'Your pardon, citizen,' she said. Ahead she could see that the people had tocrowd into a narrower space. They were, more or less, in a line. 'Are you goingto the slave auction?'

'Slave auction? Slave auction! No slave auction today, foreigner. The carnivalcome to town!' .

'What's the carnival?'

'A carnival! You've never heard of a carnival? Well, ne'mind, nor has half thepeople in Sanctuary, nor seen one neither. Two twelve-years since one came. Nowthe prince is governor, we'll see more, I don't doubt. They'll come wanting anadmission to his brother the Emperor - out of the hinterlands and into thecapital, if you know.'

'But I still don't know what a carnival is.'

The old man pointed.

Over the high wall of the palace grounds, the great drape of cloth that hunglimply around a tall pole slowly began to spread, and open - like a hugemushroom, Wess thought. The guy ropes tightened, forming the canvas into anenormous tent.

'Under there - magic, foreign child. Strange animals. Prancing horses withpretty girls in feathers dancing on their backs. Jugglers, clowns, acrobats onhigh wires - and the freaks!' He chuckled. 'I like the freaks best; the lasttime I saw a carnival they had a sheep with two heads and a man with two - butthat's not a story to tell a young girl unless you're fucking her.' He reachedout to pinch her. Wess jerked back, drawing her knife. Startled, the old mansaid. There, girl, no offence.' She let the blade slide back into its sheath.The old man laughed again. 'And a special exhibition, this carnival - special,for the prince. They won't say what 'tis. But it'll be a sight, you can besure.'

Thank you, citizen,' Wess said coldly, and stepped back among her friends. Theragged man was swept forward with the crowd.

Wess caught Aerie's gaze. 'Did you hear?'

Aerie nodded. 'They have him. What else could their great secret be?'

'In this skyforsaken place, they might have overpowered some poor troll, or asalamander.' She spoke sarcastically, for trolls were the gentlest of creatures,and Wess herself had often stretched up to scratch the chin of a salamander wholived on a hill where she hunted. It was entirely tame, for Wess never huntedsalamanders. Their hide was too thin to be useful and no one in the family likedlizard meat. Besides, one could not pack out even a single haunch of fullgrownsalamander, and she would not waste her kill. 'In this place, they might have awinged snake in a box, and call it a great secret.'

'Wess, their secret is Satan and we all know it,' Quartz said. 'Now we have tofigure out how to free him.'

'You're right, of course,' Wess said.

At the gate, two huge guards glowered at the rabble they had been ordered toadmit to the parade-ground. Wess stopped before one of them.

'I want to see the prince,' she said.

'Audience next week,' he replied, hardly glancing at her.

'I need to see him before the carnival begins.'

This time he did look at her, amused. 'You do, do you? Then you've no luck. He'sgone, won't be back till the parade.'

'Where is he?' Chan asked.

She heard grumbling from the crowd piling up behind them.

'State secret,' the guard said. 'Now go in, or clear the way.'

They went in.

The crowd thinned abruptly, for the parade-ground was enormous. Even the tentseemed small; the palace loomed above it like a cliff. If the whole populationof Sanctuary had not come here, then a large proportion of every section had,for several merchants were setting up stalls: beads here, fruit there, pastriesfarther on; a beggar crawled slowly past; and a few paces away a large group ofnoblefolk in satins and fur and gold walked languidly beneath parasols held bynaked slaves. The thin autumn sunlight was hardly enough to mar the complexionof the most delicate noble. or to warm the back of the most vigorous slave.

Quartz looked around, then pointed over the heads of the crowd. 'They're makinga pathway, with ropes and braces. The parade will come through that gate, andinto the tent from this side.' She swept her hand from right to left, east towest, in a long curve from the Processional gate. The carnival tent was set upbetween the auction block and the guards' barracks.

They tried to circle the tent, but the area beyond it all the way to the wallwas blocked by rope barriers. In the front, a line of spectators already snakedback far beyond any possible capacity.

'We'll never get in,' Aerie said.

'Maybe it's for the best,' Chan said. 'We don't need to be inside with Satanwe need to get him out.'

The shadows lengthened across the palace grounds. Wess sat motionless andsilent, waiting. Chan bit his fingernails and fidgeted. Aerie hunched under hercloak, her hood pulled low to shadow her face. Quartz watched her anxiously, andfingered the grip of her sword.

After again being refused an audience with the prince, this time at the palacedoors, they had secured a place next to the roped-off path. Across the way, awork crew put the finishing touches on a platform. When it was completed,servants hurried from the palace with rugs, a silk-fringed awning, severalchairs, and a brazier of coals. Wess would not have minded a brazier of coalsherself; as the sun fell, the air was growing chill.

The crowd continued to gather, becoming denser, louder, more and more drunk.Fights broke out in the line at the tent, as people began to realize they wouldnever get inside. Soon the mood grew so ugly that criers spread among thepeople, ringing bells and announcing that the carnival would present one moreperformance, several more performances, until all the citizens of Sanctuary hadthe opportunity to glimpse the carnival's wonders. And the secret. Of course,the secret. Still, no one even hinted at the secret's nature.

Wess pulled her cloak closer. She knew the nature of the secret; she only hopedthe secret would see his friends and be ready for whatever they could do.

The sun touched the high wall around the palace grounds. Soon it would be dark.

Trumpets and cymbals: Wess looked towards the Processional gates, but a momentlater realized that all the citizens around her were straining for a view of thepalace entrance. The enormous doors swung open and a phalanx of guards marchedout, followed

by a group of nobles wearing jewels and cloth of gold. They strode across thehard-packed ground. The young man at the head of the group, who wore a goldcoronet, acknowledged his people's shouts and cries as if they all wereaccolades - which, Wess thought, they were not. But above the mutters andcomplaints, the loudest cry was, 'The prince! Long live the prince!'

The phalanx marched straight from the palace to the new-built platform. Anyoneshortsighted enough to sit in that path had to snatch up their things and hurryout of the way. The route cleared as swiftly as water parting around a stone.

Wess stood impulsively, about to sprint across the parade route to try once moreto speak to the prince.

'Sit down!'

'Out of the way!'

Someone threw an apple core at her. She knocked it away and crouched down again,though not because of the threats or the flying garbage. Aerie, too, with thesame thought, started to her feet. Wess touched her elbow.

'Look,' she said.

Everyone within reach or hearing of the procession seemed to have the same idea.The crowd surged in, every member clamouring for attention. The prince flung outa handful of coins, which drew the beggars scuffling away from him. Others, moreintent on their claims, continued to press him. The guards fell back,surrounding him, nearly cutting off the sight of him, and pushed at the citizenswith spears held broadside.