It was the interval now. DeWar had been round the back of the screen to make sure that the two guards he had stationed there were still awake, and they were. The shadow players had objected at first, but he had insisted the guards stay there. UrLeyn was sitting in the middle of the small auditorium, a perfect and stationary target for somebody behind the screen with a cross bow. UrLeyn, Perrund and everybody else who had heard about the two guards behind the screen thought DeWar was once again taking his duties far too seriously, but he could not have sat there and watched the show comfortably with nobody he trusted behind the screen. He had stationed guards by the window shutters too, with instructions to open them promptly if the lantern behind the screen went out.

These precautions taken, he had been able to watch the shadow players" performance — from the seat immediately behind UrLeyn — with a degree of equanimity, and when Lattens had clambered over the seat in front and come and sat on his lap demanding to know more about Lavishia he had felt sufficiently relaxed to be happy to oblige. Perrund, sitting one seat along from UrLeyn, had turned round to ask her question about mathematicians. She watched DeWar and Lattens with an amused, indulgent expression.

"Can they fly under the water, too?" Lattens asked. He wriggled off DeWar's lap and stood in front of him, an intent look on his face. He was dressed like a little soldier, with a wooden sword at his side in a decorated scabbard.

"They certainly can. They are very good at holding their breath and can do it for days at a time."

"And can they fly through mountains?"

"Only through tunnels, but they have lots of tunnels. Of course, some of the mountains are hollow. And others are full of treasure."

"Are there wizards and enchanted swords?"

"Yes, enchanted swords by the cistern-full, and lots of wizards. Though they tend to be a trifle arrogant."

"And are there giants and monsters?"

"Plenty of both, though they are all very nice giants and extremely helpful monsters."

"How boring," Perrund murmured, reaching out her good hand and patting down some of Lattens" more wayward curls.

UrLeyn turned round in his seat, eyes twinkling. He drank from a glass of wine then said, "What's this, DeWar? Are you filling my boy's head with nonsense?"

"There would be a wonder," said BiLeth, from a couple of seats away. The tall foreign minister looked bored with the proceedings.

"I'm afraid I am, sir," DeWar admitted to UrLeyn, ignoring BiLeth. "I'm telling him about kind giants and pleasant monsters, when everybody knows that giants are cruel and monsters are terrifying."

"Preposterous," BiLeth said.

"What's that?" RuLeuin asked, also turning round. UrLeyn's brother sat beside him on the other side from Perrund. He was one of the few generals who had not been sent off to Ladenscion. "Monsters? We have seen monsters on the screen, haven't we, Lattens?"

"Which would you rather have, Lattens?" UrLeyn asked his son. "Good giants and monsters, or bad ones?"

"Bad ones!" Lattens shouted. He drew his wooden sword from its scabbard. "So I can cut their heads off!"

"That's the boy!" his father said.

"Indeed! Indeed!" BiLeth agreed.

UrLeyn shoved his wine goblet at RuLeuin and then reached over to pull Lattens up off his feet, depositing him in front. of him and making to fence the child with a dagger still in its sheath. Lattens" face took on a look of great concentration. He fenced with his father, thrusting and parrying, feinting and dodging. The wooden sword clicked and clacked off the sheathed dagger. "Good!" his father said. "Very good!"

DeWar watched Commander ZeSpiole get up from his seat and shuffle sideways towards the aisle. DeWar excused himself and followed, meeting up with the other man in the privy beneath the theatre, where one of the shadow players and a couple of guards were also making use of the facility.

"Did you receive your report, Commander? DeWar asked.

ZeSpiole looked up, surprised. "Report, DeWar?"

"About my and the lady Perrund's trip to her old hospital."

"Why should that occasion a report, DeWar?"

"I thought it might because one of your men followed us there from the palace."

"Really, who was that?"

"I don't know his name. But I recognised him. Shall I point him out the next time I see him? If he was not acting on your orders you may wish to ask him why he has taken to following people going about their honest and officially sanctioned business in the city."

ZeSpiole hesitated, then said, "That will not be necessary, thank you. I'm sure that any such report, supposing it had been made, would state only that yourself and the concubine concerned paid a perfectly innocent visit to the said institution and returned without incident."

"I'm sure it would, too."

DeWar returned to his seat. The shadow players announced they were ready to begin the second half of their show. Lattens had to be calmed down before it could be resumed. When it did, he squirmed in his seat between his father and Perrund for a while, but Perrund stroked his head and made quiet, shushing, soothing noises, and before too long the shadow players" stories started to reclaim the boy's interest.

He had the seizure about halfway through the second half, suddenly going rigid and starting to shake. DeWar noticed it first, and sat forward, about to say something, then Perrund turned, her face glowing in the screen light, shadows dancing across it, a frown forming there. 'Lattens…?" she said.

The boy made a strange, strangling sound and jerked, falling off his seat at the feet of his father, who looked startled and said, "What?"

Perrund left her seat and sank down by the boy.

DeWar stood up and turned to face the rear of the theatre. "Guards! The shutters! Now!"

The shutters creaked and light spilled down the banked rows of seats. Startled faces peered out of the sudden light. People started looking round at the windows, muttering. The shadow players" screen had gone white, the shadows disappearing. The man's voice telling the background story halted, confused.

"Lattens!" UrLeyn said, as Perrund started to set the boy into a sitting position. Lattens" eyes were closed, his face grey and sheened with sweat. 'Lattens!" UrLeyn lifted his child up into his arms.

DeWar remained standing, his gaze flitting about the theatre. Others were standing too, now. A bank of worried-looking faces were arranged before him, all looking down at the Protector.

"Doctor!" DeWar shouted when he saw BreDelle. The portly doctor stood blinking in the light.

Master, I thought it right to include in my report mention of the events which took place in the Hidden Gardens on the day Duke Quettil presented Geographer Kuin's latest map of the world to the King.

We had arrived at the summer palace of Yvenir in the Yvenage Hills on schedule and were happily settled into the Doctor's quarters, in a round tower of the Lesser House. The view from our rooms took in the scattered houses and pavilions set within the wooded lower slopes of Palace Hill. These buildings gradually increased in number while the distances between them shrank until they merged against the ancient walls of Mizui city itself, which filled the flat bottom of the valley immediately beneath the palace. On the valley floor to either side of Mizui could be seen numerous farms, fields and water meadows, while behind these climbed gently forested hills, themselves surmounted by the round, snow-covered mountains in the distance.

The King had indeed fallen off his mount while hunting near Lep-Skatacheis (though it had been on the last day of our stop there, not the first) and had been hobbling round since then on a badly twisted ankle. The Doctor had strapped the ankle and done what she could, but the King's duties were such that he could not rest the limb as much as the Doctor wanted him to, and so it took a while to heal.