But she could never quit this place, abandon her obligations, until Adda's fees were paid off. Ties of obligation and duty would imprison her here as surely as any cage.

Qos Frenk blinked, studying her. "I know this must be a strange situation for you. I want you to know you've nothing to fear but hard work. I own the ceiling-farm, and I own your labor, in that sense. But I don't make the mistake of imagining I own your soul.

"I'm not a cruel man, Dura. I believe in treating my coolies as well as I can afford. And..."

"Why?" Dura found herself snarling. "Because you're such a noble person?"

He smiled. "No. Because it's economically more efficient for me to have a happy and healthy workforce." He laughed, and he looked a little more human to Dura. "That should reassure you if nothing else does. I'm sure you'll be fine here, Dura. Why, as soon as you learn the trade I don't see why we shouldn't be thinking of you as a future supervisor, or skills specialist."

She forced herself to smile back. "All right. Thank you. I understand you're doing your best for me. What will I have to do?"

He indicated the rows of ripening wheat dangling from the forest ceiling above them. "In a few weeks we'll be ready for the harvest, and that's when the real work begins. But for now your job is to ensure that the growth of the wheat is unimpeded. Look for the obvious, like boars crushing the stems. Or trespassers." He looked saddened. "We get a lot of that nowadays... scavengers, I mean. A lot of poverty in the City, you see. Watch out for blight. Any kind of discoloration, or growth abnormalities... If we get any diseases we isolate the area and sterilize it fast, before the infection spreads.

"Look for wild grass, any plants growing among the roots, damaging the wheat. We don't want anything else absorbing the lovely Crust isotopes which were meant for our crop... And that includes young trees. You'd be surprised how fast they grow." He spread his hands wide. His enthusiasm was almost endearing, Dura thought. "You wouldn't think it but this part of the Crust was all native forest, once."

"Remarkable," Dura cut in drily, remembering the broad, unspoiled forests of her home area in the far upflux.

Frenk looked at her uncertainly.

They met another worker, a woman who drifted with her head lost in the green-gold crop and her legs dangling down into the Air. The woman was hauling small saplings down from between the green stems of the wheat and shoving the weeds into a sack bound to her waist.

"Ah," Frenk said with a smile. "One of my best workers. Rauc, meet Dura. Just arrived here. Perhaps you'd be good enough to show her around..."