Her Match, His Fire

hroat and Halvard's men stepping aside to le

d, the great lens turning slow and blind behind its glass. I had left it

t was full. I checked the burner ring and it was clear. I took the wick out and trimmed it with my knife and set it back a

y it we

hite glove resting on the iron rail.

has trouble

been weather." He recited it as if he were reading from a list, which he probably was. "This la

s cold. It should have been warm from two hours of burning, a

I set a fresh wick. I struck a match, and it cau

me, my hands

it," said a voice

lder and her braid coming loose, and the two men by the door moved

d too far and drowning the wick. A child could see it. Close th

and the wind was coming up, and I turned the valve down to a quarter, and I waited, and then I opened it sl

ll of this with h

amps," he s

he floor, not at him, and her voice had gone ordinary, dull, a fisherman's daughter ta

the stairs, and his men followed him, and I heard his voice in the yard below giving orde

warm housing. The light turned. The beam went out o

oded it,

not tou

sed. I know what I left it at, because I set it myself at

said

"Someone wanted the lamp to go out while

e way the flame leaned in the draught from the open door, and he

shipwrecked fisherwoman from a smashed boat does not know the difference between a flooded wick and a clogged feed. A person

me," she said. "What

at, without a fight in her voice, as if

ow what you

id was gold, and there was something tired and honest in her expression that I did not expect. "You kn

st so fast I put a hand on

plainly,

worst thing that has ever happened to me." Her voice cracked on the last words and she pressed her lips together. "Because I came here to take y

the gulls and the boots of the Council men on the s

uld have drow

went out o

easy, they say. You just stop fighting and it is done." She pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders. "I did not stop fighting. I am

door banged below, and a voice I knew better th

e and a strange woman in your tower and nobody

Runa's boots were a

eta," s

es

ell it on me

kno

ossing, eyes going from me to Ingrid and back, and she

uiet. "Who is this, and w