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daughter. The woman called her Murel, Bright Waters, and for seven years the mother and daughter lived together. Then one day when they walked the beach, a seal called from just offshore. ‘Ork ork ork!’ he cried. ‘That is Ronan, the little seal,’ the woman told the girl. But the girl knew already. ‘Ork ork ork!’ she cried, and the widow knew it was time for her daughter to return to the sea.”
    He then began singing quite a long song in a language that bore only a distant resemblance to the Gaelic people sometimes sang.
    Yana didn’t pay too much attention, after the translation, because she was pondering the names of the seal children, Murel and Ronan. Bright Waters and Little Seal. They had a ring to them that she liked. Of course, when the kids got older, she supposed she’d have to figure out how to change the boy’s name so it meant big seal, but that could wait. She exchanged a look with Sean over the heads of the twins. By the bioluminescence that made the stone cave walls glow softly and the water wall glimmer, he smiled and nodded.
    The cave was warm and cozy, and the bioluminescence had begun to scribe patterns on the cave walls. Desmond’s song had a bit of a drone, but the children all liked it when he made the seal sound, which seemed to figure in the chorus. Her own children were no exception. With every ork, the babies squirmed, and for the first time ever she wished the ceremony over and them back at home.
    When the song was done, Clodagh turned to them, smiling, her brows raised in question.
    “You have the names then, do you, Yana? Sean?”
    Yana and Sean nodded once to each other. Then Sean took the little girl from Yana’s arms and held her out to Clodagh, who had taken a place of prominence in front of the waterfall. “Right then, pet,” Clodagh said softly to the baby. Then she raised her head, her voice still quiet and calm enough to keep from alarming the child but carrying above the roar of the waterfall to everyone in the cave. “People of Petaybee, and our beautiful home, here is Murel Monster Slayer Shongili born to us to live among us.”
    Yana had been struggling to pay attention but now her eyes snapped open in dismay. “I never. . .” She began to say that she had not seriously meant for Monster Slayer to be part of her daughter’s given name, but Clodagh was passing Murel Monster Slayer Shongili to Aoifa, who sat next to her, and accepting Yana’s son.
    “And this fine one here, people of Petaybee, is Ronan Born for Water Shongili, born to us to live among us.”
    But as she turned to hand Ronan to Aoifa, who had been trying to pass Murel to Bunny Rourke, sitting beside her, Aoifa fumbled. That seemed to be the chance Murel had been waiting for. With a fishlike twist, the infant spurted from Aoifa’s grasp and into the waterfall. In the confusion, Ronan escaped Clodagh’s embrace and dived in after her. “Heeeeee,” they cried, followed in a moment by “Ork.”
    Before anyone could start breathing again, Sean eeled past them and dove into the water himself.
    Yana slid to the cave’s entrance and ran out, snatching up furs from the snocle as she ran downstream. Behind her, Clodagh commanded everyone to stay put.
    By the snowball moon she saw the large sleek head of a seal break water in the lower pool. Using his nose and mouth, he shoved two tiny silvery white seals onto the shore, then climbed out himself, blocking their way to the water while they orked merrily at the prank they’d played on everyone. Yana reached them and flung the furs over her family. Inside the furs, Sean shook himself like a large dog and the little ones instinctively followed suit.
    Yana’s heart began beating again. Being the only full-time biped in her family was going to take some getting used to.

CHAPTER 3
    A S USUAL, IT was midday of the following day before the latchkay ended. Yana and her family returned home, accompanied by Clodagh, who came armed with leftovers from the