"You all right?" Kit said, trying to help her up. "Yeah, yeah, sure," Nita said. She pushed him away as kindly and quickly as she could, staggered down to the water line, and lost her dinner.When she came back, her mouth full of the taste of the salt water she'd used to wash it out, S'reee had rolled herself more upright and was talking to Kit. "I still feel deathly sick," she said, "but at least dying isn't a problem . . . not for the moment." She looked at Nita. Though the long face was frozen into that eternal smile, it was amazing how many expressions could live in a whale's eyes. Admiration was there just now, and gratitude. "You and I aren't just cousins now, hNii't," S'reee said, giving Nita's name a whistly whalish intonation, "but sisters too, by blood exchanged. And I'm in your debt. Maybe it's poor thanks to a debtor to ask him to lend to you again, right away. But maybe a sister, or a friend"—she glanced at Kit—"would excuse that if it had to happen." "We're on active status," Kit said. "We have to handle whatever comes up in this area. What's the problem?""Well then." S'reee's whistling took on a more formal rhythm. "As the only remaining candidate Senior Wizard for the Waters About the Gates, by wizard's Right I request and require your assistance. Intervention will takeDEEP WIZARDRY 181place locally and last no more than ten lights-and-darks. The probable level of difficulty does not exceed what the manual describes as 'dangerous/ though if intervention is delayed, the level may escalate to 'extremely dangerous' or 'critical.' Will you assist?" Nita and Kit looked at each other, unnerved by the second part of the job description. S'reee moaned. "I hate the formalities," she said in a long un-happy whistle. "I'm too young to be a Senior: I'm only two! But with Ae'mhnuu gone, I'm stuck with it! And we're in trouble, the water people and the land people both, if we don't finish what Ae'mhnuu was starting when he died!" She huffed out a long breath. "I'm just a calf; why did I get stuck with this? . . ."
