by Masked Beekeeper
Fifty-one people reached the island alive. Forty-six left it. Captain Vekka Clink had not come for them. She sailed to Argentuth to collect a debt paid in goods and stored in a place she owns, and found forty-seven shipwreck survivors who had already burned most of it to stay alive. She offered passage at fifteen silver a head. When a woman said that an offer from the only captain with reason to visit the island was not an offer, Clink put a saber through her — and her crew said they had seen an attack, and the price went to twenty, charged to every account on that beach. The children's included. Forty-five contracts come ashore at Freepour. The yard is swept. Nobody is beaten. The seventeen children are fed better than the adults, because a child carries a balance until thirteen and a grown body off a wreck is worth very little. Sixteen-year-old Pippa Wren has kept a tally since she was eleven. She works out why.
| # | Title | Words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chapter 1 — Twenty Silver Zar | 0 |
| 2 | Chapter 2 — Breadwater | 0 |
| 3 | Chapter 3 — The Hound Returns | 0 |
| 4 | Chapter 4 — What Six Thousand People Need | 0 |
| 5 | Chapter 5 — The Injured Road | 0 |
| 6 |
| Chapter 6 — The Sale |
| 0 |
| 7 | Chapter 7 — Unwelcome | 0 |
| 8 | Chapter 8 — Three Went Out | 0 |
| 9 | Chapter 9 — The First Ledger | 0 |
| 10 | Chapter 10 — He Was There Too | — |
| 11 | Chapter 11 — Private Papers | — |
| 12 | Chapter 12 — The Gate Is the Edge of It | — |
| 13 | Chapter 13 — Another Road | — |
| 14 | Chapter 14 — A Different Sentence | — |
| 15 | Chapter 15 — The Useful Girl | — |
| 16 | Prologue - A Note on Time in Argaran | — |
| 17 | Chapter 16 — The Rate Does Not Improve | — |
| 18 | Chapter 17 — The Wrong People Get Sick | — |
| 19 | Chapter 18 — Ask the Right Question | — |
| 20 | Chapter 19 — They Share Too Much | — |
| 21 | Chapter 20 — How Mielle Does It | — |
| 22 | Chapter 21 — The Man in the Dark Glasses | — |
| 23 | Chapter 22 — Nim Gumwright | — |
| 24 | Chapter 23 — The Workshop | — |
| 25 | Chapter 24 — He Already Spoke to Nan | — |
| 26 | Chapter 25 — A Strake and a Half | — |
| 27 | Chapter 26 — The Fourth Crossing | — |
| 28 | Chapter 27 — The Other Freepour | — |
| 29 | Chapter 28 — The Tending | — |
| 30 | Chapter 29 — Something He Wanted | — |
| 31 | Chapter 30 — What the Shingle Kept | — |
| 32 | Chapter 31 — What the Sheets Say | — |
| 33 | Chapter 32 — Where the Power Goes | — |
| 34 | Chapter 33 — Two Sets of Books | — |
| 35 | Chapter 34 — Balance Forward | — |
| 36 | Chapter 35 — The Same Two Places | — |
| 37 | Chapter 36 — Outside the City | — |
| 38 | Chapter 37 — Useful Inside | — |
| 39 | Chapter 38 — Still Open for Business | — |
| 40 | Chapter 39 — It Has to Count for Something | — |
| 41 | Chapter 40 — The Dividing Line | — |
| 42 | Chapter 41 — What the House Could Prove | — |
| 43 | Chapter 42 — Fifty Gold | — |
| 44 | Chapter 43 — Range | — |
| 45 | Epilogue — A Mother Looking | — |
