Adda suppressed a shudder and looked at Farr. The boy's face was drawn, the fatigue showing in his eyecups, the dilated Air-pores like craters on his cheeks.

"I'm glad you returned."

"You're a damn fool, boy. I want you to know that now, in case I don't get a chance to tell you later."

"But I had to return. I heard Bzya's voice. I..."

Something moved deep inside the cocoon — a head turning, perhaps? — and a claw-like finger protruded from the lip of the material, to pull the neck of the cocoon tighter closed. The tiny motion was redolent of shame.

"This is Bzya?"

"They had to pull him up from the underMantle. He was nearly lost — Adda, he had to abandon his Bell. He dragged back Hosch, but he was dead." The boy looked down at his friend, his hands twisting together. "We've got to get him out of here — away from the City."

"But..."

There was another dull impact, deep in the guts of the City. The very Air seemed to shake with it, and the ceiling of the ward settled, wood splintering with a series of snaps. Then a mansheight-square section of the ceiling imploded, raining sharp wood splinters. This time the workers and patients had to take notice; screams were added to the bedlam of orders and frantic activity, and patients threw bare or bandaged arms over their faces.

"All right," Adda said. "You take the head; I'll push at the feet. Move, damn you..."

They scrambled for the entrance to the ward, hauling the cocoon beneath the splintered ceiling. They had to work through the melee, pushing with their feet at slow-moving limbs and heads.

Deni was nowhere to be seen.

It seemed to take a lifetime to reach the open mouth of the ward. They bundled Bzya out into the Air, over the port's splintered lip; Bzya rolled in the Air, helpless in his cocoon. Adda and Farr scrambled after him. Farr made to grab the head end of Bzya's cocoon once more, but Adda stopped him. He hauled Bzya around lengthways, so that the Fisherman was almost lying across their laps. "We'll take him like this," Adda said. "Get hold. We'll both Wave backward..."

Farr nodded, understanding quickly. He took handfuls of the cocoon, and soon he and Adda were kicking backward in parallel through the Air, hauling the massive cocoon after them.

The City, looming huge over them, settled once more, this time with screeches from deep within its fabric. Adda imagined the huge Corestuff girders, the bones of the great carcass, twisting, failing one by one. Explosions of shattering wood erupted all over the Skin. Huge, rectilinear creases emerged over the wooden face, as if the Skin were starting to fold over on itself.