“But couldn’t it be left until afterwards?”

“I’m sorry, no. There’s something you have to do. You know by now that from time to time the city is obliged to barter for the use of women from the outside. We keep these women for as short a time as possible, but even so they are rarely here for less than thirty miles. It is part of the bargain we strike that they are given safe conduct back to their settlements… and there are now three women who wish to leave. It is the custom of the city to use the apprentices to conduct them back, particularly as we now see this as an important part of the training process.”

Helward had been forced, by the very nature of his work, to become more sure of himself. “Sir, my wife is expecting her first baby. I must be with her.”

“It’s out of the question.”

“What if I refuse to go?”

“You will be shown a copy of the oath you swore, and you will accept the punishment it prescribes.”

Helward opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated. This was evidently not the time to debate the validity of the oath. Future Clausewitz was clearly restraining himself, for on Helward’s resistance to the instruction his face had turned a deep pink, and he had sat down, resting his hands palm down on the table-top. Instead of saying what was on his mind, Helward said: “Sir, can I appeal to your reason?”

“You can appeal, but I cannot be reasonable. You swore in your oath to place the security of the city above all other matters. Your guild training is a matter of city security, and that’s the end of it.”

“But surely it could be delayed? As soon as the child is born, I could leave.”

“No.” Clausewitz turned round, and pulled forward a large sheet of paper, covered in part with a map, and in part with several lists of figures. “These women must be returned to their settlements. In the nine miles or so of time it will take for your wife to deliver her baby, the settlements will be dangerously distant. They are already more than forty miles to the south of us. The plain fact is that you are the next apprentice on this schedule, and it is you who must go.”

“Is that your last word, sir?”

“Yes.”

Helward put down his untouched glass of wine, and walked towards the door.

“Helward, wait.”

He paused at the door. “If I am to leave, I would like to see my wife.”

“You have a few more days yet. You leave in half a mile’s time.”

Five days. It was almost no time.

“Well?” said Helward, no longer feeling the need to display customary courtesies.

“Sit down, please.” Reluctantly, Helward complied. “Don’t think I’m inhuman, but ironically this expedition will reveal to you why some of the city’s customs might seem to be inhuman. It is our way, and it is forced on us. I understand your concern for… Victoria, but you must go down past. There is no better way for you to understand the situation of the city. What lies there to the south of us is the reason for the oath, for the apparent barbarisms of our ways. You are an educated man, Helward… do you know of any civilized culture in history which has bartered for women for the simple, uncomplicated reason of wanting one gestation from them? And then, when that gestation is completed, to return them?”

“No, sir.” Helward paused. “Except—”

“Except primitive tribes of savages who raped and pillaged. Well, maybe we’re a little better than that, but the principle’s no less savage. Our barter is one-sided, for all that the contrary may seem to be. We propose the bargain, call our own terms, pay the price, and move on our way. What I am telling you must be done; that you abandon your wife at a time when she needs you most is one small inhumanity that stems from a way of life that is itself inhuman.”

Helward said: “Neither one excuses the other.”

“No… I’ll grant you that. But you are bound by your oath. That oath stems from the causes of the major inhumanities, and when you make your personal sacrifice you will understand better.”

“Sir, the city should change its ways.”

“But you will see that’s impossible.”

“By travelling down past?”

“Much will become clear. Not all.” Clausewitz stood up. “Helward, you’ve been a good apprentice so far. I can see that in the miles to come you will continue to work hard and well for the city. You have a good and beautiful wife, a lot to live for. You aren’t under threat of death, I promise you that. The penalty of the oath has never been invoked as far as I know, but I ask that this task that the city calls upon you to do is done, and done now. I have done it in my time, so has your father… and so have all other guildsmen. Even now there are seven of your colleagues — all apprentices — down past. They have had to face similar personal hardships, and not all have faced them willingly.”

Helward shook hands with Clausewitz, and went in search of Victoria.

3

Five days later, Helward was ready to leave. That he would go had never been in serious doubt, but it had not been easy to explain to Victoria. Although at first she had been horrified by the news, her attitude had changed abruptly.

“You have to go, of course. Don’t use me as an excuse.”

“But what about the child?”

“I’ll be all right,” she said. “What could you do if you were here? Stand around and make everyone nervous? The doctors will look after me. This isn’t the first pregnancy they’ve had to deal with.”

“But… don’t you want me to be there with you?” he said.

She had reached out and taken his hand in hers.

“Of course,” she said. “But remember what you said. The oath isn’t as rigid as you thought. I know you’re going, and when you get back there’ll be no mystery any more. I’ve got plenty to do here, and if what Barter Collings told you about the oath was true, you’ll be able to talk to me about what you see.”

Helward had not been sure what she meant by this. For some time he had been in the habit of confiding in her much of what he saw and did outside the city, and Victoria listened with great interest. He no longer saw the harm in talking to her, though it worried him that she should continue to be so interested, particularly when so much of what he said was confined to what he considered to be routine details.

The result was that on his own personal score he no longer had a motive to try to avoid the journey down past, and indeed the idea excited him. He had heard so much of it, mostly by implication and half-reference, and now the time had come for him to venture that way himself. Jase was down past; perhaps they would meet. He wanted to see Jase again. So much had happened since they last saw each other. Would they even recognize each other?

Victoria did not come to see him leave. She was in the room when he left her, still in bed. During the night they had made love tenderly and gently, making half-hearted jokes about making it “last.” She had clung to him when he kissed her goodbye, and as he closed the door and went into the corridor he thought he heard her sobbing. He paused, debating whether to go back to her, but after a moment’s hesitation he went on his way. He saw no benefit in prolonging the situation.

Clausewitz was waiting for him in the Futures’ room. In one corner a modest pile of equipment had been laid, and spread out on the table-top was a large plan. Clausewitz’s manner was different from that of the previous interview. As soon as Helward let himself into the room, Clausewitz led him to the desk and without preamble explained what he was to do.

“This is a composite plan of the land to the south of the city. It’s based on a linear scale. You know what that means?”

Helward nodded.

“Good. One inch on this is roughly equivalent to one mile… but linearly. For reasons you’ll discover, that won’t help you later. Now, the city is here at the moment, and the settlement you have to find is here.” Clausewitz pointed to a cluster of black spots at the other end of the plan. “As of today that’s exactly forty-two miles from here. Once you leave the city you will find that distances are confusing, and so are directions. In which case the best advice I can give you, as we give all our apprentices, is to follow the tracks of the city. When you go south they are the only contact you will have with the city, and the only way you will find your way back. The pits dug for the sleepers and the foundations should still show. Have you got that?”