There were dining rooms, ballrooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, ritual rooms, parlours, terraces, kitchens, studies, training halls, libraries, art galleries, it just went on and on. In the lowest levels, below the waterline, there were lounges with walls of translucent mist, allowing occupants to see out into the water. Very few places seemed out of bounds, with the major exception being Bahadir’s personal suite. It occupied the top four floors of the central building but almost all other areas were open to them. The other restricted areas were secure rooms containing various valuables. The two thieves naturally thought of robbing the place but were not foolish enough to try.

Experimentally, they went to the cloud path that led to the shore. None of the people Emir left behind attempted to stop the two women as they stood just inside the palace, looking out. The bridge to the shore was anchored directly in front of the Adventure Society reception building, beyond which were gardened paths leading deeper into the campus.

“I really don’t think they’ll try to stop us leaving,” Belinda said.

“They don’t need to,” Sophie said. “Do you really think we’d get out of the Adventure Society grounds without being snatched up?”

* * *

Rufus held out his glass.

“To Farrah.”

Gary and Jason touched their glasses to his and they drank. The trio was in an open-air bar in one of the wealthier parts of the city of Boko. It had been a day and a half since they arrived and they had been exploring the city. It wasn’t a port city like Greenstone, or as large. As such, the population wasn’t as diverse, being made up almost entirely of humans. They were very dark-skinned, like the Ustei, but the cultures were clearly very different. The hairstyles in Boko weren’t wild and crazy, and the clothes weren’t a patchwork mess. The local fashion was loose and breathable, like that of Greenstone, but in more subdued colours. Earthy browns, yellows and reds dominated, compared to the kaleidoscope of colours the Greenstone populace preferred.

Gary and Rufus shared more stories about Farrah, while Jason brought them up to speed on his activities in their absence.

“You want to make this thief girl an adventurer?” Rufus asked. “What was her name again?”

“Sophie Wexler. She’s a celestine, no family ties in Greenstone, from what little I was able to get out of her.”

“It’s a creative solution,” Rufus said. “At the very least it would prevent her from being quietly handed off to Lamprey in some backroom political deal. The society would never allow that for a member.”

“Lamprey’s fixation on her is the key,” Jason said. “It’s the lever Arella is tugging on. If we can definitively remove Wexler from Lamprey’s reach, that lever goes away. Her political value vanishes, and she goes back to being just some woman from Old City.”