"I care, Johannes. I never thought I’d give a stiver for anything that happened in this place, but the scale of this plan, the hubris… And the thought that I might help…" Johannes watched her with cautious pleasure. "Because of how I found out the truth. That’s why I asked you to come here, Johannes. I have something for you."

She reached into her bag and handed him the book.

Poor Johannes was suffering so many shocks tonight, Bellis thought vaguely, wave after wave of them: the shock of her contacting him, of seeing her, of her apparent change of mind about the city, of the fact that she knew about the avanc, and now this.

She was silent through his breathless incredulity and gasps and choked joy.

Finally he looked up at her.

"Where did you get this?" He could hardly speak.

She told him about Shekel and his fervor for the children’s section. She reached out gently to the book in his hands and turned the pages back.

"Look at the illustrations," she said. "You can see how it got misshelved. I doubt there’s many people aboard who can read High Kettai. It was this that got under my skin. This." She stopped at the picture of the massive eye under the boat. Even now as she dissembled, even having seen the simple picture scores of times, still she felt a little rill of astonishment as she looked at it.

"It wasn’t just the pictures that told me what was going on, Johannes." From her bag she pulled a mass of paper, covered with her tight handwriting. "I do read High Kettai, Johannes," she said. "I wrote a damn book about it." And again, something about that fact sat ill inside her. She ignored it and waved the manuscript at him.

"I’ve translated Aum."

And here was yet another shock for Johannes, who reacted with the same noises and fervor as before.

That’s the last one, Bellis thought, calculating. She watched him dancing with delight on the empty deck. That’s the end of them. When he had finished his stupid little jig, she began to steer him in the direction of the city, toward the pubs. Let’s sit and ponder this, she thought coolly. Let’s get drunk together, eh? Look at you, so overjoyed that I’m back on your side. So thrilled to have your friend back. Let’s work out what’s to be done, you and me.

Let’s help you come up with my plan.

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

In these warm waters, the night-lights and the sound of the waves against the city’s flanks were softer, as if the sea was aerated and the light diffuse: brine and illumination became less starkly elemental. Armada nestled in the long, balmy darkness of what was now, unquestionably, a summer.