“She came over to the table, and, drawing up a chair, she put her arm around Arion and she watched the game. Arion had saved his queen, but just barely, and was now about to be checkmated in a very sly way. I saw it coming but I saw he didn’t by the pieces he was moving and what his eyes were doing, and then quite suddenly there came the Old Man’s surprise move, and Arion sat back, amazed and then smiling and shaking his head.

“ ‘Another game!’ he said. He started laughing. ‘I demand it.’

“ ‘And so you shall have it!’ said the Old Man, his face all atremble.

“As the Old Man was setting up the pieces I slowly rose to my feet.

“ ‘I’m going to leave you, gentlemen,’ I said. ‘I thank you for your hospitality and your gifts.’

“ ‘What are you talking about?’ said Petronia.

“ ‘I’m going home,’ I said. ‘I want my family.’

“ ‘What do you mean, you’re going home!’ she demanded. ‘Have you taken leave of your senses?’

“ ‘No, I haven’t. And I wish now to abolish our bargain. The Hermitage is mine. I reclaim it as of now. I need the mausoleum for my hiding place by day, and I need the rest of it for a getaway in the night. Now, I’ll leave you to your chess, and again I thank you—.’

“Arion rose to his feet.

“ ‘But how will you get home?’ he asked gently. ‘You can defy gravity very well over short distances, and with great speed, perhaps more than you know. But you can’t travel halfway around the world. It will be years before you have that skill.’

“ ‘I’m going the way any mortal would go,’ I responded.

“ ‘And what will you do when you get there!’ demanded Petronia, looking up at me.

“ ‘Live in my house as I’ve always done,’ I said. ‘Live in my room where I’ve always lived. Be with my family as I’ve always been. I’ll do that as long as I can. I won’t give them up.’

“Petronia rose slowly. ‘But you don’t know how to pretend to be human. You don’t have the faintest idea.’

“ ‘Yes, I do,’ I said. ‘I watched you do it, and you’re ancient by your stories and yet you managed in a roomful of people. Why should it be so hard for me? Besides, I’m determined to do it. I won’t relinquish the life I had.’

“ ‘Won’t you realize,” Petronia said, ‘that if you take those mortals into your secret, you’ll destroy them?’

“ ‘I’ll protect them from it with my whole heart,’ I said. ‘You won’t make me lose my nerve.’

“ ‘You can’t just leave here and do this, Quinn,’ said Arion gently. ‘Besides, why would you? You don’t belong with humans now.’