Wrists looped together by flex restraints, Ysbel braced as best she could as the runabout rattled down the steep streets of Highwater Reach and splashed into the river. She assumed that she would be taken to the embassy, but the runabout churned downstream to Concord’s docks and mounted a slipway and swerved inside one of the godowns.

The man and the woman pulled her out and marched her through the vast gloomy interior to a lean-to office at the rear. An isolation chamber shaped like an egg stood on its blunt end in one corner. Ysbel was pushed inside and forced to sit on the shelf that circled its walls, and the man cut the flex restraints.

‘We need to put a few things on record,’ he said.

‘If you co-operate it won’t take long,’ the woman said.

They sat opposite Ysbel, knee to knee in the cramped space, and launched into a basic interrogation. Why had she come to Concord? Who had she met? Was Goodwill Saltmire working for her? Were any other natives working for her?

They were calm and confident and scrupulously polite, dressed in black trousers and black tunics cinched with utility belts.

Ysbel said again that she was working with Mother’s approval and support, and gave a brief outline of her mission. Her captors already seemed to know most of the story. Knew that she had met Goodwill during the investigation of Trina Mersdaughter’s involvement in the wrongful deaths of two natives, knew that Goodwill had recently contacted her and that she had agreed to help him, and knew about Swift Singletree and Clarity Forrester, too. They asked her why she had gone rogue, colluded with natives and ended up in the deepest basement of the Library of All People, where neither she nor any other human person had any right to be. Asked her if she had been in contact with Trina Mersdaughter after the wrongful-death incident, if she had ever reached out to Trina’s partner, Raia Karysdaughter.

Ysbel told them that Iryn Moonsdaughter, the agent from Special Operations who had recruited her, and Zaquil, the helper assigned to her by Mother herself, would confirm that she had the authority to investigate the matter of the missing map as she saw fit.

‘If you restore my link, I can put you in touch with Zaquil right now.’

‘That isn’t possible,’ the woman said.

‘And I’m afraid that your little helper’s opinion has no weight,’ the man said.

Ysbel said, ‘Then go talk to Special Operations.’

‘We already have,’ the man said. ‘They denied that you were working for them.’

‘You must realise that you are in very serious trouble,’ the woman said.

‘It appears that you have been badly misled,’ the man said.

‘We have to check a few things,’ the woman said. ‘Don’t go anywhere.’