"Brutally beautiful, this is a story of courage and heart."?Kathi Appelt, Newbery Honor winner Sarel is a girl with secrets. She knows which tree roots reach down deep to pools of precious water. She knows where the secret grotto is that hides her family"s well. Her mother taught her. But now her parents are gone, and Sarel must learn how to keep herself and her dogs alive in a parched and barren land. Nandi is the leader of those dogs. She looks out for her pups and for skinny Sarel-girl when everyone else has gone. Nandi knows that they can"t last long without water?and she knows, too, that a boy is coming; a boy with the water song inside him. Musa is that boy. He has a special talent for finding water in the dry desert, a talent that has gotten him kidnapped by brutal men. Yet Musa escapes, running away across the thirsty land that nearly claims his life. And so the girl, the boy, and the dogs come together in what might be their last hope of survival.