Rounded river pebbles mumble under my feet, and my collecting bag hangs eagerly at my side. The garden needs more reeds. Farther up the shore I see Charon's boat pulled up, and a second later I hear his rough voice.

   "Good boys! Fetch it! Fetch!"

   A gigantic dog leaps, its jaws grabbing a stick in midair. Then another mouth reaches over, tugging the stick to the side. A third head barks gleefully as the beast runs back up the beach and deposits the stick at Charon's feet.

   "Good dogs," says Charon, bending to pick up the branch.

   One of the dog heads whips up, sniffing. The other two heads follow. Then the dog is bounding my way. There's no mistaking those three heads, those powerful jaws. I've seen them embellished in gold on Hades' chariot and carved on the arms of my throne.

   "Stop!" shouts Charon in a frantic voice, waving the stick over his head as if to keep the dog from attacking. He pants in pursuit, but the dog's long legs move like the wind, and the ferryman is rapidly losing ground.

   He's still struggling up the shore when the dog skids to a stop in front of me, eager and playful. I hold out my hand for each of the three heads to sniff. The right head licks my hand, and I scratch it behind the ears. Then the beast is jostling me like a gigantic puppy. He flops on his back with all four huge feet in the air, and I scratch his tummy. He kicks his hind feet in pleasure.

   Charon arrives, gasping for breath. "Careful there! Step back!"

   The dog rolls over and sits by my side.

   "I never." Charon's bushy eyebrows meet in consternation. "He don't do that with nobody but me, and him and me, we've known each other forever."

   The dog reaches over, grabs Charon's stick, and begins to worry the wood with his teeth.

   "Is this Cerberus?" I ask.

   He nods. "Cerberus, Guardian of the Dead."

   "Some guardian!" I laugh as the right head rubs against my side, begging for another scratch.

   Charon's brow is a confusion of wrinkles. "I never seen him like this with nobody before. You don't want to be there when he's doin' his job. Those three mouths drippin' blood and strips of flesh, those six eyes drunk with death—it's like the furies themselves settle into his soul."

   "I didn't know people were so eager to get in here," I joke. "It seems kind of silly to kill them to keep them out."

   "Keep 'em out! Girl, his job is to keep 'em in. Look at you, forgettin' already what I told you back in the boat that one time. No one goes back. Once you're here, you're here. Them that think they still got business on the other side, Cerberus tells 'em different pretty quick. Three days ago the picture wasn't so pretty. She was a young one. Not much older than you. They say she left a sweetheart on the other side. Never stopped cryin'. Didn't give the Lethe a chance to wash her clean. She just plunged into the Styx and started flailin' across. I don't know how, but she made it to the other shore."

   Charon pauses. His mouth narrows into a grim line. "Cerberus was standin' there, pullin' his lips back and barin' his fangs, those three heads rumblin' all together like a volcano. But it was like she was in a dream and couldn't see him. She kept goin'. He leaped; knocked her flat. And then those heads was rippin' and snarlin'. Bits of flesh sprayed around like raindrops."

   He shakes his head. "Once he does that, the screams don't last long. Ravens land in the trees, waitin' for their turn. Cerberus ain't done till there's nothin' bigger than this here stick, bones and all. Then the fire dies out of his eyes. He swims back over here. The river washes off the blood, the little bits of skin. He climbs out and gives a shake, lookin' all pleased with himself."

   Cerberus knows we're talking about him, and he holds his heads high. He pushes against my hand again until I scratch under one of his collars.

   "Well, I never," says Charon. "I never."

   He looks over at those teeth, longer than my fingers, still playing with the remnants of the splintered stick.

   "If he's so dangerous," I ask, "why didn't he attack me? Is it because I wasn't in the water?"

   "You was lucky today, girl. I don't know why. But be careful, you hear me?"