known so far, here the buildings were packed tightly together, with the result that a state of perpetual dusk hung over the street. The tight intersecting alleys looked darker still.
The woman led them toward the end of the street and a building distinct from the others they’d seen. For one thing it was round. And immense. A wide door, barred and locked, faced the street, but the woman walked past this and into the shadows beside the building.
Diverus scanned the walls, which rose up for two stories before opening into what appeared to be a roofed gallery—at least in the front. Farther back, the gallery became a third story with small windows. As with the buildings on the main thoroughfare, it looked as if it had been painted and polished just this morning. An adjacent blind alley in the rear led into a still-darker space, and that was where the woman directed them. It smelled vaguely foul, the closed-off space no doubt trapping vapors from out of the sewer grates instead of allowing them to disperse. There, at the very back of the circuit, the woman unlocked a chain and flung open a small and insignificant door. She waved them inside. A different smell—like the fusty odor of old clothes—unfolded from the interior, and it was a compelling and welcoming scent, as if the old place had been awaiting them. Despite doubts traded in glances, they carefully lifted Leodora through the doorway and inside. The two servants arrived soon after and pushed through with the cases and instruments, walking immediately deeper into the darkness while Soter and Diverus gathered their breath and waited for the woman to tell them what to do next.
Diverus’s eyes adjusted slowly to the dim bluish light, most of which came through a row of tiny windows and bathed the interior in what seemed like moonlight.
A long broad table occupied the center of the room. At the far end he could just make out the black recess of a hearth large enough to stand in. Open doorways bracketed it on both sides. One of the odd servants who’d carried the undaya cases knelt before the hearth with a bellows and began pumping air at the ashes, which soon glowed.
The woman spoke from behind, startling him. “This is my home,” she said. As he turned about, she closed the door through which they’d entered. She stood in front of a full rack of clothing that appeared to run the rest of the room’s length and even along the far wall. She said, “Put it on the table, Bois,” and Diverus glanced back to see the servant place a small oil lamp on the table beside the undaya case he’d set down there. The lamp was shaped like a slipper with a curled toe.
“Go on, then,” said the woman. “I know you both want to explore.” The two servants nodded vigorously and without a word went through one of the doors by the hearth.
“Explore?” asked Soter.
“Yes,” she replied. She removed her veil and picked up the lamp. “Follow me and we’ll put your friend somewhere she can rest, meanwhile.” She crossed to the doorway on the far side of the hearth. It led to a flight of steps.
The stairwell proved difficult to navigate with Leodora between them, as they couldn’t all three fit on a step together, and Diverus in the lead with her legs had to go up one step and wait for Soter before moving up another.
“It might be easier if one of you simply slung her over his shoulder,” their hostess suggested. She was probably right, but now in the stairwell they could only crab their way up as they’d begun. “Explore,” she explained as if Soter had asked again, “because until an hour ago the theater wall we circled coming in here did not exist. It collapsed years ago, after . . . after the calamity.” She turned and stared down past Diverus at Soter as she said it.
Out of the stairwell, she led them a short way down a corridor with more doors on either side. She opened the first one and said, “Put her in here.”
It was a small room, hardly larger than the narrow mattress on the floor. The ceiling slanted, a dormer. They lowered Leodora onto the bed, and Soter banged his head as he stepped back. Diverus knelt with her and carefully slipped the pendant out of his pocket, tucking it underneath her.