The Fee

The rule was written in the chapel's surviving register, and her mother had made her memorize it before she could hold the chalk: the sea returns what it takes, when it is paid to. A reader could mark returned, but then the ledger wanted a fee, and the fee was always a name that had not yet been given. Maren went down to the water at first light. The surf was full of small grey light. A girl stood at the edge of it in a coat Maren knew, a coat that had been Bo's, that had gone down with him — an…