On the Grey Lake, the fare is paid in truths.
On the Grey Lake, the ferryman’s boat only casts off when the bell on the jetty rings three times, and the fare isn’t paid in coins: each traveller must say, out loud and while still on the shore, a truth they have never told.
Nerea, an apprentice bookbinder, was carrying a book under her arm that she had to deliver to the Archive on the island. She confessed that she was afraid of mirrors. After her paid Mistress Ilda, a mapmaker with a cloak as black as raven feathers, and Brin, a lad who sold wax candles.
The bell rang three times and the boat pulled away from the jetty.
“It’s my first trip to the island,” Brin announced as he sorted his wares. “I’ve never set foot in the Archive.”
The ferryman, tall and silent, pushed his pole into the water. A single lantern hung at the bow, and its pale light barely opened a gap in the mist.
“I drew the map of this lake twenty winters ago,” said Ilda. “Not a single shore has changed since then.”
The ferryman gave her a sidelong glance. “The north shore collapsed last spring. But don’t worry: this boat doesn’t punish mistakes. Only lies, things said in the knowledge that they’re false. And it doesn’t sink straight away: it waits until it reaches the middle of the lake.”
Ilda frowned, surprised. Brin, on the other hand, leaned towards Nerea: “When we get there, tread carefully on the seventh step of the quay. It’s loose and slippery.”
Nerea was about to thank him when she felt cold water round her ankles. They were right in the middle of the lake, and the boat was beginning to sink.
“Someone has lied since we cast off,” said the ferryman, without raising his voice. “If they tell the truth, the boat will float again.”
Activities
1 Detective Inference
Who made the boat sink? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) Mistress Ilda, because what she said about the lake was false.
- ✓b) Brin, because he lied when he said it was his first trip to the island.
- c) Nerea, because her confession about mirrors wasn’t true.
- d) Nobody: the boat is sinking because it was overloaded.
What are you basing it on? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: b). That’s right. Brin lied on board, after they cast off.
Key clue: “He said he had never set foot on the island, but he knew about the loose step on its quay.” That’s the contradiction: nobody knows the seventh step is loose if they’ve never been there.
2 The Loom Order of events
Rebuild the journey in the order it happened. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 2 The bell rings three times and the boat pulls away from the jetty.
- 5 Brin warns Nerea about the loose step on the quay.
- 6 The boat starts to sink in the middle of the lake.
- 1 Nerea confesses on the shore that she’s afraid of mirrors.
- 4 Ilda boasts that the lake hasn’t changed in twenty winters.
- 3 Brin claims he’s never set foot in the Archive.
Correct order:
- Nerea confesses on the shore that she’s afraid of mirrors.
- The bell rings three times and the boat pulls away from the jetty.
- Brin claims he’s never set foot in the Archive.
- Ilda boasts that the lake hasn’t changed in twenty winters.
- Brin warns Nerea about the loose step on the quay.
- The boat starts to sink in the middle of the lake.
First the fare is paid on the shore, then the bell rings and they cast off. On board, Brin’s lie comes before Ilda’s mistake, and Brin gives himself away with the warning about the step. The sinking comes halfway across the lake.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
What happens next, if the rules of the lake are respected? Tick only one option.
- ✓a) Brin confesses that he has crossed many times in secret. The boat floats again and they carry on towards the island.
- b) Ilda admits her map was wrong, and with that the boat floats again.
- c) The ferryman throws Nerea overboard, because she’s the youngest passenger.
- d) Brin confesses the truth, but the boat sinks completely all the same.
Answer: a). That’s what the rules say: if the liar tells the truth, the boat floats again.
- b) Ilda didn’t lie; she was mistaken. Correcting a mistake doesn’t fix someone else’s lie: the boat would keep sinking.
- c) Nothing in the rules mentions punishing the youngest; the solution is for the liar to tell the truth.
- d) That contradicts the rule the ferryman states: “If they tell the truth, the boat will float again.”
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three of these statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- ✗a) To cross, each traveller paid with a silver coin.The fare “isn’t paid in coins”, but with a truth never told.
- b) The boat doesn’t punish people who are mistaken without knowing it.That’s the rule: it “doesn’t punish mistakes”.
- c) On board, Brin said he had never set foot in the Archive.He said it just after they cast off.
- ✗d) The boat sank the very instant Brin lied.The boat “waits until it reaches the middle of the lake”.
- e) The bell rang three times before they cast off.That’s right: it only casts off after three rings.
- ✗f) Ilda knew the north shore had collapsed.Ilda was surprised to hear it: she didn’t know. That’s why she didn’t lie.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which illustration shows the boat at the moment it starts to sink?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: Three passengers and the ferryman with his pole, a single lantern at the bow (towards the island) and mist all around.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
Brin gulped. “I’ve crossed a hundred times,” he confessed. “At night, without paying, to sell candles to the copyists at the Archive. That’s how I know about the step.”
As soon as he had finished speaking, the boat bobbed up like a cork and the water drained away from Nerea’s ankles. When they arrived, all three trod carefully on the seventh step. Ilda asked for paper and ink: she had a shore to correct.
Nerea delivered her book thinking that, sometimes, the most useful truth isn’t the one you pay with on the shore, but the one you say in time.
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.