She hugged him back. It was a gesture more intimate than any of her flirting had ever kindled. 'You can't do that, she whispered. 'You know you can't.

'Yeah. I know that. Thank you.

'I'm just passing on the Lady's teachings, Edeard. That's what I've given my life to.

'You're such a good person, Salrana,

She leaned in playfully. 'I don't want to be. Not with you. And those family girls, they say you're a good lover.

Edeard shivered with mortification. All Makkathran is discussing that? Yet, at the same time… 'You don't want to believe everything you hear.

'Don't I? she said archly.

'Well okay, I admit that bit's true.

'Oh listen to you! She thumped him on the shoulder, then immediately pulled him in closer and kissed him again.

It was like that time back in the bottom of the well. He knew he shouldn't. But, actually, there wasn't any real reason why not. For once let the heart rule, not the mind.

A couple walked past them, farsight gently examining the young couple embracing with growing ardour. Heads turned.

'It is him, the woman whispered. 'The Waterwalker.

'And that's a Lady's Novice!

A longtalk voice was directed at a number of acquaintances: 'You'll never guess—

Edeard and Salrana broke apart smirking like scolded apprentices. They straightened their clothes and moved down the slope of the bridge to the Haxpen side.

'I'm going to get a reputation worse than Dybal, Edeard decided.

'Good camouflage. The gangs will underestimate you if they think you're just a wicked womaniser.

'Yeah, he laughed. 'Tis a terrible price. Come on, I'll walk you back to Millical House. It's sort of on my route.

'No it isn't.

'Actually, it is. I am going to try and achieve something. You and the Lady are right, it would be wrong not to try.

'And that's tonight?

'Yes. It's perfect. Nobody will expect me to do any kind of constable work tonight.

'I certainly didn't.

'I know. We really need to talk.

'We've talked for three years, Edeard!

'Yeah. And he was hugely tempted. As always. Perhaps dealing with Ivarl could wait one day.

'Actually, I'm not being fair, Salrana said.

'Oh?

'My House Mother told me yesterday. I'm being assigned to the Lady's hospital in Ufford for the winter.

'Where's that?

'Capital town of Tralsher province, that's south of the Iguru.

'What? No!

'Yeah. Nursing is all part of our training.

'But there are hospitals in Makkathran.

'The Church doesn't work that way. It wants us to learn of life outside the crystal wall.

'You know more of life outside than any city Mother does, or ever will, he said with petulance.

'And telling them that would not be helpful.

'I could ask Master Finitan if he could speak to your Mother.

Salrana chuckled softly. 'Really? That ought to do it. A friend of his wants a Novice as a mistress, so could you please change her traditional training schedule to make that possible'

'Ah. No, put like that, I suppose not.

'You suppose right.

'But you wouldn't be my mistress.

'Wouldn't I?

'No, he shook his head firmly. 'No. Never. We would be equals. True lovers.

'Oh, Edeard. A tear emerged from her eye as she looked up at him. 'Say that again. Promise me! Promise we'll be lovers when I get back.

Edeard took both her hands in his own. 'As the Lady is my witness, I promise.

Edeard took the tall bridge beside High Pool, the one with the crystal apex. On this night the transparency made no difference, it looked like he was walking on some glossy black substance smeared by slush. It brought him out into the empty streets of Eyrie, which he hurried through on his way to the Zelda district. He hadn't planned on coming this far, but if everyone knew he was meeting the girls there, he should at least appear to be on his way in case he was being observed. Part of him was still aghast that the city knew about his love life, though he accepted he really only had himself to blame. It was strange that none of his friends had mentioned it. Did they assume he knew? That was the problem with not growing up in the city, everyone took it for granted he was familiar with the culture.

Once he was over Grove Canal the buildings changed to a warren of modest houses and shops and craft halls. The walls closed in as he deliberately chose a route that took him down the narrowest streets. In Polteral Alley he was completely alone, it was a tiny passageway between the backs of buildings, a zigzag that was barely one person wide. Indeed, there were alcoves in the walls to allow people to pass — given their slightly strange inward bulge a couple of feet above the ground he could only speculate what the city's original inhabitants had looked like. At night nobody used it, the thick walls prevented anyone from using farsight along its length, and it effectively blocked longtalk. If you were mugged in here, no one would know until morning. Edeard sent his farsight out ahead of him, checking the alcoves were all empty. When he was halfway along, he stopped under an overhanging section of wall and wove a concealment around himself. Once he was sure no one was following him, he asked Makkathran's somnolent mind to allow him passage once more. It was easier for him now; after that first time behind the shops in Sonral Street, he'd taken to practising in secluded spots like this one. There were many in the city.

The pavement under his feet changed, producing a subliminal swirl of coloured symbols. Edeard's feet sank through it as if it had no more substance than fog. Some force lowered him gently into the drain fissure running beneath the buildings. As always he felt as if he was plummeting from a great height.

Edeard walked for several minutes until the drain opened out halfway up the curving wall of the big tunnel which ran directly underneath the Grand Major Canal. He placed his feet tentatively on the little steps he'd asked the city to create down the wall. Even so, with the water gurgling over his boots, it was a treacherous descent. His previous explorations had revealed that Makkathran's entire canal network was duplicated down here in the city's hidden underworld, not that he'd ever walked their length. The crest of the main tunnel glowed with a faint tangerine light, showing him the stream which ran along the bottom. It was higher than usual tonight, indicating how much water was dripping out of the pavement slush and into the drains. A ledge allowed him to walk beside it, though he had to splash across the broad circular pools of the junctions. Water poured in over the tops of his boots. It was freezing. Not for the first time, he wondered if he could somehow bring a little boat down here. In the end he settled for using his third hand to hold the water back from his shins. He'd found that doing the whole Waterwalker trick and stabilizing the surface was too exhausting to maintain for any length of time.

Eventually, he turned off down the tunnel below the Upper Tail Canal. After a few hundred yards he scrambled his way up into another drain. He wasn't terribly familiar with the Myco district, but his farsight could easily penetrate the city's substance now. To his mind, it was as if the structure around him was built from nothing more than cloudy glass. He stopped below a secluded corner of a little square, and the city lifted him up, elevating him out into the thickening snowfall. By the time he emerged he'd cloaked himself in a concealment again.

A couple of sailors in their traditional magenta-coloured half-cloaks walked through the square, oblivious to him. He grinned at their backs, and set off in the opposite direction.

The House of Blue Petals fronted the Upper Tail Canal, looking directly across the warehouse domes of the port. A four storey establishment with a vermiculated facade, the oval windows surrounded by onyx-like anthemion friezes. Protruding from the upper slope of its mansard roof were several hemispherical windows, as if it had grown giant eyes to peer up at the nebulas of Querencia's skies. Edeard frowned up at them, puzzled by the faint violet glow that emanated from within. It had been a long time since he'd seen anything other than Makkathran's ubiquitous orange glow at night.