a clean white apron. She was slight and fair-haired, with large blue eyes and a sweet, heart-shaped face. The girl looked at me inquiringly, and placed a hand on Melia’s arm, and this seemed to recall Melia to herself. Melia spoke a word to the girl, and she nodded. She smiled at me, then made her way through the market as Melia came toward me.
“I told her that we should leave that very night. She could return to the island with me. We both knew that it wasn’t safe for her here. Our kind has never been safe among yours, not for long. I wanted to simply grab Melia and flee-take her far away from those people. I could smell the rage in the air, like drifting smoke. All I knew of them was that they would have killed me if they had known what I was.
“But Melia refused to leave. She had fallen in love with the sailor she had rescued, James Newkirk, and he loved her. She said that she would rather live a short while with him and lose him than live forever without him. She had to take whatever time was granted to her. It didn’t matter if it was only thirty years, or fifty, or five. It didn’t matter if it was a moment. She loved him. It was the beginning and the end, for her.
“I asked her to remember the times we were hunted. She said that she did remember. And so I left. It was the last time I ever saw her.
“When I returned to my island, my boy was shivering in his sleep on the floor of my shallow cave. He heard me stir, and the look of relief on his face when he saw me sent a strange feeling through me. What was it? Gratitude? Happiness? Perhaps it was a form of love.
“The fire had gone out, so-very, very cautiously-I lit it, and he warmed himself. I despised the fire, but the boy needed it. He had caught a slight cold, and I busied myself with caring for him. I doted on him for several weeks, long after he was well. I suppose I told myself that he was too weak to go back to his kind. But I think I really didn’t want to let him go.
“I decided to keep him with me through the winter. In the spring it would be easier for him to find work, or even a family to take him in. And so I kept him safe, and fed him, and sang him to sleep at night.
“In the spring, I helped him build a boat. We loaded it with food and waited until the waters were calm. Then I hauled it out over the breakers and into the wild sea. I had braided a rope, and I fastened that between my waist and the boat. Then I hauled the boat to the port. The boy had outgrown his clothes by then-they were nothing more than rags, anyway-so I stole clothing for both myself and him.
“I had in my mind a vague thought that perhaps Melia could find a home for my boy, but I knew not where to find her. I searched all day, and combed the market, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, I asked an old sailor if he knew James Newkirk, and he said aye. He directed me to a handsome house on a tree-lined street. All of the homes were large and square-this was the row where the sea captains lived. I asked the boy to wait at the foot of the stairs while I lifted the large brass knocker.
“I did not recognize the face of the woman who answered the door, and I asked to see James.
“She said that she was his sister, Elizabeth. Then I realized that she was the young woman I’d seen with Melia in the market months before. Her face was so altered-it seemed gray with age, and there were lines around the bright blue eyes. But the same sweetness lingered in her expression. I told her that I was looking for Melia.
“She let out a little noise then-part sigh, part gasp. I felt her fear, her horror, her despair.
“Melia had been arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. Arrested… and tried. And found guilty.
“Not that it was much of a trial. Elizabeth and James, of course, testified on her behalf. But there was too much evidence against her. There was her mysterious, sudden appearance in town. Her lack of memory. Her unnatural beauty. Her red hair. And Melia did not even have family to speak for her.
“She was sentenced to burn.
“Melia had been dead for months, and I hadn’t even known it. When I heard this news, I felt sick. I thought I would vomit, but Elizabeth put out an arm to steady me. She said that she had a letter from Melia. She had slipped it to Elizabeth in secret, when she had come to visit her before the trial began. Melia had instructed Elizabeth to give it to me if she ever saw me again.
“I opened the letter. In it, Melia described her love for James and her fear of the stake. ‘My dearest Asia,’ it read, ‘please care for James. He has done everything he could to save me, and I fear that his anguish makes him desperate. If he were to go to sea with these feelings, you and I both know what could happen to him.’
“I remember reading that and feeling fear pierce my heart. Elizabeth told me that James’s craft had departed ten days before, en route to South America.
“I flew down the stairs so quickly that I nearly crashed into my boy. His expression made me stop and turn. Elizabeth was still standing in the doorway, watching me. I asked Elizabeth to care for him, and then I left. I had to get to the sea.
“The ocean is a vast place. Even you, who live at its edge, cannot comprehend its immensity. But I knew something of the sea lanes-something of the routes. And I knew that James’s pain would carry far, very far.
“I knew that my own felt as wide as the acres of water before me.
“For three days, I swam. I caught up to them off the coast of Georgia. The water had gone eerily calm, and I knew-I knew that Calypso was nearby. But I did not see her, nor any of her band. I stayed close to the ship and waited. For two more days the ship sailed south.
“Sometimes I saw James stand near the port bow. I would have recognized him even without his captain’s uniform, for he looked very much like Elizabeth. He had the same fair hair and blue eyes, but where her expression was all sweetness and innocence, his was full of wisdom and compassion, and sadness.
“When the winds changed, they changed suddenly. And on the breeze, I heard the song-Calypso’s song. It was so beautiful and melancholy, even I felt drawn to it. And how could the sailors resist such a song? They didn’t even realize that they were hearing it. The music entered their minds like a thought, and soon they were sailing off course.
“For a while I wasn’t sure of her intent. But I knew that two thousand years had not made Calypso weary of vengeance. If anything, it had only fed her bloodlust. I think that her original betrayal-Ulysses, Telemachus, Penelope-had been all but forgotten. She had become nothing more than a receptacle for anger, for blood. She killed because she loved the killing.
“She drew the sailors away for half a day more. The sun was beginning to set, sending wide ribbons of orange and purple across the horizon. The sea was calm, but not unusually so. We had moved south enough to enter beautiful weather. The water was warm, the air mild against my face.
“The ship was a three-masted schooner, tall and lovely. The figurehead was a mermaid, carved and painted, with bare breasts and long golden hair. The vessel sliced through the water smoothly, sending a line of white foam in its wake.
“The ship wasn’t far off course. Calypso didn’t seem to be drawing them into foul weather, or toward any island that I knew of. I watched the ship, puzzled. I decided to swim alongside it for a while.
“Then I saw what she intended. She was drawing them toward a group of rocks. They were below the surface of the sea, and invisible to the sailors. But I could see them.
“There wasn’t much that I could do. It was too late-the ship was bearing down on the rocks, and in a matter of moments the boulders’ jagged edges had torn a wide hole in the starboard hull.
“It groaned and heaved, and sailors struggled to man the lifeboats. Others simply jumped overboard as the ship rolled over onto its side like an old dog.
“In a moment, the water was swarming with seekriegers. The sea was thick with bodies as Calypso and her band descended on the sailors. They wore ragged clothing made from the hides of seals and other sea creatures, which made them look animal and fierce. The men who jumped overboard did not come back up to the surface. Soon the blue water ran with red.
“One lifeboat was overturned, then another. James had been directing men into the boats, but when he saw what was happening, he stopped. He had a pistol, and he started firing it into the water, at the seekriegers. A few other men grabbed firearms, but most had none, or else were already struggling in the water.
“I swam as close as I dared, but I feared he might shoot me. He would not know that I was there to help him. How could he?
“A seekrieger clawed her way up the side of the boat, and he took aim at her. She staggered back under the blast and dropped into the water.
“But another seekrieger was behind that one. I recognized her by her silver hair and violet eyes. It was Calypso. She reached for James, and he fired again-but the chamber was empty.
“I dove toward them and met them as Calypso dragged him into the water. He looked around in horror as his
