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he’s got in his store – I’ll have no botched-together vessel for this voyage. I’ve heard he has oaks from the Plantation, and trees from that sacred grove can reach a hundred feet tall. For the ship I have in mind, nothing else will do: that keel will need to be as whippy as a cat’s spine to weather the big seas of the far north.’
    Halli nodded impatiently. He had the air of one who had heard these instructions a dozen times or more. ‘And heartwood for the planking, yes I know.’
    ‘Come back with strakes of sapwood and I’ll send you back to Halbo in a rowing boat—’
    ‘Heartwood, not sapwood.’ Halli rolled his eyes, but his father had turned his attention to Tam Fox.
    The chief mummer matched Aran for height, but seemed taller for the mass of sandy hair he wore in a bizarre combination of topknots and braids and fierce-looking crests, some of which had been turned by years of air heavy with seasalt to a bright, streaky yellow. Plaits wove in and out of his long red beard like snakes; look closer and it became clear that some of the decorations
were
snakes, cured and withered, or stripped to their skeletal forms, their heads poised to strike.
    ‘Be careful with the shipmaker,’ Aran was saying. ‘If you have to knock him unconscious just make sure you have all the information you need from him first – men, timber, tools: I want nothing left to chance. And don’t hit him too hard, for he’ll be no use to me if he’s addled—’
    ‘Aran.’ Tam Fox gripped his old friend by the shoulder. ‘Do you think I have the memory of a chicken that you tell me this again and again? We will bring you Morten Danson, bruised if necessary, but in full possession of his wits; we will bring you the oak and the tools and the men to wield them, and we will be back here by Harvest Moon.’ He paused, his eyes scanning the crowd over the Master of Rockfall’s broad shoulder. ‘I had hoped to bid farewell to your daughter,’ he added casually.
    ‘I haven’t seen her since this morning when we had an altercation,’ Aran said stiffly.
    ‘I saw her,’ Halli offered helpfully. ‘She came storming past me into the longhouse, grabbed up some bread and wine, then ran out to the stables, leapt on one of the ponies and galloped off into the hills.’
    Aran grimaced. ‘She’ll be back when her temper’s cooled.’
    ‘She’s a tricksy little minx, your Katla,’ Tam Fox said with a grin, ‘but I like her fiery temperament well enough. Why not make her part of our bargain, Aran Aranson, and save yourself the trouble of civilising her for another? I’ll wager you’ll not have her wed by next Winterfest otherwise!’
    ‘The last time I included Katla in such a deal was ill-fated,’ Aran growled. ‘I’ll not be tempting the gods again.’
    ‘I mean to have her, Aran.’
    The older man held the mummer’s gaze. ‘Did I not know you to be more than you seem, this discussion would be ended for good and all. Besides, persuading Katla to be wed at all is likely to be the harder part of the bargain.’
    Tam Fox gave the Rockfaller his lupine smile. ‘Despite all appearances to the contrary, I am a patient man. Time weighs differently for me than it does for you, my friend.’
    The ship’s boat came bumping against the seawall below them and Halli threw his leather sack down to the men at the oars, then lowered himself nimbly into the stern. ‘Fare well, Father,’ he said tightly. He turned his gaze to the
Snowland Wolf
, its prow rising and falling on the tide, as sleek and elegant as a swan’s neck, scouring the decks for one slight figure.
    Katla Aransen watched the group of men on the mole with curiosity; but when they stopped talking and looked out towards the ship, she swiftly ducked her head and made herself busy about the lines. None of Tam Fox’s crew had noticed anything amiss when Aran Aranson’s younger ‘son’ had boarded the
Snowland Wolf
; but that might have had more to do with the skins of