The Companionates

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.