“Nothing’s free,” I said as we walked up the path. But I felt a nagging disappointment.

China Black stopped and stared at me. “Most things are free,” she said. “You have much to make up for, that is all.”

“What is Legba to me, or I to him?” I smiled when I said it, though.

“That is exactly what I mean.”

I made a gesture meant to include the hounfor, the gardens, the house. “Was most of this free?”

The look she gave me had irritation in it, and surprise, and a little of something else that I liked less. She shook her head and continued up the path. I followed her back to the house.

She put me to work. As long as I was there, she said, and knew about these things, I could look over their electrical system. I reminded myself that I was getting free room and board, whether I wanted it or not, and climbed up to the roof to look at the solar panels. If I hadn’t known better than to stay out in the sun that long, I would have found an excuse to be there all day. I could see the whole island, green and dotted with rooftops, and the silver-gray brilliance of the river around it. The suspension bridge looked like a fistful of streamers, tying the island to the City, and the City dozed upright, glossy and geometrical. I had locked the doors and covered my tracks; the archives were safe and would wait for me, as they always did.

There was a printing press in the basement. I should have known there would be. It was a hand-operated one; more than that I couldn’t tell, since that wasn’t the medium I specialized in. I recognized type cases, though, and the apparatus for laying out a page. I had to squeeze around it all to get to the circuit box.

I was in the cellar when Sherrea stuck her head around the door (I jumped) and said, “It’s lunch. Are you done?”

“Mmm.”

“Well, you may as well stop to eat it, since it’s there. Theo’s been asking where you are.”

It occurred to me that Theo could have done a lot of what I’d found to do today. He was a friend of Sher’s, and Sher seemed to run tame here. Had Theo been here before? Or had he been, was he still, an unknown quantity, as I’d been before Mr. Lyle — Claudius — surprised things out of me in the library?

The dining room, paneled and bay windowed, was awfully full of people. China Black and Claudius Lyle, Frances, Mick, Etienne, the old woman who’d opened the gates — yesterday? Was that all? — Theo, and now Sher and me. Sher’s hand lifted, as if it wanted to settle on my shoulder, and dropped again. “Don’t worry,” she muttered, “I’ll protect you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re half out of your mind, and hiding it damn well. I’ve never seen you in a group larger than three people.”