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Soan surmised that they’d reached the entrance to Gossha line of travelers waiting to be cleared by Inspectors A pair of enorly, not of Amberhill the emperor but of horses One held its head tossed back in defiance, and the other stood with head bowed, its neck elegantly arched

"Just like you," she told Raven He bowed his head at her words as if to iot closer to the Gossham city entrance, she saw that from the bases of the statues, walls ran off in both directions As she recalled from the atlas map, the as a horseshoe around Gossham, with few entrances, open only at the shore of the Great Harbor Once they entered the city, it would be difficult to exit

It turned out that they very well an craned her neck when she realized Luke was being questioned hard by an Inspector whose Enforcer elow Luke tried to appear as affable as usual, but she could see his act was showing signs of strain and that the Inspector was having none of it

"We will have a thorough look through your cargo and your wagon All travelers froan thought If all travelers fro had met with soents entering the city to commit some form of mischief? That would be the opposite effect Cade had intended,their rescue un

"I am but a simple merchant of wine," Luke protested, "with a letter of introduction to Webster Silk himself"

At that point, another Inspector joined the first and whispered into his ear, then pointed at a sheaf of papers in his hand

The first Inspector gazed up at Luke with keen eyes "Mayforte, isn’t it?"

Luke nodded

"Your papers are in order You on jolted forward What had an wondered Why did he allow theo? She did not like it Re she was supposed to be sick, she sank back into the straw, and just in ti close scrutiny of the wagon and its occupants

She did not breathe freely again till they passed under the shadow of the horse statues and through the gates Finally, they had entered the imperial city of Gossha canals, and it was clear that they, too, were streets of sorts, with boats conveying goods and passengers Many houses and businesses fronted the canals, not the paved streets The interweaving of roadways and bridges and ays e, like a sort of weird lace

Business looked brisk in most shops and at the booths of street vendors Children ran alongside adults in grassy parks and played with toy sailboats in fountains along the way Some of the founts made impossible ephemeral shapes sculpted of water that pluiant fishes--andsound as prismatic droplets rained back into their basins Was this etherea at work, or soions of the elanced at Raven to see how he fared with all the activity He looked around, ears flickering and tail swishing He did not appear alarmed but definitely attentive She noticed he received the occasional adazes from those they passed She could not swear to it, but Raven seeand showy When they stopped at an intersection to allow other traffic to proceed, a man actually asked Luke if the stallion was for sale

"He is a gift for the ean started, for this was the first she’d heard of it Surely Luke was saying it just to put the ht about ould become of the horse when she went ho with Cade and Lhean?

"He is a fine specimen," the man said, "and of course the eh to have named the city after his favorite, I hear," Luke replied

Aan had thought the name "Gossham" odd She shook her head The Serpentine Empire’s fearsome leader could be so brutal to his own people, and at the same time so--so whimsical?

Finally it was their turn to enter the intersection, and Luke bade farewell to thetheir route included a drawbridge over one of the canals that lifted by itself to allow a boater to pass, buildings taller than any of those in Mill City, and asequences of musical notes that emitted from its central orb Then wonder of all wonders, a littledanced and flipped to the athered around appeared delighted, but though Karigan liked the dog, she found the music tinny and unpleasant, not at all like the melodious, natural sounds her ressed, the city sloped doard the harbor It heartened Karigan to look upon the blue of the ocean with gulls wheeling in the sky and the harbor dotted with so h few had sails, but instead, stacks billowing s landmark at the entrance of the harbor The abandoned keep of Mordivelleo L’Petrie, a clan chief of old, had been replaced by a colossus of a statue