The world changed again as her mind was pulled free of its animal host and into a new one. Claire found herself adrift in a dull grey haze, thick as a mist: the brackish water of the Sundarbans. Light came down from above, soft and muted, and she could just make out several shapes around her. One moved past her right field of vision—elongated, streamlined, gliding weightlessly through the murk. It was little more than a silhouette, but it was recognizable. A dolphin, one of a type unfamiliar to Claire, with a very long and narrow beak. She watched as it vanished into the grey dusk with a stroke of its fluked tail. The others all had the same outline, and her own host was no doubt one of them: a member of their family group, or pod. She reached out with her thoughts to touch her host's mind, and sensed the creature's love for its pod mates, its extended clan. The bonds between them were so strong that they never ventured very far from one another and were always in close contact, through sonar or through touch. What comfort, what security there was in this close-knit group!
Leo's mental voice spoke. "I'm being hosted by the matriarch, and will get her to follow our guide's crocodile host. The rest of the pod will follow her automatically—as with most dolphin species, the mother is head of the family. So you two can just relax and let your hosts do the swimming. Dolphins are hard creatures to influence anyway, because they're so intelligent."
"Ah—I recognize this species!" said Myra's voice. "They're Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins. A most interesting animal. They swim along coastlines and estuaries for the most part, and they come in quite an assortment of colours: brown-grey, and pure white, and even bright bubblegum pink."
Claire couldn't see any colours at all in the gloom. Everything was in shades of grey. "Are they colour blind?" she asked.
"Yes—all cetaceans are," said Myra. "The water here's so murky I doubt you 'd see much in the way of colour anyway. Their long-distance vision isn't very good either, though that doesn't matter since there's such poor visibility here. They mainly use sonar to find their way around."
Claire could hear the strange sounds, like radio static, that filled the water all around her. The dolphins would listen for echoes of these sounds bouncing off hidden objects, she knew, and so find their way without needing to rely much on their limited vision. Occasionally a fragment of weed or a dead twig would float past, a shadow against the wan light, but for the most part there was nothing to be seen except the swimming forms of the dolphins below, above, and to either side. She wondered which of these sleek, dark forms were hosting Myra and Leo.
A loud burst of creaking, popping sonar erupted as the dolphins simultaneously detected an object ahead. In a few moments it was visible even to the weak eyes of Claire's host: a black shape with a long tapering tail that undulated to either side as it swam at the surface above. They had found the crocodile.
The matriarch slowed her pace to accommodate the reptile's more leisurely progress, the others in the pod all following suit. From the squeals and chattering sounds exchanged among them Claire guessed they were either excited or alarmed at the proximity of this dangerous predator. Her own host was certainly agitated, though Claire also sensed its curiosity and its loyalty to its mother-leader. The other animals in the pod no doubt felt the same.
From time to time, as her host rose to breathe at the surface, Claire had a glimpse of their surroundings. The channel in which they swam was steadily widening, the shores to either side receding into grey blurred obscurity. Everything looked like an old black-and-white movie that was slightly out of focus. The crocodile swam on at the bidding of its Legion daimon, its scaly back surrounded by the dorsal fins and spouting blowholes of its dolphin escort. It would make a very odd spectacle, Claire thought, if there were any humans about to see. But there were no boats on this stretch of water, and the only other creature visible was the faint shadow of the hawk flying just above.
"You're drawing nearer to the end of the islands and a large expanse of open sea," Matilda told them. She sent a mental picture from the hawk's eyes: green islands criss-crossed by riverlike channels, slowly giving way to a wide blue bay.
"The Bay of Bengal," said Myra. "Are we going there? I wonder. Into the open sea? It would explain why the daimon suggested dolphin hosts, I suppose."
But before they had passed the end of the outermost islands the crocodile slowed and curved its long armoured body around, preparing to return the way it had come. "She is coming," the Legion daimon told them. "The First One. If you wait here, she will come to this spot."
Again Claire wondered if they should trust him, and it was clear her sole human companion felt the same. "I don't suppose you've any idea how long she'll take?" asked Myra, sounding uneasy. "We humans will have to return to our own bodies before many hours have passed."
"She is not far," the daimon replied. "She is moving, always moving, and never remains in one place for very long." And with that the crocodile left them and went winding away towards the nearest island.
Leo's mother dolphin surfaced, and all the others followed her. For a while they rested, alternately peering above the water and diving beneath it, scanning the air and the depths for a sign of any creature approaching their position. They saw nothing, save for a few fish and some seabirds coasting on the breeze.
Then came another burst of sonar from the dolphins, together with some squeaks. Claire listened but could make nothing of the delphinic chatter, though once again it seemed to her that they were excited or afraid. Then Leo said, "This must be she— the First."
Claire stared through her dolphin's eyes, but its weak vision could make out nothing at all in the colourless void. She saw only rays of sunlight descending and vanishing into darkness. Then she realized that all the dolphins were turning to face in one direction and clumping together as if for safety. And finally, she saw it—just a hint of movement at first, a patch of grey moving in the greyness that slowly resolved itself into a vast shape swimming towards them. Only when it was within a few metres of them did she realize how very large this creature was: eight metres at least from its blunt, spade-shaped snout to the tall, bladelike fin jutting up from its tail. Along its pale flanks were vertical bars of a deeper hue, so like those of its land-dwelling counterpart that it was easy to see how it had earned its name. This was the tiger of the sea, the apex predator of its domain. In the same instant that Claire recognized the creature she sensed her dolphin-host do the same, reacting in instinctive fear and hatred at the sight of its natural enemy.
For its part, the huge tiger shark showed no interest in them; its blank obsidian eye must surely have seen them as it glided past, but its jaws remained shut and its pace did not falter. Remoras clung to its flanks and belly and pilot fish accompanied it. Leo said, "Follow me, you two," and Claire saw one of the dolphins pull away from the rest of the pod and swim after the shark. The matriarch, it must be, and there was another dolphin gliding after it. The others swam about in circles, still alarmed, reluctant even to follow the lead of their trusted parent. Claire had to struggle to persuade her own host, and by the time she'd convinced it that there was no danger the other two dolphins and the shark had vanished out of visual range.
At last it set forth, spraying the deeps ahead with sonar bursts. Presently the faint shapes of Leo and Myra's hosts appeared again, flanking the great striped form of the tiger shark. As she drew closer, Claire saw that its lower jaw was now hanging open to show its rows of jagged-edged teeth.
The other dolphins were following, but at a cautious distance they made no effort to close.
Claire guided her own dolphin into position just behind the beating tail-flukes of the mother dolphin and about the length of its own body away from the shark. For a long moment they swam together in this tight group. The shark still seemed to take little notice of them, apart from its open jaws. Its flat black eye conveyed neither anger nor fear. Dolphins could kill a shark, Claire remembered, by ganging up on it and ramming its soft underside with their hard, beaklike jaws until its vital organs were ruptured.
Soon an unfamiliar voice spoke within their minds. It was always difficult to analyze a mental voice, which unlike the spoken voice had no physical characteristics—dry, loud, low, soft, or rasping. Claire had only the impression of a being ancient and dispassionate—as free of feeling as the creature it inhabited. "If you attack you destroy only this host," the voice told them in a calm, factual manner. "I will simply find another to replace it. You can do nothing against me. But if I attack your hosts, humans, you will be killed."
Leo answered: "They know this. They did not come with any intention of harming you, First One. They know full well you cannot be destroyed."
"Then why do they come?"
"To talk with you. To learn why it is that you threaten their race, you and the Legion that you created."
The shark continued to swim onward—very likely it couldn't stop, Claire reflected. She had read somewhere that sharks needed a constant flow of water across their gills or they would die of suffocation. She got her dolphin to draw away a little, so as to seem less threatening, and the other two followed her. Then she said, "That's right. Humans are no threat to daimons. We can't do a single thing to you, so why would you want us gone ? Where's the danger? "
The black eye of the shark seemed to bore into Claire's mind. "Do I address the one called the Drought Flower? The revenant who champions her species?"
"Yes," said Claire, taken aback.
"I thought as much. You speak as I would expect you to. All you care about is your own human race—and I do not fault you for that, since so many of them are your own direct offspring. You do as all mothers do—strive to secure your line of descent."
It was more than just genetics, Claire thought, but she decided not to interrupt. The First One went on: "Do you know why I chose this host?"
"Because it's ... big? Powerful?" Claire hazarded.
"No. Because it is perfect."
Claire looked at the long, sleek, deadly shape; the knife-sharp fins, the tigerish markings, the fanged jaw. There was perhaps a kind of savage symmetry to it, a beauty like that of a well- crafted but lethal weapon. But "perfect"? "I don't understand," she ventured.
"The creatures you call sharks have existed in your world for millions of years. In all that time their appearance has barely changed. I know this because I have witnessed it. But even you humans can tell this from the fossils that have been left behind, the preserved teeth and jaws. While other species changed in shape, evolving or dying out altogether, the sharks stayed the same—because they had no need to do otherwise, since in them nature had achieved a form that could not be improved upon. A form that was perfect."
Claire was silent, reflecting on this. Thus far she had interacted mainly with daimons like Leo and Matilda, who loved and admired the human race, and Vecchio, who found its culture and history of interest. But some, like this First One, apparently gave their admiration to other living things and set no great store by intelligence or culture. And after all, why would they? They themselves possessed intelligence, so it held no fascination for them. But physical forms were to them alien, outside their experience, intriguing. And it was rather inspiring to think of creatures very similar to this one swimming primordial seas— long before dolphins, long before even the crocodiles or the prehistoric reptiles of the dinosaur age.
"Four hundred million years," the First continued. "That is how long these creatures of unsurpassed elegance have existed. And now they are under threat everywhere in the world. Thanks to your species."
Myra spoke up. "I'm afraid that's true. Most species of shark are on the endangered list from over-harvesting. Some are very close to extinction."
The shark's lightless eye stared into the dolphin's. "You humans, you latecomers who appeared only a hundred millennia ago—you are driving all the other creatures of this world to the brink of destruction. You are fouling and poisoning the world with your industries. But this is not new. It was always so, even before the age of industry. Who killed off the mammoth and the moa? Who razed the forests of Easter Island? I have watched your ancestors destroy so much that was strong and beautiful and thriving in the world. You are like a virus that sickens and kills its host. You must be eliminated."
Claire was silent, absorbing this. She had feared she'd be faced with mindless evil like Phobetor's, but this creature was different. There was no hate or fury in the mental voice, only calm logic. The First One had decided that the eradication of humanity was the only way to save the rest of the planet, and she intended to pursue this course, ruthlessly but without malice. She believed she was doing the right thing—and who could say she wasn't correct? Perhaps the Earth would be better off without human beings polluting and depleting it ...
Feeling desperate, she said, "Not all of us are like that. Myra here is an environmentalist. She goes out and speaks to other people, campaigns to save endangered animals and the ecosystem. We know, we see what we 're doing, and we want to turn it around. To live in harmony with other living things." And she thought to herself, This is no use. I sound as if I'm parroting some Greenpeace pamphlet...
The voice behind the shark's eye said, "There are not enough humans with that view. You of course wish to protect your offspring, out of your own self-interest: you are like any mother, any organism whose instinct is to favour its own species. But I watch from a distance, seeing all, and my outlook is impartial. I am a better judge of what needs to be done. It is a choice between your kind, Flower-in-a-drought, and the rest of the living creatures. I do not choose as you would."
Matilda said, "First One, you know there have been many extinctions down the ages. They are part of the natural cycle of this world—ice ages, asteroid collisions, all manner of cataclysms wreak havoc here. When they happen, species die and others replace them. Life continues to thrive, but in new and different forms. In a way, these catastrophic events foster another kind of diversity—one that spreads across epochs instead of ecosystems. We have always enjoyed seeing these new creatures emerge over time, observing the face of the planet renew itself and change. Perhaps the threat posed by humans will turn out to be just part of the pattern of destruction and renewal."
That argument was much better than her own, Claire thought. Of course Matilda had seen all these changes and transformations herself, and knew what she was talking about. But the First was unmoved.
"Perhaps you are right, but I will not trust to chance on this. The humans now have the capability to annihilate all life. By accident or by design, it does not matter which. I will not let it happen. I wish this world to continue."
"So do we," said Myra. "Truly. It's in our own interests— "
"Yes!" said Claire, suddenly inspired. "And it's because we love our world. You love it too, don't you? That's why you want to save it. It's not just some experiment you're watching out of curiosity. 1 should have known right away, when you talked about the sharks the way you did. You love the Earth. And humans are the best possible caretakers of the planet, because our fate depends on its fate. You daimons can always retreat, go to another world or back to your own reality. We can't: we have to live here. We 'll learn in time to value what we have, and how to protect it—like a mother protecting her offspring, or like the immune system protecting the body. We have the intelligence to create technology that can destroy an asteroid that threatens the Earth, or to fight diseases that endanger life on a large scale."
"She is right, First One," said Leo. "With humankind the biosphere has produced a conscious agent that can deliberately manipulate conditions to favour life; it will at last be truly self-regulating. Perhaps this is what they were meant to do—their purpose in arising, their destiny."
The shark seemed to slow for a moment, coasting with fins motionless. The threatening jaw closed. Claire was sure she was right: this daimon had been linked for so long to the creatures of Earth that she had come to identify with them and with the surrounding ecosphere. It was as if Claire spoke to the planet itself, to the living Gaia, and heard it voice its own fears and desires. In that instant she understood that they were no longer girl and daimon but two mothers, each one fighting with all her might for the lives of her dependents. "I love my world," she insisted, "and Myra loves it, and we plan to work all our lives to ensure nothing else is ever lost because of human carelessness. I'm not just out to save my own descendants, or even my own kind. I want to save everything. And I think sharks are beautiful too. Please, give me the chance to prove to you that I'm not lying. One chance: I'm not asking for anything more."
The other seemed to consider. "You are how old in your current body?" it asked at last.
"I'm seventeen."
"A female human lives for an average of eighty-six years. You have nearly seventy left to you if you reach your optimal lifespan. That is not long in the life of the world. It may not be enough time to do all that you promise. And if you are reincarnated in a future time it will most likely be too late: the damage by then will be irreversible."
"Will you give me that long, then? My present lifetime? If I fail then you can take any action you want. But just give me those seventy years and I'll do everything I can. Myra will help me at first, then I'll do the rest on my own. Please. You won't be sorry."
There was a long pause while Claire waited in an agony of suspense. The eye of the shark was dark, lifeless, giving no hint of what the alien mind within might be thinking. Was the First One even there any longer, or had she left her host, disdaining to speak to Claire any further? But the shark did not react to the dolphins surrounding it, as it would surely have done had it not been under daimon control. It continued to swim calmly and steadily with its school of attendant pilot fish, its terrible toothed jaws slightly agape.
Then at last the First One spoke again. "Very well," she said. "I give you until your current life's end to effect these changes. But be sure I will take action after that, if I am not content."
And with that the shark wheeled abruptly and swam away from them, vanishing like a ghost into the grey gloom.