"Very well," the goddess said.
"We will miss you, Undine." Isabel spoke for the women, who nodded and wiped tears from their streaming eyes.
CC hugged each of them.
"Take care of each other and other women, too," CC said through her tears.
"Take this back with you." Isabel tried to return to her the amber amulet, but CC shook her head.
"No, keep it and remember me."
"We will never forget," Isabel promised.
Then CC turned to Lir. She touched his arm gently, in a gesture that mimicked that of the goddess.
"I would have liked to have known you."
"As I would have you, child." His voice rumbled with feeling. "You no longer have your mother's amulet. Allow me to gift you with one of my own." The sea god reached into the waves and when he pulled his hand up, a delicate golden chain glittered from one of his fingers. From the end of the chain hung an exquisite baroque pearl, gleaming all the colors of sunrise. He placed it around her neck and kissed her lightly on her forehead. "Remember me," he said sadly. "And know that if you ever desire solace, all you need do is to find the water. In any world it will welcome you with a father's embrace."
At last CC faced the goddess. With the loss of Dylan she had thought her heart unable to ache anymore, but as Gaea smoothed back her hair and wiped the tears from her face, CC felt a new wound open within her.
"No, child." Gaea cupped CC's face in her hands. "Do not let this parting cause you more grief; I could not bear it. You must know that even in your distant world, I will be watching you. You can find me in the trees and flowers and plants you so love. And whenever the moon is at its most full, look there and you will see the reflection of my face."
CC choked back a sob, wondering if she would die of sadness.
As if reading her mind the goddess spoke quickly with knowing finality. "You will survive. You are child of my spirit and your strength is great."
CC nodded, feeling fresh tears warm her cheeks.
Gaea kissed her gently on the lips. "Go with my blessing, Daughter. Always remember that you are much loved by a goddess, and that you hold within you the magic of the Divine Feminine."
Then Lir moved to stand beside Gaea and, as one, the immortals raised their arms to the sky.
"I call upon the power at my command. I am Earth, body and soul." Gaea's voice was filled with strength. In response to her call the air around the goddess began to shimmer with energy.
"I call upon the power at my command. I am sea, breath and life. "Lir's voice followed Gaea's and as he spoke the water around them began to glow.
"Once we joined to create a child," Gaea intoned.
"Now we join to send a child back whence she came, "Lir continued.
"Return to the world of man," Gaea said.
"Carrying blessings from the world of gods," Lir said.
"SO HAVE WE SPOKEN; SO SHALL IT BE."
The immortals intoned the final command together, and CC felt a great funnel of power settle over her, as if she had been swallowed by a current of electricity. Blinding light engulfed her, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Her body was being pulled backward with such force that she was unable to breathe. On and on the sensation went, like she was caught on a giant roller coaster that only ran in reverse. Panicking, CC wrenched open her mouth to scream, and it filled with saltwater as her head broke through the surface of the water, and she choked and sputtered, struggling to breathe and stay afloat.
She heard two quick splashes, and, in an instant, a head broke the surface not far from her, along with a lifeless body clad in a flight suit and strapped within a life jacket.
The sense of deja vu was so overwhelming that she had to struggle to concentrate past blinding dizziness.
"There."
Blinking wildly, CC watched as the colonel pointed at the fluorescent orange life raft that drifted about forty feet in front of them.
"Swim! We have to get away from the plane." He set off, sidestroking and kicking hard as he dragged the lifeless body with him.
CC's numbed thoughts told her that those were the same words the colonel had spoken to her before. And the body was Sean. Another man who had died for her. She choked again, this time on a sob instead of seawater. Her mind felt stuck in a labyrinth of pain and remembrance.
A horrendously familiar explosion burst behind her, and she spun around in the water in time to bear witness a second time to the death of the plane. It was an enormous, gaping beast, and, in its death throes, it eerily reminded her of Sarpedon's sea monster.
With a sense of increasing detachment CC realized the same thing she had understood all those days before—the sinking plane was too close to her.
And this time she didn't care. There had been so much death. Why shouldn't she just relax and give in to it? At least this time she wouldn't be filled with fear of the water. She felt cold and unbearably tired. CC closed her eyes and quit struggling as she waited for the mechanical tentacle to wrap around her ankle.
When she felt the first bump against her body she was mildly surprised. She hadn't remembered getting thrown around before the thing had dragged her under.
The bump turned into an insistent, jetlike force, and soon she was sputtering, gasping for air, and flailing her arms desperately around for balance as she was firmly propelled up and forward by two somethings that felt slick and muscular and very familiar against her swiftly moving body.
This isn't happening, she thought. It can't be real.
"I'll be! Will you look at that?" A dark-haired captain holding a flat yellow paddle pointed in her direction.
Even the colonel, who was dragging Sean's lifeless body aboard the raft, paused to stare.
The pressure against CC released, and she came to a halt as she knocked against the side of the orange raft. The pointing captain grabbed her arm and pulled her aboard. At the rough handling, newly awakened pain raked through her body, and CC shivered violently as a warm rush of blood poured from her wounded shoulder.
"It's the same shoulder," she said, looking down at the red stain that was blending with the desert brown of her sodden fatigue shirt. "Different body, but same shoulder." The words were coming out of her mouth, but CC didn't feel very connected to them, just as she didn't feel very connected to her body. Somewhere through the layers of grief and shock, the laughter of hysteria began to bubble inside her throat.
"Shit, yes, your shoulder's hurt. We know that. But what the hell were those things?" the master sergeant asked, pointing at the sleek gray shapes that were streaking away from them.
"Dolphins," CC said, erupting into uncontrollable giggles. "They're dolphins."
"Well, kiss my ass and call me Santa Claus! I've never seen nothing like that. Those damn fish just saved your life," the Master Sergeant said, slapping his thick thigh.
"Actually, they're mammals, not fish," CC said between giggles and gulps for air. "And I guess they still think I'm a princess."
Except for her unnaturally shrill giggles, the raft was quiet while the men stared at her.
"Uh, sarg," the colonel said gently. "You better let me take a look at that shoulder."