Bel looked surprised. Before he could answer, Clariel waded ahead, catching up to the old woman, who had kept plodding on. She was so bent the water was almost up to her chest, but she paid it no attention, just cricking her head back whenever a wave threatened to reach her mouth.

Clariel glanced back to make sure Bel was following. Behind him, about a dozen paces further back, she saw three typical inhabitants of the Islet. But her eyes skittered away from them, and she felt dizzy again as her thinking mind knew they must be Kargrin and the two guardsmen, but some subconscious part insisted they were just beachcombers and not worth looking at.

Two-thirds of the way across, the causeway started to slope upwards, and soon the sea was merely knee-deep and then just a foamy wash around their ankles. The Islet seemed taller than it had from the beach. There were steps cut into the rock face immediately in front of them. The old woman began to climb these, pausing halfway up to beckon to Clariel and Bel.

‘This way, this way,’ she said. ‘Another squid when we get there, I think you said?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ said Clariel.

‘I might have forgotten which is Marral’s house,’ said the woman.

‘Then I’ll ask at every one,’ said Clariel. ‘Maybe I should do that anyway.’

‘Can’t blame a body for trying,’ grumbled their guide. ‘It’s easy enough to spot, anyway. Got a door made of shark teeth. Over there, take the second left.’

‘Second left what?’ asked Clariel, as she climbed to the top step, and then added, ‘Ah.’

The Islet had appeared to be one big rock from a distance, but now she saw that it was made up of about twenty stone hillocks thrusting up like pimples out of the huge plate of black stone below. There were channels between the hillocks, most of them high enough to be dry, but some cut deeper and so open to the sea. A broad channel lay straight ahead, almost cutting the island in two, with many lesser branches running off to either side.

All of the hovels and shelters were built upon the hillocks, some joined by bridges of driftwood across the channels. Others had steps cut into the stone to reach them, or ladders lashed together from whatever the sea had brought the builders.

‘Follow the second channel on the left, go as far as you can, there are steps up,’ said the woman. ‘I’m going back to the worms.’

Clariel nodded, and started down the steps on the other side, into the main channel. Bel followed her warily, looking around as he did so.

‘Easy place to be ambushed,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ agreed Clariel. She was also thinking that it would be a difficult place to leave quickly, if they had to get away.