‘You’ll not get away with this,’ Verris warned.

‘Oh, I quite suspect that we will,’ Thick-voice said. ‘It’s all at the pleasure of the Emperor.’

‘Shut up!’ snarled Copper-voice.

‘What? It’s all in the orders anyway!’

‘Still…’

‘Well, all the best to you. Quentaris thanks you,’ said Thick-voice. Then he and Copper-voice both chuckled.

Tab heard their footsteps moving away, and a woody scraping noise. Then, somewhere below them, a loud, echoey grinding sound that made Tab screw up her face in the musty darkness of her sack.

‘They’re cutting us loose,’ Verris said. ‘They’re taking away the gangway. Try to stop crying – it’ll be all right,’ he said to the woman. ‘What’s your name, anyway?’

‘Danda,’ she replied, her voice quivering. ‘I’m sorry that I’m being such a cry-baby, but nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Oo!’ she suddenly exclaimed, as the pod shifted slightly beneath them, and began to drop. ‘We’re moving!’

‘Yes, they’re sending us groundwards.’

‘Groundwards?’ said Tab. ‘But there is no ground. It’s just ocean down there!’

‘I don’t like this,’ Danda said.

‘Neither do I,’ said Verris. ‘So, we’ve got Tab the navigator, and Danda the interpreter, and the boy. You, boy – you’re not saying much. What’s your name?’

There was no response.

‘Maybe he’s dead,’ Tab suggested. ‘He hit the deck pretty hard when they threw him on.’

‘Hold on,’ Verris said, and Tab felt him wriggling past her. ‘He’s not dead – I can hear him breathing.’

The scout-pod continued to sink, buffeted and gently tossed in updrafts and air pockets as it descended. Tab closed her eyes under the cover of her sack and stretched her mind in every direction, feeling for anything that had eyes or other senses she could borrow, but there was nothing about. A very slight flicker appeared on the very fringes of her consciousness, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. Either they were already too far below Quentaris to enable her to reach the minds of anything in the city, or there was something about this pod that was blocking her mind-melding skills.

Then, as she squeezed her eyes shut and probed even further into the blackness, she felt a strange tingling about her wrists. ‘My ropes feel like they’re getting looser,’ she announced.

‘Mine too,’ Verris replied. ‘Just as those thugs said they would.’

‘They’re much looser now,’ Tab said. She began to pull her arms apart behind her, just a little at a time, trying to stretch the loosening ropes. And finally, like unravelling stitching, they fell away.

‘They’re off!’ she said, rubbing her wrists.

‘Then get ours off as well – we might be able to do something before we’re too far from the city,’ Verris said.

Tab pulled the sack from her head. The fresh air hit her face like a bucket of water, and she sucked in huge lungfuls of clean air as she looked around. In the dim light of the moon behind the thin cloud, she could see that the pod was like a small boat, only square, with railings instead of gunwales, and a stubby mast about six feet tall. In one corner was a barrel, in another some ropes were loosely coiled on the deck, a long sack lay against one side, and right in the middle of the pod was a chest, secured to the deck with two heavy metal straps.

‘I see the mission chest,’ she said.

‘Tab, untie me,’ Verris said. ‘Hurry!’

She crawled over to him and lifted the sack from his head. He blinked and looked around. Dirt or whatever else had been in the sack was caught in his untidy beard, and as soon as Tab had leant behind him and finished loosening his ropes, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and spat.

‘That is disgusting!’ he said. Then he smiled at Tab and threw his arms around her. ‘Tab Vidler! If I had to choose just one person to be on this ridiculous errand with, it would be you.’

‘It’s been so long, hasn’t it?’ Tab replied, trying not to wrinkle up her nose at his smell. ‘Where have you been?’

‘I’ve been – what’s the word? – languishing in one of Florian’s dungeons. I hear there was a rumour about me dying of a broken heart.’

‘Over a horse,’ Tab told him, and he smiled.

‘A horse? A woman, maybe, but a horse? What is wrong with these people? Come on, let’s get the others free.’

While Verris began to untie Danda, Tab went to the small, curled up bundle in the corner. This person wasn’t wearing a sack – he was simply wearing a blindfold. As she came closer in the moonlight, Tab began to recognise the face behind the blindfold. ‘Torby? Is that you?’ she said, even though she knew that it was. His blindfold fell away, and it was indeed Torby, his eyes open, staring blankly into nothingness as he lay on his left side.

Quickly Tab untied his hands, talking to him the whole time. Clearly whomever had kidnapped him didn’t know him very well – there was never any need to tie Torby up. He hadn’t moved for almost a year, so he was hardly likely to start now!

‘Torby,’ she said, hugging him close. ‘Why are you here, of all people?’

‘Oh my.’ Verris was standing behind Tab, looking down at her and Torby. ‘They took him? Why?’

‘I don’t know,’ Tab replied.

‘He’s so… What’s wrong with him? He was doing so well!’

‘He got worse just after the Archon died,’ Tab explained.

‘Didn’t we all?’ Verris replied. Then he looked up, and Tab followed his gaze. The dark underside of the floating city of Quentaris was now far above them. And below them, in the growing light of the overcast dawn, Tab could see the surface of the ocean.

‘Is there any land down there to settle on yet?’ she asked hopefully.

Verris walked to the railing and leaned out to look down. ‘Nothing but ocean,’ he said, narrowing his eyes. ‘Nothing but ocean,’ he repeated, in a thoughtful murmur. ‘I’m trying to remember.’

‘Remember what?’ asked Danda, who was now standing beside him. She was quite tall, with a long, angular face and straw-like white hair.

‘I’m trying to remember which world is all ocean. I can’t… I don’t think I’ve been here before… or have I?’ Verris shook his head again, more firmly this time. He seemed very frustrated with his failing memory. ‘I can’t remember, but I think it’s bad.’ He suddenly turned to Danda. ‘Apparently you’re our interpreter. What language do you speak?’

‘I speak several.’

‘Care to name them?’

‘Um… well, I do speak Unja.’

‘Who doesn’t?’ Verris replied. ‘What else?’

‘I also speak Thermali, quite fluently.’

‘Hmm, less common, but Thermali speakers aren’t exactly rare. Anything else?’

‘I know a little Tallis, and I can also speak… No, that’s about it. Yes, that’s all.’

‘You hesitated,’ Verris said, in a tone that, for some reason, chilled Tab’s blood. ‘What else do you speak?’

‘I told you, that’s it…’

‘What else do you speak?’ Verris insisted, his face suddenly very stern.

Danda’s voice was low, as if saying it quietly would make it less likely. ‘I also studied Yarka for a time.’

‘Yarka.’ Verris’ voice was just as quiet as Danda’s, but he said the word with a tone of dread that almost made Tab’s heart stop. ‘No one speaks Yarka.’

‘Except me,’ Danda said. ‘It’s true.’

‘Then that’s it. It makes sense, all that ocean. We’re going to meet the Yarka.’

Tab took a deep breath. To speak would be to break the moment, to make the feeling of horror that had descended over them feel completely real, rather than some kind of nasty dream. ‘What are the Yarka?’ she asked at last.

Silence.

‘Verris, tell me. Who – or what – are the Yarka?’

‘I don’t want to alarm you, Tab.’

‘It’s a little late for that,’ she said. ‘I’m supposed to be navigating, Verris, so you need to tell me. I deserve to know.’

‘Very well,’ Verris replied with a sigh. ‘Tab, even the Tolrushians are afraid of the Yarka.’