“The Sea does,” she said, finding it true. S’reee 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 were 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.” S’reee 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 they’d 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, S’reee, give me names so I’ll know whom to call.”
A few moments of singing ensued as S’reee 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, HNii’t. Till the Moon’s full, Aroooon—“
“Till then.”
They swam away through the darkening water. S’reee set the pace; it was a quick one. “Why did we have to leave in such a hurry?” Kit said.
“There aren’t many wizardries more powerful than a Calling,” S’reee said as she led them away. “He’ll 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, that’s plenty. Don’t you pay attention when someone calls you by your name? Your name is part of you. There’s power in it, tied up with the way you secretly think of yourself, the truth of the way you are. Know what a person’s name means to him, know who he feels he is — and you have power over him. That’s what Aroooon is using.”
That was a bit of information that started Nita’s 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? I’m 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, HNii’t!” S’reee sang, a soft, sharp note of warning. Nita backfinned, hovering in the water. “Don’t disturb his circle—“
Looking back, she wouldn’t 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 visible — a 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 Aroooon’s swimming — a 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 at right angles to the first, and the water burned behind him, the current not taking the brilliance away. And the blue’s song seemed to get into the blood, into the bone, and would not be shaken—
“HNii’t,” S’reee said, “we can’t stay, you said you have to get back—“
Nita looked around her in shock. “S’reee, when did it get so dark! My folks are gonna have a fit!”
“Didn’t I mention that time didn’t 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 didn’t think. I assumed that it’d go slower—“
“It goes faster,” Nita moaned. “Kit, how are we going to get anything done? S’reee, 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 it’s reckoned in the Above—“
“Two days!”
“We’re in trouble,” Kit said.
“That’s exactly what we’re in. S’reee, let’s put our tails into it! Even if we were getting home right now, we’d 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 Kit’s family if they got worried enough — and Kit’s 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 Nita’s father was too tired from his fishing — which had been successful — to 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 she’d like.
“Wizardry…” she muttered sourly, and fell asleep.
Ed’s 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. “What’s up?”
Her mother was silent for a second, as if wondering how to broach whatever she had on her mind. “You and Kit’ve been out a lot lately,” she said at last. “Dad and I hardly ever seem to see you.”
“I thought Dad said it’d 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 life. — We worry about you two when you’re out so much.”
“Mom, we’re 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,’ it’s really just nothing. We hang out, that’s all-We… do stuff.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“Mom, what does it matter? Just stuff!”
“It matters,” her mother said, “if it’s adult kinds of stuff… instead of kid stuff.”
Nita didn’t say a word. There was no question that what she and Kit were doing were adult sorts of things.
Her mother took in Nita’s silence, waiting for her daughter to break it. “I won’t 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,
