I was helped aboard a large merchant vessel, with galley slaves and sails, nothing 
unusual at all, and then into a small barren wooden room.
  "This is all we have for you," said Jacob. "But we are sailing now." He had long wavy 
brown hair and a beard. He wore striped robes to the ground.
  "In the dark?" I asked. "Sailing in the dark?"
  This was not usual.
  But as we moved out, as the oars began to dip, and the ship found its proper distance 
and began to move South, I saw what we were doing.
  All the beautiful Southwestern coast of Italy was well lighted by her hundreds and 
hundreds of palatial villas. Lighthouses stood on the rocks.
  "We will never see the Republic again," said Jacob wearily, as though he were a Roman 
citizen, which I think in fact he was. "But your Father's last wish is fulfilled. We are 
safe now."
  The old man stepped up to me. He told me that his name was David.
  The old man apologized profusely that there were no female attendants for me. I was the 
only woman on board.
  "Oh, please, banish any such thoughts from your mind! Why have you taken these risks?"
  "For years we have done business with your Father," said David. "Years ago, when 
pirates sank our ships, your Father carried the debt. He trusted us again, and we repaid 
him fivefold. He has laid up riches for you. They are all stowed, among cargo we carried, 
as if they were nothing."
  I went into the cabin and collapsed on the small bed. The old man, averting his eyes, 
brought a cover for me.
  Slowly I realized something. I had fully expected them to betray me.
  I had no words. I had no gestures or sentiments inside me. I turned my head to the 
wall. "Sleep, lady," he said.
  A nightmare came to me, a dream such as I have never had in my life. I was near a 
river. I wanted to drink blood. I waited in high grass to catch one of the villagers, and 
when I had this poor man, I took him by his shoulders, and I sank two fang teeth into his 
neck. My mouth filled with delicious blood. It was too sweet and too potent to be 
described, and even in the dream I knew it. But I had to move on. The man was nearly 
dead. I let him fall. Others who were more dangerous were after me. And there was another 
terrible threat to my life.
  I came to the ruins of a Temple, far from the marsh. Here it was desert - just with the 
snap of the fingers, from wetland to sand. I was afraid. Morning was coming. I had to 
hide. Besides, I was also being hunted. I digested this delicious blood, and I entered 
the Temple. No place to hide! I lay my whole body on the cold walls! They were graven 
with pictures. But there was no small room, no hiding place for me.
  I had to make it to the hills before sunrise, but that wasn't possible. I was moving 
right towards the sun!
  Suddenly, there came above the hills a great fatal light. My eyes hurt unbearably. They 
were on fire. "My eyes," I cried and reached to cover them. Fire covered me. I screamed. 
"Amon Ra, I curse you!" I cried another name. I knew it meant Isis, but it was not that 
name, it was another title for her that flew from my lips.
  I woke up. I sat bolt upright, shivering.
  The dream had been as sharply defined as a vision. It had a deep resonance in me of 
memory. Had I lived before?
  I went out on the deck of the ship. All was well enough. We could see the coastline 
dearly still, and the lighthouses, and the ship moved on. I stared at the sea, and I 
wanted blood.
  "This is not possible. This is some evil omen, some twisted grief," I said. I felt the 
fire. I could not shut out the taste of the blood, how natural it had seemed, how good, 
how perfect for my thirst. I saw the twisted body of the villager again in the marshes.
  This was a horror; it was no escape from what I had just witnessed. I was incensed, and 
feverish.
  Jacob, the tall young one, came to me. He had with him a young Roman. The young man had 
shaved his first beard, but otherwise he seemed a flushed and glistening child.
  I wondered wearily if I were so old at thirty-five that everyone young looked beautiful 
to me.
  He cried, "My family, too, has been betrayed. My Mother made me leave!"
  "To whom do we owe this shared catastrophe'?" I asked. I put my hands on his wet 
cheeks. He had a baby's mouth, but the shaven beard was rough. He had broad strong 
shoulders, and wore only a light, simple tunic. Why wasn't he cold out here on the water? 
Perhaps he was.
  He shook his head. He was pretty still and would be handsome later. He had a nice curl 
to his dark hair. He didn't fear his tears, or apologize for them.
  "My Mother stayed alive to tell me. She lay gasping until I came. When the Delatores 
had told my Father that he plotted against the Emperor, my Father had laughed. He had 
actually laughed. They had accused him of plotting with Germanicus! My Mother wouldn't 
die until she'd told me. She said that all my Father was accused of doing was talking 
with other men about how he would serve under Germanicus again if they were sent North."
  I nodded wearily. "I see. My brothers probably said the same thing. And Germanicus is 
the Emperor's heir and Imperium Maius of the East. Yet this is treason, to speak of 
serving Rome under a pretty general."
  I turned to go. To understand gave no consolation.
  "We are taking you to different cities," said Jacob, "to different friends. Better that 
we not say."
  "Don't leave me," said the boy. "Not tonight."
  "All right," I said. I took him into the cabin and closed the door, with a polite nod 
to Jacob, who was watching all with a guardian's conscience.
  "What do you want?" I asked.
  The boy stared at me. He shook his head. He flung his hands out. He turned and drew 
dose to me and kissed me. We went into a rampage of kisses.
  I took off my shift and sank into the bed with him. He was a man all right, tender face 
or no.
  And when I came to the moment of ecstasy, which was quite easy, given his phenomenal 
stamina, I tasted blood. I was the blood drinker in the dream. I went limp, but it didn't 
matter. He had all he needed to finish the rites to his satisfaction.
  He rose up. "You're a goddess," he said.
  "No," I whispered. The dream was rising. I heard the wind on the sand. I smelled the 
river. "I am a god... a god who drinks blood."
  We did the rites of love until we could do them no more.
  "Be circumspect and very proper with our Hebrew hosts," I said. "They will never 
understand this sort of thing."
  He nodded. "I adore you."
  "Not necessary. What is your name'?"
  "Marcellus."
  "Fine, Marcellus, go to sleep."
  Marcellus and I made a night of every night after that until we finally saw the famous 
lighthouse of Pharos and knew we had come to Egypt.