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you needed to know the bay and its rocks and shallows.
    Tico had seen it too. He growled in his throat. She silenced him. It was a long bowshot to that headland at night. Too long from a boat. Danica began rowing again, heading that way, north, against the light breeze, but looking west as she went.
    Quietly, girl!
    I am.
    Nothing to be seen yet. The Seressinis would have a long way to go past the island from where the galley blocked the channel. But that light on the headland was signalling a path through rocks and reefs. Swinging right now, then left, held briefly in the middle, then hidden, most likely by a cloak. It meant someone was coming, and that he could see them.
    She gauged the distance, shipped her oars, took her bow, nocked an arrow.
    Too far, Danica.
    It isn’t, zadek. And if he’s up there they are on their way.
    He was silent in her thoughts. Then said,
He’s holding the lantern in his right hand, guiding them left and right. You can tell where his body is by how—
    I know, zadek. Shh. Please.
    She waited on the wind, the small boat moving as the breeze moved the sea.
    She was still watching two ways: that headland light, and where the channel opened, by the dark bulk of the island.
    She heard them before she saw anything.
    They were rowing, not silently. They were not expecting anyone out here and they were coming towards her.
    Splash of oars in water, Tico stiffening again. Danica hushed him, stared into the night, and then it was there, clearing the dark bulk of the island, one small light. Seressinis on the water, come to burn boats on the strand. She was awake, this was not a dream of fire coming.
    There was anger in her, no fear. She was the hunter tonight. They didn’t know that. They thought they were.
    I don’t need to kill him
, she said in her mind.
    He needs to die.
    Later. If we take him alive we can ask questions.
    In truth, it might have been hard for her, killing that one on the headland: whoever he was, he was going to be someone she knew. She had decided it was time to learn how to kill, but she hadn’t thought it might be a face she knew right at the start.
    I ought to have realized they’d need someone to guide them in.
    Might have been with them in the boat
, her grandfather said.
Might still be someone with them. They tend to be cautious.
    She couldn’t resist.
Like me?
    He swore. She smiled. And suddenly felt calm. She was in the midst of events now, not anticipating they might happen. Time had run, after almost ten years it had carried her to this moment, this boat on black water with her bow.
    She could see the shape of the approaching craft, dark on darkness. They had one light, would mean to douse it when they came nearer to shore. She heard a voice, trying to be quiet, but carrying, if anyone was in the bay to hear.
    â€œOver other way, he’s saying. Rocks just there.”
    Speaking Seressini. She was glad of that.
    Jad guide your arm and eye
, her grandfather said. His voice in her mind was very cold.
    Danica stood up, balanced herself. She had trained for this, so many times. The wind was easy, and the sea. She fitted an arrow to the string, drew the bowstring back. She could see them in the boat now. It looked like six men. Maybe seven.
    She loosed her first arrow. Was nocking the second as that one flew.

CHAPTER III
    â€œY ou don’t like being inside me?”
    Sometimes a girl likes to stay close in bed, after, be held, and Marin doesn’t mind doing this. They have given him the gift of their intimacy, taking a risk. He may be a cynical man, but is not an ungenerous one, he hopes.
    But this girl is getting dressed, briskly, as she asks her question, the curves of her body disappearing beneath clothing. There has been no lingering. She is young but hardly innocent. Quite a few of the well-bred girls in Dubrava, in his experience, lose their innocence early. It is not, on the whole, an innocent city.
    He dresses as well. He