She picked the steaming fish apart with her fingers and ate it with bites of the mushroom and strands of the onion-moss. It did, indeed, have the flavour of onions. When she finished, she ate the ‘plate’ it had been served on. The bread leaf was untrue to its name; there was nothing of ‘bread’ about it. It was thick and starchy and crisp, but to her palate, unmistakably vegetable. When she finished it, she was still hungry. The sour pear at least helped her with her thirst. Despite its wrinkled skin, the fruit was juicy. She ate it right down to its core and only wished there was more.

Yet with every bite, her thoughts were elsewhere. Was Leftrin all right? Had Tarman weathered the wave? Poor Sedric would be frantic with worry about her. Were they looking for them right now? She wanted to believe that, wanted to believe it so desperately that she realized she hadn’t been exerting herself to better their situation. Captain Leftrin and the Tarman would come to rescue them. Ever since Sintara had plucked her out of the water, she’d believed that.

‘When the water goes down, do you think there will be solid land here?’ she asked Thymara.

Thymara swallowed her food and considered the question. ‘The water is going down, but we won’t know about land until it goes all the way down. Even if there is land, it will be mud for some time. Floods come up quickly in the Rain Wilds, and go away slowly, because the earth is already saturated with water. We won’t be able to walk on it, if that is what you are thinking. Not for any great distance.’

‘So. What are we going to do?’

‘For now? For now, those of us who can forage or hunt will. The others will do what they can to make things more comfortable here. And when the water goes down, well, then we’ll see what else is to be done.’

‘Will the dragons want to continue our journey?’

‘I don’t think they’ll want to stay here,’ Tats said. Alise realized he was not the only one listening in on their conversation. Most of the keepers within earshot were focused on his words. ‘There’s nothing for them here. They’ll want to move on, if they can. With us or without us.’

‘Can they survive without us?’ The question came from Boxter.

‘Not easily, not well. But they’ve mostly led the way, and mostly found the resting places each night. They’ve learned to hunt a bit. They’re stronger and tougher now than when we started. It wouldn’t be easy but none of this journey has been easy for them. I don’t say they’d choose to go on without us.’

Tats paused. Alise waited, but Thymara was the one to continue his thought. ‘But if we cannot go on with them, if we have no way to accompany them, then they’ll really have no choice. Food will run short here for them. They’ll have to leave us.’

‘Couldn’t they carry us?’ Alise asked. ‘Sintara rescued Thymara and me, and carried both of us to safety. It wasn’t easy for her to swim with us. But if they were wading through the shallows as they usually do’

‘No, they wouldn’t,’ Greft decided.

‘It would compromise their dignity too much,’ Thymara said quietly. ‘Sintara saved us. But to her, that is different from acting as a beast of burden and carrying us along.’

‘Mercor might carry me,’ Sylve injected. ‘But he has a different nature from the others. He is kinder to me than most of the dragons are to their keepers. Sometimes I feel like he is the eldest of them, even though I know he came out of his case on the same day.’

‘Perhaps because he remembers more,’ Alise dared to suggest. ‘He seems very wise to me.’

‘Perhaps,’ Sylve agreed, and for the first time shared a shy smile.

‘If the dragons go on without us, what becomes of us?’ Nortel asked suddenly. He had moved closer to her. He seemed focused on the discussion, but his proximity still made her uncomfortable.

‘We survive as best we can,’ Tats said. ‘Right here. Or in whatever place we can find.’

‘It would not be so different from how Trehaug was founded,’ Greft pointed out. ‘The original population of the Rain Wilds were forcibly marooned here by the ships that were supposed to help them find a good spot to start a colony. Of course, there were more of them, but still, it’s similar.’

‘Wouldn’t you try to return to Trehaug?’ Alise asked. ‘You have three boats.’ To her, it seemed the obvious course of action, if the dragons abandoned them. It would be an arduous trek, either slogging through mud and swamp or travelling though the trees, but at least safety beckoned at the end.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Greft said quietly. ‘Not even if we had enough boats to ferry us all and paddles to steer them.’

‘Nor I,’ Jerd echoed him. After a moment, with a small catch in her throat, she added, ‘I couldn’t.’

Alise watched as Greft took her hand. Jerd turned her head away from him and looked out across the water. Alise noticed unwillingly that some of the keepers openly spied on the two while others looked away. Plainly they were a couple and it was equally plain that this bothered some of the keepers. Thymara watched them, her eyes hooded and her thoughts private.

‘That’s a decision that’s a long ways from now,’ Tats declared. ‘I’m more concerned about what we’re going to do today and tonight.’

‘I’m going foraging,’ Thymara said quietly. ‘It’s what I’m good at.’

‘I’ll go with you, to help carry,’ Tats declared. Across the circle, several of the young men glanced at him and then away. Nortel looked down, glowering. Boxter looked thoughtful. Greft opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it again. Then he said, ‘A good plan,’ but Alise was certain that was not what he had originally planned to say.

‘Is there any way that we can have a fire tonight?’ Sylve asked. ‘The smoke might keep off some of the insects, and the fire might be a beacon if anyone is trying to find us.’

‘I could help with that,’ Alise declared instantly. ‘We could construct a little raft, like the sleeping raft only smaller, and put the fire on that, so there’d be no chance of it spreading to where we’re sleeping. We could tether it with some of these creepers.’ She leaned over and picked up one of the bread leaf vines, now stripped of food. ‘We’d need more, of course.’

‘We’ll bring back more vines,’ Tats volunteered.

‘Harrikin and I can dive for mud. If we can find a way to bring it up. We plaster mud on the fire platform, it will last longer.’

‘But the water’s so acid!’ Alise objected, thinking of their eyes. Both of the youths were so scaled she didn’t think their skin would take much harm.

‘It’s not so bad.’ Lecter shrugged his spiny shoulders. ‘Acid level is going down all the time. Sometimes it’s like that after a quake. Big gush of acid water, then back to almost normal.’

Almost normal was still enough to scald Alise’s skin, but she nodded. ‘Build a platform, plaster it with mud, gather the driest wood we can find, and braid a good tether so it doesn’t get away from us. That’s a lot to get done before nightfall.’

‘It’s not like we have an alternative,’ Boxter observed.

‘Thymara. Do you want help with your gathering?’ Nortel threw the question out almost as a challenge.

‘If I need any, I have Tats,’ the girl replied.

‘I can climb better than him,’ Nortel asserted.

‘You only think so,’ Tats responded instantly. ‘I can give her any help she needs.’

Thymara glanced from Tats to Nortel and her face darkened. For a moment, her scales seemed to stand out more vividly. Then she said flatly, ‘The truth is, I don’t think I’ll need help from either of you. But Tats can come with me if he wishes. I’m leaving now, while the light is good.’

She stood as she spoke, flowing effortlessly to her feet, and strode off towards the forest without looking back. To Alise, she seemed almost to dance across the floating logs between her and the closest tree trunks. Once she reached one, she went up as quickly as a lizard. Tats followed her, and it seemed to Alise that he struggled hard to match her speed as his human hands found grips on the rough bark of the tree.