“Simple enough for Irquit to operate?”

“Maybe, if she were to stick to basic go-stop type directions. What about it?”

Homat gestured forward, past the moonlit bow. “Tomorrow we are to stop at the village of Changrit to restock our larder. Changrit has an alliance with Po Rabi.”

“I didn’t think Po Rabi’s influence extended this far north,” Etienne told him.

“Changrit is independent. It is a trade alliance only, but that is enough when much is at stake. Long before Ambassador de-Kelwhoang delivered us to you to serve as your guides, river riders were sent racing north to Changrit. An understanding was achieved with the Moyt of Changrit.” He brushed absently at the single knot of long hair that trailed from the top of his head.

“The ambush is to take place at night, while you are anchored out in the Skar and less on guard. Your spirit boat is to be taken so that its secrets and treasures may be shared by Changrit and Po Rabi.” He hesitated only for a moment. “You and your mate, of course, will not survive.”

“I see,” Etienne said quietly. “Suppose Irquit proves unable, despite her studies, to operate the boat?”

“All is planned for. In that event it is to be loaded upon a barge and shipped Downriver.”

“I don’t see any problem, Homat. We just won’t stop near Changrit for supplies. Even if they’re lying in wait for us out in the river we can simply run past them.”

“It may not be so easy, de-Etienne. Even now word is relayed along the riverbank marking our progress. The fighters of Changrit will be ready to challenge you no matter when you try to pass their city.”

“I’m curious. How did the Zanur plan to explain our disappearance, in the event our friends back at Steamer Station learned of it?”

“You have been watched and studied. Not all who sought to talk with your mate while you waited to travel were simple fisherfolk. Changrit was chosen because it is the northernmost city with which Po Rabi has an alliance and it was believed to lie beyond range of your talk-through-air spirits.”

“That’s right enough.”

“There is no reason why your friends should connect your disappearance to Po Rabi or any other city. For all they will know you perished when your boat sank in the Skar, as many boats do.”

“And what if our friends come looking for us and find our boat in the possession of the Zanur, or the Moyt of Changrit?”

“Then it is to be said that you were swamped by an arwawl, that this was seen from shore, and that your boat was towed to safety but not in time to save its crew, I am not privy to all the details, as Irquit is.”

“But they had to tell you this much so that you could help at the critical moment.”

“Yes.” Homat dropped his gaze, unwilling to meet his benefactor’s eyes. “My ancestors are ashamed.”

“All right, you’ve told me about the proposed attack. That doesn’t make Irquit an assassin.”

“She will become one only if it proves necessary,” Homat explained. “She is there to make certain the attack does not fail. When it comes she will pretend surprise and will appear to aid you, but if it looks like the attack may fail, she is to choose a moment when you are not on guard to push you overboard or put a knife in your back. Have you not noticed her skill on things bigger than vegetables.” He looked away.

“I just thought she was a deft cook,” he muttered.

“Deft indeed, de-Etienne. I have seen her demonstrate her skill on things bigger than vegetables.” He looked away. “I was to help in all this, of course.”

“Of course,” Etienne said dryly. He reached out and pushed a button. A tired moan came from the grid.

“What is it? I was just getting into a really decent dream.”

“Would you come up here a minute, hon? I’m observing something I think you’d find intriguing.”

“Come on, Etienne. Maybe tomorrow night.”

“It may be less visible tomorrow night. I wish you’d come up now. Our position tomorrow will be radically different.”

“All right, all right,” she snapped back at him. “This better be good.”

He waited in the enclosure with the nervous Homat until a sleepy-eyed Lyra had ascended the mast to join them. There was very little room to move around with three of them atop the platform.

“What now?” She was still blinking sleep from her eyes, but her expression turned to one of confusion when she noticed Homat.

“Where’s Irquit?” Etienne asked her.

“Irquit? What’s she got to do with? … On the stern deck, I would imagine, blissful in the arms of the local representative of Morpheus. What the hell’s going on up here?”

“Homat has something to tell you.”

Lyra listened quietly as the guide repeated the tale he had told Etienne. She considered quietly for several long moments once he’d finished.

“We could turn back. We’re scientists, not soldiers-of-fortune and not hard-contact explorers. We’re not prepared to deal with large-scale local antagonism. If this town is linked by treaty and duplicity to Po Rabi, we can apply for clearance and protection with the Zanur of Losithi.”

Etienne looked doubtful. “Wouldn’t work. Word will reach Po Rabi and they’ll know we found them out. That could put them into open conflict with Losithi. We don’t want to be responsible for starting a major local war. Besides which there’s no guarantee we’d fare any better with the Zanur of Losithi than we already have with Po Rabi. Better the devil you know, et cetera.”

“They are as envious of your technology as is the Zanur of Po Rabi,” Homat agreed.

“Then there’s the distance we’ve already come. Returning and retracing our steps would take at least a month, even if we were lucky enough to obtain immediate permission from Losithi. We’ve passed the equator and we’re above the worst of the climate. Not that this oven has suddenly become comfortable, but it’s bound to improve.

“I’ve no desire to retrace our steps, restudy what we’ve already thoroughly recorded, and I’m sure you don’t either, Lyra. And there’s always the chance that Losithi could arrange a similar kind of ambush when we resumed our journey, and they’d be better prepared for us than these Changritites are likely to be. The geology’s finally starting to get interesting, Lyra. I don’t want to go back to taking mud samples for an additional two months. Despite Homat’s fears I don’t imagine we’ll have any trouble passing through whatever barrier of nets and ropes the locals can erect.”

“I know that,” Lyra agreed. “It’s not that. I just don’t want to harm any natives. You know what a resident commissioner would have to say about that.”

“There’s no resident commissioner on Tslamaina. Not advanced enough yet. No one’s going to know anything, and even if we were found out we’d just tell them that we had to defend ourselves, which is likely to be the truth.”

Lyra turned her attention to Homat. “What happens once we’re safely past Changrit? What about the next town? Could it be in alliance with Po Rabi too?”

Homat spoke with conviction. “No. Changrit is the only far north city allied with Po Rabi. Beyond Changrit much is unknown and all are independent of the city-states that line the Groalamasan. And Changrit was chosen because it alone can muster enough strength for such an attack.”

“Everything you’ve told us makes sense,” she murmured. “It’s what you haven’t told us that worries me.”

“I do not understand your words, de-Lyra.”

“Why are you so eager to betray your own city?”

“I have told you that I have come to like you, and that you have given me a sense of self-importance and true worth that I have never felt before.”

“That’s not good enough.” For emphasis she added a powerful Mai gesture of disbelief. “You could have kept silent and fulfilled the dictates of your masters. If we had succumbed to this trap you would have enjoyed much honor in Po Rabi, and if we had escaped you would still be safe. Why risk the one by throwing in so openly with us when you’d have been safe both ways by keeping quiet? I’m glad that you ‘like’ us, but I’ve studied Mai society for too many months now to believe that you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart.”

Homat looked uncertain, turned to Etienne for guidance.

“You’d better tell us the truth, Homat.”