“No no no. You’re the heart and soul of this city.”

The king chose some shoes from a selection of three proffered by the attendant, then turned back to Clarence. “You say that but this fire business—what if people feel like I’m not listening to them and they have to burn down a building to get me to listen? What if next—”

“With respect, you’re flattering yourself that everything is about you—”

“Let me finish,” snapped the king. “What if next time they burn down this place?”

“The tower is much, much better guarded than an empty, unfinished building—this is the safest place you could possibly be.”

The king was staring out of the window, shaking his head. “I’ve been up here too long.”

“Focusing on the reasons for this attack endorses destruction as a means of—”

But the king was already walking toward the door.

Clarence hurried around in front of the king, alarmed. “Your Highness, you can’t—” he said, but the king just stepped over him.

“You can come with me if you like,” said the king as he left his chambers.

Clarence had no choice but to follow.

* * *

Iona sat at the table in her house, spinning the object she had found in Victor’s office. She did this by grasping the object with her left thumb and right forefinger and flipping each side of the object in a different direction simultaneously. She watched it spin for a few moments, then slapped her hand down to stop it. She didn’t know how she knew how to do this, because she had never seen anything like it before. But she had done it without thinking.

The thing was made of metal, so first of all it was odd to find it lying around. Metal was a precious commodity in the city and was only used where there was no adequate substitute. It was used for cutting-tools, for example, and in larger furnaces such as the ones in the Points of Return (domestic furnaces were generally made of stone). This small disc served no such purpose.

Despite all this Iona knew what it was. Her first sight of the object had prompted the dream-word coin to spring to the front of her mind. Another word had followed it: money. It was a unit of common exchange. You earned it with labor and bought things with it.

But money was not a concept that existed in the real world. In the city you weren’t paid for your work and if you wanted or needed something you just asked for it. So why was this here?

Iona picked up the coin. It was very weathered and a small hole had been drilled into it just inside the edge. She let it tumble down the outside of her fist. She didn’t know how she’d thought of the trick but she mastered it very quickly. As if she’d done it before.

Iona was coming to the conclusion that these were not just things from her dreams but things she had forgotten, and that made her wonder why she hadn’t seen them in so long.