'Stop them!

'Thieves. Thieves.

'Kavine is hurt.

'Thieves in the market!

Identical longtalk cries flooded into the aether. Jerky image gifts of faces clashed in Edeard's mind. Too many, and too poor to make any sense.

His farsight swirled round the shifting commotion, contracting on the centre. Men were running, their arms flailing wide as people swarmed round. Hands gripped long metal blades, swiping wide, keeping everyone away. Overtones of fear bubbled into the clamour of longtalk.

'That's us! Sergeant Chae shouted. 'Come on. Constables! Clear the way! Constables coming through. His longtalk was directed to warn people sauntering between the stalls at the same time as he shouted. He began to run. Edeard immediately followed, as did Macsen and Kanseen.

'Move! Move aside!

After a moment of shock, Boyd took off after them. Dinlay had frozen, his mind radiating dismay.

Edeard was running hard now, keeping close to Chae. People were jumping out of the way, pressing themselves against the stalls to open a path. Women were screaming. Children shouted, excited and fearful. The theft ahead was still kicking up a hurly-burly.

'Remember: act together, Char told them all with remarkably calm longtalk. 'Minimum of two at all times, don't get separated. Keep your shields up.

Edeard sent his ge-eagle streaking through the sky, heading towards the edge of the market where the thieves must surely emerge. Every street beyond the rippled roof of canopies had a covering of pleasant saffcherry trees, their pink and blue blossom clotting any view of the pavement and people below. His farsight was still concentrating on the criminals as they sped from the scene of the robbery. There were four of them, three wielding the blades, while the fourth was lugging some kind of box. From what Edeard could sense it was full of metal. And plenty of the stalls around him were displaying jewellery.

Chae drew his truncheon as they burst through a group of people gathered round a couple of overturned stalls. A man lay on the floor groaning and thrashing about, blood pooling beside him.

'Lady! Chae exclaimed. 'All right, stay back, give him air. He scrambled for his medical pack and knelt beside the fallen stallholder.

'A doctor? Chae's longtalk demanded, rising over the general clamour. 'Is there a doctor in the Silvarum craft market? Wounded man.

Edeard's farsight was still following the criminals. 'Come on, he yelled at Macsen and Kanseen.

'Where? Macsen demanded. 'I've lost them.

'They've just reached the edge of the market. Albaric Street. I can still sense them. He ploughed on through the clutter of bystanders.

'Edeard, no! Chae yelled after him.

Edeard almost stopped at the command, but he just couldn't ignore the fleeing thieves. We can still catch them. It would be their first real arrest. So far all they'd ever done in their four probationary months was clear drunks off the streets and break up fights. Never any real constable duty. He charged along a narrow passage between rows of stalls. Macsen and Kanseen were racing after him.

'Come back, Chae bellowed.

Ignoring the sergeant sent a flash of wicked glee along Edeard's nerves.

Stallholders were cheering the three probationary constables as they sped on through the market. Edeard and Macsen were using their longtalk to order people aside. By and large it was working. They were closing the gap on the fleeing thieves.

Edeard's ge-eagle swooped low over the saffcherry trees of Albaric Street, its wings skimming inches above the waving blossom. The four thieves were pounding along the pavement underneath, heading straight for the Great Major Canal. Their blades had been sheathed so as not to draw attention. Even so, the minds of people around them pulsed with curiosity and alarm.

'Where are they going? Kanseen demanded.

'Got to be the canal, Macsen replied. There was a lot of exhilaration flooding along his longtalk voice.

Edeard finally saw the end of the market up ahead; the striped canvas roof gave way to the hazy radiance of blossom-filtered sunlight. 'Can you locate any other constables? he demanded.

'Lady, it's all I can do to watch where I'm going, Macsen complained.

'What are you planning on doing? Kanseen asked, all apprehension and doubts.

'Stopping them, Edeard said. Wasn't that obvious? What was wrong with her?

'There's more of them. And they've got blades.

'I'll take them down, he growled. Her uncertainty flowed away from him, as if it was another landmark he'd left behind.

They were closing fast now. Albaric Street was almost deserted compared to the busy market, allowing the constables to race onwards, weaving round the occasional recalcitrant pedestrian.

The ge-eagle flashed over the last saffcherry tree. It showed Edeard the street ending abruptly at the edge of the Great Major Canal. The big waterway stretched away on both sides, cutting the city in half. Away to the west was the Birmingham Pool, intersecting the Outer Circle Canal, while eastwards the High Pool formed a junction with Flight Canal and Market Canal. There were only two bridges between Silvarum and the Padua district on the other side, one beside each pool. Like every bridge over the Grand Major Canal they were narrow and steep; most people preferred to use a gondola to cross the hundred and fifty yard width of water. Several were bobbing at a mooring platform where the street ended.

'Got them, Edeard exclaimed. 'They just ran out of street. His jubilant mood suddenly dropped as the four criminals sped down the wooden steps to the platform and hopped on to a waiting gondola. It looked scruffy and badly maintained compared to the craft that normally slid along the city's waterways, with dull scratched paint and a drab awning. There were two gondoliers standing on the back, both holding a pole. 'Oh Honious!

'What? Kanseen demanded, she was red-faced and breathing heavily, but still keeping up.

'Boat, he gasped back at her. 'Come on, we can still catch them. Right in front of him a very grand-looking old lady in a billowing black and white dress and her entourage of younger handmaids were leaving one of Albaric Street's high-class restaurants. His longtalk demands to move didn't seem to be registering with any of them. He dodged round the old lady, cursing. A third hand swatted at him as one might an annoying insect. He flashed her an exasperated look.

The ge-eagle spiralled up, watching the shabby gondola ease out from the mooring platform and into the multitude of craft flocking along the big canal. Downbeat the gondoliers might have been, but they knew their watercraft. With two punts available, and working in harmony, they were soon moving a lot quicker than anything else on the water. The four thieves flopped down on the benches, and started laughing.

Edeard, Macsen, and Kanseen came hurtling up to the canal bank, coming dangerously close to toppling down into the water as they stopped at the top of the mooring's wooden steps.

'Bastards! Macsen shouted at them.

One of the gondoliers raised his green and blue ribboned boater in mocking salute. They were already twenty yards downstream. Edeard knew with grim certainty they'd be going all the way down to Sampalok, and the wounded stall owner would be ruined. 'Help us, he called down to the gondolier who was left moored below. 'Take us after them. This gondola was a fancy craft, its black paintwork shining in the afternoon sun, the awning embroidered with a scarlet bird crest. Somehow Edeard just knew it belonged to the old woman behind.

'Not a chance, pal, the gondolier called back. 'This is Mistress Florell's private gondola.

For a moment Edeard considered shoving him into the canal, and commandeering the craft to set of in pursuit. Except he didn't have the first idea of how to use a punt pole.