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Maulkin struck, as swift as if he were taking prey.

His golden eyes flashed as he wrapped the white and snatched him away from his own poison.

‘Enough!’ he roared. His words were angry but his voice was not.

The foolish white struggled, but Maulkin squeezed him as if he were a dolphin.

‘You are but one! You cannot decide for the whole tangle, or for the whole race. You have a duty, and you will do it before you take your own silly, senseless life.’ Maulkin released a cloud of his own toxins.

The white serpent’s angrily spinning scarlet eyes slowed and became a dull maroon.

His jaws gaped open lazily as the toxins did their work.

Maulkin spoke gently. ‘You will guide us to She Who Remembers. We have already absorbed some memories from a silver provider. If need be, we can take more. With what we shall gain from She Who Remembers, it may be enough.’ Unwillingly, he added, ‘What other choice have we?’

Kennit balanced before his mirror, turning his face from side to side before his reflection.

A sheen of lemon oil gleamed on his hair and trimmed beard.

His moustache curled elegantly, but without pretence.

Immaculate white lace cascaded down his chest and from the cuffs of his deep blue jacket.

Even the leather of his stump cup had been polished to a high gloss.

Heavy silver earrings dangled. He looked, he reflected, like a man ready to go courting. In a sense, he was.

He had not slept well last night after his conversation with the ship.

His damned charm had kept him awake, whispering and tittering, urging him to accept the dragon’s terms. That very urging unnerved Kennit the most. Dare he trust the damned thing?

Dare he ignore it? He had tossed and turned, and when Etta had come to join him in his bed, even her gentle rubbing of his neck and back could not lull him to sleep.

As dawn greyed the sky, he had finally dozed off.

When he awakened, it was to discover this determination in himself.

He would win the ship back to him, all over again.

This time, at least, he would not have her attraction to Wintrow to overcome.

He knew little of dragons, so he had focused on what he did know.

She was female. So he would groom his plumage and offer gifts and see what it bought him.

Satisfied with his appearance, he turned back to his bed and surveyed the trove there.

A belt of silver rings decorated with lapis lazuli would be offered as a bracelet.

If it pleased her, he had two silver bracelets that could be refitted as earrings for her.

Etta would not miss them. A heavy flask held a quantity of wisteria oil.

It had probably been bound to a Chalcedean perfumer.

He had no idea what other sensory items might delight her.

If these treasures left her unmoved, he would think of other tacks to take.

But win her he would. He slipped his offerings into a velvet bag and tied it to his belt.

He moved best with his hands free. He did not wish to appear awkward before her.

He encountered Etta in the hall outside his cabin, her arms heavy with fresh linens.

Her gaze roved over him, so that he felt almost affronted by her frank appraisal, and yet the approval that shone in her eyes assured him he had succeeded in his preparations.

‘Well!’ she observed, almost saucily. A smile touched her lips.

‘I go to speak to the ship,’ he told her gruffly. ‘Let no one disturb us.’

‘I shall pass the word immediately,’ she agreed. Then, her smile widening, she dared to add, ‘You are wise to go thus. It will please her.’

‘What would you know of such things?’ he observed as he stumped past her.

‘I had words with her this morning. She was passing civil with me, and spoke openly of her admiration for you. Let her see you admire her as well, and it will tickle her vanity. Dragon she may be, yet she is female enough that we understand one another.’ She paused, then added, ‘She says we are to call her Bolt, as in lightning bolt. The name fits her very well. Light and power shine from her.’

Kennit halted. He turned back to face her. ‘What has brought about this new alliance?’ he asked her uneasily.

Etta cocked her head and looked thoughtful. ‘She is different, now. That is all I can say.’ She smiled suddenly. ‘I think she likes me. She said we could be like sisters.’

He hoped he concealed his surprise. ‘She said that?’

The whore stood clutching the linens to her bosom and smiling. ‘She said it would take both of us for you to realize your ambitions.’

‘Ah,’ he said, and turned and stumped away.

The ship had won her. Just like that, with a kind word or two?

It did not seem likely to him. Etta was not a woman easily swayed.

What had the dragon offered her? Power? Wealth?

But an even more pressing question was why .

Why did the dragon seek to ally herself with the whore?

He found himself hurrying and deliberately slowed. He should not meet the dragon in haste. Calm down. Court her leisurely. Win her over, and then her friendship with Etta will be no threat.

As soon as he came out on the deck, he sensed a transformation.

Aloft, the men were working a sail change, bandying jests as they did so.

Jola shouted another command, and the men sprang to it, grinning.

One man slipped, and then caught himself by one brawny arm.

He laughed aloud and hauled himself up again.

From the figurehead came a cry of delight at his skill.

In an instant, Kennit knew the sailor had not slipped at all.

He was showing off for the figurehead. She had the entire crew displaying their seamanship for her approval.

They cavorted like schoolboys for her attention.

‘What have you done, to affect them so?’ he greeted her.

She chuckled warmly and glanced back at him over one bare shoulder. ‘It takes so little to beguile them. A smile, a word, a challenge to see if they cannot raise a sail more swiftly. A little attention, a very little attention, and they vie for more.’

‘I am surprised you deign them worthy of your notice at all. Last night, you seemed to have small use for any human being.’

She let his words slip by her. ‘I have promised them prey, before tomorrow sunset. But only if they can match their skills to my senses. There is a merchant vessel, not too far hence. She carries spices from the Mangardor Islands. We shall soon catch her up, if they keep my canvas tight.’

So she had accepted her new body, it seemed. He chose not to comment on that. ‘You can see this ship, beyond the horizon?’

‘I do not need to. The wind brought me her scent. Cloves and sandalwood, Hasian pepper and sticks of kimoree. The smells of Mangardor Island itself; only a ship with a rich cargo could have brought such scents so far north. We should sight her soon.’

‘You can truly smell so keenly?’

A hunter’s smile curled her lips. ‘The prey is not so far ahead. She picks her way through those islands. If your eyes were as keen as mine, you could pick her out.’ Then the smile faded from her face.

‘I know these waters as a ship. Yet as a dragon, I do not. All is vastly changed, from when I last took wing. It is familiar and yet not.’ She frowned. ‘Do you know the Mangardor Islands?’

Kennit shrugged. ‘I know the Mangardor Rocks. They are a hazard in fog, and in some tides they are exposed just enough to tear the bottom out of any ship that ventures near.’

A long troubled silence followed his words.

‘So,’ she said quietly at last. ‘Either the oceans of the world have risen, or the lands I knew have sunk. I wonder what remains of my home.’ She paused.

‘Yet Others’ Island, as you call it, seemed but little changed.

So some of my world remains as it was. That is a puzzle to me, one I can only resolve when I return home. ’

‘Home?’ He tried to make the question casual. ‘And where is that?’

‘Home is an eventuality. It is nothing for you to trouble yourself about just now,’ she told him. She smiled, but her voice had cooled.

‘Might that be the thing you will want, when you want it?’ he pressed.

‘It might be. Or it might not. I’ll let you know.’ She paused. ‘After all, I have not yet heard you say that you agree to my terms.’

Carefully, carefully. ‘I am not a hasty man. I would still like to know more of what they are.’

She laughed aloud. ‘Such a silly topic for us to discuss. You agree. Because you have even less choice than I do in the life we must share. What else is there for us, if not each other? You bring me gifts, don’t you?

That is more correct than you know. But I shall not even wait for you to present them before I reveal that I am a far richer trove than you imagined you could ever win.

Dream larger, Kennit, than you have ever dreamt before.

Dream of a ship that can summon serpents from the deep to aid us.

They are mine to command. What would you have them do?

Halt a ship and despoil it? Escort another ship safely wherever it wishes to go?

Guide you through a fog? Guard the harbour of your city from any that might threaten it?

Dream large, and larger still, Kennit. And then accept whatever terms I offer. ’

He cleared his throat. His mouth had gone dry. ‘You extend too much,’ he said baldly. ‘What can you want, what can I give you worthy of what you offer?’