Selden felt far colder than he had before. ‘And your leaping will launch a wave of vengeance?’

‘No,’ she continued to look at the sky. ‘I hope to avert it. There was a time when I wanted people to know what he had done to me; I dreamed they would all rise up and avenge my death. Now I think about it like ripples ringing out from a dropped stone. Do I want my death to result in misery and death for others? Or would I rather slip away at a time of my choosing?’ She reached over and took his good hand without looking at him. ‘I don’t really want to die at all,’ she confided to him in a whisper. ‘But if I have to, I’m not going to let him be the one to make me die. I’m not going to wait here alone, wondering if he will torture me first.’ She finally made eye contact with him and tried for a faint smile. ‘So, when you go, I’ll go, too.’

He looked at the tray on the low table beside him. The cream soup still steamed slightly. Slices of mushroom interrupted that calm sea. A brown loaf of bread was beside it and a shallow dish of pale-yellow butter. Stewed Chalcedean peppers, purple, yellow and green, surrounded a slab of steamed white fish. All so prettily arranged. They wanted him to eat well. He knew why. Earlier, he had defiantly refused the food. It had seemed pointless to eat, merely an exercise in extending his life as a blood source for the Duke. Now it seemed a way to extend Chassim’s life. ‘While there’s life, there’s hope,’ he said.

‘So they say,’ she conceded.

He reached for the napkin and shook it out.

‘I’ll give them another three or four days of my work here, to shore up those pilings. Then we have to load up and head downriver. Reyn sent a bird back to that fellow at Cassarick, asking if our seed and stock had come in from Bingtown. No bird has come back yet, so I guess we’ll have to go back there and find out for ourselves. I think it flew off in the wrong direction myself. Anyway. We’ve got a lot to straighten out in Cassarick. I still haven’t been paid. And I’m not letting the Council get away with that.’

‘What about the other boats? Will they go with us?’

Leftrin shook his head. He was seated across from Alise at the little galley table. Thick white mugs of brown tea steamed on the scarred board between them. An empty platter held only crumbs of the bread and cheese they had shared. They were the only ones aboard, but the boat wasn’t quiet. As always, Tarman and the river had their own conversation as the current tugged at him and his lines restrained him. Good sounds, Alise thought. Here on Tarman, she was immune to the whispering lure of the memory-stone. When she and Leftrin planned their future, as they did now, the only voices she heard were their own.

‘Those boats might be “impervious” but they were handled rough. There’s dragon scorch and broken oars and all sorts of repair they need. The hold of one of them is disgustingly filthy. And we don’t have enough real sailors for a proper crew. Those slaves didn’t know much more than how to pull an oar and had no reason to try to learn more. None of them started out wanting to be sailors, either. It’s going to take time for them to get used to being free men. They all seem a bit stunned yet. So there’s a lot to be done before we worry about whether they want to work a deck or not. Teaching the keepers to operate their own boats is going to be a task for milder days, when the river runs quieter.’

Leftrin chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, and then pushed his mug of tea to one side. ‘You know how Tillamon told Reyn she knew at least a dozen young women who wouldn’t mind leaving Trehaug and Cassarick behind for a chance to walk in the summer breeze without a veil? She got permission from the other keepers to invite them here. Well. I’m thinking I know a few able deckhands who might be persuaded to come this way, at least for a time. It’s easier to teach a young captain his business if he’s worked the deck himself. But, lacking that, I’d like to find experienced crew for them to learn with.’

‘So much to think about,’ Alise murmured. New settlers for Kelsingra. Farm animals and seeds for crops. Did anyone here know how to care for them? She did not enquire if anyone had asked him to teach the new captains their business. She was sure he had just assumed it. She smiled as she asked him, ‘Which of the keepers will step up to captain the boats?’

‘Not sure. Rapskal might. He’s looking for something lately and that would be better than some of the wild talk I’ve heard from him.’

She shook her head sadly. ‘I think that’s wishful thinking. Not that he couldn’t rise to that if he wanted to. But the stone memories have changed him. All he speaks of now is the need to put an end to the threat against the dragons. A permanent end. I don’t think he understands how far away Chalced is, or what sort of resistance he and Heeby would face.’