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 ofsight, their owners paralyzed and unable to swim. No wizardry is done without a price. Kit wobbled in Nita's 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 won't be bothering us now," she said. "Let's 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 breath-ing, while small weak whistling noises went in and out. The whale's 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 whale's left side, behind the long swimming fin; a crater easily three feet wide, ragged with ripped flesh. The whale's 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 whale's 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. They're lying on the bottom with a 'freeze' on them." But if they don't swim, they can't breathe—they'll die!" The concern in the whale's voice
