“Alemi said no Thread got through the dragons, but how can he be sure?”

Mavi said nothing as she locked up the condiment press and spun the rollers. ‘Til inform Yanus. And Til have a word with Alemi, too. You’d better take care of Old Uncle.”

“Me?”

“Not that that’s real work, but it is suited to your temperament and ability.”

Yanus was silent for a long moment when he heard of Menolly’s disappearance. He didn’t like untoward things happening, such as the Hold doors being left unbarred. He’d worried about that all during the Fall and the fishing after the Fall. It wasn’t good for a Sea Holder to have his mind diverted from the task at hand. He felt some relief that the mystery had been solved, and a keen annoyance and anxiety about the girl. Foolish thing for her to have done—leave the Hold that early. She’d been sulking ever since that beating. Mavi hadn’t kept her busy enough to make her forget the nonsense of tuning.

“I’ve heard that there’re plenty of caves in the cliffs along the coast,” Elgion said. “The girl probably took shelter in one.”

“She probably did,” said Mavi briskly, grateful to the Harper for such a sensible suggestion. “Menolly knows the coast very well. She must know every crevice by now.”

“She’ll be back then,” Yanus said. “Give her time to get over the fright of being out during Threadfall. Shell be back.” Yanus found relief in this theory and turned to less distressing business.

“It is spring,” said Mavi, more to herself than to the others. Only the Harper caught the anxious note in her voice.

Two days later Menolly had not returned, and the entire Sea Hold was alerted to her disappearance. No one remembered seeing her on the day of Threadfall. No one had seen her since. Children sent out for berries or spiderclaws had encountered no trace of her, nor had she been in any of the caves they knew.

“Not much point in sending out a search,” said one of the shipmasters, mindful that there was more surety of catching fish than finding any trace of a foolish girl. .Particularly one with a crippled hand. “Either she’s safe and doesn’t choose to come back, or ... ”

“She could be hurt ... Threadscored, a broken leg; or arm ... ” said Alemi, “unable to make her way back.”

“Shouldn’t’ve been out anyway without letting someone know where she’d gone.” The shipmaster’s eyes moved towards Mavi, who did not catch this implied negligence on her part

“She was used to going out for greens first thing in the morning,” Alemi said. If no one else would defend Menolly, he would speak up.

“Did she carry a belt knife? Or a metal buckle?” asked Elgion. “Thread doesn’t touch metal.”

“Aye. We’d find that much of her,” said Yanus.