There were archaeologists in the group too, from one of the eight great universities, easily conspicuous by the leather cases they carried, filled with fine tools that they would not want to risk to the movements and shifts of the cargo hold. They were still arguing over whether the colossal dike that overshadowed the town was a natural freak of nature or some feat of an ancient civilisation.
Oliver put his hands into his pockets for warmth, and finding the note, suddenly remembered the reason for his visit to the aerostat field. His uncles guest!
Most of the arrivals had already dispersed. The queue of passengers boarding the Lady Hawklight thinned to a few late arrivals. Out on the field the local boys had set up a game of four-poles, the amateur fast-bowling watched with amused detachment by the officers from the aerostat as they waited for the airship to take on her full load of celgas and ballast water.
A peddler was hawking to the remaining passengers from the Holy Kikkosico Empire, a smoke-filled glass bottle hanging on his chest, offering six breaths of mumblesmoke for a hapenny. The ranks of barouche-and-fours had emptied too, the small horse-drawn coaches taking any willing travellers through the small crowded town and up to the Hundred Locks canal navigation from which the settlement took its name.
Among the stragglers stood one man who fitted the crumpled description Olivers uncle had dashed out that morning from his desk. He was thin, a touch under Olivers height of six foot, and also possessed a shock of dark blond hair cut short and ragged. What the description had omitted were the dark iron glasses that rested across the bridge of his nose. Cheap milled fare, they had never graced the exclusive shelves of any optician back in the capital.
Oliver was well used to guiding visitors from the field and across to his uncles home at Seventy Star Hall, but they were normally well-to-do merchants like Titus Brooks himself. His warehouse in Shipman Town swelled with barrels of empire wine, city-state contraptions and it was rumoured brandy still smuggled through Quatérshift, a trade legal for hundreds of years but now forbidden in both Quatérshift and Jackals since the end of the Two-Year War.
The man Oliver was staring at looked more like the cheaply dressed clerk of a parish council. Oliver walked over to him. Mister Stave?
Harry, said the man, extending his hand to Oliver. Harry Stave. The last time I was called mister anything was he looked at Oliver and thought better of the tale well, a long time ago, lets say. Just call me Harry.
My uncle is expecting you, Harry. Oliver pointed towards the town.
I dont doubt he is, old stick. But my luggage, such as it is, is still coming off the Lady Hawklight.
A cushion of hemp netting was assembled underneath the gondolas cargo hatch, set up to take the royal mail sacks, scarlet with their KoJ seal, a lion resting underneath the portcullis of the House of Guardians. A steamman was pulling a trolley away from the airships shadow, piled high with crates, packages and travel chests.
Youre not exactly travelling light.
Just the one, said Harry, lifting off a battered ivory-handled travel box. And there we are.
Each of the visitors words was carefully nuanced, as if Harry were polishing
each vowel before saying it. They belied the otherwise rough appearance of the man. Oliver offered to take the case, but Harry shook his head. You work for Titus?
Hes my uncle. I suppose I do.
Ah, well then. Harry stopped to look at Oliver as they left the field. Young Master Brooks. Perhaps I should have recognized you. Although theres not much about the babe that I see in the man.
That made Oliver start. You knew my parents?
That I did, Oliver. My trade sometimes put me in the path of your father and mother. You were nearly sick on me once, as a swaddling. Do you remember either of them?
No. Not at all. Oliver could not keep the pain out of his voice. My uncle. He doesnt talk about them.
Its as hard to lose a brother as a father, old stick, said Harry, gently. Seeing the effect the conversation was having on Oliver, he stopped. Lets not talk of it either, then. Well allow those who have moved along the Circle to rest in their new lives.
Oliver wondered if his uncles visitor knew he was registered. Probably. If he had known his parents, he would have heard the stories of what had happened to them. And to Oliver. If it bothered Harry, he did not show it.
They were in town now. Seventy Star Hall lay beyond Hundred Locks proper, nestled at the foot of the hills that led up to the Toby Fall Rise. A dog tied to a post outside the fish market was barking as dockers down from Shipman Town arrived to find evening lodgings at the inns and drinking houses, their heavy steel-capped boots clattering against the cobblestones.
The talk of his parents had lowered Olivers mood. So this was to be the map of his life, then. Allowed no proper trade or apprenticeship. Signing onto the county registration book once a week. Shunned by most of the townspeople. Running small errands for his uncle to keep him busy and out from under his relatives feet. Unable to leave the parish boundaries without being declared rogue and hunted down. Denied those simple freedoms that even the fox in the burrow or the swallow in the tree took for granted. An object of pity, perhaps; charity, on his uncles part; aversion from those who were once his friends and fellows.