a bathhouse sounded like a wonderful idea. Once he cleaned up the shop and took the finished work to Antonou, Keth headed straight for the bathhouse he used in Khapik. The steam in the hot bath was unbearable after the heat and damp outside. Keth stayed only long enough to scrub and rinse before he waddled down to the cold bath pools. There he soaked, and dozed, comfortable at last.
After she left Kethlun, Tris idled the rest of her afternoon away, exploring Khapik by daylight. There were no lights on the streams, no entertainers at most of the corners. The gates to the courtyard houses were closed. Some shops were open, as were some of the lesser eating-houses. Tris took a light supper at one of these, seated on a streambank. The help was in no hurry to shoo her away, so she read a book of glass magic as she waited for time to pass.
Now and then she sniffed the air. Her storm was coming on fast, turning the sky greenish-grey as it advanced. The little hairs on Tris’s arms and at the back of her neck stirred with its approach. Her big lightning braids quivered against her hairpins. It was far too long since the last rain, the earth complained to her. The very stones knew a downpour was coming. They welcomed it; the water in the streams of Khapik shivered with its approach.
At last Tris left her table and walked into the maze of the district, asking shopkeepers for directions to Chamberpot Alley. It was one of the twisty back streets close to the shadow of the Khapik wall, in an area where the locals dwelled and shady business was done. When she asked the yaskedasi for directions to Ferouze’s, they gave her and Little Bear strange looks, then reluctantly showed her the way. Tris, they made it clear, was not at all the sort of person they were used to seeing. Chime at least was spared the looks. She was tucked away in her sling on Tris’s back.
Ferouze’s lodging-house was stucco over crushed stone, three storeys high. The street windows were small and barred; the wooden gate that led to the courtyard was open. Tris hesitated by the door inside the courtyard passage, wondering if she ought to knock and ask for Keth, but then she heard voices. Following them seemed more appealing than knocking on an unknown, very dirty, door. She walked out into the open air.
At the heart of the courtyard was a well, one that had been in use so long that the broad stones that formed its rim — and provided a place to sit —dipped at the centre by generations of use. Three yaskedasi sat there, watching a dark-haired child as she played with a doll. Tris recognized two of them, Keth’s friend Yali and the tumbler Xantha. The third, a curvaceous brunette with a lush mouth and green hazel eyes, was someone Tris hadn’t seen.
The child saw Tris first. She gasped, stretched out her arms and cried, “Doggie!”
Little Bear looked at Tris. “Go,” she said, “be careful.” One of the hardest things to teach Little Bear was that “be careful” meant he was to approach, then hold still. He trotted over to the child, wagging his tail and panting cheerfully. With no qualms at all the girl stood and wrapped her arms around the dog’s neck.
The curvy brunette looked at Tris and grimaced. “Who let Koria Respectability in?” she asked, getting to her feet. “Isn’t anywhere safe from that sort?”
“Leave her alone, Poppy,” Yali said with a sigh. “She’s a friend of Keth’s.”
“Well, he’s not here,” said Poppy. “He’s off studying magic somewhere.”
“Actually, he isn’t,” Tris said mildly. “He finished a couple of hours ago. I hoped he’d be home by now.”
“You can wait if you like,” Yali said. “He usually comes home before we leave for work.”
Tris looked up at the sky. “Will you work? There’s rain coming,” she told them.
Poppy scowled. “How do you know?”
Tris shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
Poppy and Xantha traded glances. “Grab what trade we can, then,” Xantha said. She and Poppy raced upstairs.
Tris looked at Yali. “I don’t understand,” she said hesitantly. “What’s the rush?”
“We’re street yaskedasi, not house ones,” Yali replied, watching the little girl pet the dog. “We lose money on rainy nights. Even if it only rains for a short time, guests are afraid it will start again, so they find other things to do.”