‘I love you, too.’ The words seemed to come easily to her, as if she had said them a thousand times before. That pleased him. It wasn’t the saying of the words that mattered to her, then. It was just acknowledging what was.

He smiled, put his arm around her and pulled her close. It was a good thing to know, on a day when he felt he knew nothing else for certain. ‘Looks like the clouds are breaking up over there. Perhaps we’ll have another sunny day,’ Alise said, looking at the sky.

‘More freckles for you!’ Leftrin declared, and she shook her head with a mock frown. ‘I don’t understand why you like them! I spent years of my life trying to avoid getting them and fading the ones I had with lemon juice and buttermilk.’

‘Kissing you must have been delicious.’

‘Foolish man. No one kissed me then.’ A crooked smile.

‘Seems to me the Bingtown men were the foolish ones.’

She smiled still, but a small shadow crossed her eyes, and he knew he had reminded her of Hest, and humiliation and deceptions. It saddened him that no matter how he tried he could not erase that from her heart. He knew that it still coloured her relationship with Sedric. The two circled each other at a distance, polite, almost kind to one another, but with the caution of people who had bruised one another badly. He felt sorry for both of them. She had spoken enough of Sedric that he knew her friendship with him was years older than her disastrous marriage to Hest. He wished she still had the security of Sedric’s regard. Losing it had cracked her image of herself. He wished his own respect for her were enough to make her see her own worth, and recognized the selfishness of that wish. He could not be her entire world. She needed to mend her bridges with her old friend before she would be whole. For all of their sakes, he hoped it would happen soon. Tarman was too small a world for strife and conflict.

Yet they had enough of that and to spare in the person of Greft. He moved about the ship, neither a keeper nor a member of the crew, rejected by the dragons; a failed leader with failing health. Leftrin would have pitied him if Greft had allowed it. He didn’t. He had become as bitter and nasty a man as Leftrin had ever known. Many a time he had wished that Kalo had simply eaten him that night.

‘You’ve grown quiet. What are you thinking?’

‘Greft,’ Leftrin said briefly, and she nodded. ‘It’s coming to a head, isn’t it?’

‘There was a bit of a tussle last night after you’d gone to bed. Greft stayed on board all day yesterday; I don’t know if the physical changes are hurting him that bad or if he’s just too discouraged to make the effort. Tats went to him and told him that if he didn’t hunt today, he and Harrikin intended to take the boat and gear and “do some good” with it.’ He sipped his tea and shook his head. ‘He made it sound like it was about the boat and the gear, but I think there was more to it than that.’

‘What happened?’

‘Not a great deal. Nasty exchange of words. Greft seemed willing to fight, but Tats said he wouldn’t hit a sick man and walked away. Ended there. I hope.’ He took another long sip of the cooling tea. ‘Tats and Harrikin told him they were going to take the boat and gear and go hunting this morning. I hope Greft is smart enough to not be there when they take the boat. If he is, and it comes to blows, I’ll have to intervene.’

‘Perhaps they’ve already gone,’ Alise suggested hopefully.

‘Perhaps, but it bears checking into. Care to talk a walk, my dear?’

‘Thank you for the invitation, kind sir.’ She mocked a curtsey to him, and then set a rough hand on the ragged sleeve that he so grandly extended to her. As they started their promenade down the deck, she found herself smiling at the picture they must present. She no longer had a single garment that didn’t show some sign of wear from sun and acid water. The exception was the Elderling gown he had given her, but the long skirt was not the most convenient style for life on a barge. Her hair had gone wild and curly. A Bingtown street vendor would have had a better complexion. She was barefoot; she now saved what was left of her boots for times when it was possible to walk on the shore; she had not put them on for days now. Never had she felt less beautiful.

Or more attractive. She glanced at Leftrin and his eyes immediately met hers. And when she returned his gaze, his smile widened and his eyes lit with interest. Yes. Here on the deck of this ship, she was the most beautiful woman in his world. It was a wonderful sensation.

‘The boat’s gone,’ she told him, recalling him to the business at hand.

‘So it is. Well, that’s trouble avoided,’ he said, well pleased. Then Tats spoke from behind him. ‘Where’s the boat?’

Greft had taken the boat, and all the gear both for hunting and fishing. No one was sure when he had left. Bellin remembered seeing him in the galley after most of the others had gone to sleep. It didn’t surprise Thymara. Greft’s changes had meant he was not sleeping well and he’d told them it was hard for him to eat. A quick inventory revealed that a large portion of their small supply of ship’s bread was gone completely along with a small pot. This more than anything else convinced her that Greft had not gone out to fish or hunt. He’d left the barge to go his own way.

The reactions of the other keepers surprised Thymara. Some were angered to find the boat missing, and all expressed surprise. None seemed concerned for Greft’s well-being. Boxter and Kase were stubbornly silent, and Jerd was bitterest about his selfishness in taking the boat, gear and ship’s bread ‘when he knows it is one of the few foods I can keep down’.

‘As if everything must centre on her,’ Sylve, standing at Thymara’s elbow, whispered. Not quietly enough, for Jerd shot them both an evil glance and said tragically, ‘It is nothing to either of you that he has abandoned me while I carry his child.’

Thymara thought but did not say that perhaps it would have mattered more to Greft if he had been certain the child was his. She edged away from the keepers, to stand where she could eavesdrop as Leftrin discussed the matter with Hennesey. ‘If it was only the boat and the gear, I’d say it was a keeper matter. Even though losing that fishing and hunting gear is going to impact everyone; ever since Jess got himself dead, Carson’s had a hard time keeping meat on the table. Dragons are mainly feeding themselves now or things would be even worse. But he stole the ship’s bread. And that makes it a ship’s matter and for the captain to decide.’

‘That’s how I see it, too. So. Someone’s got to go after him and bring him back. It’s the last thing we need just now. But if we ignore it, it leaves the door wide open for the next keeper who decides to jump ship and take whatever with them.’

‘Can’t let it go,’ Hennesey agreed. ‘But who do you send?’

‘Carson.’ Leftrin was decided on that. ‘He’s mine. Not a keeper, even if that dragon has claimed him. I’m not going to send a regular crewman off on this. I want to move on today, not sit here and wait.’

‘Carson, then. Alone?’

‘I’ll let him choose if he wants a companion. This is such a damn nuisance.’

‘Why me?’ Sedric asked the question quietly.

Carson glanced back at him, a puzzled smile on his face, ‘I thought by now you’d realize that I like to spend time with you.’

Despite his worries, Sedric found himself answering Carson’s smile. That response seemed to be enough for the hunter. He faced front again and dug his paddle into the water. Sedric copied him and tried to keep pace with him. The physical strength he had developed since he’d begun keeping company with the hunter surprised him. As for Carson, he’d complimented Sedric more than once on the developing muscles in his arms and chest.