Ed’Rashtekaresket.”
“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 you’re the Silent One? Not the Listener?”
“The Listener’s part is spoken for, Pale One,” S’reee said. “And the Silent One’s part needs a wizard more experienced than any we have — one already tested against the Lone Power, yet young enough to fulfill the other criteria. HNii’t is the one.”
“Then these are the two who went up against the Lone One in Manhattan,” Ed’Rashtekaresket said. “Oh, don’t 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 I’m a ‘killing machine’—and 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. I’m glad you brought them, S’reee. 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, S’reee displayed a mild annoyance. “It exists, Pale One. How many Songs have you played Twelfth in, and you still don’t admit that—“
“More Songs than you have, young one,” Ed’Rashtekaresket said. “And it would take more still to convince me of what can’t be seen by anyone not a wizard. Show me the Sea’s Heart, this Timeheart you speak of, and I’ll admit it exists.”
“Are you denying that wizardry comes from there?” S’reee said, sounding even more annoyed.
“Possibly,” said the shark, “if it does not. Don’t be angry without reason, S’reee. You warm-bloods are all such great believers. But there’s no greater pragmatist than a shark. I believe what I eat… or what I see. Your power I’ve seen: I don’t deny that. I simply reserve decision on where it comes from. What I say further is that there’s trouble in the deep waters hereabouts, more trouble than usual — and it’s as well the Song is being enacted now, for there’s need of it, wherever its virtue comes from. Will you hear my news? For if things go on as they’re going now, the High and Dry will shortly be low and wet — and those of my Mastery will be eating very well indeed.”
A Song of Battles
“What is it?” Kit said. “Is it the krakens?”
Ed’Rashtekaresket looked at Kit and began a slow, abstracted circling around him. “You know about that?” said the Master-Shark. “You’re wise for a human.”
“I know that the krakens are breeding this year,” Kit said, “breaking their usual eleven-year cycle. And they’re 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 S’reee, still circling Kit. “My own people have been reporting trouble with the bottom dwellers — but any sharks who cannot escape such are no longer entitled to the Mastery’s 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,” S’reee said, and bowed as they swam.
“Odd,” Ed’Rashtekaresket 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 isn’t the word for it, Pale One,” S’reee 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 have the Song enacted just now.” His voice sounded remote. “I’m reminded of that Song enacted, oh, a hundred thirty thousand moons ago — when 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, S’reee: when the mock-battle breaks out among the three parties, and each one tries to force the others around to its way of thinking.”
Ed’Rashtekaresket fell silent. The four of them swam on. “Uh, Ed_ Ed’Rak—“ 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 I’m going to be singing with you, it can’t be titles all the time. We have to know each other, you say.”
“A sprat’s name,” the shark said, dry-voiced. “A fry name — for me, the Master.” Then came the quiet, terrible laughter again. “Well enough. You’re the Sprat, and I’m 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 protected — it 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 rest — eating 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,” S’reee 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 couldn’t 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-Sea — the crust, I think the two-leggers call it — and 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 mantle — utterly destroyed. The plates of your continent and that of Europe have since drifted together over the island’s old location, covering its grave… But even after the Downfall, there was trouble for years — mostly 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. I’m for the Northern Rips tonight; there’s 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 we’re 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 planning — and the relationship will be rather one-sided.”
Ed’s jaws worked. “—I was going to say: matters swimming as they do, I will see you three home. It’s 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 Sun’s going down,” Kit said unhappily. “We’re 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
