‘Just my children – the twins, Nelo and Alxa, you know them.’ This of course meant the abandonment of the rest of her extended family. Ywa herself was a distant cousin. But to take more would have been like pulling a thread; the whole tapestry would unravel. No, just herself and her children, for now. Not even Thaxa, her husband, would come, not this time; he would follow later, they had agreed. And if things changed – well, the future would have to take care of itself.

‘And when we get to Carthage, we will take you into our home.’ Anterastilis was a heavy, expensively coiffed woman. Her Northlander was stilted, but her tone was sharp as an icicle. ‘Is that what you’re saying?’

Rina squirmed; the woman was clearly enjoying this, and was going to make her suffer. ‘Perhaps initially. Give us somewhere we can live, at least at first. A start in your society. Work for my children, a place for me.’

Anterastilis actually laughed at her now. ‘“A place.” You could join the Tribunal of One Hundred and Four, perhaps!’

‘I can pay my way—’

‘Perhaps you can. Perhaps not.’ Barmocar turned to his wife. ‘My dear, you made a note of what this lady of Northland said to me at the Giving last year. Would you mind reading it back? You know the part I mean.’

Anterastilis took a piece of paper from a desk and unrolled it carefully. ‘“Good Prince Barmocar, I am confused. This tale of woe you recite – are you here to beg for bounty? Begging like these others, the Franks and Germans and the rest, these ‘poor rudimentary farmers’, as I have heard you describe them? And a bounty from us, whom I have heard you describe as ‘a thin godless smear of ignorance and incompetence on an undeveloped landscape’?’”

‘I recall what was said,’ Rina said precisely.

‘Then you recall mocking me. In front of the Giving gathering – in front of the whole world.’ He did not sound angry, merely analytical.

She didn’t bother to deny it.

‘And now you sit before me, begging me for shelter.’

‘I do not beg. I can pay you for your trouble. It will be worth your while.’

‘Are we to haggle, as if over a box of your disgusting salted fish? Tell me, then. Tell me what you have that I could possibly covet.’

‘My family owns extensive lands in Northland. Also properties in New Etxelur, and in the Wall. Many of these are in my own name. I could transfer—’

Again he laughed, cutting her off. ‘Madam, I am not the fool you take me for. You are abandoning Northland yourself! What value do you imagine your property has?’

‘Other forms of wealth, then. Gold. Silver.’ In fact she hadn’t expected him to take property, and had already been converting some of her holdings into portable wealth – at ruinous prices, for she wasn’t the only one with the same idea.