Drowned Ammet is the second book in Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet. Its predecessor, Cart and Cwidder, is OK; but Drowned Ammet is much more the sort of thing I expect from Diana Wynne Jones, and I liked it a lot.

Drowned Ammet is not a direct sequel to Cart and Cwidder; rather, it’s a separate story, roughly contemporaneous, and set in the same land of Dalemark. Alhammitt—Mitt, for short—is a young lad in the southern earldom of Holland. As is usual in the South, the Earl is a real piece of work; there is great unrest, and when Mitt’s family loses their farm, his father joins a radical group among the fisherman on the waterfront. And when Mitt’s father dies in an abortive attack on the Earl’s warehouse, Mitt naturally joins the group as well. He’s bent on vengeance, on both the Earl and those in the movement who betrayed his father.

His time comes during the annual Sea Festival, when the Earl and his family process down to the docks and throw in two effigies: a man of straw known as Poor Old Ammet, and a woman of fruit known as Libby Beer. Not to do so would be horrible luck for the city. And it’s said that if a ship comes upon Poor Old Ammet and Libby Beer out at sea, and takes them on board, that ship will have good luck.

Mitt’s attempt fails…and he finds himself on the run, on board a pleasure yacht, alone with two of the Earl’s grandchildren, heading for the North. And on the way he finds that maybe there’s more to the old legends and less to vengeance than he thought.

There’s magic; there’s villainy; there’s poetic justice; there’s courage; there’s redemption; and in general the result is enchanting.