Outside our foul shanty the city squats fatly in its freedom, brazen again and fearless. It ignores us. It is an ingrate. The days are cooler this week, a brief ebbing of the relentless summer. Gusts blow in from the coast, from the Gross Tar estuary and Iron Bay. Clutches of ships arrive every day. They queue in the river to the east, waiting to load and unload. Merchant ships from Kohnid and Tesh; explorers from the Firewater Straits; floating factories from Myrshock; privateers from Figh Vadiso, respectable and law-abiding so far from the open sea. Clouds scurry like bees before the sun. The city is raucous. It has forgotten. It has some vague notion that once its sleep was troubled: nothing more.

I can see the sky. There are slats of light between the rough boards that surround us. I would like very much to be away from this now. I can imagine the sensation of wind, the sudden heaviness of air below me. I would like to look down on this building and this street. I wish that there was nothing to hold me here, that gravity was a suggestion I could ignore.

Lin signs. Sticky fearful, whispers Isaac snottily, watching her hands. Piss and mother, food wings happy. Afraid. Afraid.

PART EIGHT

Judgement

Chapter 52

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

“We have to leave.”

Derkhan spoke quickly. Isaac looked up at her dully. He was feeding Lin, who squirmed uncomfortably, unsure of what she wanted to do. She signed at him, her hands tracing words and then simply moving, tracing shapes that had no meaning. He flicked fruit detritus from her shirt.

He nodded and looked down. Derkhan continued as if he had disagreed with her, as if she were convincing him.

“Every time we move, we’re afraid.” She spoke quickly. Her face was hard. Terror, guilt, exhilaration and misery had scoured her. She was exhausted. “Every time any kind of automaton goes past, we think the Construct Council’s found us. Every man or woman or xenian makes us freeze up. Is it the militia? Is it one of Motley’s thugs?” She kneeled down. “I can’t live like this, ’Zaac,” she said. She looked down at Lin, smiled very slowly and closed her eyes. “We’ll take her away,” she whispered. “We can look after her. We’re finished here. It can’t be long before one of them finds us. I’m not waiting around for that.”

Isaac nodded again.

“I . . .” He thought carefully. He tried to organize his mind. “I’ve got . . . a commitment,” he said quietly.