It had happened less than a year ago. Using her newly mastered powers over wind and wave, Storm had sunk one of the three raft towns attacking her island. Many Drowned Ones had died. “Yes,” she replied. “They came for me.”

Lake studied her, black brows knitted over worried eyes, and she winced as she saw possessiveness darken his gaze. She wasn’t just his niece – she was a Weather-witch, his most valuable cargo and Yanlin’s greatest treasure.

“You’re to rest in your hammock until the Healer says you may get up,” Lake ordered. “And then you will stay on board this ship. No more sailing off in Finder. In a five-day we reach the Inner Sea. The Drowned Ones dare not dirty those waters. You’ll be safe enough from them then, but until we reach the Inner Sea, you’re ship-bound.”

Storm nodded her obedience, only sighing a little in disappointment. Her uncle left quickly, relief flushing his face. Finder, the small sailing boat Teanu the Elder had given her, was tied to Wayfarer’s stern, bobbing in their wake like a seal pup trailing its mother.

She put a hand to her head and felt her hair, which was gathered into a topknot. When she had been declared the first ever female Weather-witch, her girl’s plaits had been cut off and her tunic exchanged for a sleeveless one. Women could not sail with the fleet, so Storm was declared a non-sex, neither male nor female. She would never marry or have children – a fact she had been able to forget on the occasional mornings when she had been allowed to follow the fleet in Finder.

It was good, therefore, that she had work to do. The next day, Storm set a cup of water on the floor. She crouched beside it and began to croon a soft, watery tune. All that day and the next, she sent the water spinning round and round inside the cup, first one way, then the other. Her Water-magic had deserted her. She had once again failed her people. Her skills must be at fault. She hadn’t been practising hard enough! That would not happen again.

A few days later, as the fleet neared the Inner Sea, Storm was allowed on deck to observe the celebrations. The arrow grazes on her shoulder and leg had grown healthy scabs. Their soreness helped remind her that she had swum close to Death.

“How will you know when the Second Sea stops and the Inner Sea begins?”

“See there?” Lake pointed ahead and slightly to the left. Storm saw a dark pimple on the horizon. “The first of the inner islands, Boabar. A tall mountain sits at its heart, the fires that built it long dead. All sailors navigate by it. When it measures a hand’s width above the horizon, we will have entered the Inner Sea.”

“And then I can sail Finder?”