"But he was one man. Armada’s a city. He scavenged steam engines: Armada has whole industrial districts. There are giant chains under the city-did you know that? What do you think they plan on doing with them? And Armada has the Sorghum." She let that sink in and saw his eyes change fractionally. "This city has hundreds of gallons of fucking rockmilk, Silas, and the means to get hundreds more. Jabber knows what thaumaturgy they can fuel with that shit.

"The Lovers think they can succeed where Aum’s man failed," she said simply. "They’re heading for the sinkhole, to call up an avanc. They’re going to harness it to the city. And they’re going to control it."

"Who else knows about the book?" said Silas, and Bellis shook her head.

"No one knows," she said. "Only the boy, Shekel. He has no idea what it is, what it means."

You did the right thing bringing this to me,Bellis had said. I’ll see what this is all about and pass it right on to Tintinnabulum as soon as I’ve seen if it’s of any use.

She remembered Shekel’s disquiet, his fear. He visited Tintinnabulum’s Castor often, to be with Angevine. Bellis knew, with a quick stab of pity, that he had not taken the book there directly himself because he was afraid that he had made a mistake. His reading was still inexpert, and faced with something of such apparent importance, his confidence had left him. He had stared at the combination of letters spelling Kruach, and had looked at the name he had copied from Tintinnabulum’s paper, and had seen that they were the same, but still, but still.

But still he was not quite sure. He did not want to make a fool of himself, or waste people’s time. He had taken it to Bellis, his friend and teacher, to check, to make sure. And ruthlessly, she had taken it from him, knowing that it gave her power.

The Lovers were bringing them south to a fissure in the seabed from where the avanc might rise. They had collected what was necessary-the scientist they needed, a rig to fuel the hexes-and now they were heading toward their quarry, their experts working in tight and ceaseless concert to complete their calculations, to solve the enigma of the summoning, even as they traveled.

And immediately Silas and Bellis saw this, as soon as they realized that they had achieved their aim, that they knew the Lovers’ plan, that they could work out where the city was heading, they began to talk frantically about how they could use that knowledge to escape.