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Eric scoffs. “They didn’t sacrifice anything though, did they? Apart from maybe their hearts. What card did you get, by the way? I got Card of Plenty again. We’ll have our best Provision Day ever, I bet. Unless you got something bad.”

“Nothing that predicted my terrible and untimely death. So, you don’t need to worry.”

I don’t tell Eric my fortunes anymore. He gets anxious for days if either of us get a concerning one.

He had a phase not long after we got here of wanting to become a soldier, to get better Provision for us both. It didn’t help we were so hungry all the time, back then. But Cosmer’s departure – and lack of return – put an end to Eric’s planning, though, and I’m so glad it did. Aside from the fact he would have been fighting against Rhavna, Eric just wouldn’t have the stomach for it.

No. Our life here is fine. The plants don’t bloom all year round and put you to sleep if you smell them too deeply, and the air isn’t filled with oversized butterflies. There are no swans, which were always the Queen’s favourite, being Rhavna’s national animal, and sacred. We no longer live in luxury – far, far from it.

But we have each other and Old Mother. We’re safe. And that’s all that matters to us.

I stop rowing, and we prepare our nets and lines.

But movement to my side distracts me. I turn towards it.

Back on the shore, people are rushing to get to their feet. Some are running.

Some are pointing, as if to say look up.

I look up.

And that’s when I see it, high above us.

A huge, cylindrical object, gold as a coin and smoking like a potion, is falling from the sky. Lights are flashing on it, and it’s spinning. It looks like a mechanical carousel. The kind that would be set up every year in the Palace grounds for the birthdays of the young princess.

It isn’t anything like the dragonfly-like ships I’ve seen crew rustlers come down in. This must be a ship they refer to as a hive. A home to a fleet of ships and hundreds of soldiers. It’s where they eat, sleep, work.

And it’s plummeting towards the sea.

Towards us.

Eric drops his net.

“Ara, row!” he shouts.

I grab the oars. My arms strain as I row. Everything feels as though it’s happening at twice the speed, like we’ve all caught fire.

Is this how Cosmer died? Is he at the bottom of the sea, entombed in the remains of a ship just like this one?

The Temple bell is ringing now, and watchers are swarming onto the beach, their rifles raised. Some are pulling people towards them. Some are just standing still, transfixed by the machine.

In the shallows, I don’t bother to secure the boat. Everyone is running towards the steps carved into the cliff face now, even the watchers, and I know why. Only a tidal wave can follow that. But the steps are still so far. I’m pushed by someone running past me, and I stumble.

When I straighten up, I realise Eric is no longer by my side.

“Eric?” I scream, turning three hundred and sixty degrees. “Eric?” I can see a lot of fleeing people. But not my brother.

My vision spins, and for an agonising moment, my skull is made of lead. I get this sometimes, a crushing sense that everything is out of my control, and a pain in my head that I can’t shift, and worry might one day kill me. Shooting pains in my arms. Flashes of white behind my eyes, like lightning.

I close them.

When I open them again, I’m crouching, and I’m the last person left on the beach. Everyone has made it safely to the cliff steps or is already gone. I’m still so far behind them.

How much time did I lose?

I don’t have even a second to dwell on it, as at that moment the smoking ship hits the water. I watch in horror as the machine slips beneath the sea with a crash so loud the whole beach seems to sway.

Instantly, a huge wave leaps up from the impact and roars like an open mouth towards the shoreline.