"When Seemly crossed the Swollen Ocean and found Bered Kai Nev six and a half centuries ago," he said, "what do you think he carried in his holds? The Fervent Mantis was a big ship, Bellis…" He paused-she had not invited him to use her first name. But she made no sign of disapproval, and he continued. "It carried booze and silk and swords and gold. Seemly was looking to trade. That’s what unlocked the eastern continent. All the explorers you’ve heard of-Seemly, Donleon, Brubenn, probably Libintos and bloody Jabber, too-they were traders." He spoke with childish gusto.

"It’s people like me who bring back the maps and the information. We can offer insights like no one else. We can trade them with the government-that’s my commission. There’s no such thing as exploration or science-there’s only trade. It was merchants who traveled to Suroch, who brought back the maps Dagman Beyn used in the Pirate Wars."

He saw Bellis’ expression and registered that this particular story did not cast him and his fellows in the best light.

"Bad example," he muttered, and Bellis could not help but laugh at his contrition.

"I won’t live here," Bellis said. It was near two in the morning, and she was watching the stars through the window. They dragged with excruciating slowness across the pane as Armada was tugged gradually around.

"I don’t like it here. I resent being kidnapped. I can understand why some of the other press-ganged from Terpsichoria don’t mind…" She said that as a grudging sop to the guilt that Johannes had inculcated in her, and she knew uncomfortably that it was grossly insufficient, that it denigrated the freedom that had been granted to the Terpsichoria’s human cargo. "But I will not live out my life here. I’m going home to New Crobuzon."

She spoke with a hard certainty she did not quite feel.

"Not me," he said. "I mean, I like coming back, and living it up after some trip or other-dinners in Chnum, that sort of thing-but I couldn’t live there. Though I understand why you’d like it. I’ve seen a lot of cities, and never anything to compare. But whenever I’ve been there more than a couple of weeks, I start to feel claustrophobic. Hemmed in by the dirt and the begging and the people… and the cant they spout in Parliament.

"Even when I’m uptown, you know? BilSantum Plaza or Flag Hill or Chnum-still I feel like I’m trapped in Dog Fenn or Badside. I just can’t ignore them. I have to get out. And as for the bastards that run the place…"

Bellis was interested in his unabashed disloyalty. He was in the pay of the damn New Crobuzon government, after all, and even through the slight fog of wine, Bellis was coldly conscious that it was they, his bosses, who had caused her to flee.