At least we didn't have to row. Shiv sat in the prow of the boat and trailed one hand in the water, intense concentration on his face. The vessel slid quietly through the waves and I soon saw the grey shapes on the horizon take on colour and substance. Dull green hills above slate-coloured shores looked completely uninviting. We glided noiselessly into a flat gravelly bay and sat for a moment looking at each other, suddenly unsure what to do next.

'Come on.' Ryshad stood up decisively and stepped out of the boat. 'We came to get some answers; let's go looking.'

Aiten insisted we pull the boat up above the tide mark and secure it with some rocks. If I had any choice, we'd be going home the fast way and Shiv could sleep it off for however long he needed. I didn't say anything though; we were all too nervous to risk starting an argument. Still, it felt good to have solid ground under my feet and a task to turn my mind to.

'So what now?' I asked as we found a sheltered hollow in the banks of shingle and cached our supplies.

'We need to get a feel for the place before we can make any plans,' Ryshad asserted. 'Let's see how these people live then perhaps we can identify who's in charge.'

This was more to my liking. 'If we can find his house, I'll go in and see what I can find out.'

'I'm not sure we should split up…' Shiv began uncertainly.

Ryshad waved him to silence. 'We'll discuss that when the time comes.'

He led the way through the shingle banks and we crossed an uncomfortably exposed stretch of scrubby grassland. I looked around and frowned.

'There's precious little cover here, Rysh.' The few trees were sparse, twisted down by the winds; they might just have hidden an undernourished pig.

He didn't waste time answering and led us towards a long ridge of broken rock which, while hard going, was at least more concealing. After a lengthy hike, smoke ahead indicated people. We moved with greater caution.

'Dung fires.' Aiten wrinkled his nose at the smell but I just shrugged. What else were they going to burn here?

From a vantage point high on a crag, we looked down on a small settlement clinging to the rugged shoreline. People were working all around beached boats. Something else which I couldn't make out lay immense and black on the grey sands.

Ryshad got out his spy-glass and couldn't restrain an exclamation. 'Dast's teeth; it's a fish.'

'May I?' Shiv took the glass. 'No, it's a whale, a sea-beast.'

'Like a dragon?' I asked nervously; at least I hadn't thought to worry about that while we were still on the boat.

'No. They're built like fish but they're animals, red-blooded. They suckle their young.' Shiv passed me the glass and I was able to see a group of blond-haired people busy stripping skin and flesh from a massive bloody carcass. My stomach was feeling none too strong so I turned the glass to see what else was going on. The place was a hive of activity; meat from the whale was drying on racks, children were digging for something in the sands beyond the village, adults mended nets, gutted fish, sorted out ropes.

Shiv reached for the glass and I surrendered it reluctantly.

'Azazir was right when he said they bred like rats; there must be three times the population of that place we sailed from,' I commented.

Aiten was keeping watch in the other direction. He looked back over his shoulder. 'Come and see this.'

I moved to look down the coast and saw men and women busy on rocks exposed by the low tide. Some were gathering shellfish while the rest were filling baskets with seaweed for others to lug inland, where still more people dug it into mean fields terraced into the hillsides with grey stone walls.

'They move like slaves,' Aiten murmured. 'It's like Aldabreshi.'

'Apart from not being boiling hot and covered in jungle, you mean?' I said, half-teasing.

Ryshad joined us. 'They're not slaves,' he said slowly. 'There are no overseers, are there? No one with a whip or a staff. They're doing this because they want to.'

I looked round at the barren landscape and shivered in the continuous chill breeze from the sea. 'They're doing it because if they don't they'll starve. Misaen, what a place to choose to live.'

'It's not a question of choice.' Shiv spoke up as he passed Ryshad back his spy-glass. 'There's no way off these islands without magic to beat those currents and winds.'

So we sat and watched the grim-faced people going about their tedious tasks. The arrival of a flotilla of small one-man boats created a flurry of activity and excitement; nets strung between the craft were laden with fish. A couple of larger two- and four-man vessels came in soon afterwards and I couldn't restrain an exclamation as I spotted what looked horridly like bodies strapped to them. Ryshad reassured me they were seals, explaining something similar lived off the southern Tormalin coast. I decided I disliked having my ignorance of the seas and their animals exposed every time something new appeared; I'd keep my mouth shut from now on and work things out as we went.

'Where do they get the wood for the boats?' Aiten mused to himself as we watched the craft being hauled up the shore and secured in long, low buildings.

Ryshad was peering through his eye-glass again; I decided I really must get one for myself.

'I don't think they use wood,' he said after a while, snapping the glass shut. 'Those boats are leather over bone frames.'

We looked at the carcass of the whale, now reduced to a bloody framework of massive ribs.

'They do make use of everything, don't they?' Shiv's admiration was tinged with concern and I could understand why. These people had little enough but made the best possible use of it. Poverty and ingenuity is a dangerous combination. We moved stealthily into the shelter of a grey crag. Getting out of the wind was a relief, but we were still cold; if it started to rain we would be in trouble.

Noon came and the shifting wind carried us tantalising scents of cooking fish.

'I'm starving,' Aiten groaned. 'Smell that!'

He looked at me speculatively. 'I don't suppose there's any chance you could slip down and lift us something?'

'Be serious!' I spared him a rueful look. 'I'd stick out like a eunuch in a brothel.'

'I thought the whole point about eunuchs was they didn't stick out, not in brothels or anywhere else,' Aiten grinned.

'Will you two be quiet,' Shiv hissed, unamused. I suppose this wasn't the most appropriate time for silly jokes.

'Look over there!' Ryshad was still studying the village and we all followed his gaze. A group of men had gathered on the landward side of the houses and were loading up with packs heavy enough to make me wince even at this distance.

'Let's follow them.'

We worked our way carefully round the stone ridge that encircled the little settlement, looking down on the men as they formed themselves into an orderly line and headed off up the coast. We kept roughly parallel with them and found ourselves moving into a flatter, less rocky stretch of land. Cover became more scarce again and we had to sprint from stone walls to ditches cut in the close-cropped turf, trusting Shiv's magic to keep any casual gaze sliding over us.

There was a delay when the pack-men reached a river where yet more people were out on the estuary mud, dealing with nets fixed to catch fish brought up by the tides. A cliff rose high on the far side; small figures on the ledges gathered eggs from the nests of the seabirds who were shrieking their indignation and attacking with beak and claws. I shivered. That was an ungodly climb to attempt on damp rocks, with your hands busy and birds shitting on your head.

We waited until our pack-men were safely over and then picked our way cautiously over the wet sands, Shiv leading the way to keep us out of hidden pools. My boots kept out the water, but we were all getting thoroughly cold now and I was relieved to see we were heading inland once we'd crossed the river. Hills rose to give shelter from the wind and we hit a levelled road, which made the going much easier, although we still had to dash for the cover of the scrubby bushes which lined the route whenever Shiv's questing magic revealed that somebody was approaching.