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barrier of phase. Or was she trying to tempt him into some sexual attempt, that had to fail
embarrassingly? Revenge for what Melanie had said to her?
That reminded him of what Melanie had said about the balloons. All this time, he could have handled
the Minoan tablets himself! Instead he had had to bargain with the mermaid, and compromise,
translating only in her presence. That had not been a bad experience, actually, but he cursed himself for
not thinking of the balloons before. Now she was cocksure, and his frustration found a way of
expression.
He brought out one of the balloons. It was very fine and flexible, and felt as if he were moving it
through the resistance of water. As he was, now that it was no longer balled up. He stretched it carefully
over his clumped and stiffened fingers, clamping it in place with his thumb. Hardly a perfect glove, but
serviceable.
"Come here. Splendid," he said.
She swam forward with enticing undulations, ready to play the futile game. She expected him to make a
pass, literally: a sweep of his hand through her body without contact.
He poked her left breast with the gloved fingers. Her flesh was firm and resilient, a genuine delight to
poke. Splendid was laughing silently, enjoying her invulnerability.
Then she realized that the touch was real. With one phenomenal thrust of her flukes she shot straight up
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a good two fathoms.
Don's pique dissipated, but he maintained a straight face. "Please do show me how," he suggested as she
leveled out and peered down.
She touched her breast herself as if verifying what had happened. Now it seemed she was not so eager.
She looked at the sheath on his hand, realizing that it did not have to be restricted to a finger. Her bluff
had been called.
"While the Minoan drifts and frets," Don added encouragingly.
Splendid glanced westward, as if debating whether to flee back to her village. He would not be able to
pursue swiftly enough to keep her in sight, because of the difficulty of getting off the ship with his
bicycle or out of the chasm the ship was in. Even on the level she could lose him, merely by swimming
upward until gone.
"If you go home, I shall continue translating on my own," he said.
That got to her. She was as eager as he to read that manuscript. Now he had possession.
Then she dived purposefully for the tablets. She was going to carry them away!
"No you don't!" he cried, diving for them himself.
They collided. This time flesh and bone passed through flesh and bone as before, but the balloon-glove
got hung up against her torso just where flesh merged into scales. Don tried to yank back his hand, but
his arm actually passed through her abdomen, leaving the hand at her rear, and he goosed her royally.
Her mouth opened in an outraged O as she jackknifed, inadvertently showing him a bottom that resolved
the long-standing question of "how." It was all there in normal human order when the legs folded clear
and the scales parted.
Don had to roll away, finally managing to disengage, and go back to his bicycle for a breath of air.
Splendid used the opportunity to pick up two of the tablets. Don, now aware of her liability, charged
back balloon-first and tickled her under one raised arm, just where the breast began.
She shrieked silently, squirming away, and dropped the tablets to the deck. One cracked apart.
Appalled, they both broke off hostilities and stared. The damage was not total, as the tablet had split into
two major portions rather than shattering. But had it not been buoyed by the water it would have been
another matter. The look on Splendid's face showed that she was as chagrined about the accident as he.
She recovered her slate and wrote. I WILL NOT GO. I WILL MAKE IT RIGHT WITH YOUR
FRIEND.
Don merely nodded, putting away his balloon. Too bad it had taken this near disaster to straighten them
both out. Yet now he realized that this was the first time he had had an interaction like this with a
woman; his shyness had not gotten in the way. Ordinarily the mere thought of poking, grabbing, or
goosing a woman would have made him flee, stutter-bound.
Splendid wrote a treatise in German, and Don spelled it out over the unresponsive radio. He didn't
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inquire what it said, and he had no evidence Melanie was listening, but it was the best he could do. He
planned to broadcast it again in a few hours, and then yet again, until she picked it up.
They returned to the manuscript, picking up the text after the missing tablet.
... snake. Certainly we have many legends, and the serpent, as an aspect of the earth, is commonly
worshipped in Crete. I use that term advisedly. Actually we worship no animals, as that is a practice for
barbarians. We merely use them as adjuncts of the ritual in the worship of that divinity we may not
approach directly. Yet this is difficult to justify to foreigners, and I have fallen out of the habit of trying.
I myself have offered incense before the altar of the lovely Snake Goddess. And our regard for the bull
as another aspect of that same Earth Spirit is too well established to warrant repetition here. Yet there
are elements that do not entirely jibe, and the legend is in many ways alien to our comprehension. I shall
present it here only in summary: Three thousand years ago they are specific, as they possess a
marvelously accurate calendar, but I round it off for convenience there was an upright priest king who
was identified with the Bull God for his strength and determination. No woman could resist him, and
thus he attracted the romantic attention even of his sister, identified with the Bird God. She it was who
nursed him when he was stricken ill as his penance for neglecting the Snake God, and in this case the
Bird prevailed and she cured him. He was so joyous to be well again that he celebrated for forty days
some say four hundred. A ritual figure, subject to interpretation. She then tempted him with wine,
making him intoxicated, and disguised himself so that he did not know her, and thereby seduced him.
When he recovered equilibrium and realized what he had done, he built a great pyre and threw himself
on it, ascending to the Heaven of the Bulls. But she endured alone and in due course gave birth to the
Feathered Bull: a creature at once ferocious in animal aspect while well-favored in human aspect. He
was both beast and god, but at the same time a man, with mannish appetites. This entity in due course
became king, and set out to rule all the world of men. He discovered how to grow plants, how to sail a
ship, and how to work with metal. His reign was long and glorious, extending over all the islands of the
world and all the lands bordering on the sea. But in his old age, when he was five hundred years old
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