“Now you’re in the second fathom and your body wants to pop up like a cork. Kick with all your might down to the third. The water feels a little colder, and your ears ache like they’ll burst. It’s best to push the pressure out or it’ll only hurt worse as you go deeper.

“The fourth and fifth’s just kicking and swimming and letting go of some sunlight behind you. The sixth, you might panic a bit, thinking you need to breathe, but you don’t. There’s more breath in you than you think, so keep swimming ’cause you’re almost there. Then, suddenly, you are.

“In the seventh fathom the sea’s no longer wanting to spit you out. It wraps you up like a blanket, and you can relax and float now ’cause it’s got you. It’s holding you and you can just stay there, nothing pulling at you. Nothing pushing. Your heart beats real slow and you feel so calm, like you’re drifting in a wakeful sleep. Now you can do your best daydreaming, ’cause it feels a little like you already are.

“Right now, in the seventh fathom, there’s a castle with towers rising up into a night full of stars. Everything’s blue, like twilight, but there’s a spot of gold in the highest tower. That’s my mama up there, smiling and beautiful. And look, Asa. Do you see it? A comet, shooting across the sky.”

“I see it,” he said softly. “How long can I stay down here?”

“Only a few seconds, but time’s different here. There are moments inside of moments—and every one of them’s lasting.”

“I feel that.” He fell quiet for such a long stretch, I felt myself drifting. I hadn’t just taken him to the seventh fathom. I was there myself. “Is this your place, Comet?” he asked at last.

I surfaced just enough to answer him. “Yes…it was.”

Chapter 8: Comet

Four days later, the shrill blast of a whistle tore me from the pages of The Odyssey, where I’d discovered a world as vivid as my own imagination. I blinked away the images of Sirens and goddesses and spotted Hackett at the quarterdeck, piping urgently on his bosun’s whistle. I searched the wide sea around us. It’d been a sluggish day of sailing. With no wind to carry us, the Virginia coastline had appeared stuck on the horizon, but now I saw no land at all. I saw white spots of canvas on the ocean blue.

Sails.

A massive ship appeared to be heading directly at us.

“Ready yourselves!” shouted Livingston, one of the hands, as he pounded past me. “They’re flagging us!”

“We are doomed!” yelled another man as he disappeared into a hatch.