He was met by Righteous Redvine, one of the animal collectors who had supplied Master Able with specimens for his studies on comparative anatomy and three moonspans ago had sent a note about a sighting in the ruins of a bear city. Pilgrim had conducted an interview with the witness by mail, and wanted to follow it up with his first field interview and examine the place where the sighting had occurred. After leaving his luggage in the care of the station master, he and Righteous Redvine set off in a trotcart drawn by a bowbacked mara to meet the witness, passing the grassy mound of a workers’ lodge and a stretch of strip fields.

Righteous, a stocky, forthright person dressed in a waxed longcoat, told Pilgrim how sorry he was to hear of Master Able’s death, said that he would miss the man’s letters.

‘He didn’t write often, but it was always a treat when he did. His mind had some interesting corners.’

‘It certainly did,’ Pilgrim said, with a pluck at his heart.

The forest edge rose up abruptly beyond the far side of the strip fields and the road drove straight into it. Big cedars, yellowwood pines and stands of giant bamboo stood along either side, with glimpses of gaps here and there where trees had been felled. The air was close and warm and windless; the strip of sky between the treetops dull white with low cloud.

Righteous explained that trees were harvested singly or in small groups, what was known as patch cutting.

‘Bears clear-felled most of it when this was their territory. Apart from a few isolated valleys, the forest is what we call second growth, but we try our best to enrich the Mother’s bounty. To heal the land. So we take great care in what we select to cut and let the clearings which are left regenerate naturally.’

The witness Pilgrim had come to meet, Mercy Redvine, a distant cousin of Righteous, was a scout who spent his days hiking through remote parts of the forest, searching out trees suitable for felling and staking likely routes to bring the timber out.

‘They’re independent fellows, scouts,’ Righteous said. ‘Wilfully solitary, with a wildness in their blood. But old Mercy is reliable enough. Straight talking, not prone to exaggeration or tale spinning. And knows more about the forest than anyone else hereabouts. Remember the ring-tailed imps I sent to Master Able?’

‘I think that must have been before my time,’ Pilgrim said.