Follyport was a river-mouth village with too bad a harbor to do much heavy cargo loading. A road led north from here to an awkward secondary port. Improving the waterway was a project everyone agreed somebody else ought to pay for.

No ships of any decent size were ready, but one was expected in a few days. That left Ruyo and company in a town with no excitement. "Would it make things easier if we went north?" she asked the Witch Hunters. A few of them had traveled far.

"If you don't mind a few miles' walk, there's a better inn and the usual dock entertainments. Not much different though."

Roland said, "Should have brought the horses."

"May as well walk."

They hiked north along the coast's dirt road. The roar of the sea was a constant presence on their right, its breeze helping to cool off the afternoon. A few wagons passed by. Ruyo commented, "That cargo is fish and clay. Looks like Khyber still isn't exporting metal to us again."

After several hours' walk they felt they'd earned a rest. The village ahead, Trueharbor, wasn't much bigger than Follyport. But it did support some farmland and not just the docks. A broken lighthouse tower stood out, then the char marks on the roofs and the shattered hull of a tilted ship.

Ruyo scowled. "The enemy got this far, huh?"

One of the Witch Hunters said, "I hear it's worse farther north. Starshore in the south got spared at least."

On the outskirts of town stood a refugee camp, in the form of makeshift canopies housing several hundred people displaced by the war. She'd seen other villages ravaged by the enemy horsemen, so it wasn't a shock.

Elly said, "How are they feeding these people?"

"Fishing, probably. Starting to lean toward handing out food-creation powers, economics be damned."

Even as she said that, she saw farmers hard at work in the fields to produce enough grain and vegetables.

Roland stepped up. "What these people need is to get back to their homes. It should be safe enough, with enough time for at least some planting, right?"

One of the westlanders said, "Cutting it close. They'll be lucky not to starve come spring."

Tamur said, "They should go back and fight for their land if it isn't yet free from the enemy."

"Maybe," Ruyo said. She'd been hearing unofficially from the Averell authorities about the ongoing enemy retreat. She walked to the camp to speak with the people.

Some of them were sitting around as in a daze, while others tried to make themselves useful repairing shoes or cooking in the big open-air workshop of canopies and tents. One old man paused in whittling something. "Can I help you?" He and the others nearby were looking at Ruyo's party of armed wanderers.

"My name is Ruyo, the Lady of Waters, and I --"

A well-dressed man ran screaming at her with a kitchen knife. Ruyo leaped backwards on a wave. Nusina hosed him with chilly water to the face. The guards reached for their weapons and moved forward as one.

The man fell to his knees and dropped the knife, coughing.

"Whoa, whoa!" said Ruyo, her heart thudding. She landed on the trampled grass and her phantom wave vanished a moment later. "You there, snap out of it."

"I don't... What was that? What did I do?"

The other refugees were horrified. Ruyo waved the guards back, saying, "I'm used to it. Everyone, he's all right. It was a temporary magic problem. Sir, can I speak with you in private for a minute?"

So she had to explain an ongoing problem to him. The man had attended a certain lecture involving the names of the old gods, and had heard the name Etzvannos, true name of "Zovvah" the Light God. Just knowing the name was enough to implant a command to murder Ruyo on sight, in certain people. The good news was this man claimed he hadn't spread the cursed information to anyone else, and that like most victims he made an inept assassin. The evil god really should have used different tactics.

She brought the man back to the group, all smiles, and made a show of giving him a free blanket and a small pile of bread and the mediocre jerky she'd learned to make. "The enemy has been driven away from the southlands, and what villages haven't been retaken yet soon will be. It should be safe to go home."

That got the attention of more people than the little brawl had. She got peppered with questions. "Did we really win? Are they retreating? What about seeds and tools?"

"We've won, yes. I can't give you seeds, but if you're sick of fish, there's a way to help you rebuild..."

She explained the notion of shrines and prayers. A few people here had heard vaguely of her connection to the Church. "I can get you some iron to work with and some food, if you power the magic with your good wishes."

The bewitched man said, "After seeing what this power of the gods can do, I'm willing to try it. I'm no smith but I have a little earth magic. I can help build a simple altar."

Ruyo avoided frowning. She spoke silently to Nusina: "That isn't good enough. I can't summon things to any old birdbath. And these people need to get moving if they're going to salvage this growing season at all."

"I'm no farm expert, milady. Get the townsfolk to help?"

"One other thing before I forget." Ruyo cleared her throat and nudged Elly forward. "By the way, this here is Lady Elinor of the Night. She, too, has divine power, and you'll be hearing more about her."

Elly blushed deeply. "Hi. I'll come back before too long and try to help out."

"I need to talk with the locals. Excuse me. Have this while I'm away." She made a dozen more small loaves and headed for the town itself.

#

Elly and the guards and spirits came along while the rest of the mortals stayed with the refugees. The whole settlement had survived a fire that marked the south part of town with ash and char marks. Fishing boats were visible in the distance.

Ruyo asked around and got shown to the village headman, who was busy supervising a gang from the tent camp to mend a net. Ruyo introduced herself.

"I don't care if you're Queen of the Moon, ma'am, if you can help fix the town up and get rid of the outsiders."

"Have you got spare seeds?"

"A small supply, diligent labor be praised. Bastards tried to burn the granary when they attacked."

"Okay, great. I have a way to get these people off your back, but you'll need to work with them to build me a temple."

He laughed. "Build you an entire temple? Now, when we have people without houses?"

"It doesn't have to be much. A two-room wooden building with a stone altar is enough to power my magic well enough. And I don't care if a few people sleep in it."

The headman began to study her more seriously. "Heard a bit about you. You're a water mage?"

"Among other things."

"Well then. Shouldn't be hard for you to go salvage the load of cookware we lost when one of our ships got sneak-attacked. Not the one you see upturned in the harbor; farther out. It was right out there beyond the breakwater but too deep for us, and I haven't had the time or money to hire a good mage."

Ruyo cracked her knuckles. "Simple enough."

"Mind the occasional shark."

She turned back toward Elly's guards. "Could someone fetch me my armor? The vest we made from that giant magma shark?"

The headman only grunted as they went to prepare the Lady of Waters for the job.