kind. After all, its our world too . . 
. 
They swam, the Celebrants and Kit and Nita, for a long time, a long way outinto 
waters bright with fish going about their business, peaceful with seaweed and 
coral, and warmwhether with volcanism or summer, Nita couldnt tell. This is 
the way its supposed to be, Sreee said from beside her, at one point. Not 
the way you met menot blood in the water. Just the long nights, the singing, 
time to think . . . 
Its so bright, Nita said, wondering. The krill were evidently out in force 
tonight; between them and the moonlight, the water was dazzling. And there 
seemed to be more krill yet in the deeper waters, for it was brighter down 
there; much brighter. Look at that, Kit said, and dived, heading for the 
light.
At about a hundred feet down, Nita began to realize that the light in the water 
had nothing to do with krill. Of itself the water was burning, a harmless warm 
radiance that grew stronger and stronger in the greater depths. And in those 
depths, everything else shone too: not just reflected light, but a fire that 
seemed to come from inside seaweed, shells, branching coral. Song echoed in that 
water, sounding at first like whalesongbut slowly Nita began to hear something 
else in the music, in a way that had nothing to do with hearing. Expressions of 
growth, of power, of delightbut no note of limitation, pain, loss. She found 
herself descending into timelessness, into a blaze of meaning and purpose so 
bright it could have blinded the hearthad the heart not become stronger every 
moment, more able to bear it.
Finally there was nothing but the brightness, the water all around her alive 
with light. Shapes moved in the light, swimming in it as if the water were 
extraneous and the light were their true medium. There was no looking at those 
shapes for more than a heartbeat before the eye was forced to turn away, 
defeated by glory. It was in the passage of those shapes near Nita that it was 
made plain to her, in the way the Sea gave a whale-wizard knowledge, that she 
and Kit were welcome indeed and had successfully completed the job theyd been 
given.
Kit was silent, as if not knowing what to say. Nita knew, but simply considered 
for a moment before singing it in one soft note that, in this place, carried as 
poignantly as a trumpet-call at evening. It hurt, she said.
We know, the answer came back. We sorrow. Do you? For what happened?
No. For who you are nowthe person you werent a week ago.
No, Kit said.
Would you do the same sort of thing again?
Yes . . . if we had to.
Then theres no guarantee this wont happen again. Not that we could offer you 
any. Hope, like fear, comes from within . . . 
Nita nodded. There was nothing sorrowful about the pronouncement; it was as 
matter-of-fact as anything in the manual. Kit turned away from the shape, the 
bright Power, that had answered them. As always, Nita turned with him.
And, looking up in astonishment, backfinned hurriedly. Something was passing 
over. Something as huge, or huger than, the unseeable shapes in the radiant 
water; burning as fiercely as they did, though with a cooler flame; passing by 
with a silent, deadly grace that Nita would have known anywhere. I am no wizard, 
he had said. But how could he, or she, have anticipated that borrowing a 
wizards power would make even a nonwizard part of the Heart of the Sea? Or 
maybe there was more to it than that. Whats loved, Carl had said, survives. 
Nitas heart went up in a great note of unbelieving joy.
The passing shape didnt turn, didnt pause. Nita got just a glance of black 
eyes, the only dark things in all this place. Yet even they burned, a fire 
behind that opaque look that could mean anything.
Nita knew what it meant. And on he went, out of sight, in unhurried grace; the 
true dark angel, the unfallen Destroyer, the Pale Slayer who never really 
diesseeking for pain to end.
Nita turned to Kit, wordless. He gazed back, as astonished and delighted as she.
 . . . Okay, Kit said. Bring on the next job.
She agreed.
