But Meryx sat beside Mara, silent and not looking at her, and his face — it hurt Mara to look at it.

Candace said, "Begin at the beginning."

And Mara said humorously, "But surely you already know everything?" "Not everything. Tell it so everybody knows."

There were more people than usual that night, twenty or so, all curious.

Mara began with leaving this house, the walk through empty streets, the dying milk beast — which was rescued, she assured them — the waiting chair and its porter, the eating house and the woman proprietor who was obviously expecting her.

"Not my doing," said Juba.

"No, it was the junior Hadrons," said Mara. "They organised it all." And went on to describe, and now in slow and careful detail, the journey around the perimeter of the Towers, the tunnels, the notices warning of the beetles, the mass of wire that had holes torn in it, the way the chair runner had been appointed to be available for her all day. She dared to take a look at Meryx, but he sat with his face turned away and Mara could see how concerned Dromas was for him, for she watched him, sighing.

Every detail, every moment; until she was kidnapped by Kulik, and taken to the young Hadrons. There, she told what had been said, but left out that Kulik had lied about her.

When she said that she had told Olec she was pregnant by Juba she could feel how Meryx took the blow as if he had not heard it before.

"Meryx," she said, direct to him, "it was a lie. I had to. Please believe me."

He simply sat on, listless, and shook his head as if to say, But it's all too much.

Now people were getting up, about to drift off, and she said, "Please don't go. I must say something, I must." And they sat down again.

And now she began an impassioned plea that they must leave, leave Chelops, while they still could. "You can take a lot of food and clothes; it won't be a hardship, as it was for us. Please leave — I don't know why I can't make you see it." They were looking at each other, doubtful, serious, but she was afraid they were already deciding not to listen.

"What is happening here is exactly the same as I remember from Rustam."

"You were a small child," said Candace. "How can you remember?"

"I do remember. And this is the same. People leaving. Criminals. The gardens dying. The water going. Less food." But she thought, But up here it is not so bad. And they don't know how bad things are down there, in the town. They live in this soft little place on the edge of the city.

Juba said, "We have had a bad rainy season."

"You told me yourself you have had several poor seasons recently," said Mara. "Majab's emptying now, so the travellers are saying. I heard it in the eating house. There's almost no one left. When we flew over it a year ago there were still people and things seemed not too bad. Then it was like what Chelops is like now. It happens so fast. In the Rock Village we heard that Rustam was empty and filling with sand. The Rock Village must be, by now. The sand is blowing into Majab, so they say."

A silence now, a worried silence, but restless, people fiddling with their clothes, their hair, not looking at each other then looking, and smiling, wanting to smile it all away.

"You should make preparations now," said Mara. "Pack everything up. Hire every kind of transport there is left."

Now Candace leaned forward, and insisted, "Mara, it is quite understandable, with your history, that you should be nervous. But it only needs one good season for everything to go back to normal."

"No," said Mara, and Juba backed her up. "It will take more than one."

"And," went on Candace, "you don't understand something. It doesn't matter to us if everyone in the town leaves. We won't have to feed them — it will be a good thing. We are quite self-sufficient here."

"The Hadrons wouldn't let us leave," said Juba.

"Then fight them," said Mara. "The militia will obey you, not the Had-rons."

But she could see from their faces that it was the enormity of the effort they would need that was dismaying them. She thought, All this gentle, lovely living has made them soft. They aren't fit for such an effort. But they have to be, they must be.

And she went on persuading, pleading, begging. Then she had an inspiration, and said to Candace, "Draw back the curtain off that map you have there."

And Candace got up and said, "No, Mara. I won't. It's enough for one evening." Then, to the others, "Let's say goodnight, and let's thank Mara for all the information she has given us."

The company dispersed, and the note of their talk was a subdued grumbling and complaint.

Mara went with Meryx to their room, and she had to persuade him, again and again, that no, she had never mated with Juba, nor ever thought of it, "You must believe me!" — and she supposed he did, in the end. But he wept, and she wept, they clung to each other, and they made love again and again. It was the middle of her fertile period. And Meryx said, "If you get pregnant tonight, I'll never know if it is mine or Juba's." And then he said, "You make love with me as if you love me, but you are leaving me."

And she was making love most hungrily: because of the long, frightening day; because of how exposed she had felt, away from the protection of the Kin; because of the dying milk beast, which haunted her, for she knew there must be others; because she was going away from Chelops, and she knew she would leave her heart behind in this place, with these people, with him.

In the morning Juba summoned them all to tell them that a messenger had arrived from Karam, saying two things. First, that the young women working with the milk beasts must stop stealing the milk. If they did it again, they would be beaten. This reminded them that they were slaves. The second part of the message was that four Mahondi girls must be sent to the young Hadrons. There would be no coercion as to choice. The girls could choose from among the young men. When they were proved pregnant, they could return to the Kin, if they wanted. There was much anger, outrage, protests of "But I won't go." But Karam had said which girls must go, by name, and these choices proved how well the Hadrons knew all their characteristics. The four were the youngest, good natured, and eager to please.

Meanwhile Mara was going to the Towers. Juba had said he would allow her to go only if he sent guards with her. She said, "But you didn't insist on guards yesterday." He said, "I didn't know the Hadrons planned to kidnap you." "The Hadrons said Dann was ill. I might have to stay in the Towers to look after him." Meaning: I know you don't want him here. Juba said, "Bring him here." Which meant Dann had been discussed, and the Kin had decided to indulge her.

Four running chairs arrived. In three were two militia, and there was one in the chair for Mara. He held a knife, and a big club lay beside him.

Now she knew exactly where to go, and they arrived at the tunnel in the south-western quadrant before midday. Six militiamen had been ordered to wait for her, with the chairs, the porters, and their weapons. She wanted to go into the Towers alone, but the man with her in the chair insisted on coming too: Juba's orders, he said.

The two stood hesitating at the entrance to the tunnel. They were afraid, and did not hide it. They did not know how long the tunnel was: a little, round eye of light meant its end. The air coming from it was bad. They were afraid of who they would meet inside it. Mara lit a big torch of brushwood soaked with tallow, and the militiaman took it from her and held it high. Now she was glad he was there. The earth of the tunnel was hard: it had been in use a long time. They passed the yellow carapace of a beetle, killed some time ago, for shards of black and yellow lay about. The torchlight illuminated rough earth walls and a low earth ceiling. There were felted spiders' webs on the ceiling, but these were not the monsters Mara had seen before, just ordinary working spiders, watching from their stations. About fifteen minutes of slow, cautious progress took them out into the air, from where they could look back and see the rusting tangles of the fence, which no longer could keep anyone out. They were right under the six black Towers of the south-western quadrant.