Chapter 2

Amina tries to resume quiet life repairing her remote, haunted-seeming home with daughter Marjana during the khareef, suppressing grief for the sea. Armed strangers arrive bearing an elderly noblewoman, Sayyida Salima. Amina poses as a servant, but Salima insists on entering and observing the household.

During tense small talk, Salima probes, gradually revealing knowledge of Amina’s scars, stature, and exploits, and calls her “nakhudha,” exposing Amina’s true identity before Marjana. Threatening to circulate copies of letters if she disappears, Salima pressures Amina while Amina weighs violent options she refuses to reveal to her child.

Salima states her goal: her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dunya, was abducted two months prior. She blames a Frankish mercenary, Falco Palamenestra, who sought the family’s occult artifacts and was expelled. There has been no ransom demand, but Salima is certain Dunya lives and refuses to involve Aden’s governor for fear of scandal.

Appealing to Amina’s skills and reputation for escapes, Salima offers one million dinars and any of Falco’s loot. Amina resists for her family’s safety, until Salima reveals her late son—Asif al-Hilli, once Amina’s scribe—wrote the letters about Amina. The personal connection and the promise of security for Marjana sway Amina’s resolve.

After reading Asif’s letters and confronting old guilt, Amina sets strict terms: four months to search; 100,000 dinars regardless—10,000 paid to her family before departure and 90,000 upon locating Dunya’s holding place; the remainder upon Dunya’s safe return. Salima accepts, binding Amina back to the sea and a perilous hunt.