“I was at the docks,” she said. “I didn’t bother going back or trying to find anyone. I just went straight to the nearest boat I thought I could hide on. People were going to try and escape but I couldn’t sail. It was the only thing I could think of – making sure I lived.”

She looked at her fingers, rubbing off the remnant of crumbs, her lips pressed together. “I don’t think any of the kids I knew did.”

Phalue pressed on; she had to know. “The entire island is gone?”

Ayesh shrugged. “I was in the hold. But I heard what the people in the boat were saying – and that’s what they said. There was a lot of shouting, a lot of gasps, a lot of crying. The crying went on for a long time. I’d hear them come down to the hold sometimes at night, just looking for somewhere private to let it out.”

“Did anyone say why it sank?” Ranami asked.

Ayesh shrugged, her gaze tracing the beams of the ceiling. “I don’t think anyone knew. Not for sure.”

There was a witstone mine on Unta – Phalue remembered that much. It was the explanation the previous Emperor had given for Deerhead: a mining accident. But there were witstone mines on so many islands. Did that mean they were all at risk? Had the man been hiding something, or had he – on this rare occasion – spoken the open truth?

“Did you see anything that might tell you why it sank?” Phalue asked.

Ayesh let out a short laugh. “I’m a gutter orphan; you think I look for things like that? I was too busy trying to get my damned line out of the water. I’m not looking for explanations. I’m looking to live. Can I go now?”

Phalue exchanged a glance with Ranami. The girl had answered their questions. She wasn’t a spy; she wasn’t leveraging her place here. A spy would have tried to stay, would have wedged herself into palace life. Phalue nodded.

Ayesh rose to her feet and then stopped, hesitated. She plucked at the fresh tunic she wore. “Can I have my old clothes back?”

Her… clothes? They weren’t clothes; they were rags. “What? Why?”

Ranami put a hand on Phalue’s arm. “She can’t go back into the city like that. The other orphans will see her as having more. She’ll become a target.”

The servants had likely thrown out the wet, stinking scraps as soon as they’d peeled them off from Ayesh’s body. “The servants will find you something appropriate. Ranami, do you mind…?”

Ranami rose to her feet and ushered the girl out of the room.

Ayesh stopped at the door. “Thank you, Sai,” she said. And then they were both gone.