There was a shrill, savage hooting. I leaped and looked around, as
everyone surged away from it, staring and pointing-at me? I hadn't been
doing anything strange. At something above me? I looked up to find a com
floating-out of my reach-overhead, its suspensory field drawing my hair
crackling up and sideways. I'd never taken a message on one and couldn't
imagine who would be calling me, or why. Straining up on my toes, trying
to reach while looking nonchalant, I felt my pulse hammer in my ears. It
was just too high. I settled back with a thump, flat-footed in my new,
stiff boots. The three books of The Companionates-River of Night, Tide
of Day, and Ocean of Dawn-in one volume.