This much-sought-after 12,000-word Middle Kingdoms novelette was published for the first time in the Tor Fantasy tribute anthology Moonsinger's Friends: In Honor of André Norton, and is now available in digital format exclusively at Ebooks Direct.

Lior is the Rodmistress of a small north-coast fishing village in Darthen. Her work brings her up against the Sea on a daily basis. But one day a desperate challenge that Lior issues to the Sea itself in the face of a deadly ocean storm produces a change in the relationship that not even a Rodmistress can easily cope with.

Soon Lior must choose between the safety and security of the life she's always known and the terrifying power and possibility offered her by what was once just a force of nature, but has now become something much more personal...

Reader's advisory: This story contains mature themes and situations set in a sexually diverse and inclusive culture.