Whale Song - Page 10
"Wouldn't know, don't care!” I snapped. “What's important is that whales sing to keep those things asleep, and the doors leading to them closed!"
Diana smiled like a schoolgirl who'd just found out unicorns were real after all. "Then their songs are sacred," she said, her voice full of wonder.
Taking my own earlier admonition to “focus,” I bit back my impulse to make an unkind remark. “Yes,” I said with forced evenness, “and remarkably effective magic too . . . when whales sing them.”
As if on cue, a truly epic thunderhead manifested, the clouds rolling in without warning, swallowing the day and stealing the light. A moment later, rain as sharp and cold as knives began scouring our skin to the accompaniment of furiously outraged thunder.
Diana and I skidded to a halt in the sudden veil of darkness before we both barreled headfirst into a tree. “This is no natural storm,” she breathed.
"Got it in one, didn't you?” I observed with a snarl, then shrugged in resignation. “We might as well walk for a bit and catch our breath,” I told her. “Might be our last chance.”
Diana looked around in horror. “My sister couldn't be responsible for something like this!” she protested.
“She is,” I sighed. “At this point, I doubt she meant to unleash this . . . but that's exactly what she did.”
“How?”
Moving carefully through the now darkened woods, I shrugged again. “Like I said, whale songs are great magic for whales, but even whales have to practice for years to sing them with the necessary precision,” I explained. “But if your sister has been trying to sing their songs . . .” A bolt of lightning as wide as a full moon on the horizon split the sky. “And all the signs are that she has, her singing will be like a tone deaf toddler enthusiastically screeching a lullaby it doesn't understand.” Another lightning bolt briefly ignited the gloom. “In other words, the exact opposite of restful!”
Page 10
