– all the evidence remained: the massive fortifications, the towers with lines of sight and fire arcs facing both to sea and inland. Huge ballistae, mangonels and scorpions mounted on every available space, and in the harbour itself rock-pile islands held miniature forts festooned with signal flags, fast ten-man pursuit galleys moored alongside.

A dozen ships rode at anchor in the choppy waters. Along the docks, she saw, tiny figures were racing in every direction, like ants on a kicked nest. ‘Pretty, have us drop anchor other side of that odd-looking dromon. Seems like nobody’s going to pay us much attention-hear that roar? That’s the northwest shore getting hit.’

‘The whole damned island could go under, Captain.’

‘That’s why we’re staying aboard-to see what happens. If we have to run east, I want us ready to do so.’

‘Look, there’s a harbour scow comin’ our way.’

Damn. ‘Typical. World’s falling in but that don’t stop the fee-takers. All right, prepare to receive them.’

The anchor had rattled down by the time the scow fought its way alongside. Two officious-looking women climbed aboard, one tall, the other short. The latter spoke first. ‘Who’s the captain here and where d’you hail from?’

‘I am Captain Shurq Elalle. We’ve come up from Letheras. Twenty months at sea with a hold full of goods.’

The tall woman, thin, pale, with stringy blonde hair, smiled. ‘Very accommodating of you, dear. Now, if you’ll be so kind, Brevity here will head down into the hold to inspect the cargo.’

The short dark-haired woman, Brevity, then said, ‘And Pithy here will collect the anchoring fee.’

‘Fifteen docks a day.’

‘That’s a little steep!’

‘Well,’ Pithy said with a lopsided shrug, ‘it’s looking like the harbour’s days are numbered. We’d best get what we can.’

Brevity was frowning at Shurq’s first mate. ‘You wouldn’t be Skorgen Kaban the Pretty, would you?’

‘Aye, that’s me.’

‘I happen to have your lost eye, Skorgen. In a jar.’

The man scowled across at Shurq Elalle, then said, ‘You and about fifty other people.’

‘What? But I paid good money for that! How many people lose an eye sneezing? By the Errant, you’re famous!’

‘Sneeze is it? That’s what you heard? And you believed it? Spirits of the deep, lass, and you paid the crook how much?’

Shurq said to Pithy, ‘You and your friend here are welcome to inspect the cargo-but if we’re not offloading that’s as far as it goes, and whether we offload or not depends on the kinds of prices your buyers are prepared to offer.’

‘I’ll prove it to you,’ Brevity said, advancing on Skorgen Kaban. ‘It’s a match all right-I can tell from here.’

‘Can’t be a match,’ the first mate replied. ‘The eye I lost was a different colour from this one.’

You had different-coloured eyes?’

‘That’s right.’

‘That’s a curse among sailors.’

‘Maybe that’s why it ain’t there no more.’ Skorgen nodded towards the nearby dromon. ‘Where’s that hailing from? I never seen lines like those before-looks like it’s seen a scrap or two, asides.’

Brevity shrugged. ‘Foreigners. We get a few-’

‘No more of that,’ Pithy cut in. ‘Check the cargo, dearie. Time’s a-wasting.’

Shurq Elalle turned and examined the foreign ship with more intensity after that peculiar exchange. The dromon looked damned weather-beaten, she decided, but her first mate’s lone eye had been sharp-the ship had been in a battle, one involving sorcery. Black, charred streaks latticed the hull like a painted web. A whole lot of sorcery. That ship should be kindling.

‘Listen,’ Pithy said, facing inland. ‘They beat it back, like they said they would.’

The cataclysm in the making seemed to be dying a rapid death, there on the other side of the island where clouds of ice crystals billowed skyward. Shurq Elalle twisted round to look out to the sea to the south, past the promontory. Ice, looking like a massive frozen lake, was piling up in the wake of the violent vanguard that had come so close to wrecking the Undying Gratitude. But its energy was fast dissipating. A gust of warm wind backed across the deck.

Skorgen Kaban grunted. ‘And how many sacrifices did they fling off the cliff to earn this appeasement?’ He laughed. ‘Then again, you probably got no shortage of prisoners!’

‘There are no prisoners on this island,’ Pithy said, assuming a lofty expression as she crossed her arms. ‘In any case, you ignorant oaf, blood sacrifices wouldn’t have helped-it’s just ice, after all. The vast sheets up north went and broke to pieces-why, just a week past and we was sweating uncommon here, and that’s not something we ever get on Second Maiden. I should know, I was born here.’

‘Born to prisoners?’

‘You didn’t hear me, Skorgen Kaban? No prisoners on this island-’

‘Not since you ousted your jailers, you mean.’

‘Enough of that,’ Shurq Elalle said, seeing the woman’s umbrage ratchet up a few more notches on the old hoist pole-and it was plenty high enough already. ‘Second Maiden is now independent, and for that I have boundless admiration. Tell me, how many Edur ships assailed your island in the invasion?’

Pithy snorted. ‘They took one look at the fortifications, and one sniff at the mages we’d let loose on the walls, and went right round us.’

The captain’s brows rose a fraction. ‘I had heard there was a fight.’

‘There was, when our glorious liberation was declared. Following the terrible accidents befalling the warden and her cronies.’

‘Accidents, hah! That’s a good one.’

Shurq Elalle glared across at her first mate, but like most men he was impervious to such non-verbal warnings.

‘I will take that fifteen docks now,’ Pithy said, her tone cold. ‘Plus the five docks disembarking fee, assuming you intend to come ashore to take on supplies or sell your cargo, or both.’

‘You ain’t never mentioned five-’

‘Pretty,’ Shurq Elalle interrupted, ‘head below and check on Brevity-she may have questions regarding our goods.’

‘Aye, Captain.’ With a final glower at Pithy he stumped off for the hatch.

Pithy squinted at Shurq Elalle for a moment, then scanned the various sailors in sight. ‘You’re pirates.’

‘Don’t be absurd. We’re independent traders. You have no prisoners on your island, I have no pirates on my ship.’

‘What are you suggesting by that statement?’

‘Clearly, if I had been suggesting anything, it was lost on you. I take it you are not the harbour master, just a toll-taker.’ She turned as first Skorgen then Brevity emerged onto the deck. The short woman’s eyes were bright.

‘Pithy, they got stuff!’

‘Now there’s a succinct report,’ Shurq Elalle said. ‘Brevity, be sure to inform the harbour master that we wish a berth at one of the stone piers, to better effect unloading our cargo. A messenger out to potential buyers might also prove… rewarding.’ She glanced at Pithy, then away, as she added, ‘As for mooring and landing fees, I will settle up with the harbour master directly, once I have negotiated the master’s commission.’

‘You think you’re smart,’ Pithy snapped. ‘I should have brought a squad with me-how would you have liked that, Captain? Poking in here and there, giving things a real look. How would you like that?’

‘Brevity, who rules Second Maiden?’ Shurq Elalle asked.

‘Shake Brullyg, Captain. He’s Grand Master of the Putative Assembly.’

‘The Putative Assembly? Are you sure you have the right word there, lass? Putative?’

‘That’s what I said. That’s right, isn’t it, Pithy?’

‘The captain thinks she’s smart, but she’s not so smart, is i she? Wait until she meets Shake Brullyg, then won’t she be surprised-’

‘Not really,’ Shurq said. ‘I happen to know Shake Brullyg. I even know the crime for which he was sent away. The only surprise is that he’s still alive.’

‘Nobody kills Shake Brullyg easily,’ Pithy said.