'I'm just curious about the world, that's all. He didn't want to tell her his main interest was discovering where the rapid-firing guns were produced. 'Doesn't it even bother you that we don't actually have a complete map of Querencia? The ships that brought Rah and the Lady must have seen what it looked like before they landed. Why didn't any survive?
'There you go again, thinking differently. What you said makes perfect sense, but no one else ever makes that kind of connection.
'Is that so bad?
'No, but it does mark you out. I'd love to understand why you think the way you do.
'Just the way I am, I suppose. And the things I see in my dreams.
'I wish I'd met your parents. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but they must have been very special people. Do you remember anything of them?
'Very little, he sighed. 'Akeem told me my mother arrived in Ashwell from another province. He said she was beautiful, and smart. All the men vied for her hand, but she only ever wanted my father. Actually, he'd only been there twenty years himself, so I don't suppose he counted as a local. He had a farm outside the village. It was a big place, or at least I thought so; I remember it having furniture that was very grand compared to the other houses. I don't know why. We couldn't have earned more than the other farmers. Akeem said Father didn't get involved very much with Ashwell. I can't say I blame him for that.
'I didn't want to stir up anything that would hurt you.
'It doesn't. They died a long time ago, I stopped grieving years ago. I hate the bandits who killed them, but Akeem was a true father to me. I was lucky to know him.
Kristabel put her arm through his, and they made their way down the hillock. 'There are bandits everywhere, she said. 'In many forms. People who prey on the bounty that others have worked hard for. The gangs are no different.
'I know. That's what angers me about them, just that they exist. And worse, that people accept their existence.
'I think our gangs are smarter than your bandits; they've managed to engrain themselves in our lives.
'City and country again?
'Almost. Though they seem to share the same brutality and hatred. They're broken people, Edeard. That's why they do what they do.
'Are you saying we should show them sympathy?
'I don't know what must be done. She stroked his face, gazing sympathetically at him. 'You do understand everyone is expecting you to provide that answer, don't you?
'I don't have an answer. That's the Grand Council's job.
'They will blame you if no solution comes forward. Can't you hear their voices: you began this, you came to the District Masters with this notion. You excluded gang members from some districts, and forced them into others. Why should those districts suffer at the expense of others? What will you do to get rid of the threat you highlighted, and you went to war against?
'Oh Lady, he groaned.
'You have to find something, Edeard, some way out.
'There isn't one.
'There is at least one, and you know it. Banishment. Permanent banishment from the crystal walls. Exclude them from the whole city.
'That'll never happen, Master Bise won't allow that to happen in Sampalok for a start.
'Honious take Bise. You've got a huge political momentum growing behind you. Exclusion has been seen to work. You have to carry it forward. If you hesitate now, you'll lose that momentum.
'Banishment? You're not serious? His mind went back to the morning of the kidnapping, and how he'd been berated by Eddis's wife. 'Where would they all go?
'I can see how much this troubles you, but I think you're wrong to worry so. This is one time that imagination of yours is leading you astray. You're visualizing whole city districts being forced out at gunpoint. Edeard, the real trouble is caused by a couple of hundred people at best. I remember the night Daddy signed the exclusion warrants for Haxpen; you gave him four hundred and eighteen. That's everybody, Edeard, every gang member you can find. That number is nothing compared to our total population, they're so small they're not even a minority. Get rid of the gang masters and their lieutenants, and the rest will be lost. They'll rejoin society. They won't love you, but at least they won't be causing the kind of trouble they do today.
'I suppose so. But where will the masters go? That's just giving someone else our problem.
'Look, Kristabel said forcefully, and held her arms out, twirling round to gesture at the entirety of the landscape. 'I'll make Daddy loan you the biggest ship in our fleet, and you can take them to the furthest atoll we can navigate to; or we'll buy them fifty wagons and lead their caravan into the wilds beyond Rulan. Let them build their own houses and grow their own food. Edeard! You're not responsible for them, not afterwards. You are a city constable, a position that was regarded with utter scorn before you arrived. You made us all feel safe again, you gave us hope. Don't falter now. Makkathran cannot afford your doubts.
He stared at her in awe.
She shifted round discomfited. 'What?
'You are so incredible. I can't believe you even notice someone like me.
Kristabel looked at the ground. 'But I do.
'Makkathran is lucky to have you.
'I won't be a figurehead for the family, a mere caretaker between Daddy and my firstborn, someone who just votes for whatever the Mayor says. I will make a difference, she said fiercely.
'I know you will.
Their last night in the beach lodge together was one Edeard never wanted to end. Again, when the candles had long died Edeard sprawled over the bed staring upwards as his thoughts slowly came together in realization. Not least, what Kristabel had said to him throughout the week, in so many ways, none of which had really registered before. She lay beside him now, her arm across his chest, head nuzzled into the crook of his neck, one leg over his. It was where she belonged. For eternity.
'I love you, he said in wonder.
Edeard was dreading his return to Makkathran. Some part of his brain enacted the beautiful fantasy of them staying in the beach lodge for ever. It wasn't just their physical union, though Kristabel was all he had ever imagined a lover could ever be. He didn't want anything to break the perfection of the week they'd spent together.
'I don't want to leave either, she said at breakfast on their last day.
'I suppose we have to go back, he said grouchily.
'We do, and don't sulk.
'I wasn't — sorry.
'You say that too much, as well.
'Thanks.
'I have a present for you, she said, and instructed a ge-monkey to bring in one of her cases.
Edeard hadn't noticed it among all the other cases. For someone who'd spent most of the week naked or clad in wisps of silk and lace, she seemed to require a vast wardrobe. Now he leaned over with interest as she opened it, and held up the jacket inside.
'A proper uniform for you, Kristabel said. 'I can't have my man looking ordinary at the ceremony, now can I? Not on this
day. The day.
Edeard took the jacket from her, admiring the cut and the seriously-black fabric. It was a standard constable's dress tunic, but at the same time so much more stylish. Kristabel produced some matching trousers from the case, and a white shirt, belt, tie.
'Thank you so much, he said, then his mood dropped. 'I don't have anything for you.
She gave him a strange look, almost as if he'd said something hurtful. 'That's because you don't have any money. And that's good, because that's not what I'm looking for in a man.
'You're wonderful. He kissed her.
'We don't have time, we have to be back in the city by midday. Go and put it on.
'We could spare a few minutes, he suggested hopefully.