A woman who's a serpent must something sacred be, and so I say:

"Let's free her of these nets," and we untangle her. I look at the woman with a seal skin round her waist, and the woman with a soaked dress, and down at the snake-woman, and I wonder.

"Can you speak?" I ask the snake-woman. "You knew her name," I say to the blonde one in a wet dress. "Where did you come from?"