9
Awa's Hair

Robin knew there was something wrong when she came home from school. The air was only mildly cool, a mere hint of the winter that was beginning up north, but her father stood in the corner of their lot where the wooden fence was falling apart, and he had his woolen coat over his arm. He stood looking over the dunes as if to catch a glimpse of the sea.

She did not approach him, he looked so pensive and brooding. Instead she went on into the trailer and plopped her books down. She got a soft drink from the refrigerator and was surprised to see Mom already setting the table.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she popped the can open.

"Oh, hi, Robin. I didn't see you." Her mother brushed a strand of blond hair away from her face. She sighed. "We're eating early."

"Why?"

"Your father's going to sea again. Just got the word officially today." She spoke drily, masking her emotion.

Oh, no." Robin groaned. "He's only been back for a couple of weeks."

She was genuinely disappointed; usually he got a month or two off after long expeditions. But beneath her disappointment was bitter frustration. Now he would not be able to take her to the lab. She had planned to ask him tonight. She would now be unable to look for Zaak and Drummer.

"But why?" she whined. "Why so soon?"

Her mother stared down at the dishes. "New find, up in the North Atlantic. Very important. Very damned important, I guess."

Robin's heart continued to sink. She didn't want to see her mother dry up again under months of loneliness. It was hard enough to make up the loss to her in those spare months when she, Robin, was her normal self; it was going to be nearly impossible while leading her nightly adventure.

She closed the trailer door softly and approached her father. He didn't seem to hear. "Dad?"

He turned. A strained smile wrinkled his features and he put his arm around her. "How was school, sport?"

"It was okay." She shrugged. It took a long pause to gather the strength to say, "I heard you're going back to sea."

He just nodded.

"Must be important."

"It is. Very. Another site has been uncovered like the one in the Azores, where your ring came from. It's in a place no one thought of looking, on this side of the Atlantic near Newfoundland. Called the Flemish Cap."

"Sounds cold."

He smiled and kicked at a rock. "I'll dress warmly."

"I'm sorry you're going," she said quietly. "I haven't got enough of you yet."

He laughed. "You just haven't got enough answers to your dolphin questions."

She frowned playfully. "Are you going on the Thetis?" That was the name of Dr. Costain's research ship.

"No. No. Not for this trip. The Navy's fitted out a nuclear submarine, The Spearfish. They've fitted on a docking platform for Icky. They'll be finished by midnight, when we're due to shove off."

"What's the hurry?" she said. "It's not a gold rush. It's an expedition, isn't it?"

He stiffened and looked back out to sea. "That's not for me to say. But this site appears to be more extensive than the one we found. It was discovered by accident. By a Polish research ship. So you see, the Russians know about it, too. The Navy wants us to get to it first."

"There's no danger, is there?" she said, looking sharply at him.

"I doubt it. We don't think the Russians know about the Azores site, or the crystal we found. But if there was a security leak . . . well, the Navy boys say that rock has very interesting light-focusing properties. It could be a new source of energy, or an old one, really. But we want to be at the new site before anyone else. It's important for the country."

"I'm sorry you have to go," she said. "For our sakes I'm sorry. But I'm awfully proud of you. You'll find it first, I know."

He smiled and swallowed heavily. "Maybe I'll have some help from your dolphin friends."

Laughing to ease the tension, they went back inside.

He left after an agonizingly intense supper in which much was said and much was left unsaid. They drove him to the Navy base and had to say goodbye to him at the gate. A special security screening kept them out. Robin kissed her father goodbye and avoided crying only by looking at her mother. She had never seen her so brave. Her father joked that he would probably be back in a week, which didn't help.

Later, just before she turned out the light in her bedroom, Robin thought she heard sobbing down the hall.

*

SHE WAS BREEE again; the warm dark ocean held her.

"AHAAAAAAAA, HAAAAAAAA," her enormous companion laughed, wagging his boat-sized snout. "THEN WHAT DID HE DO? AHAAAAAAA."

Robin-Breee stared nervously at the Singer. "What?"

"YOUR FRIEND ZAAK. WHAT DID HE DO WHEN THE PORCUPINE FISH INFLATED IN HIS MOUTH?"

She realized with a chill that Breee had been telling a story just as Robin had arrived. She had no idea what to say.

"Nothing," she said. "It wasn't important." "OH," Old Wind said after a thoughtful pause. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, MY DEAR?"

"Sure. I'm just tired."

But she was sure from the silence that followed that Old Wind was sizing her up. Perhaps he already knew her secret; she had no way of knowing what Breee had told him.

Old Wind was leading her toward the tip of the dipper's handle now, due north, and soon they saw ahead of them hundreds of Hashes of silver. The sliver of moon was reflecting from the sides of fish as they turned. Thousands upon thousands of them, parting as the two passed. She fed until she couldn't stand the thought of another fish wiggling down her throat. The fish were like mirrored clouds, golden moonfish and lookdowns and racing bands of dorado with rainbow sides and square foreheads. The food was abundant in this place, and Old Wind also ate his fill. "This is exciting," she said.

"I HOPE IT DOES NOT BECOME TOO EXCITING," Old Wind replied ambiguously.

She didn't have to wonder what he meant for long. The fish had already begun flashing left and right quickly, for no visible reason. Masses of them darted back and forth, nearly bumping against her, until she thought she was in a huge tumbling kaleidoscope.

"What's wrong with them?" she cried.

"SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH," Old Wind hushed in a low voice.

Then she began to detect ripples in the throngs that flashed by, as if something big were swimming through them. Then the smell of blood tained the water; she could see curls of it between the wide-eyed fishes.

"What . . ." Robin-Breee began again, but her words died when she saw that Old Wind's eyes wore a ring of white around them, as though even his great bulk knew fear.

"Krrrrrrreeeeeeeeeee." The cry cut through her.

Only a couple of dolphin-lengths away, a tiny eye in a great black skin examined her between darting fish. She began trembling and felt her tail whip faster. It was a Darker, a killer whale. A meat eater.

"Good huntinnnnnnggggg," it cried in a ludicrously shrill voice.

She could not answer. She hugged close to Old Wind, as nearly underneath his long right flipper as possible.

"DON'T PANIC, MY LADY," the Singer mumbled deep in his throat, a whale whisper. "THEY ARE NOT GIVING THE HUNGER CALL. THERE IS PLENTY OF FISH HERE FOR ALL. BE POLITE."

She knew she should not fear. She knew that the Darkers hunt other Returned only when they cannot find fish; and when they do, they give the eerie Hunger Call. It is the warning, and it can reduce even the great blue whale to quivering fear. She remembered the story of the first Darker, to whom Old Blowhole gave the fearful power to hunt the Returned, so that they might not fill the oceans unchecked. But it was difficult for her to concentrate on their innocence with great halves of dorados spinning by in a pink haze.

They called to each other in shrieking Darker hunting code, then their laughter sent piercing echoes through the fish.

"Big one," called one of them. "Why do you swim so fast?"

"I NEED THE EXERCISE," Old Wind growled.

"And why do you not open your mouth?" another called. "The water is full of krill."

"SO FULL THAT MY JAWS ARE STUCK SHUT WITH IT. DELICIOUS, THOUGH," Old Wind said, tight-lipped. He understood their joke perfectly; whale tongues are the greatest delicacy to a Darker. It would be a provocation to let them see it.

The tempo picked up. Robin-Breee struggled to keep up with the whale's powerful strokes. The surge of water Old Wind carried along helped. The fish were thinning out now, but still the Darkers raced along. Their tiny eyes were on the two strange companions, They were playing with them, enjoying the great whale's fear. Attempts were made to herd them off their course, but Old Wind swam straight. The only danger was in panic.

Then, suddenly, they veered away to either side, leaving behind only echoes of their hunting calls.

"THERE, AHEAD," Old Wind cried joyfully. "AWA'S HAIR WILL HIDE US."

At first she thought it was an island, for it sent back echoes. Finer search-cries brought back softer, spongy echoes. Closer, she realized that a great wall of sunken material hung ahead of them like a drowned cathedral. It echoed thick but porous, giving, floating, living. At their speed they were inside it in a moment. She had only a glimpse of tumbling tons of golden vegetation stretching out of sight before she had to pick a channel between its waving columns to duck into.

They passed through a narrow lane, turned through corkscrew passages of growth, and entered a great room. Fish that their passage had disturbed lurking in the weeds whipped past them into moonbeams.

Old Wind floated to the surface, pushed some weeds aside, and released a long breath of fear.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH. IT IS GOOD TO BE SAFE. AWA IS GOOD. HER LONG HAIR HANGS DOWN TO GIVE US SANCTUARY. BEAUTIFUL, GOLDEN HAIR SUCH AS HUMANS WEAR ON THEIR HEADS. LIKE THE BRISTLES ON MY SNOUT. THE DARKERS WON'T COME HERE; IT IS CONFUSING TO THEM. AWA PROVIDES, DOES SHE NOT?"

Robin-Breee examined the walls. Yellow weeds, stem and frond, twisted in endless patterns to form a solid labyrinth afloat. Tiny grapelike floats held it up. From every shadowed cranny, varieties of fish watched her carefully.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH." Old Wind sighed again. "I'M AFRAID YOUR FEAR UNNERVED ME A BIT, MY FRIEND. NOTHING TO FEAR FROM THOSE FELLOWS. JUST STALWART RETURNED OUT FOR SUPPER. WHY, I SHOULD HAVE CHATTED WITH THEM ABOUT THE COUNCIL. I HOPE THEY ARE HEADED THAT WAY - WE MAY NEED THEM IF THE DECISION IS TO FIGHT."

"Supper, my flukes," Robin-Breee said as she watched a perfectly camouflaged sargassum fish disappear. "We could have been their supper. Say, where are we, anyway?"

Old Wind swam lazily in the open circle and licked the green layer of plankton off his moustache. "WHY, THIS IS AWA'S HAIR," he said with a note of surprise. "DON'T YOU KNOW? HUMANS CALL IT THE SARGASSO SEA. THIS IS JUST A CHUNK, FOR THE MAIN BODY OF IT IS FARTHER DEEPWAYS. I SAY, WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR ITS SONG?"

"Yes." She gulped quickly, examining the golden hall.

Old Wind sang her the story soothingly, as though to calm her.

"BEFORE BEFORE, THIS WAS ALL LAND. I SPEAK OF AGES PAST. LONG AGO. WE HAVE KEPT THE SONG, THOUGH THE OTHERS HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW THEY ONCE LIVED HERE. AWA WAS THEN NOT MUCH MORE THAN A WIDE PASSAGE AROUND THE LANDS. THE OLD HUMANS LIVED AS MASTERS, LORDS OVER THE EARTH, AS THEY WANTED. THEY HAD BOATS THAT SWAM THROUGH THE DEEPS, AND AIR BOATS TO SWIM OVER THE LAND. THEY BUILT GREAT CAVERNS FOR THEMSELVES, AND THEY DUG FROM THE LAND THE HEART OF STONE (THE HUMAN-WORD FOR IT IS CRYSTAL, I AM TOLD). THE OLD HUMANS HAD MORE MAGIC THAN THESE NEW ONES: THEY TAUGHT THE HEARTS OF STONE TO SEE THE SUN AND THE STARS, AND TO REMEMBER THEIR FIRE. THEY COULD KEEP THE FIRE IN THEM. THAT IS HOW THEY POWERED EVERYTHING IN THEIR LAND. WITH THEIR HANDS, THEY MADE ALL THIS.

"BUT HANDS MAKE WEAK MINDS, AS WE SAY. THEY STOPPED LISTENING TO THEIR SINGERS. THEY FORGOT THE OLD SONGS OF THE CIRCLE. THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE THE HUB AROUND WHICH THE WORLD TURNS. FOOLISH, FOOLISH HUMANS. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS THEY WHO CONTROLLED THE SONG. THEY TURNED THE CRYSTALS ON THEIR ENEMIES, TO TAKE THEIR POSSESSIONS, AND ON THE EARTH, TO TAKE HER METAL BONES. LISTEN WELL, SMALL ONE. HANDS ARE MADE FOR CLUTCHING, AS WE SAY. THEY DESTROYED THEMSELVES. THE FIRES THEY STARTED WITH THEIR HEARTS OF STONE COULD NOT BE STOPPED. THE EARTH GAVE THE WICKED LANDS BACK TO THE SEA. THE AIR-PEOPLE PERISHED. GREAT DESTRUCTION WAS EVERYWHERE. MANY OF THE RETURNED DIED ALSO, BECAUSE OF THE FIRE AND MUD. AT LAST THERE WAS QUIET. THE OLD ONES WHO REMAINED ALIVE WERE SAVAGES.

"AND THAT IS WHY AWA SPREAD HER HAIR HERE, TO COVER THE SHAME OF THAT TIME, AND TO LET HU-MANS FORGET THEIR WICKED PAST."

Robin-Breee listened in awe. The whale remembered Atlantis, the people who left the ruins her father had discovered. It was all in the story, even the strange crystals. But the ring, the ring! She burned to tell everything.

"All died?" she queried instead.

Old Wind sighed sadly. "EXCEPT FOR THEIR SINGERS, BUT OF COURSE YOU KNOW THAT SONG. NO? WELL, THEIR BODIES DIED LIKE THE REST, BUT THE WISE ONES, THE PRIESTS, WERE ABLE TO FREE THEIR MINDS. THEIR SIGN WAS A DOLPHIN - THEY WORE IMAGES OF THEM ON THEIR HANDS. THAT IS WHERE THEIR MINDS WENT, WHEN THE LAND WENT DOWN. THEY MIXED WITH THE MINDS OF THEIR FRIENDS, THE DOLPHINS, FOR THEY REMEMBERED THEY WERE PART OF THE CIRCLE. AND THEIR DESCENDANTS ARE STILL WITH US. SOME DOLPHINS HAVE NIGHTSEE, AND DREAM THEY ARE HUMAN. AND DREAM TRULY, SOME SAY."

Robin-Breee could not speak. She had put on the ring from Atlantis and awakened in a dolphin with a hybrid soul, as if the ring had been a radio tuner and Breee's mind the receiver.

They rocked in the currents silently for a while, then Old Wind spoke again, "You HAVE THE NIGHT-VISIONS, DON'T YOU, BREEE?"

"You knew!" she squeaked.

"I GUESSED. IT WASN'T HARD. I HAD HEARD OF DRUMMER'S MISSION, AND YOU KNEW HUMAN-WORDS. AND YOU ARE NOTHING LIKE BREEE WHEN SHE IS AWAKE."

She told him her Human-name. She told him about the ring from the sea, her father, the ruins. Her continuing dream. It came in a torrent, but she was surprised that it took so few words to explain the unfathomable.

Old Wind looked at her silently for a second, and then with a mighty leap jumped all but his tail clear of the water. The sound of his reentry was deafening; Awa's hair rocked violently. He crooned one splitting trumpet-note of joy.

"YOU ARE THE ONE! I HAVE SUNG OF YOU ALL MY LIFE! A DOLPHIN WAS TO COME, A NIGHTSEE DOLPHIN, WHO WOULD KNOW THE MIND OF HUMANS. COME QUICKLY. WE MUST GO TO THE COUNCIL; YOU ARE THE LINK."

Robin-Breee was nearly pulled from their sargasso lair by the suction of Old Wind's flukes. He rushed her, pulled her, cajoled her out into the dark ocean, then began swimming with smooth, mammoth strokes toward the cold waters of the north.