‘I don’t plan to forgive him. I just want to know that he’s been freed.’

‘Hold out your hand and make a fist,’ Intrepid said, and bumped his knuckles against Pilgrim’s. ‘That’s what we do to seal an agreement where I come from.’

‘Where do you come from?’ Pilgrim said, but Intrepid had turned to watch the spectacle out on the salt pan and didn’t answer.

Foeless Landwalker was inspecting the prisoners, turning briefly to one of the orange-shirts and making an open-handed gesture. A man and a woman were freed, both falling to their knees and pressing their hands over their bowed heads in postures of abject fealty. The crowd cheered and Foeless Landwalker raised a hand in acknowledgement.

‘He doesn’t look it, but he’s three-quarters drunk,’ Intrepid told Pilgrim. ‘Lately, it’s the only way he’s been able to get through this.’

Gentle was being lashed to one of the stakes, and Foeless was stepping into the balloon’s basket. Fragrant was bent over her camera, head and shoulders shrouded by black cloth. The crowd below the platform were hooting and stamping, the carnyx brayed long and hard, and as the balloon’s burners flared at the base of its red teardrop and it began to rise the musicians struck up an incongruous dance tune.

The balloon rose until the cables that tethered it snapped taut. Foeless was standing in the basket hung beneath it, high above the salt pan, his orange shirt and cape glowing in the crossing beams of two searchlights. The crowd quietened when he raised his arms above his head, and he leaned towards the cone of a device that, after a brief mechanical clatter, amplified his voice.

He told his followers that they had come here for a great purpose. That these nightly gatherings were being watched and judged, and they must behave accordingly. Each night our gathering grows, he said. We focus our minds and pray for the visitors to come down, and each night they judge the virtue and power of our call. When they are satisfied, they will at last show themselves, as they showed themselves to me. Meanwhile, we must strive to be our best selves. We must pray for the Calling Down, and we must continue to send out emissaries to gather more people to amplify our message.