‘Harm a hair on my head,’ I told him, ‘and you’ll be looking for a new way to go to the toilet.’

‘Is that any way to talk? You were all fine and educated when you left Mazarile. I’ll be accused of bringing back soiled goods, won’t I?’

‘You’ll be the one soiling something, Vidin. Just show me to the ship. And then stay away from me.’

‘Given your idea of ladylike conversation, it’d be a pleasure.’

As soon as Quindar got me aboard, the hard part of his job was done. He didn’t think I could get up to any mischief on the ship, so I didn’t need to be locked in my room for the whole trip, which would have been against the rules anyway. I couldn’t get off the ship, not when it was under way, and if I tried hiding from him he only had to follow the signal from the bracelet that Dr Morcenx had kindly provided. I had a bundle of belongings, my quoins – he hadn’t touched them – and that was my lot. I had one little room, really not much more than a cupboard, and he had a larger one next to it. The partition was thin enough that I had to put up with his snoring and gurgling all night. I’d have taken Garval’s screaming over that any day.

The transport was a bulk clipper with passenger accommodation offered as an afterthought. It was much bigger and slower than either the Monetta or the Courtesan, with a larger crew in the pay of one of the commercial lines, and they’d gone to the trouble of making bits of the ship turn around like meat on a spit so that you could walk up and down the promenade decks and eat and sleep just as you would on a world. Beyond that, though, the principles of operation weren’t too different. We set off on ions, then flung out sails to knock some speed off our orbit and begin the long fall back to the Congregation. When we’d been under way for six hours I found a porthole that looked back to the spindle of Trevenza Reach, getting smaller and smaller, and I felt a surge of sadness and regret that things had taken the pretty turn they had. I’d spent half my life day-dreaming of Trevenza Reach and all the giddy possibilities of the place, and now they’d been snatched away, along with the only person in all the worlds – besides my sister – that I dared count as a true and honest friend.

Without them, I had to play it cool.