A woman in a blue dress with gold embroidery stands on the pebble-strewn bank of the river of souls, toying with a gold-hilted dagger in her left hand. As she watches, a man slowly poles his dragon's head gondola across the dark river, coming to a silent stop beside her. He reaches out one hand and helps her aboard as she hides the dagger in the folds of her skirt.
They cross the river, waves lapping gently at the side of the boat. The woman stares up at the destination, a gray mountain with a crooked road winding up it and seven gates, the last the entrance to a castle. The woman smiles, knowing that when she passes through that final gate, she will be born again.
When they reach the opposite shore, the ferryman again reaches to help her out onto the rocks. She takes his hand, then flashes her dagger and stabs him between the ribs. He shudders once and slides soundlessly to the bottom of the boat, eyes closing. The woman wipes her dagger on his shirt, smiling. She will never have to cross again; she will live forever.
She turns to step out, but finds her feet stuck to the bottom of the boat. In her hand, the dagger grows and changes into a long, wooden pole. The dead man at her feet opens his eyes and smiles, then pulls himself up. "Thank you" he says, and steps out of the gondola onto the shore of life. As he begins walking up the path toward the first gate, the woman finds her hands moving of their own accord, ferrying the boat back across the river.
On the far shore stands a figure.
- Megan Morris, ©1997
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