“That’s what I’m going to keep believing. Excuse me.” He turned away from her, lifted the horn to his lips, and blew three short but deafening blasts. This time, in the distance, she heard an answering horn. He turned back to her with a smile and raised his voice so that all on the raft could hear him. “And that will be the Tarman. We’ll ferry all of you out to the barge as soon as we can. The floats for the dragons are a good idea. We may be able to make them a bit more sturdy with line from the Tarman. If the river continues to fall, they probably won’t need them much longer.

“Jess is still missing, and I’m going to continue searching rather than hunting. So I suggest that gathering any food you can find would be an excellent idea. You’re going to have to do more toward feeding yourselves for a few days, until we can resume hunting again.”

Greft had come to stand just behind Carson’s shoulder. He looked irritated, Alise thought, and wondered what could annoy him about being rescued. When he spoke, his words sounded like a rebuke.

“If you’ve finished chatting with Carson, I’ve some important information to share with him, if he’d give me his attention. The wave that struck us deposited most of us in the trees along here. I gathered those I could find, and the dragons called to one another until they found one another. We’ve been able to provide for ourselves here. I’ll organize some of the keepers to collect more food for tonight. Most of it will be fruit or vegetable. Luckily, I kept my wits about me, and we caught three of our boats. No paddles remained; they were tossed about and almost all our gear was lost. It will make it hard for us to help bring in meat or fish for the dragons.”

Carson nodded slowly. “Damn shame. We can carve some paddles, but that will take time. And the missing gear will be largely impossible to replace. We can try to make some fish spears, too, even if they’re not much more than sharpened sticks. But at least you’re all alive.”

Greft’s eyes narrowed. Alise realized that was not the response he had expected from the hunter. “Saving lives seemed a bit more important to me than saving gear,” he said tartly. “I did the best I could at the time.”