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Kemp had taken. Rosevear glanced up as they entered, then away.

    ‘I’m sorry that didn’t go the way you wanted it to,’ said Sal. ‘If it helps, remember that agreeing with Marmion doesn’t come naturally to me.’

    Rosevear managed a wan smile. ‘The worst thing is that he would expect no different if it was him here, not Kemp. He may look as though he’s recovered from losing his hand, but I can assure you he hasn’t.’

    ‘No,’ said Shilly, rubbing absently at her stiff leg. ‘You don’t lose something like that easily.’

    ‘It just pains me to be so helpless. Look.’ Rosevear peeled back the bandages covering Kemp’s stomach. Bluntly geometric black tattoos stood out against the albino’s pale skin, one of them only half finished. ‘Have you ever seen anything like this?’

    Sal winced at the sight of the wound. Ragged and round, its lips were inflamed and red. A clear, thin liquid trickled freely from it. Rosevear dabbed at the ghastly puncture with a clean white cloth, and held it up for Sal and Shilly to examine. The fluid possessed no colour at all.

    ‘This could be anything,’ said the healer. ‘I can tell you what it isn‘t, though. It’s not blood or bile, which you’d expect from a wound of this sort.’

    ‘What about the other wound?’ asked Shilly. Her dark skin had paled, but she didn’t look away. ‘Is that the same?’

    Rosevear nodded. ‘I’ve never seen an infection like this. Even with access to a greater range of herbs, I’m not sure what I should do to treat it.’

    ‘Then we’ll keep our fingers crossed that someone else will,’ said Chu from the entranceway. The flyer moved to join them, her patched leather uniform creaking stiffly. ‘There must be people in the forest. Where else could my ancestors have come from? And the snake too, if you think about it. There’s a good chance it was swept downstream, so whoever’s upstream might have seen its like before.’

    ‘That’s true.’ Rosevear seemed slightly reassured as he bound Kemp’s wound. ‘I was talking to Warden Banner this morning. She’s been trying to work out where the hullfish came from. They’re not river creatures, and they’ve never been found inland before. It’s possible that someone brought it all the way from the coast... perhaps traders intending to sell it.’

    ‘Who would they sell it to?’ asked Shilly. ‘The best market for something like this is right back where it started.’

    ‘Exactly. And the carcass was fresh, when the meat should have rotted completely from the bones before it reached anywhere near the Divide. Maybe your mysterious forest people can tell us about that, too,’ Rosevear said to Chu, ‘when we find them.’

    The deck moved beneath them, not enough to signal casting-off, but a sure sign it wasn’t far away.

    ‘Excuse me,’ said Chu, ‘I’d better get back to work, while the light lasts.’

    ‘Good flying,’ said the healer. ‘Keep your eyes peeled.’

    ‘I will.’ She hurried off. The wing needed a degree of elevation for her to make it safely into the air, so she would have to climb the Divide wall until she found a suitable launching point. Sal had watched her take off on a number of occasions. Each time brought back giddying memories of his one brief flight with Skender, and the near-crash his friend had called a landing.

    ‘How are you feeling now?’ Rosevear asked him.

    ‘On the mend.’ He had no physical symptoms of over-using the Change, beyond exhaustion and a mild headache. His major discomfort lay in his disconnection from the rest of the world: until his full potential returned, he would remain cut off from the usual ebb and flow of life around him. ‘But Marmion had better keep us well away from monsters for a while, or he’ll be on his own.’

    ‘Have you seen Tom anywhere?’ asked Warden Banner, sticking her curly head through the entrance and looking around.

    ‘No,’ said Shilly. ‘Why?’

    ‘He’s