"Must be that you did the spell for two this time," Nita said, tempted to start laughing again, except that Kit would probably have punched her out. She kept her face as straight as she could and stepped out to the water, putting a foot carefully on an incoming, flattened-out wave. It took her weight, flattening more as she stepped up with the other foot and was carried backward. "It's like the slidewalk at the airport," she said, putting her arms out for balance and wobbling."Kind of." Kit got up on hands and knees and then again, swaying. "Come on. Keep your knees bent a little. And pick up your feet."It was a useful warning. Nita tripped over several breakers and sprawled each time, a sensation like doing a bellywhopper onto a waterbed, until she got her sea legs. Once past the breakers she had no more trouble, and Kit led her at a bouncy trot out into the open Atlantic.They both came to understand shortly why not many people, wizards or otherwise, walk on water much. The constant slip and slide of the water under their feet forced them to use leg muscles they rarely bothered with on land. They had to rest frequently, sitting, while they looked around them for signs of the dolphin.At their first two rest stops there was nothing to be seen but the lights or Ponquogue and Hampton Bays and West Tiana on the mainland, three mite north. Closer, red and white flashing lights marked the entrance to Shin-necock Inlet, the break in the long strip of beach where they were staying-The Shinnecock horn hooted mournfully at them four times a minute, a lonely-sounding call. Nita's hair stood up all over her as they sat down the third time and she rubbed her aching legs. Kit's spell kept them from getting wet, but she was chilly; and being so far out there in the dark and quiet *# very much like being in the middle of a desert—a wet, hissing barrenness unbroken for miles except by the quick– flashing white light of a buoy or tff°-
