Canto X: River Captives live within me free for Death both loves and abhors me   I reach her just as the shadows do My fingers sink through her arms like they’re half-set jello “Sarah?” I call “Sarah?” I turn to face the swarm “What now?” My eyes burn like two bruised grapes “What now?”   Countless half-formed flurries cloud the sun And I cannot see my limbs   “The water,” someone screams   I blink trying to see through the red lines crossing my vision   A raised pool six feet across like an old fountain without spouts   “Dive!”   I stumble forward falling in   The swarms dissolve warm water clear sandy bottom yards below I swim  a lazy front stroke finally coming up for air   An eight-foot fireplace rises against a far wall that joins a great glass window overlooking a dark wood and the ceiling is twenty feet high     “Welcome” A woman old yet wrinkleless young but for her eyes hair black as soot “My sister’s cottage is a dangerous place to dream, young traveler”   “Your sister?’   “Her visitors often come here” She hands me a towel “It is her way of taunting me”   I step over the low wall My skin burns in the warmer air     “The swarm,” My hostess touches the scars her hands a healing ointment   “Bailey said the Vasti Something”   “For her, it was It takes a form just on the edge of believability”   “Shadows that melt the flesh” I mumble   “Your friend must have a vivid imagination Most people choose bears or gunmen --although there was one person who had a giant gummy bear”   I chuck “Bailey would like— Bailey! She’s still in the castle”   “The castle!” She continues massaging the raw skin   “Is that good or bad?”   “It all depends on what your friend would expect to find in an enchanted castle”   “Enchanted teacups, maybe” I giggle   “I doubt that would—“   “What?”   “I cannot explain It would put your friend   in more danger What did you say her name was?”   “I didn’t Call her Keturah.”   “You do not trust me yet” When she smiles it still reaches her eyes “A wise decision, young traveler Yet I will still share mine—“   Though her lips moved I could not hear a single sound “What did you say?’   “Time enough for that But rest for now There are things I must do But don’t reenter the pool.”