Sarn riffled through her papers. ‘We have prepared a map, based on shipfolks’ maps and what we have gleaned from dreams, but it is freshly inked so we could not bring it up here without damaging it. I can describe it, however.’

I gestured for her to go on.

‘In the approach from the ocean, the Red City, which seems also to be the only city in the Red Land, is hidden behind what appear to be high cliffs of reddish stone, so that the coast seems unassailable. But there is a narrow channel cut through them that opens into a vast, tranquil bay. From that side, one can see that the cliffs are in fact a great natural wall of stone rising up around the margin of the Red Land all along the Clouded Sea. That is the way our ships will have to come. The Red City sprawls all about the bay and, given that the entire population of the Red Land dwells there, it is many times larger than any Land city. Its streets are a labyrinth of curves and spirals and the buildings are largely of red stone. There are few green or verdant places, though there is apparently plenty of fresh water. It sounds as if the settlement was a good deal more fertile in the time of the Red Queen. Matthew speculates that this is because the slavemasters dwell in a place where there is little greenery and so they do not regard plants as anything but fodder or medicine.’

The Red City being conjured up for me bore little resemblance to the city I had seen in Dragon’s dreams, save for the redness of the stone used for building. Dragon had dreamed of a palace and a garden atop a hill, for one, though the Red City lay on flat terrain, but dreams tended always to portray real things as they felt rather than as they truly were. It was not surprising that Dragon had lifted her beloved mother and her home to the top of a hill, nor that she would remember her city as being gracious and beautiful.

‘What lies beyond the Red City?’ I asked.

‘A dry stony plain girdled by a broken arc of rocky hills. The mines are within these hills. There used only to be a couple of them, but once the refining machine was set up, the demand for ore increased, leading to a whole series of mines being sunk. Beyond the hills is a great plain split here and there by enormous fissures. Beyond that is an enormous sandy desert and beyond that, barely visible, is a range of mountains. Beyond are said to be more desert lands. The Red Land is vast but the whole of it is barren of water save for the area around the Red City, which is built on a great number of springs.’