Ryan leapt to his feet and shouted, "Dema!"

She turned and saw him, then smiled and began walking toward him. He ran up to her and gave her a big hug, sweeping her off her feet. She laughed gaily.

Then he realized his mistake, and hastily set her down, his face suddenly flushed with embarrassment. This woman was not Dema! She did look remarkably like her, but she was a little shorter. Her complexion was a shade darker. Her eyes were not quite the right color. And although she smelled very nice, she didn't smell the same.

Ryan tried to back away from her, but she held onto his arm.

"You are Ryan Shaunessy," she announced, still smiling broadly. "I am Rosita Sanchez. Juan told me to look for you. But you found me first!"

Her English was good, with an engaging Spanish accent. For a moment Ryan wondered if this really was Dema after all, wearing some kind of disguise, a glamour. When he hugged her, when she held his arm, he felt the same electric thrill Dema's touch had always brought him.

But no, he was sure she was not Dema. Her explanation made too much sense, and, he thought, if Dema were in disguise, she would not look this much like herself. The resemblance was just too striking. He forgave himself for his mistake, as he could tell Rosita already had.

"Juan Matus? He is here then?" he asked.

"Juan is in Catemaco, looking for Dema. He wants us to join him there."

"Looking for her? Is she in some kind of trouble?"

"Juan did not say. He just said I should watch for you, and when I found you, we should go to Catemaco."

"When should we go?"

"Right away."

"Should we take a taxi?" he asked, recalling that she had arrived here on a bus.

"That would be best."

So Ryan flagged down a taxi, and in a few minutes they were on their way to Catemaco, no more questions asked.

"Juan says you are a sea captain, and have come all the way from the northwestern United States to help Dema."

"I'm just a ferry captain, not a real sea captain. But Juan seems to have known more about why I came here than I did. Have you known him for long?"

"I met Juan many years ago," she said. "He had come to Catemaco to learn about herbal medicine, so he spent some time visiting with my mother. For a while we were both her students, although he already knew far more of the lore than I did."

She chattered on about growing up in Catemaco, learning herbal lore from her mother, and how this knowledge had helped her get a good job at one of the medical research institutes in Veracruz. As she spoke, Ryan realized that Rosita was considerably older than Dema, closer to his own age. He did not know why he felt so relieved to notice she was not wearing a wedding band, because of course this did not mean anything.

"What sort of trouble could Dema have gotten into in Catemaco?" he asked.

"Juan told me that Dema is a shaman, a shape-changer, just as I am," she said. "But she has never been to Catemaco before. Much of the old lore, the old ways, survive in Catemaco. Most of it is good, like my medicinal lore, but some of it is evil. There are brujos there who brag of their allegiance to the devil. If a powerful new shaman arrives in town and crosses them, or even seems to threaten them in any way, there is no telling how they would react."

Ryan had barely heard most of this. A shape changer, just as I am, she had said. It had sent a thrill through his body, reminiscent of what he had felt when Dema had tipped out of her kayak and changed into a sea lion before his eyes. But to speak of it so openly. Not even Dema would do that.

"But you, and your mother, and Juan, you are all safe there?"

"Mama passed on some years ago. I grew up there, so I am known. Juan understands everything, and would do nothing foolish."

"But the brujos are dangerous?"

"The brujos are mostly braggarts who lack the discipline to become a true sorcerer like Juan. But one never knows what they might do."

"So you leave them alone, and they leave you alone."

"As long as they do nothing truly harmful."

"But Juan thinks Dema might have done something foolish, and provoked them?"

She gave him a curious look. "Juan says Dema is a true shaman, a sorceress of great skill and power in her own right. A sorceress never does anything foolish. But a sorceress follows the path of honor, of impeccable intent. The way of the warrior, as Juan would call it. It is possible they have provoked her. And they are on their home ground. They have an advantage."

"So Juan, and we, are going there to help even the odds."

"As we must, if Juan is seeing things truly, as he nearly always does."

The taxi rocketed along the rough pavement of the highway leading to Catemaco, bouncing the passengers about and making conversation difficult, so they were silent for a while. But finally Ryan said, "Tell me more about Catemaco," really meaning tell me more about yourself.

Rosita gave him one of those smiles so reminiscent of Dema's and said, "The town is on the shore of Lago de Catemaco, a giant crater lake. Mama came to Catemaco from the countryside and had no interest in the water, but I loved it, it was so clear and pure. I spent many days of my childhood on its shores, and in it, becoming familiar with the water creatures. Especially the water snakes. Mama had taught me that we are snake people. The medicinal lore is not all of plants. Much of it has to do with snakes, and she had told me of their powers. So I was fascinated by the water snakes that always came and swam around my ankles. Then one day, as if in a dream, I became one of them. I swam with them, and it was wonderful."

Rosita stopped speaking, and a faraway look came into her eyes, as if she were reliving the experience. Ryan was bursting with the urge to tell her about his selkie side, but his long-held reticence made him hesitate, and the moment was lost.

Rosita looked at him. "When the dream ended, I went home and told Mama. She said it was a sign, and it meant that I could be a true shaman. She widened the scope of my lessons, and when Juan came, he also became my mentor in such things. So while he learned medicinal lore from Mama, I learned shaman lore from him."

"So you are a shaman, like Dema?"

"No, I think, not like Dema. From what Juan has told me, there can be very few like Dema. Juan is a far more powerful shaman than I could ever be, and he says that Dema is far beyond him. But she is young. It took Juan many years to become what he is. It would take many years for me to become more than I am. But for Dema, he says, it is natural. She has the power already at her fingertips. She teaches him things he did not know. But she still has much to learn."

Ryan nodded, recalling Dema's departing lesson for him, which she had said she had only recently learned, simply from knowing and watching him.

They rode on toward Catemaco in silence.