‘A scholar told me that they might represent fertility spirits, and had been defaced when the harvest failed once too often,’ Goodwill said. ‘But he also said that they are not much like representations of fertility spirits in other carvings, and agreed that they bear a striking resemblance to the figure in my uncle’s famous map. Clarity Forrester discovered records of five more carvings like that in the catalogues. All of them were found in the ruins of new cities, and all are missing from the stacks.’

‘Almost certainly taken by Joyous Hightower, or his agents,’ Juniper said. ‘He is a member of the Library’s council, and sponsors several scholars who specialise in the history of bears. One of them may have smuggled out those carvings.’ She sat upright in her seat, legs stuck straight out, hands folded on top of the hard ball of her pot belly, dark eyes fixed on Ysbel with a challenging gaze – she was one of the natives who didn’t bother to hide their contempt for humans. Landers said at least you knew where you were with them, and could get down to business without dancing around for an hour or two, but Ysbel wasn’t sure what Juniper’s mislike meant for this expedition, how it would influence the way things fell out afterwards.

‘Joyous Hightower has been collecting artefacts depicting contact between your people and bears for quite some time,’ Goodwill said. ‘And it gave me an idea about baiting a trap.’

With the help of the vendor of bear artefacts, Solomon Firststar (‘We gave him a choice,’ Juniper said. ‘Help us or face the consequences.’), Goodwill had got up a convincing fake, and when Solomon Firststar offered it to his clients, someone claiming to represent Joyous Hightower expressed interest. A viewing was arranged, and the person was detained and put to question.

‘It seems that Joyous Hightower has a network of agents which remained active after he fled to his tribe’s Hearth,’ Goodwill said. ‘An extension of his legitimate business of acting as an intermediary between our people and yours. We persuaded the agent we caught to contact Joyous using a kind of telephone. Not the link given to him by your Authority, but a different kind of techne, given by those of your people involved with the matter of the articulate bears.’

‘Do you know who these people are?’ Ysbel said, thinking of Iryn’s three questions.

‘Not yet,’ Goodwill said. ‘Joyous Hightower said that someone wanted to meet us, and told us where we would find them. Claimed that he had never met his employers face to face. Talked with them using the device they had given him.’

‘Do you believe him?’ Ysbel said.

‘He must answer for his part in this, but he is not important,’ Juniper said.