Lost to our modern mythologies, along with the mischievous satyr and the beloved dryad, is the creature known then as the selkie. By now these people are in the next life, where no man can hurt them, and I can in good conscience tell their tale.

His voice was soft, unhurried — carrying the dusk of another country, finds me without effort as if love were fluent long before language.

They had given her son both sword and shield.  Yes, they had made sure he looked like the hero he had been, but his nose wasn't right. She pursed her lips in disapproval.