Chapter 6

That night, I spent an hour or two watching the mirror for stars rising and trying to measure their heights here. I think I got better at it, but it was slow work - first to be confident I'd found the right star here, then to aim the astrolabe at it. Really, I needed somewhere I could see the horizon here. Somewhere with less haze and smoke would be nice too. That meant a tall building or a hill, but there weren't many of either nearby, and staying out after curfew would present major problems.

I put everything away and went to bed. In spite of the late hour, I didn't sleep well. I'd just begun to doze off when an unfamiliar sound woke me. It was dark - not even starlight. Instinctively, I put my hands together and whispered the words of a light spell. A ball of light blossomed.

"Kashalbe's arse," growled a voice.

I felt as though I was falling. The light went out.

"Don't think about trying anything brave," said the voice. "I can see you in your bed."

"W-w-where else would I be at th-this time of night?" Gradually, my eyes adjusted, and I picked out some shapes. The reason I hadn't seen starlight was because this fellow was crouched on the windowsill. My heart pounded. I tried to push the covers off myself, but they were wrapped around my legs. If I called for Uncle, would he hear me? If he did, would he get here in time?

"Don't be clever," said the man. "I can see in the dark."

I'd never heard of a spell that could do that. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"You have something I want."

"What is it?"

"You know perfectly well. Now hand it over, and I can be gone without having to hurt anyone." Something glinted in his hand - a knife?

I untangled my legs from the bedclothes and sat up. "I'm sorry, I don't know which object you mean. I've got a lot of things here."

"Something you acquired recently."

I stood up, my mind whirling. He hadn't named the thing he'd come for. Maybe he didn't know what it was. Maybe...

"It's not here," I said. "Uncle locks it away."

"Don't give me a barrel of fish fur," the man said. "I know it's in this room, because it's interfering with my equipment."

"Equipment?"

"You don't think I was born with bat's eyes, do you?" He tapped the side of his head. Now I noticed a bulge there, like a thick bandage or a severe bruise. "Now stop stalling and hand it over."

"Who sent you?" Facing him, hands stretched out behind my back, I edged towards my table.

"Thinking of hiring me to steal it back?" He chuckled. "You couldn't afford me."

My calf bumped against my chair. Surprised, I stumbled. The chair fell over with a loud bang. My hand caught something on the table and pulled it clattering to the floor.

"Quiet," he growled. "Make a little light if you must - just enough to find it."

Trembling, I put my hands together and whispered the words. A tiny white dot appeared between my hands, like a fragile butterfly. It revealed a little more of the intruder. He was dressed entirely in black, with most of his face covered. What I'd thought was a bandage covered his eyes - a wide leather belt around his head, with a couple of brass rings over the eyes, each of them inset with a piece of glossy black stone or perhaps dark glass. How could he see anything through those? He remained perched on the windowsill, like a hideous overgrown raven.

"Hurry up." He waved the knife at me. Why hadn't he come into the room? Was he afraid of something here? Could I offer him something else, in the hope he'd think it was the object he was looking for? It was a big risk... but if we lost the mirror, I was good as dead anyway.

"All right," I said. I turned around to face the table, expecting to feel his knife between my shoulder blades. My hands shook as I flipped the catches on Father's instrument case.

"I heard it was smaller than that," the man said.

My stomach lurched. "It - it was stored with a lot of other stuff. The previous owner didn't real-realise what it was." That, I supposed, was true enough. I picked up Father's astrolabe and turned back to the man.

"How stupid do you think I am?" he demanded, grabbing the edge of the window frame and leaning forward. "That's a-"

He got no further, as I flung the astrolabe at him. It struck him in the chest and he fell out of the window, limbs flailing. I stood there, dumbfounded, waiting for the thud of impact. It didn't come. I heard a sound, but I was so shocked that I needed several moments to recognise it - running feet, distant and getting fainter.

Mazor, what had I done? I strengthened my light and rushed to the window. Looking out at the street, I saw no one. I glanced down at the wall below the window. The hero in stories sometimes survived being thrown from the castle's battlements by grabbing the ivy as he fell... we didn't have any ivy. Then where in all the foetid hells was he? Even if the fall hadn't killed him, he couldn't have got up and run off straight away. Or had I been so stunned at my stupidity that he'd had time to recover?

There was no time to worry about such things. I retrieved Father's astrolabe from the floor and closed and barred the shutters. Then, clutching the mirror to my chest, I went to Uncle's room.

Uncle was livid when I told him about the burglar. Far from congratulating me on seeing the fellow off, he seemed to think it was my fault he'd come in the first place. I sat on Uncle's bed and let him pace the room, snarling and gesticulating, describing in graphic terms his views of the burglar and whoever had employed him, their respective relations and ancestors, and the torments he wished to be visited on them in the afterlife - and this one too, if he had his way. Gradually he calmed down to the point where we could discuss what we could do next.

"We should set sail as soon as possible," he said, sitting next to me.

"We still don't know exactly where we're going. I've narrowed it to about two degrees each of longitude and latitude, but that's still the distance from here to the north coast."

"Whoever's behind this is obviously well-funded, which probably means they're not going to give up after tonight. So the only safe place for us right now is at sea."

I shuddered at the thought of the sea being safe in comparison to anywhere.

"Can't you refine your measurements once we've set sail? You'll have plenty of time."

I shook my head. "The ship rolls too much."

He tutted. "You said something about needing to see the horizon."

"The eastern one, yes," I said, "so I can tell exactly how high above it a star is."

"Then this might be the opportunity you've been waiting for. Some of the warehouses on the waterfront have been unoccupied for a few years, what with the war hitting trade. I know someone who owns an upper floor on the Heron Dock that he'd be glad to rent out, and who wouldn't ask too many questions about what we wanted it for."

Not asking too many questions, I'd learned, was a valuable trait in Uncle's eyes - at least in other people.

"It has a big hatch that looks out over the docks, for the crane to lift stuff onto or off of the ships."

"Does it face east?"

He shrugged. "Would you rather stay here?"

"I suppose not."

"Shame about Yindrath."

"What about him?" I said, frowning.

"Well who else do you think sold us out?"

I put a hand to my mouth.

"What?"

"No - no, it couldn't be."

"Tell me."

"When I went to see Shanu's father - to ask for more time..."

"Yes?"

"I... I told him we'd found an Elangic artefact."

He buried his face in his hands. "Goddess-damned idiot," he mumbled. Looking up, he asked, "Didn't I tell you not to tell anybody about it?"

I held up my hands. "I didn't tell him what it was - just that it was Elangic."

"That doesn't make it any better. Anything Elangic is valuable enough to be worth stealing."

I stood, hands on my hips. "Well what was I supposed to do? He's threatening to call off the wedding because I'm not rich enough to support his daughter!"

Uncle patted my upper arm. "Then you'd better hope that hatch in the warehouse does face east."

We barred all the shutters and barricaded the front and back doors. We spent what remained of the night in the dining room, curled up on blankets, as it was the room furthest from either door - not that I expected the burglar to use a door if he returned. I don't think either of us slept - every slight noise, real or imagined, set us on edge. But the night passed without incident.

Soon after dawn, Mara gave me an almighty fright by hammering on the front door. When I let her in, she looked askance at the junk we'd piled up behind it, but she didn't ask why it was there, and I didn't proffer an explanation.

I struggled with breakfast - my thoughts still churned at how someone had tried to steal the mirror, and how I might have killed or badly wounded him. Mara asked if I was ill, or if something was wrong with the food, but I deflected her questions by saying I simply hadn't slept well.

Uncle and I took a taxi to the house of the fellow who owned the upper floor of the warehouse. He wasn't home, but his secretary accompanied us to the building, which was on the eastern-most of the docks.

As we walked towards it along the waterfront, I could see why this place wasn't in use any more: it was falling to pieces. The whole area looked to be on the point of surrendering to the sea. We had to zigzag around holes in the decking and lumps of masonry that had fallen off the buildings. No ships moored here, and I doubted any had in a long time - all the bollards I could see were rusted, and the only crane had its jib broken. The sun was almost directly to our left, so the buildings on our right faced east - probably the only thing they had to recommend them.

The door of the warehouse we were to use had fallen off, or perhaps been kicked off - the hinges were twisted. The stairs to the upper storey creaked alarmingly. A good chunk of the floor up there had gone, and most of what was left was covered in feathers and bird droppings. At least it didn't smell, so perhaps they weren't roosting here now.

I went over to the hatch Uncle had mentioned. It was closed, but I squinted through a knothole. My heart lifted when I saw an unobstructed meeting of sky and sea. I turned to Uncle and the secretary, who stood some way off, arms waving and fingers pointing in what I recognised as intense negotiations.

I cleared my throat. To my surprise, both men looked at me. "We'll take it," I said.

Uncle and the secretary wrangled the details of the lease - "we have to appear to be doing things the right way," Uncle had told me in the taxi. I went home to build a stand for the astrolabe. I found three long battens in our shed and nailed them together to make a tall narrow tripod, using a little magic to strengthen the joints.

I took the stand and the astrolabe back to the warehouse. A generous tip took care of the taxi driver's grumbling about the awkwardness of transporting the stand.

When I entered the warehouse, Uncle had gone. I set up the astrolabe, and then opened the hatch. The hinges were stiff with rust and salt - I'd have to find some oil if I didn't want to risk snapping it off. I made a few sightings on hills and cliffs further along the bay, confirming that the stand worked. As there was nothing else to do before sunset, I went home to meet Shanu for dinner, leaving the stand behind.

Shanu arrived, in a taxi this time - she was dining with us tonight. When I embraced her in the porch, I thought she felt stiff, as if she didn't want to be near me. We sat in the dining room to wait for the meal, rather than the visitors' room - the latter was as cluttered as when she last came. We chatted about inconsequentialities for a while, as we often did - rich people could afford to take the time to build up to what they really wanted to talk about. Her conversation seemed less easy than normal, and she avoided meeting my gaze, instead fiddling with things on the table. Did she have a secret to hide?

I wasn't rich enough to waltz around. Not yet, anyway. I licked my lips and cleared my throat. "Shanu dearest, I need to ask you something."

She didn't speak. She just looked at me with big sad eyes.

"Last night, we had a-a burglar."

She gasped and put a hand to her mouth.

"It's all right," I said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "He didn't take anything. I saw him off." I hoped she wouldn't ask for details. I wasn't proud of how I'd "seen him off."

Her eyes glistened. "Please don't cry, sweetness," I said. I didn't think I could cope with that. Sniffing, she rubbed her eyes.

"This burglar was looking specifically for the Elangic artefact," I said. Actually, he hadn't said what he was looking for, but what else could it have been?

"Oh no," she whispered.

"So of course I couldn't help wondering - I'm sure I'm wrong, but I have to ask for my peace of mind - did your father... you know - mention anything to anybody about it?"

Shanu stared at me. Her hand shook, as if she wanted to slap me. "You think my family consorts with-with common thieves?"

"I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to imply... this fellow wasn't all that common, as thieves go. He had a gadget that let him see in the dark."

"I don't care if he had blue skin and webbed feet," said Shanu.

"I thought your father might have said something to one of his friends or associates," I said, "and they might have hired the burglar."

"That's just as bad," she said. "I won't sit here and listen to this ridiculous slander." She stood up, almost knocking over her chair. By the time I thought to call after her, she'd marched out of the room. I hurried into the corridor, just in time to hear the front door slam.

I leaned against the wall, trying to hold back tears. I could run after her, but what would be the point? Continuing the argument in public would only make things worse - and quarrelling under her parents' roof would be worse still.

I went into the kitchen to tell Mara that we would be two for dinner after all. She was plainly aching to ask me what had happened, but held her tongue. I sat in the dining room, staring at nothing. When Uncle came home a few minutes later, I explained the situation to him, my voice quavering.

He shrugged and said, "She'll come round. Women always do. You've given her plenty of reasons before now to leave you, and she never did."

I didn't find his words as reassuring as he evidently meant them to be. Shanu had said, more than once, that she couldn't stay angry with me for long, but this felt different. She'd never stormed out of the house before. I'd never nearly accused her father of trying to rob us. Mara brought in the first course. I ate, not tasting anything. How could I have been so thoughtless?

It was too late to go to the warehouse and gaze at the stars - not that I had the heart for it tonight anyway. I lay in bed, too full of remorse to sleep, my thoughts chasing one another in never-ending cycles.

Eventually, I must have dozed off, as Uncle woke me by banging on my door. The sun was streaming through the gaps in the shutters, so it had to be at least a couple of hours past dawn. Must be all the late nights you've been having lately, I told myself, not believing it for a moment.

I spent the rest of the morning staring out of my window, hoping I might see Shanu returning. My stomach lurched whenever I saw someone who bore a passing resemblance to her. Each realisation that I was wrong brought more heartbreak than the last.

Eventually I accepted she wasn't going to come crawling back to me - or not yet, anyway. I gathered up the stuff I'd need - the mirror, Father's charts and instruments, my writing implements and the egg timer from the kitchen. I took some food from the kitchen and headed down to the warehouse. As I waited for sunset, I tried to write her a letter apologising for my behaviour and begging for her forgiveness, but the words refused to come together. I nibbled through the day, struggling to force food down my throat.

More than once, I gazed out of the hatch at the cobblestones of the dock. A quick step into the empty air, and my problems would be over before I knew it. Was I flattering myself to think Shanu would miss me? That she'd cry over me? Would she even come to my funeral?

Stop it. Even if Shanu could live without me, Uncle couldn't. Besides, the drop was no greater than from my bedroom window. A man had survived that. Knowing my luck, I'd injure myself badly enough to feel miserable for a long time afterwards, but not badly enough to kill myself.

Eventually, the sun set, and the stars became visible - brighter and steadier than from our house, as I wasn't looking through the smoke from other people's cooking fires. I activated the mirror and started measuring stars' heights. I'd done about twenty of them when I heard a door slam downstairs. I froze in horror, and my light spell went out.