Dearest Zann,

Coy and Lasl let me sleep in their boat that night. I don’t know where they slept. It wasn’t too uncomfortable, though it was a little cold.

The next days were… not uneventful, but frustrating. I had a lot of things I wanted to do, but I couldn’t do them until I did other things first. I needed money, for one thing, so I worked most of a day on the docks and accumulated a small handful of pennies. Spent a couple on passage upriver to the palace.

The laziest siege in history was happening outside the palace walls, and as far as I could tell nothing was happening inside them. The greenkind were in there, no doubt, but they weren’t letting themselves be seen. It wasn’t difficult to evade the besiegers and slip into the place, but once I did I was alone. Nothing but echoes in the great halls. Ambe wasn’t in her lair, none of the Rosollas were in our guardrooms. Ellewen wasn’t there; I left him a note just in case.

I figured this might be my chance and sought out the kitchen to see if there was any Sauce around. I couldn’t even find the kitchen. I knew where it had been, but it was hidden from my eyes now.

I found a bit of food in one of the guardrooms and slept there that night. Next morning, back to Crideon and look for Srix. I tried Birch Spit but the place was abandoned. Only one thing left to try, and I wasn’t looking forward to it: go to Cas Crid and see what was happening there.

The city was much emptier than usual too. Where had everyone gone? Fled to the countryside? The war, or whatever it was, certainly wasn’t over, but nobody troubled me as I skulked down the streets and alleys. Mostly I just heard cries and other noises in the distance.

One thing I should probably mention is that thing I found and put in my pocket, back in the laur, as I was turning to ash and crumbling away. It was still in my pocket. Somehow. It was a seedpod of some kind. Made of tough fibers, greeny-pink in colour. When I first took a good look at it, I turned it over and over to see its various details, and I could swear that it turned lighter and heavier as I did so. Heavy, light, heavy, light. In the end I put it away safely.

No more delays. Next time I’ll tell you about Cas Crid and what I found there.

All my love,

Ybel