‘The chain will bring you some coin, and maybe the empty ring. But that pendant is an evil thing. I’d get rid of it if I were you. Throw it in the sea. It’s wizardwood, the stuff a liveship is made from. I wouldn’t wear it next to my skin for the world.’

I picked up the pendant and looked at it more closely. In the candlelight, I could see faint colours on it, as if it had once been painted but had faded. The grain of the wood seemed finer, the features of the face more distinct than I recalled. ‘Why is it evil?’ I demanded of Hetta. ‘Liveships aren’t evil. Their figureheads come to life and talk and guide the boat on its way. They’re magic, but I’ve never heard them called evil.’

Hetta shook her head stubbornly. ‘It’s Rain Wild magic, and all know no good ever came down the Rain Wild River. A lot of folk say that that’s where the Blood Plague came from. Leave magic like that to those Trader folk who are born to it. It’s not for you and me. It’s bound to bring you bad luck, Cerise, same as it brought your grandmother. Get rid of it.’

‘She came from Trader stock,’ I reply stoutly. ‘Maybe that’s how it came to Grandma. Maybe she inherited from the days when we were Traders.’

Hetta pursed her mouth in disapproval as I put the chain back around my neck. I heard Hetta’s husband at the door and hastily slipped the pendant inside my shirt again. I’d always liked Hetta, but her husband made me edgy.

Tonight was no exception. He grinned to see me there, and grinned broader when Hetta said she’d invited me to stay the night. ‘You’re always welcome here, Cerise, for as long as you want to stay. There’s many a wifely chore that Hetta hasn’t been able to do for a time. You could take them on for room and board here.’

I smiled stiffly as I shook my head. ‘Thank you all the same, but I think I need to find a future for myself. I think I’ll go to Bingtown and see what work I can find there.’