“What…did we just do?” I asked Ligeia. “How did you…come back like that?”

“Hadn’t you guessed?” Liegia asked. “That’s what we are—solid song. We can sing—or be sung. When there was nothing else to do on the island, we used to take turns eating and singing each other. It was how we renewed ourselves.” She smiled. “And I’m feeling so refreshed now. Thank you so much. It’s been far too long since I’ve been in the stomach of another. I can do you now, if you want.”

“Uh…no thanks,” I said. “I don’t think I’m ready to be eaten yet.”

She nodded. “Suit yourself.” She stretched, cat-like. “Anyway…now that there are two of us together, we can do something else I’ve wanted to do for such a long time.”

“What’s that?” I asked hesitantly. By now, I was beginning to realize I should have been careful what I wished for. It was quite one thing to want to know what you were. It was quite another to be in the presence of someone who knew so much more about what you were than you did.

She said, simply, “Find Leucosia.”