‘That’s why I’m letting you know what’s what,’ Gentle said with deadpan imperturbability. ‘She’s slow coming to the boil, if you know what I mean, but I reckon I’ll be in with her before we plan to go.’

‘If the Invisible College sends help, we may have to leave before you get your chance.’

‘Then I’ll have to hope to strike lucky on our travels, or do without if I must. It won’t be my first dry Season,’ Gentle said. ‘And you – you really don’t feel anything?’

‘I’m entirely occupied with what we need to do,’ Pilgrim said.

‘Don’t waste too much energy fretting over it. Only way we can know it will work is when we do it,’ Gentle said.

He believed that the world was as it was, and everything that happened was fore-ordained by the will of the Mother. That there was no point struggling against the inevitable: all you could do was accept what fell out and make what you could of it. Pilgrim, though, was kept awake at night by tabulating over and again everything that needed to be done and everything that could go wrong. The biggest problem, if there was no help to be had from the Invisible College, was lack of money. Despite the risk of being found out by the constable, he had kept back the most valuable books, hiding them in plain sight on the crowded shelves of the second floor. But there were not very many, and if there was no other source of ready cash it was likely that he would have to sell his amber pendant. He would be sorry to lose it, but given the cause he hoped that Master Able would have approved of the sacrifice. And if the sale of the pendant wouldn’t cover the price of their fares, Gentle said, they could always hitch rides on freight trains. Like most rovers, he’d had some experience in that, and told Pilgrim that train hands usually turned a blind eye. The only disadvantage was that freight trains were slow and you’d often find yourself laid up for days at a time in some remote junction, waiting for the next ride, but if you needed to get somewhere but lacked money to pay a regular fare you didn’t have any cause to complain about the inconvenience.

Going on the run from the law and atonement and living like beggarly rovers was a dismal prospect. Even worse was the idea that, if all his plans failed, Pilgrim would have to find Master Mindwell and volunteer to replace the assistant he had lost to Foeless Landwalker’s cult: a far worse betrayal than breaking the terms of his exile and stealing books that rightfully belonged to his tribe. So when at last Teal visited the Hearth, he was both relieved and apprehensive.