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day and a half in Jefsgord. I hoped Captain Helmsrid was doing as good a job as he said and we weren’t about to run into any old friends.
    We needed supplies, especially clothes for me, but the market was already closing. We checked into an inn with a view of the sea from the first floor. I asked the keeper for a bath in my room, intending to soak myself into a pleasantly pruned state. Before I got into the steaming tub I locked my door and gave it a rattle to test its strength. Not totally harming-proof, but it would do.
    I could see the ocean from where I bathed and watched the ships slipping over the horizon. I was looking forward to this journey, though my excitement was tempered by Helmsrid’s story of missing ships. I hoped the Jessamine had a good lookout.

SIX
    R odden was bashing on my door at dawn, telling me to get up.
    ‘Don’t you ever sleep in?’ I called through two inches of wood. I had hoped we would lie around for a while on our last morning on dry land. I threw the blankets off in a huff and climbed once more into my filthy clothes.
    The humidity of the air in Jefsgord, even at this early hour, was playing havoc with my hair. As we walked along the street I tamed it into a braid. ‘Are we going to the market?’ I asked, nodding at our horses, which he was leading.
    ‘Yes. We’ll sell our horses and pick up some gear for Verapine.’
    We stopped at a stall selling heavy winter clothesand Rodden began searching through a stack of coats.
    ‘I thought it was hot in Verapine.’
    ‘It is. But at night the temperature plummets to just above freezing. There’s never any cloud cover so the heat of the day escapes back into the sky.’
    I pulled on a woven poncho and a heavy pair of trousers over my clothes. They were very warm, so I took them off again quickly and bought them. From another stall we picked up pairs of plain breeches and shirts.
    ‘Do you want any dresses?’ Rodden asked.
    I shook my head. As I was going to be on a ship full of men I wanted to look as sexless as possible. Coarse shirts and badly cut breeches were prudent choices.
    The horses we sold to a dealer and then, tucking our parcels of clothes under the table, we sat at a tea shack for some breakfast.
    ‘Are we going to have enough yelbar points if we’re attacked?’ I asked.
    Rodden swirled his mug of milky camai , an import from Pol. It was spicy black tea, brewed with milk and sweetened with honey. He broke a small loaf of currant bread in half.
    ‘I don’t know,’ he muttered. ‘I’m beginning tothink this mightn’t be a good idea.’
    ‘But we need the bennium.’
    He watched me for a moment. ‘Even after what happened to you in Ercan, you’re not afraid?’
    A shiver went up my spine. I did find my mind returning to that moment, reliving the harming’s attack. ‘Of course I am. But that fear seems to be buried so deep, under layers and layers of other fears. Do you know what I mean?’
    He nodded slowly, looking at his camai . ‘You’re more afraid of other things. Like what might happen if we do nothing.’
    ‘Yes, that’s exactly it. What about you – are you afraid?’
    He looked at me, the sunlight making his white-blue eyes sparkle. ‘Who, me? I know no fear, princess.’ The words were said lightly, but without humour. Looking in the other direction, his fingers brushed mine, and then held. I could feel his heart beating in the veins of his hand.
    There was something I hungered for that wasn’t blood, nor water, nor food. I felt it keenly when he was close, when he let down his guard. When he touched me as he was doing now. I didn’t know how to satisfy the hunger, or even if I should want to.
    ‘Why do you think the harmings have startedattacking ships?’ My voice sounded hoarse, and I coughed to clear it.
    ‘I suppose because there aren’t any witnesses on the open sea, not if you kill everyone or take them prisoner. Sailors are tough. They’d make good attack harmings. The children they