Alise set her hand upon his.

Well, perhaps not the only thing. For how could any man feel discouragement when every night a woman engulfed him in tenderness and sensuality? She woke in him appetites he had not known he had, and sated them as well. He had been more surprised than she had at how quickly the crew and keepers accepted their new arrangement. He had expected difficulties with Sedric at least, for although Alise nominally kept her separate quarters, she openly came and went from his stateroom without apologies or explanations. When Sedric’s silence on the matter had extended to two and then three days, he had asked Alise if she thought he had best directly tackle the subject with him.

‘He knows,’ she said bluntly. ‘He doesn’t approve. He thinks you are taking advantage of me and that I will one day greatly regret the trust I’ve put in you.’ Her eyes scanned his as she said this, as if she were trying to read his very soul. ‘I thought about that for a time. And I decided that if you were deceiving me, at least this is a deception that I have chosen.’ A strange little smile knotted her mouth. ‘And it is a deception that I will enjoy however long it lasts.’

He’d folded her into his arms then. ‘It’s not a deception,’ he promised her. ‘And what we have will last. Perhaps some days you will be disappointed by me; perhaps eventually you’ll tire of me and seek someone cleverer or wealthier. But for now, sweet summer lady, I plan to enjoy my days with you wholeheartedly.’ They had been standing in his stateroom, face to face, as they spoke. And on his final words, he stooped and picked her up and deposited her on his bed. She gave a whoop of surprise as he scooped her off her feet, and then, as she landed safely on the bed, she had given a throaty chuckle that sent a flush of pleasure through him. There was a bit of the bawd in this Bingtown lady, he was discovering to his delight. He suspected that discovery was new to Alise also.

Now, as they stood and looked out over the water, quiet stretched out around them. When she finally spoke, she asked her question gently. ‘Are you sure Tarman was correct when he brought us this way?’

He lifted his hand from the railing, catching hers as he did so. The ship was irritable enough without him doubting it. ‘I’m as certain as he is,’ he said. More quietly he added, ‘What else do we have to go on, Alise? If the dragons had felt strongly that it was in the other direction, I think they would have objected.’

‘I just thought, well, it appeared to be more of a navigable waterway. And so I thought it likely that a large city, such as Kelsingra must have been, would be built on a navigable waterway’

‘That would made sense.’ That idea had occurred to him, more than once. He consoled her as he did himself. ‘But everything has changed since the days of the Elderlings. This might have been a deep lake then. Or perhaps a lazy river wandered through low banks of farmland. We can’t know. Trusting Tarman makes just as much sense as ignoring him and going the other way’

‘So. We have an even chance of being right and finding Kelsingra.’

He scratched at his beard. ‘As even as any other chance. Alise, we might have passed its sunken ruins days ago. Or the tributary that led there might have silted in and grown up as forest a hundred years ago. We don’t know. Do you want to give up and go back?’

She thought for a long time. ‘I don’t want to go back ever,’ she said quietly.

‘Then we go on,’ he said. He squinted. ‘Look at that, over there. Something wrong with that patch of reeds?’

She leaned past him, pressing against his arm to do so. Boyish and silly to enjoy that so thoroughly, but he did. Then she shocked him by gripping the railing and saying, ‘Tarman, we need to go over there and see what that is! Right away!’

He didn’t know whether to laugh aloud or feel affronted when he felt his ship heel over to obey her.

‘It’s a perfect rectangle. And look over there. Another, smaller one.’ Despite her efforts to be calm, Alise was grinning insanely and her voice shook. She leaned so far over the edge of the small boat as she peered down through the water that Leftrin leaned over to grip the back of her shirt, ‘I won’t fall in,’ she responded to his touch, but did not straighten up.

‘Do you think they’re roofs of sunken buildings?’

‘That could be, I suppose, but they’re flat and from the tapestries and preserved images from Elderling times, I know they seldom built plain, flat-roofed structures. Some cities, such as the sunken one at Trehaug, were more like interconnected warrens rather than the free-standing buildings that we create in our cities. One of the difficulties in excavating Cassarick is that the structures are not all connected as they were at Trehaug. Why they built one way in one place and differently in another is something we don’t know.’ Alise lifted her eyes and scanned the shallows. Plant life was thick on the surface of the river. The flat leaves of lilies barely moved in the sluggish current here and ranks of reeds lifted tasselled heads. At the oars, Leftrin held the small boat in position over a perfect rectangle of shorter rushes. The uniformly stunted square of plant life was unmistakably unnatural. She eyed the shallow water beneath the boat and announced, ‘I’m getting out.’

‘Alise!’ Sedric objected before Leftrin could, but she was already pulling off her shoes and rolling up her ragged trousers.

‘It’s clean water, remember? And so shallow here that not even reeds can take root and grow tall. That’s what first attracted Leftrin’s attention. Don’t worry so much.’ She clambered out and was pleased that she hardly tipped the boat. Nonetheless she landed with a splash that flung water up to her thighs. Her feet sank into the muddy bottom.

‘What about leeches? And rasp snakes?’

‘I’ll be fine,’ she repeated, but wished Sedric hadn’t mentioned them. She wasn’t sure why he’d insisted on coming along in the small boat to explore the square of uniformly short reeds. She gritted her teeth and then scraped with her bare foot, trying to discover what was beneath the mud. Sediment spun up to obscure her view. She rolled up her sleeves and reached in with both hands. The water over the sunken structure was shallow, barely knee-deep. But reaching to the bottom with her hands still meant nearly putting her face in the water. She dug at the mud and matted roots, and then, ran her fingertips over what she’d exposed. Then she straightened up, dripping and grinning. ‘Mortar and stone. And the stone feels regular, as if it were cut and shaped and then put together.’

‘So what is it? What have we found?’

When Leftrin had halted Tarman and then ventured out in the small boat to investigate the patch of reeds, the dragons had halted, and then come back to watch the humans. Now Mercor and two of the other dragons lumbered up to investigate for themselves. Mercor lifted a foot, tested his weight on the concealed surface and then surged up out of the water to stand beside Alise. ‘Be careful!’ she cried, alarmed. ‘It may give way’

‘It won’t,’ he said shortly, it was made to take a dragon’s weight.’ He paced to the edge, turned, and then came back. ‘Somewhere here,’ he said, and then, ‘Ah. Here.’

He hooked his claws into something, tugged, grunted, ‘It’s stuck.’

‘What is?’ Alise demanded, and ‘What are you doing?’ Leftrin demanded just as the dragon, with a roar of effort, pulled on something under the water.

The result was immediate. Alise gave a cry of fear as the mud and water under her feet suddenly warmed. A bluish light suffused the sunken rectangle unevenly, making the water clear as glass in some places but in others was blocked completely by straggling roots. Alise splashed hastily back towards the small boat as the water swiftly warmed around her. She seized the edge of it, and Leftrin, with no regard for her dignity, reached over the side and clutched her shirt collar and the waist of her trousers to haul her in. ‘Back away from it!’ he shouted to Sedric, and the two men employed their paddles to move the boat away from the glowing and humming rectangle.