Naxos at first seemed no different from Amorgos and Ios. When the shore party signaled that they had found people we were astonished, as if we had believed we were alone in the time of the dinosaurs. I didn’t meet the Naxians or see their settlement, so at first their presence felt like a disappointment, because they prevented me from going ashore. Those of us left aboard waited impatiently for the shore party to return, running through all the facts about Naxos we knew. “Isn’t it where Theseus abandoned Ariadne?” Erinna asked. “Could that have happened already?”

Ficino nodded. “It should have happened in the last generation. Theseus’s sons by Phaedra fought at Troy. Ariadne might still be alive.”

“We don’t know exactly when we are,” Maia reminded him. “We might have a better idea when they come back. Ariadne might be there, or she might not have come yet, or she might be dead. How long did she live after being abandoned?”

“Dionysios is supposed to have come for her and taken her away,” Ficino said. “So she might be gone.”

Father was staring fixedly at a little island just offshore as if he were remembering something. I wanted to ask him about it, but there were too many people about. It was hard to get privacy aboard, and even harder when everyone was lining the rail impatiently waiting for the shore party.

“We don’t know when we are at all,” he said. “I have a feeling it might be much earlier than you’re assuming. ‘Before the Trojan War’ doesn’t necessarily mean immediately before.”

Even though I’d been thinking about dinosaurs, I was surprised and disappointed. “No Anchises?”

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Here they come!” Erinna said.

The official report was that they had made contact and the locals didn’t have any useful information. “Miserable primitive place,” Maecenas said, pushing through the crowd of questioning people. “Council meeting. Now.”

The ship had a council of six that was supposed to make decisions, and Maecenas called them together in his cabin. The rest of us had to wait. As we weren’t going ashore and therefore couldn’t cook, dinner was cold, smoked fish and olives washed down with water lightly flavored with wine. After the feasts and singing of the previous nights it felt like a letdown. A group of us sat down to eat in the bows, where we could watch the sun setting over the sea. Erinna and I sat together on a coil of rope. “If we leave soon we could reach Paros in a few hours,” I said. “I can see it from the top of the mast.”

“Do we know if it’s inhabited?” Phaedrus asked.

“Not in the Catalog of Ships, but they quarried marble there, so it seems it might be,” Maia said. “I expect we’ll stay here until morning.”