Apparently, news travels fast under the sea, and in the following hours, the palace fills with merfolk coming to verify Sky's return with their own eyes. Sky explains that most are relatives and friends, some are advisors and dignitaries, and the rest are merely curious.

With the throne room sealed shut and guarded, we gather in the great hall. Servants who move with the efficient unobtrusiveness of an invisible class set out tables and deck them with platters and trays of refreshments in the style of hors d'oeuvres, none of which I recognize.

The most inviting are little grape-sized orbs that could be the fruit of some underwater plant, but could also be some sea creature's eggs, for all I know. With no idea what will be palatable, much less safe for a 'landwalker' to eat, I abstain.

I do my best to stick close to Sky as he moves from one group to the next, greeting all with the gracious manner of a true prince. He does his best to include me in conversation, but it's soon abundantly clear that I'm both literally and figuratively out of my depths and about as useful as a bowl of wax fruit: purely decorative, not particularly interesting, and a waste of valuable space.

Finally, as Sky is pulled into yet another conversation that reminds me of the time I wandered into an upper division maths seminar when I was looking for my Modern American Lit class, Anemone appears at my side and takes pity.

"Would you like to see the library?" she asks, linking her arm with mine. "Sky mentioned that you write books."

"I'd love to," I say, casting her a grateful smile.

Shyly, she leads me from the crowd and into a mercifully empty hallway. I let out my breath in a sigh of relief, not having realized how much tension I'd been holding.

"You are like me, I think," Anemone says.

I looked over at her as we passed beneath a massive portrait in a gilded frame and Anemone stops to look at it. "In what way?"

She wears a long, sparkling dress of light blue silk that hugs her slim figure to the knee, where it flares into an explosion of ruffles, making her look like some fiery-haired nymph emerging from a waterspout. "You dislike crowds. Crowds of strangers, anyway," she says.

"Sky told me the population of Thassos is only a few thousand. I imagined you would know just about everyone."

"Oh, no. We are very isolated here in the palace — 'well-protected,' I should say. Natalis has seen to that. She's very beautiful, isn't she?"

"Your sister?"

She laughs and nods up at the portrait. "No, you silly squid. My mother. That's her."

"Oh, yes, of course!" The woman in the portrait is, admittedly, gorgeous, and from what I've seen of her children, I suspect that the beauty depicted is true to life, and not the artist's flattery. Her hair falls over her shoulder like a cascade of golden silk, her features are flawless, and her large, slightly wide-set eyes are the same sea-green as Sky's. "She's lovely. Are you... excited to speak with her again?"

Anemone shakes her head. "Not 'again.' I was very young when she was taken from us. I have known her only as a statue, and from portraits like this. I hardy remember her, otherwise."

"Are you so much younger than Sky?" I ask, failing to hide my surprise. "I mean..."

She giggles, thankfully unoffended. "We all look about the same age now, don't we? But yes, Sky was already a young man when I was born. Natalis is the closest to Sky's age, but the rest of us have a few years between us. I'm five years behind my next youngest sister, and nearly twenty behind Sky."

I frown at this. "Then your father is also..."

"Basically a stranger to me," she says.

"What about Sky?"

She smiles. "Natalis is a tyrant, but thankfully she allowed us to go on holidays. Every winter, we travel south to an island we own. If he's near enough and able, Sky joins us there. His tales of the mainland were the highlights of my childhood." She sighs. "Sadly, Natalis has never allowed the rest of us to set foot upon land — beyond the island, that is."

"Natalis is in charge, then?" I ask.

Anemone nods. "She has ruled Thassos since the day Sky left. There are many mer who have known no other leader."

"Will she be glad to give up the role, do you think?" I ask carefully.

Linking her arm through mine once more, Anemone leads the way on down the hall to the library. "No, I don't think so," she says. "In fact, I think she rather enjoys being 'queen.' She's quite as powerful as mother, you know; a real sea-witch. It's very bad form to use our voices to make others do things against their will — in fact, it's against our laws — but she certainly could if she wanted to."

Anemone changes the subject after that, and we enter the library — a vaulted space with curving, tri-level walls lined with shelves packed floor to ceiling with books. If Noah were here in my place, this room might be enough to convince him to leave the surface world behind for good. He's not here, though, and while the library is magnificent, my thoughts and attention are elsewhere.

Something isn't adding up. If Natalis knew her father was alive all along, burdened by his half of the amulet and kept away from Thassos by the same curse that banished Sky, why had she not shared this knowledge with her siblings? Why not explain her father's innocence and have him join them on their 'island holidays?' Even if he couldn't return home, at least Anemone and her sisters would have grown up knowing their father, and Sky wouldn't have had to bear the guilt of thinking he'd caused his father's death.

"Martin?"

I realize Anemone has asked me a question, and wince. It seems my manners are really not up to royal standards.

"I'm sorry. What did you say?"

She giggles. "You must really like books! We've been here quite a while, and I was wondering if we ought to get back before they send out a search party. You'll have plenty of time to read once you embrace the sea. As Sky's consort, your duties won't include much beyond... Well, you shall have plenty of time to do what you wish."

I frown; I'd thought Sky had cleared up this matter already. "We're not staying," I say. "Once your mother is free, we're returning to the land."

She smiles easily. "Of course. Well, let's get back to it, then."

She takes my hand, but I resist her pull. "Anemone, wait. You understand, don't you? I have a family. I can't stay."

Her smile fades a little. "But if you could forget them, you could be happy here, couldn't you?"

Affronted by the question, I release her hand. "How would I 'forget' my children? They're my life."

She tilts her head to the side and raises her hand to touch the side of my face. "Easily enough. Natalis is powerful; as gifted as mother. But she's got nothing on me. I have to be careful every time I open my mouth, and it's quite difficult to control myself sometimes."

Surprised, I back away from her.

"My brother belongs here," she says softly. "You can see that, can't you? How easily he fits in; how happy he is."

"Yes," I admit. Sky was more at home in the palace than anywhere I'd seen him yet, which made sense because...

"But he won't stay without you," Anemone continues. "You could be happy, too, if you'd only give it a chance."

"I thought you were the one who wanted to see the surface?" I ask, confused and alarmed as Anemone's face pales, all trace of humor vanishing and tears making her wide eyes sparkle like sea-green stars.

"I do," she whispers. "But we cannot escape our duty, or our fate, and mine is here. Yours is here, too, isn't it?"

Far too late, it occurs to me that I should cover my ears.

"I... I'm not sure."

"It is," she says softly, but with a certainty that leaves no room for doubt. "You and Sky are destined for this place. You have a past, and a family; but you can leave them behind without guilt. No one will miss you, anyway. Will they?"

A painful memory flashes through my mind: a needle in my hand as I stand at my father's back, and then over his body, unsure if I had killed him; looks of shock and pain, fear and anger; an unforgiveable betrayal.

"No. No one will miss me," I hear myself say.

"And you are happy with Sky, aren't you? Wherever he is, you are happy to be with him."

"Yes. They say home is where the heart is, and your brother has my heart."

Anemone nods. She smiles, but tears overflow the rims of her eyes, and I don't understand why.

"Good," she says. "You are welcome here, Martin Hunter. You are safe, and happy, and loved. And you are free; you may do as you wish, and worry no more. Isn't it wonderful?"

A sense of profound peace washes over me; at the same time, I feel as if I've walked into a room with a list of Very Important Things To Do in my head, and forgotten every one of them.

"Yes," I agree. "It is wonderful."

"Good." She smiles, though it seems she also weeps, and takes my hand. "Let us return to the others, then. Sky is waiting."

"Of course," I say, and allow her to lead me from the room, shaking my head and laughing at myself under my breath.

Thassos is perfect, after all. Why would I ever want to leave?