'The dwarfs have visited them?'
'A few have. The brave ones. But most of us never leave here.'
'Why?'
'Outside' — she waved a hand in the direction of the sea — 'is death.'
'Oh good,' Jup said.
'Axiaa,' Coilla asked, 'do you know where our friend was taken? The she-dwarf we came with?'
'The goddess.'
'Er, yes, that's her. Where did she go?'
'Bad place.'
'But do you know where? How could we find it?'
The girl didn't seem to grasp that.
'We know!' Retlarg piped up.
Coilla turned to them. 'You do?'
'Yes,' Heeg confirmed.
'The grown-ups don't know we know,' Grunnsa confided. 'But we found out.'
'How?'
'Show you?' Retlarg asked.
She nodded, puzzled.
The three youngsters leapt to their feet and tore to one side of the spacious room. They fell upon a piece of furniture not unlike an ottoman: a couch that doubled as a storage chest. Throwing aside its coverings, they raised the top. There was a jumble of household possessions inside, which they cheerfully tossed onto the rush-matted floor as they burrowed. At last they retrieved a rolled, yellowing parchment, about the length of an orc's arm, secured with a round of smooth twine. They ran back to Coilla and gave it to her.
Along with Stryke, Jup and Reafdaw, she took it to the feasting table. Sweeping aside the remains of their earlier meal, she unfastened the scroll and rolled it out. They weighed down its corners with coconut drinking vessels and fat candles.
It was a chart. Whoever had drawn it, quite a while ago from its state, had a fine hand. It had been executed in different coloured pigments, now much faded.
The map showed a world dominated by ocean. But sprinkled with islands of all shapes and sizes, some in close clusters, others alone, a few isolated. There were hundreds of them.
'I'm guessing the one we're on,' Stryke said, 'is here.'
He pointed to a shape quite far south, but reasonably close to a number of others. A red cross had been drawn inside its outline, and there were some crude symbols underneath. None of the others had that, save one. This bore a stylised skull in its centre and it had been circled in black. It was northwest of the first, and without knowing the chart's scale they thought it looked not too far away.
'Gotta be that one,' Jup reckoned.
The three kids clamoured to see, the table being too high for them. They were hoisted up onto chairs.
'Is this where we are?' Coilla wanted to know, pointing at the island with the cross.
They confirmed it.
'And the place these Gatherers come from?'
' There! ' they chorused, plonking grubby fingers on the island with the skull.
'That clinches it,' Stryke said.
'Now how do we get there?' Jup inquired gloomily.
'In a boat,' Grunnsa suggested.
'They're all too small,' Coilla reminded him.
' No,' Heeg insisted. 'The big boats.'
'There are big boats? Where?'
'In the boathouse, of course,' the boy replied, as if he were the adult and she the child.
'Where is this boathouse?'
'Outside the village.' Grunnsa pointed vaguely in the direction of the extinct volcano.
'Must be that place we saw them guarding,' Stryke reasoned.
'So what are we waiting for?' Jup said.
At that point the longhouse's door opened. Haskeer and a pair of grunts came in. They had the elder with them.
'Found him and a couple of others hiding in the tunnels,' Haskeer explained. 'He's pissed off with us.'
The elder's angry expression verified that.
'Why?' Jup wanted to know.
'Ask him yourself. He doesn't talk to mere servants.'
Jup addressed the elder. 'We're sorry about your trouble with the Gatherers. What can we do to help?'
'Your offer comes too late. You should have stopped them.'
'We tried.'
'Those who fall from the sky must be more powerful than the Gatherers. Yet it seems you are not.'
'We want to avenge you, and to get your islanders back. But we need your help.'
' Our help? What can we do that those who come from the sky cannot?'
'We need boats that can put to sea, so we can pursue the Gatherers and punish them.'
The elder became tight-lipped.
'We know you have such boats,' Stryke told him. 'And where the Gatherers are to be found.'
The elder shot the children a sharp, disapproving look. 'It is forbidden.'
'What's forbidden?'
'Our customs forbid any from leaving here and voyaging to other islands. It brings wrath upon our heads. We believe the Gatherers would not have known of us if some of our kin had not ventured out and been captured.'
'We understand,' Jup sympathised, 'but we aren't bound by your customs. And one of our number was taken by the Gatherers. We want her back.'
'It isn't just the Gatherers. There are other dangers on the outside. Great dangers.'
'We can deal with them,' Stryke came back harshly. 'But what about the boats? Do you hand them over or do we take them?'
He said it with sufficient force to give the elder pause. 'There are two,' he admitted. 'We took them from certain of our kin who were building them secretly, in defiance of custom. They would have used them to leave here and try to make a new home free of the Gatherers.'
'Might not have been a bad idea.'
'Did you not survey this world from your vantage point in the sky? You seem to know little about it. For all that we suffer from the Gatherers, this island is safe compared to what dwells beyond it.'
'We'll take our chances.'
'When we seized the boats they were incomplete. They are not yet seaworthy.'
'Would it take much to finish them?'
'I think not.'
It occurred to Coilla to ask, 'If you don't allow seagoing craft, why did you keep them?'
'We had no intention of keeping them. They were to be publicly burnt, as a warning to any who would try the same foolishness. But then you arrived.'
'Lucky we came when we did.'
'Can we get any of your islanders to help us make the boats ready?' Stryke said.
The elder shook his head. 'It would go against our customs and stir up unrest.'
'And the same goes for any of you helping us sail them?'
'It does.'
'To hell with your stinking customs then. We'll manage alone.'
'Not quite,' Coilla said. 'Jode was island-born, he told me so. He'll have sailing skills.'
'You seem to know more about those humans than we do,' Haskeer jibed.
'Good thing I do, isn't it?'
'That's settled,' Stryke decided. 'We'll start work on the boats right away. As to you.' He fixed the elder with
