The forests and mountains along the coast gave way to grassland, and grassland yielded to the tawny desert where Fragrant had once fossicked for fallen stars. They kept well away from the few ships they sighted, and in the first half of the voyage put into port only once, anchoring at night outside the harbour breakwater of a small town. A ragboat piloted by a woman came out to meet them. As they took aboard crates of food and canisters of fresh water, she told them that although Foeless Landwalker had not yet succeeded in calling down visitors, his congregation was still growing, and there were now satellite gatherings in towns across the New Territories and in the capital and several cities in the Union.

They were almost finished loading the supplies when Teal Leadwood came up from the cabin, wearing her red coat and hauling a stuffed rollbag. She was going to head off to her tribe’s territory, she told Pilgrim. Hopefully, her family would take in their eccentric daughter and protect her from any repercussions from helping him flee Stonehaven and exile.

‘As soon as I’m ashore I’ll send a message to the Invisible College, confirming that you are on your way to Ogres Grave,’ she said. ‘And after I’ve settled with my family I will ask the College to help me recover all I’ve lost. I brought my notebooks, but had to leave my library behind. No doubt Noble Seatree has confiscated it, along with everything else. Hopefully, the College can buy it back.’

When Pilgrim began to apologise for the trouble he had caused, she took his hands and looked into his eyes and said, ‘Find the truth.’

‘I promise.’

‘No more stories based on supposition and pieces from old myths. Find the truth and tell it straight.’

‘I will,’ Pilgrim said, and felt a soft swell of sorrow as the ragboat dwindled into the night. Teal had been the only friend he had made in Stonehaven. Clever, sensible and generous. He had counted her as an ally, and now he and Gentle were outnumbered.

The windjammer was already raising anchor and sail. Coral said that they hadn’t put into the harbour and needed to move on as quickly as possible, because a boat crewed by women would attract the wrong kind of attention.

‘Standing offshore also stopped us from jumping ship,’ Gentle told Pilgrim, after the windjammer had got under way and the little lights of the town had dwindled into the empty darkness of the desert and the sea. ‘Which is maybe why Teal didn’t tell you she was leaving until the last moment.’

‘Would you have gone with her, if you had the chance?’