Doreth Sumb

The only boatman who knows the Sunken Stair Road's drowned stretches by heart and the tide that bares them — sells passage and silence in equal measure from the Causeway Rest.

Doreth has run the Stair Road crossing so many times he no longer needs the tide-gauge post. He knows the drowned spans by the colour of the silt and the feel of the current, and he knows which crossings the Silt Hands want watched and which they want unwitnessed. He doesn't ask what you're carrying. He asks if you can keep pace with him when the flood comes back.