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The Reedys fished the Kelfrek before the King's Road existed, and Ham can prove it the family way: he can name the weirs. Every eel weir in eleven miles of marsh has a name, and the names are the deed — Crooked Meg, the Parson, Old Sulk — and a man who can walk the water naming them is standing in his inheritance. Ham is the eldest, so the naming falls to him, and lately he walks the line saying the names to empty traps. The gloops did that. He has watched them from the reeds: toad-men hauling his eels out by the basketful, not even eating half, carrying them off toward the cliffs like tribute. His father would have gone to the duke. Ham went to the duke, actually, twice, and stood in an anteroom for a day both times, and understood at last that to the duke's men the marsh is the space between two toll gates. So the family goes themselves. He brought his sister because she is better in a fight than he is, his little brother because leaving him behind was more dangerous than bringing him, Aunt Gerta because the marsh listens to her, and Ulf because Ulf turned up. Ham is not sure he is the leader. He is the one who says the names. He fights with the eel spear because it is what his hands know. He is slow to anger in a way that unnerves people who are quick to it, and he has exactly one plan, which he has told everyone twice: kill the toad-men, name the weirs, go home. The dragon is not in the plan. He is aware the dragon may have opinions about that.

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Ham Reedy

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