“Fire?” Vaintè said aloud, as puzzled by its presence here as the others. She had seen it before and did not like it. “Stay back, you fool,” she ordered as the commander reached down towards the smoking ashes. “That is fire. It is very hot and it hurts.”

“I did not know,” Erafnaiś apologized. “I have heard of it but I have never seen it.”

“There is something else,” the crewmember said. “On the shore there is mud. It has been baked hard by the sun. There are footprints on it, very clear. I tore one free, it is there.”

Vaintè strode over and looked down at the cracked disc of mud, bending over and poking at the indentations in the hard surface.

“These creatures are small, very small, smaller than we are. These pads are soft with no marks of claws. Tso! Look there—count!”

She straightened up and spun about to face the others, extending one hand with fingers outspread, angry color rippling across her palm.

“Five toes, that’s what they have, not four. Who knows what kind of beasts have five toes?” Silence was her only answer. “There are too many mysteries here. I don’t like it. How many guards were there?”

“Three,” Erafnaiś said. “One at each end of the beach, the third near the center . . .”

She broke off as one of the crewmembers came crashing through the undergrowth behind them. “There is a small boat,” she called out. “Landing on the beach.”

When Vaintè came out from under the trees she saw that the boat was rocking in the surf, laden with containers of some kind. One of the occupants was holding on to the boat so the creature would not stray: the other two were on the beach staring at the corpses. They turned about as Vaintè approached and she saw the twisted wire necklace that one of them wore about her neck. Vaintè stared at it.

“You are the esekasak, she who defends the birth beaches—why were you not here defending your charges?”

The esekasak’s nostrils widened with rage. “Who are you to talk to me like that—”

“I am Vaintè who is now Eistaa of this city. Now answer my question, low one, for I lose patience.”

The esekasak touched her lips in supplication, stumbling backward a step as she did. “Excuse me, Highest, I didn’t know. The shock, these deaths . . .”

“Are your responsibility. Where were you?”

“The city, getting food and the new guard.”

“How long have you been away?”

“Just two days, Highest, as always.”

“As always!” Vaintè could feel herself swelling with rage that added harsh emphasis to her words. “I understand none of this. Why do you leave your beach to go to the city by sea? Where is the Wall of Thorns, the defenses?”