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‘Probably much the same way as he honours the charters of his ancestors,’ Malta scoffed.

She turned around and began to climb back down into the dark.

Far down the corridor, she heard sounds like distant but thunderous applause.

Dread rose in her. Drowned in memories. She knew what it meant now.

Could she traverse the city again and remain herself?

She forced herself to keep going. Once more, she scrabbled over the boats, noting in passing that they were not as dilapidated as she had thought.

Some sort of hammered metal had been applied to the hulls.

As she clambered over them, her hands came away powdered white where she had touched them.

Far down the corridor, there was another roar of applause.

She walked slowly towards it, but suddenly a cloud of dust wafted into her face.

She coughed and choked for a moment. When she blinked her eyes clear of grit and looked down the corridor, she could see a mist of dust hanging in the air.

She stared a moment longer, refusing to recognize what she instinctively knew.

The corridor had caved in. There was no going back that way.

She swayed with weariness, then stiffened her back and stood straight.

When it was all over, then she could rest. She walked back slowly to the stacked rowboats.

She eyed them sceptically. The top one had broken seats.

She picked at a splinter of it, then recognized the wood.

Cedar. Her father called it eternity wood.

She began to work the top boat loose from the others, to see if the one below it might be better.

‘Reyn? Reyn, dear, we need you. You have to wake up now.’

He rolled away from the gentle voice and the hands that plucked at him. ‘Go away,’ he said distinctly, and dragged the pillow over his head. Dimly he wondered why he was sleeping in his clothes and shoes.

Bendir had always been more direct. He seized his brother’s ankles. Reyn came all the way awake as he thudded onto the floor. He was instantly furious.

‘Bendir!’ Mother rebuked him, but his brother was unrepentant.

‘We don’t have time to talk nicely. He should have come as soon as the bell rang. I don’t care how lovesick he is, or how hung over.’

The words penetrated both Reyn’s anger and sleepiness. ‘The bell? A cave-in?’

‘Half the damn city has fallen in,’ Bendir explained tersely.

‘While you were drunk enough to walk on your lips, we had two quakes last night. Sharp shocks. We have crews digging in and shoring up as we go, but it’s taking a long time.

You know the structure of the city better than anyone does. We need you.’

‘Malta? Is Malta all right?’ Reyn asked anxiously. She had been in the dragon chamber. Had they got her out in time?

‘Forget Malta!’ his brother ordered him roughly. ‘If you want to worry about someone, the Satrap and his woman are blocked in down there, unless they’re already dead. That would be a fine irony, for us to bring him up the river to protect him only to have him die in the city.’

Reyn staggered upright. He was already dressed, down to his boots. He pushed his wild curls back from his face. ‘Let’s go. You got Malta out all right, last night?’

The question was no more than a formality. His brother and mother would not be so calm if she were trapped down there.

‘That was just a dream you had,’ Bendir said roughly.

Reyn halted where he stood. ‘No,’ he said flatly. ‘It wasn’t. She went into the city, to the Crowned Rooster Chamber. I told you that. I know I did. I told you that you had to get her out of there. Didn’t you do it?’

‘She’s sick in bed, not down in the city,’ Bendir exclaimed in annoyance.

His mother had gone pale. She set her hand to the doorframe and clutched it.

Breathlessly she said, ‘Keffria came to me at dawn. Malta was not in her bed. She thought —’ she shook her head at both of them.

‘She thought her daughter might be with Reyn. We came here, and of course, she was not. Then, the bell rang and…’ Her voice trailed off.

More determinedly, she added, ‘But how could Malta have found the city, let alone gone into it? She has scarcely left her bed since she got here. She would not know the way, let alone how to reach the Crowned Rooster Chamber?’

‘Selden,’ Reyn said harshly. ‘Her little brother. He’s been all over Trehaug with Wilee Crane. Sa knows I’ve chased Wilee out of the city a score of times. Her brother would know the way in by now, if he has been playing with Wilee. Where’s Selden?’

‘I don’t know.’ His mother admitted it with dread.

Bendir broke in without apology. ‘There are people who are definitely buried in the city, Reyn. The Satrap and his Companion, not to mention the Vintagli family’s digging crew.

They had just begun excavating a chamber near the one where they found the butterfly murals.

At least two other families had night crews at work down there.

We don’t have time to worry about those who might be down there.

We need to concentrate on the ones we know are down there. ’

‘I know Malta is down there,’ Reyn said bitterly. ‘And I know where. The Crowned Rooster Chamber. I told you that last night. I’m going after her first.’

‘You can’t!’ Bendir barked, but Jani cut him off.

‘Don’t argue. Reyn, come and dig. The main tunnel leads towards both the Crowned Rooster Chamber and the apartments we allotted to the Satrap. Work together and you can get access to both.’

Reyn gave his brother a betrayed look. ‘If only you’d listened to me last night,’ he said accusingly.

‘If only you’d been sober last night,’ Bendir retorted. He turned on his heel and left the room. Jani and Reyn hastened after him.

Unstacking the boats to find the best one was a difficult task in the tight space of the collapsed boathouse.

After she had chosen the best one, getting it outside proved even more of a task.

Kekki was virtually useless. When her weeping finally stilled, it was because she had fallen asleep.

The Satrap made an effort, but it was like being assisted by a large child.

He had no concept of physical work. She tried to keep her temper with him, even reminding herself that last year she had been just as ignorant.

He was afraid of the work. He would not grip the wood let alone put real muscle into dragging the boat out.

With an effort, Malta held her tongue. By the time they had managed to get the boat out of the cleft and onto the leaf-strewn ground outside, she was completely exhausted.

The Satrap brushed his hands and beamed down on the boat as if he had brought it out himself.

‘Well,’ he declared with satisfaction. ‘That’s done it. Fetch some oars and we’re off.’

Malta had sunk down to the ground and leaned back against a tree. ‘Don’t you think,’ she asked, fighting to hold back the sarcasm, ‘that we should see if it still floats first?’

‘Why shouldn’t she?’ He put a foot on the boat’s prow possessively. ‘She looks fine to me.’

‘Wood shrinks when it’s out of water. We should put it in shallow water, and let the wood swell up a bit and see how much water it ships.

If you have never heard before, I’ll tell you now.

The water of the Rain Wild River eats wood.

And flesh. If it doesn’t float high and dry, we’ll need to put something in the bottom to rest our feet on.

Besides. I’m too exhausted to row anywhere just now, and we aren’t sure where we are.

If we wait until dusk, we may be able to see the lights of Trehaug through the trees.

That would save us a lot of time and effort. ’

He stood, looking down at her, balanced between offence and consternation. ‘Are you refusing to obey me?’

She met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘Do you want to die on the river?’ she asked.

He bridled at that. ‘Do not dare to speak to me as if you were a Companion!’

‘Perish the thought,’ Malta agreed with him.

She wondered if anyone had ever dared to disagree with him before.

With a groan, she got to her feet. ‘Help me,’ she said, and began to shove the boat towards the swamp.

His help consisted in taking his foot off the prow.

She ignored that and put the boat in shallow standing water.

There was no line to tie it up, but there was no current to draw it away either.

She hoped it would stay there, and was suddenly too weary to worry any more about it.

She looked at the Satrap, who was still glaring at her.

‘If you’re going to stay awake, maybe you could find some oars.

And you might keep an eye on the boat so it does not float away.

It’s the best of the lot that was down there, and none too good at that.

’ She wondered at her tone, and then as she lay down on the earth and closed her eyes, she identified it.

That was how her grandmother had always spoken to her.

She understood why, now. She ached all over, and the ground was hard. She slept.

Reyn had not convinced them; he had simply gone on.

If he had waited for them to completely clear and shore up the main passage before advancing along it, Malta would certainly be dead before he got to her.

He had wormed his way past two blocking falls and finally reached a portion of the main passage that was still intact when he came to the end of the thin line he had been paying out.

He set a large chunk of fallen rock upon it.

He had paused to mark his sign on the wall with star-chalk.

The stuff would show well in even the faintest light.

They would know he had been there and gone on.

He had marked his passage through the falls, indicating the best places to start the re-excavation. He had an instinct for these things.