THERE were seals at the harbor quay. Jenna was disappointed to see that they were the common brown harbor seals and a few grays. Jenna wandered down to see them as she and Ennis waited for the Banrion's entourage and Moister Cleurach to arrive. The Banrion's ship, the name Uaigneas-Loneliness-emblazoned across its prow, cast a long shadow over the harbor front, and Jenna glanced at the ship as she walked along the beach with Ennis. Uaigneas dwarfed any craft Jenna had seen before, with a sparred central mast that seemed to prick the lowering clouds and six oars per side for use when the wind died. She could see several sailors on the deck and more swarming near it where it was docked alongside a long wharf extending out into the bay. The sides of the ship were painted in the blue-and-white colors of Inish Thuaidh in sweeping curves that were reminiscent of the long swells of the ocean.
'She's magnificent, isn't she?' Ennis said. Jenna nodded, silent. His hands touched her shoulder; before he could move away again, she leaned back against him, luxuriating in the feel of his closeness. But though he remained where he was, he wouldn't put his arm around her and his voice was carefully neutral. 'We Inishlanders know how to build ships. Infochla may claim to have rule of the Westering and Ice Seas, but though they have more ships, ours are the better. The Banrion's ship is one of the best, which is why her captain was unafraid to sail at night. Inishlanders understand and respect the sea because it surrounds us. Even in the mid-dle of Inish Thuaidh, the ocean's but a day's ride away and its whims and its moods touch the entire land.'
A hoarse roar punctuated the end of Ennis' sentence, and they both turned to look. A quartet of blue seals was hauling out on the rocky beach,
Jenna glanced at Ennis; he nodded to her. 'Go on,' he said and for the first time that morning, a smile touched his lips. 'They've come to see you, not me.'
She approached the group: a bull, two cows, and a pup. They watched as she and Ennis walked closer, their utterly black eyes glistening, their glossy fur rippling with sapphire highlights. The bull hung back, but the pup waddled awkwardly forward;
when Jenna crouched down in front of the animal, it nuzzled the hand she held out. The pup's breath was warm, its fur damp velvet. The larger of the two females came forward also. Up close, the seal smelled of brine, an odor Jenna found strangely pleasant. As the female came closer, Jenna took in a breath of wonder: the cow's fur was mottled in color: dark gray swirls and curlicues interrupted the blue-black and the fur there was stiff and wiry, as if the animal had been injured.
The pattern in the cow's fur was the same as the scars on Jenna's right hand.
The cow spoke, uttering a long string of moans and gargles and Jenna glanced back at Ennis. 'She offers welcome to their land-cousin, the Holder,' he said.
'Land-cousin?'
Ennis lifted a shoulder. 'The blood of the Saimhoir-that's their name for themselves-is mixed with many Inish families. They say the Saimhoir can sense when a human has but a touch of their blood in their ancestry. She's saying that you're one of them.' The seal spoke again, a bark and a braying cough. 'She also says that I'm a poor translator and you should use the cloch.'
'The cloch. .?' Jenna touched it. Curiously, she opened it slightly until she saw the seals in both her own vision and that of the cloch's energy. She closed her eyes, then opened them again, startled, when she heard the seal's voice.
'Land-cousin, can't you taste the salt in your blood? Thraisha is my name and Garrentha, who fought the darkbeast that attacked you, was of my milk.' The words came overlaid with the sound of the seal's own language and came not from her ears but through Lamh Shabhala. Around Thraisha, there was a strange radiance in the cloch's vision, something Jenna had never experienced before.
Jenna laughed in wonder, glancing back at Ennis with wide eyes. Thraisha, you can understand me now when I speak?' Jenna asked, and she knew the answer immediately: her voice came back to her altered in the moans and calls of a seal.
'The language of Saimhoir is part of your blood, and Lamh Shabhala allows you to tap that part of yourself,' Thraisha responded. 'And I have chased and swallowed Bradan an Chumhacht, the first bright salmon of the mage- lights, which has come back to us. I am like you and I bear the marks. Aye, I understand you through Bradan an Chumhacht as you understand me through Lamh Shabhala.'
Jenna blinked. 'You’ve eaten a fish that gave you the ability to tap the mage lights?'
Thraisha gave a series of pants that translated as laughter to Jenna’s ear. 'And you have a stone that gives you power?' she said, mimicking Jenna’s tone of astonishment. 'Why, the land is full of stones.' She laughed again. 'The sea has changed as the land has changed, and things swim under the waves that have not been glimpsed since the last change of currents. Did you think that you humans were the only ones who could tap the power above or who could use the slow magics? The gods made us all; why should they gift only you?' The seal lifted her gray, bristled muzzle. 'I am First for the Saimhoir as you are First for your kind. I understand your pain; I have endured it also.'
With the words, a foaming, cresting wave of force rose from within Thraisha and enveloped Jenna.
For a moment, as the false surf swept over her, Jenna felt the memory of the Filleadh, the agony she’d felt as she’d opened all the clochs na thintri to the mage-lights. . and at the same time she saw herself as Thraisha, undergoing the same brutal trial under-neath the sea and nearly dying as the energies tore at her. It had been worse for Thraisha, Jenna realized-she had nearly succumbed, saved only by her bull mate who had lifted her to the surface and held her above the water for long hours as Thraisha lay senseless. Jenna cried out, a wail of her own remembered torment all mingled with Thraisha’s suffering as she sank to her knees in front of the seal, not caring that the rocks were wet or that the spray from the slow breakers washed over her legs and cloca. Her arm ached and throbbed, the fingers of her right hand knotting as muscles cramped and protested. Thraisha lurched forward and Jenna cradled the seal’s head against her breast as she might a child, her breath choked with a sob. She heard Ennis start forward behind her, then stop as the bull roared once at him in warning.
'We are closer than sisters of the milk,' Thraisha said softly. 'We know, you and I. We know. .' Thraisha’s head pulled away and Jenna reluctantly let her go. 'Bradan an Chumhacht isn’t Lamh
Shabhala; what it gives me is not what the stone gives you,' the seal said to her. 'One gift it brings to me is a small foretelling, a glimpse of possibilities. I am seer and this is what I've seen: our fates our linked together, my sister-kin. That's why I wanted to meet you.'
'What do you mean? How are we linked?'
Thraisha moved her head from side to side with a gurgling wail. 'That I don't know. I can't see it. But I know we will be together again, and in one vision of those possible futures, we die together. I've seen Bradan an Chumhacht swim from my dying mouth and Lamh Shabhala fall to the ground from your hand.'
The bull roared loudly behind them and Thraisha gave a snort. 'Your people are coming and I must go now. We'll talk again.' With a lurch and a roll, the seal turned to leave. The bull waited, but the other female and the pup had already slipped back into the water, calling to Thraisha.
'Wait!' Jenna cried. She stumbled to her feet, Ennis running forward to help her up. 'I want to know more.'
'You will,' Thraisha called. 'We both will, when it's time.' Thraisha was at the water's edge; she half-fell, half-dove into the water. The bull lumbered after her. A moment later, her sleek head reappeared. 'Beware the storm,' Thraisha called to her. 'It doesn't follow you; it travels with you.'
'Thraisha. .!'
The blue seals dove as one. She could see their muscular bodies just below the surface, seeming to fly in the water, as graceful in their element as they were clumsy on the land.
'Mages!'
The voice came from the wharf. Jenna and Ennis turned as one, Jenna releasing her hold on the cloch at the same time. As the cloch-vision left her, the brilliance seemed to wash out of the world, leaving the colors muted and gray. The Banrion was standing there looking down toward them. Moister Cleurach stood next to her; behind, their luggage was being loaded into Uaigneas. 'Consorting with seals isn't something I expected of the First Holder,' Aithne commented. 'I especially didn't expect to hear you growling and wailing like one of them. Will we find you chirping at gulls, as well?' She didn’t wait for an answer. 'The captain says we should sail now, while the tide is running out. We’re boarding.'
The Banrion gestured to them and strode purposefully toward the ship, the gardai falling into place alongside her. Moister Cleurach stared a mo-ment longer, then followed her.
