“It’s yours. I found it when I was sorting through the shards to return to the islands. You and I both know I’d never use your shard, but I thought it would be a nice thing to do, seeing as—” I wound up my arm and threw the piece of bone into the ocean.

She frowned. “Well, that’s one way to keep it from being used, I suppose.”

“It’s not mine.” I still remembered the soldier’s breath against my ear as he told me he’d spared me. “Probably a chicken bone or something. You would have found out eventually if you’d tried to use it.” I leaned down to show her the scar behind my ear. “Here. Feel.”

Her fingers were cold against my skin, her touch gentle and probing. “No piece missing. Hm.”

I swallowed and moved away. “The soldier took pity on my family. My older brother died during the Tithing Festival. I was all my parents had left. So he left me the scar and left me my skull intact. Whatever shard he turned in was a false one.”

The sun hot against my scalp, my knees digging into the ground, the pain and the blood trickling down the back of my neck. I’d never forget those sensations, even as I’d forgotten the soldier’s face.

She touched the spot behind her ear absentmindedly.

“Surely your father didn’t…?”

Lin shook her head. “No. The Sukais never tithed their own.” She pushed away from the railing. “I need to find some juniper to burn with the body. The captain said there should be some aboard.” I watched her go, wishing I could have made her laugh another time. We could all have used more laughter.

We made landfall at the port later that morning, and Lin gave us leave to stretch our legs. “Be back after lunch,” she said, “and quickly, or I’m setting sail without you.”

“You’re not going ashore?”

She shook her head and gave me a wan smile. “I’m helping to prepare Reshi’s funeral.” Thrana followed her, though she threw us a regretful look over her shoulder.

Lin had already sent her uninjured maidservant into the port-side town with her letters and orders, so I had nothing else to do except find the Ioph Carn. Mephi trotted alongside me as we descended the gangplank, and I could feel his hopeful gaze on me.

And feed the beast, of course.