‘As to that, I don’t believe in the visitors, but I don’t not believe in them either,’ the old man said. ‘You could say I’m neutral about the idea. But I got a living to make, and I brought a cartload of necessities to sell to the people gathered up ahead. Once everything’s gone, I plan to return home and sit out whatever happens next. Because one thing I know is true: whether or not these visitors show themselves, things are going to change. When people are given a little hope they find it hard to let it go. So if these creatures from beyond the sky don’t come, I reckon people will decide to help themselves, having discovered a common cause instead of fighting each other for scraps.’

After Pilgrim and Poppy reported their findings, Fragrant said that people were likely to be disappointed if hope was all they had, but Poppy disagreed.

‘This isn’t really about Foeless Landwalker, or the visitors,’ she said. ‘It’s about a desperate need for change and an end to hard times.’

Later, as they were preparing to turn in for the night, Gentle took Pilgrim aside and asked if he was still set on collaborating with the women. Pilgrim was wearing his ratty fur coat and Gentle was shawled in a blanket; their shipboard clothes, cotton vests and canvas jackets and trews, could not keep out the piercing cold of the desert night.

‘Are you still brooding over the business with the cutlery?’ Pilgrim said.

‘I’ve been thinking about what the Deeproot woman told us about rich families getting behind Foeless Landwalker,’ Gentle said. ‘There’s a saying in my tribe. When you see gulls flocking over a patch of water, you know there’s fish to be found. Only here it’s power, and the money that power attracts.’

‘You know that I’m not interested in any of that.’

Gentle looked over at Poppy and Fragrant in their bedrolls on the other side of the campfire, and stepped closer to Pilgrim and said quietly, ‘Of course you are. The women want to use you and what you know to win recognition for themselves. And you’re happy to be used because you need their money to finish your work.’

‘It’s the work that’s important, not the money. Finding out the truth about the visitors, and proving that my master was right and his critics were wrong.’

‘But you still need money to do what you need to do,’ Gentle said patiently, as if to a recalcitrant child. ‘And seeing as Foeless Landwalker has the support of people with more money than either of us can dream of, we’d be fools if we didn’t try to take advantage of that.’

‘You still haven’t understood anything I’ve told you about scholarly work, have you?’ Pilgrim said. ‘That it’s not about money, but the getting and sharing of knowledge.’