‘Ain’t been more than fifteen years between ’em, so – yes – probably that was the same person using the name. But that’s all it is – a mask for whoever’s decided to earn their keep by plunderin’ what doesn’t belong to ’em, and using crueller means than they need to to do it.’

‘So you’re saying it’s not always the same Bosa, not always the same ship?’

‘I ain’t sayin’ one thing or another. Just layin’ out the simple facts of it, which is that there ain’t a cove in the Congregation gets to live that long.’

‘That ship didn’t show up on the sweeper until it was almost on top of us. How it that possible?’

‘The Nightjammer’s sails ain’t like normal sails. Light just falls into ’em. Reason they’re black; blacker than any thing’s got any right to be.’

‘But sails need to reflect light to work, don’t they? That’s why ours stood out so strongly on the sweeper.’

‘These sails don’t. Ain’t my job to know how they work, just that they do.’

I nodded. ‘But then sails like that would be pretty handy for any crew, wouldn’t they?’

‘What’s the point you’re makin’, girlie?’

‘I think that ship must be unique, the way it operates. Lurking out here, hardly showing up on the sweep . . . how likely is it that someone just happens to have a ship like that, whenever they show up calling themselves Bosa Sennen?’

‘You got an answer, I s’pose.’

‘I think there’s only ever that one ship, and its other name is the Dame Scarlet, and if those sails are as rare as you make them seem, it must be the same ship each time, under the same Bosa Sennen. Whatever you say about people not living long enough, somehow it doesn’t apply to her. Maybe she did find something in a bauble, an elixir or something . . .’

‘Elixir,’ Prozor said. ‘Listen to you.’

‘I’m just trying to make sense of what happened.’

‘Then you’re wasting your time. There ain’t no sense to be had out of it. You crossed orbits with Bosa Sennen once. If the fates are sweet to you, you’ll go to your grave still sayin’ you only met her once.’

‘That didn’t work for Rack, did it?’

‘It was different with him, and we all knew it. When Bosa took Illyria from him, he should’ve put the both of them out of his mind for the rest of his life. But he couldn’t, and for that you can’t blame the cove. He wanted to see his daughter again, and if that meant seeing Bosa another time, he was ready to pay that price.’

‘He did,’ I said.