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realise it when they choose a bride. Very well, if that is your wish.’ She looked down at Nikko. ‘You boy, do you want your sister to speak?’
    Nikko hesitated. Of course he did. Anything thatmade Thetis more like the other girls must be good. And yet…‘If she wishes it, I do,’ he said.
    The hag looked at him approvingly. ‘A good answer, especially from a boy.’ The words were kind, but somehow Nikko had the feeling the hag didn’t think much of boys. Or men. She looked down at Thetis, sitting on her carved stool, picking up the last crumbs of honey bread with her finger. ‘Very well.’
    She reached down into the neck of her dress, and drew out something on a twist of wool. It glittered in the light from the doorway, then flashed again as the fire light touched it. ‘Look at this, child.’
    Thetis bent closer. Nikko narrowed his eyes. It looked like a piece of rock, polished smooth. How could a piece of rock charm his sister?
    The hag twisted the stone over and over in her fingers. Thetis’s eyes grew wider, and fixed unblinking as it flashed again. ‘The dark of night took your voice,’ said the hag quietly. ‘Now the light gives it back. You will speak now. But if you ever choose muteness once and for all, it will be yours.’
    The hag closed her eyes for a second, her face still. Almost as though she’s praying, thought Nikko, or pleading with the Mother. Why should Thetis ever want to be silent?
    The hag slipped the stone back into her dress. ‘It is done.’
    Thetis blinked, then stared at the hut, as though she had forgotten where she was.
    ‘Well?’ Their mother’s voice trembled. ‘Can you speak to me?’
    Thetis nodded. ‘I can speak.’
    Her voice sounded matter-of-fact. It’s as though nothing momentous has happened, thought Nikko, surprised.
    Their mother gave a sharp cry. She gathered Thetis into her arms. Thetis hugged her politely, then looked back at the hag. ‘May I have another honey cake?’
    Nikko felt a smile stretch across his face. Thetis’s voice was light and dancing as the butterfly. The hag grinned, a shadow of relief crossing her face. ‘Those are good first words for any child. Yes, you may have another honey cake.’
    Thetis reached for the honey cake. ‘They are good cakes. Mother cannot make cakes as good as this. Father has all our grapes made into wine. Do people give you honey?’ Her voice sounds as though she has spoken all her life, thought Nikko wonderingly.
    ‘Yes, child. In return for my help.’
    Thetis settled herself on her mother’s lap, nibbling her cake, the only one in the room who didn’t seem stunned by what had happened. ‘If you told them how to help themselves they would not give you honey.’
    The hag stared. ‘No.’ She looked up at Maronis, whose face was damp with tears as she stared at her child, her talking child. ‘You have a child who tells the truth. It is not an easy thing, wife of Giannis, to have a daughter who speaks the truth.’
    ‘I would wish her to tell the truth.’ His mother brushed away her tears. She sounded even more bewildered now.
    ‘Ha!’ The hag grinned, showing her strong white teeth again. ‘Most people hide the truth under the skins oftheir bed, where they do not have to see it.’ She shook her head. ‘I saw that she was a watcher. But a watcher and a truth sayer—I do not know if I would have helped her speak if I had known that.’
    Nikko’s mother blinked. ‘Thetis watches everything. No child learns as fast as she.’ There was a hint of desperate pride in her voice.
    ‘I like watching,’ said Thetis, still matter-of-fact. ‘You learn things when you watch. I saw the headman’s wife pick olives from her neighbour’s trees. I saw the bruises where the headman hit her. His daughter has bruises like that too.’
    The hag’s face was very still. ‘What do you know about me from your watching, child?’
    Thetis seemed to think for a moment, still chewing her cake. Nikko could hear doves