A flat, seamless ring of white sand sloped gently into the ocean. The shoreline’s blue was delicately pale where water met sand and sunlight; farther out there was the deep, heart-stopping blue of many fathoms of ocean, the blue of falling in endless space. There were no trees or shrubs along the sandy barrier, but beyond it in the sheltered lagoon, tiny islands poked sharply out of the water like small green monsters, shaggy and craggy, sitting hunched in cool water and hot sun.

He spent so long staring at it that by the time he looked down, the Mermaid was stretched out on the sand, half-in, half-out of water. Danil was struggling a short distance behind her, and the boat was several lengths off, keeping from running aground in the shallows. Xandre was already in the water, beckoning to Galina, who was leaning over the side of the boat, nervously gripping the lifesaver. At last she held her breath and tumbled over with a clumsy splash. Xandre slipped a loop of rope into the crook of his elbow and began to pull her to shore.

Chance descended to the boat. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked Niko.

Niko jumped slightly, startled at the sudden appearance near his mast. “Oh, it’s you. No, this is as far as I can go.”

Frowning, Chance descended all the way to sit near Niko. “I need you to guide me all the way. Leave the boat and come with us.”

Niko shook his head, and his crooked smile was a little smug. “I’m not saying I don’t feel like coming. I’m saying I can’t. There’s nothing you or I can do about it, old man.”

He pointed down at his left foot. There was a heaped-up length of chain at the bottom of the boat, one end attached to a ring in the bow, the other to a shackle around his ankle. There was no other anchor.

“Ah,” said Chance with an understanding nod, resting his right hand on Niko’s shoulder in apparent sympathy.

He then thrust his left hand up into Niko’s chest, right under the sternum to the place where his heart used to be. The man was too shocked to scream. He stared at Chance, appalled, unblinking, and more frightened by what he saw before him than by the invading hand.

“The part of me that is a man is not yet old, and the part of me that is old is not a man,” Chance said quietly.

Niko tried to squirm away from the iron hold on his shoulder and the alien probing beneath his rib cage. Chance pulled out his hand, now bloodied, and held a large key before Niko’s horrified eyes. “Both parts are getting impatient, so kindly use this now, and let us be on our way.”