She nodded again. “In some ways it’s stranger than those weird primitive villages, because it is like home. But it’s not like Sokratea either. We’ve been in constant contact with Sokratea. We’re allies. We have diplomatic relations, and trade. We were there on a recognized mission.”

“I was thinking that,” Neleus put in. “We haven’t heard anything from the Goodness Group in all this time. How did Klymene decide to just trust them and bring the ship in?”

“Klymene and Pytheas,” Erinna said. She put her hand to her side where she kept a little knife for cutting ropes and whittling wood. Neleus did the same with his, and I realized as their eyes met that they were ephebes, they had gone through weapons training, and that whatever other uses they had every day, the knives at their sides were also weapons. I felt useless and young and unarmed. “Your father wants vengeance more than anyone,” she went on. “He wouldn’t have called us in if he thought they were responsible.”

It was true. I looked over to him, still surrounded by Marissans. An old woman at his side said something and came toward us, or rather toward Maia and the statue. “Maia!” she called, clearly delighted. “Joy to you!” It must have been true what Ficino said about the Goodness Group having Masters in it, because she looked very old, almost as old as he was.

Maia turned. “Aristomache! Joy! How lovely to see you. What have you been doing?” They hugged each other

“Teaching, as always,” Aristomache said.

“Here?”

“Here, and in Hieronymos on the other side of the island. And before that in Lucia, our first city, on Lesbos. And you?”

“Teaching too, in Amazonia and now back in the original city. You have three cities?”

“We have eight, on three islands. And you have five, all on Kallisti, Pytheas says?”

“That’s right,” Maia confirmed. “We’ve been calling you the Lost City, we never thought of you having so many!”

“Well, with only a hundred and fifty of us we had to find recruits, and when we saw how many people needed help we just kept on with it,” Aristomache said. “War’s such a terrible thing. We do what we can.” She smiled. “Now who are these?”

“These are Neleus and Erinna and Arete, pupils of mine.”

Aristomache nodded to us in a friendly way. “I’ll introduce you all to some pupils of mine.”

Maia smiled at her. “We’d like that.”

Aristomache peered more closely at Neleus. “Are you Simmea’s son, young man, or don’t you know? In any case, I was there the night you were born.”

“I am,” he said. “And Arete is my sister.”

She leaned forward and peered at me. “Good. There’s a definite resemblance. I’m glad she left descendants. Pytheas told me what happened to her. Terrible.”