earthquakes, and the fouled water, and "e whale-eating ships—they're all Its doing, one way or another."Kit and Nita nodded. "It took a defeat in that battle you two were in," re ee said. "It's angry, and the problems we've been having are symptoms of186 SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL WIZARDthat anger. So we have to bind It, make It less harmful, as the first sea people bound It a long time ago. Then things will be quiet again for a while.""Bind It how?" Nita said. "No, wait a minute," Kit said. "You said something about the Sea telling you things—" S'reee looked surprised for a moment. "Oh, I forgot that you do it differ-ently. You work your wizardry with the aid of those things you carry—" "Our books.""Right. The whales who are wizards get their wizardry from the Sea. The water speaks to you when you're ready, and offers you the Ordeal. Then if you pass it, the Heart of the Sea speaks whenever you need to hear it and tells you what you need to know." Nita nodded. The events in that "other" Manhattan had been her Ordeal, and Kit's; and after they passed it, their books had contained much more information than before. "So," she said, "bind the Lone Power how?""The way the first whale-wizards did," S'reee said. "The story itself is the binding. Or rather, the story's a song: the Song of the Twelve. In the long form it takes—will take—hours to sing.""I'm glad I had breakfast," Kit muttered. S'reee spouted good-naturedly. Nita wondered whether it was accidental that the wind turned at that exact moment, threw the spray straight at Kit, and soaked him to the skin. At any rate, Nita laughed."I won't take quite that long," S'reee said. "You know about the great War of the Powers, at the beginning of everything; and how the Lone Power invented death and pain, and tried to impose them on the whole universe, and the other Powers wouldn't let It, and threw It out."
